NSA DaNang Hospital-Joe Matisohn NSA Danang

Joe,
Good to see some information posted about NSA Hospital at Danang. I think I recognize you from the picture, but we only overlapped at the hopital for 6-8 weeks and that was a long time ago.

I would appreciate it if you would rewrite your article to be a bit more accurate about your role. Far from being in charge, Unsworth, Layne, Oberline, and others outranked you both in time in country and Seabee rank. I was at the Tet party you mention, and I can assure you that you were not the guest of honor. At that time we had 11 US Seabees, 15 Koreans craftsmen, and 150 Vietnamese working for us.

I was officer in charge (an ensign at the time) of Area Work Center #2 at the hospital from July 1969 until I left in late February 1970 to go to the Mekong Delta. Handing the hospital over to the army was imminent, and when I left Unsworth (BUI) took over. I do not know how long he was there. Chief Lloyd had done a fantastic job until he retired and went home in November 1969. They then sent us a new deadbeat chief who did not understand what a great gig we had. I canned him within two weeks and thereafter Unsworth took over as lead petty officer and did a great job.

I have fond memories of my time there in spite of the mortars and rockets. Mostly it was the great group of people just trying to do a job. I revisited Danang two years ago and received a warm welcome. China Beach is now a booming resort, and the old hospital is being replaced by a new 6 story modern hospital structure. The Vietnamese people are fantastic and are building a booming economy, even if it is still a dictatorship.

Dave Hicks