Previously I may have mentioned after spending several weeks at the barracks at the 509th Radio Research Group (RR) which was part of the Army Security Agency (ASA) headquartered at Davis Station on the west side of Tan Son Nhut Air Base, a few miles northwest of Saigon, Vietnam, I got my orders to move out to my real war time duty station.
After what seemed like a year of having nothing but fun in Saigon, I was placed on a C130 aircraft with about thirty other folks and flown to my assignment with the 224th Aviation Battalion, with duty at the 144th Aviation Company (Radio Research) located at Camp John P. McDermott, which was adjacent to Nha Trang airfield at Nha Trang Vietnam.
The flight from hell only took two hours or so, it was so loud even with large ear muffs on, and the vibration just about shook me apart, but that was nothing compared to what happened when we approached the Nha Trang airfield.
The crew chief for the C130 came by, had us take off the ear muffs that did not help at all, we could hear nothing, but it sounded like the crew chief was yelling something about the air field was under attack so they could not land! That was fine with me, then the rear ram for the aircraft opened and the C130 descended as if it was going to land. We were moved to the rear of the aircraft, we could see parts of the airfield being hit by mortars, explosions all over the place.
The C130 was almost on the runway when we were told to run out the back of the aircraft and keep running until we got to the terminal. I did not have an issue with this jump from hell (3feet), who knew, hit the runway running, ran all the way to the terminal, entered, and dove under a table.
Folks in the airfield terminal just looked at us as we entered like we were nuts, they were not bothered by the explosions and were going about their business like nothing was going on. Once it was obvious no one else cared about being killed or injured, I got up, dusted myself off, and went to look for my ride to the unit.
After the all clear was sounded, walked out to the parking area and saw a jeep with a guy reading a comic book, the hood had 144th AVN (RR) on it. Got in and off to the barracks we went.
My first week at Nha Trang was learning all about the unit and what we did for a living. The Military Police (RR) assigned to the 144th Aviation Company (RR) in Nha Trang, Vietnam in 1970 were responsible for providing security for the operations center, aircraft, traffic control access points to the Army flight line, perimeter fence, back gate entrance for the Air Base, as well as convoy protection when any 144th AVN vehicles left the base.
The purpose of the 144th Aviation Company was airborne radio direction finding and transmitted code interception and decryption. Many aspects of the mission of the 144th (RR) were and may still be classified so all I will remember is the exciting MP stuff and not the (RR) stuff.
Military Police assigned to (RR) units provided security for all top secret (RR) installations and its' equipment twenty-four hours a day.
More exciting and not so exciting information about the life and times of an ASA – Oops – RR MP in Vietnam to follow as soon as I remember it.
After what seemed like a year of having nothing but fun in Saigon, I was placed on a C130 aircraft with about thirty other folks and flown to my assignment with the 224th Aviation Battalion, with duty at the 144th Aviation Company (Radio Research) located at Camp John P. McDermott, which was adjacent to Nha Trang airfield at Nha Trang Vietnam.
The flight from hell only took two hours or so, it was so loud even with large ear muffs on, and the vibration just about shook me apart, but that was nothing compared to what happened when we approached the Nha Trang airfield.
The crew chief for the C130 came by, had us take off the ear muffs that did not help at all, we could hear nothing, but it sounded like the crew chief was yelling something about the air field was under attack so they could not land! That was fine with me, then the rear ram for the aircraft opened and the C130 descended as if it was going to land. We were moved to the rear of the aircraft, we could see parts of the airfield being hit by mortars, explosions all over the place.
The C130 was almost on the runway when we were told to run out the back of the aircraft and keep running until we got to the terminal. I did not have an issue with this jump from hell (3feet), who knew, hit the runway running, ran all the way to the terminal, entered, and dove under a table.
Folks in the airfield terminal just looked at us as we entered like we were nuts, they were not bothered by the explosions and were going about their business like nothing was going on. Once it was obvious no one else cared about being killed or injured, I got up, dusted myself off, and went to look for my ride to the unit.
After the all clear was sounded, walked out to the parking area and saw a jeep with a guy reading a comic book, the hood had 144th AVN (RR) on it. Got in and off to the barracks we went.
My first week at Nha Trang was learning all about the unit and what we did for a living. The Military Police (RR) assigned to the 144th Aviation Company (RR) in Nha Trang, Vietnam in 1970 were responsible for providing security for the operations center, aircraft, traffic control access points to the Army flight line, perimeter fence, back gate entrance for the Air Base, as well as convoy protection when any 144th AVN vehicles left the base.
The purpose of the 144th Aviation Company was airborne radio direction finding and transmitted code interception and decryption. Many aspects of the mission of the 144th (RR) were and may still be classified so all I will remember is the exciting MP stuff and not the (RR) stuff.
Military Police assigned to (RR) units provided security for all top secret (RR) installations and its' equipment twenty-four hours a day.
More exciting and not so exciting information about the life and times of an ASA – Oops – RR MP in Vietnam to follow as soon as I remember it.
