212th

1965

Sometime in the fall or winter the first handlers and their Sentry Dogs were assigned to the Detachment to provide perimeter security for the Soc Trang Air Base. PFC Robert C. Gitchell was one of the first handlers assigned. They slept in tents and the K9’s were kenneled in their original shipping crates. The dogs were fed in a kennel made from an old CONEX container. Gitchell was later promoted to SP/4 and transferred to the Can Tho Detachment as the Assistant Detachment Leader.

SP/4 Gitchell would later return on his second tour of Vietnam as a Staff Sergeant with the 212th MP Company, and was the Noncommissioned Officer In Charge (NCOIC) of the detachment. He also had the distinction of being at the detachment when it was deactivated in 1970.

1965 Miscellaneous Photographs

1966

1966 Miscellaneous Photographs

1967

1967 Miscellaneous Photographs

G0899	Detachment sign.
G0904?	Unidentified handler putting his K9 through training.
G0906	Over-flight of Soc Trang & Airfield.

1968

29 January through 29 February, Tet Offensive There were thirteen enemy attacks on the Soc Trang Airfield during the period. The attacks primarily consisted of 75mm recoilless rifle fire. There were two instances of mortar fire, and five of the thirteen, were accompanied by minor ground probes and assaults of the flight line area with small arms and automatic weapons fire.

August SP/4 Donald P. Ray (212th) filmed his arrival at Soc Trang Airfield on a flight from Saigon. The film is 6 minutes and 15 seconds long, use this link to view it. Flight into Soc Trang Army Airfield.mov

1968 Miscellaneous Photographs

1969

The detachment needed a training area so their dogs could maintain a regular training program, so the handlers took it upon themselves to build one under the direction of the NCOIC SGT Jerry E. Howell.

They used left over ammunition crates and any other scrap lumber and materials they could scrounge.

1969 Miscellaneous Photographs

G3312	SP/4 Eric G. "Doc" Osen and K9 Storm.
G3491	SP/4 David Dreher and his K9 Smokie
G3509	SP/4 Osen with AK-47 and VC Flag.
G3510	Unidentified 188th MP Company Soc Trang patrol.
G3512	Unidentified handler and his K9 Duke.
G3513	Unidentified handler and his K9 Prince.
G3514	Unidentified handler and his K9 in the training yard.
G3515	Unidentified handler and his K9 in the training yard.
G3516	Unidentified handler and his K9 in the training yard.

1970

1 November The six Sentry Dog Teams working the Soc Trang Detachment in support of the 121st Aviation Battalion, Soc Trang Airfield, were relocated to Long Binh Post concurrent with the Army of The Republic of Vietnam [ARVN], military authorities taking over the airfield under the Vietnamization Program.

1970 Miscellaneous Photographs