WANTED: Photographs of the Ford Galaxies' during duty. Use the Email Link to contact the History Project Manager.

     The driver brought along a wool blanket to cover the legs and the passenger a sleeping bag. On the worst nights they would park just outside the view of the barracks area and sit on the jeep hood to warm themselves. There was also the soup dispenser machine where they could each purchase a container of hot soup and use it as a hand warmer before drinking it.

     Their barracks and messhall were still World War II era buildings. The interior of the barracks had changed from communal bays to separated two person rooms. They were still required to perform Fire Watch rotation, Charge of Quarters and runner duties.

     The seasonal duty uniforms were, Class A and Khaki for town patrol and or special duty, with all other duty performed in fatigues with a painted helmet liner.

WANTED: Photographs of the barracks interior living spaces. Use the Email Link to contact the History Project Manager.

Exact Month & Date Unknown “I believe it was in early 1975 when SSG Fred "Scooby" Stevens responded to a domestic complaint. There was a NCO firing a shotgun at the windows of his quarters trying to hit his wife. She was egging him on and then ducking out of site as he fired. Scooby told him to "Drop the #!!!& Shotgun!"

     The NCO turned the shotgun toward Scooby, and Scooby fired two rounds. One round removed the guy's manhood, and the second almost blew the guy arm off at the elbow.

     The review board found it a good shooting."  SGT David W. Sullivan (MAJ Retired) 401st MP Company, 720th MP Battalion, III Corps, Fort Hood, Texas, February 1974-September 1976.

8 January Miss Lovie Teal, home economist from Texas Power and Light Company, was the principal speaker at the III Corps & Fort Hood (Non-Divisional) Officers Wives Club luncheon held in the Fort Hood Officers Open Mess.

     Miss Teal gave her presentation on the topic of “Stretching Our Food Dollar.” Hostesses for the occasion, the ladies of the 720th MP Battalion, complemented the theme for the luncheon with table decorations of glass jars filled with various types of macaroni and dry beans.

18 January A hail and farewell dinner and ceremony was held at Florence Steak Emporium by the officers and ladies of the 720th MP Battalion. New arrivals welcomed to the battalion included 1LT Thomas Washburn from Korea, 2LT Jim McMahon and 2LT Edward Wojtyna, both from Fort Gordon, Georgia.

Exact Date Unknown Sixty-five battalion students were awarded diplomas from the III Corps Military Police Training Academy in a ceremony held at the battalion classroom on Fort Hood. COL Peter C. Hains, Director of Human Resources Development address the graduation class and presented the diplomas.

     In his remarks to the graduating troops the colonel emphasized the need for training and professionalism for the military policeman in todays Army. He stated that a good motto for an MP would be “If you fail the first time, you don’t get a second chance.”

     As the Director of Human Resources Development, COL Hains explained that the Directorate is an agency that supports the military police program at Fort Hood in easing racial tension and providing assistance in the areas of drug rehabilitation and equal opportunity.

     The colonel also announced that during the next cycle at the MP Academy, representatives from the Directorate will present an eight hour segment that focuses on examining minority views towards law enforcement officials and the development of a good public relations program for the military police.

23 February The 258th MP Brigade, HQ & HQ Detachment, Arizona Army National Guard known as the “Bushmasters” arrived at Fort Hood to begin their regularly scheduled annual training while sponsored by the 720th MP Battalion. Fifty-one members strong, the unit will be at Fort Hood until 9 March and as part of their training will participate in the III Corps Command Post Exercise (CPX) GOBLIN PHANTON I-IV.

     The III Corps Provost Marshal’s Office will evaluate the activities of the guard unit. It is the first time the 258th had taken part in a major active Army field exercise.

    The Bushmasters, commanded by BG James R. Stallings, have National Guard units in the Arizona cities of Kingman, Flagstaff, Yuma, Glendale, Phoenix, Safford, Tuscon, Nogales, Bisbee and Douglas.

