Yamada Ammo Depot

I remember Dennis Herndon and Tom Hodges from NKP. I was there from July 67 to May 68 and again from December 68 to December 69. Do you remember Bill Fick? He was at Yamada and came to NKP TDY in 67. He passed away on 1/5/17 in Fla.

Yes, I remember Bill Flick. He was with me at Homestead AFB and we were sent to Yamada. I understand he passed away in Florida a few months back.

I was there in '67 and knew Hodges, Herndon, Gibson, Kiss,Mock, Mueller, Holden, Keffer, Williams, and many others. Studied Karate in Kitakyushu. Played on the baseball team. Enjoyed time spent there. Went on to NKP Now living in Phoenix.

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Yamada Butai (ŽR“c ƒLƒƒƒ“ƒv) - as we called the place in 1966-67 when I was there. Remember the drinking jackets? I remember Linville and Merrill Ming who also went TDY to Cam Ranh AB at the same time that I did. While at Cam Ranh Bay, Ming had a bomb fuse explode in his face but he survived. Fortunately for everyone in proximity, the bomb fuse was not installed in a bomb but Ming was still picking metal fragments from his face when we returned to Yamada Butai. If Merrill is still out there, I would like to hear from you. After Yamada Butai and tour in Vietnam, I finished college and went to USAF Pilot Training. I flew KC-10 tankers and retired from Air Force. Later, I flew 20 years for and retired from United Airlines. In 1996, I went back to Kokura to see what remained of Yamada Butai. I found the old entry gate that I remembered but was surprised by the jungle growth beyond the old guard house. It looked like Nature was reclaiming the property as I walked down the main road that I remembered. The chow hall and all buildings were gone albeit, some of the foundations were still there. I remembered the manicured lawn (in 1966) where the two flag poles displayed US and Japan flags. Thirty years later, the rusting flag poles were still there but not much else. By the time I walked as far as old rail head, I had seen enough. Everything was overgrown and wasting away like we had never been there. Ed Martin

Wow! Talk about going back in time...just returned from church where they asked veterans to talk about their experiences in the service in honor of Veteran's Day. I talked a little about Yamada, decided I'd google it and found this. I was there from February 69 to March of 70. I remember you very well John Neary. We played together on the baseball team with Mark Sternberg (Sal) and Vern Silva among many others. I still have an 8x12 photo of that team we had taken after one of our games. Major Kaspar was the base commander, 1st Lt. (whose name I forget) was OIC. Sgt. Knudsen was our 1st Sergeant I believe. He drove a red and white Mustang that he had shipped over from the states. From there I rotated back to Grand Forks, N.D. for sixteen months then spent my last year June, 71-72 at U-tapao.

maybe 90 people there in 67-68; watched local Japanese do all the work. virtualy all ordinance already used in Viet Nam. Did 2 TDYs to Thailand.

I was at Yamada Depot 1956-1958. Our Co
Was Major Sprigg and later
Major Meyerhouffer
My Captain was Leoth McGee
My first sergeant was Claude Tabor
Also have list of many airmen and pictures

I was there in 1949 thru 1952. Best duty I ever had. Any one else there at that time.

I have 2 scrapbooks with a few hundred snapshots. Don't know past owners name but will email his large picture oh you think you knew him. He was there Oct 52 til June 53 it says all snaps describe with some names. Fun photos and work photos. Domain golden 1952. He lived in Riverside, Ca.

I'm a very late contributor to this dialogue which covers many years, but why not just jump right in? Please don't mind if this thread is a long one; reading what has gone before rekindled many memories. It's been 50 years since my final year at Yamada, a mile stone anniversary of sorts. First, I'd like to say "Hi!" to all of those participants with whom I had some contact over half a century ago: Agent, Bossi, Cecere, Crump, Neary and Wilson.

