4 - The Black Vault

THE BD.M CORPORATION
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2. In-Co-,ntry Training
The requirement for in-country training was paramount during the
period of rapid US buildup. This training was complicated by the turnover
of officers, but was made possibla in large part, by innovative, informal
"brainstorming" sessions invvlving staffs and rompany commanders; from
these sessions emerged solutions for dealing with the enemy's sapper and
antiarmor tactics, for conducting effective night operatiuns, and for
swaths in jungle S1clearing areas with Rome Plows and other heavy equipment.
A particular challenge was the need to train drivers, maintenance crews,
and infantry units in the effective care and use of M-113 armored personnel
carriers (APCs) and related equipment such as flamethrower APCs. In the
monsoon, season drivers were taught how to maneuver APCs in the mud, and
how to move an APC out of a morass. Irn this context, soldiers who had
earlier been trained to fight from APCs had to learn to fight dismounted.
Soldiers were hastily trained in th'. subtleties of airmobile operations,
~I. occasionally just prior to an impending airmobile campni;i. Moreover, Army
units in the field had to train their incoming intelligence officers (S-2)
to "go to school on the enemy", just as the enemy had l.-;g been "going to
school" on US forces. 38/'
LTG A. S. Collins, Jr., then Assistant Chief of Staff for Force
Developmert, recommended that all who command or aspire to command read the
report, "Observations of a Brigade Commander,"
submitted in 1967 by then
Colonel Sidney B. Berry, Jr. With respect to training, Col. Berry poii ted
out that it was obviously desirablc to give replacements in-country
training before their assignment to platoons or companies for combat operations.
39/
training
He considered the battalion to be the ideal level for such
out reluctantly cor:ceded that only at brigade or division level
could the administrative and personnel load be managed.
Berry recommended
that all lieutenants, enlisted, and noncommissioned personnel receive a
five to seven-day course taught by experienced personnel. Su'Ljects would
include:
* Digging a standard firing position;
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