Chief of Marksman Unit

Tue, 09/23/2014 - 00:12
Date picture taken
1970s
Tags

Comments

A moment together as we prepare for a training session involving some high performance Swedish ammo that we adopted because it could out perform anything else on the market. Names. Bill Duncanson in the mid. Me his right. Ray Shar to my right and Paul Deal (SB) on the end. In front Sidney Chow. His left Hugh H-Brown. Au Ting in green next? Yam Man Yau in Blue. Then John Chetwynd- Chatwin. Yellow with the rifle is Mark Godfrey. Bills left.

Dear Jason,Yes that is your dad John Chetwynd-Chatwin. If you scroll thro' the marksman photos you will find a close up of him with a machine gun. He also was at PHQ for equipment and weapons research and evaluation and he helped me compile the advanced weapons training and reaction aid to marksman unit members. A cool nice reliable steady person who was with you and had your back during dangerous encounters. And yes, whether he told you or not, he did get involved with some hairy stuff. Please send my regards if he is still with us. Au Ting died of age together with, so I am informed, Yam Man Yau also age.  Have a look at the entire marksman site and know that your dad was with us all the way on our various outings and other more sensitive operations. This is the reason for this site to remember those who fade away and to be aware of the shadow things that went on and what we did to keep Hong Kong safe.

Ray,

Many thanks for the swift reply. Sadly Dad passed away in 2006. I do now remember him mentioning MU, but only briefly and sadly no particular details. (Aside from the incident with the swimming bull ending up in a storm drain, as recounted by Steve Brown in another post.) I certainly hadn't realised what a unique operation MU was. Like many from that time, Dad perhaps assumed that his experiences were not worth recounting, until too late. It's helped me connect some dots as I remember both Bill Duncanson, and Hugh HB with whom Dad kept in touch well past retirement.

I have a nice photo of him on the range with an AR-15, but in uniform so perhaps not from the MU period. Uniform seems to have been the exception rather than the rule?! 

I have been reading through your various posts with great interest - many thanks for taking the time to put them to (virtual) paper.

best regards,

Jason

Thanks for that Jason. The same as others, those at the sharp end don't talk about what we did, otherwise you would have been in awe at his stories. Thro your dad we actually equipped the Main Gate US Marine Guard at the Consulate with the proper combat leather work they needed for the job they were doing.They were issued incompatable gear. But that is another story. As you are aware we (the unit) are fading fast and if nothing was put down about the shadow things we did and the problems we solved, then no one would know that we existed nor the contribution we made. You dad was also with us in the PHQ mess evaluating the wax bullets I made when in the gents, Hugh HB shot Paul Deal in the ass, twice, to test them out leading to the noisy chase thro the officers mess and out the door. We later got Paul Deal to drop his trousers in the bar to show us the marks. Actually good times.  Anyway regards to you and yours and sorry to hear about dad, but thats the reason for this site otherwise you wouldn't know.... If you look at the MU photos you will see your dad on about 5 other photos. On the black and white one I am at the back left and your dad is back right and one where he is half turned away. He was with us alright and he was OK..