Word: commandant
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...coup. Cambodia has a one-party Senate, National Assembly and Cabinet; the Premier is Long Boret. Although partially paralyzed from a 1971 stroke, Lon Nol wields nearly absolute power as head of the government. The 80,000 combat and 145,000 support troops under Phnom-Penh's command control approximately 25% of the country's land, about 60% of its 7.6 million inhabitants and all but two of its major cities and towns...
...referring to the latest outbreak of fighting in South Viet Nam, which the U.S. Defense Department, at least at first, did not seem to regard as particularly serious. The South Vietnamese military, understandably, took a grimmer view. For the first time in a year, the ARVN high command revived (at 3:30 p.m.) the once-famed "5 o'clock follies"-the daily military briefing for the 60-odd foreign newsmen presently in Saigon...
...sapper attack before dawn on the command headquarters in the city caught many troops of the South Vietnamese 23rd Division sleeping in their homes. At the same time, elements of the North Vietnamese 320th Division, which infiltrated into the area from Laos last month, attacked the city's airstrip...
Within a few hours, Communist tanks had penetrated the outskirts of Ban Me Thuot, forcing some 4,000 ARVN troops to abandon the downtown area. The South Vietnamese provincial commander, Colonel Nguyen Trong Luat, called on the air force for help. Bombing inaccurately at high altitudes to avoid North Vietnamese ground-to-air missiles, the South Vietnamese F-5s and A-37s managed to blow up Luat's command headquarters. Meanwhile, the 23rd Division's forward command post had been destroyed by sapper charges. For a time, the only ARVN communication with the outside world was provided...
...When I was made commander of this place, I thought, 'What did I do to inherit a junkyard?' " says Air Force Colonel Henry Gronewald, who has had the job since June 1974. In fact, Gronewald has more planes under his command than any other base commander in the U.S. Air Force. He soon discovered that the base he commands is more than a giant junkyard, although one MASDC task is reclaiming usable parts from those planes that will never fly again. The Pentagon transmits a weekly computerized "save list," and in a special hangar MASDC maintenance mechanics...