Movie Night in the Bleachers
Tell your story
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Michael Banks: 66-67 - Does anyone have a story to tell about all the movies we watched out by the basketball/volleyball court? I think it was Wednesday nites, and the fare was usually "Victory At Sea", or "Combat"! What a kick that was...
Bob Tegelman: Back in 1965 (Hawaii), Richard Stegner and I went to movie projection school so we could show training films in classes. On The USS Gordon they were looking for people to run the movie cameras. Think there were about twenty of us on the ship. We showed movies 24 hours a day. It kept us busy with old films and it was splice after splice. It was a great job with no KP and or guard duty.
When we got to Cu Chi we had a movie night thinking it was Wednesday night. The same old things, Old film and splices on splices too. But in Nam it was dusty,dirty and then came the monsoon season so we had to keep things dry too.
Bill Chiaramonte: 68-69 - In 1969 everyone was packed in the bleachers watching "Green Beret". During the climactic part where the bad guys were trying to overrun the Green Beret's base there was all sorts of mortar/rocket explosions and machinegun fire noise and we were all riveted to the screen when someone (don't know who) yelled "Hey that's real rockets hitting!" the bleachers were empty in seconds. We did catch several 122's during the movie.
Bruce Powell: 67-68 - I remember that we were pulling a lot of Counter Mortar standby at Dau Tieng; must have been 67. At least twice, maybe three times, we would go to watch the feature film (which always seemed to be "Doctor Zhivago") and every time get interrupted with a mortar attack. I finally got to see the whole thing back in the states some years later. My main memory of the movie is that it was far too long.
Carl Betsill: In Lai Khe in the fall of 1971 we had bleachers and a stage set up under a large canvas tent where entertainment such as a movie or a "gook" band would play on Friday nights. The bands would always sing "Joy to the World" by Three Dog Night. I can still hear them singing Jeremiah was a bullfwog. It was a hoot. Across the road was an ARVN artillery base. After you had been in Lai Khe a few weeks you learned to tell the arty fire from incoming mortars, B-40's or 122 rockets. That was not the case for some of the bands of course. I remember on one occasion a band seemed particularly nervous making their first performance in-country. They were usually brought in from Manila or Korea. During their performance the ARVN unit started firing directly across our compound. You could hear the shells as they passed over head. Some GI in the audience yelled INCOMING the whole band dropped their instruments and dove off stage while the rest of us sat in the bleachers laughing till our sides hurt. (Powell: I remember the very emotional song "Fee wings".)