USS Dick Lykes
At the Port of Beaumont, Texas, September 1965
Awaiting the Loading of the 6/27th Artillery and other units equipment
WJefferies Photo

Most of us that shipped to Vietnam to join the 6/27th Artillery or one of many other units went over in a chartered jet.  It was a long 10 hour flight with a stop in Guam or the Philippines for refueling and we were all weary and apprehensive when we arrived at Ton Son Nhut Air Base.  Not so with the first guys of the 6/27th Artillery and other units.  They boarded the US Navy Ship William S. Gordon at Oakland.  Under extremely crowded conditions they spent the next thirty days aboard the troop ship.  After arriving in South Vietnam on November 3, 1965 they spent the next two weeks at a staging area on the grounds of Saigon University.  Some of them mistakenly thought they were waiting for the guns and equipment that had been sent on another ship, the USS Dick Lykes, a freighter of the Lykes Lines.  Some heard rumors that the Army had mistakenly sent the equipment to Australia and it took two weeks of waiting while the equipment was reshipped to Vietnam. 

This was not so as we will learn from Wesley Jefferies, one of seven enlisted men designated as equipment guards, who accompanied the equipment aboard the Dick Lykes.  Together with Wesley's photos and memories we will retrace that trip from Ft Bliss, Texas to the docks of Saigon and finally, where as a member of Bravo Battery, Wesley arrived at Phouc Vinh.  It is a fascinating journey and we thank Wesley Jefferies for sharing it with us.  Come now - hop aboard by clicking the start button below and we will begin.