Spartans, Gladiators, horse - 1967

A little history:  When the Company was preparing to head to Vietnam the Aircraft was flown to Sharp Army Depot, near Manteca CA, to be prepared for shipment to Vietnam.  I was assigned to escort the aircraft on the ship, the USS Core.  As I recall, the trip took us 23 days.

 Arriving in Vietnam in mid August I was surprised to find our living quarters to be tents but then after thinking about it we were a new additional Company in Vietnam.  Just shortly before the Company was sent up north to Duc Pho the CO, Maj. Hagler, asked if I would assist Warrant Officer Simon, picture attached, in getting our barracks built.  I don't recall exactly how long it took us but I think it was about a month and a half or maybe two months.     Ron Earles

                                                                                WO1 Jimmy Simon

The 605th Transportation Company was our direct support. It was a great system, we had all the people right there with us. They formed with us at Fort Campbell then deployed with us. They had a Major as commander. Major Hagler should have more information he could fill in all the details. He knows more than any other person left. Major Hagler had a big job forming this unit, keeping and eye on a bunch of newly graduated pilots and a bunch of young enlisted men just out of AIT. We had few nco's that knew much about helicopters most of them were just out of school also. Most had been armor or infantry. Promotions were better in aviation units.  We went thru several first sgt.'s. The first one was a E-4 by the name of Patton. He was one of the first men to sign in to the unit who had any experience in the army. One of the next  would be Clines, Hubert E-7. I don't think he was very good with paper work. One of the next was SFC Teague, he was the service platoon sgt. but became first Sgt. When we first got to Nam. He took a direct appointment to WO-1 along with another Sgt Miller. After Teague left we did get a real E-8 first sgt. can't remember his name. Sp4 Patton did become a crew chief with the gun platoon.

                           Gale Dunkle                                  Wayne Neumarker                       Glen Marvini