Marine C-130 Nam Phong
Marine C-130 on ramp at Nam Phong Airbase, Thailand 1972. Nicknamed “The Rose Garden” Nam Phong was a Marine airbase relocated from Danang and literally carved out of the jungle. Conditions were rough with many structures nothing more than tents. Everything was encrusted with the red clay dust that’s evident in the photo. Also a Marine Corp F4 Phantom squadron there. Base supported air ops in nearby Laos and Cambodia as well as Vietnam. Recently viewed YouTube video of 1972 Bob Hope USO visit at the base where he humorously capitalized on the Rose Garden aspects of life there.
I stood guard around these planes before any troops landed--we were 0311 Super Grunts! We were the first to land in Nam Phong as Marines as the SeaBees prepared the areas for our sleeping bens!
ReplyDeleteThe Grunts were not brought into Nam Phong, AKA The Rose Garden, until AFTER we Air Wingers had been flying sortiies into Laos, Cambodia and VietNam from the base for about two months, and these C-130s had already flown us all in and then began their main mission of refueling our fighter aircraft in the air.
DeleteThe only things that were there when we first landed were several very small hangers, a tarmac parking area that was almost too small to hold all of our aircraft, the airstrip itself, and the bush .... with no provisions for sheltered sleeping, no potable water (we had to drink the beer that we brought with us) no electricity, and none of the other modern or even stone age conveniencies.