Tambon Khok Samran, Loeng Nok Tha District, Jungwat Yasothon

[Photo: Willy Bach http://www.angelfire.com/wi/poetryantiwar/ The long-disused Leong Nok Tha  Airstrip runs approx. SW to NE. Exact Photographic Position, View Bearing and Date Taken unknown. It looks fairly recent, however. Certainly, since the airstrip fell into disuse.]

Certainly, Thai bovines can be somewhat angular, but I fancy the above photo has been edited a bit out-of-shape. ;-) I have tried to edit it back into shape a bit.

Willy Bach seems to be so haunted by his inadvertent role in the 'Secret War', that he has taken up writing,  publishing and reciting poetry as a means to exorcise his horror:

http://www.angelfire.com/wi/poetryantiwar/poems.html

The airfield we built, two kilometres of pavement quality concrete, was suitable for jet aircraft. It was undoubtedly intended for use by US forces or their allies. The RAAF sent Sabre jets, stationed at Ubon Ratchathani. RAAF members have also received medals, some undertook missions over Laos. Clearly Britain, Australia and New Zealand were allies in the same military campaign. History books do not record this fact. The men who went there were not told the true nature of this huge and expensive project. We were ill-used.

 Over thirty-three years after the event the British government still refuses to recognise our service.

 I have written a book of poetry on the issues of war and the disastrous results it has for both civilians and participants. My starting point is Leong Nok Tha and my part Jewish-German-English background, with my father being a friend of Klaus Von Staufenburg. It has a working title - Leong Nok Tha Where's Your Chastity Now?.

A brief history of the Leong Nok Tha Airstrip below. British Commonwealth troops called it Camp Doom:

http://ubvet.tripod.com/phumu/id7.html

In 1965 the Airstrip was originally constructed by Commonwealth Troops Stationed in Malaysia from tarmac as a light aircraft landing airstrip. We were told that it was built as a goodwill gesture to the Thai government and help open up the economy of the region.

By the time I arrived at Crown the Tarmac was being ripped up to prepare for the Construction of the Airfield with a concrete runway. The reason for this was that the Tarmac strip was a disaster as the Tarmac surface began to crack up before it was ever used.  Apparently during construction underground water channels were compacted and blocked so that when the monsoons came the water got trapped under the strip and as it could not escape though the these channels it came up under the Tarmac causing it to lift and crumble. I do not know if this is the true reason for the tarmac to crack up but several of the lads who were there at the time claimed that you could stand on the Tarmac and see it lift crack and water spout forth.

In February 1966 there were still some Australians serving in crown but as the Engineers were on a 3-month turnaround I don't think that more came after they returned on the next changeover and after that it was only the Brits. As the Airstrip had been officially handed over to the Thai government the powers that be seemed to be in a hurry to get the job done and the Engineers worked flat out on a two-shift basis. There were set backs, one I remember in particular was when the Engineer came out from England to supervise the erection of the concrete batching plant a vital section of the hopper had been damaged en route and to hide the damage a section had been cut out and a steel plate welded over the hole and painted to match. As this was delivered before the Engineer Arrived no one knew of this until it was too late. It took a few weeks of cutting and welding to rectify the damage.

 The Airfield was finally completed in mid 1967 and once again there was a handing over Ceremony but as far as I remember the original 1965 plaque was never replaced and that will be the one mentioned in your article. When the Airfield was finishes the Brits remained at Camp Crown building roads further up country, I don't know for how long as I left Crown in late 67. Before I left, the Americans had some Porta-cabin styled huts with radio equipment just outside our camp I don't know for what purpose and I never asked? I do Remember that on of the Guys had an ex Tokyo police motorbike complete with siren and flashing lights the works. He had a perfect traffic free road in the runway where he could give it some welly.

I have read articles posted on the Internet as to how the strip later was used by Air America for covert operations in Laos, true or not I know not. We were out there to do a job and then we returned to normality many of your boys did not, may they rest in peace.

If you think I can help you further just send me an e-mail or just send one for the hell of it.

Story By: George Trainor George.Trainor@lycos.co.uk

Masses of information and really excellent historic photos on the building of the airstrip:

http://www.creopcrown.co.uk/

A decaying brass plaque at the entrance to the now disused airstrip reads:

LEONG NOK THA AIRFIELD BUILT BY THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT FOR THE DEFENCE OF THAILAND 1963 [EMBLEM] 1965

THE WORK WAS DONE BY OFFICERS AND MEN OF COMMANDER ROYAL ENGINEERS (WORKS) CROWN WHOSE EMBLEM IS SHOWN THIS PLAQUE COMMEMORATES THE OPENING OF THE AIRFIELD BY H.E. MINISTER OF DEFENCE FIELD MARSHAL THANOM KITTIKACHORN ON 17TH JUNE 1965

http://ubvet.tripod.com/phumu/id3.html

The linked page (see above) with, 2001 photo, contains this warning:

It wasn't safe to take many photos as this airstrip is now patrolled by drug dealers and drug lords. It is used as a transfer point for drugs filtering in from the Golden Triangle.

