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In mid-September I was transferred to the Rear
BAS in Dong Ha. The rear area was a complex of tents and some wooden
buildings commanded by LtCol J. G. GILMORE. Doctor
W.F. DRYSDALE, Lt MC, USNR was the senior Battalion Surgeon. He did not
hang out with us. Actually, the food and accommodations were much better at
Payable then they were in the rear. The tent was much hotter than our BAS
bunker out forward. However, the
Chief always made sure that we had plenty of cold beer. The BAS was near
Motor Transport, so we always had vehicles and drivers to travel around
Dong Ha Combat Base. We made quite a few trips over to Delta Med which was
located on the other side of the airstrip from our position.
In Dong Ha we experienced what we referred to as
"Ho Chi Minh reveille". Between 5 and 6 a.m. artillery rounds
would be fired out of the DMZ onto the north side of the base. Back on May 18 Dong Ha had come under
attack by NVA artillery and Rockets. A rocket hit near the south end of the
BAS tent and killed 3 corpsmen and wounded most of the rest. As a result, a
bunker was built, this bunker was massive. The chief constantly had us
filling sand bags and adding to the bulk of the bunker. Those of us who had
been out with the line companies had an attitude that when your number's up
it's up no matter if you are in the open or in a bunker. The only ones who
used the bunker were those who had not been out in the field.
The majority of our work at the BAS was
administrative. We held sick call in the morning and afternoon. Checked in
all new arrivals; Reviewed and filed medical records; insured that
immunizations were up to date and filled out death certificates. There was no card playing,
to kill time we would throw knives at a target. We all got fairly
accurate. In the evenings there were
no blackout restrictions so we were able to watch movies. Radio reception
was much better also.
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