Welcome to the Gia Vuc Website

Please note all rotation dates given are only advisory, A-103 wa in Gia Vuc for
4 years with its personnel being rotated not as Team but as individuals,
no specific records have been kept and conflicting evidence exist on exact dates people were rotated.

A-113 June 65 to A-103 May 1966

Information from SFC Robert Cameron, who was there during the change over, A-113 team stayed the same but was redesigned as A-103.
Please note, the following information on that period was not obtained from R Cameron himself but from a third party.

The A-team consisted of 2 Officers and 6 to 10 NCOs One LLDB team (possibly A-165) About 300 "Yards" organised in 3 Rifle Coys A Recon platoon of 3 squads and HQ, a "Psyops" team for political and civil affairs tasks and 2 to 3 USAF FAC

CIDG on the whole were good fighter, but many desertions occurred due to family relocations, they got on well with USSF but were treated like shit by the LLDB, which caused a lot of animosity between Vietnamese and indigenous troops with refusal to take orders and fistfights!

Usually, had one Coy in the camp, one on operation and one shared between Civic action, training in the surrounding area (hill posts).

A-103 Unofficial pocket patch 1965/66 - Courtesy of SFC R Cameron

4th of December 1965

Cpt Stanley L Sapp A-103 CO was killed during a patrol north of Gia Vuc.

One of his son, Justin has created a memorial website for his father,
this is very informative and moving website, especially the letters written home.

Please go and pay your last respect to Cpt Stanley L Sapp

www.stanleysapp.com

As you can tell from SFC R Cameron own account, Special Forces A-camps had some internal problems with the LLDB and/or the CIDG. This did vary a lot from one camp to another as well as from one year to another! A-103 at Gia Vuc had a very serious situation in Mai 1966.

"The way I heard it was that the SF and LLDB got into a firefight over the death of a SF team member, rumored to have had a contract put out on him by the LLDB demolition Sergeant. The sergeant was still there when I was there and was pointed out to me by other team members."
"A year or so before my Tour, the SF and LLDB teams at Gia Vuc got into a fire -fight, resulting in casualties and a complete change over of teams. When I was there, both areas were separated from one another by wire, trenches bunkers and firing ports aimed at one another as well as towards the outer perimeter!
They were many stories, and I was unable to ever separate fact from fiction--though I spent little time dwelling on it."
Cpt Virgil R. Carter (Xo A-103 January 1967-July 1967)

For the straight and skinny about what happen on that day visit the "66 Shootout" page

A-103, May 1966 to September 1966, by Cpt Steve Perry

After the shooting incident between the CIDG and the A-team in late Mai 1966, it was decided to defuse the situation by rotating the existing A-team with a new one from Minh Long camp. "We were staying in Quang Ngai B-Det while doing the area recon for the new Minh Long camp when we received the orders from C Det CO Ken Facey to brake A-110 team with half going to Gia Vuc under my command including team MSG J.W. Slover and Sgt Paul Lowe (Radio operator) and for the the other half to stay as the Minh Long team under A-110 XO, 1st LT Bill Bueman with Newsome (Commo), SSG Paul Whitehead (medic) and Mike Stearns (weapons)."
Info thanks to A-110, CO Cpt Steve Perry

Back row, left to right
Cpt S. Perry, Team Leader, MSG John Slover, Team Sgt, SSG Jim Moddy, Hvy Weapons Sgt,SSG Mike Stearns, Demo Sgt (KIA at Minh Long Mar 67),
SSG Paul Whitehead, Team medic, SSG Oddie Tucker, Lt weapons, SFC Fred Funk, Sr Medic

Front row left to right
1st Lt Bill Buhman, XO, SSG Paul Lowe, Sr Commo, SSG Ron Mc Connel, Intel Sgt, SGT (FNU) Newsome, Jr commo, SSG Sam Hernandez, Lt weapons

Cpt Stephen Perry A- team was formed at Ft Bragg in July 1965 to deploy to Vietnam as an A- team in March 1966. The photo was taken at Fort Bragg around the 14 March 1966 prior to departing with two other A-teams to Vietnam. The trip was made over several days on an USAF C-130 plane and ended to 5th USSF HQ at Nha Trang, RVN. Cpt Perrys's team was destined to A-110 Minh Long new A-Camp, but after A-103 shooting in Gia Vuc, half of his team was assigned to Gia Vuc: Slover, Moody, Tucker, Funk, Mc Connell, Hernandez and Perry went to A-103 Gia Vuc.

Cpt S. Perry
at Da Nang,
C-1

SFC Ron McConnel,
Intel Sgt A-103
Gia Vuc 1966-67

A true SF hero in my opinion. Then SSG Sam Hernandez, my first Demo Sgt as
a A-Det CDR.

