CID Training

Back in the mid 1970s while working as a Military Police (MP) Investigator (MPI) with the United States Army (USA) Customs Office (42nd Military Police Group) at Stuttgart, Germany decided to improve my education and started taking night classes with Central Texas College (CTC).

My CTC crime scene investigation class was taught by an Army Criminal Investigation Division Command (CIDC) Special Agent (SA). At the end of each class the instructor SA Reid Chave would tell us how CID needed SAs and we should all apply to see if we qualified to be a USA CIDC SA.

At the time CID was looking for enlisted and warrant SAs. There was a program for warrant officers, if selected you would go to the CID school at Ft McClellan, AL and if you completed the CID course you came out as a Warrant Officer and were assigned to a field unit to investigate crime!

Applied for the Warrant Officer program in CID but was not selected for Warrant but was selected as enlisted. I was disappointed not getting the Warrant but  it seemed like a good career move at the time after going from Private to Staff Sergeant (SSG) in a short time. In fact I was stuck at SSG due to the selection process for Sergeant First Class (SFC) having such a high selection point score.

To make SFC in the MPs you had to have 900 out of a 1000 to get the SFC stripes. My score was 870 and no way to get any more points at that time.

Accepted the selection to CID, picked up and left the 42nd MP Gp Customs on top of the hill at Robinson Barracks, Stuttgart Germany and moved down the hill to the MP station where the CID had it's office on the second floor as well as office space in the basement and the attic.

Shadowed several CID SAs while waiting on my CID Basic Agent training date, learned how CID in the field worked, how information was gathered, crimes were investigated, photography, weapons, and office politics. Little did I know the folks at the school were going to tell me to forget all I learned in the field, while the field told me when I left to learn all I could at school, then use that training but remember CID Field Work was different than what was taught in CID school!

After spending several weeks in Saigon

After spending several weeks in Saigon at the 509^th RR barracks eating three meals a day, going to the enlisted club at night, sleeping more than anyone should, no formations, no one making me paint rocks, sweep floors, pull kitchen police, no physical training of any kind, and watching Armed Forces Network television,

The war in Vietnam did not seem all that bad. Yep, my time in Saigon was better than any time I had seen since being asked by Uncle Sam to join the fun in the U.S. Army.

Until my visit to Vietnam my entire life in the U.S. Army was scheduled as to when to eat, what to eat, who to eat with, what to wear, how to wear my clothing, up at 5:00 AM, train all day, and in bed by 9:00 PM depending on duty requirements.

My time spent in Saigon was totally different then my previous year in the Army. I was beginning to think I was not in the Army, no one dropped me off in the jungle from a helicopter as promised, life in Saigon so far was interesting and exciting, after all this was my first time outside the U.S..

Having fun in and around the Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (MACV) and around Tan Son Nhut Air Base kept me busy. This entire place was so different than the U.S., it was obvious there was a war going on but so far no one had shot at me, I had not heard a shot, nothing was blowing up, no one was going crazy, all-in-all life was good for this Private First Class (PFC).

Just as I was getting to enjoy life in Saigon it was brought to my attention Saigon was not my duty assignment and I would be going down the road to Bien Hoa Air Base and then Long Binh http://youtu.be/esWgzAF4hf8 to the 90th Replacement Detachment to get my jungle stuff! All of a sudden this war thing might be getting all too real.

 The trip to Bien Hoa and Long Binh in a convoy was uneventful, dusty, and hot, but did get to see lots of the country side, people, and such as shown in the youtube video someone took in 1970. All was going well, until we got ready to leave the 90^th Replacement Detachment with all our new jungle stuff that included a 45 Cal pistol with ammo, and an M16 rifle with ammo. 

Now I felt more like a soldier but had no idea how I was ever going to wear all that jungle stuff, or where I was going to store it when not on patrol.

 Our day trip back to Saigon was suddenly interrupted when the lead truck in the convoy exploded; there were five vehicles in our convoy, lead jeep, rations truck, gun truck, personnel truck, and follow jeep. The enemy was trying to hit the gun truck which had two Fifty Cal turrets on it, but since they missed the gunners were able to remove the threat in seconds.

