USS SANCTUARY (AH-17)

This is something I've wanted to do for a long time. It's more for my girls than anyone else. It's a brief description of the service rendered by the crew of the USS Sanctuary. I was proud to be a Naval Hospital Corpsman aboard this vessel during Viet Nam.

My wife and I were married on April 2, 1966. I joined the Sanctuary four months later and celebrated our first anniversary in Subic Bay, Phillipines. Between August and November of 1966, the entire hospital crew trained at Portsmouth Naval Hospital in Portsmouth, Virginia. Every corpsman had to have a specialty. Mine was ear, nose and throat. I never used it. My actual assignment was triage.

1966 was a long time ago. Disposable syringes were just coming into use. We stocked up with what we thought was a six month supply and ran out in just over a month. I don't know how they did it, but CSR managed to sterilize those plastic syringes to allow us to use them again until we could get re-supplied.

Our normal routine was 50 to 60 days on line and five days at Subic Bay for replenishing. We would also off load as many patients as we could during that five day period. Now, the official stats.......

1966
On 1 March 1966, Sanctuary was re-acquired by the Navy and re-instated on the Navy list. Towed to Louisiana, she was modernized at the Avondale Shipyards, Inc., Westwego; and was re-commissioned at New Orleans on 15 November.

Modernization had added a heliport, three x-ray units, a blood bank, an artificial kidney machine, ultrasonic diagnostic equipment, a recompression chamber and other modern equipment, medical, culinary, laundry, etc., to supplement her 20 wards and four operating rooms.

Three hundred and sixteen medical personnel were assigned to staff the Naval Hospital embarked in Sanctuary. Her mission had shifted in emphasis: from that of an "ambulance" ship carrying wounded and sick to hospitals in rear areas, to that of a fully equipped hospital carrying medical facilities close to the combat area.

A chinook helicopter landing on deck in DaNang harbor. It was the only place we were allowed to drop anchor.


1967
On 8 March, Sanctuary departed San Francisco for the Far East and joined the 7th Fleet at Subic Bay on 2 April.

On the 10th, she arrived at Danang, South Vietnam and that afternoon took on her first casualties—ten marines badly burned when their amphibious tank detonated a land mine, which, in turn, had exploded the gasoline tank. By midnight, 136 patients had been received.

By the end of April, she had admitted 717 patients—319 combat casualties, 72 non-combat injuries, 326 suffering from various diseases— and treated 682 outpatients.

Only two of her patients died. Assigned to duty off South Vietnam on a non-rotating basis, Sanctuary began her extended overseas tour spending a minimum of 50 days operating on the line each quarter, followed by an availability and upkeep period at Subic Bay.

Another helicopter landing. I still cringe when I hear a chopper.

1968
By April, after a year on the non-rotating schedule, she had admitted 5,354 patients and treated another 9,187 on an outpatient basis.

Helicopters, bringing patients from the battlefield, transferring them from and to other medical facilities, or carrying passengers to and from the ship, had made more than 2,500 landings on her deck.

The following month, Sanctuary's schedule was changed to 90 day on-the-line periods. Her operating area and her itinerary on the line, however, remained the same.

She continued to operate off the I Corps Tactical area, the northern provinces of South Vietnam; and, for the most part, rotated between stations, such as Danang, Phu Bai, Chu Lai, and Dong Ha, every two to four days as needed by the marines fighting ashore.

The picture above shows a typical ward configuration. Patients were racked (bedded) two high. You will note the litters placed under two of the racks for use in case a gurney was not available for transporting a patient.

The ship had 29 nurses aboard. They were extremely dedicated and among the best that could be found anywhere. We jokingly referred to them as "The Chorus Line of Twenty-Nine". The nurses wore starched white dresses, white hose, white shoes and their nurses' cap...on a Naval vessel during war.