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Vietnam RTO


mower66
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Hi all....i'm after info on the type of bags/packs used to hide the radio so as the RTO didn't become a "Bullet Magnet".

All comments and suggestions are welcome.

Kev

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Anything could of been used. Misc stuff just strapped over it.

 

But I dont think grunt RTOs really tried to completely hide their radios. I never asked any vets about it but if you look at pictures, most of the gear strapped to it is just because there was nowhere else to put the stuff. And the radio is still exposed enough to be obvious. Same thing when they were in rucks. Just so much stuff needed to be carried, it was the last spot to put it. RTOs were deffinetly a target but the guys in charge they had to always follow around were even better ones. And the VC/NVA were not stupid. Even if completely hidden, they would of been able to spot an RTO just by the way he acted and the antenna and handset if they had time to observe. Many guys saw some RTO jobs as actually one of the easier ones. You never walked point and always just suck with the commander or leader.

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Thanks for your reply....

Obviously it would be wrong to hide the radio in a Marine pack if i wanted to present it as Army.

Maybee i should have been more specific to start with...sorry....so any available pack/canvas cover that was available could of been used....there was no issued bag for the radio?

It just shows how little i know when i thought i knew so much.... :unsure:

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There was no issue bag for covering up the radio. If an RTO wanted to hide his radio, he would of used what he had.

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I've seen a few pics of RTOs with the radio in an M-41 pack and thier personal gear below in buttpacks, knap sacks, etc.

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Tough to hide either the antenna, or the handset, which was usually in you ear. SKIP

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pompa mike

I got to thinking about it. I was in the service after Vietnam, We used the PRC 77 on foot patrols along the German Border, That thing would be darned hard to hide, particularly the antenna, and I do recall that those radios were sensitive about their antenna's. I guess if I were on a combat patrol I'd love to hide the radio but I think it would be pretty obvious that a person had a radio. Interesting question though.

 

Kinda off topic, I recall being in Germany when a Sergeant from another troop defected to East Germany with a PRC 77 radio attached to an encoding device, I think the East Germans sent him back (minus the radio and encoder) a few months later. I bet that guy would love to hide that radio.... He got a pretty substantial prison sentence for that move.

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it is from a 9th infantry soldier, i found this in a vietnam veterans site.

 

Radio operators were a preferred target so most of us made attempts to camouflage it. We bent the flexible antenna down through a ring on the front of the shoulder strap so it wouldn't stick up like a flag pole. I liked to break up the outline by hanging a machete on the right side and C-rations rolled up in a poncho on the back. On the left side I strapped a segmented long whip antenna wrapped in an olive drab towel and a sock filled with rice for cooking. It was a good, tightly strapped, well positioned arrangement. It was a heavier load than before but it was more manageable than the old collection of stuff.
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Who needs "Google" when one has the information from the "Forum".

I have read that the radio was semi hidden when possible...but with what....that i didn't know

One thing i havn't tried is putting my PRC25 into my Tropical Ruck.....the medium Alice pack has a pocket/facility for this, but thats diversing from the subject.

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One feature I liked about the 25 & 77 was in a least the US, you could pick up TV stations in the 32-38 frequency ranges. Can't remember exact freq. It was nice when you were really bored, or there was a football game on tv. SKIP

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Another problem with hiding the radio is that you had to look like everyone else for it to work. And look like you had the same amount of equipment. If a unit was all carrying heavy rucks loaded with lots of gear, then it would of been easy to just put equipment around it to hide the radios body, or at least part of it. But rucks werent always used (web gear). And even if a unit was carrying rucks, they were going to drop them in firefights or short patrols, using just webgear. And if everyone is using webgear and you have a pack on, no matter how well its hidden, the RTO is pretty obvious.

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