I was glad to see Ken Thompson's write up in the July
GUARDMOUNT about his tours at Nakhon Phanom (NKP).
I've read a lot about numerous locations in Vietnam and
all over SEA but rarely, if ever, see anything about
NKP. I spent one year (Sep 74 to Sep 75) at Nakhon
Phanom during the last year of the war and I was one
of the last 100 U.S. troops to leave SEA and close down
NKP. I was a communications clerk in the 87th
COMM SQ of 56th SOW (Spec Ops Wing) but was reassigned
to the 56th SPS for the last four months (having
been a SP Augmentee and gone thru training at Lackland
during prior assignment).
I pulled perimeter patrol and flight line guard duty
every night during those last months, and Ken Thompson's
comments were absolutely correct about those of us who
served in Thailand deserving the same respect as our
brothers who served in Vietnam. NKP was a Top Secret
camp from which numerous special operations were run
and from which the "CIA's secret war in Laos"
(as today's history books refer to it) was run.
Pathet Lao insurgents
regularly blew up flight facilities equipment and sappers
harassed and hit the camp. There were many U.S.
casualties at NKP and in Ops in Laos from NKP and even
casualties during the last few months as the war finally
closed down. Nakhon Phanom was a primitive place
compared to other AFBs in Thailand (e.g. Korat, Udorn RTAFB,
U-Tapao RTAFB) and was next to the Mekong River in NE Thailand
on the Laotian border. Recon drones, launched elsewhere
in Thailand to fly over and film North Vietnam and the
Hô Chi Minh trail, sometimes went down close to the river
and NKP SPs (base ground defense) teams took part in
their recovery. North Vietnamese backed Pathet
Lao insurgents constantly threatened that region of Thailand
during the year I was there. NKP was also the underground
intelligence center for the 7th Air Force.
