Sunday, September 24, 2017

Vietnam Road Trip - Somewhere Between Saigon, Phuoc Vinh and Bien Hoa, circa 1969

These are the last of my uncle's slides. They're in color, probably dating from 1969 or 1970 during the Vietnam War. My educated guess is that most were taken from the back of an army transport truck leaving Saigon on the Bien Hoa highway. Most likely on my uncle's way to the 74th Field Hospital in Long Binh where he was stationed.

I figured this out by first trying to hunt down the location of the soldier statue and temple. Then, I stumbled on another American soldier's post of the same Shell gas station from the same time frame.  He labeled it as "somewhere between Phuoc Vinh and Bien Hoa."

More of my uncle's photos:  Vietnam in Black & White - 74th Field Hospital, Long Binh 1969

Soldiers cycling with baskets full of bananas.

Thuong Tiec, a memorial statue to the fallen ARVN soldiers, located at Bien Hoa. It was destroyed in April 1975. 
Bien Hoa Cemetery, also called the National Military Cemetery of Bien Hoa, still exists under the name Bình An Cemetery. It was established in 1965 as an Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) military cemetery. 
The Shell station, that appears to be the same one identified by Ken Roy as "Shell station in the middle of no where, somewhere between Phuoc Vinh and Bien Hoa, Vietnam."

Vietnamese movie posters. "Tinh Yeu va Su Mang" in Cinemascope.
Farmers and livestock. 


Water buffalo on the side of the road.

Saigon Bridge, known as Newport Bridge before 1975.
 



I'm not sure exactly where these were taken, guessing they're still along the same road from Saigon. 

Sign says "US ARMY" along with "50th" but can't make out the rest.



Donald William "Bill" McCaw, Jr. (1945-2005)


4 comments:

Unknown said...

Don McCaw and I were clinical lab techs; we ran the lab at 50th Medical Co. The 50th was a
reserve unit that had been placed on active duty.Sgt. Charles *** ran the whole show. The POW
hospital secured by MP's adjacent to 24th Evac Hospital were our patients. I would be happy to comment on my time with the 50th Med. Regards. Skip Bond

Katy McClelland said...

So wonderful to hear from you Skip! This is you in the 3rd picture then? http://www.katymcc.com/2017/05/vietnam-in-black-white-74th-field.html
I'd love to hear more about your time with the 50th with my uncle. My email address is katymcc@hotmail.com.

Nguyen Do said...

About Bien Hoa Cemetery, also called the National Military Cemetery of Bien Hoa, this still exists under the name Binh An Cemetery. You could search for futher information at this site:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%C3%ACnh_An_Cemetery#:~:text=The%20B%C3%ACnh%20An%20Cemetery%20(Vietnamese,Vietnam%20(ARVN)%20military%20cemetery.

This link is its google map's location: https://goo.gl/maps/dgtVbVyScFm6D3VX9

I'm a local people at Bien Hoa. (In the past, it's Bien Hoa province, now it's named Đồng Nai province, and there is a city called Biên Hòa here).

Hope this information could help you. My city in particular and Vietnam in general always welcomes you to discover them. Need any information, you could require by email: doluthanhnguyen@gmail.com

Katy said...

Thank you Nguyen Do for the clarification!