Cpt Perry (left)
and CIA agent
doing some work with
Hre and Cua tribes.
Photo taken on the
east outpost
at Gia Vuc

Cpt S. Perry
assistant S-3 C-1, joint SF, Marines and Korean operation east of Da Nang. Circa Oct 1966

Cpt Steve Perry. I was on 5^th SF Gp staff, Combat Readiness Team, in 1968 and made a trip with LTC Facey to Gia Vuc and met up with 1966 interpreter. When I had a bird dog crash north of Gia Vuc in July 1966, he put together an indigenous rescue team that was going to go over land to try and find me.

LTC Facey and VNSF from 5^th Gp HQ. This was taken
at I CTZ camp (unknown)
n 1968 during my second tour. LTC Facey was then
5th GP DCO

All information and photos on A-103 May 66 to September 66 thanks to Cpt Stephen Perry

from L to R
SSG S.D. Hernandez, Cpt C.U. Thompson (KIA) and Sp5 W.G. Howe (soon to be promoted to E5)
Photo taken in front of the Team house blast wall (Circa Sep/Oct 1966)

Gia Vuc Camp Forces
Circa 1966

In touch To be contacted Deceased

Please see A-103 roster page for full list of names

	CO - S. M. Perry	May 66 to September 66
	CO - Cpt C. U. Thompson (kia)	June 66 to 11th Nov 66
	CO - Cpt Dallas L Cox	January 67 to May 67
	XO - 1st Lt William H Chickering III	Sep 66 to Feb 67
	Team Sgt - MSG J. W. Slover	May 66 to January 67?
	Team Sgt MSG Billy Greenwood	January 67 to ??
	Intell Sgt, SSG Ron Mc Connel	?-66 - ?-67
	Hvy Wpns, SSG Jim Moddy SFC Ralf A. Loff	October 66 to ??
	Lt Wpns, SSG Oddie Tucker (passed away 1988) SSG Samuel D. Hernandez	March 66 to March 67
	Sr Demo SSG Franklin T. Dailey	January 66 to January 67 ?
	Jr Demo ?	?
	Commo SGT Paul A. Lowe	March 66 to March 67
	Commo Sgt Gary Bowes	October 66 to January 67
	Commo Sgt William G. Howe	September 66 to May 1967
	Medic SFC Wolfram W. Bischof, (kia Thoung Duc 02/13/67) Small write up on SFC Bischof in the February 1967 edition of Green Beret, page 5, reprints available from http://www.specialforcesbooks.com	?/? 66 to ?/? 67
	Sr Medic SFC Fred Funk, Sr Medic SFC Albert Lansberry	October 66 to November 66
	Jr Medic SGT Benjamin L. Long	June 66 to April 67

A-103, January 1967 to May 1967, by Cpt Dallas Cox

Guidon from CIDG company 246, Gia Vuc, which was given to Cpt Dallas Cox when he rotated out of Gia Vuc in 1967

One of the problems that we had at Gia Vuc was getting the Vietnamese SF to patrol in an aggressive manner.
We had one old Vietnamese Warrant Officer who was a real soldier and had fought with the French.

We were probed on several occasion when I was there. It appeared that the opposite largest forces were about company size.
We were successful in many of our ambushes and kept most of the forces that were using the Ho Chi Minh trail
away from Gia Vuc.

TWO PHOTOS BELOW WERE TAKEN DURING COL KELLY
VISIT TO GIA VUC IN FEBRUARY 1967

From left to right
Col Kelly, Cpt D Cox (A-103 CO), SFC L Wardlaw, SFC M Meade and SSG F Dailey, courtesy of Gary Bowe

this second photo was taken a few minutes later

From left to right and Top to Bottom

Vietnamese CO and XO ?? , Col Kelly, MSG Billy Greenwood, SFC L Wardlaw, SGT Ben Long
SFC ???, Cpt D Cox, SFC M Meade, SSG F Dailey

Gia Vuc Photo report from Cpt Dallas Cox A-103 CO

Letter of appreciation to MSG Billy Greenwood
written in Gia Vuc on the 7th of March 1967 by Cpt Dallas Cox, A-103 CO

Please click to enlarge

Gia Vuc news paper article from the Pulaski SW TIME, Sunday January 22 1967 (Courtesy of Cpt D.L Cox)


Two photos taken during one of Gia Vuc MedCap, From left to right: Village chief, Sgt Bill Howe and Cpt Dallas Cox, Please click on photo to enlarge

The 1966 December issue of the Green Beret Magazine has an article on
Gia Vuc on page 5:4 and 5:5. Photos below are from that article and are courtesy
of Steve Sherman, Radix Press. All rights reserved.

SSG F.T.Dailey with the help of a LLDB NCO demonstrate the use of claymore mine to a CIDG soldier

Sgt B Long treat a child head infection while on a routine MEDCAP.

