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MAGAZINE
Home From Vietnam
Griffin Native Kept Watch
On Of Arms
By JAMES STEWART
A Griffin Navy career officer
was in charge of the squadron
responsible seizing the lar
gest cache of enemy arms and
munitions so far in the Vietna
mese war.
Commander Homer C. Rags
dale, a native of Griffin, com
manded the "market time opera
tion” squadron that sighted a
loaded trawler off the coast of
Vietnam. It was carrying 250
tons of rifles, mortars, machine
guns and ammunition which was
on way to the Viet Cong in South
Vietnam.
A member of the squadron
spotted the trawler and reported
it to the Coast Guard which in
tercepted and sank the trawler
in a battle. The boat was float
ed again by the Navy ana the
arms and munitions taken to Sai
gon.
The trawler crew got away,
but the cache was the largest
of the war.
Commander Ragsdale, who is
visiting in Griffin this week, said
his air patrol squadron’s duty
was to check from the air
Junks (small boat) and ships
off the Vietnam coast and report
any unusual activity.
Their patrol planes, which are
not armed, are heavy laden with
electronic equipment used in
the detection of arms, munitions
and foods on junks and trawlers.
The goods are being infiltra
ted to the Viet Cong in the South.
Junks and trawlers are used
for the infiltration jaunts. Wa
ters off the Vietnam coastline
are too shallow for ships to get
close enough to unload their sto
res without being detected. The
junks and trawlers do not draw
as much water as the ships and
can move in close with the
goods.
Commander Ragsdale’s squad
ron was one of the lew stationed
at Tan Son Nhut Air Base in Sai
gon that was not shelled by Viet
Cong mortars. The squadron
there before his was shelled
with mortars and the one ofter
was shelled.
His squaadron was in Vietnam
for six months and flew more
sorties, more missions and more
hours in four months than any
other squadron in the war. The
commander received a personal
commendation for the feat.
Planes in the squadron were
fired on several times by small
arms as they flew from Saigon
to the coast, but none were hit.
Commander Ragsdale said the
unarmed patrol planes avoided
areas where the Viet Cong were
known to have anti-aircraft facil
ities.
Commander Ragsdale’s plan
es checked each junk off the
coast to see if it belonged there.
Numbers and names of the
junks were checked, if a suspi
cious boat waa wotted, a ship
Griffin, Go., 30223, Sat. and Sun., Jan. 21-22,1967
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(Griffin Daily News Staff Photo)
Commander Ragsdale shows a picture of the captured enemy trawler to his daughter, Cathy, 15. It was
carrying 250-tone of mortars, rifles, machine guns and ammunition.
was called in to board It and
make sure It was not loaded with
Viet Cong supplies.
Prime infiltration suspects are
trawlers ranging from 75 to 125
feet long. They can carry more
supplies than the smaller Junks
and sometimes anchor off the
coast and are unloaded by the
junks.
“Every trawler in South Viet
namese waters must be South,”
Commander Ragsdale said.
There is really no positive means
of telling if a trawler is carrying
food, arms and munitions unless
it is boarded and checked, Com
mander Ragsdale said.
Only those trawlers which are
in the boundary waters can be
boarded and checked.
Commander Ragsdale feels that
the. “market time operation”
was a success. He said the Viet
Cong have found that trying to
infiltrate arms to the South by
junks and trawlers is unprofita
ble. Too many of their boats are
being captured by the South Viet-
namese with the aid of the Am
erican patrol squadrons.
“It was an opportunity to be
in Saigon for six months as com
mander of the Squadron,” he
said. Saigon once was called the
“dirty pearl of the Orient," but
Commander Ragsdale said ef
forts are being made to clean it
up.
“Everyone lives in hotels in
Saigon, since there are no bar
racks. You don’t feel like a vet
eran of the war unless you have
been tear gassed a couple of ti
mes. Often times I was near en
ough to hear terrorist bombs
and grenades explode, but was
never close enough to be hurt,”
Commander Ragsdale said.
He said the big problem in Sai
gon is the Buddhists. The Budd
hists wear bright orange and
brown robes and when they are
seen in the streets in the morn
ings, trouble is in the air, the
Grifiin native observed.
“It is too bad that most Amer
icans cannot go to Saigon. Peo-
pie are going to Hanoi fo see
what damage the Americans arc
doing. They should be going to
Saigon to see what good the
Americans are doing there,” he
said.
“When I walked down the st
reets of Saigon, I felt like the
South Vietnamese ought to be
staring at me — with awe, but
they weren’t. The American is
accepted because he is there to
help get them out of a Jam,"
Commander Ragsdale said.
He continued:
The South Vietnamese and the
Americans are working side by
side throughout Vietnam In a mi
litary effort. The Americans are
not allowed to participate in pol
itical affairs.
There were no incidents in
Commander Ragsdale said
ron between the Americans and
the South Vietnamese.
Commander Ragsdale said
there is no doubt in his mind
that the war is necessary. “There
is no doubt that if the United
States pulls out, poor South
Vietnam has had It,” he said.
He said the morale of the U.S.
fighting men in Vietnam is good.
He gave this example:
“I left the squadron’s aircraft
and walked across a ramp at
the Eighth Aerial Port (termi
nal; and next to a sagging fence
were 15 soldiers who were laugh
ing and Joking. They had been
on a patrol and apparently had
been relieved. They were cover
ed with mud from the tips of
their toes to the tops of their
heads. Their rifles had mud on
them. Even though these men
were tired and weary with their
clothes torn and covered with
mud, they managed to joke and
laugh.”
The commander said it was a
sight every American should
have seen. They were showing
friendship and, at the same
time, devotion to what they are
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