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Pershing Field Ball Park

Pershing Field and 3rd Field Hospital

Aerial View Circa 1969: Pershing Field on left, 3rd Field Hospital (formerly American Community School) on right. George Lane Collection. Submitted by Born To Wander. Click Image for larger view.

20 comments to Pershing Field Ball Park

  • Mike McNally

    A technical note. The above picture was apparently taken by George Lane, who was on TDY in Vietnam in 1969. I’m the McNally at the Yahoo CICV Group. My photo folders only have pix taken by me. This photo is freely found on the Internet. I attached it to a message at Yahoo CICV Group to illustrate the location of the Tan Son Nhut USO. Thanks…Mike McNally

  • Jo Brown Strasburg

    Thanks for this image…I was able to isolate our house which was very close to the ACS. I could show my husband the places that I had often described to him like the RVN base, the baseball field, our school and the X in the road right where I lived. Our house is to the right just south of the school

  • George Lane

    I am very glad you like my snapshot taken while I was hitchhiking on a Huey that December day in 1969. I had no idea what I was seeing as I was only there for 3 weeks so I just snapped pictures. How wonderful it is to read your comments and finally know what I had been looking at. There are several more large scale photos of that trip in my Flickr web page (Click Here To View Them). Please feel free to borrow the photos and I would appreciate any comments you might have about the scenes. Lately, the Vietnamese with computers have been really getting a history lesson from the old photos.

    • John Lynch

      George,

      My family saw your photos from Vietnam 1969 and the clarity is impressive. We have seen on various websites 4 pictures you took around the Pho Quang Pagoda. Do you happen to have others from that area you can post? We are looking at a particular house that some friends lived in at the time.

      I also enjoyed looking at your Flickr web page. Very impressive assortment of photos!

      Regards,
      John

  • George — I loved the slideshow, having had my encore visit to Vietnam at government expense about the same time you were there (1969-70), in Bien Hoa. Thanks! It looks like a few shots are of nearby Long Binh.

    Mike Parker: the second picture, of the MACV HQ — I think the building our fathers worked in during 1960-61 must have gotten torn down to build that monstrosity.

    • Ken

      Bruce, when you were in Saigon, MACV was located in town a few blocks from the PX/commissary building Phan Ding Phung where I lived for two years with my family. It moved to Long Binh when that monstrosity was built.

      • Ken, in 1960-61 MACV did not exist. It was called MAAG back then. I lived around the corner from that PX/Commissary (on Truong Minh Ky), and my memory of the MAAG location was that it was quite some distance away — nearly all the way to Cholon. What was nearby, though, was the building that held USOM.

      • That “monstrosity” in George’s photo, MACV HQ, was located at Tan Son Nhut, not Long Binh. Mike Parker’s father and my father worked for USOM-CAAG (Civil Aviation Advisory Group) and their office was at Tan Son Nhut.

  • Kenneth R. Yeager

    Bruce, right, Maag was near cholon as my dad worked there and as did I for a summer job. but MACV was operational in 1963 and was located near the PX/Commissary. Don’t recall the exact location but it was on the way to the airport, but still in Saigon city. You are also right about MACV being near the airport….trying to remember what the big headquarters was at Long Binh….

    • Ken: During 1969-70, when I was with MACV Advisory Team 95 in Bien Hoa, in my mind I tended to associate nearby Long Binh with II Field Force (II-FF) HQ. Adv Tm 95 worked with the Vietnamese III Corps HQ, and we had a 1-star general at our head. But he was officially only the Deputy Senior Advisor to the ARVN 3-star general heading up III Corps; it was the II-FF 3-star general who was officially the Senior Advisor to the III Corps commander. Gotta get those ranks lined up right, you know! LOL

      But the sprawling Long Binh reservation held a myriad of units. Looking at the last picture in George’s collection, there’s the large building with the sign identifying it as US Army Vietnam (USARV), and it looks to be on high ground, as was the large Long Binh reservation, so that’s what occasioned my comment to George in the first place, asking about locale.

      Oh, and probably the most famous feature at Long Binh: the “LBJ” — Long Binh Jail. Now that was a place with a lot of barbed wire around it! LOL.

      • Kenneth R. Yeager

        Bruce, damn, old age must be kicking in. You are right and I am wrong….Your comments bring it back. I have to admit that most of my VN time was spent in my company area with a few exceptions. We did some installation work for IIFF shortly after I arrived in Feb. 1968. all so long ago now…..

    • Interesting set of 3 pictures for MACV buildings are in Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MACV

  • Victor Emeliantsev

    I was at Third Field 10/68 to June 69. I recall the dustoff pad was across the street from the hospital, and I don’t see it in this picture. Also, there was a large “In Siagon too…you have a friend at Chase Manhatten.” Bill board could be seen by the the wounded as they landed.

  • frank

    Victor, I wish to salute you. The folks that worked in the aid stations and the field hospitals did unbelievable stuff. I have always felt that these folks did so much for the guys, but got so little credit. If anyone gets PTSD, it is these people. The guys out in the bush, at least got fresh air. One day I had to go into the Dong Ha Aid Station, I do not remember why. The floor was so covered with blood, a person had trouble not to slip. I never went back.

    I try to picture where the Dust-Off landed near the third field. There was a fork in the road leading to the civilian side and the military side in 1962. Was the landing pad across the main road, just before the “Y”.
    These guys that flew the Dust Off are very, very special. Gosh, so long ago, but so near! The guts that these folks had! I still do not understand. Whenever I start to think of my generation as being spoiled and undeserving, I think of these guys.

    Frank

    Salute To The Nurses Of Vietnam “OUR ANGELS” sung by Staff/Sgt Barry Sadler.

    Oh! and these guys make me feel better about my Generation!

  • Nelson Thoresen

    Re: Pershing Field pix…What is pictured is the soccer field that was in front of Pershing softball field. I lived there 61-65. Gary Gardner who lived on the JDP compound, and I were there at the bombing 2/9/64.

  • Dear Mr. George Lane !
    Your photos at Saigon 1969 is fantastic !

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