Post by deros on Oct 17, 2009 11:19:27 GMT
My old flight commander from the USAF Security Police ( then a 1st lt/ captain) sent me this when I contacted him.
Tim: I was the 3rd Squad Leader, 2nd Platoon, Echo Company, 2nd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment. I was stationed with the 4th Marine Regiment, 3RD Marine Division on Okinawa in late 1974, where we trained in Jungle Warfare…especially helo operations and small unit patrols/ops. We embarked on LST 1083 in January 1975 and started our ops as part of the 4th MAU (Marine Amphibious Unit…they change the acronyms all the time so could be some other abbreviation), which was later reinforced with additional marine/navy units to become the 9th MEU (Marine Expeditionary Unit). We spent some time sailing around the Pacific, trying to out run a couple Typhoons and spending some time on some small islands and trying to chat-up the local ladies (no luck there). When the last NVA offensive started and the ARVN pulled out of the Central Highlands, we moved off-station somewhere around an island near the coast of South Vietnam ….round about Saigon area, sometime in late April/early May. When Da Nang fell and the big push of the NVA smashed what was left of the ARVN units fighting around the coast, we got the go ahead for the mission. First ops were to go establish a base of operations which ended up being the old Ton San Nut Air Base. There was still a fairly sizable US presence in-country and US Air Force Security Police still controlled a small section of the air base, linked up with them and pushed out to control old perimeter (fighting positions/towers etc). Marine air lifted into the base via helos, and quickly established a fire base for security/evacuation ops. Mortars and rockets were flying around all the time….must have been firing blind as they couldn’t hit anything. I was part of a small team that was supposed to be inserted onto different roof tops throughout the city to fly out what US /allies that were in the area. All the evac plans were written my Embassy staffers and you can imagine that it was a crock of sh_t when the “SH_T HIT THE FAN” and the NVA hit the outskirts of Saigon and started their assault of the city. As could be expected…complete and utter chaos, looting, ARVN on the rampage trying to get the heck out of the danger zones, 10s of thousands of refugees, vehicle traffic jambs locked down the streets and NVA and VC shooting, bombing and assassinations everywhere.
My mission changed and we were inserted into the US Embassy and started moving the staffers and DVs out of the compound via helos. Slow process to get the folks out. Constant fighting along the perimeter to keep out the refugees (thousands outside the walls) getting shot at by the VC and occasional very large artillery/rockets (usually impacting in the crowd outside the base). Ran around like a mad man doing all sorts of various tasks (to include being a body guard for Ambassador Martin for a short period of time….he wanted to go out to the compound perimeter so that he could point out his household maid and her family) I ended up jumping over the compound wall on top of a bund of the refugees so that I could get to the maid, grab her and get her over the wall….just like jumping into one of those rock concerts where the “head bangers” are bouncing all over the place.
Lots of shooting and other nonsense. Really got wild when we had to start drawing in the perimeter when we got the word to bug-out. That was a mess. There were only about 30 Marine from 2/4 as reinforcements and there was only a squad of Marine Security Guards holding the fort. Got all our guys into the Embassy and tried to barricade the doors and stair well…which didn’t work worth a damn when they blew the doors in, but we were able to get everyone to the top of the Embassy and barricaded the roof door (e-tools, fits, gun butts and combat boots…typical donnybrook knock down, drag out fight). Our helos were out at sea on the carriers refueling so it took a while for them to get back and pick us up…but I was too clueless at that time to worry about anything as this was high adventure.
Helos finally arrived and off we went. The helos took a lot of small arms fire…(probably from the renegade ARVN). But no real damage.
Saw a lot of the “old china hands” in the embassy having a hard time leaving….a lot of those guys had spent their entire adult life in South Vietnam supporting the cause. Some went back out over the wall…didn’t see them come back…
Uniform for Fleet Marines (infantry regiments) at that time was the OD utilities. Marine Security Guards at the Embassy and Consults wore our old style camouflage uniform (slanted pockets, USMC stenciled on left breast pocket)
Web gear was mixture of old webbing and some newer nylon equipment…
Flak vest (usually old ceramic plate vest…some neat Army style with side vents…and helmets (old WW II style with camo helmet cover…no graffiti allowed on USMC helmet covers) were worn at all times by regular infantry marines. So any time you see a guy in ODs and flak vest helmet, he was regular infantry….
