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Minneapolis North High School


North High School
Class of 1966

 


Minneapolis North High School
Raymond "Ray" W. Saatela
Married Lynn Christofferson from our class of '66

Ray Saatela 8/26/2016
Ray Saatela
Biography
Raymond "Ray" W. Saatela
 

Last Update:

4/3/2018


  

Status

Located

Location

Plymouth, Minnesota

Email

 

Personal Website

Business Website

Photo Website

Birthday

February 7, 1948

Spouse/Partner

Lynn (Christofferson) Saatela

Children

 Jared and Erin Saatela

Employer

Retired. New Hope PD, Border Patrol Hiring Center, National Security Background Investigator in Houston

Facebook

Biography

After tours in Vietnam with the marines, I graduated from the U of M with a major in Scandinavian language and literature. I specialized in Finnish. After retiring I lived in Fountain Hills, AZ before returning home to MN.


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Ray... stop in any time If you’re not busy...
Ray Saatela
from Ray:
June 1st, 2016 5:06pm

Thank you for all the work you've done on the web site. And a special thanks for the effort and sacrifices you've made as a recon marine and for all you've done to keep the memory and tradition alive for that honored unit.  Semper Fi.

Ray Saatela

Email sent on June 2nd, 2016



R
a
y

It's great to hear from you. I look forward to seeing you at the 50th reunion or before. Keep in touch.  I'll be updating the website with your photos & information as well as the others I hear from.
 
Floyd

Ray Saatela Time Line Photos
North

H
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S
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Mr Don Sovell
Mr Don Sovell
Mr Don Sovell
Home Room 207

 
Sophomore Class 1964

Mr Sovell Sophomore Class 1964
Mr Sovell Sophomore Homeroom Class 1964
Junior Class 1965

Minneapolis North High School

North High School
Class of 1966
Yearbook


Minneapolis North High School

Page #63


Page #102


Page #103


Page #106


Page #107

North High School
Mr Sovell Home Room 207
Senior Class 1966

Click to enlarge photos...

Image: 
Floyd,

I dug up some pictures I have from my tours in Vietnam.

I was en route to Vietnam in Sept '68 when I got temporarily assigned to a unit in Okinawa. I finally made it to Vietnam in Dec '68. I voluntarily extended my tour and after taking leave back home, I completed my extension and returned to the U.S. in April '70.  I was a sergeant with communications and was always assigned to artillery batteries while in country.

 
Here are some pix. The locations are from around Danang,
Chu Lai and An Hoa.

Ray Saatela


Thanks for your service Ray...
 
Here are a few more pictures from my marine corps units. I was trained as a radio technician, but usually had little more than a screwdriver and a roll of tape to fix things while in the field. Therefore, I usually spent my days laying comm wire in the field, climbing poles to string it or being a radio operator.

I voluntarily extended my tour in Vietnam in order to qualify for an early-out program in effect at the time. My goal was to get out early enough to attend the fall quarter at the University of Minn.  Unfortunately, after I completed my extended tour, my MOS was no longer on the list for eligible early outs.   I finished out my marine corps enlistment in San Diego where five months later my MOS was again added to the eligibility list.

Ray Saatela

I wish I was still this thin.

Ray Saatela 1969 - An Hoa - Vietnam

An Hoa Combat Base

Vietnam


The base was located approximately 28 km west of Hội An and 4 km west northwest of the Mỹ Sơn temple complex, near to the Tinh Yen River and the An Hoa industrial complex.

The base was first used by the Marines in January 1966 during Operation Mallard when the 1st Battalion, 12th Marines established a firebase there while the 1st Battalion, 3rd Marines and a Company from the 2nd Battalion, 9th Marines swept the surrounding area. On 20 April 1966 the Marines returned to An Hoa on Operation Georgia, the 12th Marines reestablished a firebase while the 3rd Battalion 9th Marines provided security, the base would become permanent at this time as the Marines sought to pacify the area. On 6 July 5 Marine Battalions launched Operation Macon around the An Hoa area, the operation continued into October resulting in 24 Marines and 380Vietcong killed.

In August 1966 the Marines completed the construction of the "Liberty Road" between Danang and An Hoa.

An Hoa base was located southeast of a major Vietcong/People's Army of Vietnam base area known as the Arizona Territory across the Vu Gia River.

The airfield was capable of handling C-7, C-123 and C-130 aircraft.

Marine PFC Dan Bullock, the youngest American serviceman killed in action in the Vietnam War died at An Hoa on 7 June 1969.

The 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines handed over the base to the ARVN 1st Battalion, 51st Regiment on 15 October 1970.


