On the morning of March 1, 1965, Major 
Huntsman called me into his office and 
asked me if I was duty medic. I 
told him I was backup and he told me 
to tell Sgt. Allen to get someone to 
cover for me as he had some important 
papers that had to be picked up at 
MACV H.Q. and our clerk, Sp/5 Jim 
Verkler was going to pick them up 
because he had a top secret clearance. 
I was to be his driver because Jim 
did not know how to get there and I 
knew Saigon pretty well. 

We left the Unit around 9:15 AM and 
went downtown via Tu Do Street. 
When we were in the center of 
Saigon we heard a very large 
explosion that actually shook our
jeep and the ground beneath us. I 
immediately made the next right 
hand turn over to the Street of 
Flowers and quickly noticed that 
two to three blocks down the street 
there was a tremendous plume of 
smoke coming from the Embassy. I 
turned on the jeep’s siren and 
headed in that direction.

I could hear gunfire as we were 
speeding down the street. When we 
were about one block away there were 
bodies on both sides of the street 
and cars on fire cross the street 
from the Embassy Building, it 
looked like a war zone. When we 
pulled up in front of the building 
the Vietnamese police were still 
shooting at someone in the debris 
laden area directly to the right 
of the building. 

I made a quick assessment of what 
was going on and looked at the 
Embassy and commented to Jim that 
I hoped the building wouldn’t 
collapse. It looked like the 
entire bottom floor had been taken 
out. I ran up to the building and 
the first thing I noticed was a 
Navy man laying in a very large 
puddle of his own blood. He must 
have been entering the building 
when the VC’s 250 lbs. of 
dynamite was detonated and the 
glass from the two big front 
doors cut him to shreds. I didn’t 
even check him out, as it was 
obvious he was dead. 

I remember looking up at that 
point and every window in the 
building was blown out. The front 
door was ajar and just as I was 
entering the lobby I heard a gun 
shot and I spun quickly in the 
direction of the noise and hit my 
left wrist on the heavy aluminum 
doorframe. 

Sidenote: After the bombing I 
noticed I was having trouble 
loading patients in our ships. 
My left wrist gave me trouble 
when loading patients on the top 
rack and I was really having a 
problem. I would have to hook 
the liter onthe pole with my 
right hand and then use my 
right hand again to hook the 
left side of the litter against 
the firewall. I mentioned this 
to Sgt. Allen and he suggested 
that I probably strained my wrist 
and that I should get a wrist 
strap for support. I went to Lac 
Long’s in Saigon and he had them. 
It was just like the ones you 
would see Brando or James Dean 
wear in the 50’s. It covered the 
wrist and had two or three 
straps that buckled on the side. 
This seemed to help a lot as it 
kept my wrist very stiff. I
never gave the Embassy any 
thought until 40 years later 
when my left wrist was X-rayed 
and they told me that my left 
Ulna was fragmented at the 
junction where it joins the 
hand. They said it was a very 
old fracture. It must have been 
from the Embassy.

To return….I entered the lobby 
and it was full of debris and 
the furniture was all over the 
place including several bodies 
that took the full impact of the 
blast. At that point I stepped 
outside and the wounded Embassy 
employees started coming down the 
stairsfrom the upper floors. 

One man that was being assisted 
had arterial bleeding from his 
right leg. I placed him at the 
curb, ripped off his shirt to 
use for a dressing, and had Jim 
apply direct pressure to the wound 
while I tried to tend to the 
other seriously wounded. I located 
another person with arterial 
bleeding and did the same thing 
this time using a Vietnamese 
female employee. Just then a 
Vietnamese ambulance arrived. I 
jumped in the back and grabbed all 
the bandages I could carry. First
I went back to the two previous 
patients and applied field first 
aid dressings to their wounds. I 
noticed that the man with the 
serious leg injury was still 
bleeding profusely and was in 
shock. I had to apply a tourniquet 
to his leg and I had Jim get a 
piece of paper and attach it to his 
jacket with the time the 
tourniquet was applied and the fact 
that he was seriously wounded. I 
told Jim to make sure that he and 
the other person along with a few 
other walking wounded were loaded 
into the ambulance and the driver 
was to take themto the Naval 
Hospital which was about 5–10 
minutes away. 

