FAST & FURIOUS - ASA STYLE: Training Spooks for Vietnam During the summer of 1965, the Army Security Agency struggled to meet demand for its talented “spooks.” The war was escalating and expanding at an incredible pace. At the same time, ASA was establishing, manning, equipping, and training new units as quickly as possible and deploying them to the war zone. Some detachments were formed from existing division support companies so they could be deployed with the first combat units sent to Vietnam. The first complete ASA direct support unit to be deployed was the 10th Radio Research Unit, supporting the 1st Cavalry Division which arrived in September 1965. The 10th RRU (redesignated as the 371st RRC in October 1966) was assigned to the 1st Cav at Ft. Benning, Georgia, and was reorganized as an air mobile unit, like its division. The second DSU to arrive in Vietnam was the 11th RRU (redesignated the 337th RRC in September 1966), which deployed from Ft. Campbell, Kentucky, to join the 1st Infantry Division. It was later augmented with an ASA detachment that had deployed earlier with a brigade of the 1st ID. As each of the units arrived, they were assigned to the 3rd RRU and also attached to the tactical U.S. Army unit they were supporting. The same procedure was followed with most of the RRUs that were deployed, and at its peak, more than twenty of ASAs top-secret radio research companies were providing direct support to U.S. tactical units all over South Vietnam. Based on Chapter 8, Unlikely Warriors: The Army Security Agencys Secret War in Vietnam 1961-1973 by Lonnie M. Long and Gary B. Blackburn Copyright © 2013 Lonnie M. Long and Gary B. Blackburn
Posted on: Sun, 07 Sep 2014 17:06:28 +0000
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