4-7 March  The exercise was a corps level Command Post Exercise (CPX) to increase training and maintain readiness of the various corps and division staff sections. Conducted with the Fort Hood Reservation boundaries, Participating units from Fort Hood were elements from H&HC, III Corps; 1st Cavalry Division; 2nd Armored Division; 6th Cavalry Brigade (Air Combat); 13th COSCOM; 13th Avation Battalion; 16th Signal Battalion; 163rd Military Intelligence Battalion; 303rd ASA Battalion; 720th MP Battalion; 203rd Military Intelligence Detachment; and Air Force Detachment 14, 16th Weather Squadron. In addition to the 258th MP Brigade HQ & HQ Detachment there were also other units from outside the post that participated.

    The exercise concentrated on the establishment of command posts and communications, developments of plans and orders, and exercise tactical command and control systems rather than full-scale troop training.

     Participating headquarters units were required to set up in the field, with limited troops and fuel. Actual field communications were used for relaying information between the participants, control groups and cells. The control cell represented the simulated higher or lower units that would interact with divisional or corps staff.

     Tactical information was provided to the participating units by the control cells that played the part of maneuvering force to formulate reports and transmit them to the division and corps staffs.

     As the North Vietnamese Army wall of tanks approached Gia Dinh Provence and the capital city of Saigon from the west and north, South Vietnamese who had worked closely with Americans during the Vietnam War feared reprisals by the North Vietnamese Government. 125,000 Vietnamese citizens fled their native country during the onslaught of what would be the final Communist Offensive of the war in the spring of 1975.

     They were airlifted or fled South Vietnam on U.S. military cargo ships and transferred to United States government bases in Guam, Thailand, Wake Island, Hawaii and the Philippines, as part of "Operation NEW LIFE."

     Subsequently, they were scheduled for transfer to four refugee centers throughout the United States: Camp Pendleton in California, Fort Chaffee in Arkansas, Eglin Air Force Base in Florida, and Fort Indiantown Gap in Pennsylvania under Operation NEW ARRIVALS.

Exact Dates Unknown The Battalion along with several other military police units were ordered to deploy elements to Operation New Arrivals at Fort Chaffee, located in Fort Smith, Arkansas. The 411th MP Company and a (yet to be identified) platoon from one of the other battalion's organic companies were assigned the mission.

     When the Battalion was first alerted they were informed they would be transported via C-141 aircraft so they prepared their personnel, equipment and vehicles for air transport and awaited in the company parking area for further orders to move out. The wait stretched into one then two days without any notification so the members of the company were required to sleep and eat in their vehicles. They were only allowed in the barracks to use the rest room facilities.

     By the third day access to the barracks was expanded to include the showers. The reason for the delay in movement orders, unknown to at least the junior enlisted personnel, was because of an aircraft crash on 4 April. The plane, a C-5A 'Galaxy', was carrying 243 children, 44 escorts, 16 crewmen and 2 flight nurses under Operation Baby Lift.

     These numbers vary according to which news articles you read as totals vary from 305 to 319 onboard. The plane was en route to Travis AFB in California 4 April. The crash resulted in the grounding of all C5A’s until an investigation could be conducted. As a result of the grounding the air force reassigned all C141’s to pick up the slack, leaving the Battalion without air transport.

28 April, 0900 hours the Battalion elements departed Fort Hood, Texas, via convoy to Fort Chaffee, Arkansas.

     The movement orders were changed from air transport to ground convoy and the Battalion was already behind in their scheduled arrival time at Fort Chaffee. To compound the problem the vehicles were packed for air transport, no side doors, no tops and the Machine guns were mounted. They departed Fort Hood without repacking and headed out on Highway I-35 in three march units, in the rain, wearing their yellow rain slickers.

     They traveled Interstate 35, then over Interstate 40 to Fort Smith Arkansas. They took turns driving and sleeping.

