NDQSAAir Defense Artillery service during the Vietnam War
NDQSA
History largely ignored the role of the Dusters, Quads, Searchlights, HAWKS, and Vulcans in Vietnam. And yet surprisedly the Duster has become the lawn ornament of many local displays honoring Veterans service in Vietnam. The National Dusters, Quads & Searchlights Association has also been active in being part of Vietnam related memorials and other dedication projects. For a long time reunion reflections sounded like therapy sessions as these men assured each other that what they did and went through together meant something. Their motto in those early years of finding each other was “Come and meet somebody! Come and be somebody! Together we are somebody!” This page is an attempt to document for posterity the locations that NDQSA has left footprints as evidence that they were there, making a difference one memorial at a time. They are being shared again on the NDQSA.COM website to preserve them in perpetuity for family, historians, and all those interested in Air Defense in Vietnam and the men who served with those units.
TOGETHER WE ARE SOMEBODY
On 4 June 2025, the National Dusters, Quads & Searchlights Association, Inc. donated a wooden bench to the Air Defense Artillery Training Support Facility at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. The bench is engraved with our name and the dates that Air Defense units were in Vietnam. This came about through discussion with Corry Twilley, the curator of the ADA Training Facility and an Associate member of NDQSA. The year before NDQSA had facilitated getting a bench made for Leland Chandler and a second bench would balance the entryway. Leland Chandler is a World War II Veteran of the 60th Coast Artillery in Corregidor. He became a Japanese Prisoner of War and survived 3 1/2 years as a POW in Osaka, Japan. He is an Honorary Member of NDQSA. For Leland Chandler’s story please read his scrapbook on this NDQSA website.
For many of the members of NDQSA their memories of Vietnam included Marines. If you did not serve in one of the ADA units along the DMZ, you probably never even saw a Marine. However, the men of 1/44th, G-29th and G-65th all fought and died along with these brave servicemen. The National Museum of the Marine Corps is the historical museum of the United States Marine Corps. Located in Triangle, Virginia near Marine Corps Base Quantico, the museum opened on November 10, 2006. NDQSA has demonstrated our support for them by purchasing four memorial bricks. They are located on the north side of the Museum Entrance Plaza in the second half of the trail section between the back side of the last white concrete bollard and the stairs leading down into the parking lot.
There were only about 200 operational Dusters in the three M42 Battalions at any one time. Each company had 16. Four companies per battalion. Somewhere around 2000 different ones probably rotated through the theater. Many were destroyed by enemy action and any in theater when the battalions shut down were turned over the Army of the Republic of Vietnam. Of those left with the ARVNs some ended up on display in war museums in Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City. Surplus Dusters even ended up equipping our allies through Foreign Military Sales. Somewhere out of all that, it also turns out that Dusters are a very popular static display item for U.S. Vietnam Memorials and Veteran Associations. They are a mean looking piece of equipment. The point is, a list of over 100 locations where Dusters were on display though out the United States was produced in the early 2000s. We share that list and the remarkable idea that scattered around the country for caretakers to paint and kids to climb on when adults aren’t looking are the equivalent of six companies of Dusters. Half of their combat power in Vietnam.
The NDQSA historian took a trip to Washington DC and dug through the National Archives military records section. We know this is not the entire record because his efforts were only focused on this one battalion. Any physical copies he made are not in the possession of NDQSA. These records along with many other member documents, photographs, and stories he collected, digitized, and archived as historian over many years were not turned over to the association when he left under acrimonious conditions. At least this is being preserved as a starting point for future historian research.