I would be very curious if unclewest has anything to contribute to this discussion since he was in the thick of things when all this took place.
let's see what i can recall...remember, i have a great memory, but it doesn't last long.
the original program that got SF involved in laos...project white star...was ending as i came on board in 1962. i have had many white star vets as teammates.
that program was about training locals to defend themselves against the insurgent pathet lao. civil affairs in the form of improving water supplies to farmers and villages and medical treatment to villagers was a major part of it.
training for combat ops was on-going and SF guys did go along on combat operations. 6 or 7 SF guys were killed on white star operations...reinforcement, air and artillery support was minimal to non existent...so they had to be careful when and where they chose to fight.
the NVA were not there yet...that came later.
a coupla the early laotian missions were named hotfoot and typhoon.
the CIA ran the operation...Air America provided air logistical support with C46 and C47s (some left over from the Berlin airlift).i believe they also had some old H-34 helicopters.
sometime in the early 60s (61 i think)laos was granted neutral status by a geneva accord and the SF teams left.
the 7th SF Group ran the laotian operation. later, they got involved in the cuban crisis...at one time C company 7th was mostly cubans...they have on-going operations in S America today.
SF teams were first introduced to nam in 1961. the 5th SF Group was formed in 61 for this purpose. i joined the 5th after completing training in fall of 62. Gabriel and Marchant were the first two SF killed in nam.
dadadadada...the memories are flooding back...four guys from my company Roraback, Comancho, Smith and Mclure were captured in 63. others were KIA...casualties continued to increase and training continued to get tougher. the attitude was...the more you sweat in training the less you bleed in combat.
as the war developed in the mid 60s...SOG came along. regular recon ops into laos were scheduled. initially the old H-34s were used for infil and exfil.
the prime minister of n viet nam told the world that their army was not in or using laos. in 1966, perhaps the most famous Green Beret ever, Dick Meadows, using the old SF Pen EE 35mm camera and a teammate's movie camera spent an hour taking pictures, from a hidden jungle position, of a fully equipped NVA battalion moving south in laos. that film proved the prime minister was lying. i believe that secret film, reviewed carefully by Westmoreland and key congressmen had more to do with escalating the war than any other event.
recon and interdiction operations in laos continued against nva targets. the goal was stop them early. most of the ops launched from the SOG bases in kontum and da nang...some from nkp thailand...occasionally SF border camps such as ben het (i was at ben het for a while) were used as temporary forward bases by SOG. i later read reports that as many as 50,000 nva troops were tied up in rear security due to SOG operations.
opium smoking indigenous personnel were always around. SF involvement in drugs was limited to supporting the cia and dea in indentifying major traders or dealers in and around camps and villages.
Sf guys do use medical drugs briefly on occasion for various operational purposes...these uses may seem unhealthy but they can be life saving on an operation close to enemy forces...examples are amphetamines to keep alert for long periods, low dose codiene to suppress coughing, and lomotil to cause constipation.
i have never seen or heard of an American SF troop using illegal drugs for recreation. that would never be tolerated on any A team...the villagers knew that...the most they offered was the traditional rice wine or nam pe after ops...the old guys liked a few drinks after an operation...the new guys go to the gym or the firing range.
since you were there...fwiw, i have called in air strikes on the other side of the red line using "elliot" and "nail" FACS. (FL may know those call signs)i was joking with some SF friends a coupla weeks ago about how we had developed an entirely new form of warfare still being used today. in the 60s, we had several opportunities to sit on hilltops with commanding valley views and call in strikes on visual targets.
that is the genesis of our current SF operations...the equipment has evolved...the technology is awesome...the tactics are similar.
unclewest |
