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CU CHI - “Our primary concern here is to relieve the anxieties of soldiers newly assigned to a hostile territory, prepare them for processing into the division, and see that they are assigned to their respective units as quickly as possible,” stated Captain Albert F. Harvard, commander of the 25th Replacement Detachment, 25th Infantry Division.

The first day a replacement arrives in the division, the detachment's cadre explain the division's policies to him and prepare him for in-processing. He is also welcomed to the 25th Infantry Division by its commanding general, Major General Harris W. Hollis, or one of his senior representatives.

“I DO NOT CARE if only one replacement comes in, all this is still done for him on the first day that he arrives,” Harvard said. “It is our policy to see that no one who comes through here is held up from getting to his destination.”

On a replacement's second day in the detachment, he receives a briefing on all the services available to him which will facilitate his stay with the division. “If a replacement has not received orders assigning him to a unit within two days, I personally make sure that there is a good reason for the delay,” stated Harvard.

THE REPLACEMENT detachment also provides billeting for persons who are returning home, dust-off patients who are returning to their units after receiving medical attention at Cu Chi's 12th Evacuation Hospital, and persons returning to up-country units after R&R.

Replacements that are assigned to units at Cu Chi report to their units the same day they get their orders. Those who are assigned to units outside Cu Chi are first sent to in-country training, whereupon the replacement detachment issues them their permanent M-16 rifles.

OVER THE PAST YEAR the replacement detachment has come to be nicknamed “Harvard's Hotel” - not without cause. Since December, 1968, the detachment has doubled its billeting capacity and eliminated all use of cots. The May addition of a security room in which replacements and transients can store their valuables has negated major thefts in the area. The mess hall was also completely remodeled, and it received such an excellent rating on its last inspection that Major General Hollis, commanding general of the 25th Inf. Div., decided to visit the mess hall himself.

“We try to make the replacement detachment's facilities as clean and comfortable as we possibly can,” remarked Harvard. “I believe the people that we serve appreciate it.”


	LIFE AT HARVARD'S HOTEL - Orientation, a smile from a doughnut dollie, orders for a new unit, and, of course, a few more sandbags to fill - it's all part of a replacement's first few days at the 25th Replacement Detachment. (Photos by SP4 Gary Sciortino)

That's what Lieutenant Colonel Donald W. Fisher from Weatherford, Tex. commander of the 341st Aviation Detachment and the Cu Chi airfield, has to say about his men and their duties.

The men all work on 12-hour shifts, 24 hours a day. Fifteen work in the airfield's air traffic observation tower. Nine more work in the Ground Control Approach (GCA) radar station. They are all recognized by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) as official air traffic controllers. A total of 38 more enlisted men work at the central refueling and the central rearmament points which serve all the helicopters in the division.

RECENTLY, THE detachment was commended by Major General Harris W. Hollis, the 25th Infantry Division commanding general, for using its professional efficiency in speeding up landings and take-offs of aircraft during Operation Holly. Operation Holly involved bringing more than 5,000 troops into Cu Chi from surrounding fire support bases, Tan An, and Tay Ninh in order to see the Bob Hope Show. One hour and fifteen minutes after the show had finished, the visiting troops had all been returned to their duty stations. The air traffic controllers had directed at least 2,700 landings and take-offs that day. At times, they had been “stacked” four deep around the base waiting to land.

“When it gets busy here, we sometimes have pilots talking to us on each of our three radios - UHF, VHF, and FM. The controller must listen to all three at one time, then talk to each of them one at a time as fast as possible,” says Specialist 4 Alan R. Brakke of Foreman, N.D., a tower air controller.

THE MEN IN GCA, who can see every flying aircraft from Cu Chi to Tay Ninh on their radar scopes, are responsible for directing helicopters away from the path of artillery rounds. It also keeps pilots out of each other's flight paths in order to prevent mid-air collisions. And of course, they give the pilots landing instructions in bad weather when aircraft must land through the use of their instruments.

“Even in good weather, the GCA air controllers practice talking the pilots in,” says Sergeant First Class Thomas I. Smith, from Port Arthur, Tex., the detachment's NCOIC. “Then when the pilots do have to land by their instruments in bad weather, there's no problem.”

The 341st Avn. Det. is one of the few such detachments in Vietnam that is not only responsible for air traffic control but is also in charge of refueling and supplying armaments for all the helicopters, too.

THE MEN OF the 341st Avn. Det. who work there must insure that the four 25,000 gallon drums which hold the helicopter fuel supply are always full and that none of the fuel becomes contaminated.

