Southern Cross information
for 196 BDE 23 INF
For date 711126
196 BDE 23 INF was a US Army unit
Primary service involved, US Army
Quang Nam Province, I Corps, South Vietnam
Location, Da Nang
Description: The following is an edited version of an article titled "Nowhere Man is RTOs life" by SP4 Sam Rousso 196th Brigade IO.
DA NANG - According to the song written, recorded and made popular by the Beatles, SP4 Thomas H. Stedding (Baltimore), who leads what a lot of us might call an unexciting life here, is a "Nowhere Man". Stedding is a draftee who was a clerk at and A&P supermarket before he entered the Army. Presently, he's a Radio Telephone Operator (RTO) in the 196th Infantry Brigade's S-3 Aviation Section. After entering the Army Nov. 30, 1970, he traveled a not-unusual route for a soldier Basic Combat Training (BCT) Advanced individual Training (AIT) and Vietnam. His particular AIT was five months long. At the end of it, after attending schools at Ft. Dix, N.J. and Ft. Gordon, Ga., he was a teletype operator. When Stedding arrived in the Republic of Vietnam, there weren't any slots for teletype operators, so the Army made him and RTO. A lot of people, including Stedding might think the job he has is dull and brab, but necessary. "We control slicks and hooks resupplying units in the field," he smilingly says of his job. "I can tell these pilots where to go and what to do all the time." Sometimes a very real urgency crops up in Stedding's work. "Once a bird went down right outside Hill 350. Three of us - SSG William Sears (St. Petersburg, Fla.), SP4 Fred Hug (Omaha, Neb.) and myself - were on duty. We got a dustoff bird there fast. The crew was in the dustoff chopper seven minutes after their own bird went down." In spite of an infrequent emergency which may mean life or death, Stedding, along with many other "nowhere men", continues to do his job in a professional manner. When you ask him about it, he says, "I guess putting a lot into your job makes the time go that much faster - so it seems that much sooner that you go home. And that's what I want to do-put in my time and go home." And that ain't nowhere man.
Photo Caption - CHOPPER CALL - SP4 Thomas H. Stedding (Baltimore) listens intently as a helicopter reports his present location and destination. (U.S. ARMY PHOTO BY CPT GEORGE F. HANLEY)
The source for this information was 7111_445_scr supplied by Les Hines 01/05/2000
Additional information is available on CD-ROM.
Please send additions or corrections to: Gary Roush Email address: webmaster@vhpa.org
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Last updated
12/18/2000
Date posted on this site:
05/13/2023