Airborne Brigade landed in Vung Tau, at the mouth of the

Saigon River. They would ~oen establish their headquar-

ters at Bien Hoa, twelve miles north of Saigon, guarding

the airfield there. At the same time, the marines were es-

tablishing their third tactical area of responsibility (TAOR)

at a newly constructed airfield in Chu Lai (see map, page

14). By the end of May approximately 20,000 American

combat troops-seven marine battalions and supporting

units and two army battalions-had swollen the ranks of

~erican forces in Vietnam to 46,500.

The troops were digging in to fight a war. But the com-

bat troops of the American armed forces represented only

the head of a body with a very long tail-the logistical sup-

port. The marines had been the first to take on a combat

role in Vietnam precisely because their tail was the short-

est. They carried what they needed with them. But as the

build-up continued throughout 1965 the logistical needs

became greater and greater, a massive problem that

commanding General William Westmoreland needed

more than a year to solve. A few statistics show the im-

mensity of the problem: By December 31, 1965, almost 1.3

million tons of dry cargo had been shipped to Vietnam

from the United States, over $35 million worth of construc-

tion had been completed, and some seventy-five million

barrels of petroleum products-gasoline, oil, and lubri-

cants (POL)-had been consumed along with fifty thou-

sand tons of ammunition. In all, one hundred six,y-five

thousand tons of cargo were reaching Vietnamese ports

and airfields each month.

Back in the United States these statistics, while unno-

ticed by many, took on real meaning for some Americans.

The workers at the Oscar Mayer plant in Madison, Wis-

consin, were turning out 2.6 million canned hams for ship-

ment to the troops. From Chicago the Borg-Warner Com-

pany began sending more than seven hundred thousand

steel helmets for the army, which had procured no new

helmets since 1958. In Huntsville, Alabama, Safety First

Shoe was working on an order for 253,907 pairs of

nylon-topped jungle boots, while de Rossi & Son was ship-

ping one hundred thousand tropical raincoats from its

plant in Vineland, New Jersey. These purchases were in-

significant compared to the $58 million order placed with

Kaiser Jeep and the two hundred and fifty million dol-

lars in orders the army placed for some sixteen hundred

helicopters.

There were other ways in which the new war in Viet-

nam was impinging on an otherwise quiet American

home front. The television networks began the construction

of additional telephone lines between Vietnam and

Hawaii to facilitate increased coverage. By midsummer

all three networks had sent their first full-time correspon-

Preceding page. Soldiers from the U.S. Army 101st Airborne

Division arrive at Cam Banh Bay aboard the U.S.N.S. Gen-

eral Le Roy Eltinge in Iuly 1965.