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Project Jenny KLIK - 1st Inf Di v Women in Vietnam RELATED-- To AFVN To Saigon To Vietnam Further Afield Index
From: Mike McNally
Date: July 27, 2015
Subject: To Clarify AFVN Location--a Photo and Another Map
A picture is worth a thousand words so, to clarify the AFVN location, look at the attached aerial shot. It was annotated by LCDR (retired Captain) James Wentz, showing where his office was at the AFVN facility. You can also see the Vietnamese station, THVN, next door. Hong Thap Tu Street is partially hidden by the trees in front of the stations. The Zoo/Botanical Gardens would be beyond the top left of the photo. You would also head left on Hong Thap Tu if you wanted to go to Long Binh or Bien Hoa. If you went to the right down Hong Thap Tu you would pass the rear wall of the US Embassy complex, after you passed Mac Dinh Chi Street.
Across Hong Thap Tu from AFVN and THVN you can make out a portion of a sports field with an oval track. Now take a look at the attached map from the latter half of the 1950s. You will see this sport field and track at the corner of Hong Thap Tu and Dinh Tien Hoang Street. You can see that across Hong Thap Tu from the sports field there appears to be a single structure at the location where AFVN and THVN would be built in the 1960s.
This map is useful because it gives both the French and Vietnamese names for some of the streets....
Mike McNally
These maps are uploaded to Yahoo. To see them, click on the above button and sign in to Yahoo when asked.
Then go to full screen view. The maps will slowly move and fade into the next one.
From: Mike McNally
Date: July 27, 2015
Subject: Was AFVN Located Within the Saigon Citadel?
I'm going to attach, below, a link to a French language map page. (Click Here) There's a lot to be learned about Vietnamese history on that page. For example, I've attached two maps which I think show that the AFVN facility at 9 Hong Thap Tu Street would have been located within what had been the Citadel of Saigon. Wiki says there were at least two versions of the Saigon Citadel, both essentially at the same spot. I think AFVN would have been inside either of them.
I've also attached a copy of the Saigon Facilities Map which shows AFVN as Location 72 on Hong Thap Tu. For comparison, the US Embassy on Thong Nhut was Location 75. I think the US Embassy location would have been just outside the walls of the Saigon Citadel.
Before it was Hong Thap Tu Street, the road was called Chasseloup-Laubat. Today it is called Nguyen Thi Minh Khai.
Here's the map page link. There are also maps from areas outside Saigon. Take a look at them all, and let us know if you find anything interesting.
Thanks....Mike McNally
This page contains two messages and links to maps, both French and English received from Mike McNally in July 2015. He then discusses whether or not the AFVN Main Station was located within the confines of the original Saigon Citadel.
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