     At the first scheduled stop on the highway they discovered there wasn’t any rest rooms available so the patrons were treated to the display of approximately fifty soldiers in yellow rain slickers standing by the edge of the parking lot relieving themselves. The decision was made at the first stop to take the time to put on the vehicle doors and put up the tops.

     As they progressed towards Fort Chaffee less complicated stops were made at rest areas and tuck stops.

WANTED: Convoy photographs during Operation NEW ARRIVALS. Use the Email Link to contact the History Project Manager.

     To meet their scheduled arrival time, a forward detachment from the 411th was airlifted to Fort Chaffee via Chinook helicopter.

29 April , 1300 hours the battalion’s convoy elements arrived at Fort Chaffee later than their scheduled date and were greeted by a major media event formed to cover the first flight of Vietnamese refugees. After three days sitting in the company parking lot and two more on the road all of the company looked worse for ware than the arriving refugees.

     Once it was learned that SP/4 Ralph E. Jeffries had packed two sets of starched and pressed fatigues in his bag, he was selected as one of several MP's for the dubious honor of appearing in the photo opportunity.

     A small detachment of MP's from Fort Sill, Oklahoma that set up the initial stages of the refugee compound departed once the battalion arrived. There was another MP unit (yet to be identified) that was assigned to perform post patrol and main gate security. The 411th was assigned strictly to the security of the refugee compound.

     The MP's were billeted in their own barracks situated several blocks from the refugee compound. They were set up with segregated latrines to accommodate the female MP's.

WANTED: Photographs of the barracks interior and refugee compound buildings. Use the Email Link to contact the History Project Manager.

     “It is amazing how much you forget over the years and how much you remember when reminded. I was one of the troops of the 411th sent to Ft. Chaffee in 1975. After sitting in the parking lot for a couple days we finally left headed north. I remember the convoy as long, slow and boring until somewhere north of Texas and just after dark it got considerably colder.

      We arrived in the middle of the night and led to an old barracks area where there was nothing but dust and bare bunks, no blankets or sheets the first night. The snoring was terrible and a few weeks after arrival one of the MP's named Pritchet convinced an apartment manager in the city of Ft. Smith Ark. that they needed apartment security and Pritchet, myself, and another MP we called Newby ( the whole time he was there) moved off base. The apartment manager was really a great guy, they were not accustom to regular Army and the public treated us very well, unlike military towns.

      I was one of those guys with the ability to shine boots and for my expertise I secured a position as a front gate guard to the base along with Sgt. Leo McCarthy, and Sp4 George Banks. It was considered great duty as you had someone to talk to.

     Early on there were some incidents of off duty MP's being assaulted leaving an on-base EM club so one afternoon/evening about 10 of us MP's (off duty of course) went to this EM club in an effort to talk to some of these problem children. It must have been a sight to the patrons as 10 of us walked in and sat at tables with our backs to the wall and ordered mostly cokes.

     Timing could not have been better as we suspected that the attacks were being conducted by reservist doing their 2 weeks and there was a line of luggage stacked against one wall as most of the patrons were reservist leaving for home. As luck would have it one of the problem children had a problem and the fight was on. This was truly a bar room brawl as most of the people in the bar was involved in the fight. I remember seeing tables and chairs being thrown at us, and one chair struck me in the face knocking me down on the luggage against the wall. Without thinking I started throwing their luggage at them and when it was all over several of them were picking their clothes up from all over the floor as some of the luggage came open spilling their belongings.

     I left the bar but was told later that Top heard of the incident and stopped by the bar and bought a round for our guys that were still there.

      Many nights after evening shift most of the crew with adult beverages met at the post swimming pool, climbed over the fence and enjoyed a cold drink and a swim. On one occasion we secured a couple cases of chickens from a mess hall and made a road trip into the nearby Ozarks for an all-nighter.

      In my 3 years in the Army I was stationed at several locations and temporary at several more but I recall the time at Ft. Chaffee as the most fun.” A/SGT Michael Wood, 411th MP Company, 720th MP Battalion, III Corps, Fort Hood, Texas, October 1974 to January1976.

