Da Nang Air Base (1957–1975) was a Republic of Vietnam Air Force (VNAF) facility. The United States used it as a major base during the Vietnam War (1959–1975), stationing Army, Air Force, Navy, and Marine units there.
NSA?NSF Danang
I was stationed at NSF/Danang (formally NSA) at Camp Tien Sha 1971-1972 as a Gate sentry.
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Could that "2" boat possibly be the hull of a PT boat. I remember that there was a PT boat that ran around Danang harbor. Some said it was equipped with water jet engines. We never did find out what it's mission was over there. Any time any other small craft attempted to get close to it, it's crew would wave them off in a threatening manner. I also remember that beautiful Admirals barge that ran around the harbor. Ii hardly looked like a barge. It was a civilian type craft with a black hull and white super structure. Quite a beautiful boat. Tinted windows too if I remember right.
My pictures are from '69. Here's a pic of the barracks barge tied up inshore from the 23. The 1 boat was the USS Flagstaff, one of the two hydrofoils, the other was the Tucumcari. I don't remember what that 2 boat was. You can see Monkey mountain rising in the background.
Andrew, that looks like it. But as I said, I went aboard it when it first arrived in Danang. The inside of the dock basin was not painted black halfway down like that, it was all grey. We did have a barge that stayed tied up next to us. It was a gathering place for movies and the like and also had some living quarters on it. I was built up with two stories on it as you see in the picture.
I must revise the date when I was there. It was more like 1966 or 67. The Hawiian dredge dredged out a big hole next to the beach for us to go down in and they put up an extrusion type sea wall just off the beach to keep sand from filling in that hole. We also had the 10 boat with us. It was a mic 6 with welding and repair equipment on it that served for mobile repairs. The AFDL 23 had four 50 caliber gun tubs on it, one on each corner and it has a .39 caliber gun midships on each wall. We were right at the base of Monkey Mountain.
We took in the Tacoma which was a large civilian tug. It was as big as the Navy YTB. The thing fell over on it's side as they brought the duck up. It must have made a heck of a crash but I just happened to be in Bangkok on R&R at the time. I had a buddy thought that grabbed my camera and took pictures of it laying on it's side. I'll have to see if I can find those pictures and post them.
The AFDL had no propulsion engines so it had to be towed any place it went. We had three big Cummins model L engines with generators on them in the engine room. They were talking about getting a shore power station on the beach for us but it didn't happen while I was there. It was quite hot in that engine room. Thankfully we had air conditioning in the berthing quarters in those wingwalls and the mess deck. We had an electric washer and dryer for laundry. Once a week some poor sucker got laundry duty and he would stay up all night doing laundry for the whole crew.
We took in a Coast Guard Cutter for repairs. The thing had been shot up. The wheel house had multiple bullet holes in it. The story we got was that the engineer had failed to put on their running lights and one of our own planes came over and shot it up. One guy was still alive and managed to bring the thing in to shore.
Gary is this it?
I was stationed on the AFDL 23 (floating drydock) I was assigned to it as soon as it was towed into Danang harbor. I saw another poster here say he was on the YR70. I think that was the YR that was anchored very close to us in the harbor.
Spent a lot of time in the animal shelter (EM club at Camp Tien Sha).One week after I got to Danang is when they shut down all liberty in town. It was interesting taking in all those small craft. We actually took in a Coast Guard cutter and also took in that brand new big beautiful YTB that ran around in the harbor. Took in a lot of mic boats 6's and 8's and LCU's. It was interesting living in the wing walls on that drydock. I think my rack was about 15 feet off the deck. We did have one poor guy that fell off the wing wall into the dock basin. I don't remember what happened to him as he never came back. It was an interesting year. I don't remember exactly what year that was, maybe 1963 or 64.
My first assignment at NSA Danang was in the electronics repair shop at the White Elephant where I was the lead petty officer for the radar repair group. We maintained the radars on the small craft going up and down the coast delivering delivering supplies to the distribution sites. The radars were civilian makes and it was always exciting to climb up the mast, open the outer box and get a face full of water.
After 4 months I was transferred to the new Sea Anchor transmitter site just to the south side of the Marble Mountains where I was the only technician. So we were far forward REMF's.
It is good to find this web site and I have already found a friend from that time 50 years ago. On the ninth of this month I celebrate that flight out of Danang airfield on a Continental airlines 707 whose captain told the loader to put those sailors and marines on the plane as he was not going to leave with out them. The loaders concern, it was the middle of TET 68 about the mortar and rocket rounds hitting the south ond of the runway. I feel obligated to that pilot still even though we had to make our landing at LAX in stead of San Bernadino because one of our wheels did not indicate that it was in the down locked position.
I was assigned to the Lighterage Division, NSA Da Nang from May '69 to May '70. I spent the first six months ferrying materiel from Da Nang to Sa Huynh & Cua Viet/Dong Ha and all the detachments in between on the YFU 4 & LCU 1477. Most of the second six months we spent preparing the 1477 for turnover to the Vietnam Navy as part of the ACTOV program. Here's a link to the turnover ceremony of the 1477 and other vessels. After the turnover I was assigned to LCU 1628 for a few weeks until my time was up. In the intervening time I've only been in touch with two of my shipmates from that time, but I hope some others will show up here.
I was stationed at NSA Da Nang from Feb 1966 to Oct 1967. First month aboard APL27 then moved to camp Tien Sha. Worked mostly aboard the YR70 where I established the transmission repair shop. Also ran ferry duty on a Mike 6 when needed and was sent out to pontoon ferries to assist with repairs. As you can tell from time in country I was enticed to extend for 6 extra months by 1 month basket leave.
Morgan S. "Mike" Bragg
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