Carried gas masks …I don’t think we ever check the filters….probably a solid rock of char coal
M16 and M16A1s (with bayonets fixed most of the time) The M14 officially phased out when I entered boot camp in Aug 73. We were the last boot camp series to use the M14. Good rifle for long distance shooting, but rather long and heavy for running around in the jungle (seems to be making a comeback with Special Forces in the desert….works well in dusty conditions and better long range accuracy and hitting power)
M203 grenade launchers (also had 45 cal pistol for personal protection)
M60 machine guns. I only remember one gun team in our company with our reinforcements.
Everyone carried extra M16 (5.56) ammo bandoliers, M60 ammo, grenades in every pocked, smoke grenades, pop-up flares, smoke grenades and CS grenades.
Old style wood handle e-tools were the most preferred…(good for close in fighting)…some of the newer folding style e-tools were issued (most guys didn’t like them as they were crap for digging, lots of pinched finger/hands trying to fold and unfold them and kind of awkward for swinging around in a fight)
All had OD green USMC cap
OD green trousers always bloused over boots…between second and third eyelet on boot.
Jungle boots with green nylon uppers…could be waffle pattern or cleat pattern for the soles/boot heals. Cleat pattern was better as it shed the mud easier ….
Navy Corpsmen wore OD green uniform same equipment as above with 45 pistol in black holster (all 45s were worn on the right hip in line with pocket seam on trousers)
As can be expected there was a lot of confusion and a very small number of US Marines to carry out the mission. All marines of the 9th MEU knew their mission and commanders intent and used their initiative to complete their mission….which was originally only to pull out less than a hundred US personnel….You can imagine the problems involved when the White House decided to go ahead and rescue as many of the ARVN/civilians/allies as possible. I guess no one really expected/planned that the whole ARVN would simply collapse so quickly and open the flood gates.
It was “Katie bar the door” and trying to herd this writhing, howling, pulsing, throng of literally 10s of thousands of refugees out to safety.
The critics can be damned as all they can do is criticize (ie open mouth and garbage comes out) ….they definitely weren’t there and the few media folks that stayed to the end were looking to us for their salvation….
Tour length was 13 months
It was very hot, sweaty work
All the best and congratulations on getting back into the RAF
Lt Col E. R***k
Tim: I was the 3rd Squad Leader, 2nd Platoon, Echo Company, 2nd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment. I was stationed with the 4th Marine Regiment, 3RD Marine Division on Okinawa in late 1974, where we trained in Jungle Warfare…especially helo operations and small unit patrols/ops. We embarked on LST 1083 in January 1975 and started our ops as part of the 4th MAU (Marine Amphibious Unit…they change the acronyms all the time so could be some other abbreviation), which was later reinforced with additional marine/navy units to become the 9th MEU (Marine Expeditionary Unit). We spent some time sailing around the Pacific, trying to out run a couple Typhoons and spending some time on some small islands and trying to chat-up the local ladies (no luck there). When the last NVA offensive started and the ARVN pulled out of the Central Highlands, we moved off-station somewhere around an island near the coast of South Vietnam ….round about Saigon area, sometime in late April/early May. When Da Nang fell and the big push of the NVA smashed what was left of the ARVN units fighting around the coast, we got the go ahead for the mission. First ops were to go establish a base of operations which ended up being the old Ton San Nut Air Base. There was still a fairly sizable US presence in-country and US Air Force Security Police still controlled a small section of the air base, linked up with them and pushed out to control old perimeter (fighting positions/towers etc). Marine air lifted into the base via helos, and quickly established a fire base for security/evacuation ops. Mortars and rockets were flying around all the time….must have been firing blind as they couldn’t hit anything. I was part of a small team that was supposed to be inserted onto different roof tops throughout the city to fly out what US /allies that were in the area. All the evac plans were written my Embassy staffers and you can imagine that it was a crock of sh_t when the “SH_T HIT THE FAN” and the NVA hit the outskirts of Saigon and started their assault of the city. As could be expected…complete and utter chaos, looting, ARVN on the rampage trying to get the heck out of the danger zones, 10s of thousands of refugees, vehicle traffic jambs locked down the streets and NVA and VC shooting, bombing and assassinations everywhere.