Sgt P.A. Lowe erect an aerial mast

SFC A Lansberry examine a montagnard child's throat with the help of his LLDB counterpart.

"Cook for a day" SSG F.T. Dailey

SFC R.A. Loff instruct the use of the 30cal machine gun to a "yard"
Reprints of the Green Beret are obtainable from Steve Sherman Radix Press

A-103, January 1967 to July 1967, by Cpt Virgil Carter

CAMP FORCES
The camp had a Special Forces A-Team of about 8 to 9 (2 Officers and roughly 6-7 NCOs) and LLDB A-Team of about equal numbers.

The strike force consisted of 3 companies of Montagnards from the Rhe Tribe and a Recon/Scout Platoon, roughly 400-450 in total. They were typically organised with one company for camp defense, one for the three hilltop outposts and critical high ground on the North West, North East and East and one company out on continuous operations. The companies were rotated monthly. Dependants lived in the camp with the strike force
A-Team as follow:

In touch To be contacted Deceased

A-103 Team Members in 1967 (due to rotations please see A-103 roster)

March/April 67
Top from left to right
Cpt R. O Schreer (CO), SFC C.W Lindewald (Sr Lt Wpns) (MIA/KIA Lang Vei Feb 68) , Sgt G Young (Medic), SFC R Knight (Demo), SFC James H Hoskins (Sr Hvy Wpns), Cpt V. Carter (XO),
Kneeling:
SFC James McGlon (Team sgt) and SP-4 Chuck Woodson (Jr Commo)
Identifications of A-103 Team Members thanks to SFC J. McGlon

A-103 January 67

Top from left to right
Sgt Long (Jr Medic), Sgt Brown (Sr RTO), SFC Wardlaw (hvy wpns) SSG Dailey (Demo), Cpt Carter (XO), Cpt Cox (CO), MSG Stover (outgoing Team Sgt)
Kneeling
SP4 Bowes (Jr RTO), SSG R Flemming (Sr Medic), SFC Meade (Intel), MSG Greenwood (incoming Team Sgt)
Identifications of A-103 Team Members thanks to Cpt Carter

One of the 3 CIDG company showing the company Guidon, held by the CIDG company commander and MSG Billy Greenwood, ( team senior NCO and company advisor), on the right is the LLDB XO. This was taken during a big ceremony for outfitting all the companies with new uniforms, this was done for troop moral. On the back ground you can see a deuce and half truck and the supply building .

Rice wine drinking, part of the yards way of life.
From right to left is Cpt Carter XO , SP4 Chuck Woodson, standing Cpt R. O Schreer CO, Neigh our interpreter and the E6 is Joseph P. Smith (C-1 Awards and Decorations Clerk attached to A-103 for 3 months)

All photos below are from A-103 Ttaken by
Cpt Virgil Carter, from Jan 67 to Jul 67

C-123 taking off at Gia Vuc air strip, in the back ground, you can see Thunder Mountain.

Caribou landing at Gia Vuc airstrip, in the back ground you can see one of the villages. Your are looking North towards the Song Be valley, main VC/NVA infiltration route.

Taken during companies new uniform outfitting ceremony.

Taken during companies new uniform outfitting ceremony.

Cpt V Carter in the team house.

From left to right,
Cpt Scheer, MF Australian from Danang, , SFC J Hoskins, SFC McGlon and another Australian from the Mike Force

Mike Meade at work

Cpt R. O Schreer and medic
B Long

Barbecue outside the team house,
L-R: SP-4 Chuck Woodson & SFC James McGlon .

Photo taken with back to main entrance, the US team house is the building in the background on the right end side.

Gia Vuc north east wall

Gia Vuc medal of Honor position, this was at the top of the observation tower, commanding good views but very exposed to enemy fire!

Photo taken looking eastward toward Bato

Pictures are from the infamous Marine Corps 4.2"mortar!

Unfortunately for us, the thing had the same range as our 4.2"mortars in the camp, so the episode didn't help improve our long-range firepower. I'm betting it did improve our reputation with the Marines around the DaNang airport.

Story and photo thanks to Cpt V.R. Carter A-103 XO, January to July 1967

A-103, 1 November 1967 to 5th May 1968

Thanks to SGT Robert B. MacPhee

Camp Forces
Full A-Team as follow:

In touch To be contacted Deceased

	CO-Cpt E O'Keefe
	XO-1st Lt J Coughlin

	Team Sgt MSgt J Shepard "Wild Bill"
	Intell SP5 P Nay (11/23/13)
	Wpns SFC Heflin
	Wpns SSgt Milton
	Demo Sp 5 S Feldhake
	Demo Sgt SFC Jones / SP5 P Nay
	Commo SSgt C Rucker
	Commo
	Medic
	Medic SGT Robert B. MacPhee

I was in Gia Vuc from mid October 1967 thru most of April 1968. I had spent about 10 days at the C Team, Danang before being sent to Gia Vuc. my time at the C Team entailed working at the dispensary with Dr. Hunter, MD and one Mike Force operation in
Quang Tri Province, NW of Danang. In mid October I was sent to Gia Vuc to replace SSgt George Young, team medic, who had suffered rat bite injuries to his feet.

