Chapter X
1 On the early advisory effort, see Ronald H. Spector, Advice and Support: The Early Years, 1941-1960, United States Army in Vietnam (Washington, D.C.: Center of Military History, United States Army, 1983). Unless otherwise indicated, the following discussion of early Signal Corps involvement in Vietnam is based on John D. Bergen, Military Communications: A Test for Technology, United States Army in Vietnam (Washington, D.C.: Center of Military History, United States Army, 1986).
2 The stratosphere lies between the troposphere and the ionosphere.
3 In the 1940s Edwin Armstrong had experimented with this form of communication. Lessing, Man of High Fidelity, pp. 264-65; see also John C. Monahan, "A Step Ahead of the Future," in Marshall, ed., Story of Signal Corps, p. 249.
4 The former ACAN stations (by then designated STARCOM) came under the control of the STRATCOM after its formation in 1964.
5 Matloff, ed., American Military History, p. 622.
6 See map 2 in Charles R. Myer, Division-Level Communications, 1962-1973, Vietnam Studies (Washington, D.C.: Department of the Army, 1982), p. 6.
7 John B. Wilson, Divisions and Separate Brigades, draft Ms, ch. 11; John J. Tolson, Airmobility, 1961-1971, Vietnam Studies (Washington, D.C.: Department of the Army, 1973).
8 As organized under TOE 11-205T (22 June 65), which remained in effect until 1971, the airmobile division signal battalion contained a headquarters, headquarters and service company and Company A. As organized under TOE 11-35E (15 July 1963), armored and infantry divisional signal battalions comprised a headquarters and headquarters detachment and three line companies. The airmobile battalion was authorized 352 officers and men; the other divisional battalions were authorized 575. A copy of TOE 11-205T is not available in DAMH-HSO, but see the unit data card and notes in the 13th Signal Battalion's unit jacket. See also Bergen, Test for Technology, p. 286.
9 Guenter Lewy, America in Vietnam (New York: Oxford University Press, 1978), p. 42. See also William C. Westmoreland, A Soldier Reports (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday and Co., 1976), p. 154 and Thomas M. Rienzi, Communications-Electronics, 1962-1970, Vietnam Studies (Washington, D.C.: Department of the Army, 1972), p. 22, who both give a total of 184,000 men by the end of 1965.
10 Bergen, Test for Technology, p. 144. The 41st Signal Battalion arrived in Vietnam in July 1965.
11 Bergen, Test for Technology, p. 143; Myer, Division-Level Communications, p. 16. The disposition of signal troops in the corps tactical zones is depicted in Bergen, map 7, p. 145.
12 Rienzi, Communications-Electronics, p. 36.
13 With some dispute, see Bergen, Test for Technology, pp. 176-80.
14 Ibid., pp. 141-42.
15 A. W. Rogers and E. W. Daniel, Jr., "Hardware for the New Communications," Army 14 (Jun 1964): 60-68; Bergen, Test for Technology, p. 464.
16 Will Harral, ed., "Without It You Have No Day...," Army Communicator 1 (Winter 1976): 37; Bergen, Test for Technology, pp. 256, 448-50.
17 Bergen, Test for Technology, pp. 143, 460.
18 Ibid., p. 162.
19 Ibid., pp. 163-64,186,420-2 1.
20 George C. Herring, "The First Cavalry and the Ia Drang Valley, 18 October-24 November 1965," in Heller and Stofft, eds., First Battles, pp. 300-326.
21 Myer, Division-Level Communications, pp. 12-14, 29-30; Bergen, Test for Technology, pp. 153-60, 283-85; Robert S. Kellar, "The Heliborne Command Post," Aviation Digest 15 (Jan 1969): 14-21; Tolson, Airmobility, pp. 73-83.
