Engineer Memoirs _____________________________________________________________________
Reviewing stand of Headquarters, 577th Engineer Battalion (Construction), at Phu
Hiep, South Vietnam, in September 1968. From left to right, Major General David S.
Parker, U.S. Army Vietnam Engineer; Major (P) Kem, Commander of the 577th;
Brigadier General John Elder, Commanding General, 18th Engineer Brigade; and
Colonel Delbert M. Fowler, Commander, 35th Engineer Group.
The idea was to put greater emphasis down in the south, so there was going to be a shift of
responsibilities southward, the idea being that the major traffic came up through QL21 from
the Saigon area, up to Dalat, cut down to Phan Rang, and then cut north on QL1.
Major logistics traffic didn't follow the coast all the way up. By doing this, you avoided the
Vietcong strongholds near Phan Thiet and south of Phan Rang.
There was to be a change of emphasis. We would finish up the QL1 project we had been
working on in Phu Yen and then move down and start working QL21 in the sector just
south of Dalat.
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