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This 1969 dated Med-Reg Rip-stop jungle fatigue belonged to Captain Carleton P. Vencill.
He enlisted in the US Army in July 1964 and retired on 1st August 1985, as a Colonel (I believe).
Carleton commanded Bravo Company, 4/503d Infantry, 173rd Airbone Bde in 1968.
He then served in MACV-SOG CCS in 1970/71.
In October 1972 when part of 1st SFG(A) he went to Thailand as an A Detachment commander in Project UNITY.
The Following is from the 173rd Abn in-country newspaper "Fire Base 173" VOL. 1, NO. 11 25 DEC 1968.
NVA Rather Quit Than Fight 173d
TUY HOA- An NVA unit recently decided to disobey written orders from its Regimental Commander rather than defend a nearly impregnable Battalion sized Base Camp and Training Area against a Company of the Brigade.
The orders exhorting the camp's defenders to stay and fight if the 173d entered the area were found among other documents in the camp by Bravo Company, 4/503d Infantry, who were on patrol several miles northwest of Tuy Hoa. According to the Company Commander Captain, Carleton P. Vencill of Yerington Nevada, Bravo Company had been moving up a stream when a 'Kit Carson' Scout, a former NVA Officer who rallied to Vietnamese government forces, spotted an NVA outpost on top of the steep stream bank.
Fire Exchanged
The point element exchanged fire with the remaining enemy in the camp and one Platoon moved on line to assault the positions. The Paratroopers encountered no enemy but found a recently constructed Company sized base camp. After a quick search they pushed forward another 300 meters where they discovered a Battalion sized base camp.
It was situated in four levels along a ridgeline and ran 600 meters in lenght from a jumble of huge boulders to the peak of the hill. There were 40 or 50 fortified positions dug into the base of the boulders and numerous caves scattered among them. Some of the 30 huts found were still under construction. Four of them were mess huts which contained fresh rice and other signs of recent use. "The base camp, approximately two years old, was in the process of being rebuilt," stated Captain Vencill. "I'd estimate there was at least a Company in the camp, but it could easily hold a Battalion."
The next day Platoon sized reach-outs further explored the base camp and the surrounding area. Outside the camp, the Platoon's pointman Pfc Bruce Welch of Roy Washington, found the training area which was 200 meters in length. It contained another mess hut, a classroom area, dummy wooden Chinese-Communist grenades and an infiltration course consisting of real and simulated barbed wire set up in single strand, double apron concertina and tanglefoot fashion with a bayonet dummy at the end. "The training area was only built about two or three days before we found it," said Psg Wilbur Ali of Cusseta Ga, "so the NVA couldn't have trained too much on the course if they did at all."
I would guess that this jungle fatigue dates from Vencill's time in Thailand in 1972/73.
He enlisted in the US Army in July 1964 and retired on 1st August 1985, as a Colonel (I believe).
Carleton commanded Bravo Company, 4/503d Infantry, 173rd Airbone Bde in 1968.
He then served in MACV-SOG CCS in 1970/71.
In October 1972 when part of 1st SFG(A) he went to Thailand as an A Detachment commander in Project UNITY.
The Following is from the 173rd Abn in-country newspaper "Fire Base 173" VOL. 1, NO. 11 25 DEC 1968.
NVA Rather Quit Than Fight 173d
TUY HOA- An NVA unit recently decided to disobey written orders from its Regimental Commander rather than defend a nearly impregnable Battalion sized Base Camp and Training Area against a Company of the Brigade.
The orders exhorting the camp's defenders to stay and fight if the 173d entered the area were found among other documents in the camp by Bravo Company, 4/503d Infantry, who were on patrol several miles northwest of Tuy Hoa. According to the Company Commander Captain, Carleton P. Vencill of Yerington Nevada, Bravo Company had been moving up a stream when a 'Kit Carson' Scout, a former NVA Officer who rallied to Vietnamese government forces, spotted an NVA outpost on top of the steep stream bank.
Fire Exchanged
The point element exchanged fire with the remaining enemy in the camp and one Platoon moved on line to assault the positions. The Paratroopers encountered no enemy but found a recently constructed Company sized base camp. After a quick search they pushed forward another 300 meters where they discovered a Battalion sized base camp.
It was situated in four levels along a ridgeline and ran 600 meters in lenght from a jumble of huge boulders to the peak of the hill. There were 40 or 50 fortified positions dug into the base of the boulders and numerous caves scattered among them. Some of the 30 huts found were still under construction. Four of them were mess huts which contained fresh rice and other signs of recent use. "The base camp, approximately two years old, was in the process of being rebuilt," stated Captain Vencill. "I'd estimate there was at least a Company in the camp, but it could easily hold a Battalion."
The next day Platoon sized reach-outs further explored the base camp and the surrounding area. Outside the camp, the Platoon's pointman Pfc Bruce Welch of Roy Washington, found the training area which was 200 meters in length. It contained another mess hut, a classroom area, dummy wooden Chinese-Communist grenades and an infiltration course consisting of real and simulated barbed wire set up in single strand, double apron concertina and tanglefoot fashion with a bayonet dummy at the end. "The training area was only built about two or three days before we found it," said Psg Wilbur Ali of Cusseta Ga, "so the NVA couldn't have trained too much on the course if they did at all."
I would guess that this jungle fatigue dates from Vencill's time in Thailand in 1972/73.
Last edited by Mr-X on Mon Mar 09, 2009 9:31 am; edited 2 times in total