30 April With the United States Congress looking the other way, the government of South Vietnam officially surrendered under the onslaught of the Communist North Vietnamese Army.

     The fall of the South Vietnamese capital city of Saigon and the government to North Vietnamese troops ended the Vietnam War and prompted additional waves of emigration from Vietnam to the United States.

2 May The Fort Chaffee, Arkansas reception center officially opened.

     The Department of Defense was charged with logistically supporting resettlement operations, including receiving, transporting, housing, and feeding the refugees, in addition to standard garrison operations such as military police, fire protection, administrative functions, and medical support.

     Fort Chaffee and Fort Indiantown Gap were well suited to serve as resettlement centers, inactive, but maintained and used for annual training by National Guard and Reserve Forces.

     Army engineers converted the two-story WWII vintage barracks into multiple family units to house the refugees. There was no security fence, just a circle of security shelters. Security shelters for the MP's to man were positioned along the perimeter every fifty feet. There were approximately 52 of them.

The security shacks resembled field latrines. Made of plywood on wooden pallets they had three sides approximately four feet high with a roof. The front was opened. Each contained a bench seat, land line field phone and PRC 77 field radio.

     The MP's were not allowed to carry side arms, only their batons during duty in the refugee cantonment.

      They also carried a small card with a warning in English on one side and Vietnamese on the other. The card explained to the Vietnamese that if they left the refugee center they would forfeit their right of legal immigration. According to SP/4 Jeffries, every refugee that was shown the card when trying to leave the compound turned around and went back in.

WANTED: Photographs of the refugee compound guard shacks. Use the Email Link to contact the History Project Manager.

     There were two social clubs built for the refugees that provided adult beverages and music, the Hitching Post and The Hofbrau. Both were located on the perimeter of the compound and restricted to refugee use only. It was very seldom you would see any of the women refugees inside. Problems were far and few with the exception of an occasional wild-west type bar fight. When the MP's waded into the crowd to break them up the refugees never assaulted them. Problems inside the compound and the barracks were also very infrequent.

     One of the most frequent emergency calls the MP’s responded to were pregnant women going into labor. They were shown a training film on natural childbirth (a lot of the troops got sick from it), but they never said what to do about the language barrier that proved to be a problem.

9 May, 1300 hours approximately 72 members of the 401st MP Company were deployed without weapons or helmets from Fort Hood to Fort Chaffee by commercial bus transport.

23 May President Gerald Ford signed into law the Indochina Migration and Refugee Assistance Act that established the funding for the program of domestic resettlement assistance for refugees who have fled from Cambodia and Vietnam, and approximately 34,000 refugees total were processed through Operation NEW ARRIVALS at Fort Chaffee and Fort Indiantown Gap.

     These refugees were the few lucky ones.

     Editors Note: The South Vietnamese refugees were fleeing the communist government of Ho Chi Minh who were secretly executing, imprisoning and filling their re-education camps with the former government officials, government employees, the military and anyone else that aided the war effort against them.

     The Cambodian refugees were fleeing the "killing fields" of Cambodia where estimates of the total number of deaths resulting from the communist Khmer Rouge policies of state-sponsored genocide between 1975-1979 by Prime Minister Pol Pot, including disease and starvation were 1 to 3 million people out of a 1975 population of roughly 8 million.

     The Khmer Rouge regime arrested and eventually executed almost everyone suspected of connections with the former government or with foreign governments, as well as professionals and intellectuals. Ethnic Vietnamese, ethnic Thai, ethnic Chinese, ethnic Cham, Cambodian Christians, and the Buddhist monkhood were the demographic targets of his persecution.

Exact Date Unknown  “Most nights on the refugee compound perimeter line was peaceful, quiet and boring. Your mind is always wandering trying to find something to occupy it to help make the time pass.

     There are times that even bad weather can be a pleasant change of the daily routine, however this was not one of them. On this night the thunder, and lightning, was quickly followed by a sheet of rain. I was in my security shack trying to keep dry while waiting for the storm to move through.

