Engineer Memoirs _____________________________________________________________________
and try to facilitate the moving of supplies or maintenance, then I'd fly back to Tuy Hoa. I
was spending most of the time in Tuy Hoa because it was more operational there.
I would make that round robin at least once a week, maybe twice, always trying to hitch a
ride on the Corps' shuttle of the Otter, or maybe with the H21 helicopters when they would
be flying. So, I was always hitching my own ride to make all that happen, even though I did
have a jeep and a Montagnard driver that were either at An Khe or Pleiku. He didn't speak
English or Vietnamese or French. We spoke with sign language. It was difficult to tell him I
had to be back here at eight o'clock Monday in sign language. So, I was expected to work out
the schedule, the activities to do them, and to report periodically to the major or colonel--but
do it. Without doubt, within the American advisory chain there was a feeling of chain of
command and "make it happen."
Q:
That was your responsibility, then, to get things moving.
A:
When things didn't happen, then they were highly critical. So, it was a very interesting time.
Every night I'd go back into that compound, and it was growing now in size, maybe it was up
to 40. One of my roommates back there at that time was Robert Shaplen, who was writing a
lot of articles for the New Yorker. We kept getting bigger, but for a captain, the headquarters
was not the place to be. Once I got back there then maybe the generator failed, and they'd
look to me as the engineer present. So, you were really better off out in the field--that was
pretty apparent. You had to do your mission in the field. So, I came back to Pleiku less and
less.
Q:
So, most of your time was with Vietnamese engineers, not very much time with even
American advisers, other American advisers.
A:
That's true. Well, in Tuy Hoa, of course, I was with other American advisers, so we were in
that advisory compound, and when we were there I would participate with the group. Our
leader was a major, and so here's a major and maybe another major and five or six captains
and four or five sergeants. Most of the time the infantry advisers would have a sergeant in the
system. Engineers didn't. We engineers were doing our own creating of the plans and putting
together what we were going to do, but it was rudimentary by the standards of command and
control and everything else.
For example, at Tuy Hoa our basic way of communicating to the outside was a single side-
band radio, and we couldn't contact a whole lot of folks. The Otter aircraft flying the regular
shuttle route around from II Corps headquarters would fly over our compound, waggle its
wings if it was going to land, and we'd have to drive to the airfield near Chop Chai Mountain
to meet it. This was because no one lived at the airstrip. If you wanted that airplane to land
when it came over and gave a low buzz, you had to throw out a smoke grenade. Otherwise it
would go on if it didn't have anything for you. I mean, we're doing smoke signals for
communication about whether you needed it to land or not.
Q:
The advisory role with the battalion, the Vietnamese battalion commander, must have, as
you've indicated, a lot of tact and skill at interpersonal relations with limited language
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