Something from the Royal Engineers:

http://11independentfldsqnmalaya.blogspot.com/2007/06/opperation-crown-thialand.html
http://11independentfldsqnmalaya.blogspot.com/2009/08/op-crown-your-specials.html

[Photo: http://www.armycateringcorps.co.uk/gallery5.htm "Camp Doom and airstrip (BFPO 656) from the air, 1965." View Bearing approx. SE.]

Some more background from Australian Sappers:

http://www.wasappers.com/documents/Destination_Malaya_Chapter_3.pdf

I have been considering adding a posting for Tambon Khok Samran for some time. The interesting blog entry (linked below) has now motivated me to do so.  I wonder what choice words Willy Bach would have to say about William Sommers' fine fine superfine foreign service career. Indeed, perhaps Khun Saisith was also only too aware of the curse of the 'Secret War': ;-)

http://tambon.blogspot.com/2009/10/remembering-saisith.html

While looking for more information on the book Provincial Administration and Local Government in Thailand, written in 1968 by William A. Sommers, instead of a table of contents or a recension Google instead found me an essay written by Mr. Sommers in the electronic journal American Diplomacy last month. As a municipal administrator Mr. Sommers worked as an adviser in several countries, including 1963 to 1969 in Thailand.

In the essay titled Remembering Saisith he recalls the meetings with Saisith Pornkaew (สายสิทธิ พรแก้ว). In 1966 on a field trip with the Director General of the Department of Locak Administration to Ubon Ratchathani, Mr. Sommers suggested his student Saisith as being the best candidate to become new district officer of Loeng Nok Tha. The incumbent was seriously wounded in an attack by insurgents and a replacement was needed.

For Saisith this was the beginning of a career in provincial administration, he later was province governor in Ubon Ratchathani, Sakon Nakhon, Chainat, Nan and Samut Prakan - at least those are the positions I could find in the governor lists I have. If I interpret this entry in the library catalog of the Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University, it is the memorial book published on his cremation in 2006. 

http://www.unc.edu/depts/diplomat/item/2009/0709/fsl/fsl_sommers.html

In this "remembrance" the author recalls a close friendship and how it was tested forty-three years ago. He recommended that his good friend, Saisith be appointed District Officer in a poor province of Northeast Thailand then under attack by Viet Cong-supported insurgents. The author knew that Saisith was the perfect choice, but Saisith did not want to go. Some twelve years later the two friends met again in Thailand. Saisith told his friend that he had done "a terrible thing" in recommending him but would try to forgive him. This is a beautifully told but sobering account of a friendship in a distant land.   -Assoc. Ed.

What is it about this area that seems to inspire poets!?:

After my last visit, I wrote a poem about him that I now realize he probably never saw.  I’ve attached it here:

TO A DISTRICT OFFICER

The trees waved scrubby branches in the unfamiliar cold and district buildings, shrouds of wood huddled in the biting wind that coursed the open field.  In the fine blown dirt, circled by the pickets, his wife eyed longingly the red, gold zinnias whose struggle to a life of color mirrored hers, and his, set here in the outland to govern this edge of chaos, alone in the vestibule of progress, while the jungle wrapped itself in green deceit around the leg of creeping war which twined its terror in noisy fear and silent death

The district house, no home, a rotting hulk of patch and planks a fort in troubled silence: the jeeps coming and going with their sails of dust, guns in earnest ready, bragging of their time not yet. Sweating in the cold (the sun will blaze next week) he faced his fear, the hour gone  the one to come, be ready, move… And Bangkok, tingling with a boom, celestial décor ringing parks and western drives, must rest its shivering hope upon his shoulders caked in dust.

Tambon/Commune:

n/a

Amphur/District:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amphoe_Loeng_Nok_Tha

Jungwat/Province:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yasothon_Province

Maps:

Loeng Nok Tha Airstrip. (Very approx. position indicated.)

Google

Longdo

MapGuideThailand

Click magnifiable map of Tambon Khok Samran (area undefined). Target Roundel indicates the approx. location of the now disused Loeng Nok Tha Airstrip:

Forum:

http://www.angkor.com/2bangkok/2bangkok/forum/showthread.php?t=3819