Hospital History or How it all began

Hospital History

Hospital History or How it all began

Walter Schmiede provided us with this recollection of the hospitals earliest days and transport to Vietnam

The hospital party awaiting transport , Spec Walter Schmiede, ?, SSG Roger Lantagne and NCOIC? Oakland CA 1966

The hospital was reorganized at Ft. Meade Maryland where the unit was established. Around the 15th of January 1966 our supplies, equipment and trucks were shipped by surface to Oakland. CA. On the 25th of January the company flew from Friendship International Airport to Oakland. The sailing time from Oakland to Vietnam waters was scheduled to be about three weeks, more or less. It was mostly MORE! The hospital was transported by the USS General Walker, a WWII Troop Transport taken out of mothballs for our blissful excursion. Most of the officers did not travel with the troops. The officers flew by public transport, kept a stiff upper lip and completed the excursion without mishap. With 3,300 troops (365 from the 36th) on board with the usual ship's company, we sailed from Oakland on or about 1 February 1966.
We arrived in Vietnam waters at the end of February, but we remained on board for over a week. The 36th had been scheduled to go to DaNang but that had been changed. When the hospital reported to First Logistical Command, in somewhat amusing fashion (in retrospect) but bewildering fashion the bureaucrats had failed to notify First Log of the change. Therefore when we arrived in Nam, no one expected us or wanted us.
We were permitted shore access in Vung Tau around 10 Mar. 1966.

Construction on the 36th , as those who would follow would know it started almost immediately. We had one surgery tent and two ward tents along with a triage tent. I was assigned to triage. The Pharmacy operated out of the back of a deuce and a half truck...vehicle... that is.
The troops lived in a tent area about one mile from the hospital site. No transportation was provided. The first permanent building erected was the Mess Hall. Construction on the hospital progressed rapidly. In fact the hospital was fully operational faster than any other hospital in Vietnam which is why General Westmoreland pronounced it "The Best Hospital In Vietnam."

Robert "Wayne" Nelms adds more to the story

After we arrived in Vung Tau we tried to pitch tents. Because of the sandy soil and the fact we only had short tent pegs, instead of the long ones we required. No tents were pitched. The tents wouldn't stand in the sand. After this failed the Enlisted personnel were moved to an area about three miles away from the proposed hospital area. We were housed in GP Medium tents (12 men to a tent) in this area. We stayed there for a few months. The officers also lived in tents first and then Quonset huts that had previously housed an Army Aviation unit.
The first night we were there the airfield was mortared and the nurses Quonset huts were damaged. Thankfully we didn't have tents on the airfield. If we had set up tents as first planned there would have been many casualties.

At first the "Ville" or "Villa DuBois" (named for the second hospital commander LTC James DuBois) was the housing area for Officers and Senior Enlisted personnel. A few weeks later the EM were moved back to the company area after the hospital was in operation.
This three story building which most of us thought was a remnant of the French colonialists had been newly built. After the first year the housing was segregated, male officers lived on the top floor, females on the second, and senior and married officers on the first.

The Villa DuBois

LTC Dubois 2nd Hospital CO

Ted Stanowski one of the first hospital pharmacists recalls the early days around the hospital

We lived in 14-man tents for a month or two, had latrines (outhouses) and no showers. We relied on the afternoon monsoons for showers, and would simply stand outside with soap and clean up as well as we could. We would also save rain water in our steel pots for shaving the next morning (conserving water was important). Every morning we woke up with about an inch of sand on our bed sheets as we were quite near the sandy beach area.
After a short while, the permanent buildings of the hospital were being built and we moved to tents on concrete pads near there and had a nice bathroom/shower building. The pharmacy was already built and was authorized for two pharmacists. I was taking the place of one of the original guys.. There was a 2nd pharmacist named Ron Cizek. After a week or 10 days, the first guy left for home and it was down to Ron and I. We were quite busy with the support to the wards as well as the casualties coming in via chopper. I always looked at MASH as reminding me of the 36th so much as we had a lot in common with the way the tents were set up and how we supported the war casualties.