Chapter 255
9/21/2010
untold stories of the war
spies like us
Richard Etchberger operated a covert Laos radar station directing bombing attacks onto North Vietnam and was killed during the Battle of Lima 85 by the North Vietnamese enemy on April 11,1968. The military covered up the true secret facts for about 20 years but this week Pres Obama bestowed the Medal of Honor on him posthumously. By international law we weren't supposed to be in the neutral sovereign nation of Laos with combat troops. The US just temporarily discharged him and assigned him as a civilian to the defense contractor, Lockheed Aircraft for plausible deniability.
Older brother Dale, above left, in about 1965 after returning from Thailand as an Army microwave radio technician , a in the pioneer in the first use of tropospheric scatter radio relay. That TROPO system was capable of providing numerous voice communications channels over extended ranges -the first use of that type of advanced equipment in a combat environment. This enabled communications between the US forces in Thailand, Laos, Vietnam the Phillipines and Washington. F- 105 fighter bombers were launched from his base there on bombing missions in Southeast Asia.
Mum is the word for a lot of people. We don't know what secrets are being told in the picture above, but we do know Uncle Nelson on the right, never wanted to say very much about his German POW status of WW2. He did reveal to me that he survived after being shot down by eating milkweeds. The spy paraphernalia laid out on the table seems to be the subject of the discussion. Dale sent me back the Japanese Petri 7S spy cam from overseas and he bought one himself. I still have mine. Nelson's Bell and Howell was the superior version, but Aunt Carol is hoarding the secret microfilm at some undisclosed safe house. In front of Nelson, I'm guessing is the plain manilla folder that contains the agency mission directives, should he choose to accept.
In front of Dale's camera appears to be a vial of perhaps death drops, or some other mysterious potion. The green glass ashtray, a relic of bygone days, may hold ashes from an already destroyed mission plan. Further left, just off screen seems to be the Whamo sling shot that can be used as a deadly and silent sniper weapon in the bush.
I know that some may be skeptical, and I don't want to talk out of school, but these photos here recently been declassified of Dale:
1964 Under the Radar, Thailand, civilian cover?
1966 "Operation White Knight" under veil of secrecy, "sheep-dipping" in the trade is process of changing identities- illuminating the target with yellow flares (or Dad's creative photography)
1984 A natural born killer, he practiced lethal torture methods in foreign states including water boarding with scalding water, is still "employed" by a defense industry contractor.
2010 antique spy cam Petri 7S
tech background
CIA web If you dare. Click Lima 85 for painting. On that day, our allies - 42 Thai and Hmong warriors died. Where are their medals of honor? Clint Eastwood made a public contribution in Grand Torino by subtly introducing the Hmong to the American audience. I have a cousin, we'll call Bob (not his real name) who flew B-52s during the Vietnam Rolling Thunder campaign who was quite familiar with the Lima 85 station, but declined to expand on the phone without a secure line. General Richard Secord, who I watched testify in the Iran- Contra hearings, was responsible for Lima 85. Convicted but later exonerated. Hero or Goat? Are today's wars strikingly similar or is that just my imagination?
KORAT air base (one that Dale's 207th SIG supported)
1966 Army Archives ARVN maroon berets John Wayne microwave Plei Ku
Willie Kendrick's story 207th Signal Company Tropospheric Camp Friendship Korat
(167th Signal Company Radio Relay VHF Bangkok)
Comprehensive mil web Chapter 1 (more comprehensive mil web- Army screws up these links regularly)
Vietnam Studies Communication Electronics 1962-70 (TROPO) (pdf) very slow loading
When I read of cities in Vietnam like Da nang , Pleiku, Saigon it brings back memories as they were part of the Communications System made up of microwave and tropospheric scatter that spanned Vietnam and Thailand. I initially worked in a radio site in Korat Thailand (Nakhon Ratchasima) and recall talking to my counterpart in Da Nang over our communications service channel many times. My task was to keep RK-9 Khon Kaen "on the air" at all times. I became very proficient at the job and was selected to go to Bangkok as one of 6 to maintain a radio site without the tech rep from Collins radio. Hotel accommodation's complete with 1 maid service and swimming pool. tough duty!!! A drastic change from the jungle of Korat Where we had a "3 seat" outhouse, to the Capitoll hotel in Bangkok with a flush toilet