I just noticed that the sign does not mention French Fort, or the new name; Camp Saint Barbara. I believe it was officially called the FSB St. Barbara. Here you can live like a rat in a hole, and be mortared by Charlie every night, and even sometimes during the day!
During the dry season the Quad 50s would start fires in the dry grass of the perimeter.
The engineers came in to "rehabilitate" the place.
Notice the little Christmas tree atop the bunker.
This little guy came in over camp on Christmas day. He was playing Christmas caroles on his loud speaker system. We contemplated taking a shot at him, but gave him the benefit of our Christmas good will! He got bored and flew on to harass some other camp.
The Black Virgin Mountain. We held a camp on top for communications, Charlie owned the sides. It was a 3,000 foot mountain, all by itself in the flat rice lands.
At the door of the FDC (Fire Direction Center).
Price was First Seargent for the battery, Ssgt. Woodard ran the No. 1 gun (Alley Oop).
Every morning we picked up everything in the yard. As you can tell by the looks of the place, we kept a clean yard, ha!
Here you see Prokop standing by the horseshoe stake. In the background is the fire direction center.
Our recreation was limited. Our favorite sport was filling sand bags! That's Miller showing off his form.
I think that's Sgt. Woodard tossing a pair.
We did have a basketball and a hoop at French Fort.
The gun pad was torn up, so this gun is just sitting in the yard. In the background, directly in front of the gun you see a guard bunker, and just to the right of the gun you see a 50 cal. machine gun nest.
Gun pad in the foreground, living quarters bunker behind it. Lying beside the bunker you see a new barrel for a 175mm long gun. It's 36 feet long!
A photo for his girlfriend.
The engineers were helping us out. They drilled a well, and built a shower house. And a new bomb proof mess hall. Wow, all the comforts!
Once we had good water, the shower house was much appreciated, but it made us all targets when we went to shower.
The ammo bunker sat immediately behind the gun pad. That way we didn't have to lug the rounds far to get them up to the gun. It added a great deal of danger but it was quite well protected with sand bags and canisters.
This place was bomb proof! It had double walls, and between these walls was a layer of dirt three feet thick. On top was three layers of sandbags. The only openings were the doors.
This was the bunker where special ammo was stored.
A view out over the tin roofing that covered a living quarters bunker.
Living quarters bunkers were built into the burm (wall) of the fort. They provided reasonable protection for sleeping men. There was only one instance when a soldier was hit (a mortar round) while sleeping.
Water came in through that rubber hose. The floor was covered with rubber and the water drained out to that gutter you see in the foreground. Water from the well was warm enough to shower in. Nothing was cold in Vietnam.
It was the highlight of the day! It was impossible to keep clean in Nam, so the showers were a blessing.
It took the whole crew to get that latrine built, Ha!
Again, someone doing his business right out in the open!
You can see the walls of the new latrine taking shape. Of course, that did not stop the need for services, so you see the guy sitting on the throne right out in the open, talk about limited privacy!
As you can see Charlie used it for target practice. It was located outside the berm! It wasn't a safe place to do your business!
Watch the sun go down, then pull guard duty and get ready for whatever Charlie had to throw at us.
That's first shirt Teddy Price. Resting on his bunk in the Fire Direction Center.
One of the oldest men in the camp. He must have been all of 25 at the time. This is a photo taken for his girl. He loved his girl and his '63 Pontiac Grand Prix, but I'm not sure in which order! At least I'm sure that the Grand Prix was waiting when he went home!
That's the perimeter looking out over the barrel of an M60 light machine gun. This is the place where you sat all night and watched things, both imagined and real, move around in the darkness. Then you just guess which one to shoot at! It was troubling if you were inclined to believe in "things that go bump in the night".
This is a recoilless rifle. Basically it fired a rocket propelled artillery round. I believe this to be an M47, 90MM recoilless rifle.
This is the M40, 106mm recoilless gun (it was actually a 105mm tube). Again it is a rocket propelled round. On top of the tube sits a .50 cal. spotting rifle in which a special round was fired to simulate the trajectory of the 105mm round, thereby allowing you to aim the weapon. This is a rifled tube, and the rounds come "pre-engraved" so as to match the rifling.
The perimeter from the bunker. The gun crews pulled guard duty every night, as well as working all day long. Guard duty was two hours on and two hours rest (that is trying to sleep in the guard bunker) while your buddy pulled his two hours on.
