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derivative filename/jpeg
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363-08431 to 363-08434.pdf
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Digital Object Identifier
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363-08431 to 363-08434
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Title
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Article about the Green Beret's in Vietnam
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Description
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Original title: "Float", Keever's title: N/A, Article draft about the Green Beret's in Vietnam, for The North American News Alliance
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AI Usage Disclosure
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Draft transcripts were automatically generated via Google Document AI and are currently under review. Please report significant errors to Archives & Special Collections at archives@unl.edu.
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Transcript
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- Page 1
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V
Beverly A. Deepe
64 Hong Thap Tu
Saigon, Viet m
August 31, 1967
Float-page 1
CAN THO, SOUTH VIETNAM-Like Biblical Noah, the famed Green Beret
Special Forces here are preparing to meet the annual monsoon floods by
building floating home bases.
Currently, the mud and water in the Delta is too deep to we in-but
d
not deep enough for paddling sampans. In mi-September, though, the monsoon
floods hit the Mekong Delta region south of Saigon and last for three or
four months.
Last year, the king-sized flood covered the tops of trees and houses;
Tietnamese peasants lived in sempens or treetops. Part of the Vietnamese-
American Special Forces camps simply floated away. And, the Viet Cong, too)
were driven out of their underground bunkers to the scarce high, dry ground;
their beds of land mines and booby traps were drowned out.
Many of the 22 Special Forces camps in the Delta region are perched
along the ill-defined border with Cabodie to cut infiltration across the
wastlend. "Our border area is the quietest part of this region,
"
one
Special Forces officer explained.
"Either there aren't ony Viet Cong there
or else our troops have saturated this area enough to keep the Viet Cong
out--or if they are moving through, they are moving so fast that they don't
mass for attacks."
For the past year, the Special Forces commanders have prepared
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Deepe
Float page 2
for the floods, when, as one of them explained, "We can make the water work
for us--not against us." They began experinanting with floating home base
camp where their elite forces live when they re not out on patrols.
Thousands of empty oil drums were drop ed into the comps; the civilian
irregulars who fight with the Special Forces latched the barrels together
DARRACKS Ind
and then built their bank
top of the steel raft.
sertion "Tactical Operations Centor" on
"Later, we found it was waste of oil drums to flont the whole building,
one U.S.Army Special Forces spokesmen explained. We built the building
on piles and then floated only the floor. As the waters rise, so will be
the floor."
Several of the 22 Special Forces camps were surrounded by water the
year-round and had to be constructed from material airdropped into their
perimeters.
"We had to mount an operation to get the troops into the area when
they would build their camp," ono officer explained.
"Then we had to airdrop
shovels, barbed wire and tents to them. We had to get a bulldozer into
build the camp and the dikes, so we disassembled one, loaded it into dump
trucks and with
Flying Syorane
helicopter we set the trucks into the
perimeter, and then re-assembled the bulldozer on its tracks.
"To secure the camp while it was being built, we dropped in pre-fab,
sandbagged bunker and command center that we made from a large tin crate
used for shipping materials to Vietnam."
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Дооро
Float page 3
In other cases, the .. Special Forces teams, who virtually commend
their Vietnamese Special Forces counterparts and their companies of
civilian irregular forces, became experts on drainage problems and dike
systems--a miniature of the Netherlands systems. Using small compan
motors as pumps, the Special Forces moved water from inside their dike well
to the outside only to find some of their dike walls wouldn't stand the
pressure and would cave in. They then began to reinforce their dike walls
and, if they had time, to god them with wild grass so they would shed the
moisture.
After finishing their floating barracks and operations buildings,
however, they discovered that their heavier wespons, such as morters, were
widely inaccurate if fired from such unstable platforms. Their command
USED
bunkers and electric generators, for powering their radios, also
needed more stable platforms. They learned to solve the problem by building
tall concrete tanks around their morters end generators, and as the water
rose, the tank kept the equipment dry. Since their there were no doors in
the tank, the troopers had to leap over the top when they wanted to fire
the weapons.
Even while the camp was being built-in the middle of a Viet Cong
Stronghold--the Viet Cong proceeded to attack it regularly.
completed, still more problems arose, the officer explained.
And once
How could they get the bulldozer out of the newly-built camp?
If they tried to drive it across the road, it would sink sway in
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Deepe
Float page 4
the mud. If they brought in the flying acrane which had dropped it into
the perimeteri in the first place the giant helicopter, with its 100 knot
domblast, would blow over the fragile camp buildings. So, another military
operation was lanched to take the bulldozer out in a naval vessel by canal
and river.
"Once the troops got settled into the camp, they had a problem with
the dependents of their civilian irregular fighter When the waters rose,
the dependents rushed into our comp the only dry place around--which is
exactly where we didn't want them.
"So we built two-story grass houses for the dependents with families
living on both the first and second floors.
"Then, we had a very peculiar difficulty. The family living on the
first floor was getting furious--because the Vietnamese babies living above
them did not wear dispers. So, we solved that headache, by giving one
family both floors they live domstairs during the dry season and move to
the second floor during the floods."
"This has been an unsung year," its almost as difficult to live here
"1
as to fight he concluded. But now we are ready for the flood and the
Viet Gong."
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Date
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1967, Aug. 31
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Subject
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Vietnam War, 1961-1975
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Location
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Cần Thơ, South Vietnam
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Coordinates
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10.0333; 105.7833
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Size
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20 x 26 cm
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Container
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B118, F6
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Format
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dispatches
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Collection Number
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MS 363
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Collection Title
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Beverly Deepe Keever, Journalism Papers
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Creator
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Keever, Beverly Deepe
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Collector
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Keever, Beverly Deepe
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Copyright Information
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These images are for educational use only. To inquire about usage or publication, please contact Archives & Special Collections.
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Publisher
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Archives & Special Collections, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries
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Language
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English
