Operation Wash Up the Weekly BathVietnamese Style, Mai Linh, South Vietnam

Description

OF DEPARTMENT NEWSFILM RELEASE OFFICE OF ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF DEFENSE (PUBLIC AFFAIRS) UNITED STATES Australia WASHINGTON, D.C. = 20301 OF PLEASE NOTE DATE IMMEDIATE RELEASE April 20, 1967 OXford 75111 Number 104-67 Footage: 108' 16mm Color Master Room 2E 771 93' 16mm Magnetic Track 'OPERATION WASH UP' THE WEEKLY BATH - VIETNAMESE STYLE (Official Department of Defense Sound Motion Picture Film by the U. S. Army under the direction of the MACV Office of Information) Youngsters of the Montagnard village of Mai Linh, located north of the coastal city of Nha Trang, have been introduced to a new phase in physical hygiene - the Sunday bath. Every Sunday, U. S. Special Forces soldiers move through the village in trucks and pick up the children and take them to a nearby river for a weekly wash up. Here at the river, a Special Forces soldier gives each child a bar of soap, and they rush toward the river to get to the business at hand. Some of the smaller children are assisted in the wash up operation by older Vietnamese children and Special Forces soldiers. Reluctant at first, the children now are enthusiastic and look forward to the weekly ride to the river. Prior to the start of the program, many of the children had little contact with soap. The Sunday wash up at the river is by no means comparable to the mythical "Saturday night bath" in the United States, but according to medical advisors of the Special Forces, skin irritations among these children have decreased since the start of Operation Wash up. SEQUENCES VIDEO AUDIO (a) View of Montagnard village (a) None (b) Children playing in mud with pigs (b) None (c) Children in truck (c) None (a) Soldiers in jeep arriving at village (d) Live sounds (e) Truck entering another village to pick up (e) Live sounds more children (f) Children loading aboard truck (f) Live sounds (g) Truck loaded with children leaving village (g) Live sounds - more -

Collection

Records of the Office of the Chief Signal Officer

Series

Filmed News Releases