Thailand and the Vietnam War

[JDGRUEN]

A-26 Ground Attack Bomber - NKP Air Force Base, Thailand

http://www.nkpcommandos.com/Organizations-2.html

http://www.pbase.com/635thk9/conklin_airbasenkp_early&page=2

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_A-26_Invader

[Dancealot]

On the video posted on post #14 at "20:50" an interviewed minister of Thailand clearly stated Thailand has sent troops into Vietnam for the main reason to stop the war. I understand now Thailand somehow tried to help to stop the war by helping easing tensions between the Russians and the US.

. All credit to Thailand!

Edited August 5, 2013 by Dancealot

[JDGRUEN]

This River boat - more like a barge - was a civic action project sponsored by the 46th. Special Forces Company (Airborne). It was staffed by Thai Doctors, Thai Special Forces Medics, 46th. SF Medics and other security personnel - plus some Intel Operations people. The Boat was used to provide medical outreach to isolated river villages along the Mekong. In 1968 It ran from near NKP down to Mukdahan and may well have made trips beginning at Nong Khai.

[JDGRUEN]

Here are some pics I have from my time in North East Thailand (Issan). In 1967-68, I was assigned to an A Detachment (A-Team) of the 46th. Special Forces Company (Airborne) at a place called Camp Nam Phung Dam. Geographically, the camp was in the Phu Phan Mountains north east of Khon Kaen and south east of Sakon Nakhon. The camp sat next to a large reservoir lake and was fully armed and having concrete bunkers, plus many layers or concertina barbed wire surrounding the large perimeter. My main job was split between manning a medical dispensary where we treated local villagers from many kilometers around and conducting recon patrols mostly to the east and south of the camp towards the Laotian border and down towards Kalasin. The patrols were also medical civic action missions. I frequently carried medical supplies to isolated villages and set up a 'sick call'. We treated many of the Hill Tribe people for common illnesses and sometimes not so common. My presence in the village was also used as a distraction as many village people gathered around us while we conducted the sick call. Most of the rest of my A-Team, plus some Thai Special Forces and some mercenaries would sweep around the village looking for young men who were fleeing the area. These young men were detained and questioned to see if they might be part of cell of the local CT (Communist Terrorists as they were called).

From time to time we would get reports about a murder or kidnapping of a Poo Yai Ban, school teacher or some type of government official. Even when we responded rapidly - by vehicle or helicopter we often found little to work with. The CT chose most of the time to not challenge us as they were out manned, out gunned and they knew we had helicopter gunship support equipped with mini guns. Very discouraging to small groups of six to eight men. So - most often - the CT just melted into the jungle sometimes firing a few stray shots from across a rice paddy.

The work was gratifying, we helped a lot of people and saved some lives. My job was to 'win the hearts and minds of the people' - so they wouldn't shoot us - and I did a pretty darn good job of that...

Pictures - Half my A-Team, Holding Sick Call in Ban Lub Lao, Building a pontoon boat from two napalm bomb canisters, Me with a buddy taking a break in a small wooden Wat in Ban Na, Me and a little orphan girl 'Pooee' that the camp adopted...

[chiang mai]

If anyone wants to do some additional reading I can highly recommend Air America, it's an easy read that covers a lot of the related history and contains some amazing stories, look especially for the part about the "golden BB", fascinating.

[Ace of Pop]

TB. no one has ever really occupied Thailand have they?

Khmer have had a go. Burma have had a go.

It remains unique in a way.

regards

SP

You can thank Thai Immigration for That.Got tired of waiting, and just went home. .Tink the Brits and French sort of held a bit of Thailand,but nothing much.

[Shaksey]

Great pics and videos, many thanks for letting us see such interesting history

[Ace of Pop]

And Thanks to the Mods,for keeping the Full Dinner Jacket Fols away from an Emotionall Time for those who did their Patriotic Duty like Men.

[theblether]

I'm going to leave the topic alone for a few days as there is a fair amount of content on it already, and it will give people a chance to catch up. I'm going to work on the the Hmong and the other people's of Thailand threads in the meantime. A bit of help there would be appreciated too.

I'm especially grateful to the servicemen that have added to the topic already. Anyone/everyone else feel free to add to what we have already. I know I speak on behalf of many when I say that we truly appreciate the information coming from the men that were there, it's been very insightful and educational to us all.

