Re: Attack on Marble Mountain Base

Quite a night, Paul!

Re: Attack on Marble Mountain Base

It was that for sure Especially for the Marble Mountan MAG-16 units !!! Some additional info >>>>iThe base had several local Vietnamese working on the base. In fact one of the VC that attacked that night was the barber at the base. I know first hand how that works. At the VNAF Sqd there at Danang 3 of the enlisted maintenance personnel were discovered to be VC on active duty. They were noted to be traveling each weekend & by following them discovered their activities. . Prior to the Tet Operations I had noticed a large increase of funeral processions. A large hand carried vehicle with a picture of the supposed deceased was carried by tough looking mourners to the local cemetary near Tan San Nhut air base. Also many logging trucks with huge timbers were suddenly in Saigon. There was no saw mills in Saigon. Our units had very little activity that the VC didnt know about . As in my Recollections my last mission at Binh Thuy (June 1968) ended up in the same type scene . Photo of hangars after VC attack Binh Thuy June 1968. All helicopters & AD A/C were destroyed)

Re: Attack on Marble Mountain Base

I remember that night so vividly during October, lost my best friend Thomas Rowland, that night . I was the lucky one who got to scurry
down the flight line to notify the remaining perimeter guard that Capt Rider was bringing reinforcements. Then had to go to C Med to identify Tom.
Nightmares still.

Re: Attack on Marble Mountain Base

Rough night John!!! What Sqd was you in at that time ?? I am trying to remember the name of Maint Chief Gy at VMO 2 that I was visiting .After so many units & years names escape me !!! Did you know Msgt Leroy Garrison or Msgt Jud Rowe ?? Couple my olf friends that were over there.

Re: Attack on Marble Mountain Base

DANG! Paul!

I didn't know that you and Skid were Buds!

Skid was the Senior enlisted Marine in HMH-463 during '67-'68 at MMAF.

I recall at squadron parties at Marble, there would be an iced down wash
tub of Schlitz with a sign in it, stating: "Skid's Beer".

One day all of us enlisted weenies surrounded that tub and drained it.

We were tired of the Carling Black Label that was left to the remainder of
the enlisted folks.

I think that I heard that he died of a heart attack while walking on an
Arizona highway, some years after we returned from Vietnam.

Re: Attack on Marble Mountain Base

Yep, I remember the shoot out at MCAF Santa Ana NCO Club when Judd got a 45 slug in his chest by the Tsgt that shot him & another Msgt that died. Will remember the other names eventually. Jud got up off the floor & decked the TSGT Killer !!! I thought he retired in Australia. Heard that some place. .....Finally remember names; The shooter was Tsgt Carr & one Msgt Willis was shot & killed. While Msgt Jud Rowe survived with the shot through his chest. Never knew what sentence Tsgt Carr recieved!!

Re: Attack on Marble Mountain Base

I was assigned to HMM-163 in 1964-65. We returned to Okinawa after our float phase on the Iwo Jima in September 1965. In October part of our squadron was reassigned to HMM-361 at Marble Mountain.

The night of the attack I had just secured my aircraft and was walking to my tent. In front of the lead Huey was a corpsman. He was a chief corpsman on medevac duty. Don't recall his first name but his last name was Hunter. We spoke at length and had a great conversation. He told me his youngr brother was Tab Hunter, the movie star. I found that hard to believe but what he told me about Tab led me to believe he was telling me the truth. I told him I had an early wake up for the morning's launch and it was time to say goodbye. I asked him where he was going to sleep and he pointed to the lead Huey. I told him that was not a good idea because if we got overrun that bird would be the first one to be destroyed.

