Me and MACVSOG
One of the main groups I dealt with in Laos was MACVSOG personnel. MACV-SOG stands for Military Assistance Command Vietnam - Studies and Observation Group. They were specially trained U.S. Army Special Forces troops who were trained to do a lot of covert things behind enemy lines, running ambushes, kidnappings, surveillance operations, and just being a thorn in the side of the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong. Well, in Laos that did all that too. Before I got there, they were running Shinning Star (I believe that was the call) missions. Laos was known by its coded name, Shining Brass. Officially, SOG did not come into existence until 1964, but by any classification of missions undertaken and how they operated in 1963, these guys were SOG teams that I worked with at that time.
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| MACVSOG Team at Nhuty Thuat, Vietnam |
Most of the SOG teams consisted of four men. Usually they were made up of two SF guys and two Vietnamese counterparts. Soetimes it was three and three. On occasion, it might be all SF guys, two of which were being trained by the 1-0. I did insert teams as large as 15 members, such as the one above, on occasion. SOG teams could be all American personnel, or like the picture above, made up of a mixture of American and indigenous soldiers. These indigenous soldiers were highly trained and motivated individuals. A lot of teams in Vietnam were made up of Nhungs and Montagnards known for their ferocity in battle. In Laos where I was stationed, they could be Hmongs or Thai special forces guys. The SOG teams were typically made up as follows: One-Zero was the team commander. He could be an officer or a NCO. One-One was the assistant team commander and could be any rank, but normally an NCO. One-Two was usually the radio operator. He carried at least one radio and may have two or more on a particular mission depending on the mission requirements. Other team members would carry the extra radios. One-Two was usually a mission specialist in either heavy weapons or explosives besides being a radio operator.. Any extra members could be weapons specialists, explosives experts, or snipers. All were highly trained and highly motivated individuals. No doubt they were hard-core people. Most of these guys spoke at least one, if not two, languages besides English. I knew of one NCO who could speak 7 or 8 different languages along with a couple of dialects of the indigenous people in the area. The Vietnamese counterparts were designated as follows, The team leader was 0-1, the radio operator 0-2, etc. Just different from the SF guys.
Some of these guys carried M-14 rifles and 45 Colt sidearms . Others, like those in the picture above preferred the Swedish K 9MM as did I. Sometimes the heavy weapons guy would carry a M-79 grenade launcher. All carried four grenades, usually two M-26 fragmentation grenades, one white phosphorus grenade and one smoke grenade. However, there was no set number of any type of grenade I could see. On certain missions they would carry AK-47's. They usually had a few claymore mines as well. C rations and water made up their mission food requirements. Most carried two canteens. Each carried up to ten clips of ammo for their weapons. One team member often carried an auto loading 22. caliber pistol with a silencer. This was used to dispatch guards and anyone else you needed a silent kill for. One thing I notice from looking at photos of the past is that you can pretty well date the photos by the small arms the guys are carrying. I never saw an AR-15, CAR-15, or an M-16 during my whole tour. They must have showed up in late 1964 or even 1965. Most photos dated before 1964 all feature sub-machine guns, M-1 carbines and rifles, or M-14 rifles. I had heard that some AR-15's were introduced into South Vietnam with U.S.A.F. security personnel, but I don't know when that happened.
| AR-15 Rifle |
On the other hand, the indigenous troops either carried M-1 carbines, Swedish SK's, or AK-47s. Some preferred the AK-47 simply because, as I said in an earlier post, it confused the enemy. All of my PARU's normally carried AK-47's.
Some SOG teams were called "Spike Teams" or "ST", the abbreviated version. It was a code name for "long range recon" teams. Anyone who wasn't a member of that particular team, in other words, someone added to the team at the last minute or for a special purpose were referred to as "strap hangers." I was called that by most SOG guys I worked with. It more or less became my nickname. I would hear taunts like, "Look, here comes strap hanger." "You riding with us today, strap hanger?" That kind of stuff. It wasn't mean spirited or anything like that, it was just joking around, but the nickname stuck. I did find out where the term "strap hanger" came from. It was from NY City and people riding the subways. The last people getting on a subway car probably wouldn't find a seat, so they would hold on to straps hanging from the ceilings of the cars, thereby they became "strap hangers." I think you can connect the dots on this one.