     I could hear the MP in the next security shack shouting and cranking his field phone. I picked up my phone to find out what he was so excited about but couldn't understand what he was saying. I hung up the phone and as I shouted to him, he quickly exited his shack and crouched down behind it.

     Suddenly I saw a swirling mass of debris come from around the barracks nearest to him. Within a second the wind and debris knocked his shack over on top of him. I exited my shack and didn't get more that three steps towards him before I was struck by a wooden barricade and knocked off of my feet into the mud and water filled drainage ditch.

     As I lay in the ditch, I watched as the MP tried to crawl out from under what remained of his security shack. Whatever the weather event was, it ended as quickly as it started. Fortunately neither of us received any serious injuries.” SP/4 (SSG Retired) Ralph E. Jeffries, 411th MP Company, 720th MP Battalion, III Corps, Fort Hood, Texas, 1975-1976, and 1990-1993.

Exact Date Unknown  

     “I remember the tornado incident at Fort Chaffee. I was in that guard shack a couple of days before. When we went to Chaffee we didn't want to go. When it was time to go back we didn't want to leave. When we got back we couldn't wait for the next rotation to go back. Never happened, all the evacuees were processed out. I think it was the extra $75 per month to be there. That was a lot of money back then.

     I was sitting in a guard shack on the perimeter watching empty barracks. This was the first night of guard duty for everyone (12 hour shifts no days off for the first 30 days). My Platoon Sergeant, SSG Busby (spell?) stopped by, checking the guard posts. I asked him what I was supposed to be guarding because the barracks were empty. He said, "damned if I know just stay put." I was near the west end of the rows of barracks. Maybe ten blocks from the east side.

     Within a few hours the barracks were filling up in front of me. Transportation had delivered several thousand refugees within that time period.

     In our barracks there was only one record player with only one album, "Queen." Before we rotated out, we wore the record out and knew all the words to all the songs. Prior to Chaffee there was an attitude among the three companies of we are better than you. Being mixed together was good. We got to meet and make friends with the guys from the other units.” SGT David W. Sullivan (MAJ Retired), 401st MP Company, 720th MP Battalion, III Corps, Fort Hood, Texas, February 1974-September 1976.

24 July, 0930 hours Battalion elements departed Fort Chaffee, Arkansas to return to Fort Hood, Texas arriving at 1930 hours.

     If you can provide any TDY or other orders for the 411th or 410th MPs that deployed, please use the same Email Link.

Exact Date Unknown “Any veteran will tell you it is almost impossible to become a legend in the military during peacetime. One envisions a legend as someone who performed one or more great feats of heroism, while under fire in combat with a determined enemy. The hero image just doesn’t come close to fitting anyone pulling military police line duty at Fort Hood, Texas. Please hold that thought and let me introduce you to the legend of SGT Skinner of the 411th MP Company.

    The story begins in late 1975, hunting season had just opened in this part of Texas and Fort Hood as always, accommodated the local residents by opening parts of the post grounds to the hunters. It was also a weekend night and, weekends were always busy, especially at the base hospital emergency rooms. SGT Skinner and his partner Shelly Borne were on post patrol when they were assigned to deliver some forms to the MP on duty in the emergency room at the Darnell Army Community Hospital.

     While dropping off the forms three local hunters arrived at the hospital emergency room with a problem. One of the group broke his leg during their day in the field, and as in any hospital, arrivals in emergency rooms are assigned medical assistance based the “Triage” system. The order of treatment is based on the severity of the wound or injury. A busy day and broken leg doesn’t rate immediate treatment, not unusual, unless you mix alcohol into the equation.

     One of the hunters from the group, who was alleged to be inebriated, took umbrage over having been given a wheel chair and told his injured friend would have to wait his turn in line. One can only guess what he was thinking when he decided to grab an emergency room nurse around the neck and put a hand gun to her head. He insisted that his buddy get treated immediately or else! The routine noise and activity in the emergency room came to a sudden halt as the medical staff, patients, and onlookers realized there was a serious hostage situation unfolding right before their eyes.

