Engineer Memoirs
would replace the 1st Cavalry in Korea and the 1 lth Air Assault Division colors
would be retired.
Speculation grew as to who would take the 1st Air Cavalry to Vietnam. Major
General Jack Chiles, who commanded the 2d Division and had furnished most of
the troops for the 1 lth Air Assault Division, wanted the job. But he made the
mistake of making his ambitions known to a reporter and that killed his chances.
The natural choice was Harry Kinnard, and to the Army's credit, it selected him
in early July to take the 1st Air Cavalry to Vietnam. He was ordered to bring the
division to Red Con 1, the highest state of readiness, by July 28th. He did so, and
on that date President Johnson ordered the division to Vietnam. The bulk of the
division was moved by the Military Sea Transport Service, the first ships leaving
on August 15th. On September 14th, the first ships landed at Qui Nhon harbor.
The 3d Brigade kicked off the first operation in combat on October 10th. The
division performed admirably, and became the pacesetter for professional military
operations in Vietnam. The rest of the story, as the saying goes, is history.
Kinnard had the division rolling in good style and I was free to be reassigned to
another job.
Q ..
Before we leave the air mobility story, let me ask one last question. Steven Ailes
took over from Cyrus Vance as Secretary of the Army. Was he sympathetic to
your stand?
A ..
Yes. But Ailes was not a man who devoted his attention to Army mobility and
tactics. These were not his strong suits. Ailes was a personnel specialist. He
believed that his job was to recruit good soldiers, improve the standards of training,
and raise the Army's morale. So while he was not unsympathetic to air mobility,
he was not as zealous a pusher of the concept as Vance had been.
Q ..
All right. But would you briefly sum up for me your characterization of Vance?
Vance was a successful Wall Street banker who had decided to move into the
A
public sector. He took a broad view of world affairs and had been active in the
Foreign Affairs Council and the Trilateral Commission. He was very dedicated to
the Army, but he thought the Army was ultra-conservative and moved too slowly
to adopt new concepts like air mobility. He wanted to change the Army's doctrine
and its hardware, and had a fair amount of success at it. While he was a good
conceptualizer, he was poor at following through on his ideas. He thought that if
he assigned an officer a mission it would be accomplished. He failed to realize
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