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HEADQUARTERS |
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1/1
Headquarters & Service Company
and attached units
Republic of Viet Nam
1965-1971
The RVN was different things for different people. Even for the
same person it meant different things at different times. It was horrible and
beautiful. A day took forever or flew by in an instant. It was senseless
and in many ways was the most sensible place in the world. Whatever your
experiences were, things are never the same after a tour of South Viet Nam.
Marine rifle battalions are made up of four rifle companies, an H&S company
and attached units. Grunts do the primary work of the battalion. They put
themselves on the line to take ground, hold ground and otherwise engage the
enemy and destroy them. There is no more honorable job than to be a Marine grunt
or Navy corpsman in a Marine rifle company. It's a job that asks the most and
the only rewards are pride in getting the job done and knowing the people around you.
The grunts identified with their company and there is a bond and camaraderie
that people who were not in that company can never know or feel. H&S personnel
generally did not identify with H&S Company, but with their job in H&S.
A lot of people came to H&S from line companies, or went to line companies
from H&S. For many, life in the battalion rear was definitely easier
than being a grunt. That doesn't mean we were sitting around in lawn chairs
waiting for afternoon tea. We did our jobs, so the Battalion could accomplish
its objectives. This site attempts to describe the various
jobs done by H&S, with some pictures and stories from the various components
of 1st
Battalion, 1st Marines, H&S Company from 1965-1971 in the Republic of Viet
Nam.
This site starts out written from the perspective of an S-1 clerk in 1969. It is factual as far as I can remember. A lot of stuff happened before '69, and a lot of stuff happened after that. If you were with 1/1 H&S, please review the site, then contact Dan King to help fill in the blanks.
For those of us that were with 1/1, we are very proud of our time with the First of the First.
(Most
pictures on this site are thumbnails.
That means that you can click on them for a larger image of the picture.)
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