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Service Details |
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Current Service Status
USA Retired
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Current/Last Rank
Colonel
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Current/Last Service Branch
Cavalry
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Current/Last Primary MOS
12C-Cavalry Officer
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Current/Last MOS Group
Cavalry
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Primary Unit
1977-1979, 12C, HHT, 1st Squadron, 4th Cavalry
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Previously Held MOS
1204-Armored Reconnaissance Unit Commander
1542-Infantry Unit Commander
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Service Years
1961 - 1987
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What are you doing now:
Officially retired priest of the Episcopal Church in the Diocese of Virginia, but have been asked to be the long term supply priest for the mountain missions of St George, Stanley, and St Paul, Shenandoah, both on the western slopesof the Blue Ridge Mountains in the Shenandoah Vallley of Virginia. I wasn't made for retirement.
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Other Comments:
Miss the Army every day.
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1962-1963, 1204, HHT, 3rd Reconnaissance Squadron, 12th Cavalry
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1964-1965, 1204, C Troop, 3rd Squadron, 12th Cavalry
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1966-1967, 1542, 1st Infantry Division
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1966-1967, 1204, B Company, 1st Battalion, 2nd Infantry
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1966-1967, 1542, 1st Brigade, 1st Infantry Division
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1974-1977, 1204, Department of the Army (DA)
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1977-1979, 12C, 1st Infantry Division
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1977-1979, 12C, HHT, 1st Squadron, 4th Cavalry
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Reflections on COL Dillard's
US Army Service
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PLEASE DESCRIBE WHO OR WHAT INFLUENCED YOUR DECISION TO JOIN THE ARMY.
I was sent off to Georgia Military Academy in College Park, GA, in 1955 ostensibly to get a better education, but my parents really wanted to get me out of their way so they could enjoy my 5 years younger brother more.
GMA was the best thing that happened to me. I thrived academically and physically in a disciplined military environment. And especially because I was away from a less than nurturing home environment. I became a good friend of Al Agnew at GMA, later a naval aviator who was the last one taken prisoner in the Vietnam War in 1972 and the last released the next year. Al introduced me to his best friend and neighbor, Betsy Lester, whom I married in 2012. For over half a century we were casualties of my parents actions.
GMA led me to think seriously about West Point, which I entered in June 1957. From 1957 on I wished only to become a professional soldier in the US Army. I was commissioned in June 1961.and was assigned to 3rd Squadron, 12th Cavalry, 3rd Armored Division, stationed in Buedingen, Germany, following the Basic Course, Ranger, and Airborne Schools.
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WHETHER YOU WERE IN THE SERVICE FOR SEVERAL YEARS OR AS A CAREER, PLEASE DESCRIBE THE DIRECTION OR PATH YOU TOOK. WHERE DID YOU GO TO BASIC TRAINING AND WHAT UNITS, BASES OR SQUADRONS WERE YOU ASSIGNED TO? WHAT WAS YOUR REASON FOR LEAVING?
My joy and delight was serving with troops, and I never had enough of it -- schools instructing, and higher and higher levels of staff work interfered.
My first assignment was with 3rd Squadron, 12th Cavalry, 3d Armored Division, in Germany. I served under interesting troop and squadron commanders. Most were brave and gallant soldiers: Lt Colonels (later Colonels)James H.Leach and Dewie T. Pfeiffer with whom my path crossed at times during the Vietnam War years. I was squadron communications officer, later adjutant, at both of which I was a walking disaster.
I loved being a cavalry platoon leader, troop executive officer and especially troop commander. As CO of C troop I was given the task of training all the infantry in the squadron, including mortars. 1st Sergeant Joe Latour and I had a great time letting our sergeants do the individual training -- we won the 3rd Armored Division Trainfire Trophy in 1964 and in the winter of 1964-1965 we established the first Mechanized Infantry Squad Proficiency Course at Wildflecken Training Area., the only one in 7th Army, I believe.
(14 years later, when I returned to Germany on REFORGER 79, as CO, 1st Squadron, 4th Cavalry, 1st Infantry Division we staged out of Baumholder and there an old friend, the ADC of the 8th ID told me of their efforts to establish a MISPC course for the 8th Infantry Division. The Army did reinvent the wheel.
All too soon, back to CONUS and the Career Course at Ft Knox, a nice rest for what lay ahead. Then to Vietnam 1966-1967:
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IF YOU PARTICIPATED IN ANY MILITARY OPERATIONS, INCLUDING COMBAT, HUMANITARIAN AND PEACEKEEPING OPERATIONS, PLEASE DESCRIBE THOSE WHICH MADE A LASTING IMPACT ON YOU AND, IF LIFE-CHANGING, IN WHAT WAY?
Following Germany in 1965, was the Career Course, followed by an assignment to Vietnam 1966-1967 and the 1st Infantry Division. For several months until just after Thanksgiving, I was the Assistant G3 Plans Officer at Division Headquarters.
