civic action

The roadway projects throughout the Tactical Area Of Responsibility (TAOR) enhanced the economic future of the area by improving the ability of local villagers to travel to and from work and the local farmers and merchants to transport their produce and materials to larger markets. This project also opened the TAOR to other merchants and manufacturers to provide additional goods and services to the area from the city of Bien Hoa and the capital of Saigon.

Potable Water Service New village pumps and wells were constructed along with cleaning and repairs to older existing pumps and wells that improved the water volume and quality, thus improving the health of the villagers.

Bridge Construction Many of the village bridges were rickety 12” wide planked wooden foot bridges that could only handle minimal foot and bicycle traffic. Others were somewhat larger but given their age and construction were accidents waiting to happen with the volume of vehicular traffic above, and sampan traffic in the swift running turbulent tidal waters below. Main roadway bridges were replaced or reinforced with wooden trusses and roadway decks so they could now handle a variety of vehicular traffic.

Friendship Bridge - An Xuan The most important bridge construction project in the TAOR was undertaken in 1968 just outside the Village of An Xuan which was a virtual island surrounded by rice paddies, deep tidal streams, and swamp. The two bridges constructed that summer spanned 130 feet over two parallel streams and replaced two old wooden planked foot bridges. The new bridges with concrete piers and steel girders can now hold approximately 36 tons each and cut the travel time from An Xuan village to the main village market in An Hoa Hung from hours walking and via sampan to 10 minutes by vehicle or bicycle.

The two bridges were well beyond the financial, technical, and logistical ability of the local villagers so the CAT had them constructed through the assistance of the military using the local MPs as night site security, and Army Engineers of D Company, 46th Engineer Battalion, 20th Engineer Brigade.

On 7 July a formal dedication celebration organized by the 18th MP Brigade, 89th MP Group, and 720th MP Battalion was held and well attended by the local villagers from An Xuan along with civil dignataries from Long Binh District and Bien Hoa Provence.

The bridge project came at a high price. During the construction and subsequent security pahse the local Viet Cong who were desperate to regain their influence in the village initiated two major land mine attacks. The first on 12 June destroyed a D Company, 46th Engineer Battalion 3/4 ton dunp truck and wounded the driver, the second on 1 October destroyed a B Company, 720th MP Battalion 1/4 ton truck (jeep) assigned to the local joint Village Outpost killing one MP and seriously disabling the second. Two Vietnamese villagers who were passengers in the jeep were also seriously injured.

Foot Bridges - An Xuan In 1969 the 89th MP Group CAT and the Vietnamese government Revolutionary Development Team (RDT) combined for a joint construction project with the local An Xuan villagers to improve two interior village foot bridges to further link the stream divided village.

The old planks and post were torn down and new bridges made of wood, brick, and cement were built in their place. It was a successful community effort. The MPs provided the cement and a local village factory provided the bricks.

The RDT and the villagers did the actual construction work. The bridges greatly enhanced the village economic stability.

Governmental Facilities Early in 1968 a new An Hoa Hung office compound was constructed to replace the one the Viet Cong (VC) destroyed in 1967. The Village officials were given the opportunity to have the new building constructed on land closer to Long Binh Post, for security concerns. The village government decided to build it in its original location as a show of defiance to the VC and that the village government had faith in the new security measures of the local MP and PF patrols. This confidence displayed by the local government officials would also be noticed by the local populous. The building was never again damaged by the local VC.

Medical Civic Action Programs (MED-CAP's) With the improved security within the TAOR the frequency of dental and general medical MED CAP's were increased. Eventually new wooden framed MED-CAP shelters were constructed in each village for the visiting military medical teams to have a designated location to conduct their now routine weekly medical and dental examinations.

Education The elementary school of An Hoa Hung was educating a total of 700 children on a split session schedule from 0700 hours (7:00 AM) until 1800 hours (6:00 PM). They had only four of the six available classrooms functioning with eight teachers and not enough desk space for all of the children. The CAP through the local village government, assisted them in obtaining an additional teacher from the district and enough wood and materials to have local village carpenters manufacture 20 new long table desks (to seat approximately 150 children). This allowed the school to open two previously unused classrooms.

The school buildings of the other villages in the TAOR also received much needed improvements such as, new classrooms, existing class room enlargements, general building improvements and roof repairs. Blackboards were purchased and put in place.

School kits and needed supplies for the classroom were obtained from the international relief agency CARE and other sources, and distributed by local village officials to the children providing them with the necessary supplies of pens, ink, notebooks, rulers, and erasers for each student.

Regular field trips to Saigon were sponsored for the school children, many of whom had never been outside the confines of their villages before. The tours allowed for visits to the Vietnam Naval Headquarters, Saigon docks, Cholon, National Palace, US Embassy, Saigon Zoo and Tan Son Nhut Air Base.

