124th Signal Battalion
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SP/4 Gary W Reynolds
124th Signal Battalion
4th Infantry Division
I found the posting on your site made by SGT Arlet, in which he talks about Camp Enari being named for a soldier killed in December 1966, so knowing how the military works, the Camp was named after him not until early ‘67 . The significance of this?
To start with, for years before the internet, I would get into arguments with guys trying to tell me that I was never in a camp outside of Dragon Mountain, when I knew damn well I was. Now, I know why.
I arrived with the 124th Signal Battalion in early October 1966, and our Company, (D Company I think), were airlifted to Chu Lai to become part of the Americal Division, at the end of February or early March. We never referred to the camp as Enari, just the 'Camp' outside of Dragon Mountain.
Anyway, we arrived at the camp in the middle of the Monsoon season. The first 20 days it rained nonstop. Yeah, I know, so what?!! Well, we were living in squad tents, hanging our wet fatigues on field wires that we strung from one end to the other. We had 6 sets of fatigues and after 5 days, we put on the 1st set again, but they were still wet! Welcome to Nam!!
We spent the 1st month straightening out all the field wire and spiral 4 that somebody had hastily laid. Instead of laying from the com-centers out, they had done the reverse, resulting in stacks and stacks of spiral 4 reels (Spiral 4 is basically a cable with 4 strands of heavy duty field wire inside) and jumbled up bundles of field wire. What a mess! They had done the same at EVERY com-center trailer. Months after that, we put up the 1st telephone poles. The SGT didn't want to assign anyone to climb a pole; didn't want the responsibility, if a sniper did manage to get close enough to take a shot. Only minimal concertina wire had been laid by the 4th infantry at that time, because most of their units had gone out in the field on missions. Anyway, some backwoods, brain dead, southerners did volunteer. Me? A born and raised New York-er, with healthy brain and healthy doses of skepticism knew better than to volunteer.
One night while on duty, the MP's reported that their field wire line to the hospital was out. After an hour or so, our squad was able to narrow down the break , to a ‘T' intersection. What next? One of the 4 of us in our squad had to climb the pole, at 2 AM and find the broken line out of about 30 lines Now how do you do that in the dark? With a flash light!! 'Really Sarge, you expect me to go up the pole for upwards of a half hour and be up there with a MF'n flashlight shining?!?!?!' 'Yup, now get your tired ass up the pole!!'
Well, My buddy Bernie got a piece of tin and used black electrical tape to attach it to the flashlight. It worked to cut down it's visibility to Charlie. If you ever spliced field wire, you know that after stripping both ends, you wrap them around each other and tie the lines into a knot so there will be minimal stress on the splice.
After I had found both ends of the broken line, I hooked my field phone to each end, one at a time, and rang down the hospital , then the MP headquarters and told each that I was 'actively' working on the break and would call them when it was fixed. I needed to splice in an additional 16' piece of wire, because I wasn't able to directly splice together the original line. As I am holding the bare wire in my fingers, 25' up the pole, hooded flashlight in my mouth and splicing the line on the MP side, some SOB rings down on the frigging line!!!! If you have never had that happen to you before, go ahead and give it a try. It's like sticking your fingers in a lamps socket and turning it on. Pliers, tape and flashlight all fell to the ground. My buddies knew what had happened and they were laughing their asses off. Sarge just said to suck it up and get on with it.
First thing I did after my buddies got my equipment back up to me, was to call MP HQ and give them a few choice words. The guy at the other end said that he was LT something or other and wanted to know my name and rank. I told him I was SGT Mother F___'r and if he rang down this line again before I called back saying it was fixed, it would NEVER be fixed. My buddies couldn't stop laughing even the Sarge had a hard time keeping a straight face.
After 4 months or so, we were finally got out of the tents. The Captain had arranged for concrete to be delivered and poured. Then we strapped 2 twelve foot 2x4's together to smooth out and settle the foundation for our hut. You should have seen 20 guys trying to drag those cement covered 2x4's back an forth to level and smooth out the cement pad. You could only do it for 2, 3 minutes and then your arms gave out, then other guys jumped in. Finally we did it and a week later Army engineers built our huts.
During our time there, we always had Charlie at our door messing with us.One night on guard duty, someone reported a light moving about 400 yards out. After a couple of minutes a shot rang out, quickly followed by another and then within 10 seconds all hell broke loose from our side, not the enemies. The Lieutenant on duty yelled into the field phones, to all the posts in his area, to ceasefire and 'Who fired the first shot?'. Yeah, good luck with that.
When daylight arrived, we went through the concertina wire looking for any place that Charlie had messed with. After we got outside the wire about 300 yards, a Vietnamese civilian came running up screaming at us. Our South Vietnamese interpreter told the Lieutenant that he was the local farmer and that he wanted to be reimbursed. Upon further discussion, it was established that Charlie had tied a lantern to the farmer's water buffalo and we had blown the crap out of it. We laughed our asses off, as the LT tried to explain it wasn't his problem.