Only twice, with the exception of Team Falcon, did I insert the same SOG teams into hostile territory and both insertions were along the northern border between Laos and N. Vietnam. I think these may have been the nastiest and most dangerous of missions. The reason they were dangerous is that we were so far north and right next to North Vietnam's border with Laos. I know of one team that we dropped into the border area that was never heard of again. The last time I tried to find out something about them, they were still listed as missing in action. My interaction with most SF teams was sporadic and not interactive. Not much was said between myself and the team members. That was not the case with Team Falcon. I ran at least ten missions with those guys. Like I wrote previously, these guys were definitely hard core and really dedicated to what they did. If I had to be in a firefight, these are they guys I would want on my side. On one mission, the SOG team leader looked at me and made the following statement: "Strap hanger, we are about to be up to our asses in alligators. I hope you are on your game today." What he was referring to was that we were headed up to Sam Neua, one of the most dangerous places on earth for any one except Pathet Lao and North Vietnamese troops. It was the northern Laos headquarters for the Pathet Lao. It was 24 miles from North Vietnam. Believe me, it was the place you didn't want to go. A SOG team had gone missing in this area and MACV wanted to know what happened to them, so they were going to send in another team. More about this in a later blog entry.
In the declassified map above, the shaded area of eastern part of Northern Laos was pretty much under Pathet Lao and North Vietnamese control. There were some Hmong enclaves that supported the legitimate Laotian government, but they were always in danger themselves of being wiped out by the Pathet Lao. Long Tieng (LS20-A) (located on the lower left part of the map) was basically my mission launch site when I was in Laos although I passed through Vientiane going in and out of Laos. Vientiane was about 90 miles south of Long Tieng.
Someone has asked me about Navy SEALs. I never ran across any of them while I was in Laos. So I certainly never worked with them. I looked up some history on them and found out they were in Vietnam in an advisory role in 1962 at DaNang. I know that after the war was really underway, they were in everywhere in Vietnam. I just never ran across them in my travels.
The firefights that Bailey or I were involved with, were, in almost every case, during the extraction faze of an operation. I don't know about Bailey, but I had only a few problems during insertions. However, there was one occasion when we did. I will put that in a future addition to the blog as well as the others I have mentioned. Normally on insertions, you got everyone down and on their way, or the LZ was too hot to even try and you just went away to try another day.
Now the nitty-gritty. It was really apparent that the CIA and MACV were in bed together. I was never sure who sponsored a mission, the CIA or MACV. On a couple of occasions their personnel were mixed together. MACV was not supposed to be involved in Laos, but the constant movement of SOG teams through Laos would contradict that. There were Special Forces guys in civilian clothes walking the streets of Vientiane during every visit there. Air America's (AA in future blog posts) airline business was a front company and owned by the CIA through connections in Taiwan. Air America provided a means by which the CIA could move men, material and, yes, drugs, around Laos, Vietnam, and Thailand. And whether anyone likes it or not, MACV and their SOG teams were truly involved in what was going on in Laos.
The thing about all this is that I was a 20 year old kid caught up in all kinds of projects and missions that didn't make a lot of sense to me. I soon learned that there would be killing and that I could be killed as well. The term CIA didn't mean a lot to me. I had heard about the CIA from news accounts and the Bay of Pigs invasion, but until I got to Laos, I was mentally blank as to what they really did.
It didn't take long to find out just what they were involved in. I was really surprised to know that so much deception and lies were going on in Laos. And, I was never in some of the loops where a lot of the more important CIA things were done. In later blogs you will learn about a lot of different people, Tony Poe being the most prominent of the group.
Until next time.
