Lt Ed Thomas
Tour of Duty
FOs GO ON TDY
Many of the FO's were TDY at one time or the other to various units. A lot of us were with Special Forces at least once if not several times. I have been contacted several times since the war by those stationed at Ft. Bragg and of course, there are many "Yard" families still living in that area of North Carolina. Pleiku, Plei Me, Plei Djereng, Plei Do Lim, Plei Mrong, Duc Co, Kontum, Dak To, Dak Seang, and the list goes on around our area, were locations of "A" teams, Mike Forces, CIDG, LLDB, Ruff Puffs, etc. that we served with. The Montagnards were many (over 100 tribes) and we had Bru from the north, Bahnar, Rhade, Jairai (still in Pleiku to this day), Mnong and who could forget the Chinese "Nungs", the Meo from Laos and the KKK from Cambodia?
On 28Aug66, Col. Kelly of SF and Gen. Westmoreland had a conference and decided to use us in their upcoming operations. On 3 Nov 66 came operation ATTLEBORO which I believe was the first "Search and Destroy" official mission of the war. It was so successful that it was followed by PAUL REVERE IV just west of Pleiku. I worked with the 3rd Mike Force Co. commanded by LTC Lee Parmly. This was also a success and from then on 2/9 FO's were almost a constant part of SF operations in our area. I later served 10 years with 12th SF and many remember 2/9 from that day to this. Job well done, all of you!