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SEABEE71 IN CHU LAI

A Navy Journalist's Memoir of his 14 Months

with MCB 71, 1966 and 67

by former Navy Journalist David H. Lyman


Releaase Date: November 2019

225 pages

131 Photographs, maps and graphics

17 Chapters covering the years 1963 to 1967

Published by McFarland Publishing

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Introduction

Hoping to stay out of Vietnam, David Lyman joined the U.S. Naval Reserve to avoid the draft. By the summer of 1967 he found himself with a SeaBee unit on a beach in Vietnam.

     A photographer and journalist in civilian life, he was assigned to Military Construction Battalion 71 as the editor of the unit's monthly newspaper, documenting the lives of the hard-working and harder-drinking U.S. Navy SeaBees. His unit spent 7 months in Chu Lai as they engineered the infrastucture of war—roads, runways, heliports and base camps for troops on the edges of the conflict. He got also shot at, almost blown up by a road mine, spent nights in a mortar pit as rockets bombarded a nearby Marine runway, and rode along on convoys through Viet Cong territory to photograph the villages outside “The Wire.”

     The stories and photographs Lyman are from the battalion’s newspaper, The Transit, from memory and recent conversations with shipmates.


Table of Contents

10     Close Calls Come in Many Sizes

Stories Told in The Barber Shop . . . . Boom! Two Seabees hit. . . . Details Under Attack . . . . Bihn Son Detail comes under attack . . . . “This is as Close As I Want to Get” . . . . We Are Under Fire! . . . Sick Bay Stories in the Mortar Pit . . . The Feeling of Fear.


11     Outside The Wire

An Assignment in DaNang  . . . . The Flight to DaNang . . . . The Cumshaw Boys . . . . I’m Not a Real Journalist . . . A History Lesson . . . . A Fearful Walk Through DaNang . . .  Did Someone Just Step on My Grave? . . . Waiting at The Airport . . . Dropping Out of Vietnam, Ten Minutes at a Time.


12     The Vietnamese People

The Vietnamese villagers around our base . . . . My Personal Assignment . . .

13     71’s Civic Action Program

Civic Action Projects Outside The Wire . . . . Help Is On The Way . . . The Doctor Is In . . . A Market Place for Tan Ky . . . . A Building Project in Chu Lai Village . . . .


14     Putting The Pieces Together

Building a Newspaper . . . . I’m Off to Japan . . . . My Black Market Trip . . . How to Build a Newspaper . . . . A Stars and Stripes Correspondent . . . . Exploring Japanese Culture . . . . My Japanese Guide . . . . Benzaiten Shinto Shrine . . . Back to Work . . . My Black Market Shopping Trip . . . . A Night in Saigon . . .


15     The End Is In Sight

The Monsoon Rains Arrive . . . . Building a New Drainage System . . . . The Bob Hope Amphitheater . . . A Tropical Light Show . . . . The MARS Phone Call . . . . Your Seabee is Coming Home


16     Our Last Month in ‘Nam

The KIA Flight . . . . The KIA Flight . . . . The Last Edition . . . . My Last column in The Transit . . . . What a deer in Vermont taught me about the war in Vietnam.


17 - The End Is Never Really The End

The Faces to Vietnam’s Future . . . .


APPENDIX

Faces of Vietnam’s Future . . . . What Happened to MCB-71 . . . Lessons Learned . . . Thanks and Acknowledgements . . . What My Seabee Mates

What Are They Doing Now . . . Letter from the XO’s daughter . . . Notes from the CO’s son . . .  The One Who Did Not Return . . . The History of NMCB-71’s Pacific Deployment in World War  II  . . . . Definitions and Navy Slang . . . .  The Author

The Book:

SEABEE71

IN CHU LAI

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

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DHLyman@mac.com

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

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Prologue

     Where and when . . .  Growing up in A War . . . Joining The Seabees . . . Life in The Combat Zone . . . Research . . . . .


1      All This To Avoid the Draft?

     What The Hell Am I Doing Here? . . . . The Summer off1967  . . . I’m Getting Ahead of  myself . . .  The Entire Nation Is Up in Arms! . . . . November 22, 1963 . . .  Do You Remember Where You Were? . . . The Year 1964 . . .


2     Off to Sea, With a Camera

A two-week Reserve Training cruise . . . The photograph that changed my life . . . . Chu Lai, Vietnam? . . . . I received my orders for active duty . . . I’m Going To Vietnam! . . . . The Games Boys Play . . . .


3     I’m going to be Seabee

My First Day as a Seabee . . . . The Seabees - We Can Do! . . . A Brief History of The Seabees  . . . The Seabees Arrive in Vietnam . . . . Life in the Seabees . . . . Our Unit’s Structure . . . . Instant Petty Officers (IPOs) . . . My Buddies . . . The Plan Of The Day . . . Office Technology . . .  The Mimeograph Machine . . . The March to Town . . . .


4     Training for Combat Duty

Welcome to Mudville . . . Down and Dirty With The Marines . . . . Playing War Games . . . .


5     Waiting to Deploy

Cinderella Liberty . . . . The First Edition of The Transit . . . . The Transit Comes to Life  . . . . Getting Laid . . . Off  We Go to War . . .


6     Hello Vietnam!

The First Taste of Combat . . . Arriving in Vietnam . . .  Our Camp on The Beach . . .  My Public Affairs Office . . . . Building a War  . . . . The Skipper’s Outlines The Work . . . What Lay Ahead for This Seabee Outfit . . . . A Little History of Chu Lai . . . .


7     Life In This Bee Hive

Our Weekly Routine . . . Day After Day, Week After Week . . . . Our Beach Village on The South China Sea . . . The Navy’s Chow . . . Our Daily Ration of Grog . . . The Social Clubs . . . . The South China Sea . . . Sliding Into Oblivion . . . Our Military General Store . . . . “Good Morning, Vietnam!” . . . . We Never Knew How Bad It Was . . . . High Stakes Poker . . . A Letter Home from Vietnam


8     The Battalion

The Companies . . . Charlie Company . . . The Fleet-bee Company . . . The Men of Seventy-On . . . . The Fighting Seabees . . .  “I’m Missing an Ear.”  . . . . The Screw-Ups . . . The Officers of Seventy-One . . .  The Officer’s Wardroom . . . . “A Compendium of Coughlinese Definitions.” . . . . The Battalion’s Sports Report . . . Take Me Out to The Ball Game . . . . The Nose Broom Competition . . . . The Inter-Company Basketball League . . . Hedging Your Bets . . . . Track and Field . . . A Rash Idea . . .


9     The ‘Bees Get To Work

It All Starts With Engineering . . . . The Quang Ngai Express . . . . The Convoy to Quang Ngai . . . . What’s in A Laugh? . . . . This Photographer Tags Along . . . Seabees Built While the War Goes On . . .  Learning to Drive A Dozer - At Night! . . . . The Stone Men of Seventy-One . . . . The Viet Cong Helped Our Operation . . . . Old Flintstone, Still Running, After All These Years. . . . . Power’s Towers . . . . Photography in The Combat Zone . . . . We Got Ourselves Another Convoy . . . . Keeping the Marine A-4 Jets Flying . . . . Rebuilding the Main Runway . . . . Finding Water in A Desert . . . . Getting Wet with Our Underwater Team . . . Playing with Our Tinker Toys