Vietnam 1971

Vietnam in the morning, 1971. This is Ward One of the 71st Evacuation Hospital in Pleiku, RVN; home of Signal Support Detachment Pleiku at that time, but once a crucial part of a large hospital. In the background are the water tower and a corner of one of the large tropo antennas everyone associated with the Signal Corps in Pleiku. During my year in Nam, I first lived in Ward Two, then moved to Ward One when a less public room, suitable for NCOs (and real people, for that matter), became available there. Camera: Polaroid SX70

All dressed up; no place to go.... Leaving Nam, 1971: A bunch of strangers, and a few friends, waiting for the Freedom Bird to take us home to the States. In my experience, Cam Ranh Bay was sand, cheap shacks, and lots of G.I.s. My Vietnam near-year started at Cam Ranh on January 30; it ended at the same post on December 15. One of my very favorite pictures. Camera: Minolta SR-T 101. Updated to newer scan 11/27/05. Unfortunately, both the only existing print and the negative are damaged beyond my ability to fully repair them. Added to Cream of the Crop as my (current) personal favorite picture 1/8/06. Explored #22 (7/23/2007) on Flickr. Thanks, everyone!

"The war ... has been over for a long time; there are names and events people knew they would never forget which, by now, they have forgotten they ever knew." ---Randall Jarrell Members of Signal Support Detachment Pleiku (SSDP), or perhaps Company A of the 146th Signal Company (two names, same outfit), posing by one of the wards at 71st Evac. Jim likely took this fine photo in early 1971. Unfortunately, neither he nor I can attach names to these faces; my memory, I've learned, is more fragile than I'd like to believe. Do notice the nice puppy. Several years ago Jim and I pooled our Vietnam pictures and shared what little we remembered on a website, which we called "Welcome (back) to SSDP." That site's gone, the victim of an ISP switch. Perhaps someday we'll rebuild; meantime, here's a piece of our past. If you recognize these folks, please annotate the picture. Thanks! Camera unknown Photo by Jim Lovins

Roscar Siminski and the Central Highlands skyline, in 1971. This is the road between 71st Evac and Tropo Hill , as shown on this map ; we're looking toward Engineer Hill. (Map courtesy of Ray Smith ; Tropo Hill photo from Ray Browning's website --my photo, though.) This is the first photograph I ever took with a quality camera, and it came out quite well. Ray Browning's site includes this photo --I think it's by Rick Stolz--which I've always found painfully like my memory of the view from 71st Evac. The first building in the foreground, with the red cross on top, was Ward One, and was my home for most of my tour.... Camera: Minolta SR-T 101 New scan (from negative) posted on 12/29/05.

"When I have your wounded." ---Major Charles L. Kelly, hero --explaining when he intended his chopper to leave the battleground Dustoffs, parked, and waiting. MedEvac helicopters, downhill from (former, apparently) 71st Evacuation Hospital in Pleiku, sometime in 1971. The 71st was a large hospital earlier in the war, but by the time I arrived in Nam it was a small operation and we signal folks lived in what had once been hospital wards. Since the place was still busy enough to support an air ambulance operation, these Hueys lived on the complex. The red crosses painted on these birds weren't magic shields. They'd land on the battle field, often while the battle raged, and face the dangers which had summoned them in the first place. Perhaps a mile from the hospital, a motor pool had become final home to the twisted and bullet-scarred hulk of a dustoff chopper whose crew had taken heavy fire during a rescue attempt. Brave men. Dangerous work. Camera: Minolta SR-T 101. Replaced with new scan on 12/17/2005.

Pleiku's 71st Evac was still a functioning hospital in 1971, but it had become a small-scale operation by the time I and my mates arrived. All in all, we Signal folks thought the medical operation a mysterious and wonderful thing; we shared the complex but had little interaction with the professional staff, and less with the patients. Here's one of those patients out catching some rays as he recovers from his injuries. I remember this as a unique event; it was pretty rare for us to see the evacuees except as they arrived or left the complex. We did see, and admire, the Medevac crews. This chopper's crew is on-board and the chopper's ready to leave on another rescue. The scenery beyond the helicopter pad is the Pleiku Airbase. Camera: Minolta SR-T 101 Revision 12/8/05: Replaced the original photo with a far better scan. Hadn't previously noticed that the rotor was turning....

