A Special Forces soldier who served in Vietnam received the Medal of Honor at the White House on March 3, 2023. Colonel (Ret.) Paris Davis, at the time a captain, was in a fiece battle for more than 19 hours. The combat action took place in June 1965 against a larger Viet Cong force. His small unit of South Vietnamese and American troops was pinned down by the enemy and suffered numerous casualties.

Davis made several successful rescues of his troops on the battlefield – removing them under fire to safety and later onto evacuation helicopters. He did this even though he himself had been wounded. He ignored orders to evacuate himself until all of his teammates were extracted.

Davis served in the Army for many years after his tour in Vietnam. His last assignment was as commander of the 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne) at Fort Devens, Massachusetts.

A detailed account of the battle and the heroic actions of Davis is provided by the U.S. Army at this link:
https://www.army.mil/medalofhonor/davis/

A video of the award ceremony at the White House is provided at this link:
Medal of Honor to Ret. U.S. Army Colonel Paris Davis, The White House, March 3, 2023.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lH3FoQxQEw&t=1534s

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References:

March 3, 2023, “Biden Presents Medal of Honor to Special Forces Soldier”, DoD News.

March 3, 2023, “No man left behind”, Army News Service.

By Katie Lange, DOD News.

In 1969, Army Sgt. 1st Class Melvin Morris waded through a blistering firefight in Vietnam to rescue a fallen comrade and keep crucial information out of the enemy’s hands. He was injured three times during the fight, but after recovering, went on with his military career. Forty-four years later, the initial accolades Morris received for his actions were upgraded to the Medal of Honor.

Morris was born Jan. 7, 1942, in Okmulgee, Oklahoma, a rural community east of Oklahoma City. His father, John, was a handyman who found work when he could, while his mother was a homemaker. Morris said when he was young, he enjoyed fishing, hunting and hanging out with his three brothers and four sisters.

Unfortunately, he grew up during an era of recessions, so there were few career opportunities in his area. But there was the military — something in which most of the men in his family had served, including his two older brothers and an uncle who was a member of the all-Black 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion during World War II. Morris said he admired those men and their uniforms and that serving was something he considered from a young age.

There weren’t many Black men in the Oklahoma Army National Guard in the late 1950s, but the service was recruiting, so in 1959, Morris signed up. After about a year, he requested to join the active-duty Army. He attended artillery and airborne training before deciding he wanted to join the newly created Special Forces. He started that training in 1961, and by September 1963, was a fully qualified Green Beret.

“I was 5 foot 4 inches, 117 pounds,” Morris said during a 2015 Library of Congress Veterans History Project interview. “But I was a strong little fella.”

Morris said that at some point, he was reassigned to the 82nd Airborne Division and sent to the Dominican Republic for about a year and a half as the U.S. intervened in that country’s civil war. But by 1967, he’d returned to the Green Berets as part of the 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne).

While he was stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, Morris met Mary Nesbitt, whom he married three months later. The pair went on to have two sons and a daughter before he volunteered to go to Vietnam in February 1969.

Morris said he saw combat pretty quickly after his arrival, which prepared him for the hard test he would go through in September 1969. Then a staff sergeant, Morris was the commander of a five-man Special Forces team within IV Mobile Strike Force that supported South Vietnamese troops and other local soldiers.

Photo: Army Specialist Melvin Morris while deployed to Vietnam.

On Sept. 17, 1969, his unit was on a search-and-destroy mission in southern Vietnam’s Mekong Delta, near the Cambodian border. Morris said his company was behind two others who had gone through a village that seemed mostly empty. But shortly afterward, the two companies at the front were ambushed.

Several men were injured very quickly and had to be evacuated by helicopter, Morris said. Soon after, he learned by radio that another team commander, Master Sgt. Ronald Hagen, had been killed near an enemy bunker.

Morris immediately reorganized his men to defend their position, then took two men with him to go forward and bring back the fallen commander. Morris said when they reached Hagen, enemy gunfire stopped just long enough for him to pray over the body. Quickly, though, hostile fire reignited, wounding the two men with him.

