Viet Nam 1966-1973, various pictures

Zg080. -06. An-Loc was surrounded by the North Vietnamese during the 1972 Easter offensive. An Loc is about 80 km north of Saigon. This is a captured North Viet Namese tank. When I returned to VN for a 3rd time the news of relieving An Loc and recapturing Quang Tri dominated the news and it was a family affair for me.

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Between 1966 and 1973 I served 3 times in Viet Nam, almost 4 years in country. Two times I even visited Viet Nam, on leave, during the war, July 1973 and in 1970. I was an inconsistent photographer but here are a few of my various images from Viet Nam during the war. This album has images of me.

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Zg078. -04. Saigon 1967, a very typical street scene.

Zg079. -05. Saigon 1967. This monument was made fun of by the Commies and much of the Western Press; maybe they were on the same side. This was a monument to Soldiers who fought and died in this conflict. Naturally the commies tore it down in no time flat.

Zg080. -06. An-Loc was surrounded by the North Vietnamese during the 1972 Easter offensive. An Loc is about 80 km north of Saigon. This is a captured North Viet Namese tank. When I returned to VN for a 3rd time the news of relieving An Loc and recapturing Quang Tri dominated the news and it was a family affair for me.

Zg081. -09. Saigon 1967.The German hospital ship started out in Saigon and moved to Da Nang in 1968. I had entered the USA only in 1959 and so I naturally had to have a look at the German contribution to the war. Later I helped salvaging a WWII wrecked ship in Da Nang for the Helgoland to tie up there.

Zg082. -10. July 1973, in Saigon on leave, landing at the airport. We, the US Military, already had left. I was there to help with the fiancé visa for my bride.

Zg083. -13. July 1973 in Saigon on leave, VN Military personnel. I was stationed again in VN, in Cat Lai-near Saigon and operated in the Delta, 1972 June to 1973 March but have no pictures at all from this period.

 

Zg084. -20. Saigon 1967. A typical neighborhood scene; vendors going around selling their wares. While I was in Saigon, I stayed in the house of a friend, who I knew from Da Nang.

Zg085. -21. Central South VN, beaches. What lovely Beaches. I always wanted to see them in person on the ground as a tourist. It will still happen.

Zg086. -22. Karl’s Viet Nam 1966-1973. I marked this map as to where I served or had been. I also indicated the 1972 Easter Offensive because my fiancé’s family was caught up in it. The fiancé’s family was from Loc Ninh and was under commie rule ever since Easter 1972.

Zg087. -27. At An-Loc 1972. Anh Hai, my brother in law is standing on the captured North Vietnamese tank. My wife and their family are from Loc Ninh, a town another 30 km further north. Loc Ninh stayed under North Vietnamese occupation and they even made it their HQ and sometime even a commie plane came in there.

Zg088. -28. Plei Ku 1966 in Central South Viet Nam. My 1st day in Viet Nam; I arrived with this type of aircraft, a C-130.The plane stopped here coming from Clark AFB on our way to Da Nang.

Zg089. -29. Central VN An Bac 1966. It sure looks beautiful and I can’t wait going back, maybe 2008.

Zg090. -30. Dong Ha, Quang Tri map; it shows clearly where Cua Viet Camp was and where the border to North VN, the ‘DMZ’ was.

Zg091. -32. In El Paso TX. Jan. 1972, studying the Viet Namese Lingo, Karl in his room. I graduated on top of the class, 42 students. I had left VN May 1971 because I had volunteered for the ‘Long Range Advisor Program’ and had 35 weeks of language training.

Zg092. -33. Traveling on LARC on Dong-Ha river 1967, down to the Cua Viet Camp. This is a LARC that replaced the WWII DUKW vehicle-craft. This area is just south of the DMZ, the line that divided North VN and South VN.

Zg093. -34. Maily & Karl 1973 in Saigon with Maily, my bride to be. All the diver units, Frogs, EOD and us Salvage Divers had moved to Cat Lai, near Saigon. In Saigon we had ‘Liberty’.

Zg094. -35. Cat Lo main gate; this pic is from a ‘Brown Water Navy’ web side. We had liberty here and I met my future wife here. My time here was from Jan 1971 to May with about 2 month of that in the Delta.

Zg095. -36. On our way to Saigon from Cat Lo 1971, we saw these Thai troops. I was also gone to an Australasian Army hospital here, once, for a consultation.

Zg096. -37. MeKong Delta 1973, this shot is from 1973 but in 1971 we flew to Rach Gia by Helo, to pic up our boat and relieve crew members. This is the Delta-no doubt!!! We took the boat than to the Song Ong Doc River and further to Ca Mau and did salvage work there.

Zg097. -39. Cat Lo 1971. My only photo, I reported here in Jan 1971 from HCU-1 in Subic. Here, I trained several groups of VN Navy divers in salvage for about two month. Than we manned the LCM-8 salvage boats and operated in the Mekong Delta, half US and half VN crews. My boat operated from Rach Gia to Song Ong Doc River up to Ca Mau City. I left in May 1971 for the Long Range Advisor Program. In back is a CSB, Combat Support Diving Boat.

Zg098. -40. Cua-Viet Camp 1967, a LVT needs repair. We came up here often to repair the off-shore fuel line and we had one big job, an LST needed an emergency repair to close a planted mine explosion hole under their engine rooms.

Zg099. -45. The Cua-Viet fuel farm 1967. It was mostly bladders. Once the commies done an extraordinary mine job on a LST which was beached in the camp and was well protected. They done a great job and got it any way, our biggest job there.

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