Russ McGoodwin’s Recollection of Company B. Deployment to Vietnam
B Co 504th MP Battalion departed Ft. Lewis, Washington, amid a drizzling rain the evening of Thursday 30 August, 1965, mounting Army buses to the SEATAC airport, and then flew in a commercial jetliner also with a few civilian passengers aboard, to San Francisco. I don't recall the airport in San Francisco. It was the middle of the night when we arrived.
From San Francisco we mounted Army buses and a little before dawn, on Friday August 13 1965, we arrived at the Oakland Army Terminal. We went aboard the MSTS Barrett, a troopship, during the morning of the 13th and departed around noon that day. I don't know the "official" date, but the Battalion actually arrived in Vietnam ("in country") in late afternoon on 30 August 1965, when the ship anchored offshore in Qui Nhon Bay. Because it was late afternoon, and because there was considerable hostile activity in the foothills behind Qui Nhon, the officer(s) in charge decided to wait until the next morning to leave the ship. Several thousand of us stood at the rail of the ship that night, watching a firefight ashore, seeing crimson tracer rounds, white phosphorus, etc., too far away to be heard.
We went ashore the morning of 31 August 1965, landing on a beach fronting Qui Nhon, so technically we were "boots on the ground" as of that date.
From there, we boarded big trucks and were taken inland a few miles to what would be our bivouac in the Phu Tai Valley. An army medical battalion that had been on the ship was also transported to this bivouac.
The first couple of weeks were very difficult because by accident all of the Battalion's gear continued on the ship and went on South. All we had were our ponchos, our duffle bags, and 6 rounds for our M-14s. Many scrounged cardboard boxes and draped their ponchos over them and slept on the wet sand, but these shelters didn't last long in the nightly torrential rains. There also was occasionally some incoming probing fire. We maintained a round-the-clock perimeter, but our decisive defense was a US Marines battalion deployed around our perimeter those first few weeks.
During September 1965, the 504th MP Battalion was dispersed to various places—B Co. throughout the Central Highlands, to Pleiku and Dalat, and maybe also Ban Me Thuot and Kontum (not sure--it's been more than 60 years!). I think C Co. was deployed to Danang (pretty sure). The 504th established its Bn HQ Co. in the Phu Tai bivouac. Before being deployed elsewhere, the members of B Co. secured the beach and airfield where a huge amount of supplies and cargoes were coming ashore, and where the lst Cavalry division was also coming ashore. B Co. also conducted routine town and road patrols, location security, etc., in/around Qui Nhon before being redeployed to the Central Highlands. Much of the arriving 1st Cav Div was going by road (Rte. 19) to its base in An Khe, and B Co. was involved in managing that considerable traffic leaving Qui Nhon, but I don't think it was also escorting the huge vehicular convoys all the way to An Khe via Rte. 19 (not sure).
I think my driver and myself were the last members of B Co. to depart Qui Nhon for Pleiku in a C-130 on/about 30 September 1965, approximately a month after arriving in country.
On 15 March 1966 I was reassigned to the 716th MP Bn in Saigon, and to the PMO.
On 1 April 1966 I was in the Victoria BOQ and slightly wounded when it was attacked. 3 Mps in the 716th were killed trying to thwart that attack, and I always think of them on Memorial Day, because without them the bombing of the BOQ would have killed many more. They were SPC 4 Michael Mulvaney, PFC Patrick Brems, and 1LT Chester Lee.
I departed Vietnam around 14 July 1966, and was reassigned to the 52nd MP Company in Ft. Sam Houston, 4th Army Headquarters, in San Antonio, Texas.
Russ McGoodwin
Deployment to Vietnam