The 8th RRFS is also known as Trai Bac Station, which is Vietnamese for North Post. At the time of this writing, Phu Bai is the northernmost American post in South Vietnam.

Needless to say, when the Leathernecks pulled out, they left some obvious gaps in the defense posture of Phu Bai. So, four years ago, a slap-dash, make-shift, bubble gum and baling wire outfit vaguely resembling a mortar platoon was hastily assembled from among the remaining cooks and clerks.

No one took them seriously in the early days. They were untrained volunteers working with nearly primitive equipment. The ancient sight on the 81mm mortar was pretty good on figuring evlevation, but kinda crummy on direction.

Understandably, the platoon was never asked to fire at anything specific. You dont need a terribly sophisticated sight mechanism to fire an illumination round; you just need a fairly accurate idea of where the sky is.

The mortar platoon got its first big break in 1970 when a hot shot staff sargeant, named Ted Searcy, took over as NCOIC. Searcy trained his volunteers night and day, obtained new M-53 sights for the guns and before long, the meaning of calibration, deflection, elevation and accuracy became second nature to the Trai Bac crew. Even Base Defense was impressed.

Within a few months, the Power & Light Co. was called on to fire support for the night ambush patrols conducted by the 101st Airborne Division.