________________________________________________________________________Richard S. Kem
hand-carry them through the system to make sure the interaction between the Vietnamese
system and the American system would deliver a part.
The next major event was rather interesting. We started--"Coalbin Willy" Wilson's
concept--a clear and hold operation. We would move into an area, first clear and then put in
a security structure and a civil affairs structure to hold it. Like an oil blot, you know, start the
blot and then as it moves outward you bring under control more and more of the population.
So, he started a clear and hold operation in Phu Yen Province, a coastal province with the
province seat being Tuy Hoa. They needed engineers. So, the 41st Engineer Battalion sent its
third line company, the one that'd been in Ban Me Thuot, to Tuy Hoa. Then they wanted an
engineer adviser almost permanently in Tuy Hoa. As this was my battalion, that was me. So,
I flew to Tuy Hoa and joined the advisory team there of eleven to twelve folks, which began
and operated this clear and hold operation.
That was a really interesting experience. We moved into Phu Yen, into Tuy Hoa, and lived
on the beach, oh, three or four kilometers from the main part of downtown Tuy Hoa. We had
a compound there near an old French masonry building. We put a couple of tents outside and
tent frames and that was our compound. When we first went there, the Vietcong were in the
town at night and the town was dark. With the arrival of the 42d Infantry Regiment to be the
operational entity, and then my engineer company from the 41st, the town opened up and the
lights came on at night. The Vietcong weren't there and it was friendly again.
Then we moved out from Tuy Hoa to the various other villages. My infantry battalion
adviser, compatriots, were taking these sweeps out and going into the various villages with
the loudspeakers and interacting with the locals. We were trying to open up the roads and
access and fix bridges and do that kind of work with the engineer company. So, it was a very
interesting kind of operation. It had some real challenges. How to fix a bridge? I mean, I got
out my old engineering handbook from West Point and tried to figure out how many rails out
of a railroad you would use to be stringers for a bridge. You look at a cross section of a rail
and you don't get much. It's not much of an Ibeam--takes an awful lot of them.
Then we could build a bridge for a jeep or maybe a small truck, and so we'd find a lot of bent
rails where the tracks had been blown and we'd cut sections. I'd also go down to Nha Trang
and scrounge the welding rod so my battalion could use it to cut the rails. You can see the
kind of push the American adviser was giving. I mean, I was figuring out what needed to be
done--that bridge needs to be fixed; figuring out how many rails we'd need; giving them the
design; scrounging the welding rods; and then matching their welder with the steel with the
rest to get the job done. This was going on in all branches and MAAG detachments. I mean,
everybody was ad-libbing, creating and putting these kinds of things together.
So, now my activities had changed, you see. You started asking about activities. At one point
my activities were, on a daily basis, awfully boring day in and day out. Now, my
opportunities changed so I would fly from Tuy Hoa back to An Khe, spend a day or day and a
half there checking up on the airfield and the road, then I'd fly down to Ban Me Thuot at the
battalion's rear, figure out where they were with all their records and maintenance at the
headquarters, then I'd fly to Nha Trang, go into the maintenance depot or the supply depot
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