Up until November 1969 the 101st had supported MACV and Special Forces teams, while other army units (divisions and separate brigades) had received their COMSEC support from Radio Research Direct Support Units (DSUs). The COMSEC men assigned to DSUs generally stayed in fixed locations at division or brigade headquarters bases and monitored different subordinate units based on activity. In November 1969, that came to a screeching halt. The COMSEC mission and personnel in Vietnam were transferred out of the DSUs and into the different platoons of the 101st. The lucky ones (in my opinion, anyway) transferred into the Snake Platoon. They moved from Chu Lai, Duc Pho, Bong Son, Phu Bai, An Khe, and other places I am sure, including various landing zones, to Nha Trang, co-located with the 313th RR Battalion Headquarters. The guys in Pleiku would make their move in March 1970.
The Snake Platoon had sent an ‘advance party’ in the form of one Rod Van Guilder, from Pleiku to Nha Trang to arrange for billets, an operations site and other support. Two ¾-ton trucks made the trip to Nha Trang to deliver huts (our mobile monitoring positions) and returned to Pleiku to be used in the move.
When the morning of the move arrived, the platoon rose early, got breakfast, and were in their vehicles by 7 AM. Before leaving Pleiku, they joined up with a larger convoy for the trip down Highway 19 to Qui Nhon. Barney Smith manned a machine gun in the platoon’s rear vehicle. While with the convoy, there was air support in the form of two gunships. Specifically, the gunships could be seen hovering over Mang Yang Pass, where the Viet Minh had often ambushed and inflicted serious damage on the French forces during the First Indochina War. The French army’s casualties in the pass had been so substantial that there is a French cemetery located there. There was no trouble in the pass that day.
Once the convoy reached Qui Nhon, the Snake Platoon continued on its own down Highway 1 to Nha Trang. There was no trouble that day until they were within a couple of miles of Nha Trang. There was some sort of military action up ahead of them, but it is unclear just what it was. They had to stop and wait it out. The Pleiku contingent finally got to the new platoon area at about 7 PM. It had been a long, hot, dusty day.
Nha Trang was hard to take – an active and fairly secure city that was usually available to US military personnel, and possibly the most beautiful white sand beaches in the world on the South China Sea.
Since their administrative and supply support came from the 313th Headquarters, they were issued weapons from the existing stock – M-14 rifles again. The Snake Platoon members continued to supplement, augment, and circumvent the supply system by obtaining other ‘more practical’ weapons. There were some Air Force 38 caliber revolvers, which the Special Forces guys would tell you were good for only one thing, and that only took one bullet. There were a few 45 caliber automatics. Marvin Brunk later had a chrome-plated 45, and somebody painted him up some silver bullets to go with it. There were M-1 carbines, and Barney Smith had an M-2 with the stock cut off and shaped to a pistol grip. There were M-16 rifles, a CAR-15 and even an AK-47. Randy Brasse had a 12 gauge shotgun with a pump action. Unfortunately, when he ejected the shells, they fired. And Mike Thompson, who had transferred in from the 403rd Special Operations Detachment, had an old M-3 ‘grease gun.’ After a few months, the 101st sent the platoon some M-16 rifles, and we returned the M-14 rifles to the 313th armorer. Even so, Jim Garin says that, when the 101st closed up shop in Bien Hoa in 1972, the 2nd Platoon turned in more personal weapons than all the other platoons combined.
When the DSUs ceded the COMSEC mission and personnel to the 101st, they also had to transfer some of their equipment. One day, the platoon was advised that trucks shipped down from the 328th RRC in Chu Lai had arrived at Cam Ranh Bay. Some of the guys drove down to Cam Ranh to retrieve them. There should have been no surprise at what they found, since a good motor sergeant isn’t likely to give up his best vehicles. There were a total of five trucks, including a ¾ -ton that wouldn’t start if you beat it with a stick and a 2 ½-ton with dodgy brakes. The brake issue was discovered on the way back to Nha Trang, with the comatose ¾ in its bed. Coming through downtown Nha Trang, with wall-to-wall people riding bicycles, Honda 90s, pedi-cabs (cyclos), and little Vespa and Lambretta 2-cycle ‘tuk-tuks,’ and with a truck sitting in the back, the brakes on the deuce-and-a-half went out completely. They drove on, though, making full use of the horn, steering wheel, and emergency brake, without incident or injury. The problem now was how to get that broken truck out of the back and on the ground.
Another time, Jim Graves, Jerry Burkhamer, who was brand-new at the time, and someone else drove to Cam Ranh to pick up two more ¾-tons. Coming back, Graves led the way and Burkhamer followed in the rear. When the first two trucks got back to the platoon area, they were short one Burkhamer. He eventually showed up, and he was in a state. He had been stopped by an M P and given a speeding ticket. He complained, of course, “What about those other two? I don’t know the way, so I had to keep up with them.” The M P said he barely saw the first truck and had no chance of catching the second one either, and Burkhamer was getting a ticket. By this time, Graves had already received three speeding tickets in Vietnam, two of them due, at least in part, to faulty equipment.
The men who had come in from the DSUs at first roomed with the 313th in their big forest green two-story barracks, but before the men from Pleiku arrived, the platoon had moved into an open bay setup in a Quonset hut on their own. After a few months of living all together in the Quonset hut, the enlisted men of the Snake Platoon moved into four hooches on another part of the base. From there, they would drive to the ops building and the ‘dining facility.’ On the downside, we did have to build a bunker, just in case. That required sandbags, which in turn required sand. So a work party took trucks and empty bags to the US beach and began filling them. The mayor (or someone) of Nha Trang called the platoon operations building to complain that we were stealing his sand. It is very likely that he wanted payment for it. Sergeant First Class Sam Kemp told him it wasn’t his sand, and it would replenish itself.
Three of the new hooches were set up with semi-private rooms, and the fourth was divided into two parts. The front part was turned into a club, Paige Sawyer, proprietor, and the back room was used for storage and general overflow. Right down the sidewalk (did you catch that word, ‘sidewalk?’) was the latrine, with almost private shower stalls, hot and cold running water without having to light an immersion heater, and real porcelain commodes that flushed. No more oil drums and diesel fuel! They also built an arms room in a corner of the club. No longer would our rifles be kept handy by our bunks. The old hands in the platoon knew then that the war as they knew it was over.
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