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415th RRD in Vietnam
by Bruce Mathis
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I joined the ASA Nov. 25, 1966.Basic training at -Ft Leonard Wood until Feb. 1967. On to Ft Gordon until late June 1967, then to Ft. Devens.I worked at Maintenance Shop #10 for a SSGT Kinnard (He had a 'thing' for Texans like myself..he HATED us!).

In order to escape this no win situation,I applied for a permanent change of duty station.In Nov '67 I went home on 15 days leave, then on to Schofield Barracks in Hawaii to join up with the 415th and the 11th Inf Bde (Light).The 415th RRU Det. ,along with the 11th Infantry Bde (Light) ,sailed out of Pearl Harbor aboard the USS General Wiggins December 1967 .We landed in Que Nhon Dec. 19th or 20th 1967,then-convoyed to,and spent the night at Duc Pho. The next day we continued on to Duc Pho.We left the11th LIB there and went on to Chu Lai.

After a few days some of us (LT. "the Jerk" Carlin, SGT Mario Navarro, SGT Harry "the" Fish,SGT. Hall, Consonia, Frost, Herlihee, & myself) were volunteered to go back down to Duc Pho to a place called LZ Bronco . We gave up LZ Carrington located by the sea. It took a long 9 months for things like a small PX and ice cream to show up.In the mean time, C-rats with an occasional hot meal at the 174th Aviation mess hall, were the order of the day.

LZ Bronco was large enough for a small cargo plan to land, but small enough so you could walk the length in about 10 min. and the width in about 5 or 6 min. As the days turned into months, things started to pick up, especially during the Tet Offensive of 1968.

Bruce W. Mathis
bmathis@tyler.net