Vietnam 1966-1967: Was first assigned to hQ, 1st Infantry Division, in G3 Plans. I became the 1st ID project officer for bringing ashore and into Vietnam the 9th Infantry Division, the 196th Light Infantry Bde, and the 1st Bn, 34th Armor. Certainly kept me busy. But also made me too well known around HQ and I became the CGs fireman/hatchet man, delivering private messages and orders in the way that generals have when they don't want a confrontation or argument, or whatever reason. Rather heady for a young captain with less than two years in grade. I worked directly for two terrific officers, the G3s of the Division, Alexander M.Haig and Paul Gorman.
During Operation Attleboro/Battle Creek I was the ad hoc S3 of the ad hoc Brigade "Task Force Dixie, commnded by Colonel Edward B. Kitchens, the 1st Division Chief of Staff, charged with covering the Division Tactical Area of Operations while the rest of the division, minus one infantry battalion, went off to chase main force VC units in the 25th Div TAOR. We had the 2d Bn, 2nd Infantry, part of one tank battalion, 2 battalions of Vietnamese Regulars and Vietnamese artillery.
And then one evening General Depuy's aide came for me to get over to the CG's office. "What for," I asked. "He didn't tell me but you better get over there right now. I did!
When I dashed into the CG's office and reported he asked me to sit down and then told me he wanted me to take a helicopter in the morning and fly up to the Minh Tanh rubber plantation and 1st Battalion, 2nd Infantry, to be interviewed by Lt Col William C S Simpson about becoming his B Company Commander.
"But, general," I said, "I'm slated to take command of C Troop of the 1st Squadron, 4th Cavalry, in a month or two."
His response was his wintry smile and "No, captain, you don't understand! You be on that helicopter first thing in the morning."
At that point I received the message loud and clear. I stood up, saluted, and said, "yes sir!"
Not really yet understanding what was going on inside of what was happening, I believed my going to the division cavalry squadron, the famous Quarterhorse, was still in the cards. After all, Bill Simpson and I had clashed when he was the XO of 2nd brigade over the move of that brigade to Di An near division headquarters. I've long forgotten the issue but the "discussion" emded with my being told I had overstepped my bounds, etc. I got the last word: "Yes, sir!" So I believed that would prevent me from joining his battalion.
But as soon as the aircraft landed, Simpson dismissed the pilot to return in the morning, saying that they wanted to keep me with them overnight to learn more about the battalion. It was like old home week. I had been had -- it was already a done deal and I wasn't about to protest to the CG. So very shortly -- two days later, I think, I joined the battalion.
Thus, despite being an armor officer I was given command of B Company, 1st Battalion, 2nd Infantry, part of 1st Brigade at Phuoc Vinh.
It is important to remember the background to this. As I recall, when General Depuy took command of the division, the battalions had gotten rather sloppy; it was the time of the transition from those who had deployed with the Division from Fort Riley, KS, to an entirely new division at all levels. Casualty rates climbed. To rectify this the CG acquired two new Assistant Division Commanders, Brigadier Generals James F Hollingsworth and then Bernard W Rogers. (I was sent from the G3 shop to meet Rogers at Tan Son Nhut and escort him to division headquarters. He first wanted to make an aerial reconnaissance of the division Tactical Area of Operations and we became acquainted.)
The CG then began methodically replacing the chain of command of brigades, battalions, and companies where he felt it necessary. That was how Bill Simpson became my battalion commander and how I became his B Company commander. It was the last move in the changeover.
I learned much later that the CG made these changes based on his experience in World War II as a G3 in a headquarters of a unit where the leadership wasn't up to snuff, casualties soared, and operations failed.
A brutal but effective step.
I loved being an infantry company commander and learned quickly enough what it was about. We were in the jungle on combat operations almost every day for weeks at a time, it seemed, and I learned well the saying, "Happiness is a cold LZ!" and to move to the sound of musketry. My platoon leaders were good men, several excellent, and 1st Sergeant Larry Dahle (later Command Sergeant Major Dahle) was the best first sergeant I ever knew and I knew many good ones.
We fought in Operations Manhattan, Junction City 1, and Junction City 2, the major operations that I remember as most significant. There were many other smaller ones.
I remember one particular operation (may have been Manhattan) when the battalion was driving from through the jungle the Minh Tanh rubber plantation to the Michelin rubber plantation. B Company was in the lead, as usual (we were also usually lead company and first into LZs and last out of an operation.). We had a scout dog handler team attached to us. When we were within a kilometer or so of the Michelin, the dog alerted and the handler signaled to my lead platoon, "Get down!", which they did without hesitation. When the VC claymore went off, that wonderful scout dog was killed, but the handler and B Company were safe. AS soon as we reached a usable LZ we called in a chopper to take the handler back to his scout dog unit.
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