Unlikely Warriors - Army Security Agency In Vietnam

[ChuckInMass]

Got this email today, from former Army Security Agency (ASA) colleague during the time we did not officially "exist" in Vietnam. He and another ASA guy have written a new book

Unlikely Warriors - Army Security Agency in Vietnam.

I could never talk about this for a long time ($10,000 and 10 years). We were not heroes, in fact, we were Geeks and nerds who drank a lot, had no respect for officers, and totally unmanageable. But we got the effing job done.

I ordered it today from Amazon - the "Teaser" for the book is so totally true. I was one of those in this.
I am proud of what I did, 72 yesterday (May 21) and still have not jumped out of a perfectly good airplane.
My Bucket list for next year - is to do a jump next year on my 73rd (I will cry and piss my pants, probably) but smile at the end.
Here is the excerpt - really spook stuff, not like some analysts sitting Germany or Fort Meade.
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Unlikely Warriors
By Lonnie M. Long and Gary B. Blackburn
In early May 1961, a U.S. military aircraft taxied toward a well-guarded terminal building. The plane slowed to a halt; steps were maneuvered up to its side, and the door was pulled open. The tropical night air was heavy and dank, and the moon shone dimly through high thin clouds. On board the aircraft were ninety-two members of a specially selected team. The men were dressed in indistinguishable dark suits with white shirts and dark ties, and each man carried a new red U.S. diplomatic passport inside his breast pocket. The men held copies of their orders and records in identical brown Manila envelopes, and each man’s medical records were stamped “If injured or killed in combat, report as training accident in the Philippines.”
In such clandestine fashion, the first fully operational U.S. military unit arrived at Tan Son Nhut Air Base in South Vietnam. The unit was so highly classified even its name was top-secret. It was given a codename, a cover identity to hide the true nature of its mission. The unit’s operation was housed in a heavily-guarded compound near Saigon, and within two days of its arrival, Phase I was implemented. Its operatives were intercepting Viet Cong manual Morse communications, analyzing it for the intelligence it contained and passing the information to the U.S. Military Assistance Advisory Group-Vietnam. The Army Security Agency was on duty.

 

[Biggy]

Looking forward to picking up a copy. Thank you for your service, Chuck.

 

[Fixxah]

Thank you and happy birthday.

-Trolling via S3.-

 

[Mike-Mike]

I Might get that, my dad was an ASA guy but never talks about it. He once showed me a picture of him in "stars and stripes" but didn't let me read it.

 

[Stee]

I will definitely get this book.. My father served and passed away just after retiring- would give me an idea of the life he led that he never talked about

 

[Len-2A Training]

Happy B'day Chuck!

Thanks for your service.

Very interesting . . . I know that at least one of the members of Braintree R&P was "where the US wasn't" before any official timeframe when we acknowledged that we were in VN.

 

[mark056]

ASA was a great outfit and the first official casualty of the Viet Nam War, SP4 James O. Davis was a member of the ASA. What brought about the demise of ASA was its general contempt of the rest of the Army, the very fact that it was full of geeks and nerds who were totally contemptuous of officers and authority in general. Because the Army Security Agency worked directly for the NSA, theater commanders had virtually no authority over this intelligence asset. Everything was stove-piped in that it went back to Ft Mead and then back to the field. Since tactical intelligence is a perishable commodity, often times by the time a combat commander received the intelligence he needed, it was history. Strategic intelligence was a totally different matter. Some of the finest contributions to our knowledge of the Soviet Military Forces and the Warsaw Pact were made by the ASA. Same could be said for operations in the Far East. Having dealt with a lot of ex-ASA personnel, I can only say that many were outstanding technicians but lousy soldiers who simply couldn't accept the reality that they now had to repair tents, pull motor stables and qualify on the range just like every other soldier in the United States Army. It came as a shock to some of the troubled young geniuses who were stellar Serbo-Croatian linguists but were afraid to get their hands dirty.

The problem, of course was the Army screwed up royally when they got rid of the ASA and created the Combat Electronic Warfare Intelligence Battalions later known as Military Intelligence Battalions at the Division level. These were unwieldy and organizations that simply had too much overhead with regard to maintenance and equipment that simply was cumbersome to transport and not user friendly.

I have very mixed emotions about the ASA. I know Pilgrim, one of the Mods was an ASA member, and Mrs Wildweasel another was a FS Berlin as an ASA Supply person (yes ASA had its own support personnel complete with security clearances). ASA had a terrific sense of esprit de corps, the smartest soldiers in the Army, but probably the most arrogant. It was an Army within an Army and it was that, I think more than anything that brought about its demise. Piss off enough generals, and payback can be a bitch, plain and simple.

For years, optimists among the "lighting fast chicken pluckers" would say: "ASA is coming back, you'll see"...only in your dreams...you people had one of the best deals going in the Army, but IMO you blew it yourselves by your own corporate culture. Oh, you were good, very good, but you allowed yourself to be a victim of your own success.

 

[ChuckInMass]

Mark - great post - 056 here, as well! Jim Davis, was one of my instructors at Devins.

 

[jake]

My bro-in-law was one of your group...Very smart , but like u said, did not like those appointed above him....Spent his time in Taipei