FYI

Highway One is " The Street Without Joy"

Highway One is the one main road running North of Da Nang , it passes through the mountainous Hai Van Pass , running north out of Phu Bai , runs past and beyond Hue, Quang Tri, Dong Ha, Camp Carroll, the Rock Pile, Khe Sahn.

I hope this helps

AP report from 1967

1967 Bernard Fall and a Marine photographer, killed by mine in Vietnam

Writer and historian Bernard B. Fall is killed by a Viet Cong mine while accompanying a US Marine patrol along the seacoast about 23 km northwest of Hue, on a road known as the "Street Without Joy" (which Fall had used for the title of one of his books about the war). A professor of international relations at Howard University in Washington, D.C., Fall was a French citizen and noted expert on the war in Vietnam. He was killed while gathering material for his eighth book. A US Marine photographer was also killed.

Two KIA Marines were

BYRON GRANT HIGHLAND

GSGT - E7 - Marine Corps - Regular
33 year old Married, Caucasian, Male
Born on Feb 08, 1934
From DETROIT, MICHIGAN
Length of service 14 years.
Casualty was on Feb 21, 1967
in THUA THIEN, SOUTH VIETNAM
HOSTILE, GROUND CASUALTY
OTHER EXPLOSIVE DEVICE
Body was recovered
Religion
PROTESTANT

Panel 15E - - Line 69

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GLENN ALVIN HARRIS

LCPL - E3 - Marine Corps - Regular
18 year old Single, Negro, Male
Born on Jul 27, 1948
From CHICAGO, ILLINOIS
Length of service 1 year.
Casualty was on Feb 21, 1967
in THUA THIEN, SOUTH VIETNAM
HOSTILE, GROUND CASUALTY
OTHER EXPLOSIVE DEVICE
Body was recovered
Religion
PROTESTANT

Panel 15E - - Line 69

FYI

Submitted by

William Weidenbacher
weid@woodstockweid.com
Fellow Marine
Street Without Joy Casualty
http://www.one9usmc.net
We were walking through a mine field on "The Street Without Joy" an area north of HUE that was named after a French Unit was destroyed there in the 50"s. Bernard Fall had written a book about it and he was back to write a sequel. The Puff of black smoke was Bernard Fall, Gunny Highland and Glenn Harris meeting their destiny. We got Harris out of there by using a tracked vehicle called an Otter. He was starry eyed and in shock when I saw him first. The Doc patched him up and the Gunny was to say to the Doc that he was still breathing when we put him on the chopper. The chopper dropped us some stretchers and we put Harris on one and his head stuck over the end. I shouted the fact, and they stopped and I picked up his head. We ran towards the chopper and I was amazed how fast Lt Gorney and the other man could run in the sand. The next day we heard he did not make it. He died when the French Author Bernard Fall stepped on a mine. The mine was a bouncing betty with a likly additional charge. It could of even been command detinated, as the NVA were in spider holes all around us. Glenn Harris was with the First Battalion Ninth Marines "The Walking Dead"
Tuesday, May 28, 2002
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Street Without Joy

According to Dr. Fall's book, "Street Without Joy," the French soldiers called Highway 1 and the area to the east of there to the coast (Gulf of Tonkin) stretching between Hue and Quang Tri "la rue sans joie" or in English, "Street Without Joy," (see page 144 of Dr. Fall's SWJ) in the first part of the 1950s. Also, noted was Hwy 555, the coast hwy, from Van Trinh to the northwest (see SWJ map on page 146). The fortified villages and prohibitive sand dunes to tracked vehicle traffic caused the French some serious problems in the French Indochina War. And, yes, I'd always thought the "Street Without Joy" ran from Da Nang to the DMZ as well. The AP source didn't quite get the location totally correct either as he negated Hwy. 1 as having anything to do with 'SWJ.' It included Hwy 1 and the Hwy 555 area, according to Dr. Fall. And Weid, your email address doesn't work. Semper Fi, Dan Kellum, 1stLt, USMCR, Echo, 2/1, 1970.

HMM-164

Posting this for Robert:
-----------
Have been trying to post reply to Mr. Kellum as to the Unit that medivaced Bernard Fall in 1967 but have been unable to do so.

The squadron was HMM-164, The pilots were Capt Jack Maxwell and 1/lt J.H. Hodgson. The source is page six of the HMM-164 Command Chronology for Feb 67.

ROBERT E GODWIN
rgodwin1@vol.com

The 2003 association directory has information on both pilots:
Jack Maxwell in Keota, OK and Jim Hodgson in Grapevine, TX in case you would like to make contact with them.

Dan,
According to a 1967 map I have, published by the Army Map Service, the following have the definition of "settlement, village": A, An, Ap, Ban, Cam, Huong, Lang, Thon, Xa, and Xom.

On a flight to Dong Ha, someone (I do not know who or why I should believe him) pointed out to me the "Street Without Joy." It was not Hwy 1 or 555. It was approximately between the towns of Ap Lurong Mai (YD530440) and Ap My Thanh (YD662363). It was parallel to Hwy 1 but to the east, between 1 and 555. I do not have a road number for this on my maps. The huge cemetery you ask about is on that road and it is big, as are other ones in the area, but not that size.

