So much horror happened in February 1964 for U.S. personnel in Saigon.

3 February 1964–Kontum City (MAAG compound) was attacked with grenades. 1 U.S. soldier wounded and 1 building burned.

7 February 1964–Playboy Bar bombed and 5 U.S. killed

9 February 1964–Pershing Field bleachers were bombed during the second softball game. 2 U.S. killed and 23-25 wounded. (There was a mention in the Gecko about this.) A bomb was placed in a bicycle that was leaned against the bleachers. In another account, it stated that a second portion of the bomb failed to explode. If it had, an estimated 50 people would have died.

PFC Don Taylor, with the 3RRU my father’s unit, was at the game. He was supposed to report for duty, but stayed to watch the second game. He never returned to duty and was one of the two casualties.

Also that February there was an attempt to bomb the bowling ally. Police found a bike rigged with plastic explosives in the ally. It was leaning against the wall. Luckily it failed to detonate. (This was shared by Les Arbuckle.)

All these bombings began the first evacuation of U.S. dependents that took place March 10. My mother, brother, and I were with that group. My father stayed behind to finish his tour of duty, before joining us stateside in November 1964.

Kathy as I recall back in 1959 – 61 when I was there, we went to school year round. 7:30 a.m to 11:30 a.m. Our only studies were correspondence courses from the U of SoCal. And, the ’school year’ as far as studies were concerned was ‘off’ by 3 months, so when I returned to USA I had to retake the 2nd half of the previous grade to get back in sync with USA school years. Which was nothing new to me really, because after growing up moving all the time, schooling got really messed up many times. LOL … end result I graduated a year later then I should have. LOL

Hmm I never knew they bombed our baseball park (Pershing Field) … do you have any info on it?

Bob

Does anyone remember when we went back to school? Was it in August or September?

I just made a shocking discovery. Tet 1964 began Wednesday, February 13. The bombing at Pershing Field occured on Sunday, February 9, two days before Tet Eve, and the bombing of the Capital Kinh Do happened on Sunday, February 16 during the 10-day Tet celebration.

Bob

Bob

Bob

I’m sorry to be such a stickler for detail (it’s the history teacher in me), but the bombing occurred on February 16th, not 18th. Since retelling of the Kinh Do has created so much interest, I am quoting verbatim Neil Sheehan’s UPI article that ran on February 17th, 1964:

“I felt like Alice in Wonderland tumbling down that hole,” said 15-year-old Barbara Bready, describing her feelings at the moment when a Communist bomb shattered an American community theater here Sunday.
Barbara, her red hair swathed in a large white bandage covering the cut she received from a piece of falling debris, was calm and cheerful as she told her story in the living room of her family’s Saigon home today.
“I went to the movie alone, but I met my girl friend, Mary Lou Poudre, there. We were sitting in the back about four rows from the door on the right hand side.It was real near the end of the movie when I heard this sound like a wooden box dropping against concrete. It sounded like it came from the candy counter out back. I had this strange feeling that something’s going to happen,” Barbara said.
“So women started stumbling around screaming and yelling. People started to push their way out of the rows, toward the doors, trampling over each other and falling down. i sort of got up and moved and then sat down again. Then i heard someone yell ‘Sit down!’ ‘Sit down!’. Mary Lou tugged at my skirt, and I threw myself to the floor and covered my head with my hands. I was all doubled up. The next thing I knew debris was flying all over. There was nobody else around. I felt like Alice in Wonderland tumbling down that hole. Then I heard the explosion. It was real, real loud and it was sharp and it was quick. When I got out on the street, I noticed blood tumbling down my blouse. But I didn’t feel a thing. Mary Lou and I walked to the bowling alley (U.S. Armed Forces bowling alley) about a block away. We went there because we thought they could help us and I could get my head bandaged. When we got there, a lot of soldiers rushed up to me and told me to sit down. One guy had a wet towel and he put it on my head. But a lady said don’t do that, and then another man put a bandage on my head from a first aid kit. A soldier gave me a shirt to put on because my blouse was too bloody. I went up to the lady’s room upstairs and changed.”
Barbara said she and her friend went to a U.S. military hospital about a mile away. A Navy corpsman sewed seven stitches into the cut on Barbara’s head to close it and swathed her head in a large white bandage.
Asked if she intends to go to the movies again in Saigon, Barbara, her freckled face breaking out into a smile said, “I don’t know. It depends on whether or not there’s a good picture.”

And that’s Barbara’s and my story in Barbara’s own words.

We didn’t know where my brother Mike was throughout the coup. He left early in the morning to parts unknown. We later found out he was out at Tan Son Nhut. I don’t know if he was at the JDP Compound, but he sat out the “storm” in that area.

On November 2, we got a phone call early in the morning telling us of his location. He called to the only phone in our complex that was at Captain Wood’s house. Captain Wood came over to tell us Mike was found and that he was safe.

I remember the Cercle Sporteff and the bottled lemonade drink called “lemon nod.” I remember the French kids who didn’t want us there and called us foul names.

Yes, there was an MP who was guarding the theatre who was the first fatality at the February 1964 explosion at the Capital Kinh Do. After he was shot, a bag was rolled into the theatre. Captain Koelper was buying a ticket at the time. When he realized what was happening, he rushed into the theatre. When the bomb exploded, it blew out the back of his head, and he died instantly.

I also found out that a third person died. I think he was also an American, but could only find out that he was so badly torn up they couldn’t identify him.