22 Herring, "The First Cavalry and the Ia Drang Valley," in Heller and Stofft, eds., First Battles, pp. 300-326.
23 Rienzi, Communications-Electronics, p. 62.
24 Bergen, Test for Technology, p. 420. According to Kenneth R. Grissom II, ed., The Jagged Sword: A History of the 1st Signal Brigade (Information Office, 1st Signal Brigade, Republic of Vietnam: 1970), "Little or no thought had been given to installing fixed communications because no permanent base camps were envisioned." (This publication has no page numbers. Copy in unit jacket, DAMH-HSO.)
25 Rienzi, Communications-Electronics, p. 18.
26 Bergen, Test for Technology, pp. 119-21.
27 Richard J. Meyer, "STRATCOM is Worldwide," Army 16 (Oct 1966): 71-72, 86; Rienzi, Communications-Electronics, pp. 27-28; Battalion History, Phu Lam Signal Battalion (USASTRATCOM) (Provisional), Nov 67, copy in author's files. Other major relay stations were later installed at Nha Trang in the central portion of the country and at Da Nang in the northern portion.
28 Rienzi, Communications-Electronics, pp. 25-30; Bergen, Test for Technology, ch. 14. In August 1965 the 2d Signal Group transferred control of the BACKPORCH and WETWASH systems (formerly the responsibility of the 39th Signal Battalion) to the newly created STRATCOM, Vietnam.
29 Bergen, Test for Technology, pp. 106-15, 343, and map 25, p. 354; Rienzi, Communications-Electronics, ch. 7.
30 Bergen, Test for Technology, pp. 124-25, 138.
31 Interv, Maj Gen Gerd S. Grombacher with Col George W. Schultz III, Senior Officers Oral History Program Project 85-B (Carlisle, Pa.: U.S. Army Military History Institute, 1985), pp. 131, 137-38; Bergen, Test for Technology, pp. 467-68.
32 Myer, Division-Level Communications, p. 45; Bergen, Test for Technology, pp. 254-57.
33 Bergen, Test for Technology, pp. 199-201; Rienzi, Communications-Electronics, p. 124.
34 Rienzi, Communications-Electronics, pp. 92-93.
35 Myer, Division-Level Communications, p. 43.
36 Bergen, Test for Technology, pp. 423-24; Myer, Division-Level Communications, chs. 7 and 8.
37 Carroll H. Dunn, Base Development in South Vietnam, 1965-1970, Vietnam Studies (Washington, D.C.: Department of the Army, 1972), pp. 78-83.
38 Myer, Division-Level Communications, pp. 78-79; Bergen, Test for Technology, pp. 476-77.
39 Bergen, Test for Technology, pp. 226-34, 426; Rienzi, Communications-Electronics, pp. 49-51, 135; Leslie H. Taylor, "Traffic Data Collection and AUTOVON," Army Communicator 3 (Winter 1978): 18-21; unit jacket, 40th Signal Battalion, DAMH-HSO. The battalion received two Meritorious Unit Commendations (Army) for its work. Copies of the citations are in the unit jacket.
40 George S. Eckhardt, Command and Control, 1950-1969, Vietnam Studies (Washington, D.C.: Department of the Army, 1974), pp. 52-54. The 54th Signal Battalion served with the I Field Force and the 53d Signal Battalion with the II Field Force.
41 Rienzi, Communications-Electronics, ch. 3; Bergen, Test for Technology, pp. 183-85; Lineage and Honors Certificate, 1st Signal Brigade, copy in unit jacket, DAMHHSO.
42 Rienzi, Communications-Electronics, p. 48. The 21st Signal Group was constituted in the Regular Army on 22 June 1965 and activated on 1 September 1965 at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. It arrived in Vietnam on 9 June 1966.
43 Rienzi, Communications-Electronics, ch. 3.
44 Ibid., p. 53.
45 Ibid., pp. 51, 125-27; Vincent Demma, "The U.S. Army in Vietnam," chapter in revised edition of American Military History, pp. 649-51.
46 These units were created in mid-1962. Richard A. Baun, "Soldiers with Cameras," Army Information Digest 19 (Mar 1964): 51-53.
