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To Vietnam and Back Thomas K To Vietnam and Back Thomas K. (Tom) Butt Revised May 1, 2021 Table of Contents The Author .......................................................................................................................... 4 PREFACE ........................................................................................................................... 5 INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................. 7 ROTC ................................................................................................................................ 10 FORT BELVOIR .............................................................................................................. 13 FORT POLK ..................................................................................................................... 14 VIETNAM EN ROUTE ................................................................................................... 17 Settling In at Long Binh ................................................................................................ 18 Country Boy Discovers Saigon ..................................................................................... 28 Daily Routine ................................................................................................................ 30 Change of Command .................................................................................................... 69 Building Bridges ........................................................................................................... 69 Bad News ...................................................................................................................... 85 R & R ............................................................................................................................ 96 Courts Martial Duty ...................................................................................................... 97 Checking Out .............................................................................................................. 101 Men of HHC 159th Engineer Group – Epilogue ........................................................ 106 THAILAND .................................................................................................................... 124 HONG KONG ................................................................................................................ 124 JAPAN ............................................................................................................................ 126 USSR............................................................................................................................... 132 AUSTRIA ....................................................................................................................... 138 GREECE ......................................................................................................................... 144 The End ........................................................................................................................... 151 Appendix A – Richard Roughgarden .............................................................................. 152 Appendix B – Harmon Remmel ..................................................................................... 156 Appendix C – Mike Thomas ........................................................................................... 161 Appendix D – Martin Andrew Butt ................................................................................ 178 Appendix E – Thomas Franklin Butt .............................................................................. 203 Appendix F - Vietnam Revisited .................................................................................... 225 Good Morning Vietnam Day 1 ................................................................................... 225 Good Morning Vietnam Day 4 ................................................................................... 230 Now in Can Tho .......................................................................................................... 253 Goodbye Vietnam Day 8 ............................................................................................ 262 Into the Heart of Darkness .......................................................................................... 267 Exploring Angkor Wat ................................................................................................ 271 On to Bangkok ............................................................................................................ 275 Back in Bangkok ......................................................................................................... 281 Sleepless in Saigon ..................................................................................................... 283 Video Clips To Vietnam and Back, Thomas K. (Tom) Butt Page 2 of 285 • Tom Butt, Vietnam 1969-70, HHC 159th Engineer Group, 20th Engineer Brigade • Mission to Ham Tan, Vietnam 1969 • Construction of Corduroy Road, MSR Zinc, Vietnam 1969 • Saigon from the Rooftop1969 • The Streets of Saigon 1969 • Mission to Vung Tau, Vietnam 1969 • Party for Children of Mama Sans, Long Binh, Vietnam 1969 • Vietnam from Above 1969 • Phu Cuong Float Bridge, Vietnam 1969 • Changing of Command, 159th Engr. Gp., Vietnam 1969 • R&R in Sydney, New Year 1970 Other References • Operational Report – Lessons Learned, 159th Engineer Group, Period Ending April 30, 1970 • Operational Report – Lessons Learned, 34th Engineer Battalion, Period Ending October 31, 1969 • Operational Report – Lessons Learned, 169th Engineer Battalion, Period Ending 30 April 1969 • Operational Report – Lessons Learned, 169th Engineer Battalion, Period Ending 31 July 1970 • http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/869493.pdf Other Stories • Old Soldiers - http://www.tombutt.com/forum/2012/120425b.htm • Old Soldiers - http://www.tombutt.com/forum/2012/120401.htm. To Vietnam and Back, Thomas K. (Tom) Butt Page 3 of 285 The Author Tom Butt is an architect and founder of Interactive Resources, a Richmond, California, architecture-engineering firm. He served on the Richmond City Council for twenty years before being elected mayor in 2014. In 2020, he is in his second four-year term as mayor, with a term limit of eight years. Tom grew up in Fayetteville, Arkansas, earned a Bachelor of Architecture/Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Arkansas and a Master of Architecture in Urban Design from UCLA. Tom has been married to Shirley Ryland Butt for 48 years. They have two sons and five grandchildren. To Vietnam and Back, Thomas K. (Tom) Butt Page 4 of 285 PREFACE For thirty years after 1970, I thought little about my experiences in the Army and especially my year in Vietnam. After my father died in May 2000, I found in his files all the letters I had written home to my parents from Vietnam in 1969-70. I thought it would be a worthwhile project to transcribe them as a chronicle of one person’s experience in a war that has become a metaphor. I unpacked old photos and had Super 8 movies digitized. In addition to my own photos, I used photos provided by Eric Nelson, Allen Tolbert, Bernhard Horstmann and the 159th Group public information officer. I have been working on this project off and on since 2000, and it has evolved into a memoir centered around my military experiences that roughly span the years 1962, when I first was required to enroll in ROTC at the University of Arkansas, through the conclusion of a journey across half the world in 1970 that began when I was discharged from the Army in Vietnam. Over the years, I have added appendices that describe the experiences of others who crossed my path -- a close hometown friend who was killed in Vietnam in 1968, a fraternity brother killed in Vietnam in 1969, a shooting accident victim on whose trial I served in a general courts martial board and my younger brother, Martin, who survived as a marine in Vietnam only to die in an automobile crash soon after he returned. And finally, I included my journal from a trip Shirley and I took to Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand in 2009. Over the years, I have read dozens of books that constitute the memories of Vietnam veterans. Most were written by men who served in combat units and recall endless combat assaults, combat patrols and firebase defense, or by helicopter pilots who largely supported these combat units. I have great respect for these soldiers whose jobs were dirty, dangerous and often deadly. Of the 2.7 million Americans who served in uniform in Vietnam, approximately 40%, or a little over a million, served in combat units, but I was not one of those. My story is not one of heroics. I was one of the other 1.7 million in a support role that not so much has been written about, although I have come across books by nurses, engineers and MPs. I just did the job I was given and did it well. Unlike the common perception that Vietnam was all death and danger, I found my one- year tour to be fascinating and professionally engaging. I did not pick my job; it was simply what I ended up being assigned to do, and I was luckier than many. I never slept on the ground or even in a tent, humped the boonies or fired my weapon. I was part of the Army engineer effort that at the height of the war constituted about 10 percent of Army troops serving in Vietnam, organized into two brigades, six groups and 28 construction and
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