[chiang mai]

The story of the Hmong will be an eye opener for many, starting with their exodous from Southern China, chased out of Vietnam by the communists, into Laos with the CIA, deserted by the Americans and then into Myanmar and Thailand - pursuaded to leave the mountains by the DEA they moved into the lowlands where they had no immunity to local disease, eventually split up and relocated to cites across the mid-west of the US where most committed suicide, ended up in jail, became aloholics or all of the above, tragic.

I look forward to reading more.

[SinglePot]

P51 Mustang. Cadillac of the Skies.

Let us not over complicate things.

[JDGRUEN]

Miscellaneous Photos of scenes and places in Thailand during the Vietnam War era. Courtesy of friends who had posted these on some military blogs and groups of which I am a member...

Edited August 6, 2013 by JDGRUEN

[Dancealot]

Things remain unclear me at what happened phu hin rong kla. These are my own pictures and this remains interesting to me.

So far I gathered Thailand had a separatist communistic-like party back then.

I suspect this could be a delicate subject matter so I will understand..

[Thanyaburi Mac]

Chiang Mai: What Hmong in the U.S. do you know, met, etc?

You missed the large numbers of college grads, Masters degrees, and even a fair number of PHDs. Lawyers, doctors, dentists, university profs, government officials, private business owners, etc. A whole bunch of success stories.

And even the middle-roaders have done well enough.

And, yes, there's some at the bottom of the economic scale, just as there are with the "locals."

Mac

[chiang mai]

Chiang Mai: What Hmong in the U.S. do you know, met, etc?

You missed the large numbers of college grads, Masters degrees, and even a fair number of PHDs. Lawyers, doctors, dentists, university profs, government officials, private business owners, etc. A whole bunch of success stories.

And even the middle-roaders have done well enough.

And, yes, there's some at the bottom of the economic scale, just as there are with the "locals."

Mac

My wife worked for State and was one of six regional co-ordinators in the mid-west that interfaced between UNHCR, State and Municipalities to manage the settlement of displaced persons, she refered to it as the displacment of displaced persons! The program did have its sucesses of course but all the chatter revolved around program failings and what could be done differently, major problem areas were a lack of understanding of the extent and scope of familes, cultural differences relating to health care (which is a story in itself) and cultural differences relating to the raising of children - every time her phone rang after hours it was usually the police dept either informing her of an event or looking for guidance and handling management but there again they never called to tell her that somebody had done good! There seemed to have been lots of effort put into trying to make the refugees understand what the American system was about but very little effort into trying to understand Hmong cultrue, mostly that was down to elders and more settled people and the cordinators. I would occaisionally tag along on weekends when there were group meetings or social events so to answer you initial question, I've met a whole bunch but never really got to know many at all.

[SinglePot]

A very interesting topic for me would be about the lives of Thai, Vietnamese and Khmer people who left SE Asia and settled in the US.

I live in an up country Thai village where many young people leave to go and work in the factories of the Eastern Seabord.

Impression I get is they miss home terribly.

[historyprof]

British Pathe has some very interesting newsreels about American and other SEATO members involvement in the war in Laos and Vietnam.

http://www.britishpathe.com/video/first-joint-seato-exercise/query/Bangkok

http://www.britishpathe.com/video/u-s-forces-in-thailand/query/Bangkok

http://www.britishpathe.com/video/thailand-gay-for-l-b-j/query/Thailand

http://www.britishpathe.com/video/us-takes-action/query/Siam

[Nignoy]

pattaya 1964

[NeverSure]

Great topic guys. I was drafted but sent home due to extreme nearsightedness. I've since had lasik surgery and am 20/15 but that didn't come along for a long time.

Thanks for your service.

[Tywais]

101.jpgpattaya 1964

I remember BarBos. Believe that's the place I mentioned earlier where I would sit outside and have pancakes and a coke most mornings. A few drinks in the evening also.

[Ace of Pop]

I remember a T Shirt i had. I wore it with pride. It was Bright Yellow, and read The FOOTPRINT of THE GREAT AMERICAN CHICKEN. under the CND Stupid Logo.

[DogNo1]

When I taught ESL at Golden West College in Huntington Beach, CA from roughly 1986 to 1996, most of my students were Vietnamese refugees. Most of them studied hard and many have been very successful in various professions including medicine, pharmacy, law, business and technology. I also taught part-time at Long Beach City College during the same period and there was a medium-sized population of Hmong students there. Many of my Hmong students did well later on in college and the professions but the Vietnamese did somewhat better.

