Bill Patterson - Dong Tam Damage Report.
The attachment shows a strange craft the army used on the river deltas of Vietnam when my unit, the 319th Transportation Company, was in country 1968-69. This craft rode on a cushion of air and is shown leaving the river and porting on dry ground. It was capable of running on water, ground or a combination of the two. It was very useful I'm sure in the shallow waters of the deltas.
The Dong Tam base was one of our regular convoy runs. We would leave Long Binh, run south on the main Vietnam highway through Saigon and continue for about 20-30 miles to Dong Tam where the 9th Infantry Division was located. The Saigon and Mekong rivers had many branches in the area south of Saigon for many miles. I made this trip many times and recall how the Dong Tam base looked in the area we frequented.
The road I recall ran between the ammunition storage area (ammo dump) and permanent metal buildings, one side of which faced the road and ammo dump. The various munitions were separated by 8-15 foot high earth mounds which helped prevent a chain effect if one area exploded. The infantry base of course had a large ammo supply.
I got to observe first-hand how our press often did not accurately report the news of the war. Arlene and I met in Hawaii while I was on Rest and Relaxation Leave (R&R) and were married in the army chapel of Fort DeRussy. A radio or TV newscast caught my attention when Dong Tam was mentioned. The reporter said the base had been attacked the previous night and some minor damage was reported. Very soon after I returned to Vietnam, I was convoyed again to Dong Tam. When I entered the base and drove between the ammo dump and the buildings, I couldn't believe what I saw. All the permanent metal buildings facing the dump had their fronts caved in. Every building I saw had severe damage which must have cost millions of dollars. The ammo dump had obviously received a round which set off powerful explosions. The damage was definitely not minor.
Thirty seven years later at softball practice in Augusta I was speaking with a former soldier who was stationed at Dong Tam at roughly the same time we were at Long Binh and supplying his unit. He remembered the attack well. One of his men ran for a bunker when a large explosion blew him back into the building and into a circulating fan which injured him. Lee said the explosions continued for a week and one-half. I'm sure men were killed and injured. The damage was definitely not minor.
I've heard many times that our forces tried to minimize attacks' severity to the press. I'm sure this happened at Dong Tam in the delta.