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months. Entire staffs of the commanding officers also changed as the Commander took over command he would bring along a new staff—so the XO—the Operations ( S-3)—Intelligence ( S-2 ), etc. were often moving into their new jobs in the middle of chaotic operations—as I did when I was brought on to Col. Sullivan’s staff as S-2 as the Fourth Marine Regiment was preparing for Operation Utah . I had been a platoon commander since Aug. 0f 1964—commanded the platoon with E/2/7 thru our training in Camp Pendleton—aboard ship on the way to Qui Nhon and thru the first six months of our combat experience in Qui Nhon and Chu Lai—I found myself moving into a staff assignment with people I didn’t know and in the middle of a chaotic situation serving with a ‘new’ battalion commanding officer
( Col. Sullivan ). Previous staff officers had been sent to the field to become Company Commanders, etc. I had a field desk with a few file folders and that was it. Within a couple of days I was part of the Col.s briefing meeting with his company commanders , senior NCO.s and other staff members and my job as S-2 was to bring the Battalion officers ‘up to date’ on the enemy intelligence to date. My point is this—I scraped my way thru that briefing—did the best I could with the limited info. I had been able to scratch together but I rated my briefing as unsatisfactory! The Company Commanders deserved better—they deserved a staff briefing by experienced, well informed staff members—not a first Lt. who had been yanked from a field position a couple of days before.
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