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Seabee71's Basic Combat Training at Sun Valley

We learned that you can see a cigarette lit at 400 yards, hear a bolt go home in a rifle at 300 yards, hear whispers at 200 yards. We watched flares of every description light up the night—old friends once in Vietnam. My platoon and I sat through classes in night sounds, patrol movements, first aid, battle dressings as we learned to use most of the equipment used by the Marines in combat. There was marching and more marching.  Lunch every day was a box of C-Rations for each man, followed by

Seabees from 71 negotiate the rope bridge over a revien somewhere on the Sun Valley Training Grounds, a f

marching, classes and more marching. It was to be a full week, but thankfully just one week–the Marines get six weeks of this—ouch!      

     “You think this is bad,” said our drill sergeant, “wait until you get your sorry asses down to Camp LeJune, where the real guerrilla training begins. You’ll all be crying to be back here in comfortable Sun Valley.” This was just a “basic” introduction to combat Seabees needed if they were attacked on a building site. The complete story can be found in Seabee71: Building A War In Vietnam

The Book:

SEABEE71

IN CHU LAI

A 350 page memoir of a Navy Journalist's 14 months with the Seabees.

Photographs and text copyright © 1967 and 2019 by David H. Lyman