Subject: Quan Loi Vietnam photo, 1968 or 1969



Subject: Quan Loi Vietnam photo, 1968 or 1969.

This is a photo I took with my little 35MM camera during our convoy to this remote base one day during our 319th Transportation Company's tour in the war.  Wendell Moore also of our company transferred the old photo to a computer disc and I am now able to send it to family and friends.  My memory of the Quan Loi area is strong.

I feared the danger at this base.  The woods/jungle are thick almost up to the perimeter.  An entire army could and probably did approach Quan Loi many times without being detected.  The base only had fewer than 1000 American soldiers and was really isolated.  We totally abandoned the base just a few years after our company returned home and the North Vietnamese Army eventually won the area.

The 319th drivers and I personally saw combat here.  We had ambushes and firefights.  We saw and heard our huge artillery pieces firing through the nights we had to stay over here.  I witnessed one of our B-52 bombers drop huge bombs on the road and area near where I was standing.  I was left alone and feared death or capture when my truck suffered 3 flat tires at once and became disabled. 

The photo is looking west toward the Cambodian border and the Ho Chi Minh Trail just short of the picture's horizon.  We hauled the 55 gallon drums of peneprine (sp) shown.  A narrow maintenance yard leads to the small perimeter fence, another small cleared area and then the jungle.  Most memorable is the heavy red dirt and dust which saturated everything at the base.  3 Huey helicopters are passing north to south at low altitude. 

Though this and other photos we took brings back tough memories, they are important historically and need to be preserved and shown. 

We drivers knew enough about Quan Loi to know we did not want to stay there very long.  All who served at Quan Loi will never forget it.....

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