NKP – TUOC, Dispensary, Quadrangle, August 1966
This is the upper left corner of the original
picture. Much of NKP’s
activities in 1966-1967 involved the cluster of buildings near the center.
The Tactical Unit Operations Center was just
south of the corner where the Jolly Greens are parked. I tried to spot a chain-link fence around that whiter roofed
building or the smaller building sitting out of the main cluster to the upper
right of that whiter roof near the center of the picture.
Seems like it did set a little off to itself just beyond the end of
that northernmost line of buildings. You
can see the quadrangle enclosed by a white rail fence just beyond the two long
north south buildings and just southwest of the Jolly Greens.
That area had the two flagpoles with the Thai and American flags, which
I show in the other SEA in the 60s album. The road between the quadrangle and
the first east-west row of buildings is where the ambulances parked in front
of the dispensary that faced onto that road and the quadrangle. These tended
to be rows of buildings side-by-side with their reddish wood sides and peaked
tin roofs. Seems like our post
office was in the second row with wooden walkways connecting the various
buildings. The base exchange was
somewhere in the conglomeration of buildings at the east end of those three
east-west rows on the south side of the quadrangle.
Also, I remember a little snack bar someplace in the area of the two
long north-south buildings. Perhaps
it’s the little oddly shaped building near the right edge on the north side
of that road that leads from the chapel toward the flight line.
The north-south road near the bottom of the picture and passing in
front of the chapel and the other two buildings is the main road.
The main gate is maybe a quarter of a mile to the left of the picture.
The main highway to NKP is about another half mile beyond the main
gate.
Some of you who served at NKP in the early years
may know more of the functions carried out in those buildings.
I think the headquarters for the Thai Base Commander was near the
quadrangle.
