Paul, whoever the individual was, that was telling you about
the U.S. Air Force Security Police in Vietnam did not know
much about them. What about your experiences with Security
Police? Know much about the Security Police?

There were ten, USAF Bases in Vietnam. (None was ever
taken.)

Each base utilized Security Police as:

1. Base Police
2. Entry and Exit controllers at various gates.
3. Pass and ID Section
4. Customs Section
5. Sentry Dog Handlers
6. Vet Techs
7. Military Police Investigations (Controlling Black Market and
all other Minor Crimes)
8. Central Security Control
9. Joint Defense Operations Center
10. Training Section
11. Tower Guards
12. Perimeter bunker guards
13. Administration
14. On Base Patrols
15. Reserve Security Alert Teams
16. Quick Reaction Teams
17. Desk Sergeants
18. Radio, Telephone Operator
19. M-60 Machine gunners
20. M-50 Machine gunners, quad-50's
21. Town Patrol
22. Embassy Duties in Saigon
23. Nung Guard, supervisors
24. Heavy Weapons Section, V-100's
25. MACV guards

There are others but will not list them here.

To date, I have never had a Vietnam Veteran from any of
the services who has anything negative to say, to me about the
Security Police as a whole. If they were lucky enough to
be on a USAF base and sleep in a real bed, they knew that they
would be safe that night. The only exceptions from being safe,
would be from in-coming rockets and mortar attacks. Possibly
some kind of stand-off weapons attack also.

At Tan Son Nhut Air Base, during TET 1968, Security Police were
instrumental in initially stopping a large human wave of VC and NVA.
The NVA were pilots who were going to snatch a jet or helicopter to
use that to attack Tan Son Nhut and then Saigon. They also utilized
NVA personnel who could operate SVN tanks. They were also going to
utilize the tanks, to attack us. This human wave, consisted of three waves.

Yes, the US Army 120th Attack Helicopter Co, was heavily involved with the
Security Police during the TET 68 attack. Then having several helicopters
being shot down during the heat of the battle. (The 120th became OPCON
to the 377th Security Police Commander.)

Yes the 3/4 Cav of the 25th Inf Div had to fight their way from Chu Chi
to Saigon, to help defend the base and the city. Then having several tanks
and numerous Army personnel killed during the heat of the battle. (The 3/4
Cav also becoming OPCON to the 377th Security Police Commander.)

Yes, it was the US Air Force jets, from Tan Son Nhut, bombing the enemy
who was on our perimeter and inside the perimeter where they had advanced
approximately half a mile before being completely stopped. These jets also
had to bomb one of the French Bunkers, which was reinforced concrete and
steel, that contained at the beginning of the shift, five Security
Policemen.

The enemy had over-run that bunker. Many hours later when that bunker
was re-taken, four Security Policemen were dead and one SP was severly
wounded. Having spent many hours with the enemy inside the bunker with
him. With the friendlies shooting and bombing the bunker. (All were
thought
to be dead inside.)

Then there was your remark, in your message:

> ... they said there were three rings of
> protection around them, the inner ring was SP's (USAF - which everyone
> there knew was a joke, but you had to have them somewhere),
>
> Paul

That is why, many people will not tell you of a war story. You were not
there and yet you trivalize the Security Police.

From the outside you can not understand it, and from the inside I can
not tell you.