My mission changed and we were inserted into the US Embassy and started moving the staffers and DVs out of the compound via helos. Slow process to get the folks out. Constant fighting along the perimeter to keep out the refugees (thousands outside the walls) getting shot at by the VC and occasional very large artillery/rockets (usually impacting in the crowd outside the base). Ran around like a mad man doing all sorts of various tasks (to include being a body guard for Ambassador Martin for a short period of time….he wanted to go out to the compound perimeter so that he could point out his household maid and her family) I ended up jumping over the compound wall on top of a bund of the refugees so that I could get to the maid, grab her and get her over the wall….just like jumping into one of those rock concerts where the “head bangers” are bouncing all over the place.
Lots of shooting and other nonsense. Really got wild when we had to start drawing in the perimeter when we got the word to bug-out. That was a mess. There were only about 30 Marine from 2/4 as reinforcements and there was only a squad of Marine Security Guards holding the fort. Got all our guys into the Embassy and tried to barricade the doors and stair well…which didn’t work worth a damn when they blew the doors in, but we were able to get everyone to the top of the Embassy and barricaded the roof door (e-tools, fits, gun butts and combat boots…typical donnybrook knock down, drag out fight). Our helos were out at sea on the carriers refueling so it took a while for them to get back and pick us up…but I was too clueless at that time to worry about anything as this was high adventure.
Helos finally arrived and off we went. The helos took a lot of small arms fire…(probably from the renegade ARVN). But no real damage.
Saw a lot of the “old china hands” in the embassy having a hard time leaving….a lot of those guys had spent their entire adult life in South Vietnam supporting the cause. Some went back out over the wall…didn’t see them come back…
Uniform for Fleet Marines (infantry regiments) at that time was the OD utilities. Marine Security Guards at the Embassy and Consults wore our old style camouflage uniform (slanted pockets, USMC stenciled on left breast pocket)
Web gear was mixture of old webbing and some newer nylon equipment…
Flak vest (usually old ceramic plate vest…some neat Army style with side vents…and helmets (old WW II style with camo helmet cover…no graffiti allowed on USMC helmet covers) were worn at all times by regular infantry marines. So any time you see a guy in ODs and flak vest helmet, he was regular infantry….
Carried gas masks …I don’t think we ever check the filters….probably a solid rock of char coal
M16 and M16A1s (with bayonets fixed most of the time) The M14 officially phased out when I entered boot camp in Aug 73. We were the last boot camp series to use the M14. Good rifle for long distance shooting, but rather long and heavy for running around in the jungle (seems to be making a comeback with Special Forces in the desert….works well in dusty conditions and better long range accuracy and hitting power)
M203 grenade launchers (also had 45 cal pistol for personal protection)
M60 machine guns. I only remember one gun team in our company with our reinforcements.
Everyone carried extra M16 (5.56) ammo bandoliers, M60 ammo, grenades in every pocked, smoke grenades, pop-up flares, smoke grenades and CS grenades.
Old style wood handle e-tools were the most preferred…(good for close in fighting)…some of the newer folding style e-tools were issued (most guys didn’t like them as they were crap for digging, lots of pinched finger/hands trying to fold and unfold them and kind of awkward for swinging around in a fight)
All had OD green USMC cap
OD green trousers always bloused over boots…between second and third eyelet on boot.
Jungle boots with green nylon uppers…could be waffle pattern or cleat pattern for the soles/boot heals. Cleat pattern was better as it shed the mud easier ….
Navy Corpsmen wore OD green uniform same equipment as above with 45 pistol in black holster (all 45s were worn on the right hip in line with pocket seam on trousers)
As can be expected there was a lot of confusion and a very small number of US Marines to carry out the mission. All marines of the 9th MEU knew their mission and commanders intent and used their initiative to complete their mission….which was originally only to pull out less than a hundred US personnel….You can imagine the problems involved when the White House decided to go ahead and rescue as many of the ARVN/civilians/allies as possible. I guess no one really expected/planned that the whole ARVN would simply collapse so quickly and open the flood gates.
It was “Katie bar the door” and trying to herd this writhing, howling, pulsing, throng of literally 10s of thousands of refugees out to safety.
The critics can be damned as all they can do is criticize (ie open mouth and garbage comes out) ….they definitely weren’t there and the few media folks that stayed to the end were looking to us for their salvation….
Tour length was 13 months
It was very hot, sweaty work
All the best and congratulations on getting back into the RAF
Lt Col E. R***k
