Essay by Robert Rosak Concerning the Activities of Det B, 1st MIBARS

written in October 1966

One thing’s true - time doesn’t stand still for anything or anybody. While the hands on the clock circle surely and endlessly … and the pages flutter off the calendar with endless regularity … we can now sit back and look over our deeds and accomplishments.

On arrival in Danang, RVN, in January, we weathered the monsoon season and established liaison with other units until our equipment arrived in February. What a glorious day - we now have our own equipment to work with, and our own vehicles. Hallelluia! Now we can return the Special Forces jeep - code name - the BOMB!

Now comes the hard work - setting up, sand-bagging, digging in permanently. Our deadline date: March 15 - accomplished with ease and time to spare. We were again a working unit, the 1st one in Battalion. "Best by Test", our motto, gave us something to be proud of. We were the "best by test" and now we had to live up to our motto.

April came and Easter Saturday. We were awakened at 0400 by Marine Security: Pack your gear was the order of the day; we are evacuating Danang. A Marine Bn was sent in for protection of all civilians and military personnel while they boarded helicopters for evacuation to MAG-16, located at Marble Mountain. After a few days there, we slowly infiltrated back to our operations area where we set up tents and lived and worked for 2 weeks. Showers were few and far between, and the C’s (C-Rations) were cold, but at least we were safe and back in our own area where we could do some good in helping the cause.

May came in like a tiger. Another coup. General Thieu was ousted as I Corp Commander and we were once again alerted to report to our operations area with our equipment. Cold C’s again and no showers. The Vietnamese Marines sent a Bn of men along with 7 tanks to guard the I Corps compound. Looks like we are stuck here for a while! Out came the C’s, the cots, the bedding, and the use of our water truck for the whole compound. Six days later the CO was notified that we were running out of C-Rations. "Captain Scallan, you, Sgt Rosak, SP5 Collier and PFC Blough take the deuce & a half and make it to Sub-Area Support. Got to have food for the troops!" (Quick thinking Captain!). The chow party got to the air base where the Sub-Area located, but couldn’t get off to go to Navy Supply to pick up the C’s. After 4 hours of waiting at the gate - pow!, pow!, pow!, automatic rifle fire in our direction. "Get under the truck!" shouts the Captain. Gladly - the firing stopped shortly thereafter. "Let’s get the hell out of here!" -Finally got to Navy Supply, got our C’s, stole 2 cases of ham & Spam, and got back to the safety of I Corps compound. Three days later the coup ended and we went back to the hotel and a hot shower!

June, July and August were quite hectic months. Missions, target folders, and mosaics. September 11th was the day of elections. So we were restricted to the hotel on the 10th, 11th, and 12th, just to be on the safe side. Seventy per cent of the Vietnamese turned out at the polls. Very good elections - no trouble.

IG Inspection time - Bn pre-IG slated for Sep 17th. Preparedness and uniformity was the word set down by the CO. Mark the duffels bags, paint the vehicles, get the WABTOC (Field gear {when authorized by the overseas commander} ready). Today’s the day. The inspecting party arrived at 0800 and began their inspection. By 1130 it was over and once again we proved that we lived up to our motto "Best by Test". When the Bn CO called the Exec, he told us us that "B" was the best in the Battalion!

Inspections are over now, and our tour is nearly finished - but - we can’t let down. Work until the day after we leave. This we must do, as our replacements need our help to try to live up to our famed motto: "Best by Test".

Vietnam Reminisces

By Bill Smedley

The entire unit took equipment and vehicles, which were properly packed several times, down to Charleston port for shipping in late October or early November 1965. A very long convoy left Ft Bragg very early one morning, with a stop at South of the Border (at the North-South Carolina state line) for a well deserved break. After delivering the vehicles, we returned to Ft Bragg and most of us took some kind of leave, mine was a 14 day leave, and I returned to duty on the 21st of November.