My first impression of Gia Vuc was how remote and beautiful it was. While I didn't know much about the montagnards before arriving in Gia Vuc I had been told, at the C Team, that the Hre tribe was primitive even in comparison to the other montagnard tribes. It didn't take long for me to learn how primitive the Hres were. Not a single Hre was literate. the tribe language was monosyllabic with no formal symbols used for any purpose. A few Hres adopted hybrid Vietnamese/French words such as beaucoup. Otherwise numerical references didn't extend beyond what could be expressed using fingers and toes. Beaucoup was, pretty any number more than could be expressed directly.

The black and white photos were taken by interpreters. One in particular, nicknamed Jim. He was the most trusted interpreter working with the A 103 team. He took most of the black and whites.
The color photos were taken with a Yaschica 35 mm, 45 mm focal length camera.
Slides, on the other hand, were taken later using my rare Canon Pellix 35 mm.

SGT Robert B. MacPhee after a four day recon.
Photo taken a the camp "105 mm howitzer"
which in fact is the early 1967 "Da Nang stolen" wheeled 107 mm
(4.2 inch) mortar,
see the the stories below.

Very early 1968. I can't recall the name of the LLDB Lt. in the foreground but I do remember that he was a good soldier. The Americans are, from nearest the camera: Capt. O'Keefe, CO, Lt. Coughlin, XO, SFC Jones, demo, SSgt. Rucker, commo, and Sgt MacPhee, medic.	Capt. Edward O'Keefe is giving one of the Hre troops an award.	"parade ground" depict A Monday morning inspection of our troops, the issuing of pay, awards and anti malarial medicine.
	Team house with latrine and shower room on the left hand side	Standing next to the water bladder on the roof of the shower room is Dinh Mit. He was a former scout for the French military during the 1st Indochina war.
The path going up the hill is to one of the two outposts, N-E and E of the camp. Since the 50 cal MG was on my roof and the 81mm mortar was in a pit just outside of my door, I was, usually involved in supporting the outposts. The bunkers were a combination of materials, to include: trenches, sandbags stacked and retained by corrugated metal sheets, concrete/stone, and overhead log beams with sandbags and or dirt on top. Especially along the eastern bunker line there were small sleeping accommodations.	57mm recoilless rifle aimed, pretty much WNW, perhaps 280-290 deg... To be used only by the SF personnel. If you look closely you you will see the grass landing strip running across the middle of the picture. This would have been the last couple of hundred feet at the N end. Just above the hooches you can see a tree line along the Song Re. Beyond the foothills is the base of the Annemites.	a Montagnard on guard watch duty over looking the runway which bordered the camps outer western perimeter.
The Yards in the pictures are preparing a mid day meal for the ones on duty. Rice was an everymeal component, edible gourds, melons and meats complimented. Meats could be chicken, pigs, fish, small game occasionally	You can just see in the back ground the 57mm recoilless on top of the North West corner bunker, the most likely NVA Armor attack route.	Eastern perimeter wall looking towards the two Eastern outposts
The village in the background is Ap B (Ahp Bay). Ap A (Ahp Ahh) is just out of the picture to the left. The two were separated by only the dirt road to Ba To. Ap A was on the N side and Ap B on the S.	Distant background shows the original and more affluent village at the base of the hills. In the closer background the pen like structure is exactly that, a livestock pen. The yard troops kept animals in it for eating later. Running across the middle of the pic is the dirt road leading to Ap A and Ap B. Beyond those villages the road leads, eventually to Ba To.	Taken on the eastside of the camp just south of center towards the main gate. There were underground bunkers beneath the guys posing on the berm. I would estimate this was at about 110 deg from true north.
Village North East of the camp, also see in one of the photo above (J-L)	VC prisoner being escorted by an MP to a Huey from the 174th AHC based at Duc Pho in Quang Ngai Province (J-L)	Some of the album pics show the hills east and northeast of the camp on which outposts were situated. Hills to the south east and south were quite a bit more distant and didn't contain outposts. Foothills west of the Song Re had no outposts. The Anamite Mountains, named by the French, ran for several hundred miles along the northern Cambodian, Laotian and North Vietnamese borders. In our AO the highest points were well over 2000 meters.