Some SOG teams were called "Spike Teams" or "ST", the abbreviated version. It was a code name for "long range recon" teams. Anyone who wasn't a member of that particular team, in other words, someone added to the team at the last minute or for a special purpose were referred to as "strap hangers." I was called that by most SOG guys I worked with. It more or less became my nickname. I would hear taunts like, "Look, here comes strap hanger." "You riding with us today, strap hanger?" That kind of stuff. It wasn't mean spirited or anything like that, it was just joking around, but the nickname stuck. I did find out where the term "strap hanger" came from. It was from NY City and people riding the subways. The last people getting on a subway car probably wouldn't find a seat, so they would hold on to straps hanging from the ceilings of the cars, thereby they became "strap hangers." I think you can connect the dots on this one.
Only twice, with the exception of Team Falcon, did I insert the same SOG teams into hostile territory and both insertions were along the northern border between Laos and N. Vietnam. I think these may have been the nastiest and most dangerous of missions. The reason they were dangerous is that we were so far north and right next to North Vietnam's border with Laos. I know of one team that we dropped into the border area that was never heard of again. The last time I tried to find out something about them, they were still listed as missing in action. My interaction with most SF teams was sporadic and not interactive. Not much was said between myself and the team members. That was not the case with Team Falcon. I ran at least ten missions with those guys. Like I wrote previously, these guys were definitely hard core and really dedicated to what they did. If I had to be in a firefight, these are they guys I would want on my side. On one mission, the SOG team leader looked at me and made the following statement: "Strap hanger, we are about to be up to our asses in alligators. I hope you are on your game today." What he was referring to was that we were headed up to Sam Neua, one of the most dangerous places on earth for any one except Pathet Lao and North Vietnamese troops. It was the northern Laos headquarters for the Pathet Lao. It was 24 miles from North Vietnam. Believe me, it was the place you didn't want to go. A SOG team had gone missing in this area and MACV wanted to know what happened to them, so they were going to send in another team. More about this in a later blog entry.
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| Map of N.E. Laos Showing Sam Neua |
Someone has asked me about Navy SEALs. I never ran across any of them while I was in Laos. So I certainly never worked with them. I looked up some history on them and found out they were in Vietnam in an advisory role in 1962 at DaNang. I know that after the war was really underway, they were in everywhere in Vietnam. I just never ran across them in my travels.
The firefights that Bailey or I were involved with, were, in almost every case, during the extraction faze of an operation. I don't know about Bailey, but I had only a few problems during insertions. However, there was one occasion when we did. I will put that in a future addition to the blog as well as the others I have mentioned. Normally on insertions, you got everyone down and on their way, or the LZ was too hot to even try and you just went away to try another day.
Now the nitty-gritty. It was really apparent that the CIA and MACV were in bed together. I was never sure who sponsored a mission, the CIA or MACV. On a couple of occasions their personnel were mixed together. MACV was not supposed to be involved in Laos, but the constant movement of SOG teams through Laos would contradict that. There were Special Forces guys in civilian clothes walking the streets of Vientiane during every visit there. Air America's (AA in future blog posts) airline business was a front company and owned by the CIA through connections in Taiwan. Air America provided a means by which the CIA could move men, material and, yes, drugs, around Laos, Vietnam, and Thailand. And whether anyone likes it or not, MACV and their SOG teams were truly involved in what was going on in Laos.
The thing about all this is that I was a 20 year old kid caught up in all kinds of projects and missions that didn't make a lot of sense to me. I soon learned that there would be killing and that I could be killed as well. The term CIA didn't mean a lot to me. I had heard about the CIA from news accounts and the Bay of Pigs invasion, but until I got to Laos, I was mentally blank as to what they really did.
It didn't take long to find out just what they were involved in. I was really surprised to know that so much deception and lies were going on in Laos. And, I was never in some of the loops where a lot of the more important CIA things were done. In later blogs you will learn about a lot of different people, Tony Poe being the most prominent of the group.
Until next time.
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| Swedish K sub-machine gun (upper pic) and FN-FAL Battle Rifle with Full Auto (lower pic) |