The night of the attack on the base whether it be 18 October or 27 October I don't recall. I do recall the first blast I heard came from the above ground fuel bladders. It was midnight, or close to midnight. The blast was so loud I believe the entire tent city was awakened. My eyes opened to see a huge ball of flame. We all dove into our trenches and stayed there until our reactionary company was called out to form up on the flight line. I believe satchal charges were laid in each Huey and completely blown up. Many of the H34s were also destroyed. When the little gooners ran out of satchal charges they continued their mission with hand grenades. The H37s, well the clam shells were blown off. My newly made friend, Navy Chief Corpsman Hunter was killed that night. If only he had listened to me. The rest is history.

Fast forward to the Popasmoke reunion in San Diego, in 2000. For those of you who attended the memorial service at Miramar you would have seen Tab Hunter. He was a guest at most of our reuynions. He often brought his mother with him. After the service my wife and I approached Tab and I told him how and when I met his brother and I might have been the last person to speak with his borther. Tab told me he was very appreciative of my story and wished his mother would have been with him to hear it also. I continued flying until the day I was transferred back to Okinawa for my return to CONUS.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

GySgt Bob Torres
USMC, Retired

Hard to believe it has been fifty years, but certainly an event to remember for those of us who were there.

Lowell Johnson (H&MS-16 at the time)

Lowell Its hard to believe that we are old as we are now too! Seems that when you meet those Gal's we use to get for babysitters,and they say this is my youngest and they are having Kids!!!! Then you go into a Spin>>>>>>>>>> Am I that OLD. sure enough it is I.

Colonel Victor Bianchini, USMC, Ret.  Life Member

On October 27, 1965, I was the newly appointed 1^st Marine Aircraft Wing Photo Officer, ISO and Wing Civil Affairs Officer.  It was quite late that night, and I don’t remember whether I was already awake or awakened by explosions coming from the direction of Marble Mountain.  I was in my bunk in the officers’ quarters of the DaNang French compound and the Headquarters of the 1^st MAW.  Whatever was going on at Marble Mountain, from the sounds, it was obvious it was very serious. 

Doubling as a photographer with my shop, and wanting to be where the action was, I quickly calculated that 1) I could never get there by ground transportation, because of the river and the bridge, and 2) I knew the Commanding General, Brigadier General Keith B. McCutcheon, (later a 4-star, and tragically fatally stricken with cancer just after being named Assistant Commandant of the Marine Corps), had a command Huey on a helicopter pad within running distance from where I was.  I jumped up, dressed faster than I had ever done before, and ran at a sprint for the pad.  Sure enough, the Huey’s blades were turning, and the crew chief was standing by.  I asked the crew chief if the general had arrived yet, and he said he would be there any second.  As if on cue, General McCutcheon appeared, and I asked him if I could go with him.  It was totally unnecessary to ask where he was headed.  He said, “jump on.”  I was on my way to the battle. 

As soon as we landed at Marble Mountain, the General jumped off and went on his way for assessments and briefings, and I jumped of and immediately took cover behind a sandbag, as there were still explosions and gunfire, and propped my camera on the sandbag and took a timed exposure photograph.  I didn’t think much of it at the time and turned my film into the shop’s lab.  As was the practice, the daily prints would go out to the media, including the Stars & Stripes.  The very next day after turning the photo in, the centerfold of the newspaper’s front section, in journalistic terms, the “double truck”, featured a giant size version of my photograph, which was on a slight tilt.  I was unmercifully shamed by my crew as having used the “tilted sandbag” technique.  But there was a twinge of jealousy. 

Later, when dawn broke and the damage was being assessed, with at least 40 H-34’s damaged or destroyed by satchel charges thrown in by the sappers, approximately 17 of whom were dead in various states of damage, several with partial skulls, who were adjudged to be North Vietnam regulars, and were killed by our troops, had been arrayed in a line on the sand.  One of the General’s staff asked me to take intelligence photographs of the line of bodies and headshots of the dead sappers, in order to give them to the intelligence personnel.  I was the only photographer on site, and it was a useful coincidence that I was there and had enough film to perform the assignment. 

Colonel Victor E. Bianchini, USMC, Ret., Life Member