Dong Tam was engineered out of inundated rice paddy land on the north bank of the My Tho River east of, and adjacent to, the mouth of the Kinh Xang (Canal). Silt and sand from the river bottom had been pumped to a depth of six feet to create a stable land mass suitable for construction that encompassed 600 acres. Work commenced in January 1967 and never stopped. Dong Tam was continually improved and expanded within its own acreage.

        The Army named the site Dong Tam, meaning United Hearts and Minds in Vietnamese.

     The barracks were two story buildings, and not all that bad. For a while, there was a hole right over my bunk where a mortar round and blown a hole in the roof, but it was fixed before the rain came. When it rained the down stares flooded ankle deep. Still, it was not bad. We ate at the MACV unit, and they had outstanding food. We ate midnight chow at the navy mess hall, and it was good too. We even had a small "club" downstates in the barracks.

     At that time, Dong Tam was, for the most part, an ARVN base. Many of the old 9th Division buildings were empty, and others were full of ARVNS with their wives, kids, pigs, and chickens. The American units on the base included the MACV detachment, an engineer unit, a medical detachment, and the MPs. There was also a navy base for the river patrol boats and a SEAL detachment. We got along well with the other units, for the most part. For a while, a Korean ran a Pizza shack on the base. One time after a mortar attack, some of us ran to the Pizza shack as soon as the rounds stopped falling, because we knew that there would not be a line. There was an American NCO/EM club on base, and there was an outdoor movie theater where movies were shown on a wall.

     We we were pretty isolated from company HQ at Vinh Long, and to contact the company we had to use a Vietnamese operated phone system and run the call through switch boards in a few towns before the call got to Vinh Long. The detachment commander was a lieutenant. We had two while I was there, and they were both good officers. For a while the battalion commander himself flew in for repeated inspections. I am not sure why he gave such attention to our little detachment. The battalion commander was an impressive officer, and I had a lot of respect for him.

     The men were almost all draftees, and they were not happy with being in the army. Still, they were a good bunch of guys, and I never saw them fail to do what was expected of them. SSG Joel Nichols, 188th MP Company, 92nd & 720th MP Battalion, 1969-1970.

September B Company of the 720th MP Battalion assumed responsibility for the discipline, law and order missions in IV Corps from the 188th MP Company. The 188th was scheduled for reassignment to DaNang in II Corps so to avoid the logistical problem associated with the move, B Company who had just completed their infantry assignment from Operation STABILIZE in the Tactical Area of Responsibility was redesignated as the 188th MP Company, and sent to DaNang. Some members of both companies remained in their original unit to maintain operational stability during the transition.

        The Battalion became tactically responsible for the manning and logistical support of all military police and provost marshal office detachments throughout III and IV Corps Tactical Zone's.

1 April B Company relocated the Dong Tam Provost Marshal Office to Tan An. The move and realignment enabled the MP’s to be more responsive to traffic accidents and incidents and to provide greater area coverage.