Soi

[DMZ-LT]

My one finger is going to bleed after all this typing , but I got to ask. As a plt leader in Germany , prior to RVN , I had a Signal Operating Instructions ( I think ) book that had lots of freq's and and was a very secret book . As a plt leader in RVN I had no SOI. My track had two radios one at plt freq. , that could go off on a prick 77 and talk to me and another radio that I talked to Troop and Squadron on . I also could talk to Arty but don't remember how I got their Freq. How about it you radio guys , did you have an SOI ?

[catman]

As a section sgt, I was issued an SOI in the Desert, but since no vehicles and/or personnel fell into enemy hands during the war, we never switched freqs or had to do the challenge and authenticate procedure, damn glad too as I was never very good at that stuff!

Trav

[Chas H]

As an Arty guy, I (we) had an SOI. It was locked in my safe unless we needed to encrypt or decode a message. Out of the safe it always hung around someones neck on a chain.
We lost a PRC 25 to the enemy when the vehicle it was riding in hit a mine. The 2 occupants of the truck spent the night in the bush but were recovered, unharmed, the next morning. The enemy taunted us in broken english all night. The TAB with radio location was too far away to get fix on them so we couldn't send our very special reply.

[39mto39g]

As the LTs RTO I was responcible for getting different frequncies from BN before a mission. We would be working in an area that was covered by Mortors and most of the time by arty from some where. We never carried any book, course I only had a PRC 25 A through Z and 1 through 26. We would get several Frequencies from BN before we would leave and I would check each before we ventured out in the park.
Mortors Frequncey was useually BN, because, inless we made direct contact, we needed BN ok for Mortors,
Arty was a little different, we could get a smoke or marker pretty easy , but a fire mission needed some convincing. It useually depended on how frantic I sounded on the radio to the Arty radio operator.
Gunships were different in that they useually were on a frequency that was used by them and jets and most of the time I had no idea who I was talking to.
Resupply helichopters would come to our frequncy and Boxcars would sometimes come to our frequency and sometimes I would go to theres.
I just had to Know the frquencies , and in a pinch, if all else fails, all you had to do was spin the dials and you would get someone talking somewhere and a relay could be set up.
Mortors were the first ones I called because they were part of us, Arty, on the other hand , could be from most anywhere, depending on what part of the grid your walking in.
I had to know where we were and who to talk to almost all the time, The LT didn't find any humer in me not knowing, No Book.

Ron

[exlrrp]

We had em in the 1sr/327 PIR sometimes but rarely used em. They'd get out of date or you'd have the wrong one.We just had our own codewords for stuff.
We had, supposedly, one per platoon but they were a real hassle to use---I was one of the few who could use one (extra training in Panama) Mostly people said stuff out in the clear-The enemy KNEW where we were, probably better than we did.
In the lrrps, I don't remember using them at all--if you were trying to be silent, you'd just break squelch for answer on those long dark nights with eerie sounds piercing your ears or when the NVA was poking through the grass looking for you. Sometimes we'd be so far out they'd have to put a team midway to relay the messages. Sometimes they'd just send an aircraft and you'd break squelch when they went by. Some lonesome times, those, out in the middle of Indian Country with only 4 other guys. I'd want to be on that aircraft SO bad. I'd snuggle up with my rifle and grenades and wished the war was over, no matter who won.