Commander Arthur R. Lee Recalls a Sapper Attack at Cam Ranh Bay During the Vietnam War

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I had been in Vietnam for only a few days when I experienced my first rocket attack. I had just returned from a short trip to the U.S. Army’s base at Dong Ba Thin, where a contingent of Vertol CH-47 helicopters was located. While there, I was amazed to see that so many helos had been shot up. Some were blackened by fire, their crumpled fuselages pushed into a central pile. Those not damaged were widely dispersed. The bleached and faded jungle-green of the paint schemes was dusty with red dirt from their many trips to the Central Highlands near Dalat and Pleiku. A 20-foot-high chain-link fence surrounded the perimeter, in an effort to screen the base against shoulder-fired rockets.

The sun was low on the horizon when I safely crossed the bridge leading to Cam Ranh Bay. I sighed with relief as I passed the air base’s heavily sandbagged guard posts, with their protruding .50-caliber machine guns. Being new to Vietnam, I found the thought of being off base after dark highly unnerving.

As I stepped out of my jeep in front of the officers’ barracks, I heard a strange whistling sound. Immediately, there were thunderous explosions nearby. Two Army warrant officers of the ‘Crazy Cat’ squadron who had been pitching horseshoes stopped their game and dropped to the ground. They yelled ‘Incoming!’ as I knelt by my vehicle. Off to my right, I saw white flashes and heard ‘Crack! Crack! Crack!’ like the sound of lightning strikes, in rapid succession. Clouds of sand, rocks and smoke flew up from the impact area, only 100 meters from us, and close to the base control tower.

The attack was over as quickly as it had begun. There wasn’t time to be afraid or nervous. The two officers resumed their horseshoe game as if nothing had happened. Somewhat shaken, I went into the barracks to clean up for dinner. The rockets had come from the hills overlooking the base. We assumed they had probably been electrically fired from a timing device; there were no enemy gunners to shoot at — even if we had the capability, which we did not. We were an air base without artillery support.

When new arrivals got off the airplane at the 14th Aerial Port, the briefing officer began by saying: ‘You are now in a combat zone and subject to enemy action at any moment. If you hear the alarm, seek shelter immediately.’

Those words positively caught our attention. Not yet having been issued helmets, flak jackets or weapons, we felt a bit helpless — but being at a large installation such as Cam Ranh Bay gave us a false sense of security. I was told that a nearby Army field hospital had been attacked a year earlier, and that the U.S. casualties had been high. The method of attack was simplicity itself: Sappers had slipped through the barbed-wire perimeter at night, dashed down the rows of barracks and thrown explosive charges at their targets.

We saw our movies in an outside amphitheater. Some of the older hands refused to gather in groups, fearing grenade attacks. Since I enjoyed movies and looked forward to the escape they offered, I considered the risk worth taking. One clear, starlit night, there was a showing of The Battle of Britain, with its vivid scenes of German bombers attacking London and fighting off British fighter planes. While bombs were exploding on-screen, Army artillery was laying down harassment and interdiction (H&I) fire on the jungles of the adjacent hills. When the on-screen explosions ceased, the H&I fire continued.

As I was sleeping that night in transient quarters, the door suddenly was flung open. Wide awake, bolting upright in my bunk and fearing the worst, I brought my pistol up to the firing position and faced what I thought was a sapper. The figure silhouetted in the doorway stopped as I tried to get the words ‘Who’s there?’ out of my throat. I could only get the words up as far as my throat, and managed a coughing stutter, more like ‘Uh, uh, uh.’ It was only after he said ‘Friend!’ in English that my heartbeat returned to normal. He was a visiting pilot who had been to our officers’ club for a nightcap.

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Tags: 20th - 21st Century, Historical Conflicts, Historical Figures, Vietnam War

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