MSgt. Shepard, team sergeant, and, I believe, Sp. 4 Concannon followed by their Hres returning to camp after an overnight ambush	Couple of camp Montagnards on the way to a party. Rice wine is in the ceramic jug inside in rucksack.	Kids, all boys, are posed near a damaged 2 1/2 ton truck about 50 yards south of the camp entrance. Boys play and party, girls work
Pre Tet Offensive several SF cmps in I Corp where attacked by the NVA. Lang Vei and Kham Duc camps were overrun. Other camps were reinforced by Navy SeaBees. In addition to the reinforcement of Gia Vuc a small school house was built. .	The chief, Dinh Roi's, daughter, wearing the violet colored blouse, assisted me. At the time she had not had her front, upper teeth ritually removed. "Gigi interpreted for us"	The following photos depicting rice and ratan being issued to recent refugees were taken at this modest building
		This photo was taken from the school building. The dirt road was used by SF troops to drive to a small beach where there was sand used for sand bags.
Recent refugees who had arrived from the mountain sides. By the time they the photos were taken, the newcomers had been deloused, cleaned up and given new clothing.	Refugees waiting for provisions to include food and rattan sections with which they begin building shelter.	* A couple of shots were found showing the longest established and most affluent village, Ap A. This means village A. A being pronounced ahh. They were shot from inside the camp in the northeast sector. There was a minefield between the camp's out barbed wire and the rice paddy. I hope someday to find the photos I took showing the skilled craftsmanship that the Hres used to build these structures. *

Photo taken mid to late March 1968, by a photographer

at the C Team, Danang at the BSM presentation

I think Capt. O'Keefe received his BSMV, for the O'Chai encounter just after I did.
I can't remember the names of the guys in the room except for Lt Col. Daniel F. Schungel who is to my right.
He was the CO of the C Team during the entire time I was in I Corps and was at Lang Vei SF camp when it was overrun by the NVA.

"Can anyone else put names to the others"

Above Information and photos thanks to Sgt Robert B. MacPhee (A-103 Medic)

A-103, 31st of January 1969

Gia Vuc A-camp turnover to the LLDB

The USSF after leading successfully for 7 years Gia Vuc CIDG camp, finely turned it over to there Vietnamese Special Forces counterparts.
A big official ceremony was held where Cpt E Sittler's A-team CO bid farewell to the LLDB team led by Day Uy Chu and their CIDG soldiers. Members of the A-103 team were reassigned except for Sr Medic Bill Aschenbach who stayed behind to smooth the transition and help the LLDB commander with liaison work with the USSF C team in Da Nang.

Gia Vuc's immense success is clearly demonstrated by the increase of Hre Montagnards living in the area.
The first A-team in 1962 found 1500 Hre living in that area but when Cpt E Sittler's A-team departed seven years later, 6500 Hre were living under the protection of the Gia Vuc A-camp with more people arriving daily.

***

Thanks to SGT. WILLIAM G. ASCHENBACH, Team senior medic, we have an account of this historical moment.
A-103 team at the time of the turn over was very short with having only one NCO per positions apart from the Medical one. This caused physical strain on the two Medics as they went on every other operations. Sgt John McCullough, Bill's fellow medic suggested the idea to try one American per patrol as they were just flat worn out by flip flopping operations. John asked him what he thought and offered to try it first as it was his idea.
During his first operation on his own, he was threaten by his CIDGs of being killed if they were shot at during the operation and the idea of sending just one US per patrol with no US backup was abandon by the Team.
(Interesting to note that after 7 years of training, the same low combativeness encountered at the beginning was still apparent in some CIDG units! In reply to one of my question Bill said: CIDG and LLDB did tolerated each other, especially Vietnamese CIDG. The Montagnard company #134 not so much. 134 was my favorite and best company to work with.)

The turnover day celebration started with a CIDG parachute jump over camp. The camp was filled by brass from the C Team and U.S Army, French and German press corps. (The photos I sent you were gifted to me by a French woman photo journalist.)

There was a meal shared by guests and team A 103 ,CIDG and LLDB.

A few officers spoke briefly at conclusion, the Team then formed up and was congratulated by all. Following this they walked to waiting choppers and loaded up except for myself. The Team except for Capt Sittler were sent to A 334 Tong Le Chon to replace that existing team.

Dai Uy CHU, the LLDB commander was outstanding and exceptional Vietnamese officer. My counterpart SSGT. Dinh Van Minh and I functioned well together. He was a good soldier, Bacsi and a good friend.
Both credit to the LLDB.
My only problem with the LLDB during the aftermath of turnover occurred the very next morning.
I went to get coffee from our team pot and got hot water,
THEY WERE MAKING TEA FROM OUR COFFEE POT ! I WAS PISSED!

After their departure I moved my bunk into the commo bunker as I had to make frequent radio checks with C team during nights. I stayed alone with the LLDB thru February when Tien Phouc went under siege. In March when their Medic got killed, I was inserted to replace him, Capt. Paul Turner the surgeon at C team accompanied me to, as he stated he wanted to experience what his Bacsis had gone thru.
He was a honorable and capable surgeon and human being.