During the early part of operation Hastings at Dong Ha, I came into our ready room tent (VMO-2) and there was a newsman/reporter/whatever print type interviewing our pilots. When I found out he was a writer, I left. It was Fall. At that time I had no tolerance for the press. Recently, I had escorted a squadron mate on an emergency medevac of supposed Marines. He hoisted out two "evacs" who turned out to be uninjured reporters, who wanted out, too hot for them, wounded Marines still on the ground. This would have been in mid '66.
Lanny

KIAs are not medevacs?

Fred Stith sent me the Chronology/Narrative Summaries for HMM 164 February 1967. Okay, according to the Chronology Summary Capt. Maxwell and 1stLt. Hodgson were said to have picked up 2 KIAs including Dr. Fall and one other (Gy.Sgt. Highland) on the night of Feb. 21, 1967. And in the Narrative Summary no 'medevacs' were picked up on Feb. 21st or 22nd. Why isn't there an agreement in the summaries? KIAs are not considered permanent routine 'medevacs?' A wounded Navy Corpsman was removed with 7 or 8 other Marines from that enemy ambush of Alpha, 1/9 on Feb. 21, 1967...the same day as the ambush. He said he barely fit in the helicopter loaded to capacity. Would that be a H-34 from another squadron seeing as how HMM 164 now had 46s and should've had a higher load capacity? And the HMM 164 summaries don't show those WIAs being medevacked? So am I looking for another squadron like the one at Dong Ha at least for the extraction of the WIAs? Thanks to Lanny I went back and found 'Ap' on my 1968 map's legend. It simply means 'town' or 'hamlet' in deference to larger municipalities....village, district and province. In Dr. Fall's "Street Without Joy" he didn't put 'Ap' in front of Van Trinh in the 1950s on his map like was on the National Imagery and Mapping Agency's map of 1968. Now I know. Thanks. Semper Fi, Dan Kellum, 1stLt. USMCR, 2/1, 1970

Info. on early Vietnam

Mr.Kellum, Their is an outstanding book written by Henry Ainley, an Englishman who served with the Legion during the French/Indo- China war. It's been years since I lost my copy, but if I'm not mistaken he describes the "Street Without Joy", plus has several maps of that area. The book doesn't dwell so much on combt but tells of day to day life in Vietnam before their defeat at you know where. A great read for any one interested in what really was going on before we got there. The title is " In Order To Die ". Saw some copies for sale on E-Bay, but public library should be able to find it. Worth looking for. It is a very old book published in the 50's if I'm not mistaken. One passage deals with the heat . He tells of men going crazy from it. They called it"carfad". I think we can all relate to that! I know this doesn't relate to the good Dr. but is a wonderful source of info. S/F ED Remeber one bullet is worth a 1000 words.

Bernard Fall

Bernard Fall's body was not evacuated until the 22nd of Feb. A single ch46 twin rotor chopper came in and took out the wounded in the evening of the 21st.

Don't know the number of the squadron.

I don't remember a chopper trying to come in and get Fall out, but I am told one did. Perhaps a 34, but I am not sure. If we could of gotten him out he might of lived.

Have some pictures of the grave mounds. It was not a very large area, but there were many such areas on our march into the area where Fall was killed.

Fall's boot and foot were buried where they fell when Gen Ryan saw them lying there. He came in the next day to look the area over. We had to hold it for 3 days, and lost several men in doing so.

woodstockweid@yahoo.com is my e-mail address.

Street Without Joy

From page 137 of Bernard B. Fall's book "Street Without Joy"

"For years, communications along the contral Annam coast had been plagued by Communist attacks against Road 1, the main north-south artery along the coast. The principal source of trouble was a string of heavily-fortified villages along a line of sand dunes and salt marshes stretching from Hue' to Quang-Tri.... ...one French convoy after another passing on the road had been either shelled or ambushed by the black-clad infantry of Viet-Minh Regiment 95, a battle-hardened regular Communist unit infiltrated behind French lines. This inspired the French soldiers with that kind of black humor proper to all soldiers, to christen that stretch of Road 1 "la rue sans joie" or in English, "Street Without Joy."

Bernard Fall

Mr. Kellum,

It's been a long time, but according to my diary it was the squadron I was in, HMM-163 operating out of Phu Bai flying the H-34, that retrieved Bernard Fall following his being killed. No names or exact times survive, but perhaps research of HMM-163s history might turn up something.

Hugh Smith
HMM-163 1966-67

Hmm-164

I dont know for sure, but i was a crewchief for hmm-164, we were flying at the time out of phu bai. It was a night pickup, some kia some wounded..Its been 40 years now, but i was sitting down after take off, and the corps man come up to me and leaned over and asked me if i knew who bernard fall was.., i told yes i knew he was a french author..he asked me if i wanted to see him, i said yes, he led me, stopped at i believe to be a poncho at the time, and uncovered a half a corpse..I dont know if he was telling me the truth or not, at the time i got very sick and retreated to the front door.