 The harvest of the bountiful sea of the good earth rewards of earnest toil This has been the legacy of our people for centuries Generation after generation life for us has changed little It would seem to some that the 20th century has passed us by That however is not the case We are involved in a modern 20th century struggle that will determine the future of our nation and Many others with the help of the United States Navy We are building a new legacy for the future of our country a modern port and military contracts Place Satahip on the southern coast of Thailand Thailand the legendary Kingdom of Siam 32 million people proud of its past and hopeful of its future Thailand has long been the hub of Southeast Asia a country rich in history and Strong in tradition One of our strongest traditions is independence Throughout a long history Thailand has maintained its independence against overwhelming odds In the colonial era Thailand was surrounded by European colonial empires Yet was able to remain free a Tiny island of independence in a sea of colonial domination today Thailand's independence is again threatened as the communist tide attempts to drown Asia in its Marxist ideology But Thailand true to its history is determined to remain free from communist domination An America with its own tradition of freedom is determined to help Under the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization Seat all the United States is assisting Thailand in its defense planning Building the Thailand of tomorrow a country that will maintain a tradition Independent there is an American tradition being maintained in Thailand too The unique ability to build military and support facilities anywhere Maintaining this tradition is the responsibility of the Naval Facilities engineering command NAVFAC as The Defense Department's construction agent for Southeast Asia NAVFAC was given the job of building Thailand's defense facilities The complex at Satahip was one of them Although Thailand has 1600 miles of coastline it has no natural deepwater harbor The only major seaport in Thailand is Bangkok a river port 17 miles upstream from the Gulf of Thailand through a difficult meandering channel For many years the port of Bangkok has been operating at peak capacity And even a modest increase in cargo would seriously overload the facilities It was apparent that if the logistical needs of the military were to be met a military port and logistical supply complex away from Bangkok would have to be built US and Thai officials along with Navy civil engineer Corps officers Studied the entire coastline of Thailand to find the best sites About 100 miles from Bangkok on the eastern side of the Gulf of Thailand is the Satahip Peninsula Here is where the Royal Thai Navy has its main operating base And here is where the new complex was built 10 August 1966 Thai Defense Minister Tanam Kitakachorn dedicated the Utapao airfield Utapao is the main Air Force petroleum oil and lubricants or POL logistics base in Thailand It is also part of the larger Satahip complex Huge KC-135 jet tankers fly from Utapao to refuel aircraft from the upcountry airfield The KC-135s are supplied by another component in the Satahip complex The POL offloading facility a few hundred yards up the beach from the POL pier in the main Component of the Satahip complex the modern deep water ports This four berth pier and two smaller piers give Satahip a tonnage capacity that almost equals Bangkok Building this modern logistical complex was a challenge that is part of the everyday job of Navy civil engineers Naval facilities engineering command administers construction contracts in the far corners of the world Each project has a Navy civil engineer corps officer assigned who works closely with the contractors The contractor on the Satahip project was Dillingham Zachary Kaiser of Honolulu The deep water pier is a series of interconnected cells made of steel sheet pile Each of these cells requires 152 sheet piles to complete the circle and Each sheet pile must be threaded into place by hand then driven into the soft bottom Slowly precisely the sheet piles are guided by two circular templates The cells are 60 feet in diameter and there are 48 of them in this pier 9,060 sheet piles were placed before the cells were finished 9,060 times the crane lifted a sheet pile and 9,060 times these men guided it into place The average time for completing a cell was eight days The fastest time was three days Some cells took three weeks when there were problems After the piles were driven. They were filled with select sand At four points on each cell special connector sheet piles were used Short arcs were constructed from these four points to connect the full circular cells These two were filled with sand to form a continuous wall The face of the wall is covered with protective concrete from well below the waterline to the top of the pier Divers had to place the forms amid a jungle of reinforcing bars Constant heavy wave action made this extremely hazardous a tribute to the skill of these Filipino divers The divers were about the only skilled workers that had to be imported Most skills could be found within Thailand Over 92% of the workforce was tied The area in front of the wall was dredged to 36 feet for deep draft ships Then a channel through the bay was dredged In all 5 million cubic yards of material was dredged in preparing the channel and pier area to handle ocean-going ships The dredged material was put to good use It was used to fill in behind the cells to form the warehouse and transit area A system of concrete beams was constructed on the filled cells to provide a foundation for a 50 ton portal crane The pier area