Photos: Vietnam – Song Be Bridge 1967 (by Bob Roby)
Some history of this bridge. The French military government built this reinforced concrete bridge when they controlled the country. The Viet Men, who were fighting the French at that time, blew the center span out and the French put in a steel section to cover the gap. This steel section was too narrow for our self-propelled guns to cross. So what we did was to use explosives to drop the steel section into the river and build a modified Double Double Bailey Bridge. This was the longest Double Double Bailey built in combat conditions. This was the only operation that I was on that A Company worked on with all three platoons. I worked on setting the explosives. This was not an easy operation, both sides of the road were mined so we could not get off on the sides of the road. All of our bridge parts and equipment had to stay on the road and be brought up to the bridge a piece at a time.
Two Vietnamese girls.
Roby and others on a marine mule (flat bed vehicle)
SSgt. Roby
Scratching my head, What do we so next?
Arvin soldiers with a bird…Lunch time!
SSgt. Roby with beer.
We then lowered the Bailey super structure down on roadway.
SSG Roby with crowbar on the truck.
A company soldier rigging pulleys.
Building a Bailey super structure over French steel span, then lowering it.
A group of A company men.
