received a call on my FM radio from Lieutenant Colonel Hoyt, who, I could tell, was in a helicopter, asking me to meet him at a road intersection about ten miles away from our base camp.
I jumped into my leased pickup truck and headed for the intersection, thinking as I went that it was unusual for him to fly this far (more than a hundred miles). Whatever the reason, it must be important.
I arrived at the intersection before he did, and marked a landing zone in a small clearing beside the intersection with the orange panels that we always carried.
When he landed ten minutes later, he came running up to me (the helicopter did not shut down). 'How long will it take you to get the company back to Fort Bragg?' he asked — the first words out of his mouth.
'It'll take a while,' I answered, 'because they are spread out all over these mountains in various operating areas, and we don't have enough transportation to move the entire company in one lift. I guess with the vehicles that we have, and with what they can come up with through their local civilian contacts, we could all close Fort Bragg sometime during the night.'
'Good,' he said. 'Go back and get them organized and moving.'
Then he explained: 'The training centers have overflowed, and just this morning we received the mission to conduct basic entry-level training for approximately five hundred new infantry draftees that will arrive at Bragg within three to four days.
'Group is working on where to house them,' he went on, 'and what parts of the training might be done more efficiently by committee' — weapons training and the like—'and this should be pretty well finalized by the time I get back.
'You have more training experience of this nature than anyone else in the Group,' he continued, 'and the Group Commander' — by then Colonel Leroy Stanley—'and I want you to lead a group of selected cadre to Fort Jackson, departing at six in the morning, to observe how they conduct Basic Combat Training' — in this case he meant the first eight weeks—'and bring back all the lesson plans you can gather up.'
'No problem, sir,' I answered. 'I'll get the company moving right away. As for the basic training part, I've got this cold, from beginning to end, and can teach all the subjects blindfolded. But we'll have to give our cadre some preliminary training to get started, and I can do that in a couple of days, and continuing as we progress through the training cycle.
'What you can do, sir, to facilitate organizing for training,' I told him, 'is to go back and begin to pick and structure the cadre for a training battalion that will consist of three companies.' And then I laid out how the structure ought to work: 'These should be commanded by captains, with a sergeant major or master sergeant as first sergcant; four platoons per company should be commanded by a lieutenant, with a master sergeant or sergeant first class as platoon sergeant; and each platoon should consist of four squads, each led by a staff sergeant or sergeant.' I also told him that it would be very beneficial if I could take to Fort Jackson with me our three company commanders and one representative (officer or NCO) from each platoon (a total of fifteen), to observe firsthand how it is done.
'Okay,' Hoyt said. 'You'll be commanding one of the companies. And while you're putting your guys together out here, I'll go back and ensure that the right people are ready for the trip to Fort Jackson.'
On my way back to our base camp, I was thinking, 'Man, what an opportunity to turn out the best-trained and — motivated battalion ever. With all of these outstanding NCOs, there's no limit to what we can do for these new men.'
At the same time, I couldn't help but contrast the performance of our Special Forces guys in a training situation with what I'd had to handle in my last training company at Fort Jackson: It was me and an outstanding first sergeant (Ned Lyle, to my knowledge the only man in the Army authorized to wear the bayonet as a decoration), a Specialist 4 company clerk (who was pending charges for hoarding mail and possessing pornographic materials), four NCOs (all possessing medical profiles that precluded their making the morning twenty-minute run; instead I kept them posted at strategic locations where they could police up the stragglers while I ran the company), a mess sergeant who was addicted to paregorie, and a supply scrgcant I didn't trust. This was all that I had to work with, and I thought we did a good job — considering.
During one period at Jackson, I had two companies of more than two hundred trainees each in cycle at the same time: One company was in its seventh week of training, and the other was just beginning its first week. We managed the training so that one NCO stayed with cach company at all times. The two other NCOs and I would train one company from 4:00 A.M. to noon, and the other from 1:00 to 9:00 P.M.
In other words, considering the talent and caring leadership we were about to bring to bear on this mission, it would be a piece of cake and a very rewarding experience for us and the new recruits.
After Lieutenant Colonel I Ioyt left, I called base camp and instructed my radio operator to have all detachment commanders standing by for a conference call when I arrived.
During the conference call, I advised the commanders of the new mission, then instructed them to move their units by 'infiltration,' so as to close on Fort Bragg by midnight. 'Infiltration' means authority to move by individual vehicle over multiple routes, rather than by convoy over a single route. I didn't tell them how to do it, because I knew they would figure out the 'how.'
This was about 3:00 P.M.; they had nine hours to get back.
The next morning at 5:00, I met Lieutenant Colonel Hoyt at the company headquarters. He had followed through on his part. Not only had the names of personnel been slated against the battalion structure I had recommended, but the group selected for the visit to Fort Jackson was standing by and ready to go.
Before we left, I asked him for one other thing: 'In order to bring these new troops on right, we need to have the barracks ready in advance, including having the beds made. The sooner we can get this done, the more time we'll have available for training the trainers before the new troops arrive.' I knew that some of the older NCOs would probably bitch about making the beds, but I also knew that before the training cycle was over, they would see it was a wise move. This would be reflected in the attitude and motivation of the new troops, who'd have realised they were fortunate to be in the hands of caring professionals.
The day at Fort Jackson proved very worthwhile. We observed the training in action, talked with the cadre, and gathered up all the lesson plans to bring back with us.
After our return to Bragg, we spent the next three days getting organized and putting our common training areas in order. Then we went through a two-day train-the-trainer program, which took us through the first couple of weeks of the training cycle.
And then at 4:00 P.M. on the fourth day after notification, we received about five hundred new inductees straight from civilian life.
The next eight weeks proved a memorable and rewarding experience both for our cadre and the trainees. The cadre demonstrated incredible professionalism and caring, and the training battalion responded with incredible receptivity, motivation, and esprit.
Even though the trainees eventually ended up in Vietnam as individual replacements, many chose to make the Army a career, and some found their way back to Special Forces as outstanding NCOs. Others — the better- educated ones — ended up as commissioned officers.
Vietnam was also demanding ever more from Special Forces. Especially important at that time were trained B-Detachments, and this became our priority mission. For my final seven months in the 3rd Croup, we organized, trained, and deployed three B-Detachments to Southeast Asia (to Thailand and Vietnam).
Since increased emphasis was now being focused on counterinsurgency and advisory activities in Vietnam — organizing, training, equipping, and employing Montagnard tribesmen for thwarting the infiltration of North Vietnamese Army (NVA) units; MIKE force reaction units; and advisory activities for South Vietnamese Army units — the main thrust of the tactical training was focused on tactical operations at battalion and lower levels, including the employment and integration of fire support, aerial as well as artillery.
I was in fact scheduled to deploy with each of the three units we sent over. But then, about a month prior to their deployment, I was told that I had not been cleared to go by the office of Officer Personnel Operations (OPO). The reason, I finally learned from OPO, was that I had been selected to attend the Command and General Staff College, and then I'd go to Vietnam (though this was not specifically stated, 1 understood that I most likely would not be assigned to a Special Forces unit there).
I left A Company, 3rd SFG, in late May 1966.
