"I was promoted to Sergeant (E-5) in April of 1968 while I was still on the Ambush and Recon team. I was informed that I would be taking over as the NCOIC [Noncommissioned Officer In Charge] of the Xuan Loc convoy and would receive training from SGT Richard A. Creasy. I had a total of only “one” day of OJT [on the job training] before I officially took charge of the convoy run.

         The day of my first convoy run I went to the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment (ACR), TOC and a Major from the 11th ACR was my liaison. He was a pretty nice guy. He told me that if the convoy ever got into any trouble we had his full support and all his cavalry assets would be available to me. During one of my other visits to the TOC I was introduced to COL Patton ,(son of the famous WWII General George S. Patton, 3rd Army) who was the commander of the 11th ACR. No nonsense type of guy is what I remember of him.

         Another day Xuan Loc base camp had received incoming VC rockets the night before and the alert status was "high." There were twenty-one MP's standing around and we got called for a reaction force that spotted some VC outside the perimeter. We were given the job to chase them down. During our sweep we found the spot where they had placed their aiming stakes and also found some of their bunkers.

         While the unloading of the trucks occurred we would have several hours of down time. Most of the men wanted to chow down right away. We ate at a maintenance battalion and at first they were not very happy to have a bunch of MP's eating in their mess. We got that problem squared away right away, and that was some of the best army chow I have ever eaten. Shit, even the liver and onions were good! They said the cooks at the mess were mechanics, but did they ever know how to cook.

          Some of the of the men would try and find a bunk to nap on. Several times were got permission to use the firing range to fire our M-79's, and that was always a kick. After the test firing we would get new ammo for the return trip. Some of the men would read books or magazines, write letters home, drive around base taking in the sights, or visit the PX.

          For some strange reason there always seemed to be a case of cold Budweiser Beer around. I had an unwritten rule with the escort detail MP's that you could drink a few if you wanted to but no getting screwed up. I used to drive around and I was really impressed with all the versions of the tracks they had. If I was into combat arms, I would have gone armor."  SGT Gary A. Sundt, A Company, 720th MP Battalion, 89th MP Group, 18th MP Brigade, October 1967 to October 1968.