full use of available ships. The few Americans who were allowed ashore performed invaluable service.11

The Passage Starts

The first amphibious ship to arrive in Indochina was Menard (APA201), from Hong Kong. Admiral Sabin thought it best to keep her offshore and out of visual range until other ships arrived. Since many ships had been promised the Vietnamese, it was feared that the arrival of but one might feed Communist propaganda. The transports and cargo ships coming from Korean waters were delayed by a typhoon. Nevertheless, on 14 August, five days after the President's announcement, Montague (AKA-98) anchored in Along Bay, followed the next day by Montrose (APA-212), Algol (AKA-54), Montrail (APA-213), and Telfair (APA-210).

In anticipation of over-the-beach operations, Commander Teall and detachments of Underwater Demolition Team 12 surveyed possible beach sites, particularly on the Do Son Peninsula, which juts into the Tonkin Gulf twenty-five miles below Haiphong. On 16 August, attack transport Menard began loading refugees off Do Son, where in 1945 other United States naval units had embarked Chinese occupation troops being redeployed from North Vietnam. As in the earlier operation, the American ship loaded off the coast rather than at the city docks in order to avoid grounding on the bar east of Haiphong and because of the possibility of ambushes along the tortuous thirteen-mile-long channel.

A French LCT beached near Do Son and embarked refugees designated for evacuation in Menard. The 150-foot landing craft usually carried four or five tanks and a few dozen men, but on this day her valuable cargo consisted of frightened and seasick refugees crowding its hot, open well. After loading its human cargo, Menard weighed anchor and set sail for Saigon on the 17th with more than 1,900 passengers. Three days later, on the 20th, she docked at Saigon and unloaded her passengers according to plans formulated by Captain Rittenhouse, who commanded the Debarkation Group. Bands, honor guards, and French and American officials welcomed the first load of refugees. Priests assisted in carrying out the debarka

11 Ibid., encl. 1; CTF 90, report, ser 02 of 5 Jan. 1955; CTF 90, report, ser 0252 of 8 Nov.

tion, while ship's cranes hoisted baggage over the side. As the Vietnamese walked down the gang-plank, the Red Cross handed out packets of food before trucks took them off to the refugee camps surrounding the city.1

12

Other ships-APAs, AKAs, LSDs, and LSTs-followed. After the first day, embarkation at Do Son was suspended because of the heavy swells which crashed the landing craft against the ships and made the transfer too dangerous. Instead, the French landing craft picked up the refugees at the Haiphong docks and sailed the forty miles to the ship at Henriette Pass in Along Bay.

Preparing for the lift was a routine matter for the transports. However, for the cargo ships it meant working around the clock for several days. With five large holds and three levels each for carrying tanks and trucks, installing accommodations for 2,000 individuals per AKA-building ladders, providing some means of ventilation, making provisions for drinking water, washing, and sanitary facilities, and obtaining special supplies to accommodate the oriental refugees-presented an unusual challenge.

On the 21st, it was attack cargo ship Montague's turn. An LCT came alongside and Montague's sailors lowered a gangway to its deck. The Vietnamese hesitated. Finally, a wizened, hunched elder took the lead. With one hand clutching a bamboo pipe and the other a framed picture of the Blessed Virgin, he started up the steps. A sailor clattered down the gangway to help, but the gesture frightened the man. He froze. Only the press of people behind forced him up the ladder. After a few others mounted the ladder, sailors installed a canvas cover over and under it so that the waves crashing in the trough between the LCT and Montague could not be seen. The Vietnamese carried balance poles with large shallow baskets on either end in which they carried all their belongings-clothes, a rice bowl, chopsticks, and often a Catholic icon. Most were children or old men. In the confusion, the Vietnamese brought on board a huge barrel of the odorous Nuoc Mam fish sauce. The ship's doctor spotted it and ordered the pungent cargo heaved overboard. Too late, he learned that it contained a condiment considered indispensable to Vietnamese cookery.

During the passage of Montague to the south, three babies were bornthe first of ninety Vietnamese births that would be recorded in United States Navy ships through mid-November 1954. Since many of the embarkees

12 CTF 90, report, ser 0252 of 8 Nov. 1954; UDT 12, command history, 21 May 194631 Dec. 1958.

suffered from smallpox, malaria, and other diseases, Navy doctors and corpsmen were kept busy with almost continuous sick calls. Navy cooks learned how to prepare rice and other dishes in a Vietnamese style.

In this, as in subsequent ships, valuable assistance was rendered by a

French Army liaison officer and a control team which translated from Vietnamese into French and sometimes into English. Along with the priests and elders, the control teams explained Navy procedures to the refugees. So important were the control teams that the ships retained them on board during each succeeding trip to supplement the crews.

As the third day dawned, Montague sighted the mouth of the Saigon ship channel. At Saigon the Vietnamese Youth Organization greeted the ship and helped with the unloading, carrying children and baggage and assisting the elderly. Milk was distributed to the children by the American Women's Association of Saigon. Just before the refugees departed for their new homes, Bishop Pietro Martino Ngo Dinh Thục, the brother of Ngo Dinh Diem, visited the ship to bless the refugees and thank the officers and crew for their undertaking.

For the crew of Montague, the voyage had had its trying aspects, but there was a deep sense of satisfaction for the services provided to the refugees. And the lessons learned on this and other early trips would be put to good use."

13

While the majority of the refugees carried by American ships were Vietnamese, some 13,000 individuals of Chinese ancestry also fled the Viet Minh takeover in the North. Montrose embarked the first 2,340 Chinese on 2 September 1954."

Security

In mid-August a U.S. intelligence report concluded that: "In view of the Indo-China cease-fire agreement, it is unlikely that the Viet Minh will create any incidents to deter the peaceful evacuation of civilian and military personnel from the Hanoi area." 15 General O'Daniel also believed that the Viet Minh would not interfere. But the Navy had long before learned the danger of basing actions solely on assumptions of enemy intentions. Precautions were taken against sneak attacks by swimmers, small boats, or mines. In addition to posting extra deck watches, ship captains organized nighttime harbor security patrols in Along Bay and at debarkation points

in the South.

Ship's crews patrolled refugee spaces to forestall sabotage, but they rarely searched belongings and then only with a Vietnamese interpreter present. The crew of Magoffin (APA-199) discovered two grenades hidden

13 CTF 90, reports, ser 0252 of 8 Nov. 1954 and ser 04 of 3 Jan. 1955; Thomas A. Dooley, Deliver Us From Evil: The Story of Viet Nam's Flight to Freedom (New York: Farrar, Strauss and Cudahy, 1956), pp. 29–42.

14 CTF 90, report, 0252 of 8 Nov. 1954; Lindholm, Viet-Nam: The First Five Years, p. 49. 15 COMPHIBGRU1, operation order, 2-54 of 11 Aug. 1954.