"Multi-Battalion Lift: Elements of the 5th Marine Regiment stand by at the An Hoa Base waiting to board Sea Knight helicopters of Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 164 [HMM-164]. More than 3,500 Leatherneck infantrymen were airlifted November 20 in a sector about eight miles southwest of Da Nang as they kicked off Operation Meade River. Approximately 75 helicopters from three aircraft groups of the 1st Marine Aircraft Wing [1st MAW] took part in the operation."

History of An Hoa Combat Base

Click Here

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An Hoa Combat Base - Art work based on a photo by Tim Elliott
Stories - An Hoa
Click Here

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Chu Lai Air Base

Vietnam


Map of I Corps, RVN, with three major USMC bases during 1965 highlighted with red arrows, top to bottom, Phu Bai, Danang, and Chu Lai
Chu Lai Air Base was a military airport in Chu Lai, Vietnam, operated by the United States Marine Corps between 1965 and 1970. It was located near Tam Kỳ city, the largest city in Quảng Nam Province. Abandoned after the end of the Vietnam War, it was reopened as Chu Lai International Airport in 2005.

Chu Lai Base

In September 1966, a new 10,000 ft runway, with taxiways, was completed, just west of the SATS strip. With the opening of the new runway, Marine Aircraft Group 13 with three F-4 Phantom squadrons arrived at Chu Lai and remained until September 1970.

In April 1967, Marine All-Weather Fighter Attack Squadron 533 (VMA(AW)-533), equipped with the A6-A Intruder all-weather attack aircraft, arrived to provide air support for Marines in I Corps, and to deliver ordinance on targets in North Vietnam under all weather conditions.

On the morning of 31 January 1968 as part of the Tet Offensive, the Viet Cong attacked the base with rockets and mortars triggering an explosion in the bomb dump. MAGs 12 and 13 suffered three aircraft destroyed and 23 damaged.

The last Marine sorties were flown from Chu Lai by aircraft from Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 314 (VMFA-314) on 11 September 1970.

The Marines departed Chu Lai on 13 October 1970, turning control over to the United States Army.


Chu Lai Air Base Aerial view of the U.S. Marine Corps Short Airfield for Tactical Support (SATS) Chu Lai, South Vietnam. Several Douglas A-4 Skyhawk aircraft from Marine Air Group 12 are visible in the foreground.

Chu Lai was a United States Marine Corps military base from 1965 to 1971 during the Vietnam War. Roughly 56 miles (90 km) southeast of Đà Nẵng, the base had an airfield to supplement the major base at Đà Nẵng. It was not named for any local geographic feature, but rather was the Chinese name of Lieutenant General Victor H. Krulak, commanding general of Fleet Marine Force, Pacific.

Da Nang Air Base was the first major airfield used by the United States Marine Corps during the Vietnam War. Shortly after conventional ground forces began arriving in country in 1965, it became necessary to open a second airfield because of the heavy traffic into and out of Đà Nẵng.

On 6 May 1965 units from the ARVN 2nd Division and 3rd Battalion, 9th Marines secured the Chu Lai area. On 7 May, the3rd Marine Expeditionary Brigade (United States) (3rd MEB), composed of the 4th Marine Regiment, 3rd Reconnaissance Battalion, elements of Marine Aircraft Group 12 (MAG-12) and Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 10 landed at Chu Lai to establish a jet-capable airfield and base area.

Chu Lai Air Base became operational on 1 June 1965 and remained in use by Marine aviation units until September 1970.

The The Seabees of MCB-10 built the helicopter pad, and the Marines also established combat base and helicopter facilityon the Kỳ Hà peninsula north of the air base. The Marine base was handed over to the U.S. Army's Task Force Oregon in April 1967 and subsequently became the headquarters and base area for the 23rd Americal Division from September 1967 until November 1971.


Da Nang, Vietnam

In Danang, Where U.S. Troops First Landed, Members of the 9th U.S. Marine Expeditionary Force go ashore at Danang, South Vietnam, on March 8, 1965. Assigned to beef up defense of an air base, they were the first U.S. combat troops deployed in the Vietnam War. The first American combat troops to arrive in Vietnam landed in the coastal city of Danang 50 years ago this past March. The 2,000 Marines had the job of protecting the nearby U.S. air base. It took the members of the 9th Marine Expeditionary Brigade almost an entire day to bring their men and materiel ashore that day in March 1965.

The city of Da Nang mushroomed after the arrival of the first American combat troops on March 8, 1965. An advance guard of two battalions of Marines waded ashore at Red Beach in Da Nang Bay, providing the press with a photo opportunity that included amphibious landing craft, helicopters and young Vietnamese women handing out garlands – not quite as the generals had envisaged. The Marines had come to defend Da Nang’s massive US Air Force base; as the troops flew in so the base sprawled. Eventually Da Nang became “a small American city”, as journalist John Pilger remembers it, “with its own generators, water purification plants, hospitals, cinemas, bowling alleys, ball parks, tennis courts, jogging tracks, supermarkets and bars, lots of bars”. For most US troops the approach to Da Nang airfield formed their first impression of Vietnam, and it was here they came to take a break from the war at the famous China Beach.