One should never attack a convoy with gun trucks and no one should be in an open truck directly behind a gun truck without ear plugs, something to do with ear damage. The trip back to Saigon was easy, we were one truck light, but no one else tried to attack our small convoy. 

Once back at MACV compound there were orders on all our bunks in the barracks advising us where each of us would be assigned and where we had to be at 5:00 AM the next morning. 

After a quick breakfast and a trip back to Bien Hoa got my first ride on a C130 cargo aircraft headed for Nha Trang.

Remember The Good Old Days –

Remember The Good Old Days –

Back in the day when all U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Division (CID) Command Special Agents (SA) wore suits each and every day and night they were on duty, do any of you remember damaging or destroying your suits at crime scenes?

What did you do to get that suit cleaned, repaired, or replaced?

Were you issued the gold colored zip up coverall crime scene suit that was anti-suit, since we had to put that gold thing on over our suits and that gold thing did more to destroy a suit than anything else.

The gold coverall when zipped up kept fingerprint powder and other substances off our suits, but the suit kept all the heat inside the suit, we sweated, the suit sweated, it was a mess. 

If we did not wear the gold anti-suit we might not be able to get reimbursed for damage to our day-to-day suits. Those suits cost money, we had to have a suit for every day of the week, and the loss of even one suit was expensive.

Every time I tried to get reimbursed for damage to clothing I was told the damage was not covered or I would have to submit to the Army Staff Judge Advocate (SJA) and not CID for cleaning, repair, or replacement cost. Tried requesting reimbursement several times in the late 1970s, I am still waiting on a reply in 2014.

Just another moment from those Good Old Days – Smiling.

Remember using mini tape recorders with mini tape cassettes

Remember using mini tape recorders with mini tape cassettes for recording investigative notes in the 1980s – 

There was a time in the US Army Criminal Investigation Division Command (CID) that CID Special Agents (SAs) experimented with the use of mini tape recorders that used mini recording tapes to document all investigative activity. 

Not sure how long the experiment lasted, but remembers using those little tape recorders at crime scenes for at least a year or so while in Germany.

Prior to and after the use of the mini tape recorders all SAs used note pads to record our daily investigative notes on. Our note pads with the information obtained during our day-to-day investigative activity scribbled on them were used to fill out our activity sheets, statements, and reports.

Trying to read what we had written (which in most instances amounted to a scribble worse than any doctors signature) in the dead of night, in the rain, the snow, the wind, the heat, the office, and the barracks was not an easy task.

The notes were supposed to be legible so anyone could read them if need be, not just so the SA who wrote the notes could read them in order to transcribe the information to the investigative file, activity record, or report.

Those note pads or books were retained in the case files they pertained to in case the investigators or others needed to refresh his or her memory on what was scribbled on the pad while obtaining information for their daily investigative activity placed in the case file.

One day SAs were scribbling in little note books and or on pads and the next we were dealing with tape recorders and tapes. There is always a learning curve, some SAs did not want to use the tape recorders and refused to do so if their boss allowed them not to use the recorders.  

The majority of us used the tape recorders and got to like the ease of recording and not writing down everything we needed for our investigative files.

At the time all CID offices still had Word Processing Centers (WPC) where we had at least five civilians typing reports and other investigative information from notes we provided, those WPC folks were able to transcribe the mini tapes for the SAs so there was a typed copy of what was on the mini cassettes.

When CID started using the mini recorders SAs were able to use a mini cassette tape, have it transcribed, verified by the SA, signed, and then the mini cassette tape was wiped clean and reused by the SAs in the field. This was a very good method of documenting investigative activities and was working well till the Staff Judge Advocate folks decided the transcribed notes form the mini cassettes were not the best evidence.

CID was instructed to keep the mini cassette tape with the original audio recording on it, not as evidence, but in the investigative case file along with the transcribed notes from the SA. This having to replace mini cassette tapes and not being able to reuse tapes sealed the end of the experiment after about two years since the mini cassettes cost more money than the US Army was willing to spend.

Do you remember what office you were in when you used mini tape recorders and mini recording tapes?