"Reflections"

      I became a member of the 615th MP Company in October 1966, on my transfer from my original 'Nam deployment with the 552nd MP Company in September 1966.

     After three weeks at Long Binh, ten of us were transferred to the 615th MP Company in Saigon. Two weeks of living in a civilian quality hotel which, if I remember rightly, was the Palace Hotel. Some of the other hotels being used for billeting were the Continental, the Caravelle, and the Grand. We ate in a restaurant just down the street while I was there, but that luxury wasn't going to last long.

     When I was assigned to the 3rd Squad of 3rd Platoon at Pershing Field, everything changed into what I had expected in the Army and in 'Nam. Tents with wooden frames, sandbag walls around the tents, mess-hall meals, and no air conditioning except for floor fans if you could afford to buy one at the local market. It was a tedious time in Saigon City, guarding the Newport Docks, ships anchored in Saigon Harbor, and doing river patrols with Quan Cahns (RVN MPs) and National Policemen (nicknamed "White Mice" for their white saucer hats). Nothing spectacular happened around me until the VC attack on Newport Dock area in '67.

     For that adventure, I was sent to the Newport Bridge with three other MPs and told to assist the armored troops keeping the bridge intact. The only attack came during the second night we were there and the armor units took most of the action with their Fletchette rounds. We only went through about 800 rounds with our M-60s that night. Sometime in the action, I got hit on my right eyebrow and lost about two hairs and a couple drops of blood. I put a band aid on it and stayed at the bridge for the rest of our time there. It wasn't serious enough for me to make a report about it, so it was never recorded as a "wound received from enemy action". No Purple Heart for that, but it truthfully wasn't my desire to become a decorated hero. I just wanted to do my duty as assigned and get back home in as good condition as possible.

     That was almost the totality of my combat for that first tour. Bigger and better was going to happen after I extended my tour.

SP/4 Ronald A. Steinke, 615th MP Company, 1966-1967.