I might be of some help as I was the first member of D Troop in RVN.

 

Jack Shields

Crusader 67


The advanced party of the 9th Division departed Forbes AFB, Kansas on  the last of November/first of December.

 The Exact date I can't remember.

 Personnel from 3/5 was the Sqdn Commander, Sidney S. Haszard (obvious nickname Hap), the Sgt Major and representatives of the four Troops and HQ.
 I was the representative from D Troop.
 My name is Jack Shields. I was a brand new Captain and the only representative from D Troop.
Having a whole two months since graduating flight school, I was highly inexperienced and it showed.

 We ended up in Bearcat with a small area consisting of several concrete slabs the size of GP mediums.
We went about scrounging and a wonderful bunch of crusty senior NCOs saw to it we got pretty well equipped.
Three of them took off for the Saigon docks in a jeep.
They returned with a deuce and a half, a 15kw generator, lots of building material and the jeep on a tow bar.
I won't go into how all this happened, but it did. 

Division engineers were already in place building roads and expanding Camp Bearcat
They acquired a B model Huey with so many mismatched color schemes it had to have been pieced together.
I started flying fairly regularly with them and got to know the area from Long Binh to Vung Tao and East to Blackhorse pretty well.

 I can't remember for sure the exact sequence of events so bear with me. 

 One task was to build an airfield for D Troop. 
With my trusty Field Manual and remembering a D model had a 48' rotor span, I started out.
 Any way what resulted was a fairly tight parking area and a very restricted POL point.
When I asked for more space I was firmly told to do the best I could with what they gave me.
Picture this, a scrounged M-48 tank pulling a large section of Bailey Bridge which was used to initially clear the area.
It was outside the existing berm and it wasn't unusual to detonate mines and grenades in the process.
The finished product was christened the Round Table.

 Some how during this time Hap acquired an H-23G and when the three ground troops arrived and were put to work, he had me fly C&C.  LTC Haszard was in North Africa with Patton in WWII and it was amazing to watch him maneuver those three troops from a 1:50 map. I learned a lot about Hap, people and tactics. 
This is typical of him.
A platoon leader called Hap to request artillary support as they had come in contact.
One round from an SKS.
Hap asked what the Hell he had the M-16 for and to return fire. 

I spent two weeks flying with the 1/4th Cav in the Big Red One during Junction City/Manhatten the first few days of March 67.  Flying left seat in a B model gunship we were supporting an ARVN unit in contact.
Just as the AC punched off a pair of rockets ground fire hit the missle on the left.
It blew the warhead apart and the tail fin was still stuck in the launcher.
It felt like my seat was hit with an overgrown baseball bat and when
I looked in my lap the fuze and part of the rocket warhead was lying there. Honest truth!
The bulkhead between the pilot and crew doors was pretty much gone but we were able to make it back to Phu Loi.
I was very concerned that the warhead was sitting in my lap
 so I tossed it out but now I wish I had kept it just to prove it happened.  "First mortality check"

D Troop personnel arrived in country after the ground troops were already out on patrol. 
The first order of business was to build our WABTOCS.
GP mediums over a wooden frame. 
Shortly after that the choppers arrived and we spent our time getting ready to go to war. 
We went through the typical learning curve.
One brigade was in Tan An and we had a fire team there for firebase security.
It took a while for things to fall into place, but they did.

I was one of several personnel moved to other units.
It was called infusion just so DEROS could be spread out.

 Hope this helps fill some gaps. 
Be glad to answer any questions to the extent the fading memory remembers

Jack Shields

Crusader 67


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