Com was made up of three sections:
 | Message center |
| Wire |
| Rradio |
We had a com officer, com chief, message center chief, wire chief, and a radio chief. The wire section took care of the telephone system in and around the battalion. They ran the wire and repaired it, installed the phones, and ran the switch board 24 hrs a day. They supplied a man for the companies, for their phones system. The radio section was, the largest section. They supplied radio communications for the battalion and the companies, or what ever radio services were needed and provided operators for the command bunker, companies, air tac, convoys, or patrols. They usually sent one or two radio operators from battalion to the line companies and the rest were grunts who learned how to use them in the field. Comm was also in charge of the electric and generators in the battalion rear. Comm also supplied men for perimeter watch, guard duty, mess duty, patrols, escorts, reactionary platoon, LP, or what ever the H&S CO would come up with.
COMM MOS
| 2500 com | 2542 com center man |
| 2511 wire | 2549 com center chief |
| 2519 wire chief | |
| 2531 field radio operaror | 2800 basic telecom maint |
| 2532 radio relay | 2811 telephone techs |
| 2533 radio telegraph op | 2861 radio techs |
| 2537 radio chief | 2591 op com chief |
There were others, but I forgot. They also had techs.
Thanks to Perry Shull, H&S COMM '67-'68 for above info)
1/1 Operators
I was a field wireman (2511) with 1/1 from June of 1970 until February of 1971. During this time the battalion area was at hill 10 and then hill 37. When we moved to hill 37, we also had wire crews and phone systems on hills 10, 37and 65.The telephone system you used in the Bn. area was installed and maintained by field wireman, MOS 2511. That included stringing all the wires on the poles, setting up the switchboard sb-22 and wiring up your hooch, bunker or office with a telephone called the ta-312. We also installed and maintained a telephone system to all the guard posts around the hill to a switchboard located in the guard shack. We manned the Bn. switchboard twenty-four hours a day. We had four trunk lines to the first marine regiment headquarters. They were actually channeled through a radio antennae unit called I think a trc-27. It was operated and maintained by guys from the 1st Marine Regiment. It also had a teletype system that ran into the COC, but that is another comm. section. The 1/1 operator would answer your ring with 1/1 sir. You would not believe how busy the switchboard would get during the day. The caller was supposed to ring back and tell the operator to break it down when he was done with his call. A lot of people forgot to do this that is why we were always breaking in with 1/1 sir, are you working? Believe me, we were busy and needed to know when those lines were free, especially with trunk lines to regiment. It took a lot of skill and practice to keep the calls flowing and keep everyone happy. Wiremen were also required to go to the field on combat operations when ever land line communication was required. I went on several of these including operation Upshur Stream which might have been the last named operation 1/1 participated in. We built a mobile artillery support base on hill 383 to support four grunt companies Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Fox and Kilo. It was in mountainous terrain of the Vu Gia River area. Those four duece (4.2 inch) mortars were awesome.
Thanks to George Porter, H&S COMM '70-71 for above info)
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His name is Sgt. Frank Hallas when he was the Col's. Radio Operator. Col. Bell and Maj. Stokes in back ground. -photo from Frank Hallas |
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Radio watch in the Comm Tent on an unknown operation. -photo from Frank Hallas |
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LZ 412, 1969 -photo from Dan Sea |
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Inside the Comm bunker, 1969. TACP/FAC stands for Tactical Air Control Party/Forward Air Control, More commonly referred to as "1-4" operator. Each line company had one. We rotated through all of them. H&S Co. ‘owned us’, though. -photo from Dan Sea |
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This is how "stuff" got to the field. That’s me with the
radio. -photo from Dan Sea
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That’s "Smitty" on the left; assigned by Lt. Lamb, CO of
Charlie Co 1/1, to act as my ‘personal bodyguard’ to ensure that
supplies, MedEvac, visual recon, and air-support were were ready, timely,
and available on-demand in the Que Son mountains while we ‘blocked’ as
the Americal Division sledgehammers against our ‘anvil’ in August of
1969. -photo from Dan Sea |
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This is what it looked like when we went out to do the same things w/ the line companies.... (Charlie Company, Go Noi island, September, 1969 -- the day Ho Chi Minh died) -photo from Dan Sea |
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Here’s a pic of a KingFisher mission lifted by HMM364 "the Purple
Foxes" in early 1970. KingFisher missions were exclusive to 1/1 and
each line company ran at least one. The idea was that we would be airborne
before dawn and swoop down as the VC/NVA were returning to their base from
whatever night mission they might have been on. We had GREAT success on
one of them about 4 Jan 1970 when I was out with Alpha Co. 1/1. We landed
right on "the breakfast table" and hit them hard and fast. They
had NO IDEA which way to run! I think we got like 30 of them and WE had 0
WIA and 0 KIA! Too bad they caught on to the tactic. KingFisher missions
ended about March of 1970 :( I remember we got FREE Carling’s Black
Label beer when we got back to Hill55, ( it (the beer) was warm, it was
early afternoon (1300?), but we could have as much as we wanted). I also
remember being VERY busy as the 1-4 FAC operator that morning! -comment from Dan Sea -photo by Ron Neff (2/1) |
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Tim Pitts(left) Comm Plt, 67-68-69 Hoi An, 1967 |
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Tim Pitts, Phu Bai, 1968 (apparently on his way to barber shop<g>) |
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Tim Pitts, Quang Tri Air Strip, 1967 |
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John Batt H&S/Radio Hoi An |
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This picture was taken at Hoi An about 6/67. John Batt, my radio leader ) sent them to me to identify them. The guy with the M-16 is taking the other guys to the rear of the compound to train and fire the M-16. When they returned they turned in their M-14 for a new M -16. I remember when the picture was taken and I remember the guys faces, but not their names. T shorter guy on the is me, Perry Shull. - photo from John Batt |
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John Batt and Sgt .Graham in charge of radio at that time. Graham was also know to me as yellow-hammer. There was a hammer painted yellow on his desk, and every time he told us or gave us an order, he would pick up the hammer and slam it down and say , the yellow-hammer has spoken. I think that made some guys remember things. I forgot his name, but remembered the hammer. - photo from John Batt - comments from Perry |
