A Week with Squadron

DA NANG, South Vietnam — Here at the mouth of the Ca De Song River, about 80 miles from North Vietnam, war is an ever-present reality and the rumor mills and correspondents’ talk of Saigon is far away. For almost a week, I have been flying with Marine Helicopter Squadron 365, which bears a heavy burden of strike and supply missions in the I Corps Area in northern Vietnam.

Da Nang is little known by the U.S. public. But if the North Vietnamese or Chicoms should decide to move south, they would have to cross the strategic Hai Van Pass slightly to the north of Da Nang. National Highway No. 1, the only good road south, passes a short distance to the west of this French colonial town with its charming pastel-tinted houses. In the event of such a move, the Third Marine Division, part of which remains on shipboard in the South China Sea at all times, in all likelihood would come ashore at or near Da Nang to halt the Communist attackers and turn them back. The Third Division, which I recently visited in Okinawa, is a finely honed instrument of U. S. power in the Far East.

AH

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Anthony H. Harrigan

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DA NANG, South Vietnam — Here at the mouth of the Ca De Song River, about 80 miles from North Vietnam, war is an ever-present reality and the rumor mills and correspondents’ talk of Saigon is far away. For almost a week, I have been flying with Marine Helicopter Squadron 365, which bears a heavy burden of strike and supply missions in the I Corps Area in northern Vietnam.

Da Nang is little known by the U.S. public. But if the North Vietnamese or Chicoms should decide to move south, they would have to cross the strategic Hai Van Pass slightly to the north of Da Nang. National Highway No. 1, the only good road south, passes a short distance to the west of this French colonial town with its charming pastel-tinted houses. In the event of such a move, the Third Marine Division, part of which remains on shipboard in the South China Sea at all times, in all likelihood would come ashore at or near Da Nang to halt the Communist attackers and turn them back. The Third Division, which I recently visited in Okinawa, is a finely honed instrument of U. S. power in the Far East.