The men who work at the central helicopter rearming point spend their days breaking rockets out of their boxes, arming the rockets, and insuring that the rockets are handled properly so that there are no accidents. The rearm point supplies the helicopters of all of Cu Chi's aviation battalions with the proper armaments.

	A Caribou prepares for take-off under the watchful eye of the GCA
Just one of the jobs is to arm rockets for gunships.
	Radar scopes can pick up flights in Cu Chi as far away as Tay Ninh City.
Sergeant James Clark, Kingsport, Tenn., ATC chief, directs flights in the tower. Picture is taken through a shrapnel hole in the tower.
	SP5 Joe Lategane, New York, N.Y. completes a commo check on tapes that pick up ATC/Pilots conversations.
SP4 John Morgan, Venice, Fla., scans an instrument panel for weather results.

Corporal Blumenhagen, of Willimantic, Conn., a member of the Pathfinder Detachment, 25th Aviation Battalion, 25th Infantry Division, was working with Company C, 3rd Battalion, 22d Infantry Regulars recently.

At the time, the company was part of Task Force Jones in Operation Cliffdweller IV. The company was working on the western side of Nui Ba Den, and Blumenhagen had accompanied it in order to direct mountainside landing of resupply and dust-off helicopters during the combined operation.

“We had thought that previous bombing of the area had cleared most of the enemy out of this particular section of the mountain,” he said. “Suddenly, we found ourselves pinned down by sniper fire which ricocheted between the boulders where we had taken for cover.

“I told the pointman to throw a hand grenade at the sniper's position, which was only about 30 feet from us, and I would cover for him. As he prepared to throw the grenade, I carefully leaned around the edge of a rock and tried to zero in on the sniper.”

“Just then, my rifle seemed to recoil as if I had fired it, although I didn't think I had. When I looked at the muzzle of my weapon, I found that I had not fired, but the sniper had fired at me. An AK-47 round was lodged tightly in the end of my rifle's barrel.”

“I used to work for Colt Industries in Hartford, Conn.,” grinned the lanky Pathfinder. “When I get home, I can tell them what a good rifle they make. Mine stopped an AK-47 round head on.”

NICE SHOT!! - Corporal Ralph Blumenhagen of Willimantic, Conn., displays the rifle that caught an AK-47 round fired by a sniper during an operation on Nui Ba Den. (Photo By 5P4 Gary Sciortino)

The young men and women who serve, often without much recognition, are all volunteers. The primary bond among them is their desire to help their fellow men, especially those men whose job it is to fight in their country's armed forces.

In Cu Chi, the 59 nurses who staff the 12th Evacuation Hospital, work 12 hours a day, 6 and sometimes 7 days a week. Back in the states, they would work no more than 8 hours a day, 5 days a week.

There, they would also have the advantages of all the latest medical equipment to deal with patients who, though they may be seriously ill, are seldom as difficult to treat as the GI who has been wounded. In fact, according to one of the nurses at 12th Evac., Captain Patsy Weaver, one of the main reasons she came to Vietnam was “because of the experience one could get from treating battle-inflicted wounds.”

Captain Weaver also feels that the morale among the nurses “is high, considering the long hours and the variety of illnesses treated.”

Lieutenant Colonel Helene Carrol, head nurse at 12th Evac. said, “For the first three weeks a young nurse may find it a little hard to adjust to the field hospital environment.” But within six weeks, after a well thought out and extensive orientation period, almost all of the nurses have “matured tremendously.”

The nursing staff at the hospital live under pretty much the same conditions as any other GI in Vietnam. They live in a small area within Cu Chi base camp, and leave the camp only two or three at a time for a weekly MEDCAP in the Cu Chi sub-sector.

There are two things however, besides the fact that most of them are women, that make the nurses' life in Vietnam a little different than that of the average soldier. First, the reward for their efforts is easily visible. First Lieutenant Diana J. Doyle of Brainard, Minn., who has a B.S. in nursing from the University of Minnesota, said “when you are working in the busiest hospital in Vietnam you naturally feel like you're doing a worthwhile and rewarding job.” Miss Doyle also said that as a woman and a nurse she felt that she is now “in a position where her services are most essential,” and where she is doing the most good.

The second difference between a nurse's life and that of the combat soldier is that she or he is performing a job which, prior to entering the service, had chosen as a profession.

