To all the QP's, i ask you kindly to share your memories of year 1 on a team

[Heretic]

All I can remember about my first year was Stony and Miguel keeping me out of trouble. I learned an infinite amount from these two. Somewhere in there are trips to Norway and Kosovo. Plus the WETS and Pikes Peak climbs. Team SGT was never really around and coming out of the course as an E5 I was the only Bravo. Lou P saved my ass as a Bravo. Three dudes I will never forget. Not the best Team I was on but some of the best people I have and will ever work with.

[SFRADIOMAN]

This was all 40 years ago and as best I can recall. My first year was split among three teams. My first month was at Don Phouc as the Junior Radio Operator to Rocky Lewis who taught me quite a bit about the field side of operational units. I had spent 5 months on the C team and knew how to handle traffic but Rocky taught me more about direct support.

Must have worked as I was assigned to establish a new A-416 from ground up. Staged all our equipment in conex containers, cut antennas, loaded all my weapons and off we went. Was really a great experience to design antennas to be buried in the dirt walls as backups if the elevated ones got mortared or rocketed down and to build redundant systems from the radio room to the TOC. That took up the next six months until I returned back to CONUS.

Assigned to the 10th and got assigned to an A Team that came back from Germany to Ft. Devins. We spent the next 5 months doing field exercises and cross training. IIRC there were only two RVN vets on the team and the rest of the team wanted to know what RVN was like and I wanted to know what SF assignments were like in Europe so that made for good commo among us.

I can say that I gained a lot of respect for several men in a short period of time but lacked the long term exposure that two or three years or more on the same team would have provided to mold us into a what I would classify as a true operational team.

Joe L>