Charles Penley



"Atlanta Ramfan" wrote in message
news:e3PEb.5720$wL6.289@newsread1.news.atl.earthli nk.net...
> > >Hey guys, just found the newsgroup after having waded about in
> > >the WWII newsgroup.
> > >
> > >I'm not a complete novice about the war, I volunteered and did
> > >my 4 years in the USAF starting in 1976, got to work on the
> > >first batch of F-15's to come out of St. Louis.
> > >
> > >My question to REAL Vietnam vets (not to someone wanting
> > >to give their anti-war views) is why it was so hard to get someone
> > >after they got back from war to tell me what they had been through,
> > >particularly when I was in high school 1972-5 and particularly before
> > >that, Junior HS 1970-2.
> >
> > I don't think many of us were too into analysing what had happened for
> > one, and for the other, nobody would have understood it so why bother.
> > I think most of us here let a couple of decades go by before we even
> > started evaluating what had actually transpired.
> >
> > >Now there's a plethora of films out there to watch, but it seems
> > >they all have some kind of spin to give, and there's few that just
> > >show a real story (maybe Full Metal Jacket, but even that seems
> > >overboard in places, particularly in basic - did any of you know
> > >of someone who went ballistic and killed their DI?)
> >
> > No way, boot camp was very, very controlled but I liked the Movie. It
> > had a message, the next time you watch it, see if you can find it. It
> > is that once they did get through boot camp, it was almost always an
> > an E-4 and under who had to make the life and death decisions in the
> > field. There were a lot of exceptions, but the reality is, no matter
> > what the rank, the age group was appropriate for the message.
>
> Thanks for your quick response.. when I was in, it was about a year
> after Vietnam had officially ended (April 1976) but the actual combat
> had been at least 3 1/2 to 4 years earlier, so the only guys that had
> seen anything were lifers, and even then they were stationed at places
> you would have dreamed of... they said there were three rings of
> protection around them, the inner ring was SP's (USAF - which everyone
> there knew was a joke, but you had to have them somewhere), the
> center ring was Army guys being given a "breather" assignment, and
> the outer ring would be Marines that actually did patrols from time to
> time.
>
> The guys that told us the more believable stories (you had to sift
> through the whiskey, beer, and BS) said they didn't really go through
> anything, but some of them were decorated with some pretty heavy
> s***, one had a silver star and another had a bronze star, but you
> had to know them for a couple of years and THEN get them drunk
> to ever find out what the story was.
>
> The kicker was, I think most of them saw more action (of sorts) with
> the Asian women they married once they got back stateside.. one of
> those decorated guys I spoke of got in an all out knife-fight with his
> Thai wife after it was disclosed she'd lost $50K gambling with the other
> Asian wifes on base. The day before it happened was the last time
> I saw him, he got transferred somewhere real quick, and I hated it
> because he was such a great guy, nothing ever seemed to bother him..
>
> another couple of guys we (enlistees that were never going to re-up)
> admired, had been in since the early 60's, had known each other for
> close to 15 years, one stole the other guys' Asian wife after all that
> time, and they had been inseparable bike ridin' buddies, riding every
> weekend they weren't on standby.
>
> It's not like we didn't have our own s*** happen while I was there..
> One night when one of our guys was testing the hydraulics on a bird
> that had been down 6 months and put back together, the line broke,
> he lost his brake pedals, the F-15 jumped the chocks and was going
> between 80-120 mph by the time it crossed the flightline and hit another
> bird, which had just been fueled. The whole flightline got out there with
> hand held fire extinguishers until the Firefighters (who had to come a
> couple miles from the end of the runway where they were stationed)
> got there to do their thing - if that plane would have gone up, we'd
> have lost 15 - 20 guys, but as it was, Davey (the guy doing the engine
> test) got away with a broken leg from jumping out of the cockpit.
>
> The only story I heard that I had any prior knowledge of (having
> heard about from news reports during the war) was when an armory
> bunker at DaNang got blown up. I remembered that it played for
> at least a week while I was in Junior High or something, and sounded
> like such a huge thing ("how could they get that close to us" or
> something like that). When one of those lifers I was telling you about
> had been there, and said that a Viet Cong had just gotten lucky with
> an RPG. He said they never had the range to threaten where the
> planes or runway were, and someone had left the door open to the
> bunker - or something like that.
>
> Anyway, that's about the extent of what "real" stories I know about
> Viet Nam, save some real interesting books by guys I really believe
> and obviously the documentaries and History Channel stuff.
>
> Paul
>
>