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Pete Case: One Of The First To Attend American Community School In Saigon (1954-58)

Submitted by Pete Case

I recently discovered this website and would certainly contribute what I remember. I arrived in Saigon in 1954 and remained until 1958. That made me 8-12 years old, and was part of the early years of ACS and have some interesting recollections as do my brother and sister who also attended ACS.

4 comments to Pete Case: One Of The First To Attend American Community School In Saigon (1954-58)

  • Welcome to Saigon Kids, Pete! 🙂

    Gene Taylor was in Saigon around 1955 and has been looking for folks who were there during his time in Saigon. You may have known each other in Saigon.

    Bob

  • Gene Taylor

    Pete…Yep, we got there in 1955 and left in 1957…I was 8 when I got there and 10 when I left so you were about 2 years older than me. My brother (David) was about 7 years older. We both attended ACS downtown. I am sure we knew each other at the time. There weren’t that many in school! My dad was with MAAG, US Army advisory group. We lived on De Gaulle (later Cong Ly) on way to airport. Richard Stein lived 2 doors down. His dad was a doctor with the Army. You can email me at frogtaylor [@] aol.com and we can discuss what’s been going on in the past 55 years. I got a ton of photos I had digitized from my dad’s slides that I could share with you.

  • Pete Case

    [From the Wikipedia reference on ACS]

    The next academic year, two Quonset hut buildings were erected in the compound, and the home-schooled elementary school students joined those already at Norodom Compound. Shortly thereafter, near the end of 1955, one of the Quonset huts burned to the ground, and most of the students’ books were destroyed. While the hut was being rebuilt for the 1956-57 academic year (an additional and larger Quonset hut was also erected), the school temporarily moved into a Dutch-owned oil company’s property in Saigon, the Stanvac building. When the rebuilding in the Norodom Compound was complete, this expansion made it possible for the creation of a high school for American dependent children in Saigon.

    [From my recent [post on Facebook]

    In 1955 I was nine years old and attended the new ACS in the Norodom Compound in Saigon. That year, a quonset hut classroom burned down and the school moved temporarily to a new office building being constructed down the street, donated by the then General Manager of Standard Vacuum Oil Company. He was my father. I found a snapshot of that building in some old family files and share it here which perhaps will jog the memory of those that were there! Anyone remember?

    Pete Case

  • Pete, if you have pictures that you think would enhance the Wiki article about ACS, send them on to me with some descriptive information.

    bruce-thomas ( at ) mindspring ( dot ) com

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