EDITOR'S NOTE: I knew Ray (then Lt Ambrozak) when I also served in the 16th at Deragawa in 1963. Ray was a career officer (20 years) and retired as a LTC. I hope to hear more from him to verify and also to give some specific accounts of his tour on Okinawa and in Vietnam. In a previous e-mail I had asked him if he knew of status of other officers in the unit. Below is an e-mail received from Ray in July 2005:
Tim:
Finally! I don't know whether I should thank you for your patience or apologize for the delayed response. Probably both - and I sincerely send you the thank you and the apology. It all has to do with my relationship with the computer which I'll save for another day.
How in the hell am I? Well, pretty damn good. Outside of a chronic lower back problem, I have enjoyed good health and expect to continue to do so since Ann watches my diet and I stay physically active. It is of course a good thing that I have the aching back so that I can commiserate with fellow cronies my age about aches and pains which is a staple of most seniors conversations. Your guess was right-on about my age (70 in Nov.)
Captain Lenoch, Lts Fletcher and Petzig were part of a long list of people I never heard of after that tour, like so many others at other duty stations. Yes, I did stay for 20. It would be interesting to know what happened to Fletcher. He was quite a remarkable young officer.
Interesting that you mention Rudy Koefet. In 1964 a team from B&VA went to Vietnam assigned to S.O.G. One of our team members Capt.. Al Harriman died in a chopper crash while supporting S.F. opns. His wife Judy's survivor assistance officer was Rudy Koefet, who she later married. Judy was a close friend of Ann's and will be at the reunion in September.
That 1964 visit to Vietnam was the first of three for me. In 1967 I was the operations officer for the 6th Psy Op Bn. which later became the 4th Psy Op Group and in 1971 served as the District Senior Advisor Phu Nhon, Pleiku Province . That year gave me enough war stories to go one on one with Audie Murphy. Actually, it was only an eleven month tour as I exited one month early with malaria. Spent over three years as an instructor in Psy Ops at the Special Warfare Center at Bragg. Do you think that qualifies for Professor Emeritus, Psychological Operations, Special Warfare Center .
I promise to exchange some experiences from that time with you soon. I have attached one of the items (Certificate of Appreciation) I dug out of my foot locker. It was the result of one of the projects that we undertook to help the villages near our compound.
Source: Ray Ambrozak
Harker Heights Texas