Story and photos submitted by Don Reber
Don Reber’s military service, as he said, “is still top secret, ask me maybe in another 50 years, and I may be able to tell you everything.”
Reber, born in February 1946, and reared in Mobile, Alabama, graduated from B.C. Rain High School in Mobile. He added, “B.C. Rain High School in Mobile was under construction during my high school years and we were bused to an old school that was downtown. Today, when you are driving to Gulf Shores, you literally drive over where that old school was just before you enter the tunnel. The interstate replaced the old school.”
Reber later attended the University of South Alabama after returning from military service.
Reber’s military service began just after his high school graduation in June 1964. He said, “The Army sent me on a bus to Montgomery, Alabama, for a physical exam and gave me several mental tests for evaluation. There was close to 500 recruits going through this process over a three day period.
On the final day of Reber’s evaluation, he was called out along with three other recruits for a “special assignment”.
Reber added, “We were escorted to a room where we were introduced to the Army Security Agency (ASA). We were told that we had been selected because of our high test scores and that we were just the type of recruit to work in the ASA on secret missions. They were pretty vague about what we would be doing but the “secret mission” got me, so I signed up for a four year hitch in the ASA.
“I later learned that the ASA was clothed, fed and housed by the U.S. Army. but our real bosses were NSA and CIA.
Reber’s next hitch was at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, for basic training. He added, “While I was training, the FBI was back in Mobile investigating my background. I think they interviewed everyone who ever knew me. “Four years later when I returned to Mobile after my service, everyone thought I had been in prison.
“When the FBI cleared me, the ASA gave me a Top Secret Crypto security clearance and sent me to Fort Devens in Ayer, Massachusetts. For the next six-and-a-half-months I received training in electronic surveillance and was taught to copy Morse code.
Reber and his group of recruits graduated from Fort Devens where very few people in the United States had ever heard of Vietnam. Reber said, “Almost all of my class had requested assignments throughout Europe but I requested to go to Vietnam. Mostly because my father was a WW II veteran and belonged to the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) and I wanted to join as well. No one in my class was sent to Europe, they all went with me to Vietnam. The war was just beginning to ramp up big time.”
Reber’s first 13 months was spent in Phu Bai which was just south of the DMZ line between the North and the South. His job there was to copy morse code transmitted by the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) and the Viet Cong (South Vietnamese Communist). He said, “The dominant part of the enemy communication involved supplies going into South Vietnam from North Vietnam through the Ho Chi Minh trail.
“There is much more that we did but I am still not allowed to talk about it. Some of what the ASA did in southeast Asia has been declassified but much is still classified. Ask me again in about another 50 years and maybe I can then tell you everything.”
As Reber was finishing his tour in Phu Bai, he requested and was approved to go to Bad Aibling, Germany, for his next assignment. He added, “Then, I was called to the commanding officer and was told that my name had been submitted to stay in Vietnam and transfer to Saigon to help develop a new unit that would use small aircraft for radio directional finding. I had my mind set to go to Germany and did not think I would want to stay in Vietnam but the commander told me I would have to go to Vung Tau to complete a flight physical.”
Reber’s first Bird Dog flight experience was in Vung Tau. He added, “Vung Tau is a beautiful beach resort area and I thought it would not hurt to spend three days there after working 12-on and 12-off for 13 months. On my second day in Vung Tau I went up with an Air Force captain in a Bird Dog aircraft. We located a target and fired his wing rockets to mark the area and he called in some F-100s for an air strike. It impressed me. As soon as I got back to Phu Bai, I went to the CO and told him, “Yes, I will stay in Vietnam and go to this air section assignment. That Bird Dog flight really got me excited.”
Upon arriving in Saigon, Reber learned that his new unit was now the 224th Aviation Battalion, 146th Aviation Company and he was part of the initial operation. He added, “The 146th served until the end of our involvement in this war and ultimately developed over 85 percent of all military intelligence gathered. The unit was awarded three Meritorious Unit Citations from the President of the United States. I am extremely proud to have been a part of the development of this unit.”
“Our missions required us to fly over enemy areas, copy their radio transmissions and get a fix on their exact locations. This in turn was provided to the commanding officers on the ground. The ASA pretty much knew where the enemy was, who they were, where they came from, where they were going and what they were going to do when they got there.
Reber was not a pilot in the service but he did get his pilot license after becoming a citizen again. He added, “That Bird Dog flight really, really impressed me!”
Reber added, “Ask me in another 50 years and I may be able to tell you everything. In the meantime much of my Vietnam story is available from Amazon in a book titled “Blessed are the Peacemakers” by Harry Locklear. The character in the book called Ron Deber is me.”
Reber served in the 146th Aviation for the next two years and three months. He was awarded 42 Air Medals and a Bronze Star, but the biggest reward of all was that he found his wife, Thuy.
Reber and Thuy married 51 years ago in Saigon and, “She blessed me with three wonderful children, two boys and a girl. They in turn have blessed us with seven grandchildren, six boys and one girl and now the granddaughter has blessed us with three great-grandchildren, two girls and one boy.”
Reber has worked for Sears, Roebuck and Company for 30 years and retired as a national director for installed home improvements. He was the president of Mastercraft Builders, a company in Jacksonville, Florida, for two years. Home Depot hired Reber to be the director of installed home improvements for the Southwest and he currently works with Coastal Culvert & Supply as well as runs Coastal Precast, Inc. in Eunice.
Thuy and Reber moved to Eunice in 2004 to watch their three grandsons from their daughter Mary Miller, and her husband, Dr. Randy Miller, grow up.
Over the years since his military service, Reber’s hobbies have been many, building airplanes, sailboats, oil painting, wood working are his biggest of the hobbies.
Reber was part owner of the “Old Quarter Gallery” in the French Quarter for 10 years. His paintings and prints are hanging on walls all over the world.
Reber has been the chairman of the Eunice Economic Development committee, served on the Chamber of Commerce board, and serves as the president of LSU Eunice board of business advisors. He serves as the junior vice commander of the VFW Post 8971. In June, He will officially become commander of the VFW Post 8971.
