Any 7th RRFS Ramasun Station alumnae on the forum??

Monthly meetings, organizations, important dates to remember etc.
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cobraneck
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Any 7th RRFS Ramasun Station alumnae on the forum??

Post by cobraneck » June 25, 2012, 3:18 pm

Was there April '67 to May '68, just missed the tents by a few days, down at Suri Court going thru that mess before we flew up to Udorn. Was the first group to move into the barracks, worked in the HQ Building (HQ Co), distribution clerk, ran the forms, orders, official driver, etc. It was all red mud in those days, everything was new. Can't say I loved the place, or Thailand, but it was tolerable and processed out of the army after my tour. Was a draftee, sorry guys, only served 21 months...was great to be free after leaving there. Unfortunately I lived near Ft Belvoir, VA, and it was choppers and army all around for a long time.

Was the mail clerk when I first got there, but didn't get along with the jerks at the air base, so worked as the distribution clerk for the rest of the time. I was anything but a strack soldier, didn't care to put up with all the army beggars, but wasn't really a problem. We all got along.

Did cross the Mekong in a sampan a couple of times near Nong Khai, bribed my way into Laos up river a little, and spent the day shooting super 8 movies, and going thru the shops in Vientiene. I enjoyed that city, so different from Udorn. Udorn was like Dodge City then, drunks and crime, carried a shotgun pistol, a buddy of mine (ASA) in Chiang Mai was shot, but survived.

Glad to leave, but might be back fairly soon. Want to do some scuba diving off Krabi, some islands near there. Might wander up country and see what the 7th looks like now. Maybe not, so many ghosts and bad memories. Almost everyone I knew there have either been killed or died of cancer, like some curse of Udorn.

Enjoy,

John Harms



dbaker1945
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Any 7th RRFS Ramasun Station alumnae on the forum??

Post by dbaker1945 » June 28, 2012, 1:40 pm

7th RRFS, 98C and 05B (Linguist and Cryptanalyst) 1969-1970, lived in Non Song most of the time I was there. Great experience.

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FrazeeDK
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Post by FrazeeDK » June 30, 2012, 9:00 pm

Any 7th RRFS alumnae resident in the Udon area shoot me a PM if you'd like to go out for a beer and shoot the breeze.. Finally retired and at the homestead on the east side of town near the race track...
Dave

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Post by MSLADE » July 1, 2012, 4:20 pm

My name is Mike Slade, i was at the 7th from jun 69 to jun 70. I was the s-2 clerk in the office of intell & security. We issued badges to get into the ops compound. Worked with Fred Smella who was the head admin clerk. He was from Ohio. Our oic was a 2nd lt named David Greenwald and our head sargent was Jim Pica. My year there was one the more interesting years of my life. Work as a bar tender in the nco club during my off time. Was assigned to ft devens when i came home and spent my last two years in the service there. Would like to hear from anyone that was at the 7th when i was there. My e-mail [email protected] .

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Post by jingjai » November 14, 2012, 8:29 pm


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Post by thomaspettigrew » February 16, 2013, 4:28 pm

My name is Thomas Pettigrew. I had the fortune to spend a year (Aug 69-Aug70) at the 7th as an 05h20 (Morse Intercept Op) working in ops just before the raising of the elephant cage. It was my last year of my 4 years of active duty in the ASA. I have a video of some of the pictures that I took in and around Udorn from that year, maybe my favorite year of life. :-"




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parrot
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Post by parrot » February 16, 2013, 5:20 pm

Thom, that's a great addition to the forum. Thanks for posting the video!

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Post by Pete Nofel » March 15, 2013, 3:12 am

This Great Lakes stater was there for 12 months in '73-'74, about halfway through they built the new NCO club. Dandy overseas assignment. Would have been perfect if a bit closer to a bigger city.

Anyone have the definitive spelling of the town outside the front gate?

