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A little bit of history of me and the site on V.C. Hill.
Before going to Vietnam I was an instructor at the Signal School in
Ft Monmouth,
New Jersey. I was in the Television & Tropo Scatter Branch at
the school.
When we first arrived in Vung Tau there were a lot of old trees on
the site
and every morning the trees were full of Monkeys. I do not know the date
that all of that was taken over by the1st Signal Brigade.
When I left Vung Tau we were known as the
US Army Regional
Communications Group (Vietnam) Long Lines Detachment, Vung Tau, APO
96291.
Anyone remember the Attack on the airfield there??
* * *
*
F
Troop. Well, that's what we called our unit at that time. I even saw an
article in the STRATCOM journal when I was in Germany where the site
received one of the original guidons of F Troop from Forrest Tucker. I
think he was the star of the television series at that time.
A
little history about the site.
I
was sent to Vung Tau along with a S/Sgt. I was an SFC at the time. This
must have been in December 1965. When we arrived at the site there were,
of course, other communications already there. There was an AN/TRC 24
site there. I am not sure but it could have been from the 39th Signal
Company. There was also a MRC/98 Van there and it was run my the Air
Force and PageComm if I remember right. And also a Tropo Scatter Van
that was run I believe by the Philco Company. There was a Tech Rep by
the name of Hardy.
We
only stayed at that time 2 or 3 days. We made a list of all that we
would need to start setting up our part of the site. We came back to
Vung Tau by boat from Saigon with a Jeep and a Squad Tent. We set up the
tent and shortly after we started to receive new troops. Then RMK
started to do the construction of the site. There was a terrible amount
of work to be done. A lot of the top of the hill was blasted off. We
took over the MRC/98 site from the Air Force. At that time we received a
communication Van. We had a hell of a time getting it up there. We had
to use a big fork lift from the Air base there to get it around those
hairpin turns. I was in charge of the site at that time. We had an
officer that was responsible for us, but he stayed in Saigon and only
came to the site once a month for pay call.
A
few months later and much to my relief we Got a CO. A 2nd LT Boler. He
was very young. But was a very nice fellow. The site was a long way from
being completed when I left in Nov 1966.
I do not remember the bull dozer going off the hill. But there was a
truck that went off the hill. It was loaded with Vietnamese civilian
workers. They were going down after they had finished work for the day.
We had to go down the hill to eat because we had no mess hall or any
water on the hill at that time. We did get a water trailer. and made the
daily run down to the airbase to get our water. We built a shower using
55 gallon drums.
I
do not remember the exact date but the Viet Cong hit the air base with a
rocket attack. This was sometime in 1966. Most of us were down town or
at French Beach. The MP got us out of the town and we went back up on
the hill. We sure had a good view on the attack.
Well
that's only a short part of the history of the site. There was so much
going on and so much to do. Oh yes the security for the site was done by
an Infantry Platoon. And when I left there was also a Guard Dog squad
there. Oh by the way I am not French I was born in a little town in Kansas. I
met by wife while I was here in France in 1960. We got married in 1961.
I retired from the Army in 1968 and have been living here in France
since then.
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