Below are pictures of the village of Cat Lo located up a small river and the home of USCG Division-13 and pictures of Vung Tau a larger town about 15 miles down the road from Cat Lo. Both Cat Lo and Vung Tau were located on the coast of Central Vietnam. Cat Lo was not only home for the nine cutters of USCG Division-13, but also home for several Navy Swift boats, Navy PBR's and Navy Air Cushion craft. Vung Tau had a large harbor at the mouth of the Saigon River where U.S. cargo ships would anchored and wait for a spot to open up in Saigon so they could go up river and off load their cargo. It was not uncommon for ten to fifteen ships to be anchored in Vung Tau harbor at any one time. Vung Tau was also the in country REST and RELAXATION (R & R) center for Vietnam and the liberty town for Division-13. Every person was supposed to get two weeks of R & R for each year in Vietnam. This was not always the case. Vung Tau was also the R & R center for the Viet Cong so there was very few problems there. Many of the Bars in Vung Tau were named after USA towns, cities and other familiar places to try and make the U.S. troops feel at home. Ask someone who was there what Saigon Tea is.
Arrive at Cat Lo
(Weitzel)
(1)
Cutters at
Cat Lo (Weitzel)
(2)
Cat Lo base bar
(Mattie)
(3)
Base Huts (Mattie)
(4)
Vung Tau bar
(Sampont)
(5)
Arriving Cat Lo (Weitzel)
(6)
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