On return, we had to re-qualify on the rifle. The first day was about 45 degrees, and once we were at the range, we were about to begin when it was washed out due to hunters out in back of the range, in the impact area. The next day we had a PT test inside the barracks as it was raining, then that afternoon we returned to the range in the rain, mud, and fired our weapons, then had to really clean them on the return. All underwear now is brown, no more whites!

We left the area around 3AM on a Monday to Pope AF Base and loaded on a jet. We landed at Long Beach at 1130PST and after a 30 minute transport to San Pedro Bay, we loaded onto our home for the next 20 some days. Our duty for the duration is to keep a latrine clean, then the rest of the day is left for cheering the waves (hoping they would break over the bow and come crashing into the break wall just behind the bow!) and playing pinochle, poker, canasta, chess, bridge, even monopoly!

Guam was a great break, necessary for everyone. We had 10 hrs on a non-moving piece of land!

Arrived Saigon 3PM, took until 10PM to get to Tent City and a bed!

Ship with vehicles arrived on the 12th January. Unloading all day and spotting ours to drive off to a central location to guard them. II’s are working downtown on 12 and off 36 shifts, so repro gets all the dirty work!

Feb 9 some of us infiltrated our motor pool, where there was a large stack of 50lb bags of cement, and since they were worth their weight in gold, we sequestered a lot of the bags in some of our vehicles that happened to be right there! Since they were to be shipped out the next day and on the high seas, we saw no way of getting caught, and were not! The cement was used very nicely up in Danang!

The large vehicles were loaded on Thursday evening, Feb 11(?) which included the clandestine bags. The 5ton trailer would not fit in the hold, so until they (navy) figured out how to handle it, we had to take it back to the motor pool. The jeeps and smaller vehicles were then loaded.

The detachment turned out a mean softball team that won several games, and lost a few others.

Detachment B moved from Tent City at Ton Son Nhut on Feb 21, leaving the airfield at 9AM going to Pleiku, where the plane (C130) developed engine problems which were not resolved by 3PM. We transferred to a smaller C123 and arrived at Danang at 5PM where we moved into the Danang Hotel! First air-conditioning since leaving Ft Bragg!! We now have hot water, private baths and showers, and beds instead of bunks and cots.

Our first job was to fill sandbags. We went to this nice beach, and started filling, must have been over 2000 of them. We used the sandbags to protect the generators, radio and bunkers for the troops. So you guys that came later were all saved by us! Hah.

We wanted to build a cocoon around the repro unit to make it a little cooler, so after setting up the water tank and stuff, we started to build a roof over the ES-38, but there wasn’t enough wood to make it strong enough, so we tore it down and several of us took the 2 ½ ton truck and scouted around. We found a nice pile of lumber, so we loaded a sizable amount and returned to the compound. Later we returned and got the rest of the pile! We used the lumber to not only build a roof, but a complete shelter around the darkroom and made a small office in front also. We found some tin for the roof. Assembling Det B

Went operational Mar 15.

April 12 evacuated to a hot tin barn, with cots. Were able to return some 3 weeks later. Another time several of us were sitting on top of the connexes watching the Air Force bomb some of the VC on the other side of the river when we had a couple of mortar rounds hit 40-50 yards away! Connexes were very quickly abandoned!

Due to the unrest in the population during this time, we were restricted to the compound and the hotel, except for the time we were evacuated. At times, some of the detachment had to stay 3-4 days at the compound, making for difficult living due to unwashed and unshaven bodies! (especially in the Repro van)

We were visited on the 19th of June by John Wayne in the club. He stood on the stage and said, Ok, now I’m here, and what am I supposed to do. So he signed some pictures for us and answered some questions and took off.

The IG inspection was preceded by a rash of pre-inspections by Bn that we managed to ace each time they came up.

There was always problems concerning returning home, as some people wanted to return early, and others wanted to extend 15 or 30 days. Rumors flew at all times, some saying we were all returning at the same time and back on a ship (no way!); others said that no extensions or early returns were possible; then at the end, we all got the return we wanted. I managed to extend the 15 days and have a 30 day leave around the Christmas season. I left Ton Son Nhut on the 15th of December, and I understand that the airbase was bombed after we left! Some sendoff.

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