Sp5 Robert D. Jester arrived in Vietnam in November 1964 with the Signal Company, 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne), and served until March 1966. In 1965, he travelled with a truck convoy (he cannot now recall where this journey started) that went across the Mekong Delta to Chau Doc, in the western part of the Mekong Delta where the Bassac River (one of the two major branches into which the Mekong splits in Cambodia) crosses the border from Cambodia into South Vietnam.
Road ahead of truck 17
Water buffalo in field; military facility in background 18
Same, zoomed for closer view 18a
Looks like a marsh 21
Boat on river 27
Boat by riverbank 28
Boat by riverbank 29
Road ahead of truck 35
Box "Mountains," series DEC 65Z black (mtd):
No. 1: Street scene
No. 2: Vietnamese at entrance to something - a shop?
No. 3: Banana trees, fields
No. 5: Truck convoy
No. 6: Probably the same truck convoy, a lot more strung out on the road
No. 9: Fancy house
No. 10: Large modern building; looks like a school
No. 11: Children beside road
No. 12: The Chung Vien Te re xa (Teresa Seminary, which I presume would have been a
Catholic girls' school), in Long Xuyen, capital of An Giang province, on the Bassac River
in the western Mekong Delta.
No. 13: Same: sign on gate identifying the seminary
No. 28: Fish trap in river
No. 30: Shoreline; buildings on stilts
No. 33: Banners across a road, apparently for some Catholic celebration.
Same, zoomed
36: Sign across road for celebration
36: Same, zoomed
No. 14: Bridge
No. 15: Riverfront: The Bassac River
No. 15: Same, zoomed
No. 17: Trucks on road
No. 22: Guard at gate?
No. 23: Guard at gate
No. 26: Small boats on river
No. 28: Edge of dock; boys swimming in river
No. 29: Decks of small boats
No. 31: Large jars in market
View over town on river, with stack of large jars 32
Baskets of rice and maybe dried beans?: 34
Woman and child in marketplace, selling fish: 35
No. 36: A lot of people in the market
Box "NHA," series DEC 65Z black (nhadb):
No. 25: River
CD2DR: (DEC 65Z red): nos. 1, 12, 13, 28, 30, 33 from box "2 Chou Dac"; nos. 3, 27, 36 from box "NHA."
People in market 1
3: RVN policeman?
Less interesting photos, and photos that are essentially duplicates.
Photographs are Copyright © 2007, Robert D. Jester, MSG/E8, US Army Ret.
e-mail: Robert63@netscape.com
I am extremely grateful to Mr. Jester for having given me permission to place his photos
on this web page, making them available to scholars and students.
Edwin E. Moise
Professor of History
Clemson University
e-mail: eemoise@clemson.edu
Opinions expressed on these web pages are those of Robert D. Jester and/or Edwin E. Moise. They could not very well be the opinions of Clemson University, which does not have opinions on the relevant subjects.
Revised January 4, 2007.