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By MIKE BIRD Viet Nam’s jungles and swamps and the periodic whine of a sniper’s bullet are within a heartbeat today of Port Hue neme. The Navy's fighter-builders of World War II and the Korean conflict are at it again. Select teams of Port Hueneme-trained Seabees are among U.S. armed forces laboring beside beleag uered South Vietnamese. There’s a job to do. The old Seabee savvy is still there. New techniques are pra cticing new miracles Handfuls of Seabees in South east Asia are making like min iature battalions. Besides lend ing support to certain U.S. mil itary operations, they're help ing native populations on a wide scale. Their successes stem mostly from concentrated — technical training of hand-picked men, handy equipment packaging, pin point airlifting and sealifting, and a strong morale. “STREAMLINED” ‘We went in there streamlin ed,’ said one returning Seabee. “Not a pound of fat. Just the tools we needed—and the know how.” In South Viet Nam, 18 Sea bee technical assistance teams (STAT), each comprising one of ficer and a dozen enlisted men, have knuckled down with zeal during the last 28 months to help villagers at the people to people level. Another eight teams have labored in Thailand. In addition, special smaller teams have done such jobs as well-drilling. Cmdr. C.F. Mobley, officer in charge of the base unit at the Naval Construction Battalion Center, Port Hueneme, explain ed: “The teams are small, but their accomplishments are mul tiplied by efficient planning and all-out teamwork. The results are remarkable.” Mobley didn’t hide the fact that the job is long and difficult. Sometimes hectic. But he said, Many of the men who've been over there want to go back. That's a good sign of what we're accomplishing.” IN TENTS The Seabees often live in tents themselves while building housing and dispensaries for the natives, dams and roads. Mean while, they fight monsoons and floods, disease, and sporadic raids by Communist Viet Cong terrorists if more proof were needed of the Seabees’ vital role in Viet Nam, recent landings of US Marines at Cu Lai supplied the answer. An estimated 300 “‘un identified’’ Seabees went along to build a mile-long airstrip fared by the U.S. military as a flying leathernecks. “strike force’ against Viet Cong Lt. (jg) Jay Minor, a Navy infiltrators line officer assigned to Port In the region of Ban Me Thuot Hueneme, has become a_ Sea in central South Viet Nam, STAT bee san. 0501, operating with bulldozers Back in 1962, Minor got a look and other heavy equipment, as tumultuous Viet Nam when carved clearings in the jungle he served aboard the USS Ben and built hamlets. nee nington during anti-submarine .We hired natives and taught screening in the China Sea. Now them to use tools,’’ Livingston a communications and informa said. “We built ‘long-houses’ on thon officer at the Seabee consults. Used split bamboo. Af ter, he said, ‘I’m impressed many as 100 families might live with the way the Seabees get in one building.” things done.” PURPLE HEARTS is TOUGH ROLE Capt. R.D. Thorson, command ing officer of the center, will tell you the qualifications for a place on a technical assistance team are tough. It’s no job for a Navy “boat.” Each STAT member, ranging from a petty officer to a master chief, must be capable in the other Seabee specialty rates within his project as well. Be fore departing for his new mis sion, he undergoes four months’ intensive training, including lo cal language and customs. He has additional instruction in self protection, survival, evasion, re sistance to interrogation, and escape. “He gets the works,” said Seabee Lit. Warren M. Garbe. The civil engineering officer underwent special training him self and headed two separate teams in South Viet Nam be fore taking charge of the over all technical training program at Port Hueneme Garbe's top aides are Chief Warrant Officer P.G. McCart, assistant training officer who once headed a team in Thai land, and Chief Robert J. Liv ingston, a gung-ho equipment operator and veteran of Viet Nam. HILL PEOPLE Montana - born — Livingston, who's put 13 years in the Sea bees, heads the special training division, imparting his know how to others. He spent six months among the montagnards (Vietnamese hill people). “The montagnards are small in number,” he said, ‘but they control more than half of South Viet Nam. They're aboriginals. They wear loinclothes and carry spears, but they're a friendly and appreciative people. They well may hold the key to Viet Nam.” About 10,000 of these tribes ‘men have been trained and arm Despite sporadic gunfire and terrorist bombings (10 Purple Hearts and a Bronze Star have been awarded to Seabees), most of the men returning to Port Hueneme talk of the fun they got out of helping free Vietna mese stiffen their defenses and lift their standard of living. Long-time Seabee Lee R. Lar kin, an equipment operator first-class, got his first taste of foreign duty 15 years ago as a dogface in Korea. He went to South Viet Nam 12 months ago and worked