Naval Support Services

Dedicated to the Men and Women of the Support Facilities who provided the information and materials needed to find, engage and defeat our enemies.... Thank You!

Naval Support Facility (NavSupFac)-Cam Ranh Bay

The photo shows GMG1 George Dailey (IL), GMG3 George Stanley (CA), GMG3 William Worley (WV) and I, SKSN Tom Stoakley (FL) posed next to one of our trucks. The pallet on the truck was probably destined to be taken to the air base for shipment to our Marine Corps brothers on the DMZ. Most pallets made up that small were air shipments and most were sent north for the Marine Corps. photo submitted by Tom Stoakley

Naval Support Activity emblem

This was later changed to "Naval Support Facility (NavSuppFac) photo submitted by Tom Stoakley

NavSuppFac-Cam Ranh Bay, Vietnam When I arrived at Cam Ranh Bay in September of 1967, the base was considered an Activity, i.e. Naval Support Activity. The base personnel were divided into distinct units, each with separate missions. There was the Construction Battalion Maintenance Unit (CBMU-302) which took care of maintaining the vehicles and equipment, as well as the construction of buildings. There was also the Swift Boats (ComCosRon-1) and the Inshore Undersea War Group (River Patrol Boats), the Airdales up until about December of 1967, and you had the "Operation Market Time" personnel, who supplied services to the Navy and Marine Corps. At the time, the Airdales and some of the CB's were bused over to an air base 20 miles away, where the Navy Aviation Group worked and were later housed. The CB's did the construction of that base. Our base, during "Market Time", had approximately 2,000 personnel on board which decreased somewhat when the Airdales moved out. After the TET offense in January, 1968, the base population grew back to 2000+ again. My division, Ordinance Division, had a crew of 17 men with LCDR Charles Weeks in command. Next in seniority was an Aviation Storekeeper, a Senior Chief, and two other Storekeepers for the accounting of our ammo supply. The rest of the crew were Gunnersmates (GMG's). Only 4 to 5 of us worked at the Joint Services Ammo Depot where we housed everything from 5 inch, spin stabilized rockets for the LSMR's (White River, St. Francis River, Clarion River) and IFS (Carronade) to 16 inch rounds for the battleship New Jersey, to mortar rounds and 50 caliber ammo for the river and coastal patrol boats. The 5 inch rockets were our "best sellers" and I recall that most of them were produced in 1951 and 1952 in McAlester, Oklahoma, no doubt for the Korean war. The Tet offensive caught us with our pants down. Our senior petty officer (Gunnery), GMG1 Harry J. Sydnor had left for a 30 day R & R (for extending another 6 months) and LCDR Weeks had just come aboard and was still in the process of getting to know his command. This left me in the position of having to run the entire operation at the ammo depot. I didn't see much of my rack since the "Market Time" base was 18 miles away from the ammo depot. Good old "C" rations and dry sandwiches were all that was on the menu for many days. I knew, however, that my end of the job was easy compared to the crew members of the LSMR's and IFS. I used fork lifts and trucks to get the ammo to the barges, which were then brought alongside the ships moored in the bay. The crewmen aboard the LSMR's and IFS had to bring the ammo on board by hand. All in all, despite the hardships, I look back on my tour in Viet Nam as an experience I wouldn't trade. I met many interesting characters and many dedicated American sailors. Tom Stoakley