Teams from the Snake Platoon worked a mission in Cam Ranh on occasion. On one early such mission the team was sitting on the beach drinking beer when they were asked to move because a Division of Marines was arriving via an amphibious landing. The Snake Platoon’s response was, “We were here first.” As a matter of fact, A S A (which you may recall was never in Vietnam) arrived four years ahead of the Marines. While working out of Nha Trang, we made several trips to Cam Ranh for various reasons, such as retrieving trucks at the docks, trading for outboard motors and other necessities, and hiding from visiting inspection teams. “They are all in the field this week and probably next week as well,” was the story given the inspectors, “and they have all of the equipment with them.” All considered, Cam Ranh was okay. It had PX’s, snack bars, and a good beach, but so did Nha Trang. I imagine the guys from Pleiku would have been more impressed with it.
During the war, the US Air Force operated a large cargo airlift base at Cam Ranh, as well as a tactical fighter base and one of the three airports where US Military personnel arrived in country and departed at the end of their tour. Today, it is the Cam Ranh International Airport. There are side by side then and now photos below.
The Army also had its presence in Cam Ranh. Perhaps surprisingly, the Army and not the Navy, controlled the port and supply depot there. The Army also maintained the 6th Convalescent Center at Cam Ranh. Wounded soldiers who had received initial treatment, probably at an evacuation hospital, who did not need to be transported to Japan or Stateside for further treatment but were not yet able to return to their duties were sent here to recuperate.
Cam Ranh Bay is likely the best deepwater shelter in Southeast Asia, making it important for shipping and for military purposes. The French used it as a naval base for their incursions into Indochina. In 1905, the Russian navy used it as a staging point for their 40-ship fleet in preparation for the Battle of Tsushima. In 1942, Japan used Cam Ranh Bay to prepare for their invasions of British Malay and Borneo. The US Navy destroyed it in 1945, after which it was abandoned. Twenty years later, the US rebuilt it for use during the Vietnam War via its Naval Air Facility. Cam Ranh operations were turned over to the South Vietnamese in 1972.
When the Central Highlands fell to the Communist forces in the spring of 1975, there was a general panic throughout the country. By the end of March, the city and harbor at Danang were in massive disarray. With sappers coming in to destroy the Danang port facilities, refugees sought to board anything that would float. Initially, Cam Ranh was chosen as a safe haven for refugees and remaining South Vietnamese troops, but it soon was also in peril, and the refugees reembarked for the Gulf of Siam. Cam Ranh, and all of its military facilities fell to the North Vietnamese on April 3.
In 1979, four years after Vietnam’s reunification, Cam Ranh became a Russian naval base under a 25-year lease agreement. The Russians also used it as a base for Signals Intelligence, primarily listening to Chinese warships in the South China Sea. While there, they increased the size of the base fourfold. The Russians left in 2002, balking at a Vietnamese demand for additional rent monies. Today, it serves as a site for Vietnamese naval maintenance and a logistical facility for foreign warships.
There are well over 14,000 pagodas in Vietnam. The Vu Tan Pagoda in downtown Cam Ranh, though, is unlike any of the others. (It’s odd, but I never knew for sure there even was a downtown Cam Ranh.) The Vu Tan pagoda was constructed in 1968 and has recently been restored. The pagoda’s garden is a peaceful place which contains many groupings of Buddhist sculptures, images of the many goddesses, and numerous miraculous animals. The dominant feature of the Tu Van pagoda, though, is the Bao Tich tower, which stands 39 meters high and the construction of which began in 1995 and took five years. The tower includes 49 smaller pyramidal towers on its outside, each containing a different Buddha statue under its dome, or stupa. The main tower has eight doors and two floors. The upper floor is solely for worship, but the lower floor is open to visitors. The tower walls, inside and out, have been skillfully and time-takingly inlaid with shells and bits of coral, all arranged in delicate patterns and designs.
The shell and coral designs, though, may not be the most impressive feature of the Tu Van pagoda. Visitors can enter through a narrow opening in the wall into the Pathway to Hell. The pathway is a narrow, dark and meandering 500-meter tunnel which is the inside of a dragon. Passage requires the use of a candle or flashlight, and in several places, bending or wiggling through chokepoints in the tunnel. Near the end of the tunnel, the visitor views drawings of the 18 levels of the Buddhist hell. Each level provides a specific punishment for a specific sin. The transgressor spends more time enduring the punishment in each successive level than the level before it. There are different versions of the Buddhist Hell, but the punishments include extreme cold, extreme heat, dismemberment, being ground with a mortar and pestle, immersion in boiling sand, skinning, and maggots. At the end of his tortures, the transgressor repeats the process indefinitely. At the end of this pathway, though, the visitor emerges from the tunnel through the mouth of the dragon.
