It Was A Real Housecleaning

        I remember the 188th as a lot more easygoing than the 720th, but that may just be because of the posture of the U.S. effort changed as time went by. We had some really good officers and non-coms and we had some real jerks. Just like the rest of the Army.

        The takeover by the 720th was real housecleaning. It appeared they took all the guys they didn't like and transferred them out, and then brought all the guys from B Company in Long Binh that they liked.

        The guys from B Company were good guys. It took them awhile to get used to not being "*Bushwhackers," but we were far from anything like "real MPs" a la the 716th in Saigon, with snazzy jeeps and paved roads.

We got dirty a lot. We never knew what happened to the guys that left.         There was an incredible amount of mistrust and tension between the career soldiers and the enlisted personnel. It had not stopped when I left in September, 1970.         I left behind a really good bunch of guys, though, and I think fondly about them often. SP/4 Charles M. Phelan, 188th MP Company & B Company, 720th MP Battalion, 89th MP group, 18th MP Brigade, July 1969 to September 1970.

SP/4 Phelan

* Bushwackers was the nickname B Company used for it's Ambush Platoon during the last years of Operation Stabilize.