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From: Castle 159
Date: 9/30/2006
Time: 10:58:16 AM
Remote Name: 70.230.164.134
Maybe I'm loosing my mind, or it was just a bad dream!! I served with the US Army in Veit Nam, stationed at what I thought was an Army Base at Bein Hoa. I was a crew chief in an aviation detachment that flew under the banner of the 20th Engineer Brigade from early 1970 to 1971. I participated in the Cambodia side trip from way before the official date of 1 May 1970. I made regular trips to a lot of SF base camps and flew a lot of recon sorties. My 1st Sgt was a Special Forces E-7...strange! When I first arrived, there were the remains of the 173rd Brigade stationed adjaceant to us. The 1st Cav took their place, which led to a major expansion of the base. Our pad was called Castle Pad. For the life of me I can't find the place on any map. I can find Bein Hoa Air Force Base and Long Binh, but I can not find, or find reference to the base I was stationed at. I flew alot (320 sorties - 12 Air Metals). I think we always departed the pad to the East or North, depending on the wind. We drove to Bein Hoa AB (for the PX) and I believe we came somewhere from the Northeast of the AB. It was a 2 lane road that had beer can hooches on the East side of the road. It was about a 30 minute ride. Other strange things also happened. Upon my ETS and return home, I found packages that had been mailed containing an Army Commedation award (for May 1-7 1970) and a Bronze Star (for Mar 3 1970 -Apri 4 1971). I remember my orders said I was assigned to MACV, but everyone said we were USARV. Maybe I'm blocking it out...don't know. Can anyone help me with finding the exact location of where I was at? Coordinates would be nice, but anyone with memories of that place that could shed some light would be very helpful. Caetle 159