"My name is Lon Ludwig and I was in the original party who moved to Phu Bai from the 3rd RRU det in Danang in January 1963. First night there were 5 or 6 of us there.

I just noticed on your map of the compound, that the barracks north of the ops building (which wasn't complete when I left in August '63) are labeled "French Barracks."

Were people really thinking that these were left over from when the French were there? [[Yes, Lon, that is what we thought.]] It ain't so! They were built in late '62 by the same contractors (boy! is that a misnomer) who built everything else. They were brand spankin' new when we moved in. Is it possible they were called that because they were French STYLE? [[I guess so.]]

When we moved in, the compound consisted of an orderly room just to the right of the gate, an officer's barracks (I guess they don't have "barracks" they have "quarters") east of ops, a row of barracks (one was used for a club)and a latrine north of the ops bldg, and on the west side was a mess hall. In the southwest corner was the water tower. We worked in a couple of trailers parked between the row of barracks and where the ops building was being built.

SEE: Its a big file! The 8th back then.

Can't remember where the motor pool was, think it might have been at the south end.

I haven't gotten through much of your site yet but it looks pretty good so far. I'd seen references to French Barracks on John Buquios's chat site but didn't realize until just now what they were talking about.

Keep up the good work".

Lon

What Lon is saying here is: All us guys who came to Phu Bai way after '62 were thinking that we were occuping an ancient compound built by the French and then turned over to the US AirForce. Okay! So the French are now out of the picture, but what about the Air Force? Who got the trailers and the swimming pool and the snack bar...could that be the 3rdRRU too??? This is interesting...

THIS JUST IN:

Rick Copeland writes...

"I was 05K and worked on Hill 180 from Aug 66 through June 67. Tonight I was was looking at Lon Ludwig's pictures and saw the question about where some of the facilities came from. I can answer the one about the smimming pool. It was built from a kit by GI volunteers while I was there. The hole was dug before I got involved but I helped pour the concrete deck around the pool, later I was an "off duty" Life Guard."