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Phu Bai Detachment
212th MP Company (Sentry Dog)
212th MP Company (Sentry Dog)
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720th Military Police Battalion Reunion Association Vietnam History Project |
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Phu Bai Detachment 212th MP Company (Sentry Dog) |
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1972 |
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Phu Bai was situated north of Highway QL-1 approximately one klick southeast of the ancient city of Hue in Thua Thien province, Military Region-I. As best can be determined from the limited information currently available, it appears that with the stand down of U.S. units in the area under Vietnamization, several members of the 595th MP Company (Sentry Dog) originally attached to the 504th MP Battalion in Military Region-I were absorbed by the 212th MP Company (Sentry Dog) detachment in Phu Bai. |
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Photo courtesy of SP/4 Bernie Melancon 212th Company (Sentry Dog), 18th MP Brigade, U.S. Army Pacific Area Command, 1972. |
Reflection: We were a small detachment - 5-6 handlers, a vet, and two E6 NCO's. I'm going by memory, but I think the MP unit at Camp Eagle, those who provided police duty and gate security were B Company, 504th MP Battalion. There may be more than one "Camp Eagle", but the camp I served at was on Highway 1 west of Phu Bai across the highway from the military airport. |
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Camp Eagle was primarily a signal base at the time, but contained units from the 1st/4th Cavalry providing gun ship support for the ARVN infantry involved in the Easter Offensive of 1972. Our main security concerns for my 212th detachment at Camp Eagle was the 8th Radio Research antenna field outside the berm and bunker line used by the signal personnel, and the airport which held air mobile gun ships and personnel. When the NVA came through the DMZ at the end of March of 1972, and Quan Tri and Camp Carroll fell to the NVA armored infantry, Camp Eagle got pretty hairy. We were attacked - mortars and rockets - 3-4 nights per week. We had no casualties - thank God. In July '72 the NVA over ran the ammo dump west of Camp Eagle and zapped two ammo cache chambers with some ARVN casualties. That was the best fireworks display I've ever seen - the dump blew for three days and bellowed smoked for ten. John Meier, 212th MP Company (Sentry Dog), USARPAC, 1972. |
Reflection: I was stationed at Phu Bai from February-July, 1972 as an MP Sentry Dog Handler. I had two dogs, the first was Major, but he was retired, so then I was assigned to Lancer. His handler, Gene Tremelling was promoted to acting E-5 and assigned an office job. I agree with everything that John Meier said, there were about eight of us, one Vet Tech and the line duty MPs of the 504th. I do remember the ammo dump exploding for a few days and it was pretty spectacular. SP/4 Bernie Melancon, 212th MP Company (Sentry Dog), USARPAC, 1972. |
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Reflection: just before I left the guys to escort the dogs down to Long Binh. Another dog handler and I flew in a C-130, and since I was in charge, I was asked by the pilot if I minded if some local civilians flew also. I didn't have a problem with it and agreed to let them fly. Everything went fine. The dogs didn't take up much space so we carried about 20 extra people, as I recall. Saying goodbye to Lancer was difficult, but any loss was part of being a soldier in a combat zone. We all prepared ourselves for the unexpected when sent to Nam. We were lucky because we didn't lose anyone, but we were all prepared mentally if we did. SP/4 Bernie Melancon, 212th MP Company (Sentry Dog), USARPAC, 1972. |
Miscellaneous Photographs |
Detachment members Sparks, Tremelling, Langford, Kessler and others. |
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Detachment members Campbell, Langford, Howland, Tremelling and Turner. |
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| Detachment members Howland, Campbell and Meier. | |
| Detachment members Tremelling and unidentified driver. | |
| Detachment members Kessler, Campbell, Meyer and their K9's. | |
| SP/4 Melancon and his K9 Lancer before stand-down. | |
| SP/4's Landford and Armstrong creating the Detachment K9's before stand-down. | |
| SP/4 (Acting Sergeant) Tremelling in the Detachment Orderly Room. |
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