Combat Communications Tim "CAPVet" Duffie CAC Papa 2/4, 1967

"This is Rambo 1...I can't hear you...repeat your last...Over!"

With that comment, true warriors, those who honed their fighting skills someplace other than Sweden during the Vietnam War, turn to someone next to them who is watching Sylvester Stallone play warrior on the big screen and whisper, "Everyone knows that repeat is only used for artillery!"

In all aspects of life there is a snobbery in doing something well...doing it right....and holding those lesser mortals in contempt when they flub it up. Such is the case with Combat Communications. Those of us who did it, and did it well, took great pride in our craft. Even today, 35 years later, comrades will comment regarding various times when accurately placed artillery saved our lives.

I take great pride in that.

Combat Communications is a relatively refined "art" form, primarily designed to eliminate potentially fatal misunderstandings. Hence, the phonetic alphabet of

Alpha ... Bravo ... Charlie ... Delta ... Echo ... Foxtrot ... Golf ... Hotel ... India ... Juliet ... Kilo ... Lima (leema) ... Mike ... November ... Oscar ... Papa ... Quebec (Kee-bec)... Romeo ... Sierra ... Tango ... Uniform ... Victor ... Whiskey ... Xray ... Yankee ... Zulu

Additionally, calling in coordinates for artillery, night ambush locations, and daily patrols, required numerical accuracy to assure there was no accidental contact between friendly units. Therefore, since 5 and 9 can sound similar on a static filled radio frequency...

• 5 was "five"
• 9 was "niner"..

In the movies, when you hear a combat radioman calling in coordinates as "...three....seven....four....nine....", etc., you can turn to the person next to you and whisper, "It's supposed to be niner!", thereby ruining the movie for everyone around you.

As for Sylvester's mistake in the Rambo series, "repeat" was only used for artillery. If memory serves me correctly, the sequence was:

• Fire one: when we called in an artillery mission, we would first ask for one round to see how close it was to the target. Sort of an acid test of our map reading capabilities!

• Adjust and fire one: the requesting unit then adjusted in 100 yard increments "Up", "Down", "Left" or "Right" from their perspective. The artillery unit was responsible for plotting the "friendly" location, listen to the adjustment, then adjust fire accordingly. "Left 1" simply told the artillery unit to adjust the fire left 100 yards from the perspective of the field unit.

  In theory, the unit requesting artillery would continue to "fire one" until the artillery was zeroed in on the target.

• Repeat your last...fire for effect: no further adjustment; destroy the target, usually a multiple round salvo.

"Say again your last" is used exclusively when you couldn't clearly hear the other party.

So, in the movies when you hear Sylvester Stallone, or any other hard charging warrior/actor say, "....repeat your last....over...." , you can look knowingly at someone near you and say, "Repeat is only used for artillery!"

The following pages are reproductions of some specific incidents submitted by Ted Zoutis, CAP Delta 6. He opens by explaining some of the verbal gymnastics the CAP Units went through after they became mobile. Less well defended than were the early permanent CAPS each night, they established a long set of code words to tell those in the rear where they would be each night.

Hopefully some will find these stories of interest, showing, as they do, the "inside" of the war.

• Delta 6

• Units & Histories
• CAP Web Site Home Page