A Camp In The Clouds
By 1964 the North Vietnamese Army and the Viet Cong had successfully expanded their operations in Laos and South Vietnam. The cost to the U.S. military in manpower had reached 225 servicemen.
Haunting Promises
U.S. Army, 5th Special Forces Group, Detachment B-43, Chi Lang Seven Moutains of the Delta, Vietnam – 25th February 1971. The mission of this 5th Special Forces Detachment was to train Cambodian battalions for redeployment in their home country.
Run For Life
By November 1965, General Vo Nguyen Giap's regular North Vietnamese Army divisions had begun a bloody testing of the American divisions on the battlefield, and large numbers of American troops were becoming casualties. Major unit commanders needed to know what was outside the range of influence of their heaviest guns. As in every war, secret long-range patrols were the answer.
Operation Tuscaloosa
An Hoa Basin, South Vietnam – Arizona Territory: My liberty ship docked at the bustling port of Da Nang, Republic of Vietnam in late December 1966. I was a Marine infantryman, MOS 0311. As a replacement I was assigned to one of the rifle battalions of the 5th Marine Regiment. In Vietnam, the 5th Marines had fought ferocious jungle battles around the beleaguered Marine Firebase Con Thien in the fall of 1966.
Oops, The Russians Are Coming!
The Tet offensive of 1968 was legendary. We'd all heard the horror stories and believe me they weren’t pretty. I'd been in-country for nine months and had dreaded Tet '69 the whole time. It was the end of January 1969 and Tet was upon us. Just thinking about it made the hair on the back of my neck stand up.
Border Surveillance
Okinawa - In 1964 our twelve-man Special Forces A-Team, A-323, 1st Special Forces Group (Airborne), was stationed at Machinato, Okinawa. During the dark hours of early morning we were loaded onto two trucks, canvas down and secure, and driven to nearby Kadena Air Force Base.
Col. Roger Trinquier and French Special Ops in the First Indochina War
The flood of recent books and articles on the war in SE Asia have, understandably, concentrated on the US role in Vietnam. Those that have dealt with French participation in the First Indochina War have, for the most part, not covered the activities of French special operations forces, the various Army and Navy commando units that saw action throughout the theatre.
West Of The Ashau
There are a lot of great stories of U.S. long-range recon patrols – other than those of SOG – operating in Laos and Cambodia. Most of them are just that – great stories. But some of them have been substantiated and have been proven true.
Behind 'Friendly' Lines
In August 1967, I returned to Vietnam for my second tour. I had already served a six-month TDY trip from the 1st SF Group on Okinawa, assigned to the 400th Army Security Agency Special Operations Detachment (Airborne). Our job had been to provide communications intelligence to 1st SFG.
Phoenix Rising – Hueys in I Corps
When I arrived in Vietnam on the 18th August 1970, I was assigned to fly an OH58-A for the First Brigade, 4th Infantry Division at An Khe, in the Central Highlands of II Corps. I spent most of my time screening for a division that was trying to avoid major battles prior to Nixon's troop reduction programme. But as fate would have it, it wasn't to last.