A Veterans Day memory. Memories, unfortunately, are fragile.... Members of Signal Support Detachment Pleiku, or perhaps its predecessor Company A of the 146th Signal company, relax out in front of the barracks in late 1970 or early 1971. This view shows one of the walkways at the Pleiku Army Hospital, with Tropo Hill a rather ghostly presence in the background. Although I recognize most of these faces, I can't seem to come up with any names. Sorry, guys; if you want to help, feel free. Photo by Jim Lovins Lots of notes on the Flickr copy of this photo . Worth a look.

A Veterans Day memento. Hoot Headrick, Roscar Siminski, and Gil Wall in an artificially artistic pose, Pleiku, Republic of Vietnam, sometime in 1971. We were off-duty and had gone for a walk outside the Pleiku military complex; hiked around a neighboring lake, crossed a rice paddy, smiled at the natives. I took my brand-new Minolta SR-T 101. This picture's from the same excursion. Rescanned 1/6/06.

Where I lived in Vietnam: Ward 1 of the 71st Evacuation Hospital, in Pleiku. By 1971 the 71st was but a pale ghost of itself, and most of the hospital complex had been either ceded to the local Signal Corps folks (that would include me) or completely abandoned. So I spent my Vietnam year living in a hospital ward. This was the social area, between the wards. If I'm not totally disoriented, the building to the left was the latrine (better than the word implies, but...) and that on the right was Ward 1. Beyond the fences, and up the hill, you can see a corner of one of the large tropospheric antennas which apparently mean Pleiku to everyone who was stationed in the Central Highlands. Camera: Minolta SR-T 101

Pleiku, Republic of Vietnam; 1971. All I can tell you for sure is that this hut was on the hospital complex. Camera: Minolta SR-T 101.

I really like this photo. But it demonstrates how much I've forgotten. This is the Pleiku Hospital (the 71st Evac, properly), viewed from the end center of the complex. I suspect that's the NCO club in the foreground, but somehow I've lost all reliable memories of--well, lots of stuff. Or perhaps it's the dining hall. I'm really not sure. [Edit 1/26/11:] That's the dining hall in the foreground. [Reorientation courtesy of this photo on Steve Streeper's website .] I am sure, however, that Tropo Hill is out of the picture to the right, and the Pleiku Airbase is out of the picture to the left. Nice clouds. Pleiku often had great clouds. It's where I started watching the sky. Shot with my Minolta SR-T 101. 1971.

Many of the buildings in Pleiku's hospital complex were connected by covered walkways, some of which were quite long. The gear on the hill was part of the airbase. The radar dish interfered with our radio reception; every recording I brought or sent home has annoying static every few seconds. Camera: Minolta SR-T 101. Photo taken at the 71st Evacuation Hospital, Pleiku, RVN; 1971.

Gil Wall, out exploring; taken on the outing which began with this photo and includes this one . Pleiku, RVN, 1971. Our communications center was a fairly high-tech operation for the time, and Gil was one of the folks who kept the equipment operational. Since my email address is quite public, every now and then I hear from my Vietnam colleagues. Gil and I traded a few notes about a year ago; he'd evidently found this entry in my since-abandoned weblog. He's still doing technical work, I gather; here's his website . He's living in suburban Denver, these days. Taken with my brand-new Minolta SR-T 101.

The supply room for Signal Support Detachment Pleiku, Republic of Vietnam, 1971.

See Pleiku66's comment, below. I bow to his superior memory. Pleiku, Republic of Vietnam, 1971. Shot more-or-less from Tropo Hill. I think the buildings in the middle distance are the nearby Montagnard village. See this map to sort out the terrain.... Camera: Minolta SR-T 101

I've always thought that truck looked like it was peeking around the corner at me. If you can call a photograph of an olive-green truck cute, this one may qualify.... Pleiku, Republic of Vietnam, 1971. My Minolta SR-T 101. Yeah, it's got a focus problem, and those wires are annoying. But the camera was brand-new; this is off the first roll of film. And I like it anyway.

Pleiku, Republic of Vietnam, 1971. Camera: Minolta SR-T 101

Never before seen: Waiting for the flight home from Vietnam at Cam Ranh Bay, December 15, 1971. That, friends, is your classic Vietnam Vet haircut.... I took six photographs in Cam Ranh on my way home from the war, then messed up the film roll while extracting it from the camera. Because the film was broken, my processor saw fit to print only two of those photographs. So when I scanned the roll, there were four bonus photographs--three of which were worth sharing. This is one of those pix. Camera: Minolta SR-T 101