was then capped and the warehouse and transit area paved with asphalic concrete The completed pier has four six hundred foot berth and is one of the most modern deep water piers in Asia It has transformed Satahip from a name on the map to a major port The other new cargo piers at Satahip are the ammunition pier and The movable DeLong pier named for its inventors These three piers and the POL pier combined make Satahip one of the most efficient ports in the world 98 days after the first pile was driven a huge ocean-going tanker Nosed up to the POL pier and began pumping fuel into the 12-inch line Shortly thereafter the 20-inch line was put into operation and another link in the tie line of defense was forced Before the Satahip POL facility was opened all POL had to be routed through Bangkok or Sriracha now there is direct access The POL pier is capable of handling a T5 type tanker T5 tankers hold 190,000 barrels One of these tankers can be pumped dry in eight hours The pier was built at the end of a 1,400 foot catwalk far enough out from the beach so that dredging was not necessary First stop for the POL is the intermediate tank farm a mile inland from the pier Fuel is stored here in huge welded steel tanks the largest one holding 100,000 barrels it can be held here Loaded into tank trucks for shipment up country or Pumped to a tank farm at Utapau airfield ten miles away The two tank farms have a total storage capacity of over one million barrels a million barrels of power Operate trucks bulldozers Forklift or airplane The largest of the aircraft such as the US Air Force B-52 bomber which can deliver terror into the heart of any aggressor Ready for action in a moment's notice the B-52s are an important factor in our Vietnam efforts But the primary mission of Utapau is supply a fleet of huge KC 135 aerial tankers is based here Supplying air-to-air refueling Utapau has become one of Thailand's largest airfields it can handle anything that can fly The main feature of Utapau is the 11,500 foot concrete runway Concrete was the major building material for all of the Satahit complex But it was Utapau that used most of it the runway alone took nearly a quarter million square yards Then there was a parallel taxiway cross-taxiway parking aprons operations aprons 1,200,000 square yards of concrete The record-paving operation was 5,800 cubic yards poured in a single day That would be like paving a single lane of interstate highway for four miles not bad for a day's work The Thai workers proved to be particularly adept at concrete work and the results showed it The average output was over 2,000 cubic yards a day At the peak of construction the naval facilities engineering command contractor had 6,800 men on his payroll of which over 6,200 were Thai One of the early worries was that it would be difficult to find construction workers in Thailand willing to move the long distance to Satahit to work on the project These fears proved to be wrong in fact just the opposite was true Wages were established that would not cause any great escalation in the local economy This scale was never changed throughout the entire project The ties were quick to learn new techniques On-the-job training was given as required They were trained to operate the concrete paving equipment They drove trucks. They learned to operate the batch plant that provided concrete for the entire project Two eight-yard mixers that could mix a batch of concrete every 50 seconds 16 yards every minute Concrete was used extensively in building construction A precast yard was set up and ties were trained in the American art of prefabrication Whenever possible buildings were prefabricated The largest group of precast buildings was the enlisted men's barracks 13 of these three-story buildings were constructed Each dormitory has 495 concrete members all precasts Total time to complete a dormitory ready for occupancy was only five weeks The mess halls were also prefabricated 1 500-seat mess hall was provided for each four dormitories Some will say this is the most important building in the complex Many tie workers who came as laborers left as skilled tradesmen There were not enough skilled men available so they were trained The airfield site was severely flooded by unusually heavy rain just prior to construction It drained poorly It was almost impossible to grade This problem was solved by laying a working mat of natural stone With the unlikely nickname of jingle stone Stones that jingle Jingle stone is a natural material found in the hills near the airfield It is very similar to crushed rock And when compacted it forms a very strong and durable mat A three-foot base of jingle stone was used for structures As base material for the runways For roads and for building ammunition storage cells Each cell is surrounded by an eight-foot high mound of jingle stone So that if an explosion occurs the blast will be deflected upwards Not set off the rest of the ammunition Ammunition which is vital in the defense of southeast asia Ammunition delivered to thailand through the modern ports of satahip To the enemy through the utapao air base Delivery is the mission of the satahip complex Logistical support The unsung heroes of every military operation Men who man the ship winches to supply those who man the machine guns Who drive forklifts so that others may drive tanks Who fly lumbering tankers with fuel for those who fly the sleek fighters and high altitude bombers Who man the pumps the bulldozers the road graders This is the legacy that is the satahip complex A legacy left by the naval facilities engineering command and their contractor For those who defend the future of their country satahip Tomorrow's thailand