For a description of my time at Ramasun, see
http://www.redhottypewriter.com/FieldGu ... ailand.htm

An alumni page is at
www.83rdrrsou.org

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parrot
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Post by parrot » March 15, 2013, 4:42 am

"Anyone have the definitive spelling of the town outside the front gate?"

According to Wiki, the town is spelled Non Sung โนนสูง, but I wouldn't be surprised if there's a variety of signs spelling the transliterated name differently.

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FrazeeDK
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Post by FrazeeDK » March 15, 2013, 12:48 pm

and here is the former location of the 7th RRFS, which has been a Thai military post since the late 70's...http://www.flashearth.com/?lat=17.28941 ... =0&src=msa

and to add to Parrot's village spelling of Ban Non Soong... it means "high hill village".. Of course, it wasn't a particularly high hill but considering Udon about 15km to the north itself is pretty much flat as a pancake it is all relative..
Dave

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parrot
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Post by parrot » June 16, 2013, 8:38 pm

I came across an interesting piece in the Thai press today concerning Ramasun Station. Apparently, a reporter and some government officials came across some of the tunnels under what used to be the elephant cage at Ramasun. They did some research and discovered there may be not less than 10km of tunnels around the site. They said the site served as the biggest radar station serving Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War. Government officials now are seeking a budget to open a museum at the site for tourists to learn more about the history of the base.



http://www.pracharkomnews.com/ข่าวรายวั ... หารจีไอสม/

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Post by FrazeeDK » June 16, 2013, 8:50 pm

bwahahahahaha!! 10km of tunnels... Much like the rumors that there's gold in them thar' tunnels. Nope, there was a large tunnel that connected the Wullenweber FLR-9 antenna system to the operations building that was perhaps 200 meters SE of the large antenna system.. Numerous cables connected the various elements of the FLR-9 together but it wasn't through "tunnels"....
Dave

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Post by parrot » June 17, 2013, 9:56 am

Many moons ago, a retired AF guy contacted me from Belgium. He was coming for a visit and wanted to check out Ramasun. He asked if I could get him on the base.
The guard initially balked, then contacted his commander who agreed to let us on base, with the guard in the back of the truck.
We went to ops building.....long demolished with just a pile of rubble remaining. The detective in me quickly found scraps of grease pencil and a few headset pads among the rocks.....tell-tale signs. The guard asked us if we knew what was buried in the tunnels......he had heard of treasures, but said everyone was too frightened to venture inside.....snakes and ghosts.
Next stop, the NCO club. The Thai Army was using the front corner of the club as a canteen. We walked into what was the ballroom......stage and bar still in place. I swear I could detect ghosts of membership-nights past swirling around the stage.
Finally, our friend asked to see his barracks....one of the newly completed 3 story dorms (back in the early 70's). When we drove up, we noticed burlap hanging in each window....and when we walked up the steps to enter, we noticed the floor had a few inches of water. 'What's up?' my friend inquired......and as we turned into the first room, we noticed the building had been converted into a mushroom farm. My friend had tears in his eyes....he said the building had hardly been completed before the GIs closed the base.
When I read the Thai press article I was dismayed that the only info about the site was that it was a radar station. Maybe an extract from a 6922ESS website would be more appropriate: The "Elephant Cage" enabled the Animals to receive a clear signal on their R-390 from AFRTS and hear the latest tunes from the "World".

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Post by parrot » June 17, 2013, 11:07 am

There's this little tidbit in an article in today's BP about Snowden:
As a sidelight, the US official in charge of this effort, James Clapper, served in the US army in Thailand in the 1960s as commander of the super-secret Ramasun listening post in Udon Thani province. In...

Please credit and share this article with others using this link:http://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opin ... n-thailand. View our policies at http://goo.gl/9HgTd and http://goo.gl/ou6Ip. © Post Publishing PCL. All rights reserved.

