Quang Trung National Training Center
| Quang Trung National Training Center | |
|---|---|
| Hóc Môn district, Saigon, Vietnam | |
 Flag of the Quang Trung National Training Center | |
| Coordinates | 10°51′11″N 106°37′41″E / 10.853°N 106.628°E |
| Type | Military Academy |
| Site information | |
| Owner |  Vietnamese National Army Army of the Republic of Vietnam |
| Site history | |
| Built | 1953 |
| In use | 1953–1975 |
| Battles/wars |  Vietnam War |
Quang Trung National Training Center was a basic training school of the South Vietnamese Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN). It was located in the Hóc Môn district northwest of the capital Saigon.
History[edit]
The center was originally established in 1953 and located on Highway 1 approximately 16km northwest of Saigon.[1]
In the mid-1950s, the Quang Trung Training Center was the principal ARVN training establishment providing eight weeks of basic training to all recruits and reservists and advanced courses to infantry soldiers. It had an annual capacity of approximately 24,000 (or about 8,000 at any one time).[2]: 14 [3]: 285 In 1956 the commanding general was described by the US Army attache as a "pompous, fat, stupid man ... who will do anything to increase his personal fortune." He was reportedly financing a brothel run by his mistress.[3]: 285 In 1959 US advisors assessed that the hours devoted to various subjects were not sufficient for the draftee to properly absorb the instruction, this was particularly true of marksmanship.[3]: 345
In January 1957 the ARVN Transportation School, located at Thủ Đức Military Academy was temporarily split. The regional driver and second echelon mechanic courses moved to Quang Trung, while the rest of the school remained at Thủ Đức. In September 1958, the school was consolidated back into one location at Quang Trung. The school's mission remained essentially the same as when it was established in 1955, training drivers, mechanics and noncommissioned officers, but it now had an increased training capacity of 700 students.[2]: 34
During 1964 recruit training was drastically changed. At the beginning of the year plans called for the training of 30,000 recruits at the Quang Trung, and in January the Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (MACV) advisory group recommended that the programs of instruction for basic combat training and advanced individual training be revised to eliminate duplication and correspond more closely to counterinsurgency requirements. This extensive revision was accomplished by March. In May 1964 MACV recommended that recruit training be expanded from Quang Trung to four other national training centers and to the Ranger Training Center at Dục Mỹ Camp.[2]: 144–5
In 1967 following an investigation by the Joint General Staff (JGS), Colonel Vu Ngoc Tuan, commandant of the center, was found to have used military real estate, materiel and trainee labor to build an ice-making plant nearby. Tuan and several other officers, including the director of the Central Logistics Command, General Nhon were relieved and demoted.[4]: 230
In June 1971 the JGS Central Training Command introduced a six-week method of instruction course for military instructors at Quang Trung.[2]: 105
On 29 April 1975 the People's Army of Vietnam 10th Division attacked the center as it moved down Highway 1 to attack Tan Son Nhut Air Base.[5]
After the Fall of Saigon, the center was used as a re-education camp for South Vietnamese military and government personnel.
List of Commandants[edit]
- Colonel Vu Ngoc Tuan
- General Le Ngoc Trien[4]: 364
- General Hoang Van Lac
- General Phạm Văn Phú (1973-November 1974)[6]
References[edit]
- ^ Kelley, Michael (2002). Where we were in Vietnam. Hellgate Press. p. 430. ISBN 978-1555716257.
- ^ a b c d Collins, James (1975). The Development and Training of the South Vietnamese Army, 1950-72 (PDF). Department of the Army.
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
- ^ a b c Spector, Ronald (1985). Advice and support: The early years 1941-1960. Department of the Army. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
- ^ a b Clarke, Jeffrey (1998). The U.S. Army in Vietnam Advice and Support: The Final Years, 1965-1973 (PDF). U.S. Army Center of Military History. ISBN 978-1518612619. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
- ^ Military History Institute of Vietnam (2002). Victory in Vietnam: A History of the People's Army of Vietnam, 1954–1975. trans. Pribbenow, Merle. University of Kansas Press. p. 418. ISBN 0-7006-1175-4.
- ^ Veith, George (2012). Black April: The fall of South Vietnam 1973–75. Encounter Books. p. 136. ISBN 9781594035722.
