DEPLOYMENT VIETNAM -Part 1

Deployment Vietnam is based on the author's two tours in Vietnam in the 1960's with the US Navy's Seabees. It relates his experiences in construction of roads, helicopter pads and maintaining Highway One, "THE STREET OF NO JOY", during the rainy seasons of the late 1960 's. He details how the Seabees dealt with not only rain and mud but also the Viet Cong's mines and sniper fire.DEPLOYMENT VIETNAM Part 1 only tells part of the story in its 86,000 words. It is a historical and multicultural novel about the American Navy Seabees and what they did and accomplished in Vietnam.A Navy Seabee veteran of over 4 years when he volunteers for a tour of duty in Vietnam in late1966, Dan Lee Davis was 26 years old and a second class heavy equipment operator. He had been operating construction equipment as a civilian and a Seabee for over fourteen years having grown up around farming and road construction. He did one tour on NAS Adak Alaska with a mobile construction battalion (MCB) for 8 months where he ran a bulldozer stripping the treacherous tundra overburden to open an area where they could mine laterite to be used as fill and from another hill to expose hard rock where the blasting crew could blast to be sent to the rock crusher. He then transferred to overseas shore duty at MCAF, Futemma, Okinawa for over three years. While at Futemma, Dan met a Eurasian bar girl whom he lived with for almost three years In October of 1966 Davis went through military training, a basic jungle warfare course in Port Hueneme, CA before joining an MCB that was on its way to Vietnam for deployment.Dan survives a VC mortar attack in April of 1967 just before going on R & R to Okinawa.Dan and Suzie, his Eurasian lover had decided to go their separate ways when he left Okinawa for Port Hueneme and sea duty. They did not communicate from October of 1966 until he went to Okinawa on R & R in April of 1967 and Dan accidentally found she had changed bars and towns on Okinawa. They both discovered that separating, no contact, was not what either wanted and reconnected. Just before Dan goes back to Vietnam they decided to marry after Dan’s Vietnam tour is up.Dan’s best friend, Brad Burgess is killed by a VC placed mine on Highway 1. Dan arranges to take Brad’s R & R to Okinawa so he can visit Brad’s Okinawan fiance who is carrying Brad’s baby. Dan and Suzie spend time together and reinforce their commitment to each other.Suzie and Dan are befriended by a Marine sergeant, Steve Lars and his Okinawan wife Reiko who are stationed on Okinawa.Dan extends his tour in Vietnam and is transferred north to the Hue/Phu Bai area. When he’s transferred he gets a 30 day delay enroute so he can return to Okinawa to spend that time with Suzie He catches hops back and forth to Okinawa but cannot get direct routing from Vietnam to Okinawa nor from Okinawa to Vietnam. A five or so hour trip ended up taking two days going north and becomes an overnight trip going back to Vietnam.