As a 19-year old who never ventured more than 50 miles from NY City (except for Lackland and Lowry) Yamada and nearby Kokura were phenomenal experiences for someone still a teenager. When I arrived with most of my tech school classmates in the fall of '66, we really knew we were in a special place, far from the main base, Itazuke. My group included: Calvin, Cameron, Concannon, Dark, Schram, Smith, Stidham, Taylor, Tougas, and Wolford. Already there were officers: Krueger, Bossi, Mock and Wilmore. The only NCOs who's names I recall are Penn and Scott. Airmen Cecere, Crump, Gilmore, Greenwich Village Frankie, Kerr, Lathrop, Levesque, Linville, Madden, Murray, Pang, Patterson, Roberts, Sjerstedt, Sparrow, Swarzlander, Wise, Woodrome, "Doc" Wright and many others were among the well-established previous arrivals. Ishibashi was foreman of the Japanese labor force. Enjoying new releases by the Stones, Lovin' Spoonful and Donovan, Eddie Schram and I bonded musically and also through photography. We explored vibrant Kokura night life, a dozen stand-bars and local attractions, and took weekend train rides to different towns along the Kokura-Fukuoka line just to see what was there. On a day trip to Shingu I returned with a second hand shamisen (3-stringed banjo-like musical instrument).

April '67. Just as I was really getting into the swing of Japanese culture with new found girlfriend, Yaeko, 90% of 6348th MMS personnel including Yours Truly were flown to U-Tapao, Thailand, TDY. Less than 3 months after we arrived there, Steve Cameron, Roger Taylor and I received orders for full tours of duty at Cam Ranh Bay, RVN -- no return to Yamada! I have to say, CRB was not bad for combat zone duty (except for the very scary mortar attacks during the Tet offensive.) Although the daily schedule involved 10 hour work days and 6 day weeks, there was an incredible beach there with a wild surf. Being restricted to base, living more or less like a monk or an inmate, made 6/67-6/68 the longest year of my life. Even though R&R at Taipai, Taiwan was like a brief visit to a cool Chinese oasis, my heart yearned for Yamada, speaking of which . . . guess what?

In June '68 I received travel orders back to Yamada! I couldn't believe it. After a very hot, sticky and gritty year in 'Nam, I was back sitting on top of the world. Yaeko and I reunited and I was, completely out of the blue, appointed Unit Training NCO. Starting with the brass, then NCOs and EM, I got to know the following quite well: Kasper, Wilmore, Knudsen, Whitley, Boudelier, Tabron, Sarver, Neary, Lavan, Allen, Fick, Coulter, Dion, Duchesne, King, Lemmon, Queen, Silva, Spiliotis, Sternberg, Stough, Tomaino, Waters and the two Don Wilsons. John Neary and I hit it off quite well, he teaching me the fine points of Poker. I taught Mickey Coulter the essentials of bass guitar; "Sal" Sternberg and I exchanged tales from the Big City.

Yaeko wanted me to remain in Japan after discharge and found an English language tutoring business. That scenario is not what I had in mind; my plans to return to NY and resume college caused us to drift apart. In '69 I met Mary Jo, an American college instructor who lived on a campus about 40 minutes away. In her Toyota Publica we toured the island and absorbed the culture including art lessons (Sumi-e) from the master Kinoshita. I didn't get to know very many of the new Yamada arrivals very well since every weekday at 5 pm I was gone. Weekends? Gone. Away exploring the island: Beppu, Mt. Aso, or taking the ferry to Osaka. Once a week we taught colloquial English to executives of the Kansai Shipping Co. We really loved Japan. To this day I (try to) maintain a Zen outlook.

I was offered an "early out" in January '70 since my Japan TOD ended 6 months before my discharge date. Although I had mixed feelings about leaving beautiful Yamada, returning to the Big Apple, an education in Communications and a long career in broadcast video production in Washington DC were in my future. I'm so glad to learn YAA is now a park and not a housing development. Best wishes to all of the Yamada Butai Brotherhood! Anyone interested in contacting me, please do. james_serbent@comcast.net