When I left Gia Vuc there were no other Americans in camp.

Information thanks to Sgt W. G. Aschenbach (A-103 Sr Medic)

Additional information thanks to Bob Gilmartin and Steve Sherman

The transfer to LLDB in 1969 did not take the camp out of the SF supply chain and Gia Vuc was very much part of C company and active. Gia Vuc would only have lost its connection to USSF in September 1970 when it was turn over to the 70th RVN Rangers and became part of Vietnam Army Ranger Command.

Gia Vuc camp was not overrun until September 1974, which is quite remarkable due to its remote location.
For more information regarding the camp after 1969, visit "After 69web page"

Would like to get in touch with anyone having served in Gia Vuc during 1969 to 1974

Camp Forces
Reduced A-Team as follow:

In touch To be contacted Deceased

	CO-Cpt E Sittler
	XO-1st Lt T Guider
	CAPO 1st LT. D Dunkum
	Team Sgt SFC C McNulty
	Intell Sgt SFC E Salaz
	Wpns Sgt SFC C McNulty
	Jr Demo Sp5 W Souser
	Commo Sgt R Rodriguez
	Sr Medic-Bill Aschenbach
	Jr Medic Sgt John McCullough




	Photos thanks to SGT William. G. Aschenbach

If you have the chance, please read the two articles on Cpt E Sittler A-team in the Green Beret Magazine

"FOUR NEWS SCHOOLS FOR GIA VUC" The Green Beret January 1969, page 10

"SHANGRILA Special Forces Advisors Leave"
The Green Beret April 1969, page 16

The Green Beret magazine reprints are available from Radix press

A-103 105mm Howitzer! Isn't it?

I had been in Da Nang for several Intel Briefings and spotted what appeared like an 105 Howitzer which had been in the same location for a couple of months.

So on one of the last trips to the C Team, I told Sgt P Brown (who had just finished scrounging for food) to go to the air strip and get me that 105 (I thought that was what it was because of the wheels and frame).
Brown said to me, How do I get it???
I said back up to it just as it was yours and take it to the Caribou ramp, where I will meet you with some 105 ammo.
Brown did as I said, but some pallets were blocking-in the weapon! An Air Force MSG appeared and asked him if he wanted any help, then got a fork lift truck and moved all the pallets for him and helped him to hook the weapon to the truck. We both got to the Caribou at the same time, loaded everything and off they went to the camp.

When the plane arrived in Gia Vuc, Team Sergeant Billy Greenwood and the rest of the team were waiting to unload it. Once the weapon was rolled off Greenwood asked What the hell is was?

After studying it for a while, Weapon Sgt James Hoskins determined that this was in fact a 4.2 mortar despite the 107 How ID plaque. As it was on wheels we were able to fire charge 65 without having to worry about the recoil danger Zone and we certainly surprised the VC when we started using it!

"Story thanks to SFC James McGlon (Intel & Team sgt), 1967"

A-103 4.2 Mortar

On one patrol (probably with Lt Carter 'cuz we always ended up on patrol together!) we were doing our 'recon' thing. Things had been pretty quiet when we came under small arms fire. Things were getting intense and we
couldn't withdraw from the firefight -- so we radioed for help. We provided base camp our coordinates (as best we could determine) but Sgt Wardlaw said that we were out of range of the camp's 'four deuce'. Since we had plenty
of incentive, we were rather insistent that we could use some help!

We were told by base camp to maintain position; they were working on something. After about fifteen or twenty minutes Sgt Wardlaw radioed that he was in position and about to fire the 4.2 -- we were to provide fire
control info. We heard a faint dull "thump!" and heard the explosion -- from behind us. We radioed that this was NOT going to do; the round was short. Wardlaw replied that he was at max charge -- 45 sheets. Another
pause followed. The radio crackled to life. It was Wardlaw asking us to let him know how THIS round is. [Slightly louder "thump!" followed by that intermittent sucking sound] The round landed a hundred yards ahead of us.
Yeah!! "Fire for effect!!" was our next transmission.

By this time the VC knew they were within mortar range -- so they took off. We radioed that the VC had broken off the firefight and that we were continuing with the mission. We never did get the next three rounds. When
we got back to base camp, we asked why Sgt Wardlaw had not fired the additional rounds. It was then that he told us what he had done.
Wardlow had put a four-deuce in the back of the camp truck and driven northwest to where the bridge was out. Since the first round at max charge of 45 sheets was short, Wardlaw had to "improvise". He put 54 sheets on the
test round and poured a soup-can-size can of gasoline down the mortar tube. When he dropped the round and it fired, it cracked the 239 pound base plate of the 4.2 mortar!

