REMFs

submitted by: Alva Leon Matheson

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It seemed like the closer you got to Saigon, the more of them there were. While I was at Quan Loi supporting the 3rd Brigade of the 1st Air Cavalry Division, we had a running battle with the 19th TASS.
The word came to us that the 19th TASS Commander wanted to pull us back to Bien Hoa as we were going through too many tires on the OV- 10s. The helicopter fuel-pit was on one side of the runway and the ammu- nition supply point was on the other side. The grunts used the runway between these points to kick out any brass that was on the floor of the crew compartment, hence the tire problem. When I informed our Army Commander, “Ranger Bob” Kingston, he told me the 19th TASS could head straight south and made inferences that he would personally tattoo a 1st Cav patch on the 19th TASS Commander’s ass if he ever showed up at his Fire Base. To make a long story short, we stayed there with the exception of a couple of weeks when they had to repair the runway.
When the 19th TASS Commander was about to rotate home the call went out to all the TACPs to send at least one representative to his going away party. Of course we gladly complied. However there was an unfor- tunate occurrence during the party. Seems a CS grenade went off right outside by the air conditioner resulting in early party termination, evacu- ation of the BOQ, and the placing all of Bien Hoa on alert. It may have been an accident or someone possibly taking revenge on the REMFs. Who knows?