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Army Security Agency
I was stationed on Davis Station on Tan Son Nhut Airbase. We were all in the Army Security Agency which was part of the NSA, and had Top Secret Security Clearances. I was a teletype technician. I've attached a picture of myself at Davis Station.
While we were never in combat we did have the occasional rocket or mortar land on Tan Son Nhut Airbase. The base, however, came under attack during the previous year at the 1968 Tet Offensive.
We had our flack jacket, helmet, and M-14 Rifle. What we didn't have was bullets for our rifles, which was very disconcerting. You can see in the picture, me, ready for combat, with an ineffective rifle without a magazine.
I can understand their concern that even though we all went through basic training and spent many hours on the rifle range, we really couldn't be trusted with a loaded weapon, even in Vietnam. Granted there was much alcohol consumption on our base I still think we should be allowed some form of self defense.
When they had an alert at night we were supposed to put on our flack jacket and helmet, grab our rifle and head outside to the nearest bunker. What usually happened is we came outside in our underwear with an open flack jacket to make room for our camera and stand around waiting to take pictures.
In the 1969 Tet we all had to man our bunkers, two per bunker, in case of another invasion. Finally we had a 50 cal machine gun with boxes of linked ammo. Fortunately and a bit unfortunately there was no invasion and we never got to use the 50 cal. We just took turns sleeping in the bunker.
I guess I never really had any war stories. All I remember from Vietnam was how hot it was, how loud the jets were on the runway close to our barracks, and how much fun we had in downtown Saigon.
On a side note, a friend of mine was robbed at gunpoint in Saigon by ARVNs with M-16s. This is one of the reasons the morale was so low among both Americans and Vietnamese.
Biographical Details
Submitted From: Minneapolis, MN
Primary Location During Vietnam: Saigon, Vietnam 
Story Subject: Military Service
Military Branch: U.S. Army
Dates of Service: 1968 - 1972
Veteran Organization: None
Unit: 509th Radio Research
Specialty: 31J20
Story Themes: 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 509th Radio Research, Army, Davis Air Base, First Impressions, Mark Perlick, Minneapolis, Read, Saigon, Tan Son Nhut Airbase, Terrain
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