He COULDN'T fire any more rounds! Thank God that once was enough!!
Story thanks to Gary Bowes, Sgt E5, Radio Operator A-103, 1966/67

A-103 WP

There's another great story about a WP round on this same day, whose charges did not explode, and the round left the muzzle, rose about 50'-75', with the unexploded charges burning like crazy,
and thereafter fell back to earth, with
the entire team setting new land speed records getting out
of the area before impact. Fortunately, we lived to tell the tale, mainly because the round had not rotated sufficiently to arm and explode on impact. Whew!

Story thanks to Cpt V.R. Carter A-103 XO, January to July 1967

A-103 Funny story on one Op:

We were always looking for ways to lighten our load and reduce the size of what we carried.
A buddy and I found a Da Nang street vendor selling nylon string netting hammocks that could be rolled up into a ball which would fit in your fist. It weighed nothing!  We went wild and bought some.

Next Op, we both took them out and strung them the first night after dark.   Each of us crawled into our hammock. Next thing was a loud twaaaaaaang!   Twaaaaaaang, twaaaaaaang! Followed by sumbitch, momma hootcher and other sorts of exclamations as my buddy and I each picked ourselves up off the ground.
The hammocks would support a Vietnamese (presumably) but not an American with boots and rifle! The Yards really broke up over that one. That was an operation were we wound up sleeping on the ground the whole time.
Story thanks to Cpt V.R. Carter A-103 XO,   January to July 1967"

A-103 Interpreters:

We had several interpreters. The one that I always used was the senior in the camp. He was a small, older Montagnard, with a bad leg, that caused him to limp severely, but he went out on all operations. Spoke excellent English, and had a wonderful attitude. His name was De Neigh, pronounced Knee-uh! When I left the camp to go back to the C Team to be the Engineering Officer and design the Lang Vei camp, I gave him my personal .45 pistol. I was worried about his well-being, as the VN didn't like him much and as long as the Americans were around, he'd take little of their intimidation efforts.
"Story thanks to Cpt V.R. Carter A-103 XO, January to July 1967"

The interpreter, De Neigh, was a great little man. We were on a lot of patrols together, he hated the LLDB because they broke his leg while he was going to jump school. Despite his limp, De Neigh was one of the only few who made it on top of "Thunder Mountain", the huge mountain across the river heading into II CORPS.
"Story thanks to SFC James McGlon (Intel & Team sgt), 1967"

Fishing the Montagnard way:

This was done by most Montagnards, tribes. They build rock dams across rivers and streams. Most of the time water flows over the damns and through the rocks. While the upstream water, behind the dam, is a little deeper these dams really don't impeded the flow noticeably. Spaced evenly across the dams there are spillways. Conical stick baskets, or traps, are positioned in the spillways. Built up water flows forcefully through the spillways carrying fish with it. The most of the time the flow is strong enough to keep the fish from swimming back out. My favorite fish was, I believe, some sort of trout. Basically, it looked just like trout I'm familiar with except it had an elongated body that made it, almost, look like an eel.
"Story thanks to Sgt Rob McPhee, Medic, 1967-68"

High jump over Gia Vuc, 15th May 1968

This is not an A-103 story but relate to Gia Vuc

"We made a jump at Gia Vuc, one at Tra Bong ans one at Ha Thanh.
This is one on those, "No shit. This really happened." war stories.

It's hard for me to make a short story of anything so please bear with me. I left A-102, Tien Phuoc, sometime after Tet '68 and became the CA NCO for Co. "C." I worked under a Cpt and 2 Lts. I had a Vietnamese driver, an interpreter and five laborers. It was really a cherry assignment. I worked directly with the civilian agencies like CARE which supplied rice etc. to I Corps refugees. I'd pick up the supplies in DaNang and move them to my warehouse at Co. "C." From there I would distribute the supplies to The I Corps "A" Teams. Since I was pretty much on my own, I usually accompanied the loads to the "A" Teams. Occasionally I'd get an AF Caribou but most of the time time I flew with Air America. And usually with the same crew. Didn't care much for the AF due to their flight regs.

The kicker on the crew was Eugene Hasenfus (later of fame during Reagan's War). He.s the guy that survived the crash of the Air America C-123 in Central America.

Anyway, Eugene, like me, was a skydiver. We had lots of time to chat and somehow came up with this idea to do a little jumping. We're going way back down memory lane now (43 years) so some of the details are a little fuzzy. He must have had his gear in Nam with him, but I have no idea where I would have come up with a 7TU. I have no memory of it but I am sure we had a rigger shop in DaNang.
I got to pick which loads went where and when. We'd fly out to the "A" camp, zero our altimeters, stick a wet finger up into the wind (I guess????) and fly back to DaNang. I'd schedule the next load for the same "A" Camp. On the second run , the pilot would not level off as normal but would continue to climb all the way back. Somehow (????) we determined a "spot" and jumped. I always carried a .45 so I assume I was armed. Somehow (????) we always landed on the runway. Gia Vuc was the highest jump because it was the farthest away (1 hour, if memory serves.) Since these were "clandestine" jumps we didn't pre-announce our arrival. God only knows what would have happened to me if Hodge had found out what I was doing.