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FrazeeDK
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Post by FrazeeDK » June 17, 2013, 7:57 pm

Yeah, except Ramasun was a U.S. Army commanded post and Clapper was USAF.. Wikipedia says he commanded a unit at the "listening post in Udon Thani Province" which would make him Squadron Commander of the Air Force Security Service 6294th... he also flew over 70 EC-47 Sigint missions in Thailand.. Did Udon have EC-47's or did they fly out of MKP??
Dave

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Post by parrot » June 17, 2013, 8:44 pm

The EC-47's flew out of Ubon and NKP. Only a few days after the Peace Accords were signed in January, an EC-47 (Baron 52) flew out of Ubon and was shot down over Laos. All 8 crewmembers were killed.
http://www.miafacts.org/baron52.htm
http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/ec47-02041973.htm

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Post by luangtom » June 22, 2013, 10:35 am

The EC-47's flying out of NKP and Ubon were with the 6994th Security Squadron, two different detachments. The ground-site for USAF at Ramasun Station was the 6924th Security Squadron and the ground-site at NKP was the 6908th.
The squadron-commander for the USAF at Ramasun was either a LTC or Col, depending upon which time-frame is being spoken of. The flight-commanders there were either 1LT or Capt.

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Post by jimboLV » June 22, 2013, 2:25 pm

It’s a small world after all. I wasn’t lucky enough to be stationed at Ramasun. In fact I wasn't allowed outside the US for two years after I was discharged, because of my clearance. I see a lot of familiar names like Arlington Hall Station and Vint Hill farms in these posts. I was stationed at Arlington Hall in the ’64 through ’66 time frame. It was mostly ASA types but I was lent out to DIA and for a brief period to CIA.

Vint Hill Farms was a “safe house” where we were told to report in case of an evacuation of the DC area. Supposedly they were set up so that we could continue our operations there.

So I’m sure that I probably crossed paths with some of the older ASA types at Ramasun although we didn’t mingle very much. I was nominally in the Army, but only on paper. I was in a loose knit gaggle of guys who held various sensitive positions around MDW. Even my “company commander” was an ASA guy who wasn’t even allowed in the building where I worked. In fact he didn't even know where I worked or what I was doing.

As I look back upon it, if I had been stationed in Thailand I would never have left. It took over 40 years before I visited Thailand and fell in love with it, so much so that eventually I retired here. :lol: But if I had been there, in my twenties and full of piss and vinegar, I’m sure I would have probably knocked up one or several of the local cuties. Either that or my bones would be rotting away in a Laotian jungle somewhere. :(

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Post by parrot » June 22, 2013, 3:02 pm

luangtom wrote:The EC-47's flying out of NKP and Ubon were with the 6994th Security Squadron, two different detachments. The ground-site for USAF at Ramasun Station was the 6924th Security Squadron and the ground-site at NKP was the 6908th.
The squadron-commander for the USAF at Ramasun was either a LTC or Col, depending upon which time-frame is being spoken of. The flight-commanders there were either 1LT or Capt.

The 6908th was affectionately known as Camp Tarbox.......for LtCol Tarbox, its first commander. I was there from 71-73. The unit worked the U-2 Olympic Torch and C-130 Comfy Gator missions.

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Post by ASAGI » August 15, 2013, 9:50 am

Basic at Ft. Leonard Wood, MO Sept. 1965-Nov. 1965
Ft. Devens, MA Dec. 1965-March 1966
Headquarters ASA, Arlington Hall Station, Arlington, VA, G3 clerk April 1966-April 1967
7th RRFS Udorn Thailand April 1967-April 1969 (early out)

Arrived to tent city. Moved to the new barracks after a few weeks.
Was clerk in S3 Ops building for about 8 months.
Then mail clerk for about 6 months.
The last year was S-1 clerk in Headquarters building. Drove the post commander around in his black car. Picked up dignitaries at Udorn Air Force Base. Yes, I had it made -- got out of parades, inspections, etc.

Also worked at Ramasun Theatre. Was projectionist the first year, and theatre manager my last year.

Still keep in contact to John Harms (California) and Bill McAtee (Alabama).
Lost contact with Al Skad (Medic) and Jon Safford (Personnel) Florida.

Dennis Udovich, Sheboygan, WI

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