47 Bergen, Test for Technology, pp. 217-18; Rienzi, Communications-Electronics, pp. 127-28; James S. Cassity, Jr., "MARS: The Indispensable Communications System," Signal 43 (Mar 1989): 41-42; William G. Mills, "Disaster ... and MARS Goes To Work," Army Communicator 4 (Winter 1979): 44-45.
48 Rienzi, Communications-Electronics, p. 84.
49 A detailed discussion of the IWCS is contained in Bergen, Test for Technology, ch. 14. See also Rienzi, Communications-Electronics, ch. 7. According to Bergen the installation of the system cost $315 million (p. 341), while Rienzi gives a somewhat lower figure of $235 million (p. 130).
50 Bergen, Test for Technology, pp. 299-304; Rienzi, Communications-Electronics, p. 92.
51 Bergen, Test for Technology, pp. 307-09; Rienzi, Communications-Electronics, pp. 93-94.
52 Bernard William Rogers, Cedar Falls-Junction City: A Turning Point, Vietnam Studies (Washington, D.C.: Department of the Army, 1974), p. 67; Bergen, Test for Technology, pp. 205-07; Demma, "Army in Vietnam," pp. 649-51.
53 Bergen, Test for Technology, pp. 215-21; Rienzi, Communications-Electronics, pp. 117-20; Robert A. Weaver, "Up Again Down Again," Army Communicator 1 (Summer 1976): 25. See also William B. Fulton, Riverine Operations, 1966-1969, Vietnam Studies (Washington, D.C.: Department of the Army, 1973).
54 Demma, "Army in Vietnam," p. 642; John B. Wilson, Divisions and Separate Brigades, draft Ms, table 29.
55 Rienzi, Communications-Electronics, p. 53. This total does not include signal units organic to the divisions, etc. Van Harlingen succeeded Terry as brigade commander in July 1967.
56 Bergen, Test for Technology, pp. 414-24, 429-30, 466-67. An unofficial signal school had been in operation in Saigon prior to that time. The South Vietnamese Army had its own signal school at Vung Tau.
57 Bergen, Test for Technology, p. 168.
58 The Tet holiday begins with the first new moon after 20 January.
59 Westmoreland, A Soldier Reports, ch. 17. The official campaign dates for the Tet offensive are 30 January to 1 April 1968.
60 Bergen, Test for Technology, p. 263-69, 335; Rienzi, Communications-Electronics, pp. 109-11.
61 Bergen, Test for Technology, pp. 267-68; Rienzi, Communications-Electronics, p. 108; Lewy, America in Vietnam, p. 274.
62 John B. McKinney, "They Communicate and Shoot," Army 18 (Sep 1968): 54-60.
63 William M. Hammond, Public Affairs: The Military and the Media, 1962-1968, United States Army in Vietnam (Washington, D.C.: Center of Military History, United States Army, 1988), ch. 15.
64 Lewy, America in Vietnam, p. 128; Westmoreland, A Soldier Reports, p. 411.
65 Bergen, Test for Technology, pp. 277-78; Rienzi, Communications-Electronics, pp. 108-09, gives the soldier's name as Hankinson; Bernard C. Nalty, Air Power and the Fight for Khe Sanh (Washington, D.C.: Office of Air Force History, 1973), p. 92; Robert Pisor, The End of the Line: The Siege of Khe Sanh (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1982), p. 184; Tolson, Airmobility, pp. 165-80; Willard Pearson, The War in the Northern Provinces, 1966-1968, Vietnam Studies (Washington, D.C.: Department of the Army, 1975), chs. 5 and 6.
66 Don Oberdorfer, Tet! (New York: Avon Books, 1971), pp. 275-83; Westmoreland, A Soldier Reports, pp. 429-37.
67 A detailed discussion of the background behind his decision is contained in Lyndon Baines Johnson, Vantage Point: Perspectives of the Presidency, 1963-1969 (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1971), ch. 17. See also Oberdorfer, Tet!, chs. 7 and 8.
