1965 TO 1970
Brief History
In '65 a pilot was flying over Vung Ro and saw a small island moving
in the bay, turned out to be a VC supply ship. After contact with the VC
they found Vung Ro to be a good deep port, for ships.
In Dec '66 the 26th Group (GS) moved into Tuy Hoa (from the U.S.) and
established the Tuy Hoa sub area command. The CO was Col. C.W.
Hospelhorn. About the same time, Port Lane was being built at Vung Ro
it was named for the Engr. BN CO Commander that was killed by a sniper while the construction was underway. The first Trans Co. was the 155th. Then the 119th moved up from Cam Rahn to man the port.
About June '67 the full complement of officers were in place.
Capt. Luther Royal-CO, 1ST LT Carl Stone- Shore Platoon, 2ND LT
Len Schwartz -Shore Platoon, 2ND LT Mike Freeman- Ship Platoon,
2ND LT Honeycutt- Ship Platoon, And a W.O. was MR. JOHNSON Maintenance officer. At that time SFC Brown was the mess sgt.
When I arrived in Mar '68 things were quite, I worked on the ships mostly in the holes. Then June 6th 1968 everthing changed, we got hit hard. They (vc) blew up a bunch of the 545th trucks, and were running all over the shore side of the pier, the check point also got hit. I think 9 died that night. It was at midnight chow, me and another guy stayed in the hole, we had no weapons or bunkers at that time, what a mess , for a whole week we had to build the bunkers and get help to protect us at night, I got put on guard and finally got put on the hill, with the mortor, we would put up the flares for the evening free fires. Got shipped to Qui Nohn Dec '68 left Nam in mar '69.
The 24th Trans Battalion (terminal) was brought from zero strength up to full strength under the command of LTC Lowell during may/june '68
with assigned and attached units, primarily the HHD, 24th Trans Battalion, 119th Trans, 545th Trans, and the Barc unit. The 24th Battalion traveled in convoy from Cam Rahn to Vung Ro Bay in early June '68, and began operations with the already established 119th.
SFC Lee Fields 24th Trans BN PSNCO
Then sometime after I left Vung Ro they changed command from Cam Rahn to Qui Nohn and the Co. changed to the 854th Trans.
Then in Oct.1970 they (854th) had to turn over the Bay to the ARVN'S and Nov. '70 they left the bay, on Nov. 14th while in convoy to the new location 4 of our brothers were killed.
BENIGNO BEN ZAMUDIO, JOHN CONRAD,
CHARLES SHORTY MITCHELL, AND FRANK HITESHUE.
AND FOUR WERE WOUNDED.
This is a list of company's at the bay
UWG-1 Navy -they patrolled the bay
218th mp's - they replaced the navy in pbr's
458th Trans co.- 127th mp's they replaced the 218th in pbr's
Medics- ? donot have any info for them.
24th Trans co.- was the trucking co that was at the bay before we got hit the first time 6-6-68. The 2 1/2 ton trucks ran day and night to Tuy Hoa. just before the attack they moved to the tuy Hoa sub area.
545th Trans co. -they replaced the 24th Trans, and were bunked at the bay the when got hit, and lost a bunch of new 5 ton trucks
344th then 458th Trans Larc's - They hooked up all the pipes for the pipe line to the sub area and airbase, jp4 fuel. The 116th Trans was also part of this unit.
540th Barc- they took supplies to Tuy Hoa by sea, at night when the trucks couldn't run.
155th Trans co. - Were the first to arrive to do the longshoreman work,
Don't know when they left, about June '67 the 119th took over for them.
119th Trans co We unloaded the ships and lst's '66 to sometime in '69
854th Trans co.- They took over in early '69 for the 119th.
520th Engr.- They were the fire dept.
572nd light equipment Eng CO. They worked in the bay and kept the road open to the airbase and the sub area (Thank You).
261st signal co. They ran the phone co. And the vrb radio.
