Det 2 175th RRC Vietnam
DF Detachment 2, 175th RRC set up in several locations over the years of Vietnam deployment.
From Bill Trapp, 05D, SP5, correspondence February 2011 regarding his assignments with Detachment 2:
- Det 2 Long Binh 175th RRC 12/67 - 2/68
- Det 2 Ba Ria 175th RRC 2/68 - 5/68
Based on the following recollections of Bill Kosek, the detachment must have been deployed from Ba Ria to Nui Dat during the period of 5/68 - ??
From Bill Kosek, 33B, 33F working as a 33D Maintenance, extracted from several exchanges of email, February 2011.
My last 6 or 7 months with 175th at Bien Hoa was spent on Con Son Island. We moved Det 2 from Nui Dat near Vung Tau to Con Son around February or March of 1970. We loaded everything up on a Navy landing craft in Vung Tau and they dropped us off on the beach at Con Son about 24 hours later. The landing craft was operated by Philippine contractors for the U.S. Navy.
The U.S. Coast Guard was on the beach to greet us. The CG ran a Loran station on another part of the Island. The Navy also had a two person radar station on a high spot on the island. Although I was a 33B and 33F I filled the 33D slot as an OJT under the previous repairman. We were both licensed amateur radio operators so Hq thought that he could relay the proper lingo to me. He rotated out in a week and I spent the next 6 months (approx) and managed to keep the site running and calibrated. It was a AN/TRD 23 site if I remember the nomenclature right.
Actually the 175th occupied the former advisor area if we are talking about the same area. We were across the airfield, up on the hill overlooking the beach. The old Japanese pill box was just below us. Also our transmitter was housed in a small conex just below the 60 foot tower. We interconnected back to the DF site with commo wire for cw keying. There was another building below us on the start of the beach sand which housed a bar and NCOIC quarters. (How convenient)
The names I remember are SFC Harry I. Miller our NCOIC, Larry (Montana) Harlin, Bulldog, and Chief. Two house boys; one named Shotgun and the other named Lam. They were both VC or political prisoners on the island and Lam was actually a Cambodian.
The ARVN site was still there at the north (?) side of the airstrip near the beach, just before the drop off. Our site was about 200 feet NW of theirs. I do not know what equipment they still had but I think it was mostly used for communications back to the mainland. They did not have any antenna farm, just a dipole and whip as far as I can remember. President Thieu had his weekend get away on the beach,not far from our site, so the ARVN site was probably used to coordinate his arrivals and departures. President Thieu's place was about a quarter mile down the beach on our left if you were facing the beach. It was probably new construction circa 1969-70. Someone was always working on it.
We did start cross training some of the ARVN's into the AN/TDR 23 before I left and to the best of my recollection it was still going on with my replacement when I left in August of 1970.
That's enough memories for this 65 year old retiree. I had better stand down for now before I go and re-up. ASA....ALL The Way
I hope this helps.
Bill (Bill's Photo Album)
Add your comments or memories:
Orlin Pettit 05C-20, Greenville SC
Several of us visited an orphanage as often as possible for a great diversion from our 05D20 jobs. Many trips where made to Vung tau for mail and Bien Hoa for supplies. Google Earth now shows a FREEWAY where the dirt road to Vung Tau used to be. There is no evidence of Nui Dat other that a huge rubber tree plantation.
Would like to hear from others.
ryan
I beleive that Ba Ria and Nui Dat are basically the same geographic location. At any rate , we were the guests of our counterparts in the Australian and New Zealand Armies. There was also an American Army Engineer Company nearby who offloaded our Commo Hut, etc. with their crane when we set up the site.