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Welcome to
Gia Vuc A-Camp
commo bunker display
A photographic and video
journey through
the 2007 display.
This
Display is dedicated to all the
A-team Commo men in Vietnam and specifically
to four NCO who all served at Gia
Vuc in 1965, 1966 or 1967 :
Sgt
Gary Bowes, 5th SFGA, A-103, Oct
66-Jan 67
SSG Bill Howe, 5th SFGA, A-103,
March-Mai 67
Cpl Les Herring, USMC 1st Force
Recon, May-July 65
LCpl Ray Rossi, USMC 1st Force Recon,
May-July 65
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This
is by no means a replica of Gia Vuc Commo bunker, but has been inspired and
created with the help of two A-103 senior Radio NCO’s from Gia Vuc who served at the camp between 1966 and 1967,
namely SGT Gary Bowes & SSG William
G. Howe III. To link our
USMC outer display with the commo bunker, you will notice that we have placed a
Marine standing next to our SF Radio operator. Although unusual, this is correct
for the 1965 Gia Vuc time frame.
1st platoon of Sub Unit One, 1st
Force Reconnaissance Co from the US Marine Corps was attached to Gia Vuc A-team for a few months around May 1965.
(Cpl
Les
Herring
and
LCpl
Ray
Rossi
have
helped me with this part of the
display, to find more
about USMC Force Recon see link below)
Display
You are now standing in the access area to
the commo bunker. This is a relatively safe area of the camp (ignoring the fact
that in the event of an attack you would be on the priority mortar hit list
from the VC!), but this bunker is well build under ground with concrete walls
and a corrugated steel roof with loads of rocks/earth on top. This was a very
damp and very hot place to be, with very little comfort. At some stage a
partition wall was created in this cramped room to allow the Radio operator
privacy to sleep in the bunker. You will note the blanket curtain separating
the two areas. If you look around you will see various typical items like the
metal strong box which was used to keep the camp radio code books. On top a thermite grenade has been placed to
destroy sensitive material in case the camp was over run. Next to the Commo man stands a shot gun. At
Gia Vuc in 1966/67 it was standard knowledge that anybody trying to enter the Commo bunker
during an attack without using the field telephone first would be blasted away!
On the desk is a “Diana one time Pad” which was an early but very
effective way of encoding messages. Whilst in the
bunker you will hear genuine recording made in Vietnam and a Morse code transmitions
of a Gia Vuc Monthly Operational Summary (MOPSUM) kindly transmitted by Sgt
Gary Bowes.
"the story goes"
Our US Special Forces
Radio NCO is trying to raise one of the camp patrols which have made contact
with the local Viet Cong forces. Standing
next to him is a US Marine Corps Cpl studding local maps. Two of his men are on this patrol, as for over a month a
small detachment from USMC force Recon have been serving at Gia Vuc to study USSF
operations and gather information in this area for the III Marine Amphibious
Force.
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Overall view, ambient lighting
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Detail of the Force Recon NCO
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USSF radio operator at work
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Detail view of the Radios set up
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Detail photo of the Commo working area
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This
fictitious commo bunker is actually based on real facts and
modelled loosely on
Gia Vuc Commo bunker thanks to the help and encouragement from two of A-103 Commo NCOs, Gary Bowes and Bill Howe.
The presence of a US Marine is also based
on true facts, as Force Recon spend several months at Gia Vuc in the summer of 1965.
see
link below
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Detail photo of the TOC area
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Overall view, photo taken with flash
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Photo taken with flash, check out the roof construction
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Detail photos of the radio consol box
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Board with information on Gia Vuc and Force Recon
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You are also listening
to an extract of a recreated 40mn
long Commo bunker sound track, which
will be available to download later
on. (long download)
Now if you
have study the photos
above you will have notice
many original details as per
Bill and Gary e-mails: Shot
gun, code books small safe
box with, phosphorous
grenade next to it, clock,
Diana pad, pin ups, tape
recorder, field telephone,
various signs etc, also
check out the roof on the
photos! (For
more info on the Diana pad,
check Gary's own website) |
Click the link below for our display Video page
A study of the real Gia Vuc
Commo bunker thanks to Bill and Gary.
Force Recon at Gia Vuc
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Steve Sherman the
archivist for
the Special Forces and Special Operations Associations
Need your help! |
Any
information and photographs on this site should not be used without
prior agreement from the owners.
Copyright ©1997-2012 Gia Vuc Tribute website. All rights reserved
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