Warboats.org

Here is a project for those of you that were at DaNang.

If you are able to extract the map and make modifications, please email your changes to :   bgmarshall@aol.com   

If US Mail works best for you, get a mailing address via email from Chip and work out the details with him.

• Base Drawing
• Base Drawing Legend (3 pages)

[ Added Nov 2012 ] Dan B. Odenweller, QM2(SS), Stockton, CA

I joined the naval reserves just before  graduating from high school in 1962.  Spent four years in college, and achieved QM3, and qualified in submariines (SS) designated.  I was called to active durty in July 1966 and assumed I would spend two years on a submarine in WesPac. 

Suprise, suprise, waiting in transit at the Long Beach Naval Station, I got orders to Danang, Naval Support Activity, Operations, Lighterage, U-Boats.  It even included a week in Coronado, a week at Pendleton (weapons training), ands a week at Whidby Island (E&E, and SERE.  Then to Travis, Hawaii, Subic Bay (and shore patrol in Olongapo), then to Danang. 

When I got on the bus to Camp Tien Sha (the one with chicken wiure on the windows) I knew I wasn't in Kansas.  After checking in, I was assigned to YFU-54 (Car 54 where are you).  We visited Chu Laiu, Hue, and our specialty up the Cua Viet to Dong Ha, where we supported the Marines and their 155 and 175 guns.  In the fall of 1966 I was transferred to LCU-1498 (same routine).  Our boat and one other transported the Marine guns up to the DMZ, we looked like shoe boxes eith long gun barrels over the bow. 

New year found me at Port Services, then I was tasked with setting up a chart (and maps) office in the White Elephant.  I went home in August 1967, reportedf to the USS Permit (SSN-594) at Mare Island, and got out a little early to get back in school and finish my degree.  I was Honorably Discharged as a QM2(SS) in 1971ish. 

I spent 33 years with Calif. Fish and Game, as a diver/biologist, and retired as the Statewide Water Diversion and Fish Passage Coordinator (Senior Biologist), and chaired the Diving Safety Board.

My first assignment was YFU-54, then LCU-1498, then the chart office at the White Elephant. I surveyed and created an overlay of the changes to the harbor, which was distributed to ships coming in.

The History of the DaNang Grand Prix

Hi Dan, I've always loved cars and fast driving. Before I went into the Navy I had a couple of Corvairs (ok, stop laughing!) They were the best I could afford at the time and they taught me a lot about handling vehicles. In other words, if you could drive a Corvair fast and survive you probably had some car handling skills. 

In DaNang we had what was called the "duty jeep". It was what those who manned the PTF base at night used for transportation to and from Camp Fay in the evening and morning. Once at the PTF base the jeep sat idle. I think there were only three or four of us on duty at the PTF base at after working hours. Most of the time if you were standing duty after working hours you were pretty much alone. The person who was awake had access to the keys to the jeep. Ok, I couldn't resist testing it's limits! 

I set up a course through the base that would allow me to do "hot laps" as long as no one of authority noticed. The map I sent you is how I remember that course. It might be inaccurate in some details, suffice to say, I worked that jeep to it's limits and had a highly entertaining time risking my life in a really inadequate vehicle! It wasn't a normally configured jeep. It was more the "ambulance" configuration with a large canvas covering over the rear area that protected bench seating along the sides of the rear area. That was necessary because the duty jeep normally delivered the crew to the base in the morning. A regular jeep would accommodate 5 people, while in this configuration it would hold about 10 people. Pretty big load for such a small vehicle.

 Whatever, I was very "driving deprived" at the time and any time I had access to a vehicle I took full advantage of it! I had a ball throwing that jeep around on the gravel surface at the PTF base. I stretched it to it's limits and no one ever said a word to me about these activities. 

On the technical side of the handling, I'd say it had severe understeer entering a corner and pretty balanced oversteer under power out of the corners. Fun! Guess earlier generations of residents at Camp Fay had their snakes and other items of entertainment. I had my sailboat and some good times in the "duty jeep". 

Looking back, have I forgotten how much it sucked being there? No. But the better aspects of it are certainly more memorable than the bad parts. Guess time does that. You forget the bad things and you remember the good things. And there were certainly good things there, at least in the context of what was happening.      Alan Sandoval

The following information was emailed in to me and I translated it to this map. If you have any old charts, photos or drawings of the PTF area or any of the DaNang area, I will continue to develop this map.

The map to the right is intended to be used as a basis
for references to information received from readers. 

Please feel free to pull a copy and edit in the
places that you or others would be referring to.

Camp Fay Recollections

A high resolution view of Camp Fay from Alan Sandavol [ it will take awhile to load ]			Camp Fay facility layout. From several contributors. (07/04/02) Email any different thoughts about this layout.
Alan on Haircuts - (07-07-02) I have NO remberance of hair cutting all my time there aside from two times. Once I went "over" in Subic and got a pro hair cut. It sucked and the barber dissed me for not leaving a big enough tip. The other time was that day in boot camp where you get sheared. I have absolutely no recollection of ever getting my hair cut at Camp Fay, although it must have happened. This is surely just something I've blocked. I think the thing that pissed me off the most about the navy was the hair thing. This was the late 60's and early 70's.  Right. Individuality, not. Still, those Nastie's were fun boats! Alan on base layout - (07-07-02)  Chapel? I know NOTHING of a chapel at Camp Fay. Maybe it's just me. And the "enlisted head" identified in this pic sure isn't it, at least when I was there. The enlisted head was directly below the building identified as "enlisted head." It was the building directly adjoining the correctly identified enlisted quarters. Just to the right of "enlisted". In this pic the enlisted head has about the lightest colored roof. I don't know what the building identified as "enlisted head" in this pic is. I sure didn't void there.  If you were to divide Camp Fay into two parts, right and left, I have to say I rarely ventured onto the left half, aside from the times that I had to man the perimeter during perceived attacks. My station when called to general quarters was in the upper left hand part of the pic. There was a bunker there.  On the "left side" was all the technical and supply stuff. I think I went to the "motor pool" at least once. I have no significant memories of any of that. "Supply" at Camp Fay was about vehicles, building maintenance, and generally taking care of the base.  All the stuff that related to the boats took place at the other base. There were no boat parts in supply at Camp Fay. Jeep parts? Sure. We never even gave a thought that a boat part would be housed in supply at Camp Fay, never.  The "enlisted head" was pretty bare. The usual row of sinks, toilets and a shower enclosure that wasn't really an enclosure. As I remember it, there were about a dozen shower heads all in an area I'd call around 15x12. Maybe 6 on a side.  As usual US style plumbing, the shower heads came out from the side of the enclosure with a "shower head" screwed onto the pipe. I don't know what it was about "shower heads" but they were always stolen as soon as they were installed. Some of the guys took to securing a "personal" shower head and keeping it for their personal use. I didn't really care. A half inch pipe delivering warm water was good enough for me.  I remember one time showering in this place, wearing only "shower shoes" and one of the Vietnamese maids walked in and started cleaning the place. She giggled a bit (talk about culture clash!) and went on with her work. I was hugely embarrassed but she didn't seem to mind. I finished the shower and got right out of there.  - Alan

Camp Tien Sha facility layout

Drawing of the DaNang Military Complex 

One of the two boat docks at DaNang

The Magazine was found on the National Geographic Magazine CD-ROM, but it didn't provide any new information beyond what we already have.

If your lost and want to return to ptfnasty.com and the DaNang section, click here or click "back" until you arrive there again..