Dai Nam 1969

Two weeks before Christmas, 1969, a terrorist bomb detonated just minutes after the Dai Nam Theater had emptied, blowing this hole through reinforced concrete between the 2nd and 3rd floors of the Dai Nam BEQ. I was shaving in my room on the 4th floor, around 9:30 p.m., getting ready to head into the station for my graveyard shift. The blast caused significant damage on the 3rd floor and structural damage throughout the buidling, not to mention significant damage to the theater. (The Dai Nam BEQ was built in an L-shape fashion over the the top of the theater and down along one side). The structural damage was so significant that all of us were immediately relocated to other BEQ's throughout Saigon. The bomb had been placed under a seat in the balcony of the movie theater, which, minutes before, had been packed with Vietnamese movie patrons. Other than some cuts and bruises from flying debris and such, no one was seriously injured.

--
Jim Allingham
AFVN News
Saigon/Nha Trang
69-70
     

Third floor blast damage from the terrorist bombing of the Dai Nam BEQ, Saigon in December, 1969.

Another photo of the 3rd floor blast damage to the Dai Nam BEQ (December, 1969).