Another ambulance arrived and I 
sent the Vietnamese Medics 
upstairs with their littersto 
bring down any employees that 
might not be able to walk. Then 
I selected about 4 or more of the 
seriously injured patients for 
that ambulance and sent them to 
the Naval Hospital. 

A short time after this 2 
employees were bringing out an 
American man. His entire face 
and upper torso were covered 
with blood. It was obvious he had 
received splintered glass in his 
eyes. I sat him down on the curb 
and asked him his name. He told me 
his name was Frank and I informed 
him that I was a medic and I tried 
to keep him calm. It was obvious 
he could not see so I told him I 
was going to place a first aid 
dressing to cover his eyes. He 
told me that someone had told him 
he was covered with blood. To help 
assure him I told him that was a 
lot of blood but it was from small 
capillaries located in his face and 
they produce actual wounds that 
look very serious but do not 
amount to much. Once again, I was 
trying to reassure him and keep 
him calm. I did tell him that he 
had glass splinters in his eyes 
and it was important that he close 
his eyes and try to look straight 
ahead. I told him if he moved his 
eyes he could cause more damage. 
He asked me if I thought he was 
going to loose his eyesight. I 
assured him he would be on the next 
ambulance (more were arriving by 
this point) and that the Naval 
Hospital had excellent eye surgeons 
and they would make sure he would 
retain his sight. Then I told Jim 
to make sure that Frank was placed 
in an American Ambulance that had 
arrived. I have never forgotten 
Frank and how calm he remained even 
though he had very serious injuries 
to his eyes. I have often wondered 
if he retained his eyesight. My 
guess would be that he lost his 
eyesight.

As I grabbed more dressings from 
an ambulance I noticed that the 
Vietnamese that I had sent 
upstairs with litters were 
bringing out an American woman 
who was very seriously wounded. 
I ran over to where they had set 
her down and my first impression 
was that she was dead, as the 
right side of her face was missing 
and covered with detached flesh 
and blood. I checked her out and 
could not get a pulse.  Her right 
eye was missing so I lifted her 
left eyelid to see if I could get 
a pupil response. There was none…
but I did notice something very 
strange; her left eye was bloodshot. 
I thought to myself and could 
never recall seeing anybloodshot 
eyes on the hundreds of dead 
I had seen in Nam or the ambulance 
back in my hometown. About this 
time therewere news reporters all 
over the place taking photos.

I didn’t want them to take 
pictures of her so I took my 
fatigue jacket off and covered 
her up. I recall thinking that 
I didn’t wanther loved ones to see 
any photographs of what she looked 
like. I went to work on another 
patient when I noticed them loading 
her on a Vietnamese ambulance. 
I asked an employee what happened 
to her,he said the Vietnamese 
started shooting at the Viet Cong 
terrorists because they were 
parked in a no parking zone, then 
the shooting started. The Embassy 
employees ran to the windows to 
see what all the commotion was 
about, (this explains the type of 
injuries I had been treating) the 
American woman (I later found out 
her name was Barbara Robbins and 
she was 21 years old) stayed at 
her desk. When the bomb went off 
an air conditioning unit blew out 
of the wall striking her in 
the face. 

When the ambulance she was in 
left I noticed there were plenty 
of medical personnel at the scene 
so I told Jim we were going to go 
to the Naval Hospital. My thoughts 
were that maybe I could be of some 
assistance. Just as we were 
arriving at the hospital they were 
taking Ms. Robbins out of the 
ambulance. A doctor told them to 
take her to the morgue. I approached 
him and explained that it was 
my jacket covering her and that I 
was just a medic and I wasn’t 
totally sure that she was dead. 
Then I explained to him why. He 
had the litter bearers take her 
into a private room. Jim and I 
watched while he examined her. 
It actually took him over a 
half an hour before he was 
convinced that she was dead. 

