MACV Team 74 – Gia Dinh.
This Page is intended for the discussion of the Military Assistance Command Vietnam Team 74 located in Gia Dinh.
MACV Teams
Military Assistance Command Teams Vietnam
MACV Team 74 – Gia Dinh.
This Page is intended for the discussion of the Military Assistance Command Vietnam Team 74 located in Gia Dinh.
MACV Teams 
I was assigned to Team 74 as a Sergeant First Class from August 1970 to August 1971 as an Infantry Operations and Intelligence adviser and as an adviser on infantry tactics and weapons. While I was in country the team was commanded by Colonel Martel and Colonel McDade. I often wondered what happen to all the team members after I left Vietnam. I did see SFC Arch Freeman at the Infantry Advance NCO course at Fort Benning in 1973. I retired as a Sergeant Major in 1987.
Sergeant Major O’Daire. During the time frame May 66 to June 67 the morale and spirit of Team 74 was exemplary. However the rate of desertion from the Vietnamese draftees was very high, and there was a great deal of corruption at the higher Vietnamese Officer level. Not all of course. One story told by one of the team was that when the Vietnamese were urged to use more rigorous training and motivation by a team member, the Vietnamese said that he always had to keep in mind that a disgruntled draftee (maybe related to VC) would roll a grenade into his family quarters at the base. Also there was a ‘prison compound’ at the base filled with Buddhist monks who had led uprisings against the Diem family in the early years of the war. Their presence must have disturbed the Buddhist soldiers/draftees. Our Advisory Team had a “Can Do” spirit but some wondered if the ARVN would ever reach a high level of morale and combat efficiency. I write this with the greatest respect for the many, many Vietnamese who served bravely and died for the cause of the South. Do you have thoughts on this aspect of duty with Team 74?
I was attached to Team 74 at the ARVN Training Center from summer of 1966 to summer of 1967. The team was always commanded by a Colonel and had an assortment of officers and NCO’s with various skills. We lived in a former French compound at the edge of the Training Center right on Route 1 (the road to Tay Ninh). The Commander for a time was an Army Colonel McCain who had previously served as an advisor during the Philippine Huk campaign. He was a straight shooter and a true soldier. He was transferred (because of high level pressure) to HQS MACV after he exposed the corruption and misuse of funds by the Vietnamese Commander of the Training Center. One of the interesting projects was the training of Vietnamese with BB guns in an effort to shoot quick and straight without using iron sights. I don’t recall how much success it had but a civilian expert in “Quick Shot” had been sent over from the States. He could shoot a BB through the middle of a washer just by point and shoot technique. I lost touch with these good men who worked hard to assist the ARVN train mostly poorly motivated draftees.
Team 74 was stationed at the ARVN Quang Trung National Training Center, just north of Tan Son Nhut Airport in Gia Dinh Province. in 1965 it consisted of 13 advisors commanded by a full colonel.
Thank you S. Jopling.
To S. Jopling. Were you assigned to Team 74 or are you providing additional information for this site?
Edward Donohue, U S Army Retired.
Team 74’s primary mission was to advise on basic training at the Quang Trung Training Center. Col Armstrong was the sr advisor to the Center. I was assigned to Team 74 from Jan-Dec 1967 as asst advisor to the Quang Trung Defense Battalion (part of the Capital Military District command) which was stationed at the Center and operating exclusively in Gia Dinh province with a counterinsurgensy mission. Maj Burl McDaniel was Sr Advisor to the battalion during the first half of the year. Sergeants Young and Bill Krilling were team sergeants during the year. There were a couple of successor sr advisors for the battalion during 1967 whose names I don’t recall. Units of the battalion operated in the field 24/7 alone or occasionally with C/2/199th Inf. interdicting local VC. During Tet 1968, I was pleased to hear from MSG Krilling that the battalion performed very well in repelling attacks by NVA/VC units on their way to Saigon.