Bravo Co. Electricians sit on a couple of tanks supplied by the Marines as they go on patrol near their Marble Mountain base camp after being sniped at one time too many.
Squad Leader Gerry Havison pictured on right holding his M14.
Gerry and I served together with USN Mobile Construction Nine from 1965/1966.
We had good times and we had bad times.
Our worst time was on Oct. 28th, 1965 - our camp was overrun by a suicide squad of North Vietnamese regulars.
One of the many good times that I can remember was when our base was restricted. This meant that we were not allowed to leave the confines of our camp or nearby worksite because the surrounding area was too dangerous to travel.
Gerry was a genius and had a lot of experience as an electrician. He devised a plan to get us off base by volunteering us for every electrical job whenever the nearby marines requested an electrical crew. They supplied our security, we supplied the work.
One time we made our way to downtown DaNang and of course, we had a little too much to drink and challenged each other to a drunken race with Cyclodrivers to see which one could peddle us through town the fastest.
Another time Gerry outsmarted our company chief by devising a plan to build a tool shed with a false room big enough to conceal a cot so that all of the electricians could take turns getting a little extra sleep. Our tools were placed around the shed so that the actual size was an optical illusion; we were working 20hours a day and the little bit of extra sleep was our savior.
Gerry and I spent many nights together in the slit trenches on security detail. The South East Asian winter nights were bitter cold especially when it rained. As we stared into the darkness behind sandbags we always imagined we saw movement far off in the distance.
Every night when the constant rain was at it's worst Gerry would repeat in yiddish:
" Regn Regn Regn farvos iz em alts Regn."
(Rain Rain Rain why is it always Raining?)
SEABEES NEVER DIE - THEY ONLY MOVE ON TO ANOTHER WORK SITE!
RIP Gerry
Alan Zanger
