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Drug Abuse Treatment/Holding Center (DAHC)
III Corps Tactical Zone, Long Binh Post, Bien Hoa Provence
~ 720th Military Police Battalion Reunion Association Vietnam History Project ~
This Page Last Updated 9 February 2011

It was not a place I would want to spend more than 15 seconds!

Yes, I do remember that there was a detox unit over in LBJ [Long Binh USARV Stockade]. I went over there one time to deliver a prisoner, and ran into a guy I knew from school who was working the jail. He showed me around and I specifically recall seeing that section. It was not a place I would want to spend more than 15 seconds! At the time I was in-country there was a horrible heroin problem around Long Binh, and there were quite a few guys in the 720th who were using.

One sad event I vividly recall was when I was driving in a really remote area on post and saw a young GI stumbling down the side of the road.

USARV

18th Bde.

720th

By the time I got to him he had collapsed and was totally incoherent. I loaded him into the jeep and drove him to the 24th Evacuation Hospital. He was unconscious by the time I got him there. It turns out he had quite a history and this was not his first time doing this. He had somehow gotten out of detox. (or was released...I don't know) but had immediately gone out and overdosed.

As can be typical in these cases, these guys will establish a habit and build a high tolerance to the drug. When they get through detox, they will go out and retake the same levels they were previously used to which can be fatal. Also, some of the stuff over there was so pure that even small amounts could be deadly. From what I was told later (but do not know as fact), they were not able to revive this young man from this overdose.

SP/4 Mel Cheney, 212th MP Company (Sentry Dog) & HQ Detachment, 720th MP Battalion, 89th MP Group, 18th MP Brigade, February to August 1972.

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