Scope and Contents

Approximately one linear foot of documents detail Colonel Raymond Battreall's service in Vietnam as Senior Advisor to various ARVN commands from May 1967 through March 1973. Date ranges of the documents are from 1966 through 1996 and are arranged chronologically through the folders. Colonel Battreall's thesis is included.

Biographical / Historical

Colonel Battreall arrived in Vietnam as a Captain in May 1967 and was assigned as Senior Advisor, 4th ARVN Cavalry with its Headquarters just outside Da Nang. He was promoted to Major and at mid-tour promoted to Lieutenant Colonel when he was reassigned to Saigon as Senior Advisor to Armor Command. In this position he advised in the employment of armor units countrywide; suggest improvements to Infantry Division commanders; recognize the need for more armor units and justify them to the Joint General Staff and MACV; organize, equip, and train new units and deploy them to the division or corps which needed them. Colonel Battreall returned to Vietnam in 1970 as a full Colonel. He served at the Armor Command Headquarters in the village of Go Vap just east of Tan Son Nhut airport and was instrumental in increase of ARVN armor from six to seventeen squadrons as well as the organization of three medium tank battalions and four Armor Brigades. During the 1972 Easter Offensive, Colonel Battreall was in the area south of Quang Tri and assisted in the destruction of one of the North Vietnamese armored columns on Highway 1 south of the 17th parallel. Colonel Battreall was wounded in action during the offensive but returned to action five months later in Saigon as Chief of Staff, Army Advisory Group, which was intended to be the Army component of a joint MAAG which would stay on after MACV closed down. Instead, Colonel Battreall ended up attending the MACV deactivation ceremony and was one of the last to leave Vietnam.