RIDDLEPHIL

Interview with Phillip Riddle, 1973

 

1973-11-1

 

Interviewer: Houry?, Steve

During his 10 years of service in the United States Navy, Riddle served three tours in Vietnam from 1964-1967. The beginning of the tape as recorded was lost "due to a mechanical error." As a lieutenant, Riddle was Military Navy Transport Officer for Southeast Asia working out of Saigon. This meant he was the representative for the Military Sea Transportation Service (MSTS) and coordinated any in-country sealifts that were required to transport materiel. He commanded two WWII class LSTs crewed by Japanese nationals. He describes in detail how barges would be loaded with bombs by Vietnamese stevedoring companies and then show up at the destination without any tracking. There was some theft that he describes, of detonators. He did not carry a weapon and drove his own vehicle; he had to be back at headquarters in Saigon by dark. He discusses the impossibility of identifying the enemy during this guerrilla war, and how the war came to a stop during "siesta" or lunch nap time. An MSTS aircraft carrier was sunk in Saigon while he was there. Initially dependents (family) of military personnel were allowed in Vietnam, with children guarded on school buses by military police. Dependents were suddenly ordered out of Vietnam in February of 1965. (The exchange and commissary did better business after they left.) He speaks of military advisors and special forces.

Phillip Edward Riddle; Military Sea Transportation Service; Stevedoring companies; Oral histories; Interviews; Viet Cong; United States Navy; Saigon; Transporting materiel; Vietnamese people; Vietnamese culture; Lunch naps; Siestas; Sinking of aircraft carrier; Family dependent visas; Military police; Military advisors; Special forces

 

 

© San Diego State University. All rights reserved.

 

 

English

 

Audiotape

01:28:01

No

 

 

 

Audio

MP3

110.81 MB