Captain Patsy Weaver feels that the morale among the nurses is very high despite the long hours and constant demands faced each day.
	Lieutenant Sue Kramer and Specialist 4 Irv Herb take a well deserved break in the endless tasks at 12th Evac Hospital.
Lieutenant Nancy Runk comforts a patient with a warm smile and friendly visit.
	Captain Marilyn Ashton and Specialist 4 Jesse Hutcheson check over a patient's progress report.
Captain Dorothy Bleck reaches a bottle of plasma for a patient.
	Lieutenant Gail Clark treats an emergency patient.

On June 25th, more than 75 patients at the hospital received gifts, letters and baked goods as the result of “Operation Santa: Christmas in June.”

The project was the brainchild of Mrs. Pat Beyersdorf, of Omaha, Neb., a woman of apparently boundless organizational energy when it comes, to helping fellow Americans bedridden in a foreign land.

“Operation Santa: Christmas in June” is in its second year in military hospitals. In June 1969, it was organized by the Far East Nurses Club in Japan. Working with gifts received from all over America, parties were held in three Army and Air Force hospitals in that country.

Stationed at the time in Japan with her husband, Warrant Officer Charles Beyersdorf, Mrs. Beyersdorf was enthused by the idea of bringing Christmas cheer to the bedridden in June; so enthused, in fact, that this year she is helping to guide the project from Omaha.

Through her work as a Red Cross bloodmobile nurse, she organized two towns, Beatrice, Neb. and Underwood, Iowa, through the towns' civic leaders.

“The response,” she said, “to a summer Christmas in Vietnam was overwhelming. Although the entire project is geared along the lines of several Pacific military hospitals, the two towns elected to adopt the Cu Chi hospital on more personal terms.”

Mrs. Beyersdorf thought of Cu Chi immediately because her husband's best friend, Warrant Officer George Northrup, of Bristol, R.I., is assigned to the 269th Aviation Battalion (Combat), headquartered at Cu Chi.

Working through the Chaplain's office of the 269th, schools, churches and clubs of Beatrice and Underwood shuttled enough packages so that each patient at “12th Evac” would have more than two gifts, plus baked goods and letters.

Because the 269th is now without a chaplain, the assistant, Sergeant Ron Applegate, of Cincinnati, coordinated the battalion's efforts with Chaplain Patrick Adkins of 12th Evac.

Mrs. Beyersdorf said, “The patients at Cu Chi's hospital are not the only ones who are getting a great feeling from being Americans working for Americans. We, at home, are given a boost because we finally feel we are able to do something to help the men who do so much for us.”

She also said one of the volunteer workers in Beatrice, Mrs. Delmar Bell, had told her the town had a holiday spirit while preparing Christmas packages for the men. Grammar schools and Sunday school classes worked along with adult organizations.

The response from the men, most of them assigned to the 25th, as they saw the gaily decorated wagons bearing out-of-season Christmas packages was that of bemused disbelief.

CU CHI - Helicopter gunships of the 25th Division, assisted by local village officials, raked an unknown-sized enemy force near here recently, killing 11 Communists.

In the early evening, an undetermined number of enemy attacked a night position set up by regional forces about 150 meters from the village.

After the brief contact, the attackers moved into a nearby rubber plantation. The call for air support was relayed to B Company at approximately 10 p.m.

“Picking up the district chief is a good practice,” said Captain William C. Melvin of Kansas City, Kan., a Bravo Company pilot. “With his approval, questionable targets can be cleared immediately.”

“By talking to his people on the ground, the district chief helped us determine pretty closely where the Viet Cong were,” said Chief Warrant Officer 2 William L. Miller of Detroit. “I marked the suspected target with rockets, then made sure there were no friendly forces in the area.”

“When we made our first pass at the enemy, they must have gotten a little nervous,” Miller went on. “They started shooting at us with what appeared to be their rifles.”

The muzzle flashes were bright target markers in the darkness. Leaving no question as to their location, the VC were hit heavily by the Cobra rockets and mini-guns on the next two passes.

The Bunker Bunnies, a softball team composed of the girls from 12th Evac and special services, recently struck down a team from Little Bear operations 11 to 6. The men, it must be admitted, were playing under some handicaps. First, the pitches were slow teasers by rule. None of the fast stuff was allowed. Second, the men were bound to bat left handed if they were right-handers and right handed if they were natural southpaws. The Bunnies, flushed with success, are willing to take on all comers. Men, we can’t let them do it to us again. Somebody put together a team of switch hitters (there can’t be any rule against that) and blast them. Please.

FOOD FROM HEAVEN -- When Alfa Comapny, 2nd Battalion, 27th Infantry was moving in the dense jungle 25 miles east of Bien Hoa, they found resupply to be a major problem. Food had to be dropped out of choppers. Anyone for catch?