At the Replacement Center

First Tour

The replacement center was a tent city. However, the buses did not take us to the tents but instead to a row of Quonset huts. My bus stopped in front of one of them and we got out and stood in formation in the sun, sweating. As one of the most senior men on the bus, I was soon called inside. They checked my name off a list, took my orders, gave me a tent and bed number, and finally told me to walk over and find my tent. They said I had nothing to do until the next formation.

As I walked the few hundred meters to the tents, I was again glad that I had brought almost nothing with me.  There had been people on my plane with TV sets and two or three heavy bags. My Boston bag was more than enough.

After only having to ask directions a couple of times, I found my tent and my bed.  There were wall to wall beds with only enough space between them to squeeze through. At least the sides of the large tent were raised, so a bit of a breeze came through. With nothing else to do, I sat and chatted with the other NCOs. There were no privates in the tent.

A couple of hours later, the PA system announced that everyone should fall out for a formation. We made a formation in a large open area among the tents. No one seemed to care where we stood as long as the lines were straight. As soon as we settled down, an officer mounted a platform, picked up a mike and started calling out names and serial numbers. This elicited a loud, "Here", in response. Those called were to report to the Quonset huts within 30 minutes of the end of the formation. After all the names were called, the officer released everyone except those for whom this was their first formation.

Once the others had left, the new people lined up again but closer to the officer. He then proceeded to tell us the camp rules.  There were four formations a day and we had to appear at all of them. They would not check attendance but, if your name was called and you were not there, you would be in deep trouble. He put it a bit more graphically. He went on to say that meals were served three times a day and, if you did not go, you would not eat. NCOs had no other duties, but the privates had to pull guard duties on the camp perimeter, weapons to be issued at the guard sites.  Later, I walked over to check out the perimeter and found that there was lots of barbed wire and periodic bunkers a few hundred meters from the tent area. These completely encircled the tents and Quonset huts. The officer also told us that, in the case of a mortar attack, we should just hit the ground and stay down until an all clear was sounded.

It was so hot that I was not at all unhappy to spend my time half-asleep on my cot. By the third day, it was, however, beginning to get a bit tiresome. Finally, just after lunch, my name was called and at the administration Quonset hut I was informed that I was being assigned to the 519th Intelligence Battalion whose headquarters were in the Saigon suburbs.

A group of us were loaded into a bus that delivered each of us to our newly assigned duty station. I was one of the last people to get off so I was given a nice tour of the city before being dropped off at the front gate of Battalion headquarters.