I took my jacket off the floor 
and told Jim he better call the 
Unit. I recall telling him that 
the old man is really going to 
be pissedas we should have been 
back at least two hours ago. 

I then offered any assistance 
I could render to the hospital 
staff but they assured me they 
had the situation under control. 

Then the doctor that examined 
Ms. Robbins came over, he shook 
my hand and told me I was an 
excellent medic. I suspect Jim 
had told him I was the first 
medic on the scene and had set 
up a triage while treating the 
wounded. 

Jim and I went back to our 
jeep and he told me that he 
called the Unit and Bloomquist 
answered the phone and they all 
had figured out that we must 
have been at the Embassy. Jim 
told him that we were leaving 
the hospital right now to go to 
MACV. 

I threw my jacket into the back 
of the jeep and we were at MACV 
HQ.in a few minutes. Jim went 
inside and I stayed in the jeep 
and lit a cigarette. Just as I 
was lightinga cigarette I noticed 
a Major that was leaving the main 
gate. He was looking directly at me. 
It didn’t dawn on me that here I 
was standing in front of MACV with 
a tee shirt on. The Major 
approached me very quickly and 
ordered me to stand at attention. 
He then started to berate me for 
not being in uniform. I started 
to explain to him why but he just 
told me to "SHUTUP". He took a pad 
out of his pocket and asked me my 
name, rank, serial number and Unit. 
He assured me that my ass was grass. 
At this point Jim came out. Jim had 
been in the Army much longer that 
me and he sized up the situation 
very quickly. He ran over to the
jeep and he didn’t even address 
the Major as sir. He told him to 
put the damn pad away and before 
the Major could say anything, Jim 
told him my jacket was in the 
back of the jeep covered with the 
blood from the dead American woman 
that was killed at the Embassy. The 
Major immediately turned beet red 
and apologized to me. Of course, 
he wanted to know all about the 
Embassy bombing. Jim told him we 
were running very late and we had
to get back to the Colonel’s 
office with important documents. 
That’s right…he didn’t say that 
our CO was a Major. 

When we arrived at the 57th 
orderly room everyone was there 
even though duty hours were over. 
I let Jim tell the story, as I 
was exhausted. All I could think 
about was that poor woman who 
did the right thing and didn’t 
leave her chair. 

I guess you could say that the 
one goodthing about March 1, 1965 
is that only two Americans were 
killed. Of course, many others 
were injured and there were many 
innocent Vietnamese that lost 
their lives.

I would like to give credit to 
Jim Verkler. He immediately 
placed himself in harm’s 
ay. He was a clerk, not a medic 
but yet he didn’t shy away from 
the sight of all of the carnage 
we witnessed that day. He pitched 
right in and helped treat the 
wounded without giving it a 
second thought. His treatment and 
approach to keep the patients 
calm and reassured brought great 
comfort to them. Jim was a credit 
to the 57th.

As stated, I later found out 
the young woman’s name was 
Barbara Robbins and she was a 21 
year old from Colorado andshe was 
the first American woman to be
killed in Viet Nam. I also 
discovered that her life’s 
ambition was to work for the 
American State Department at 
Embassies so she could travel 
and see the world. This was her 
first assignment. The Navy man 
who was lying in the puddle of 
blood was Navy Storekeeper 
2/C – Molito W. Castillo. 

March 1, 1965 for Jim Verkler 
and myselfturned out to be a 
very eventful day and one that 
will forever be embedded in my 
memory. In my 20 months with 
Dustoff I do not recall ever 
treating that many patients 
in such a short period of time. 

 

   Sp/4 Bill Hughes 
   Medic 
   57th Medical Detachment (HA)

   P.S. I later found out that 
the Embassy building was condemned 
and they built a new facility with 
much tighter security and a thought 
occurred to me – this may have 
been the first terrorist car 
bombing that tragically we have 
become so familiar with.