FOUND LIST
PVT STEPHEN LEUTY 119TH 68 TO-69
LT LEONARD SCHWARTZ 119TH 67 TO 68
SP4 FRED GANDY 119 & 854TH 68 TO 69 (passed away)
PFC DAVE HARMON 854TH 69 TO 70
SP4 MIKE SPURGEON 854TH 69 TO 70
SGT DANIEL DRUYOR 24TH 67 TO 68 (passed away)
SM3 LARRY DUNHAM IUWG1 UNIT 5 68 TO 69
BM3 DON OLSCHAFSKIE IUWG1 UNIT 5 68 TO 69
SGT PAUL 'WAYNE' KIRBY 218TH 68 TO 69
SP5 WAYNE JOHNSON 854TH 69 TO 70
SP4 MICHAEL HERBERT 458TH MP 69 TO 70
SP4 DICK UPTAIN 545TH
SGT TOM JASON 854TH 69 TO 70
SP4 JAMES JJ ROBINSON 854TH 70
SP4 ALTON BAMA HARBISON 854TH 70
SP4 GERALD WAYNE GROOMS 545TH 70
SP4 CLITON MOORE 854TH 70
SP4 MICK VOGT 854TH 70
SP4 MIKE LONG 854TH 70
SP5 RON ARRON SUSSMAN 119TH 67 TO 68
SP4 EDWIN D, ABRAHAM JR ( UNIT) 69 TO 70
SP4 RICHARD ZACHER (NEED UNIT)70
PFC FRANK T GOLOMB 119TH 67 TO 68
SP4 DENNIS EVELAND& 854TH 69 TO 70
SP4 WILLIAM STEINBECK 119TH 66 TO 67
SP5 RICHARD VINCENT 854TH 69 TO 70
SGT JOSEPH IMBRIGLIO 520TH 67 TO 68
SSGT RAY BULLOCK 545TH 68 TO 69
SP5 JIM TARBOX 344TH458TH 67 TO 68
SP5 HOWARD TERRY 119TH 67
E-7 LEROY LEE FIELDS 24TH HHD (NEED DATES)
SP4 MICHAEL A JOSEPH 854TH 69 TO 70
SP4 ANDREW TODD 854TH 69 TO 70
SP4 WILLIAM McCARTHY 854TH 69 TO 70
SSG ROBERT 'BATMAN' BATKINS 119TH 854TH 68
SP5 ROBERTGARY DRIGGERS 854TH 69 TO 70
SP5 STEVE DOUGLAS 540TH 68 TO 69
SP5 JOHN W SPEPHENS 24TH 67 TO 68
SP4 TOMMY WHEELER 854TH 68 TO 69
SP4 LARRY KALLOD 458TH 67TO 68
SP4 CLARENCE L RUSH 540TH 68 TO 69
SP4 THOMAS TWEET 540TH 68 TO 70
SP4 ALLEN COURSER 540TH 69 TO 70
CAPT JIM WARNER 540TH 69 TO 70
SP4 EDWARD STRICKLER 540TH 68 TO 69
SP4 MIKE HODSON 854TH 69 TO 70
SP4 WILLIAM HOLT 545TH 68 TO 69
SP4 ALBERT SALSGIVER 119/ 854 68 TO 69
SGT DANIEL BUIE 520TH 67 TO 68
SP4 ROBERT PETROCELLI 119TH 67 TO 68
SP4 MIKE COFCHIN 119TH 854TH 68 TO 70
PFC MIKE SOKOLA 155TH 65 TO 66
SP4 RAY HARRIS 119TH 67 TO 68
SP5 MYRON BEZENEK119TH 65 TO 66
??? WAYNE PIESKI 854TH 69 TO 70
SP4 ROBERT STEVE LEACH 854TH 69 TO 70
SP4 BOB RALYEA155TH 66 TO 67
SP4 TERRY RASBECK 119TH 67 TO 68
??? BILL CARTOLANO 119TH/854TH 68 TO 69
??? BILL "THE TOAD" TOATES 854TH ( passed away)
SP4 BILLY GIVENS 261ST SIG CO. SPT 4/69 TO 11/69
SP/5 EDWARD BELL 344TH &458TH LARC 66 TO 67
???GEORGE PAAVOLA 344TH &458TH LARC11/66 TO 6/67
CPL RAY SEARS 119TH TRANS 67 TO 3/68
SP/4 DAVID JENKINS 119TH TRANS 1/67 TO 1/68