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United States Establishes Headquarters Support Activity, Saigon

July 1, 1962

Army military police vehicles depart through the main gate of Headquarters Support Activity, Saigon.
Army military police vehicles depart through the main gate of Headquarters Support Activity, Saigon.
Army military police vehicles depart through the main gate of Headquarters Support Activity, Saigon. HSAS, a Navy administrative and logistical command, provided services to armed forces members, their families, and U.S. government civilians in South Vietnam during the early 1960s.

The United States establishes Headquarters Support Activity, Saigon (HSAS). HSAS is primarily staffed by Navy personnel, but is under the operational control of Military Assistance Command, Vietnam. HSAS staff provide administrative and logistics support—including supply and fiscal, public works, medical and dental, commissary and exchange, special services, and housekeeping functions—to MACV and MAAG and also to Navy, Army, and Air Force components in Saigon. HSAS activities play a vital role in supporting the American military buildup in Vietnam.1

1Graham A. Cosmas, MACV: The Joint Command in the Years of Escalation, 1962–1967, United States Army in Vietnam (Washington, D.C.: Center of Military History, 2006), 53–54, 170; Edward J. Marolda, The Approaching Storm: Conflict in Asia, 1945–1965 (Washington, D.C.: Naval History and Heritage Command, 2009), 53–55.