     SGT Skinner took immediate advantage of the initial confusion by quickly removing his MP helmet liner, dropping down and crawling along the floor behind a nearby counter. He was now in close proximity to, and had a clear view of the gunman and hostage from his hidden position. Drawing his side arm, SGT Skinner took aim and ordered the gunman to drop his weapon. Taken by surprise the gunman removed his handgun from the head of the hostage and pointed it directly at SGT Skinner. Taking advantage of the gunman’s error, SGT Skinner fired striking the gunman dead with four rounds, bringing the hostage situation to a swift and immediate end.

     The follow-up investigation ruled the actions of SGT Skinner as justified. What happened next I must admit is only rumor since I can’t vouch for the accuracy and details.

     Standard procedure dictates that when an MP is involved in a serious shooting incident, especially when it results in the loss of life, a transfer of duty stations follows. The procedure removes the temptation of any possible revengeful retribution against the MP.

     SGT Skinner was placed on a “no duty” status pending receipt of transfer orders. He would spend his remaining time on post at Fort Hood in his quarters. As the story goes, his roommate was scheduled for a day shift and had a date scheduled for the same time. He chose to go on the date rather than report for duty and asked his buddy SGT Skinner to take his place. This would make SGT Skinners actions “unofficial” and put both he and his roommate in jeopardy for disciplinary action if they were caught.

     SGT Skinner put on his partners shirt (with name tag) and reported for duty. He made it past the guard mount and went out on patrol with his partner. It was a weekend, and all he needed was a quite shift and no one would be the wiser. He chose not to drive (lest he have an accident), they left guard mount and immediately received a dispatch call directing them to a routine domestic complaint. As his partner parked the patrol jeep in front of the residence in Chaffee Village, the door of the house opened and a man stepped out pointing a shotgun at him. SGT Skinner drew his sidearm and fired killing the gunman where he stood.

     It will suffice to say that when his unofficial duty status was brought to light, all hell broke loose and rained down on SGT Skinner, his partner and probably anyone else at the guard mount that knew of but didn’t say anything about his standing in for his partner.

     I was told that the shooting was determined to be “justified,” and that SGT Skinner was placed under close MP guard, up to and including his being placed on whatever mode of transport used to take him to his new duty station.

     Thus through the years has passed the Legend of SGT Skinner.”   SSG (Retired) Ralph E. Jeffries, 411th MP Company, 720th MP Battalion, Fort Hood, Texas, 1975-1976, and 1990-1993.

3 October PFC’s Leonard Willson, Mildred “Millie” Ortiz and Mark McClain of the 411th MP Company were promoted to the rank of Specialist 4th Class effective 1 October.

Exact Dates Unknown LTC George Nipper passed command of the Battalion to LTC Jon MacFarland.

    Under Forces Command (FORSCOM), the III Corps would frequently conduct nine day field training exercises under the Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) referred to by the troops as "jumps." The jumps tested organizational and tactical concepts, and play a key role in the fielding of new equipment.

     The battalion's mission was to provide movement control and field command security.

     The Commanding General for III Corps flew over our camp area one time and we received word through the chain of command that he had commended us on how well we were camouflaged. We jut didn't bother to set anything up.

     Also the mess section had a time feeding us because we were so spread out and working long shifts. Not that they didn't try because the mess section usually took real good care of us.

     We were hungry at times and being soldiers we adapted and overcame. Which means my squad did a mid-night requisition at the Generals mess (since we were TOC security) and liberated enough C-rations to feed us the rests of the field exercise.”   SGT David W. Sullivan (MAJ Retired) 401st MP Company, 720th MP Battalion, III Corps, Fort Hood, Texas, February 1974-September 1976.

WANTED: Photograph of SGT Sullivan. Use the Email Link to contact the History Project Manager.