on two well-drilling teams, at Tan Hiep and Dong Ba Thin. “People were drinking water that I wouldn't want to wash the family clothes in,” said Lar kin, a father of four children “It's to blame for much of the disease there “In the dry season, water in many places is sold like food We drilled down 500 feet and brought them good water. It was the most important job I ever did.” Lt. Garbe took STAT 1002 in to the Hue area in October 1963. Within 40 miles of the old “cease-fire’’ 17th parallel, the team built a network of roads and bridges to connect populous areas with the surrounding country. EXTRA JOBS The training officer said: “We were always taking a few minutes here, a little time there, to help villagers bulldoze a drainage trench for a field or knock down a small hill that would have taken them days to move. “We wrote to the States for clothing to distribute. We pro vided food and gifts for a Christmas dinner at an orphan age. One of our teams, hearing about a scarcity of lumber to build school desks, designed a pre-cast concrete desk that was put into volume production.” Robert L. Meatty, construc tion electrician power third class, who went into the Bujia Map area near the Cambodian border last August with Garbe’s STAT 1008, was given a cross bow and spear by a village chief — a token of friendship. “We were never too busy to build things like swings and merry-go-rounds for the young sters,”’ he said. EARLY ARRIVAL One of the first Seabees on the job in South Viet Nam was Willie K. Seay, a utilities man first-class, who arrived in Sai gon in January 1963. He was attached to the public works de partment of Headquarters Sup port Activities. “My shop was across the street from the Military Ad visory Assistance Group,’’ he recalled Seabee Gordon J. Dibble, a steelworker first-class who ar rived in the Chau Lang area about the same time with STAT 0502, recalled a similar experi ence. The team was there to improve fortifications, build a pioneer airstrip and roads, “One noontime as terrorist. He revealed, “I'm going drove up to their compound in back,’ an ice cream truck filled with “I'd like to join you,” Lt. explosives. He blew himself Garbe said sky high and took nine children Perhaps the way they felt was with him. The compound was described best by a guy who badly damaged. It was my next I didn’t start in the Seabees repair job.” though “I soon learned to think like one.” _ He’s Brooklyn-born John A. Baccello, a medical corpsman who has put in over 17 years with the Navy. He was with the ‘Marines in Korea. He was as signed to STAT 0503 in South Viet Nam. Among other places, he was in the Moc Hoa area on the Mekong Delta. DECOY LOAF “A young Vietnamese entered a restaurant we were in and put a loaf of bread he was car rying on a table. Moments aft er we left, the building was shattered by an explosion. He had planted a grenade in the bread and pulled the time pin.” James R. Lytle, engineering aide surveyor construction, who was a member of STAT 1004, said there are “a hundred ways ‘a guy can help out over there.”’ URGENT NEED Now attached to the Seabee base at Port Hueneme, Baccello spoke with strong feelings about the job being done by our arm ed forces to help the impover ished among the South Vietna mese. “The people come to you sick — come in droves,”’ he said. ‘The word ‘medicine’ is a big word to them. “Women come 25 miles, walki ng all day through the jungle carrying a baby on their back. Malnutrition, beriberi, protein allergies, dysentery, case after case.” Witch doctors, he related, had given them a pinch here, a pinch there, trying to rid them of the evil. “I've seen the black and blue spots,’ he said. “But we didn’t poke fun. We tried to understand.” Shielded by Vietnamese sol diers, Baccello’s medical jeep plied roads through swamp and jungle to take U.S. medicine as far as it would reach. Some times the Viet Cong came for treatment, too. REDS, TOO “You couldn't tell them from the others,” Baccello said. “They'd do anything to get ahold of our medicines and drugs, even terrorize the na tives at night.” For Baccello and the other STAT members, the average tour of foreign duty is six to eight months Most recent to return were ISTAT 0505 and STAT 0506, which flew into Point Mugu y wes terday from Saigon. They go on leave today at Port Hueneme, While others train to follow them. The battle in Southeast Asia goes on. Seabee technical assistance teams will continue to slip into South Viet Nam, almost unno ticed except by a people grate ful for food and medicine, wa ter, sanitation, housing and roads, dispensaries, and hope. LT. WARREN GARBE Top training officer. ROBERT LIVINGSTON A chief with know-how. LEE LARKIN Korea to Viet Nam. ROBERT MEATTY WILLIE SEAY GORDON DIBBLE JAMES LYTLE Got crossbow, spear. Repaired bomb damage. Recalls Red trickery. He's “going back.” JOHN BACCELLO Medicine is big word.
Newspaper Details
Oxnard Press Courier
Oxnard, California, US
Fri, May 14, 1965
Page 35
Full Page
Clipped by
Mary K.
USA 05 Aug 2026
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