At the same time the city swelled with thousands of refugees, mostly villagers cleared from “free-fire zones” but also people in search of work – labourers, cooks, laundry staff, pimps, prostitutes and drug pushers, all inhabiting a shantytown called Dogpatch on the base perimeter. Da Nang’s population rose inexorably: twenty thousand in the 1940s, fifty thousand in 1955 and, some estimate, a peak of one million during the American years. North Vietnamese mortar shells periodically fell in and around the base, but the city’s most violent scenes occurred when two South Vietnamese generals engaged in a little power struggle. In March 1966 Vice Air Marshal Ky, then prime minister of South Vietnam, ousted a popular Hué overlord, General Thi, following his open support of Buddhist dissidents. Demonstrations spread from Hué to Da Nang where troops loyal to Thi seized the airfield in what amounted to a mini civil war. After much posturing Ky crushed the revolt two months later, killing hundreds of rebel troops and many civilians. In the preceding chaos, the beleaguered rebels held forty Western journalists hostage for a brief period in Da Nang’s largest pagoda, Chua Tinh Hoi, while streets around filled with Buddhist protesters.

When the North Vietnamese Army finally arrived to liberate Da Nang on March 29, 1975, they had less of a struggle. Communist units had already cut the road south, and panic-stricken South Vietnamese soldiers battled for space on any plane or boat leaving the city, firing on unarmed civilians. Many drowned in the struggle to reach fishing boats, while planes and tanks were abandoned to the enemy. Da Nang had been all but deserted by South Vietnamese forces, leaving the mighty base to, according to Pilger, be “taken by a dozen NLF cadres waving white handkerchiefs from the back of a truck”.


Danang East from Camp Horn to Marble Mtn Air Facility.
Da Nang Air Base
Click to enlarge photos...

Image: 
Da Nang Air Base
The Marine's Hymn
The Memory Remains Not All Wounds Are Visible.

Ray Saatela 1969 - An Hoa - Vietnam
After tours in Vietnam with the marines, I graduated from the U of M with a major in Scandinavian language and literature. I specialized in Finnish. After retiring I lived in Fountain Hills, AZ before returning home to MN.

45th Reunion
August 27th, 2011

Ray Saatela &  Lynn (Christofferson) Saatela
Ray Saatela & Lynn (Christofferson) Saatela
Glad I got to see you again Mom (Lynn) and Ray! Very happy y'all came to visit even tho the future flights started looking bad and had to bring ya back to the airport lol! Always another time too!!!
Click to enlarge photos...

Image: 

50th
Reunion

Friday
August 26th, 2016

Terry Rice, Floyd Ruggles & Ray Saatela
Terry Rice, Floyd Ruggles & Ray Saatela Class of '66 Homeroom #207
Ray Saatela & Lynn Christofferson-Saatela
North High Polars
   
Saturday
August 27th, 2016

Bill Lee, Floyd Ruggles & Ray Saatela
Terry Tompkins, Bill Lee, Floyd Ruggles & Ray Saatela
Terry Tompkins, Bill Lee, Floyd Ruggles & Ray Saatela
Floyd Ruggles & Ray Saatela
Floyd Ruggles & Ray Saatela
 __50__
 
Y
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Click Here
 __50__
 
Y
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S

Click Here
Classmates of Minneapolis North High School Class of 1966 who had an Involvement in the Vietnam War. Click Here for part 1 of 10 on the class website.
Click Here
NHS Class of 1966 Involved in the Vietnam War. The storyboard was on Display at the 50th Reunion in Auqust 27th, 2016. Click the photo..
   
North High Polars
Sunday
August 28th, 2016

Ray Saatela & Floyd Ruggles
September 12th, 2016
Chili's 1800 Beam Ave Maplewood, MN 55109
Ray Saatela & Floyd Ruggles
Ray Saatela & Floyd Ruggles
Ray Saatela, Lynn Christofferson-Saatela, Floyd & Linda Ruggles
Ray Saatela, Lynn Christofferson-Saatela, Floyd & Linda Ruggles
Ray Saatela, Lynn Christofferson-Saatela, Floyd & Linda Ruggles

September 12th, 2016
Thanks for lunch Ray!

Ray Saatela, Floyd Ruggles & Terry Tompkins (August 26th, 2017)
Ray Saatela, Floyd Ruggles & Terry Tompkins (August 26th, 2017)
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