Morris helped them back to safety, then recruited two more men to continue the mission. With only their team’s gunfire to protect them, the trio rushed forward through heavy enemy machine gun fire. As they neared the bunker closest to Hagen, Morris took out the enemy soldiers inside, grabbed Hagen, then began the arduous journey back to friendly lines.

Morris said he made it back unscathed, but he realized that a map case of Hagen’s had fallen to the ground along the way. It included vital, classified information that couldn’t get into the hands of the enemy, so he and another soldier had to go back for it.

Having collected as many grenades as he could, Morris launched them at every bunker he could find along the route, taking out four. He and his comrade were able to retrieve the map case and run, but on the way back, Morris was shot at close range.

“I could see bubbles coming out of my chest,” he remembered.

Morris said he patched himself up behind a palm tree, then threw his last grenade toward nearby enemy soldiers. That’s when he got shot in his right arm, which caused him to drop his weapon out of range of where he could easily pick it back up.

Morris needed help badly, so he said he radioed the Air Force to ask for close-air support. They didn’t have a defined target, though, so they were concerned they might hit him if they dropped artillery. Instead, Morris contacted Navy Seabees, who had a helicopter in the area. He got them to drop smaller explosives on top of the enemy, which gave him a chance to reach his weapon again and start firing, despite getting hit a third time in the finger.

“I fired every magazine I had,” Morris said. “My training was kicking in and I was recalling everything I had to do. Believe in your training. That’s all I got to say. I was trained well.”

The chaos gave Morris just enough time to get out of the path of direct fire and back to friendly lines. He was eventually medevac’d to a field hospital, then Saigon, then Japan for treatment before being flown back home to Fort Bragg. He spent about three months in hospitals to recover from his wounds.

Soon after, he learned that he’d earned the Distinguished Service Cross for his actions. The military’s second highest award for valor was presented to him by Lt. Gen. John T. Tolson in April 1970 during a ceremony at Fort Bragg, according to the Okmulgee Daily Times newspaper.

Within a few weeks, Morris volunteered to go back to Vietnam for a second tour of duty. This one lasted 13 months.

Morris left the Army around 1975 and stayed out for about three years, but his desire to serve pulled him back in by 1978. He eventually retired in May 1985 after serving for 23 years.

Morris said he initially struggled with returning to civilian life, as well as post-traumatic stress from what he’d seen in Vietnam. But he said he eventually sought help and, with the help of the veteran community and his family, was able to get his life back on track.

In the early 2000s, Congress mandated a review of service records of several service members from earlier wars to determine if any of those men had been passed over for the Medal of Honor due to discrimination of the time. The review determined that several men should have gotten the nation’s highest honor for their valor.

Photo: Retired U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Melvin Morris, Janurary 31, 2017, at Patrick Air Force Base, Florida. (U.S. Air Force photo by Phil Sunkel)

So, in May 2013, Morris got a phone call he wasn’t expecting. President Barack Obama was on the line to tell him that his Distinguished Service Cross was being upgraded.

“He also told me I had to keep it confidential. … Keep your lips zipped for 10 months? That’s tough,” he joked in his Veterans History Project interview.

Morris received the Medal of Honor on March 18, 2014, from Obama during a long-overdue White House ceremony. Nearly two-dozen other service members received the upgraded medal that day for their service in Vietnam, Korea and World War II.

Morris later said that the honor wasn’t for him alone; it was for all the soldiers who were with him that day, especially those who died heroes and never had the chance to be recognized.

“This is for them and for the whole nation,” he said.

Since receiving the Medal of Honor, Morris has spent a lot of time talking to people in the military community, as well as school students. He said he wants to pass his knowledge on to the younger generation.

“These children today are our leaders of tomorrow. If they don’t have the knowledge or the ability, we’re slipping,” Morris said in his Veterans History Project interview. “A nation that fails to recognize its heroes fails as a nation.”

In 2015, a bronze statue of Morris was unveiled at Riverfront Park in Cocoa, Florida, where he and his wife currently reside.

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This story by Katie Lange was first published on February 20, 2023 by the DoD News and was entitled “Medal of Honor Monday: Army Sgt. 1st Class Melvin Morris”.

By Bob Donoghue.

