Any 1st ANGLICO Marines on board?
 

Sub Unit One from 1967-68
Blue Dragons

anybody here?

One of the original rotation from Hawaii has written a book on SU-1, it's at the publisher being edited right now!

Welome ANGLICOone.
Were you a naval gun fire spotter?

Ron

Hi Ron
 

No, wasn't NGF trained. the "1-4" in the call sign is the clue. My job was FO for close air support, and also medevacs, resupply, or any kinds of comm between the Korean Marine company (or platoon in the instance of the recon platoon) and Marine Corps air. With recon it was a "team" of one usually. With the companies it was 2-man teams until Jan '68 when they went to 3-man teams, if my memory is correct.

The largest group of "Sub Unit One" was detached to the 2nd ROK Marine Bde, the "Blue Dragons". When I arrived in Oct '67 the brigade was in the Binh Son Province of southern I-Corps, I was on a recon OP on a mountain near a little village called An Hoa (same name as the larger vill up south of DaNang. Then with 11th Co. at Trabindong (this was 9 months AFTER 2 NVA regiments and a VC btn made the mistake of attempting to overrun the company position).

Then in late December '67, the entire brigade moved through the port of Chu Lai to Danang by troop ships, then by truck down to the new Hoi An TAOR. We were not even used to the area yet when 31 Jan 1968 arrived.

Thanks for the welcome, Ron. When were you there, when, and who with?

Marine

I was in VN from June 19th 1967 to June 19th 1968.
My unit is at the end of all my posts. I was a RTO , my last call sign was 39mike, I had many. I never worked with any ROK's , how do you tell the difference between them and ARVN?

Ron

You bet
 

The Korean Marine Corps was forged in the flames of the Korean War, trained by the 1st Marine Division, with many officers attending officers training in the USA. As for a comparison to ARVN's, there is little comparison. They were the one unit the USMC could trust not to bug out. Maybe one Blue Dragon = 50 ARVN, I don't know.

Even at remote CP's like the recon OP / CAP platoon they practiced taekwondo any day they weren't on an operation or patrol. I'll find a pic of me lifting a barbell made of stone and bamboo at their little dojo on the mountaintop.

As a unit they were still in their "teens" in Vietnam, without the long-established traditions and training that we had. But they had the hearts of warriors. At Trabinhdong the 11th Co CP was partly overrun, some Marines' rifles were quickly disassembled and parts scattered assuming death was imminent, and taekwondo was augmented with e-tools as they lost only 30 in hand-to-hand combat, while turning back two NVA regiments and a VC battalion (those units are smaller than ours). An officer captured later carried documents for NVA units instructing them to avoid Korean Marines.

Two ANGLICO Marines, Jim Porta and Dave Long were also at Trabinhdong. Jim saved the life of my friend Lt Kim, Se-chang when Lt Kim (an artillery FO) was shot in the neck.

Sorry I got windy. But those in the rear with the gear sometimes didn't get along with them, but those of us living with them in the field grew accustomed to their culture and food, and grew to respect their fighting spirit. As my Korean brothers would say............

Pil-seung (Victory)!

I heard the Korean Marines were good but never seen any, that I know of, Worked with some yards a few times , they were good but not real smart. We sure screwed them people when we left. The smart thing might have just been a language difference also.
If you were around the Da Nang area, we walked some of the same dirt. West of Baldy.

Ron

This is about 06 FEB 1968
 

a few clicks northeast of Hoi An
10th Co, 3d Bn, 2d ROK Marine Bde
left to right, me (Vance Hall), Charles Williams (the ANGLICO team) Capt Yoon (dec 2005), and the Captain's HaSa who was shot between the eyes when we caught an NVA platoon in an ambush about a week later.

Probably not too many miles south of Baldy, Bro.
http://www.patriotfiles.com/forum/imgcache/11541.png

Anglic1
 

Worked with the 30th Reg. 9th Korean Infantry Division, White Horse. Found the S.Koreans to be some of the finest soldiers in the world. Sure your ROK Marines were the same. Boy, once they got to know you....you wanted for nothing. They were also great thieves. If we needed something out of supply channel....they got it.

Pack

Korean Marines - always training
 

Here's 10th Co back in the CP a click or two east of Hoi An on the north side of the road, practicing taekwondo. Mid-1968:
http://www.patriotfiles.com/forum/imgcache/11542.png

This is at the recon platoon OP on a mountaintop adjacent to another An Hoa, western Binh Son Province, October 1967. They even had a little dojo and workout area for when they were in the CP. I was just a little younger then:
http://www.patriotfiles.com/forum/imgcache/11543.png

This is why 11th Co 3d Bn kicked @$$ with taekwondo at Trabinhdong in Feb 1967 (before I arrived).
http://www.patriotfiles.com/forum/imgcache/11544.png


PS: can you guys see these pics from my Photobucket account?

Vance
1st. most of the people here have been in the shit and seen the whatever.
taekwondo, Is just a word. I was, and still am a 3rd degree brown belt in taekwondo. And I would say to that, big deal. What the picture shows is the basic stance and at least 1/2 are not doing it incorrectly. Just about any Army infantry guy could go threw that stance and finish the person with a good old American left to the choops.
But then the VC were not Americans.
Oct 19 67 the 4th and 173rd were in a REAL fight by Kontum. But then the marines have their own tail to tell.

Ron