Mortar feeder. Apparently either able to touch-type or unable to hump mortar ammo on his back or hack combat, and so pulled into the orderly room instead.
The 1st Cav Division was always the 1st Cav Division.
@DumbAss Tanker
I was in Jump School at Benning right at the time the 11th Airborne was activated at Benning to become the first "Airmobile Division". Being an E-2 at the time I was not aware of "army thinking",but I do know that somebody with many stars on his collar decided to leave the 11th ABN in Germany,and to bring the colors of the 1st Calvary Division from South Korea to Benning,and activate it as the "1st Air Calvary Division". PLEASE note that nothing but the unit colors and designation left Korea. The guys in Korea who had been in the 1st Calvary Division were still there,but now members of some other division that was unknown to me.
I graduated from jump school at roughly the same time the Army sent the 173rd Abn from Okinawa to VN,and the new "1st Air Calvary Division" was being populated,staffed,and trained to work as a unit with the new "airmobile tactics" to deploy to VN.
Everybody in my jump school class went to either the 173rd,or to the 1st Cav except for me and two other guys that went to the SWC at Bragg. I remember feeling sorry for the poor guys that went to the 1st Cav because they went through all the physical abuse of jump school,and ended up in a unit where they couldn't draw jump pay. At that time a Private got paid around 62 bucks a month,and jump pay added another 55 bucks to that,damn near doubling your pay. Looking back now I realize they probably got some sort of flight pay and didn't lose any money,but I didn't know that then.
I can't remember ever being around any 1st Cav bases or operations in VN,but we were sent to the 173rd base camp at Bong Song once to launch a snatch,or hit if the snatch wasn't possible,of a visiting NVA official if the local informer ever notified us he showed up,and after spending 4 or 5 days there waiting and watching the 173rd at their base camp,I stopped envying them. They were living like animals,while their CO lived in an air-conditioned mobile home brought in from the states. Being a large base the red clay roads saw a lot of traffic,and the dust was unbelievable. Meanwhile,the soldiers were living in large tents with the sides rolled up to allow ventilation,and sleeping on cots placed on wooden floors made from packing crates.
While there I witnessed what I later learned was the typical base camp "dog and pony show" . Evidently some unit from the 173rd had been in contact with a NVA/VC unit,and the CO was holding a press party after inviting the media there,and even having the soldiers haul in the bodies of the NVA/VC that were killed,and had them laid out for the tv cameras to see and record so it would appear the General and his staff had personally killed them. He held his little "look at me,ain't I great!" press conference,the tv cameras left,and the bodies were bulldozed into a mass grave they dug,and the General and his senior staff retreated to their air-conditioned officers club to celebrate.
Made me want to puke.