We were only met one time. As we were getting our gear together for the return trip, this jeep came screaming (as best a jeep could) out of the gate and the driver wanted to know just what the hell we thought we were doing. He then informed us that the entire area around the runway was mined (As if that should have been our greatest concern.) I think back now and ask myself, "what the hell were you thinking?" There was no way to be sure how much the wind had shifted since our last visit and no way to determine winds aloft. And, as you know, our "DZs" were all in mountainous terrain where winds are usually unpredictable. I've made jumps in the States where someone had to come and get me with a car, I was so far out. The risk we took making these jumps is immeasurable to me now. I must have been Jonesing pretty bad to do such a stupid thing. Of course, that wasn't really much dumber than volunteering for recon at CCN.

So. As far as I know there are only a few people who can verify our escapades: the pilot and co-pilot, Eugene and that one NCO in the jeep. I'm willing to bet that Eugene and I hold the world record for sport jumps in an unsecured combat zone.
Story thanks to SFC Michael G. Stahl, A-102, "C" company, SOG. (visit Michael Website)

"Ambush society"
by Gene Basset, Scripps Howard Staff Cartoonist
Washington Daily News OCT 15 1965

Gia Vuc, South Viet Nam, Oct 14 -I saw two men shot on either side of me.

One died a few hours later.

That was my initiation into the "ambush society" of the United States Special Forces Detachment A-103.

I went on a reconnaissance patrol with a squad of three U.S. advisers and 12 paramilitary irregulars from the Montagard (highland) area of Gia Vuc. Sgt Dominick Tantalo of Waterloo, N.Y., was in charge. Sgt Norman Bircher of Topeka, Lans., and James Harrison of Baltimore and I made the rest of the American portion of the squad.

We left at 8. a. m. and travelled five miles over river rocks, fording a river a dozen times and passing thru four villages. Any place a long this miserable trail could have provided the site for an ideal ambush. After 15-minutes rest we started our return trip , which was to include a medical check up of six villages.

It turned into a literal hell. After two miles of climbing over rocks hugging the river bank, I heard the sickening crack of automatic weapons. I dived behind a rock, and turned to see one of our Montagnard (South Vietnamese) trooper fall. A tracer bullet had gone thru his head. It looked as if half of his brains had splattered on the rocks.

I heard the shouts of the Viet Cong.
Only some brave men and an M79 grenade launcher kept us from being overrun by the communists.
Sgt Bircher was pinned down at the rear of the column and shot in both thighs. One wound was of the explosive type, fully eight inches around.

We radio back for help and for evacuation of the dead and wounded by helicopter.
While we waited for the chopper under a banyan tree behind some rocks, we discovered that half of our force had fled.

The helicopters - and a relief platoon - arrived a t about the same time, an hour after the first Viet Cong shots wer fired against us.
The platoon, led by Cpt. William Hicks of Linden, N.C., was backed up by Sgts. Charles Minnick of McKeesport, Pa., and Loyd Little of Hickory, N.C.

After the wounded and dead wer picked up by the Marine helicopters they started back to base.

Twice more the Viet Cong fired into us, the first time while fording a current of the Song Re river.

IN A HOLE
This where I charged across the stream, only to step onto a hole over my head taking my camera and sketchbook down into the water with me.

The next firefight caught us in an open field and here the spent cartridges ejected from Sgt. Little rifle kept scorching my bare back. But the only harm I suffered was that my sketchbook was pierce by one bullet.

We then entered a village where we planned to give medical aid. On our way thru at the beginning of our patrol there had been 15 natives in the village. Now only the village chief remained.

ATTACK BASE
He said the Viet Cong has used his village as a base for the attack. The Montagnards were so angered by the loss of one of their men they burned the village. Unfortunately, a crippled child was burned alive. The three fishermen we saw wading in the river and the people in the huts, which we jokingly called Viet Cong on our trip out, actually were our would-be killers.

But that is the kind of war it is. W got back at our base at 3p.m., but it was the longest day of my live. The advantage is all with the Viet Cong.

by Gene Basset, Scripps Howard Staff Cartoonist, Washington Daily News OCT 15 1965

Article courtesy of Cpt Dallas Cox, A-103

Steve Sherman the archivist for
the Special Forces and Special Operations Associations
Need your help!

A-103 Unofficial pocket patch 1965/66 - Courtesy of SFC R Cameron

A-103, May 1966 to September 1966, by Cpt Steve Perry

Gia Vuc Camp Forces Circa 1966

Gia Vuc Camp Forces
Circa 1966