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by Lori S. Stewart, USAICoE Command Historian
USAINTS REP REPORTS ON VIETNAM STAFF VISIT
On Mar. 20, 1967, Lt. Col. Edmund W. Shannon, a staff member at the U.S. Army Intelligence School (USAINTS) at Fort Holabird, Maryland, submitted a trip report regarding his two-week-long staff visit to Vietnam. His recommendations led to immediate changes in the training provided by the schoolhouse.
On Mar. 4, 1967, Lt. Col. Edmund Wister (“Wis”) Shannon arrived in Saigon to visit deployed intelligence units throughout South Vietnam. A 43-year-old Texan with twenty-five years in the military, Shannon had plenty of combat experience from his deployments in World War II, Korea, and an earlier tour in Vietnam. His purpose in Vietnam this time, however, was more institutional. First, he hoped to establish a conduit between the schoolhouse and the combat forces to share feedback and relevant information on intelligence operations and personnel. Second, he wanted to gauge the quality of training USAINTS had provided its graduates currently deployed in Vietnam. A corollary to the first two objectives was his directive to gather data that would allow the schoolhouse to update the relevancy and effectiveness of its training for future personnel scheduled to be assigned to Southeast Asia.
After two weeks on the ground in Vietnam, Colonel Shannon returned to Fort Holabird and typed up his trip report. The first part of his two-page report addressed the first two objectives. He confidently reported, “Military Intelligence commanders and other key personnel contacted were in general agreement that USAINTS graduates had an excellent grasp of basic concepts and procedures” and were “performing in an excellent manner.” To better understand how the schoolhouse could improve its training, he asked intelligence unit personnel to review and comment on the current officer and enlisted course programs of instruction. He also provided the school’s graduates with questionnaires about their preparedness for their duties in-country. Intelligence commanders also promised to forward pertinent information, such as lessons learned and after-action reports, to USAINTS on a more timely and regular basis.
The second part of Shannon’s report focused on four deficiencies critical to the intelligence effort in Vietnam: the lack of adequate Vietnamese and, to a lesser extent, French linguists; incorrect handling of indigenous interpreters by American non-linguist personnel; lack of understanding of the scope and complexity of the Vietnam problem; and misunderstandings concerning the authorized use and disbursement of Intelligence Contingency Funds. While the first of these deficiencies fell outside USAINTS’ mission, Colonel Shannon recommended the school’s courses add time and weight to the other topics, particularly the history, customs, geography, ethnic groups, and military forces within both South and North Vietnam, as well as the interrelationships of the myriad intelligence agencies operating in the country.
The USAINTS commander, Col. Richard S. Smith, directed immediate consideration of Colonel Shannon’s recommendations. By mid-February 1968, the Department of Area Studies had built and implemented an 88-hour Southeast Asia Orientation Course covering all the topics Shannon recommended. The course, taught by instructors with experience in Vietnam, was offered twenty-two times per year. Each class was maxed out at fifty officers, warrant officers, and enlisted personnel on orders for Vietnam, Thailand, and other countries in the region. A six-week Tactical Intelligence Staff Officer Course was also launched to better prepare intelligence officers for duties at battalion, brigade, and division levels. Finally, two interrogation courses—one for linguists and one for non-linguists—were developed with enhanced instruction in handling indigenous interpreters. For all these courses, a highly detailed tabletop replica of a Vietnam village was built for use in planning field training exercises.
To ensure information about Southeast Asia was readily available to all students, the Office of Doctrine and Literature published a Vietnam Information Booklet, and USAINTS produced a monthly “Intelligence Operations Lessons Learned” newsletter with extracts from after-action reports sent back by intelligence units in-country.
Colonel Shannon, who retired shortly after concluding his trip, must have been gratified by the changes he believed “would result in the USAINTS graduates reaching greater operational effectiveness within a short time after arrival in-country.”
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| Date Taken: | 03.14.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 03.14.2025 14:56 |
| Story ID: | 492926 |
| Location: | US |
| Web Views: | 48 |
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