Seabee 71 in Chu Lai: Memoir of a Navy Journalist with a Mobile Construction Battalion, 1967

by David H. Lyman

Overview

 Hoping to stay out of Vietnam, David Lyman joined the U.S. Naval Reserve to avoid the draft. By summer 1967 he was with a SeaBee unit on a beach in Chu Lai. A reporter in civilian life, Lyman was assigned to Military Construction Battalion 71 as a photojournalist. He documented the lives of the hard-working and hard-drinking SeaBees as they engineered roads, runways, heliports and base camps for the troops.

The author was shot at, almost blown up by a road mine, and spent nights in a mortar pit as rockets bombarded a nearby Marine runway. He rode on convoys through Viet Cong territory to photograph villages outside "The Wire." The stories and photographs Lyman published as editor of the battalion's newspaper, The Transit, form the basis of this memoir.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781476636887
Publisher:	McFarland & Company, Incorporated Publishers
Publication date:	11/08/2019
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	240
File size:	23 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

David H. Lyman is a writer, photographer and entrepreneur. He left the Navy to become a newspaper and magazine editor. In 1973, he founded The Maine Photographic Workshops, and built his summer school into an international conservatory for the world’s photographers, filmmakers, writers and media producers. It is located in Rockport, Maine, and continues today as MaineMedia.edu.
David H. Lyman is a writer, photographer and entrepreneur. He left the Navy to become a newspaper and magazine editor. In 1973, he founded The Maine Photographic Workshops, and built his summer school into an international conservatory for the world's photographers, filmmakers, writers and media producers. It is located in Rockport, Maine, and continues today as MaineMedia.edu.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Glossary
Preface
 1. All This to Avoid the Draft?
 2. Off to Sea, with a Camera
 3. I’m Going to Be a Seabee
 4. Training for Combat Duty
 5. Waiting to Deploy
 6. Hello, Vietnam!
 7. Life in This ’Bee Hive
 8. The Battalion
 9. The ’Bees Get to Work
10. Close Calls Come in Many Sizes
11. Outside the Wire
12. The Vietnamese People
13. Civic Action Program
14. Putting the Pieces Together
15. The End Is in Sight
16. The Last Month in ’Nam
Appendices: The End Is Never Really the End
deleteThe Faces of Vietnam’s Future
deleteWhat Happened to MCB-71?
deleteLessons Learned
deleteOur Commanding Officers
deleteWhat Are the “Boys” Doing Now?
deleteThe One Who Didn’t Return
deleteThe History of NMCB-71’s Pacific Deployment in World War II
Index

Editorial Reviews

Through Lyman, we realize the uniqueness of Navy Seabees and their contributions to the war effort in Vietnam. … Lyman’s memoir is unique among memoirs of military service. ...highly recommended”— Army University Press

“A compelling and chronological retelling of [Lyman’s] memories”—Sightings.

“The book is a compelling, chronological retelling of [Lyman’s] memories, supplemented by still-living shipmates and their family members.”—United States Navy Public Affairs Association

From the Publisher