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Blue Water Navy and Water Barges
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Ed Ball
Did you know that Seabees provided upgrades to an open water reservoir on Monkey Mountain capable of holding 1.9M gals of freshwater daily noted by Public Works? They created the dam, installed pumps, and an eight inch water pipeline as tracked by MACV HQs in their since declassified Monthly Summaries (I went to the NSA Danang section of the reports). For years, I knew this, but wondered where the 8 inch pipeline went? Until I found a crewmember of YW-101 (Navy Water Barge capable of 200,000 gals of potable water), that hooked up to a buoy in Tien Sha Cove and attached the 8 inch pipeline to fill his water barge to replenish visiting ships inport. The crew kept a journal daily, with dates, name of ships, and how much water was given. But unfortunately, these journals were not deemed worthy of records retention by our National Archives. MACV Monthly Summaries tracked monthly how much water was given to visiting ships, but from 1968 on, there is no records, although the barges were known to operate and assigned through 1972.
The Institute of Medicine (IOM), now known as the National Academy of Medicine, previously addressed receiving water from Vietnam, stating those ships docked while in port Vietnam, would be entitled to presumptive exposure to Agent Orange, for the time they received water. (Hotel Services may be listed in your ships Deck Log). But, they said nothing of Navy Water Barges.
In Da Nang I have found three such barges, YW-101, YW-115 and YW-128. In Vung Tau I found YW-126. If you know the dates of port visits, check for Deck Logs that show YW's port/starboard and advise the VA water barges alongside to replenish fresh water. i.e., On Friday, 09 January 1970, USS Floyd B. Parks (DD-884), at anchorage in Da Nang Harbor, RVN, at 1130 Received YW-101 to Port to receive water. On Wednesday, 14 January 1970, At 0905 YW-115 came alongside to Port. 0951 YW-115 away to Port. etc..
This becomes significant in that IOM advised the VA Secretary, "If a ship docked and took on potable water from Vietnam, crew members would have been eligible for a presumption of herbicide exposure only for the time the ship was docked (VA, 2008)."
So how do you find the dates of port visits? If your ship is capable of naval gunfire support missions after May 1966 you may want to look at the dates noted in NARA CONGA reports. Look for a break between days of NGFS missions, then request your Deck Logs. The National Archives at College Park 8601 Adelphi Road, College Park, MD 20740-6001 Another means is by referring to a spreadsheet I've developed that based on your ships Vietnam Service Medal, will give you the dates you operated in support of the war efforts in Vietnam. This spreadsheet shows the ships that are on the VA ships list (noted in RED font in the Remarks section) along with the ships that the Navy Secretary has advised members of Congress supported the war effort. (This of course being a work in progress, and is in no means meant to be official for VA purposes. But is a good tool for further research.) You may want to look for Command History Reports periodically, more are posted daily, so keep checking, they will advise dates upon arrival in port on the majority of occasions.
adding Command History link.
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