Origins of Trang Sup (Talking to Earl Jones) Earl, the French originally built Trang Sup as a hospital and R&R center. It was located in the Parrot's Beak area (Chopper pilots) or Iron Triangle (Grunts) about 65 miles NW of Saigon on the main highway going into Cambodia. The Japanese took it over during WW2 with the help of the rotten-ass Vichy French cowards, and then after WW2, the French took over again. Most of the Legionnaires were from N. Africa and some middle European country. The only big battle the Legion really lost was Dien Bien Phu. After the French left, the Americans took over; after ‘75, the ARVN took over. The village near the compound was between a rock and a hard place, as most of those villages were. The SF used Trang Sup to train CIDG troops, so it was a pretty good-sized place for an A Team to have. The AF needed a place to put their radar system and that's how Woody and I ended up there. I was assigned to the 315th Air Division and they, in the meantime, had gone to Japan. The personnel office thought it would be neat to send me to Trang Sup, as they just had a WIA leaving on a Medevac. Same way I ended up in MACV a couple of years before. Wrong place, right time. The 315th carried me AWOL for almost 3 months and I got no pay. Then, the Major started screaming at personnel in Saigon and they got it right. By that time, we knew we were leaving. I ended up on Monkey Mountain for the rest of my tour. Sometimes we had the extra CIDG and sometimes we just had ourselves to depend on. During TET we called for fire support and Tay Ninh did not respond. They were overwhelmed with fire missions and did not have time for us. We had a 4.2, 4 ea. 81's, and 4 ea. 60's plus a 106 reckless rifle so we could put a little up ourselves. I could handle any of them and so could most of the permanent AF and SF people there. Damn, my po' ole fingers are tired from all dis heer bull shit. Note: Ray was stationed at Trang Sup during the Air Force part of his military career.
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