During our time there, 10/66 to 3/67, we went on multiple patrols to protect our signal stuff on top of Dragon Mountain. At this time, only minimal foliage had been taken down. We also did the same for our water pump house located about 2 miles outside the camp at the edge of a lake.
One night, 14 of us were assigned as a stationary patrol to protect the pump house; 10 on the ridge above and 2 of us on each side of the pump house. We had to guard it not only from Charlie but from the locals who would strip it in a heart beat if they had the chance. My buddy and I were on one side of the pump house doing 2 hours on and 2 hours off. I was sleeping after just doing my 2 hours when he woke me. I said "That was a fast 2 hours". He said he had just relieved me about 15 minutes before, but that they got word that Charlie had just attacked Pleiku airport with an estimated 400 enemy and were on the run and headed, in our direction. 14 against 400. Our Sgt had already been advised that we could expect zero reinforcements or any other help. With the help of tracer rounds being fired down from two Jolly Green Giants and those fired up by Charlie, we were able to track to the direction of the fight. Towards us! Now, Pleiku airport is only about 5 to 6 miles from us. As the fighting kept coming closer, we said our prayers. Then we noticed that, with lake directly between us, Charlie was splitting to either side and our Jolly Green Giants were doing the same. After a while,we also noticed that the firing began to diminish; both upwards and down until daybreak, those three hours were the longest of my life.
Anyway, my time in Pleiku wasn't all crap. In December 1966, we got to see Bob Hope put on a show. It was great and we needed that release from the thoughts of war.
Posted 19 AUG 2022
You can make contact via email to the Swamp_fox address at the bottom of this page.
SGT Barton Arlet
124th Signal Battalion
4th Infantry Division, Viet Nam
April of 69 through to April 1970.
Posted 23 AUG 2020
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Frank Plichta
Company A, 124th Signal Battalion
LTC, USA, Retired
I saw your post concerning the unidentified photos of the 124th Signal Bn.
I was the Company Commander of Company A, 124th Signal Bn at Camp Enari, in Vietnam from July 1, 1967 until January 1, 1968. I then moved to the Battalion S-4 position until late May 1968, when I extended my tour in Vietnam and transferred to the 43rd Signal Battalion in Pleiku City.
Before coming to Vietnam I was the Company Commander of Company A, 123rd Signal Bn in the 3rd Infantry Division in Wurzburg, Germany. It was easy for me to adapt to the mission in Vietnam since I was going from one unit in Germany to a sister unit in Vietnam. Additionally, my wife, Sharon, was an Army nurse in Germany when we married and after I left for Vietnam, she volunteered and followed me 60 days later. My extension was so that we could come home together. Sharon and I were able to have a joint R&R in Bangkok, Thailand for our 1st wedding anniversary. We were one of the first married couples there at the time.
After spending nearly 4+ years in tactical communications and expecting to attend the Signal Officer’s Advanced Course at Ft. Monmouth, New Jersey after my tour in Vietnam, I decided that I needed to know something about the STRATCOM side of the Army Communications.
Posted 5 MAY 2020
You can make contact via email to the Swamp_fox address at the bottom of this page.
Darin Annear
Headquarters and Headquarters Battalion of the 4th Infantry Division.
RE: 124th Signal Battalion
Sir,
I am currently assigned to the Headquarters and Headquarters
Battalion of the 4th Infantry Division. The 4th Infantry Division underwent a
major reorganization and became a “modular” division, and as a result, the 124th
was inactivated on 16 December 2004 and remains inactive to this day.
I have over 5000 photos of the units history ranging back way before
Vietnam. I would love to get in touch with anyone who can assist in
identifying these photos. I'm arranging photographs from all timelines
and preserving them for future generations.
You can find me on
Facebook at Darin Annear.
Thank you
If you would like to help Darin with his efforts to identify and preserve this valuable historical archive, email me at the Swamp_Fox address at the bottom of the page.
Posted 05 September 2015
Thomas Charles Alsop
A Company, 124th Signal Battalion
Mr. Steedly,
Greetings and thank you for your service to our country.
I am currently trying to find information out about my girlfriend's father,
Thomas Charles Alsop. He served in Vietnam in Company A, 124th Signal Battalion,
4th Infantry Div.
He is terminally ill and has been given days to live. He is currently at home
under Hospice care but he is getting worse everyday. My girlfriend has never had
a relationship with her father since she never found out about him until she was
16 years old.
Being a military veteran, I know the importance of knowing her father's military
history. The only information that he has told me is that he used to drive a
vehicle up and down a mountain to a listening station and that he also served as
a bartender. :-)
If you have any information or can point me in the right direction, I would
greatly appreciate it. I would also like information on how I can get him a flag
for his funeral service.
Regards,
Thomas Cross
CTT3 USN 1985-89
If you knew Thomas and would like to contact his daughter, email me at the Swamp_Fox address at the bottom of the page.
For general information, you may get a flag free of charge for any deceased
veteran, who served honorably in the US Military, by filling out a form.
Your funeral director will assist you. The flag is available at any
regional VA office or US Post Office. This site goes into more detail
http://www.cem.va.gov/bbene/bflags.asp
Posted 29
December 2010
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