I was sent to Vietnam with as a Stock Control and Accounting Specialist (MOS 76P2G3). Upon my arrival, I was assigned to Headquarters and Company A, 725th Maintenance Battalion. My ultimate job assignment was as Red Ball Clerk in our Technical Supply. A Red Ball Requisition was defined as 02 Priority which was the highest priority used in Vietnam. The only higher priority was 01, which was valid only in times of all out declared war. The Red Ball Requisition could only be used to request a part or major assembly that was required to get a mission essential end item (such as a tank, or a PC, or weapon) off deadline. The Tech Supply Section maintained a warehouse for smaller parts and yard for larger items, including major assemblies such as motors for tanks, personnel carriers, trucks, etc. I have no idea how many individual lines of stockage, but it was a bunch. Both our warehouse and our yard were huge and piled with all types of parts. In our major assembly’s yard, we used two 6,000 pound rough terrain fork lifts.

As Red Ball Clerk, I received Red Ball Requisitions from our user units and either arranged to release the item being requisitioned or passed their requisition on to our higher supply sources. Additionally, I could Red Ball Requisition a percentage of our ideal stockage level of any item in order to keep parts in stock at our level and available for issue to any of our user units. HQ & Co A supported the 25th Infantry Division with every kind of repair part and major assembly. The only parts we didn’t carry were aircraft repair parts and that was handled by our Company D. We carried parts for weapons, wheeled vehicles, tracked vehicles, artillery and everything else in the division’s inventory. We supplied our own shops as well as supporting the various user units within the division.

I would frequently have a PLL (Prescribed Load List) clerk or some other unit representative come in to our Tech Supply in great need of some part or other but without even a stock number. In our office, we kept parts and maintenance manuals for every piece of equipment the division possessed. When we’d get one of these "lost souls"; we’d start with the manuals. Eventually, we’d find the necessary stock number and be able to determine whether we had the item in stock and, if so, we could then issue the item to them. We had a form of sorts that the unit rep would have to fill out but it wasn’t complicated and, besides, I’d help them fill it out or actually do it myself if the situation dictated.

I suppose the user unit’s worst nightmare was a coworker named Specialist 4th Class Berg. It seems like his first name was Mike but I’m not sure. Sp4 Berg was an obese mean man that wouldn’t help the PLL Clerks one iota. He was our "Edit Clerk", whose job it was to receive all normal priority requisitions and check them to insure they were filled out correctly and completely. Much to my dismay, he had a great time kicking back requisitions without any explanation to the PLL Clerks. I grant you that the PLL Clerks were supposed to know what they were doing and how to requisition parts from us. In actuality, most PLL Clerks had no training and often, the soldiers performing in this capacity were illiterate infantrymen forced into the position because there was simply no one else. I always felt that "fucking" with them over trivialities of paperwork was bullshit and I never made a practice of it myself.

STORY ONE:

Some of us that worked in Tech Supply were exempt from duty, because we were the only ones that did our job and the powers that be decided we needed to be there every day. Soldiers not ED pulled KP, bunker guard, tower guard, CQ and a whole plethora of other "duties". When I got assigned to Tech Supply, I was told that, to mollify the non-exempt soldiers, the company had decided to make a duty for the ED troops to make everybody else feel better. This duty was Motor Pool Guard. We had a massive motor pool and shop area. Our shops repaired weapons and vehicles for our user units. Our motor pool was where we stored all our own trucks and equipment. Every day, we put 30 to 40 five-ton tractor/trailers on the road to Saigon Army Depot and Tan San Nhut Air Force Base picking up all those parts and major assemblies. Motor pool guard was of a nature that those of us that pulled it could still work our regular Tech Supply day jobs.

Anyway, one night I was on motor pool guard and was prowling around in the motor pool area. Although our SOP stated we wouldn’t carry our M16s locked and loaded, I did. It seemed dumb to be guarding anything that was important enough to guard, with an unloaded weapon. As I sneaked about, something caught my eye. I squatted down and slipped the safety of my weapon off. I wasn’t immediately sure what grabbed my attention because it was off to the side of my peripheral vision. I waited and, within a minute or so, I saw a turn signal light on one of our five-ton tractors flash on and off one time. As I approached this tractor, I discovered a GI leaning into the cab. I challenged him and tried to make it clear I’d shoot him, if he gave me a reason to. I took him to one of the shop offices that the motor pool guards used as a base of operations and woke the sergeant of the guard and explained to him what I had. He and I subsequently walked my prisoner to the company Orderly Room and turned him over to the MPs there.

As it turned out, this soldier was attempting to remove the turn signal assembly from our truck. The first big surprise was that this soldier I caught was a PLL Clerk. The bigger surprise was that he was the PLL Clerk for the division’s Ranger Company and was a qualified Ranger himself. That is, until I caught him. The next time the Ranger’s PLL Clerk came to Tech Supply, he was wearing a baseball cap and not his black beanie. I guess they thought that any Ranger caught by a REMF wasn’t much of a Ranger. I guess they were right!!!!

I think the thing about this incident that STILL pisses me off is that if this soldier had come to me in my "official" capacity, I’d have helped him find all the turn signal assemblies that he could ever need. I’d have helped him find the stock number if he couldn’t do that himself. I’d have helped him with the paperwork.

STORY TWO:

One of the unit supply persons I dealt with on a regular basis was Master Sergeant Lizzardi from the Division Artillery. MSG Lizzardi was a short rotund obviously Italian who always had a cigar stuffed in the corner of his mouth. One day MSG Lizzardi came into Tech Supply and requisitioned three PC packs. The M113 personnel carrier used a huge motor. Replacement motors come in a big metal reusable can that we called a "pack" and MSG Lizzardi wanted three. Since I had three and expected more the next morning, I went ahead and issued the three packs on hand, to him.

That evening, while relaxing my area in the hootch, several very dirty grunts came into our hootch looking for me. They explained that they’d been told to see me because I would treat them right. They further explained that their unit was laagered in the bush and their PC had a blown motor and they needed another. Their intention was to chopper back to the NDP and spend the remainder of their night pulling the old motor and putting in the new one. If they could get one. And I didn’t have any!!! We proceeded over to the Tech Supply where there was a telephone. I placed a call to Division Artillery and got ahold of MSG Lizzardi. When I got him on the line, I told him I needed on of the three packs I’d given him, back. He laughed and called me an indian giver. And told me "No!!!". I responded by explaining the M113 crew’s situation!!! MSG Lizzardi responded with a "Hell NO!!!". I countered by pointing out to MSG Lizzardi that I had been very lenient with the quality of the requisitions he’d been turning in and "could" become much demanding in that regard. Please keep in mind that, at this time in my military career, I was an E3, which was a Private First Class. I also guaranteed him that I’d replace the pack I was asking him to give up, as soon as I got more into stock. Thankfully, he relented and I didn’t disappoint the grunts that had come to me for assistance because they were told I’d wouldn’t fuck with them.

I received an Army Commendation Award from the 25th Infantry Division and a Bronze Star from the 101st Airborne Division, which is where I was reassigned when the 25th Infantry Division was stood down. I consider that compliment paid to me by those grunts that night superior to the two medals. I never had any idea, who told them to deal with me, but I’d obviously helped someone from their unit out with something and that someone took note.