A Memorial Ceremony was held at the Police Academy in Korat, Thailand, on 26 September 2014 to honor SSgt Wallace W Gumbs, who was a training instuctor and advisor to the Thai Police. SSgt Gumbs died in a training accident in January 1968 and the Thais erected a monument in his honor. The ceremony was a joint effort by the Special Forces Group, from Bangkok, the VFW and the Thai Police Academy. Below is a short biography of SSgt Gumbs career and was written by Jim Williams, who was a fellow instructor and is, currently an officer in VFW Post 10217, Korat. Also below are some pictures of the event.

Wallace W. Gumbs Biographical Information

Wally was born in Charlotte Amalie in the Virgin Islands and raised there. I do not know when he enlisted, but after basic, AIT, jump school and Training Group, he was assigned to the 6th SFGA at Fort Bragg. In addition to the usual FTX and other training in CONUS, he participated in one MTT to Pakistan. He also completed one six month TDY to Vietnam, serving in the V Corps Tactical Zone, where he earned a Bronze Star and a CIB.

He was assigned to the 7th SFGA when I met him in early 1966. He was then a SSG assigned to Co C. We were in the first class (but numbered 66-5) of the Special Forces Engineer Functional Course at the Engineer School (Then at Fort Belvior, Virgina). [The Corps of Engineers had an advanced NCO course years before NCOES. It was four months long and a large part of it was totally non-applicable to Special Forces operations. In 1966, the Engineer and Special Warfare Schools came up with the SF Engineer Functional Course which was nine weeks long which still had parts non-applicable to SF operations but was an improvement on the earlier course.]

Wally came to Co D (Aug) 1st SFGA [Co D became 46th SFCA on 15 April 1967] when it was formed at Fort Bragg and was assigned as engineer sergeant to ODA-424. After pre-mission training throughout the summer at Fort Bragg, the entire unit deployed in October 1966 on USAF C141 mission aircraft from Pope AFB, via Elmendorf AFB, Yakota AFB and Takhli RTAFB to Lopburi. His B-detachment, ODB-420, went from Lopburi after we were in country a few weeks to the Pak Chong/Nong Takoo area. His team then travelled around the northeast to several training sites as part of the counter-insurgency training the unit was giving the Royal Thai Army. During this period, they had walk-on roles in a Thai movie about RTA soldiers fighting communist insurgents.

In January 1967, his detachment was transferred to Lopburi and the team members split up among various training committees of Task Force Slick. Wally was assigned to the Railway Security Committee (later Special Tasks Force Committee). The committee was set up to teach what later came to be known as the Counter Sabotage Course. In addition to an OIC, an NCOIC, and a medic, there were four engineer sergeants, all SSG's. During a month's preparation, we built a training area north of Erawan DZ in Lopburi. It has a storage shed/latrine, a set of roofed-over bleachers and a length of railway track (laid for us by the State Railway) and protectd by a berm. The railroad was blown up in the course of the demolition training during the course. The course FTX was held in the vicinity of Mauk Lek, southeast of Lopburi. The students were company and field grade police officers.

After the first course, the committee moved to Hua Hin in Prachuab Khirikan province where the focus of the course went from railway security to railway and highway security. We set up a training area/demolition range just off the drop zone and airstrip adjacent tp Maruk Taiwan, a disused royal palace on the beach about 15 kilometers north of Hau Hin. We had the use of a classroom and office/storage room in the palace. FTX were held at the RTA Infantry School Camp Thanarat in Pranburi, about 25 kilometers south of Hauhin. The students were company and field grade police officers and equivalent ranking civilian officials from the State Railway and Highway Department. Three interations of the course were taught and, after combined USASF/Royal Thai Police water jumps from a U1 aircraft into the Gulf, the committee closed out of Hau Hin and returned to Lopburi.

A team (ODA4624) was formed to teach the police counterinsurgency course to selected company and firld grade police officers at Provincial Police Training School #2 at Chaw Haw in Korat. Wally was stationed there as detachment engineer sergeant and a CI instructor until his death in the accident at the grenade range at Chaw Haw in January 1968.