This
is a study of some of US Army Mobile Advisory
Teams
which had a similar mission to the early
CIDG program
and sometime worked along side forces
from A-camps and Mike Force.
MAT
I-27
MAT
I-62
MAT
II-36
MAT
IV-32
The Military
Assistance Command Vietnam (MACV) early
in the war had very little assets to
assign as field army advisors in South Vietnam and these Mobile Advisor Teams (MAT) were raised from available officer and NCO in Vietnam. After the start of the Vietnamisation doctrine
in 1968, Teams were specifically created
to advise the Vietnamese Regional and
Popular forces (RF/PF). By 1969 all MAT
Teams were assigned to Vietnam directly from the United States for one-year tour of duty.The MATs were an essential part
of the new Vietnamisation doctrine to
upgrade and modernize the Vietnamese
Army. They assisted the South Vietnamese
military in combat planning, operations,
training, intelligence, psychological
warfare, communications, civil affairs,
logistics and medical areas, but often
suffered from political adversity and
lack of all official command authority.
The MAT
Team advisors as well as furnishing
leadership insured liaison with needed U.S fire support and airpower and often rallied
their South Vietnamese units, saving
them from destruction on the
battlefield.”
Organization and
hierarchy: South
Vietnam was divided in provinces which had a Province Headquarters with a
Province Senior Advisor (PSA).
The PSA, a Colonel, was responsible for the advisory
districts within the province.
Each advisory district had a District
Headquarters with a District Senior
Advisor (DSA). The DSA, a Major,
was responsible for the MATs within the
district. MATs ideally
consisted of one Captain team leader,
one 1st Lieutenant assistant
team leader, one Sergeant First Class (SFC)
heavy weapons specialist, one SFC
light weapons specialist, and one SFC
senior medic, so a total of five men,
butfrom 1970 onwards it was not
unusual to find team of three due to cut
back in the advisor deployments .
Each MATs lived at a “home outpost”
with the South Vietnamese soldiers it
was advising, and it usually
operated by itself, not with other MATs.
Regional Force and Popular Force:These
MAT team advised RF/PF
units which
were of lesser quality readiness,
equipment and training than the regular
South Vietnamese units. They normally
were under the operational control of
the South Vietnamese District Chiefs
within a given province, confining their
operations to local security missions
within their assigned districts.
Regional Force (RF’s) units were
normally organized into company sizes
units and the Popular Force (PF’s)
consisted of platoon size units
Introduction
by Cpt Bob
Hensler, MAT 1-27, Duc
Pho District,
Quang Ngai Province, 1970
MAT
2
I read with interest your
experience with MAT Team 27.
I was on the 1st MAT teams
assigned in VN in 1968. I was on
MAT 2 assigned to the Tamky
District in Quan-Tin Province,
I-Corps. We were organized
at Xi-AN (1st Inf. Div. base camp
@ 3 Corps) for a 2 week
indoctrination and then sent to
our respective AO's. We had
the pleasure of serving with the
Rough-Puffs, living with them, and
convincing them to conduct night
ops.
I was the Lt. Wpns. guru for
the team.
I was through Mo Duc and Duc Pho
many many times. Our main district
ville was a little place called Ky-Mi
just off Highway 1 about 2 clicks
and South of Tam-ky. I was
on LZ Bronco and Liz a lot having
previously served with the
11th LIB, C/3/1.
Welcome Home,
Chris Mattiace
**********
MAT
17
I was XO of MAT 17 to the
Hoa Hao Battalion (RF) posted in
Sedec Province , Arriving in
Late Dec. 1967 in Lap Vo
District ,
the Tet offensive past us by for
5 Days however Feb 1967 brought
daily operations and contact
with retreating Communist TET
battalions escape and evading to
their Cambodian retreats. the
Battalion led by Major Hue
Commander of the LInd Doi Bac
Battalion was a great reliable
fighting unit and put a daily
hurt on infiltrators.,operations
. We trained the very first
Tiger Platoon, re-equipped with
Black Market weapons and gear .
We found being on the lowest
rungs of re-supply we needed to
apply special tactics in
securing needed ammo and modern
weapons , my team operated a
communist flag stichery and belt
buckle shop in the Village of
Lap Vo.
We traded the bogus war
artifacts to unsuspecting Air
Force and non combat support
troops personal and from
American unit supplies across
Viet Nam, As a result of weapns
upgrades so that our first major
operations post Tet, we
destroyed a VC/NVA unit with
only a hand full of our tigers
being wounded after being
ambushed in My An Hung Village,
Lap Vo District.
We killed 35 enemy and captured
15 , captured 10 tons of rice
tax, and a large store of
weapons and ammo. by the time we
rotated in late 68, we had
almost ended Communist war
activities in Sedec Prov. Since
fighting along side Vietnamese
was little reported we never
received the recognition for our
many battle successful operations. that
we would have fighting with
American forces. But I can
report that Capt Pat Powers, SFC
Roy Vaughn SFC Walter Smith and
SFC Simmons our team and,our
Tigers (this model we created
later became standard in many
American units and between Feb.
68 and July 1968 Our Battalion
of Ruff/ Puffs had destroyed
more of the enemy in that post
Tet time period of 6 months that
the whole of our Brigade did in
the same period in the
Highlands.
Sadly most of our Battalion
Officers and senior NCO's
including Major Hue ( an
amazingly brave battle field
leader) were to be murdered in
RE-Education camps a result of
Nixon and Kissingers desertion
of brave allies. "Peace
w/Honor crap...
Anyhow Our Mat 17 team aided by
Air force FAC Bart 95 out of Can
Tho and many spooky and air
strikes, gunships both Army and
Navy and some great FO work by
the 21st Div Arvn Artillery
called by our team and my great
best friend, ARVN FO, Lt. So
,allowing our team to survive
basically unscratched.
So glad this blog is
highlighting our MAT Teams and
beginning to share those war
stories.
Thank you all for your dangerous
and basically unknown efforts
Captain Merek Mura ret. Airborne
Mobile Advisory Team 17
Some American troops
called them “Ruff-Puffs” and
laughed at them. We called them
our brothers and lived and fought
alongside them every day in South
Vietnam. By the end of my year as
a Mobile Advisory Team (MAT)
leader I admired all of them.
This is the story of one MAT team
(5 American Army advisors) in one
of the 244 Districts in South
Vietnam and about our great
counterpart - the District Chief .
In 1969, the first year the
200-plus MAT teams were deployed
in Vietnam, legend says half of
their outposts were overrun --
wiped out. Fortunately our team
survived -- somehow. This story is
dedicated to those who never made
it back to "The World".
The “Vietnamization” program
was a general mobilization of
500,000 local defense forces
called Regional Forces (RF) and
Popular Forces (PF). -- thus the
nickname “Ruff Puff”. This new
militia’s mission was village
and hamlet security -- and they
started with nothing. We helped
them get uniforms and new M-16
rifles and other weapons, trained
them and then helped them fight
against local Viet Cong and even
North Vietnamese Army troops in
our small coastal District.
So we looked at this as our
homeland and used all the American
artillery, air strikes,
helicopters and whatever other
resources we could scrounge to
help our brothers protect their
villages, families, schools , rice
paddies, bridges and homes - and
to win the war at the local level.
Find out why we who served know
that the "advisory" role
that our troops are undertaking in
Iraq and Afghanistan is really a
full-fledged combat mission. Don't
let anybody tell you different!
Phil Tompkins
