C. Azar
CAzar21217@aol.com
Was noticing in your list of A camps in "eye corp" that Aloui was missing.It was an FOB for A102{Ashau}.It was about 22 klicks north of Ashau.
I was there in Nov 65 as a commo man, and there were only about 4 or 5 of us at any one time. I have pictures of us blowing it up on Dec 8 65. I think it was opened in Early 65, and was never successful in it's mission as a BS camp.We also had indigenous personnel from coastal towns who were convicted criminals, and sent to Aloui for incarceration. It was an absolutely horrible camp. Jerry Ingalls was the demo man who supervised the setting of charges to blow the camp. Earl Petty came from Ashau the day before we blew to help head up the opn down the valley after we blew thecamp.
The two companies of strikers we took to Ashau were pretty bad.One of the companies were the ones that turned on the defenders of Ashau on Mar.9-10-11,66,when camp was overrun. The only SF I can remembder from Aloui were; Jerry Ingalls [demo], Arnie Pakola [medic], Joe Reifschneider [intell,later KIA Tra Bong Jan 28 66], and Earl Petty who came from Ashau the day before we blew the camp.
Don't know how many A teams were closed and blown at he same time, but we used 55 gal of MO gas with a 1/4 lb of C4 and thermite grenade taped to it, and everything run series with det cord.It was one hell of explosion.I have pics of this.
Having worked the C Team commo during my tour, I was privy to a lot of interesting things that were happening in "eye corp" Aug 65-Aug 66. There was a shortage of commo in Eye corp during that perio, so I was used at several A teams during my tour. Tra Bong [Oct 65], Aloui [Nov@ Dec 8 65], A Shau [Dec65-Jan66] C-5 TOC Saigon [Jan 66-Mar 66], back to eye corp and Thien Phuoc [June66], Opn Blue Star: body recovery at Ashau in May66,and CIDG recruiting in Dong Ha ,Cam Lo, etc.for new Ateam that was going to open in northern eye corp [probably Lan Vei]. I was not SF qualified but was assigned to E Co., 5th SFG,and prior to that E Co., 7th Jan 64-Aug65.