Richard Trefry was born in Newburyport, Massachusetts in 1924, and grew up in Marblehead. After a year at Dartmouth, he was drafted into the Army in 1943. After attending radiosonde school at Washington National Airport, he was sent to a weather station at Ikateq, Greenland (“a bit short of the Arctic Circle”), where he spent the remainder of World War II. He received his Army commission at West Point, class of 1950, in field artillery. In 1958-1959, Trefry led an Honest John Battery (nuclear rockets) in Korea. In 1966, as a lieutenant colonel, he activated an artillery battalion at Fort Sill and took it to Vietnam where he helped the Marines build and christen Camp Carroll because his unit had the only guns (175mm howitzers) in country that could reach Khe Sanh from Dong Ha. Trefry recalls enduring in coming Russian 122-millimeter rocket attacks, Berliners stuffed with jelly, controlling fire direction centers, “the only radiosonde outfit on the DMZ,” and McNamara's 9-mile fairway (“a death trap”). He remembers his guys sinking a North Vietnamese ship, receiving the Navy Presidential Unit Citation, and asking if they could paint a ship on the guns. He describes running the war in Laos, being the contract vehicle for Air America, Continental Air Services, Bird Air, Royal Air Laos, and “one more,” and the “five separate armies in Laos” for which “we provided everything.”
Key Words: Newburyport, Massachusetts, Marblehead, Dartmouth, Mount Washington, Blue Hill Observatory, Westover Field, weather station, Republic Aviation, Farmingdale, Long Island, Washington National Airport, radiosonde school, Ikateq, Greenland, Comanche Bay, Adelaer, Cape Farewell, First Year at West Point, USMA, Greenland Base Command, Lafayette College, Pentomic Army, Honest John Battery, Armed Forces Staff College, Fort Sill, USNS General LeRoy Eltinge, Drake Victory, General Westmoreland, 12th Marines, Khe Sanh, Dong Ha, Camp Carroll, DIVARTY, American Military University, 122-millimeter rockets, MCB 7, fire direction center, ZP tent, Navy Presidential Unit Citation, Route 9, Savannakhet, Laos, pierced steel planking, Red Cross, Agent Orange, 175 artillery rounds, fuze quick, Gio Linh, Con Thien, Nha Trang, Malaysian Ministry of Defense, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore Ministry of Defense, Tally Ho, L-19, McNamara's 9-mile fairway, Rotary Clubs, Lions Clubs, War College, The Pentagon, Thailand, TAC (Tactical Officer), West Point, Dep Chief JUSMAG Thai, Deputy Commander Joint U.S. Military Advisory Group Thailand, Air America, Continental Air Services, Bird Air, Royal Air Laos, POM (Program Objective Memoranda), KGB, CIA, defect, force management, tactics, strategy, Leavenworth, Fort Belvoir, MPRI (Military Professionals Resources Inc.), MTOE (Modified Table of Organization and Equipment), TOE (Table of Organization and Equipment)
Key Names: President Roosevelt, Ray Winson, Dick Prescott, Al Gray, Lew Walt, John Chaisson, Ben Reed, Wood B. “Woody” Kyle, P.X. Kelley, Jack Vessey, LTG George Philip “Phip” Seneff Jr., Dick Stilwell, Don Bolton, Admiral Noel Gayler, Charlie Whitehouse, Brigadier General Soutchay Vongsavanh, Field Marshall Vang Pao, Ambassador George McMurtrie “Mac” Godley, John Gunther Dean