Clark Ballard

HHC XO

1/67 - 8/67

My one real accomplishment that I'm proud of is this: Our battalion commander, Colonel Kelly, called me in and told me that it was taking much too long from when the reconnaissance photos were taken to when the intelligence info was actually delivered to the field - about 5 days (as I recall). Obviously this meant that the information was often too old to really be of help to our troops. He assigned me to find out where the bottlenecks were and come back with recommendations on how we could speed up the process. He would arrange any resources and access I needed to get that job done and he wanted it done "yesterday".

Over the next 6 days I tracked what happened when the Air Force reconnaissance planes landed at the air base, how the film was handled in transit and processed at our lab, how the prints were made, when the interpreters got the large photos, how long they needed to do their job and get the reports generated, and then how our pilots got the info delivered to the field. What I learned and the changes I recommended to the CO were then used to reduce delivery time to an average of between 14 and 18 hours. So hopefully the intelligence then proved timely enough to be of real value to the guys on the ground.

It was a very rewarding for me to have a chance to accomplish something that I felt was in some way important and helpful to the troops out in the field in combat. I was proud to receive the Bronze Star Medal for Meritorious Service for this assignment. I received it after I got home and was not even aware that I had been recommended for it.

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