[SinglePot]

Sounds like I'm better advised to go to a Vietnamese optician than a Hmong optician if I want to do a bit of plane spotting then.

[Ace of Pop]

Nothing Lasts Forever.!!. U.S. Trained Medics still rule here Years after Nam.When the Mafia ran Vagas,and the Krays ran London and Whoever ran Patts we could walk the Streets at 3AM. We are a Dying Breed, not welcomed by the New Gen of P.C. Cowards. We had Camaraderie Thought,something they never will.

[Ace of Pop]

In case You Never Guessed im A Hawk,not a Chiken Shit Dove.

[sunshine51]

I only spent R & R time in LOS way back then and even then it was usually to head off

to another location...Hong Kong, Singapore, Jakarta etc. I was loosely based in Phnom

Penh or Saigon during the war and attached to MEDTC (Google the acronym)....

However on one particular R & R/leave occasion.....

One of my fondest memories of the old days is when 3 other fellers & myself

had 2 weeks R & R plus I had 30 days leave I was ordered to take. That made

a month and a half off & away from the war. It was February 1973, we arrived at

Don Muang Military...spent a few nights doing BKK then went to "Special

Services" at Don Muang...a place where one could cheaply rent anything

such as sporting gear, lil sailboats to use at Satahip, concert tickets (never

had any!), cheap discount vouchers for 4 star hotels....and...huge Chevrolet

Impala's with nice 327ci V8 engines in them to self drive to Singapore!

Back in those days a Chevy Impala on the road was akin to driving an aircraft

carrier down a country lane...a huge beast that scared tiny Nissan's & Toyota's

over to the road shoulders...sometimes into ditches & canals.

A few days into our drive we stopped on Phuket because the map we were

given had the place circled in red by a previous user complete with exclamation

marks and some words extolling the beauty of the place and some girls at a certain

bar in Phuket Town. The bar was small...the girls looked ok...but Ban Dong Kam

(Patong Bay) was the most beautiful place I had ever seen on this planet.

There were 4 small dwellings by the dirt road along the beach....the water was

crystal clear well out beyond the bay's tips, a couple tents on the beach populated

by longhairs of European ethnicity and the 4 of us....with the Impala of course.

We took loads of photos, we swore we'd never tell anybody where this place

was located...and in the end we never kept our word. One can easily see

either in person or via the internet what Ban Dong Kam looks like today because

of others like us who saw the place, swam in the bay, BBQ'd on the beach,

slept in big Impala's and yes...even the backpackers helped spread the word!

Those are the type of pictures I wish I still had...the GI pix were numerous

and would be nice to have today although I know for a fact that the men in

my platoon are mostly gone nowadays save for 4 of us who still manage to

keep in touch.

It's odd in a way...all the WWI vets are dead now, most WWII & Korean War

veterans are dead....and now it's our turn to bring up the rear so to speak

as our time draws ever closer. Natural selection at work.

dam_n I wish I still had those photos!

[SinglePot]

me too.

I mean about you still having the photos.

Cheers.

[Jay Sata]

Nam Phong Airbase was just outside Khon Kaen. This is what it look like now or at least when I took the picture last year.

This is it when operational in the 70's There is a great website for the Rose Garden as it was nicknamed at

http://www.namphong.com/sample_start.htm

[JDGRUEN]

Nam Phong Airbase was just outside Khon Kaen. This is what it look like now or at least when I took the picture last year.

This is it when operational in the 70's There is a great website for the Rose Garden as it was nicknamed at

http://www.namphong.com/sample_start.htm

Interestingly, Nam Phong was a Marine tactical fighter bomber base ... with up to 3200 Marines there at the height of the buildup... All other Air Bases in Thailand were U.S. Air Force.

Previously Nam Phong had been a U.S. Special Forces camp for the training of Laotian irregulars, who occupied the original buildings and had constructed six other structures and training facilities.

http://www.tlc-brotherhood.net/uploads/Nam_Phong_Details.pdf

Edited August 12, 2013 by JDGRUEN

[Jay Sata]

There is a great video with Bob Hope at Nam Phong

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwNt0CFiOV8