Son of an Army brigadier general, and brother to U.S. Air Force ace fighter pilot Brigadier General Robin Olds, as a 30-year-old Navy lieutenant, Fred Olds was assigned to Task Group 116.1 under Commander, Naval Forces Vietnam to “handle all the intelligence for the Vietnamese Navy and the U.S. Navy in the Mekong Delta.” When he volunteered for action in Vietnam he had earned an advanced degree in oceanography/meteorology from the Naval Postgraduate School, and had been the staff meteorologist and oceanographer for Amphibious Group Three. En route to Vietnam he attended intelligence officer school at Fort Holabird, Maryland. His education pre-destined him to coordinate the first complete oceanographic survey of the Mekong Delta in 1966, which resulted in the first 1:25,000 scale combat charts with oceanographic overlays for use by the Mobile Riverine Force. He also coordinated Agent Orange operations with province chiefs and the U.S. Air Force as the Navy’s defoliation coordinator. Olds discusses safe houses and setting up informant networks, flying in AC-47 Spooky’s and L-19 Bird Dogs, his living conditions in Can Tho and local sanitation issues. He was the only naval officer aware of Arc Light missions in the Mekong Delta to warn off PBR patrols from protentional friendly fire incidents.

Key Words: Langley Field; Command & General Staff School (CGSC); USS Lloyd Thomas (DD/DDE-764); USS Luce (DLG-7/DDG-38); Patrol Boat, Riverine (PBR); Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape (SERE); Naval Forces, Vietnam COMNAVFORV; Fort Holabird, Maryland; Can Tho; Meyerkord Hotel, Saigon; L-19/O-1 Bird Dog; Landing Ship, Tank (LST); River Assault Group (RAG); sanitation; U-Minh Forest; Operations DECKHOUSE V and VI; Cu Lao Gieng island; PRC-25 radio; AC-47 Spooky (aka "Puff, the Magic Dragon"); safe houses; Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD); LCM-6 (Landing Craft Mechanized, Mark 6; "Mike Boat"; Naval Intelligence Liaison Officers (LNO); “Hades”, defoliants and herbicides, Operation RANCH HAND; B-52, Arc Light; forward air control (FAC); Australians at Long Xuyen; Stars and Stripes; Operation GAMEWARDEN; Seawolves.

Key Names: COL Edmund K. Sterling, Maj Gen Robert C. Olds, Brig Gen William "Billy" Mitchell, Anne Wilson Post Sterling, Helen Sterling, Brig Gen Robert “Robin” Olds Jr., Eloise Wichman Nott, Samuel Pierpont Langley, Nina Gore Auchincloss, Gen Curtis Emerson LeMay, Gilbert Hovey Grosvenor, ADM David H. Bagley, LT Harold Dale Meyerkord, LTG William R. Desobry; Charlie Banks; John Wayne; Bob Hope; Major Frank Camp.