Veteran Spotlight

Roland S. Renner, Jr.

5th Maintenance Battalion

Richard D. L. Fulton

Roland S. Renner, Jr, was born in Frederick on July 11, 1950, to parents Roland S. Renner, Sr., and wife Pearl, and had three brothers, Franklin, Joseph, and David, and two sisters, Donna and Eleanor.

Renner graduated from Walkersville High School in 1968 and worked at the Baltimore Cup, Taneytown Rubber factory, and at the brick plant in Rocky Ridge. He also drove a dairy truck for Dairy Maid in Frederick.

Renner entered the Army in 1969 and was assigned to serve in the Immediate Response Unit Maintenance, 5th Maintenance Battalion, US Army Support Command, which had already been deployed to Qui Nhon (also spelled Qua Nhon), an important coastal city in Bình Định province, in central Vietnam. He served as a Specialist 4.

Subsequently, in June 1969, he was deployed to Phu Tai. Phu Tai Valley, located near Qui Nhon, was the location of the Qui Nhon Ammunition Base Depot. The ammunition base was also the key location for the 5th Maintenance Battalion.

The 5th Maintenance Battalion provided logistical support to combat units in the northern part of the II Corps tactical zone. The command’s mission was to provide continuous and effective logistical support to the combat soldiers, despite their facing enemy attacks and interdictions of supply routes.

The battalion played a crucial role in recovering and repairing military equipment. Maintenance included servicing, adjustment, and tuning (keeping equipment operable), equipment repairs, “cannibalism” (salvaging parts from one piece of equipment to use for repairing another one), and “selective interchange” (meaning installing up-to-date equipment while repairing equipment—such as a tank—that was using outdated equipment), according to marines.mil.

The Immediate Response Unit Maintenance unit was a section of the 5th Maintenance Battalion and was utilized for recovering essential equipment abandoned in the field, and for expediting the repair of essential equipment needed by the military forces, while engaged.

Benner said the unit had tractors and other vehicles to help recover damaged tanks and other types of equipment from the battlefields.

While Renner was not directly involved in any battles with the enemy, he was fired upon by enemy soldiers—and had to return fire—while on guard-duty patrol on several occasions. “Over there, you had to have guard duty,” he said, in addition to performing maintenance equipment tasks, adding, “If you were fired on during guard duty, you just fired back.”

According to Logistic Support, by Lieutenant-General Joseph M. Heiser, Jr., Department of the Army, “Phu Tai had more enemy attacks than any other depot.” Generally, these attacks were conducted by enemy “sappers.” A sapper, according to Wikipedia, “is a combatant or soldier who performs a variety of military engineering duties, such as breaching fortifications.”

He said that another incident was when he took a day off from guard duty, which entailed patrolling an area that housed a major ammunition dump. That day, the enemy blew it up, “and a bunch of people got killed.”

During his tenure in Phu Tai, Renner said, “Me and a bunch of other guys” recovered two badly battle-damaged tanks and made a complete, fully functional one from the accrued parts. Apparently, however, it didn’t remain in camp as a showpiece for long. Renner said, “The 1st Cavalry came and took it. It was just like new.”

Renner was subsequently deployed in June 1969 to Fort Polk, Louisiana for a year, and spent the last couple of months of his service in Germany. He was discharged from the Army in December 1971. For his service in the Army, Renner was awarded the National Defense Service Medal, Vietnam Campaign Medal, Vietnam Service Medal, and a Sharpshooter M-16 citation.

Following his discharge from the service in 1971, Renner married the late Gabriella “Gail” Gisele (a graduate of Mother Seton School, Emmitsburg) in 1972 before the justice of the peace in Westminster, Maryland.

The couple had four children, Floyde, Roxanne, Rolanda, and the late Katherine.

After the war, Renner continued on with a career in maintenance, including working at Thurmont Chevrolet, as well as for other garages, the culmination of which had resulted in his retirement, due to a back injury that he had sustained in an accident.