#FlashbackFriday: 52 Years Ago, a ‘Gunfighter BX’ Fell—and Rose Again—in Vietnam

Fifty-two years ago this weekend, on Aug. 3, 1974, an enemy rocket attack destroyed a BX at Danang Air Base in Vietnam.

The Exchange Post article that reported this was headlined “Requiem for the ‘Gunfighter,” a reference to a 1965 movie but also to the Exchange’s nickname, “Gunfighter BX.” (The BX apparently earned its nickname because it was in the “Gunfighter Village,” an area named after the men who armed and repaired jet fighters there, according to a United Press International report at the time.)

Exchange officials at the time said that a Soviet-made 122mm rocket scored a direct hit, and the fire that followed engulfed the main store, 14 concessions and a restaurant. When the Exchange Post article ran in October 1972, early estimates put the losses at $500,000—the equivalent of more than $3.7 million today.

No associates were injured. In an odd twist, an earlier rocket attack prevented early-shift associates from coming to the store before the rocket hit at 7:05 in the morning. Air Force Master Sgt. Frank A. Celli, the Exchange noncommissioned officer in charge, had already picked up the five Vietnamese associates on the early shift. When the earlier attack occurred, they sought shelter in a ditch outside the main gate.

Shortly after the all-clear was sounded, the second attack occurred. Twenty additional rounds were fired at the base, including the one that demolished the Exchange.

Celli said it could have been worse. “If those rounds had hit on either side of our building,” he told the Exchange Post, “they would have landed right in the midst of barracks full of Airmen.” One U.S. Airman was killed in the attack and about three dozen others were wounded.

Efforts to replace the Exchange with a temporary BX began almost immediately. They were hampered by the after-effects of the attack—no one could enter the destroyed BX because the heat from the fire lingered.

“When we were able to enter, vodka and other Class VI items were still hot to the touch and looked bubbly, as though they had soap suds in them,” said Henry Padgett, an Exchange retail technical representative who had flown in from Pleiku, about 230 miles away, to establish a temporary Exchange. “Upon opening a tube of toothpaste, we found it to be liquid.”

The next day, Padgett was joined by another retail technical rep and one from finance and accounting. They coordinated with the commander of the 6498^th Air Wing to obtain space for a new Exchange. Two Retail Branch associates searched the damaged store and found a safe with $1,900—almost all of it in coins—still intact.

Engineers worked feverishly to construct bins, shelves, counters and partitions, and the reborn Gunfighter opened Aug. 7, four days after the attack. It consisted of 32 Conex containers with $109,000 in merchandise that were airlifted from the Vietnam Regional Exchange depot at Long Binh. An additional 15 containers were awaiting shipment the day the store opened.

The August attack wasn’t the first one on the “Gunfighter” that summer. On July 8, the BX was hit by 6-foot rockets, resulting in about $160,000 in losses. The July attack destroyed a remote stockroom, and shrapnel and concussions damaged three other storage buildings, the resident manager’s office and an Exchange vehicle.

Sources: The Exchange Post, United Press International, Newspapers.com