Rocket attacks on Chu Lai Vietnam, 1968-1970

A civilian medic working for RMK-BRJ assigned to US AirForce base military base at Chu Lai, Vietnam, underwent frequent Viet Cong Rocket attacks and the Tet offensive during his two-year assignment.

 

Since November of 1965, As a civilian, I worked for the RMK-BRJ construction company at the Cam Rahn Bay work camp as the only medic taking care of 3000 Vietnamese employees. Now arriving at the military Chu Lai airbase in January 1968, the company's second world war era silver twin-engine DC-3 aircraft banked hard and spiraled downward to avoid potential enemy fire and landed. I initially lived in a small cabin aboard a triple-decker houseboat next to the US Army swift boat ramp located at the most northern point of the base. The RMK-BRJ primary worksite, including my dispensary, was at another site one-fourth mile from the main gate road entrance and half a mile opposite the new jet runways.

 The VC/NVA rockets fired from the nearby heavily wooded mountains would pass over or drop short into our work area during attacks on the airfields, hangars, fuel depots, and ammunition dumps. Fortunately, the majority of the rockets would usually impact harmlessly in open space. However, if an enemy rocket impacted a  wooden or metal building, it would result in serious structural damage. Being caught in the unprotected area or tent and within the impact danger blast zone, a soldier would be stunned and most likely struck by shrapnel resulting in serious injury or death.

During the January 30th, 1968 Tet offensive, the military base was taking a pounding from Viet Cong rockets. The houseboat away from the primary attack objective seemed less risky than staying at my dispensary.  Being tired and laying in my bunk and saying to hell with it, I ignored the rockets impact explosions. Suddenly the dusk night flashed brilliantly red; seconds later, the houseboat shook. The ammunition depot had blown up. Grabbing medical gear, I ran out the door, and when hearing short controlled bursts of AK rifle fire, I hit the deck and looked out to the opposite shoreline and received more  AK rifle fire.  Behind me on the shore where the houseboat was tied up to, I saw a long line of entrenched  US troops pointing their M16 rifles toward the Viet Cong AK rifle fire.  A company security officer and I being in-between the combatants and under AK rifle fire, rapidly crawled and slinked down three flight of stairs and ran to the trenches joining the troopers for cover.

In the haze and confusion of combat, a swift boat with four US troopers yelled, "Where friendlies! Where friendlies", as it twisted and churned through the canal to reach the safety of the boat ramp as scattered friendly M16 rifle fire snapped around it.

After a sleepless night, the next morning's drive to my dispensary revealed that the large steel jet aircraft hangers had received substantial damage and were mangled and torn from the massive blast that shook us the night before, which made the hangers unusable. The long night of Viet Cong rocket attacks also caused considerable damage to the base. There were rumors that Viet Cong sapper teams had breached the parameter and were responsible for some of the destruction. Taking an injured American to the Air Force hospital that night, I observed several black-clothed suspected Viet Cong combatants riddled with bullet wounds being flushed with intravenous fluids as they lie on gurneys, which gave some credence to the sapper rumors.  

Upon hearing repeated radio reports that the damage was only moderate, I asked an Army Major what the hell "moderate damage" meant. He replied, "It means we had to modify our military mission." After a few days, the Tet offensive at Chu Lai was over.

The Chu Lai airbase was subject to frequent 122mm rocket attacks throughout my two years of stay. Some attacks occurred every week during the day or night, and then no attacks would happen for a couple of weeks, then it would resume.  At sunrise, June 8th. 1969, A barrage of rockets hit the 312th. Evacuation hospitals Vietnamese ward instantly killing nurse Lt. Sharon Lane and a 12-year-old girl. The rocket attack injured 27 other Vietnamese patients. Later in the week, enemy rockets, with a whistling noise, slammed down into our RMK-BRJ work compound. I dropped to the dispensary floor and looked out the open door and saw a Vietnamese girl dressed in the traditional ao dai dress start to walk out the door of the office building across from me. I shouted a warning and waved to her to get down; as she did, a rocket with a loud "WHUMP" impacted the almost concrete hard clay ground landing between us. Then I observed a "V" vortex compression wave with flying dirt and rocks followed by the tingling and rattling of shrapnel tearing into the corrugated tin roof of my dispensary.   Another rocket slammed into the nearby Vinnell Corporation Company wooden buildings roof, sending wood chunks flying upward. 

With a few scattering 122mm rockets still dropping in, I took off in my white ambulance to where the rocket had struck the wooden building and came to a barbwire fence and called out if anybody hurt and heard no answer. I saw a pick up that had left the Vinell company camp roaring down the dirt road toward the nearby 27th EVAC hospital and assumed it was carrying injured Korean workers. I rushed back to my dispensary to be available for any injuries of company employees and received an American who sliced the back of his hand on a skill saw when startled by the explosion of an incoming enemy rocket. X-rays at the 27th EVAC hospital were negative. Since the doctors and hospital staff were busy receiving and caring for multiple causalities, I offered to suture the employees wound, and they could review my work. They put me in the minor surgery area, where I proceeded to clean and suture the laceration. Of course, a few times, an interested army doctor came over to check my suturing; which must have been satisfactory as they just nodded their head and said nothing. 

One evening in late 1969, a barrage of 122mm rockets started walking through our camp, slamming down around the dispensary. My interpreters Quang and Nhan, dragging a patient, jumped into the ambulance and speedily drove toward the company rock crusher located near the perimeter fence by highway one while rockets continued to land around the dispensary and camp center. We drove up to the steep ramp to the top of the rock crusher hill, which gave us an excellent overview of the military base. As we stood and watched, the rocket attacks continued to blanket our camp and the airport runways and facilities. Being foolish and feeling safe and secure, we watched in awe and transfixed as numerous rockets slammed down exploding with brilliant white phosphorous bursting upward and outward, then slowly in an arch float and sparkling gently earthward. The whole field from the RMK-BRJ work camp to the runways and military facilities suffered multiple hits. It was an intense, spectacular sight. Suddenly, behind us, a US Army tank across the road of highway one opened up with a short burst of intermittent fire with its 50. Caliber machine gun with red tracers firing outward into its predicted field of fire. Not feeling so brave now and losing our sense of security due to the confusing uproar, the four of us jumped into the rock crusher pit, sliding down ten feet into its iron jaws. There we remained in the black hole for 30 minutes until the attack was over. 

Two years of frequent Phantom F4 jets bombings and Cobra helicopter rocket attacks on the 122mm rocket and motor placements hidden in the nearby jungle hills didn't seem to inhibit the capacity of the Viet Cong or NVA to launch harassment and substantial, large scale mortar and rocket attacks on the Chu Lai airbase. It appeared to me that the Viet Cong/ NVA rocket attacks became more frequent and fanatical over my two-year stay at Chu Lai.

In January 1970, I departed Chu Lai for a year assignment to Tan Son Nhut Airport, then to Dong Tam and finally to An Thoi, the tip of  Phu Quac Island during the March 30, 1972, Easter invasion, Leaving Vietnam June 1972.

Reviews

[Coyote Poetry]

You need to write a book. Vietnam, rare true books. You describe people and places with great skill. I can't remember what I did yesterday. Powerful and worthwhile story written my friend.
Coyote