68 The text of the speech is included in Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1968-1969, 2 vols. (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1970), 1: 469-76. Lewy, America in Vietnam, pp. 133, 386-87; Oberdorfer, Tet!, pp. 332-42.
69 Bergen, Test for Technology, p. 138.
70 In his 31 March speech Johnson had indicated that the Joint Chiefs had recommended such a call-up. Public Papers: Johnson, 1968-1969, 1: 272. Bergen, Test for Technology, p. 269. Johnson had previously called up about fourteen thousand Navy and Air Force reservists to bolster U.S. forces in Korea following the Pueblo incident. Johnson, Vantage Point, p. 385. In 1967 STRATCOM's headquarters moved from Washington, D.C. to Fort Huachuca. The 11th Signal Group moved to Fort Huachuca from Fort Lewis, Washington, in November 1966. Smith, Fort Huachuca, pp. 322-23.
71 Bergen, Test for Technology, p. 268; Rienzi, Communications-Electronics, p. 174; Demma, "Army in Vietnam," pp. 671-75.
72 Abrams was succeeded by General Fred C. Weyand in 1973.
73 Bergen, Test for Technology, p. 434.
74 Demma, "Army in Vietnam," p. 676.
75 Bergen, Test for Technology, pp. 346-47.
76 Rienzi, Communications-Electronics, p. 144.
77 Bergen, Test for Technology, pp. 346--48; Rienzi, Communications-Electronics, ch. 12; Jeffrey J. Clarke, Advice and Support: The Final Years, 1965-1973, United States Army in Vietnam (Washington, D.C.: Center of Military History, United States Army, 1988), pp. 438-41.
78 Lewy, America in Vietnam, p. 144; Demma, "Army in Vietnam," pp. 678-82.
79 Bergen, Test for Technology, pp. 286-90; Rienzi, Communications-Electronics, p. 150.
80 Demma, "Army in Vietnam," pp. 682-83; Tolson, Airmobility, ch. 11. See also Keith William Nolan, Into Cambodia: Spring Campaign, Summer Offensive, 1970 (Novato, Calif: Presidio Press, 1990).
81 Lewy, America in Vietnam, pp. 196-201; Demma, "Army in Vietnam," p. 687; Clarke, Final Years, pp. 481-90.
82 Clarke, Final Years, p. 495.
83 William J. McCaffrey, "Wrapping It Up in South Vietnam," Army 22 (Oct 1972): 59; unit jacket, 1st Signal Brigade, DAMH-HSO.
84 Bergen, Test for Technology, p. 360; unit data card and Lineage and Honors Certificate, in unit jacket, 39th Signal Battalion, DAMH-HSO. The 232d Signal Company originally arrived in Vietnam on 23 March 1962.
85 Lewy, America in Vietnam, p. 412.
86 Ibid., pp. 202-22, 410-17; Bergen, Test for Technology, p. 364.
87 On North Vietnamese and Viet Cong signals, see Bergen, Test for Technology, ch.16.
88 Ibid., pp. 253-54.
89 Peter Dorland and James Nanney, Dust Off: Army Aeromedical Evacuation in Vietnam (Washington, D.C.: Center of Military History, United States Army, 1982), pp. 78-79; Bergen, Test for Technology, pp. 254-55.
90 Signal Corps Regimental Association Notes 4 (Spring 1990): 8; Max Cleland, Strong at the Broken Places (Lincoln, Va.: Chosen Books, 1980).
91 U.S. Congress, Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs, Medal of Honor Recipients, 1863-1978, 96th Cong., 1st sess., 1979, Committee Print no. 15, p. 918; Bergen, Test for Technology, p. 204; Myer, Division-Level Communications, pp. 44-45.
92 For details on President Nixon's role in these foreign policy breakthroughs, see Stephen E. Ambrose, Nixon: The Triumph of a Politician, 1962-1972 (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1989).
