Residential Living
 Ben Xe Mai |
 Bus at Ben Xe Mai |
 Home, Looking Left |
 Home, Looking Right |
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 Home, Interior |
 Upstairs Accommodations |
 More Upstairs Accommodations |
 Neighbor Kid |
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 Neighbor Kid |
 Neighborhood Kids |
 Restaurant Next Door |
 Restaurant Next Door |
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 MACV Officers Mess |
 MACV Dispensary |
 Delta Villa Plumbing |
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In Can Tho we lived "on the economy" in commercial buildings at Ben Xe Mai. Officers and NCOs lived in two of the vertical "apartments" just to the right of the restaurant in the Ben Xe Mai picture. More NCOs and airmen lived in similar structures across the wide street to the right. We set up an intercom that let us all communicate quickly if necessary. In the morning, when you got ready to go out to Paddy, you'd check your vehicle -- engine compartment and underneath to make sure no one had planted a bomb during the night. There were "white mice" patrolling through the night, but you never could be sure that all was well.
We ate our meals at the MACV compound. There were standard army dining halls in the compound but there also was an officers' mess. If you wanted to join the mess you paid $50 up front (which in 1965 was a lot) and then paid a monthly bill for meals. When you left, you got your $50 back. I imagine that the people who left last got stuck.
Since there were only about five to seven officers at Paddy at any one time we didn't have an officers club. Instead, we hung out at Delta Villa, the army's Delta Aviation Battalion quarters and club.