Officer in Charge of Construction RVN

Officer in Charge of Construction, Republic of Vietnam
Insignia of OICC RVN and NAVFAC
Active1965-1972
CountryUnited States
BranchU.S. Navy
TypeContract construction
RoleContracting Officer
Part of Naval Forces Vietnam
Nickname(s)OICC RVN

Officer in Charge of Construction, Republic of Vietnam (OICC RVN), was a position established by the U.S. Navy Bureau of Yards and Docks in 1965 to manage the large construction program in South Vietnam assigned to RMK-BRJ, a consortium of four of the largest American construction companies. This construction program was to prepare the infrastructure in South Vietnam to allow escalation of U.S. troop levels into Vietnam during the Vietnam War and supply them with facilities and matériel. This program became the largest construction program and contract in history up to that time.[1][2][3] The position ended in 1972 with the completion of the RMK-BRJ contract. The result was a transformation of southern Vietnam from an area of little infrastructure to the industrial country today that continues to rely on the new ports, airfields, highways, and bridges constructed under this program.[1] As the journalist Richard Tregaskis put it, the bases built under this huge construction program “had the interesting collateral effect of preparing her way [Vietnam] for a catapult-style launching into the modern age.”[4]

  1. ^ a b Dunn 1991, p. v.
  2. ^ Carter 2004, p. 58.
  3. ^ Baldwin 1967.
  4. ^ Tregaskis 1975, p. 1.