Hanenburg Built Bunkers Near The DMZ
By Jill Fennema –
Daryl Hanenburg was 17 years old when he signed up to be in the U.S. Navy. The Vietnam War was going on. Our readers may recall reading about Rod Spronk and his friends skipping a day of school to go check out the navy, when they were in high school. Daryl Hanenburg was one of those friends.
Daryl is one of four children born to Charles and Caroline Hanenburg. They farmed north of Edgerton along the tar road that leads to Woodstock. Daryl’s older brother Glenn had been drafted into the Vietnam War. He came home six months before Daryl left for Vietnam.
Daryl’s boot camp training lasted about three months. “It was a walk in the park for me,” he said. “They tried to get in your head, but that was okay.”
Daryl said that navy boot camp is a lot different than army boot camp. There was no crawling through the mud under barbed wire with live ammo buzzing over your head. They did instill in him a need to keep things clean, however. He laughs and says that to this day he never puts clothes on the floor.
During one week of training, they had to spend a week on a ship. “I knew that was not going to work for me,” Daryl said. So he signed up to be a member of the Navy Seabees.
Daryl in Port Hueneme with his 1965 Ford Mustang, the day before he headed to Vietnam the first time
Instead of electrical school, Daryl went to carpentry school for about eight weeks at Point Mugu Air Force Base, where he learned the basics of carpentry.
From there it was on to Camp Pendelton for some more training that would prepare them for conditions in Vietnam. A lot of this training took place by Oxnard, Calif. and the land called Broom Ranch, which is by Oxnard, Calif.
Daryl had a car and relatives in Bellflower, so he could go see them once in awhile on weekend. Rod Spronk and Don De Kam were also stationed there at this time, so they would do things together on the weekends.
In January 1968, Daryl left for Vietnam. He was assigned to Seabee Mobile Battalion 5 and the entire battalion traveled together. Their trip across the ocean took place in a C130 Cargo plane. There were seven or eight planes, loaded with men and military equipment, including Jeeps and other construction equipment.
They flew out of Point Mugu flying to Hawaii, then Guam, then Wake Island and finally the Philippines. Wake Island was made famous during World War II, when Japan attacked the United States forces there. The valiant defense of that island was a rallying point for Americans after the devastating attack on Pearl Harbor.
Wake Island is a very small island in the Pacific Ocean and the soldiers would joke that the locals had to chase the Gooney birds off the runway before the military planes could land.
The Phillipines was the last stop before Dong Ha, Vietnam. Daryl was stationed in Dong Ha for eight months, although much of his time was spent out on detachments doing construction work.
Daryl on a truck at Dong Ha. He mostly carried an M16. He recalls that his weapon had a stainless steel bolt, which made it easier to keep clean.
Very soon after Daryl arrived in Vietnam, he experienced first hand what has come to be known as the Tet Offensive, which began on January 31, 1968. They had been told that there probably wouldn’t be any fighting because it was the Tet holiday – the lunar new year and the most important holiday on the Vietnamese calendar.
Daryl and a group went to work on a bridge away from the base camp. They were told to not bother taking their weapons. Unfortunately, the military leaders were wrong and Daryl and his companions had to be rescued.
One of Daryl’s most memorable experiences – one for which he earned a military commendation – was building bunkers just south of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). He, along with one officer and about 60 other men, were dropped between Con Thien and Gio Linh.
This area had been bombed with Agent Orange and was now a barren wasteland. It was monsoon season, so the ground was covered with thick, deep mud – so deep that the helicopter could not land to drop the SeaBees off. It hovered just above the ground and the SeaBees had to bail out of the choppers.
Other CH-53 helicopters were used to bring in heavy equipment –bulldozers and earthmovers. They peeled away the mud and then dug in bunkers, reinforced with heavy timbers that would be covered with air strip matting, sand, and then dirt. They built 43 bunkers in 10 days.
All this work was done, with an eye on the sky and ears open to the sound of incoming fire. Every day there would be rocket fire overhead – especially if a helicopter was coming in with supplies. Conditions were very tough and there were several casualties.
His commendation reads, “As a member of NMCB Five Detail FOXTROT, you may be justifiably proud of the job accomplished in the face of seemingly insurmountable obstacles of deep mud, rain, material delivery, and repeated enemy fire. You have set an example of the meaning of the Seabee motto of “CAN DO”. I am certain that all the personnel of NMCB Five share my pride in you. Congratulations and a hearty ‘well done’.”
Daryl spent time on the “Rock Pile” a mountain that rises up out of juncture of several valleys about 10 miles south of the Demilitarized Zone. This was a strategic outpost and Daryl’s Seabee unit was tasked with building bunkers there for the marines.
There was always fighting going on there, and after building the bunkers, his unit had to be evacuated out. He had similar experiences at Khe Sanh, which is located near the South Vietnam border with Laos.
