THE CLUB MED…It wasn't!!!

(Click on a photo to view a larger image)

In June 1967, the personnel assigned to the 24^th Evac. were still living in tents saturated with laterite dust!  Wow! What a welcome to your new home for the next twelve months.  After being led to a tent (at least it had a cement floor) and pointed toward an empty bunk, one would just drop what ever gear you had, unfold the mattress and  hope you weren't going to get any unpleasant surprises in doing so.  Take the sheets supplied you and make your bunk in proper military fashion while dripping sweat all over everything. The first question coming to mind was, "why the hell did they give me a blanket"?  That was so that when you weren't in the bunk, it would keep the laterite dust off your sheets!

During the Monsoon Season, everything turned to mud and often when going from tent to tent, going to the mess hall

or to the latrine one would be walking in water up to their ankles.  I usually kept an extra pair of boots and socks in my office so I wouldn't squish water for half a day when I would walk around going about my duties at the hospital.

As you can see, some of the tents had definitely seen better days.  Daily life went on in the housing area, boots of all the residents of each tent were cleaned and polished, laundry was done by hand and hung on lines strung between the tents.  Of course, the "hooch girls" swept the floors each day and kept each tent as clean as was possible.  I was always amazed at how they kept the boots ,fatigues, underwear, etc. identified and returned to the bunk of the rightful owner each day.  Most of them could barely speak a little english, and could not read english at all.  Competition between the hooch girls was very keen as they didn't want to have any of the occupants of the tent they served to be unhappy as it might result in her being fired.  By and large, the guys treated them decently and did not make passes at them.  A known indiscretion like that would result in their losing their job as well as being restricted from working anywhere on post.

Then came the advent of the Adams Hut, metal buildings constructed on the concrete foundations where the tents had stood.  Those who were to be the occupants of the buildings had to build them themselves. Ofcourse, it was as simple as building a storage shed in your back yard is today.  As one Adams Hut was built, one tent came down.

Boy, what a difference those Adams Huts made…made it look like civilized people inhabited the place.  Please notice that these buildings are all connected to central power, not generators like the tents.

 Don't it look purty!!! No walking through mud puddles!!

 Yes, the mamasans who did the cleaning and laundry were proud of them too!

Although we had new living quarters, we still had the same old showers. The water truck had to fill the tanks at least twice a day.

THE CLUB MED… IT WAS NOT!!!

 

Henry Powers
July 8, 2003

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