English language classes were provided to local school children by MP’s after regular school hours. As many as 30 children ranging from five to sixteen years of age regularly attended the twice a week, two hour classes.

The classes were held in the villages of An Hoa Hung, Long Hung, and Long Binh Tahn. These classes were taught by MP’s like SP/4 Richard Peterson of the 720th Headquarters Detachment who volunteered their services in their spare time.

Employment Many of the local villagers from the TAOR worked at Long Binh Post for military and civilian contractors located there. The local economy of the villages was supported by the jobs. Not only did the villagers employed there become self sufficient through their wages, they also learned valuable trade and clerical skills.

Adult education and English language classes were held for Vietnamese civilian employees that worked on the Long Binh Military Post. The added educational programs would enhance their ability to perform the jobs they held. These classes were taught by MPs like SP/4's Roger W. Daley and Edwin E. Lucas of the 720th Headquarters Detachment who volunteered their services.

Community Social Functions Vietnamese national holiday celebrations were supported and sometimes sponsored by the CAP and local MPs from the Battalions organic companies and village outpost.

The MPs would provide security for village social functions, and in many instances they would also arrange for refreshments and often through their own funds would provide gifts to all the village children. Often the village officials would express their personal gratitude and in some instances have the children perform songs and skits for their MP guests.

Long Binh Tan One example, on Christmas Eve of 1967, volunteers from A Company provided physical security for the Catholic Church in Long Binh Tahn. The Village, mostly Catholic, requested the assistance of MP’s from A Company to allow them to celebrate a Midnight Mass. The Mass was the first conducted in years free from the threat of local Viet Cong harassment. The following day, Christmas, the men from A Company also held a celebration for the children from the church orphanage and provided ice cream, gifts, and a Santa.

Orphanages In 1970 the 720th MP Battalion was supporting the Khiet Tan Orphanage in Vung Tau, the Bethlehem Orphanage in Xuan Loc, and the Good Sheppard Orphanage in Vinh Long. The total number of orphans quartered at all three was approximately 600. The 720th MP Battalion Civic Action Council and MP detachment members presented a Christmas party at each orphanage on 23, 24, and 25 December respectively. Food and gifts consisting of clothing, toys and candy were made available for each child. A Christmas pageant was performed by the younger children for the MPs.

Trash Services Previously unheard of garbage and refuse pickups were conducted with a truck provided by the US military and two local workers hired by the villages to operate it. This reduced the instances of rat and insect infestation within the village areas.

Emergency Services A local village cooperative emergency fire response team was formed and vehicle was obtained. It may have only been a three wheeled Lambretta but it was a start in the right direction and something that the people never had prior to the CAP program.

Joint Assistance Patrols (CAP Patrols), MPs, local PFs (Popular Forces), and Can Sats (National Police), were assigned to regular patrol routes within the TAOR to provide a mobile reaction force to other MP patrols and outpost. However, the majority of the patrol work involved providing community service assistance. Transportation assistance was the bulk of their patrol day.

Incidents involving traffic accidents and taking injured civilians to the hospital; helping a villager return his ill wife back to the mental ward at the Vietnamese hospital in Bien Hoa from where she walked away; rushing a woman with advanced case of leprosy to the 24th Evacuation Hospital; saving the life of an epileptic child that almost drowned while having a seizure, and many other request to varied and numerous to mention.

There are also the unusual request like the pastor of the Catholic Church in Long Binh Tahn. The problem was how to put a huge statute of the Virgin Mary on its pedestal 25 feet above the front door of the church. The MP patrol enlisted the assistance of a crane from an engineering unit at Long Binh Post and the problem was solved. By performing all these duties in a swift but effective manner the MP assistance patrols were certainly the welcomed troubleshooters of the TAOR area.

Revolutionary Development Teams (RDT) The RDT cadre were sent by the by the Vietnamese government to assist the people in setting up and improving their own effective government within the village. They also organized a security and reactionary force within the village and instructed the people in the use of weapons and civil defense. Security fences of barbed wire were strung along the most dangerous perimeters of the villages to disrupt local VC infiltration access.

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These RDT cadre underwent an intense nine-month training program in the port city of Vung Tau. Then, much like the American VISTA volunteers, they were assigned to various districts to live and work with the people. They showed the people that their government cared and was there to assist them.

The RDT teams were also assisted by the 89th MP Group Civic Action Team by helping with other village activities such as psychological (PSYOPS) operations against the local VC, display and dissemination of political and educational films and other communications from the Saigon government.

CPL Thomas T. Watson, B Company, 720th MP Battalion, 89th MP Group, 18th MP Brigade, Long Binh, Vietnam, March 1968 to March 1969.