Posted by Robert A. Hopper on December 6, 2022:

I spent all of the year 1970 stationed at MACV headquarters in Vietnam, working in the communications division where Bgen Cheadle was in charge. I was a LCDR in the Navy at that time, working as the only Navy member in the J6 department, in an office of 2-3 Army, Air Force, and Marine Majors. Each week, the General would call a meeting and each of us would present a briefing of the status of his area of responsibility. I have never met an officer of any rank who could recall the details of each and every area, or make each of us feel like we had accomplished something. My area of responsibility was the military telephone system. Towards the end of 1970 we were getting serious about turning the war over to the Vietnamese. General Cheadle called me into his office and showed me a message he had received from the Air Force headquarters in Vietnam, requesting permission to turn over one of the telephone switches operated and maintained by the Air Force, to the Army of Vietnam (ARVN). The message indicated that the ARVN had been trained at the switch and we�re ready to take responsibility. Bear in mind that there were 52 switches in the system linked together by 11 tandem switches. Problems at one switch could degrade the whole system. Bgen Cheadle asked me to fly out to the switch and make sure that the ARVN was ready to take over the switch. I flew out to the switch and met with the AF Major in charge. He said that the ARVN members had reported in three weeks earlier and Had not been seen since. I asked where he thought they were and he replied that he heard that they had gone back to their civilian jobs. This same series of events happened one more time. Bgen Cheadle, representing MACV HQ Army 4 star General Abrams, did the right thing and in doing so, upset the USAF and retired as a one star general

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