----- Original Message -----
From: Ray, Steve To: Sent: Friday, July 30, 1999 6:58 AM
Subject: Safeside

Chief,

I received your package in the mail yesterday, 29 July. I will forward the information to our web master Don Poss and request he add it to the VSPA Sq. History pages. I was not aware that the 82 CSP Wing and units 821st, 822nd and 823d CSPSq's were not Safeside. I understood that those people could also belong to the "Safeside Association". I have not contacted Carey Stark about this yet, and will not until I receive your reply. I thought that the 82nd Wing SP's also wore the same crest as the 1041st (T). I will also keep a copy of the items you sent for our historical files. I will do all I can to see that the information is posted correctly. I do not know why you could not reach me via e-mail, unless the address was posted incorrectly at the VSPA web site. At any rate it is

Regards,

Steve Ray

----------
From: Bob Frink
Sent: Friday, July 30, 1999 5:10 PM
To: Ray, Steve
Subject: Re: Safeside

Good Morning Steve:
Thanks for your prompt reply. I should clarify my previous comments to you about the term "SAFESIDE". It was the term that applied to the tactical philosophy to be tested by the 1041st Security Strike Force (T) shortly thereafter renamed the 1041st Security Police Sq (T). As a matter of fact the term applies only to the philosophical concept and kind of tactical use of security police squadrons in combat situations. We, the 1041st, did not have the term in our official AF identity we only tested the concept in a combat location. That test was so satisfactory that the AF activated the 82nd Combat Security Police Wing and activated the four squadrons I mentioned in my previous letter to you.

The Safeside Association was formed essentially by Carey Stark and is open to membership of all former members of the Wing and the squadrons. He has done a yeoman's job to get the association going. The blue crest with the white falcon is the official logo/insignia of the 1041st SPS (T) and I have learned that even after the 1041st was redesignated the 4470th all the original members of the 1041st continued wearing the original beret and patch belonging to the 1041st while they were training the 821, 822 and 823 at Schofield.

I believe that I was a little too rigid in my letter to you about who is entitled to use the term "SAFESIDE". It was only a "concept" rather than a title. Our unit, and then the 82nd Wing and their subordinate units all implemented the SAFESIDE concept.

I must retract my comment in my letter to you concerning our unit being designated a SAFESIDE organization. We did not know at that time whether or not the concept would be adopted at the conclusion of our test. It was adopted and I cannot dispute the fact that all the other units were trained in the same concept. Consequently, it is not debatable on whether or not they are able to use the term. Sometimes my loyalty to our unit gets a little out of hand.

I am currently trying to locate copies or our original order of activation and the subsequent order changing our name. When I find them I will make it a point to send you a copy of each.

I apologize for the error in my own comments to you but after considerable thought on the subject I realized that there is a great deal of difference between "title" and "concept".

I looked up and found your name in the Air Force Security Police history published by the Security Police Association. You are obviously still a young man with a lot of potential and I hope the people at Lockheed Martin recognize that.

The material that I sent to you I can safely say is accurate... the logos. etc. My apologies for the misinformation.

Regards, Bob

-----Original Message-----
From: Ray, Steve [mail: steve.ray@lmco.com]
Sent: Monday, August 02, 1999 6:21 AM
To: Don Poss
Subject: FW: Safeside

Don,

You will be receiving a copy of the material that Chief Frink sent me. However, in view of this e-mail you should not post it as written, but rather, with the explanation that SAFESIDE was a concept idea that was tested by the 1041st and later by the 82 CSP Wing. Hope this clears the matter up.

Steve Ray

From: Bob Frink [sgtmaj1@jps.net]
Sent: Wednesday, August 04, 1999 6:11 PM
To: Don Poss
Subject: Safeside

Just got your e-mail to Steve Ray this afternoon I realize that I have opened a bucket of worms but my intention coincides with Steve's and yours, that we should be as accurate as possible. I have been in close touch with CMSgt (Ret) Bob Hockanson, who lives just two blocks from me and was our operations Sgt in the 1041st and stayed with the unit until it was deactivated at Fort Campbell.

It seems apparent that there were a lot of "fast Eddies" at HQ USAF toward the end of the war and a lot of decisions seem to have been made in relative haste. Bob Hockanson called me on the phone this afternoon and at my request went through some of his memorabilia which is, in one sense enlightening, but also confusing.

When the 1041st arrived at Fairchild AFB, WA they were soon after redesignated the 4470th Combat Security Police Sq. That designation did not last for very long and they were then sent back to Schofield Brks as Detachment 1, 82nd Combat Security Police Wing for the purpose of training the follow on squadrons, 821, 822, and 823. Neither Bob Hockanson nor I can locate a set or orders to support this activity although we know that it was done. Detachment 1, 82nd Combat Security Police Wing came under Tactical Air Command at that time.

I was never aware of any of our Safesider's being "touchy" about the use of the term "CSP" and it seemed to me a logical and realistic moniker for the units in the combat zone. I will admit that I am probably the "touchy" one when it comes to bantering about the term "Safeside". Being somewhat protective of the best organization I ever served with in almost 28 years or Army and Air Force Service I can handle the flak. I am not sorry that I raised this issue Don, in retrospect perhaps I could have begun the effort in a more diplomatic way. So be it!

I will keep you posted on whatever pops up and that may come by way of information the Bob Hockanson is searching for in his trunk full of memorabilia.

Best Regards,

Bob

----- Original Message -----
From: Don Poss
To: brian.johnson@maxwell.af.mil
Sent: Saturday, November 06, 1999 2:16 AM
Subject: Permission to post 4 papers at our web site

Sir:
First, I must say the "Air Force Enlisted Heritage Research Institute" (https://www.au.af.mil/au/cepme/heritage) is simply a class act--outstanding! Thank you very much for all your collective hard work to preserve our enlisted Air Force heritage, and improve the future service in the Air Force.

I am webmaster at the Vietnam Security Police Association, Inc. (USAF). We too are very interested in discovering and preserving our Air Force heritage as Air / Security Police who served in Vietnam. Our goal is to document the heritage of APS/SPS serving in Vietnam and Thailand during the war years, including posting information for every base, squadron, unit crests, patches, personal stories and photos where we served there.

My purpose for writing is to seek permission to reprint four (4) papers, posted at your "Research Enlisted Heritage by Title" as follows:

1. Background Paper on Operation Safe Side
2. Background Paper on Security Police Defense of Tan Son Nhut AB
3. OPERATION SAFE SIDE: An Historical Review of the 1041st Security Police Squadron (Test)
4. Background Paper on 377th Air Police Squadron Defense of Tan Son Nhut Air Base, Vietnam in December 1966 .

If permission to reprint at VSPA's page, the article would appear without change, with credit to the authors, and links to your page. The papers, of course, remain the property of the authors/USAF, and would be removed at any time you so requested.

Our VSPA 1999 reunion was in Las Vegas, where we toured Nellis AFB. We were extremely pleased and proud of the new "Security Forces" of the 99th SFS, as they demonstrated weapons and tactics for Air Base defense.

Sincerely,

Don Poss,
Webmaster, VSPA
(6252nd Air Police Squadron, 366th SPS, K-9,
Đà Nàng AB, Vietnam, 1965-1966)