149th MI Group supports field operations in Vietnam

Courtesy Photo | The 149th MI Group supported Operation FAIRFAX, a counterinsurgency operation, from November 1966 to December 1967 (courtesy photo).  

SIERRA VISTA, AZ, UNITED STATES

12.02.2022

Courtesy Story

U.S. Army Intelligence Center of Excellence

by Michael E. Bigelow, INSCOM Command Historian

On Dec. 10, 1966, Col. William O. Peak, the second commander of the 149th Military Intelligence Group, issued a weekly report of significant activities. It captured the activities of the group’s three battalions, especially their coordination with American and South Vietnamese army units.

Only six months earlier, the Army had activated the group to provide intelligence support to expanding American ground forces in South Vietnam. Organized as a collection unit, the new group had an authorized strength of 55 officers, one warrant officer, and 133 enlisted Soldiers. After deployment training, it departed for Vietnam in two increments. The first 92 personnel left for Vietnam in August 1966, arriving on Sept. 1. The rest followed in November.

In 1965 and 1966, the theater-level 525th Military Intelligence Group relied heavily on numerous attached small teams and detachments to perform its human intelligence (HUMINT) mission. This included bilateral operations with the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN). Although it was designed to be more than simply a single-source organization, once in Vietnam, the 149th MI Group assumed responsibility for HUMINT operations. It absorbed the mission and assets of the existing teams and detachments. Throughout the remainder of 1966, the 149th MI Group, under the direction of the 525th MI Group, consolidated and refined theater-level HUMINT.

As one Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (MACV) intelligence guide noted, the 149th MI Group “provides area intelligence support to MACV and MACV subordinate commands through the Group headquarters in Saigon and Regional, Field and Resident offices throughout the RVN [Republic of Vietnam].” The nature of this mission made it difficult for the group commander to effectively use his various sub-units as originally designed. Consequently, he restructured the group along functional lines corresponding with operational tasks.

By early October 1966, the group had organized three battalions. The first, the Bilateral Battalion, worked closely with the South Vietnamese 924th Support Group to ensure a combined collection—especially HUMINT — effort. This battalion was organized into five regions and then further divided into teams. The Unilateral Battalion was the group’s second unit, and, as the name implies, it orchestrated intelligence to directly meet the needs of American units. The battalion had four companies, each corresponding to a military region. These companies established liaison teams with the American divisions and separate brigades. The last battalion was the Special Operations Battalion, which executed the group’s compartmented field operations.

Despite this shake-up, Peak and his Soldiers hit the ground running. It established an early warning network of agents around the 1st Cavalry Division’s perimeter. By the end of October, the group had produced 2,428 information reports. Peak measured the effectiveness of these reports in terms of whether they provided early warning for units or prompted a combat response. In his Dec. 10 report, he outlined how group information warned of four impending attacks and provided seven targets to bomb or shell. Moreover, the group reduced the delivery times of its information reports to the MACV analysts from eight days to one.

For its first year of operation, Peak’s group was awarded a meritorious unit commendation. The citation noted the group’s “vital information…usually resulted in positive proven loss of enemy personnel, equipment, materiel, and morale.” Later the group played an important role in the successful Operation Cedar Falls in early 1967.

Despite this success, Maj. Gen. Joseph McChristian, the MACV J-2, reorganized his intelligence assets into a more streamlined group headquarters and provisional battalions to support each of the military regions. With the reorganization, the 149th MI Group was inactivated in September 1969.

• Date Taken: 12.02.2022
• Date Posted: 12.05.2022 17:12
• Story ID: 434562
• Location: SIERRA VISTA, AZ, US