A Green Beret assigned to Spike Team Tiger with Military Assistance Command Vietnam – Studies and Observations Group (MACV-SOG) based at FOB-3 Khe Sanh in April 1968 describes a mission to locate the 304th NVA Division in Laos.

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I was assigned to Spike Team Tiger as a replacement for SSG Gary L Crone who was killed by small arms fire on 29 January 1968 on Hill 471 while clearing out NVA Forward Observers. The Siege of Khe Sanh had started on 21 January 1968 and Hill 471 was located 2.3 kilometers due South of FOB-3 and the Combat Base. NVA artillery spotters used Hill 471 to adjust fires onto the base.

Image: Left – SSG Gary L. Crone, Right – map of Khe Sanh

SFC Lloyd G “OD” O’Daniel was the One-Zero assigned to the team. He was highly experienced veteran SOG Operator.  A mission came down for ST Tiger. Due to heavy casualties all the teams were forced to be creative locating and filling out the Teams. Some personnel were even borrowed from FOB-1 and FOB-4. A good example was “OD” who was assigned to ST Tiger as the One-Zero but was also working with the S-3 in Operations. Because of OD’s dual responsibilities he assigned SFC Kara Garland as the One- Zero and SFC Samuel Hernandez as the One-One. OD then came and told me that I was not going on the mission due to my lack of experience. SGT Charles Willoughby was to be the One-Two. I was pissed. Sam and I were sharing a sleeping bunker together. It was freezing at night and we only had a poncho liner. We were spooning for a few weeks until we got some blankets on a resupply drop.

Photo: SFC Lloyd “OD” O’Daniel eating popcorn in bunker.

When the team returned from the mission Sam told me that Willoughby was coming off the team and I was now the new One-Two. It seems that while on the mission Sam had found a candy wrapper that had been dropped on the ground. This was a big No No. Earlier, another team’s commo man lost the teams SOI, it had slipped out of his cargo pocket. The Signal operating instructions (SOI) are issued for the technical control and coordination of communications for the team.  They include radio call signs, frequencies, code-words, and visual signals. Losing a SOI means that every team, aircraft, FOB headquarters would need to destroy their current SOI and request a new one. The person who lost the SOI was removed from SOG.

Several weeks went by when ST Tiger was alerted for an upcoming mission. It seems that the 304th NVA Division was missing, and ST Tiger would try and locate it by conducting an area recon North of the Xe Pon River along Highway 9 inside Laos. OD came by and briefed us. Tiger would deploy with three Americans and four Bru tribesmen. Due to the 53 years since I was there, I cannot remember which Bru we took but I believe they were the four in the photos displayed below. Garland and I would be picked up by a Kingbee and fly an aerial recon of the AO.  We would need to locate two Infill Landing Zones, one as the Primary and a second for the Alternate. Exfiltration landing zones would also be needed.

At first light a Kingbee landed at the Khe Sanh airfield and after a quick briefing and equipment check we were on our way. For security reasons we did not overfly any potential landing zones. However, the exfiltration area was thick jungle and we decided to use an old bomb crater. On the flight back to the border I observed a few old triangular defensive positions. They were small compared to anything I had seen in the past.  Back at the FOB we were debriefed by the S-2 who explained that what we saw was an old secret CIA/SOG program known as Project Elephant, BV-33. It started years earlier as part of White Star and then turned over to Special Projects. Finishing up with the S-2 brief we returned to our team and started packing rucksacks, test firing weapons, and doing a commo check. The mission would start the next day.

Day One

The Kingbee H-34 picked up our team at the airfield about two hours before sunset.  Our flight took us South near Lang Vei then West North West across the border. Staying about 15 klicks North of Highway 9 and the Xe Pon River we soon reached our AO (Area of Operation). Our infiltration landing zone was a small clearing of elephant grass. As we approached the LZ I was overcome with a healthy amount of fear. My legs started shaking and I was afraid that everyone in the chopper would see that I was scared. Seconds later I was on the ground heading for the tree line.  The team formed a perimeter and as the sounds of the Kingbee faded off into the distance I called Covey and gave the all-clear sign. I was now calm with just a healthy amount of fear. We listened for several minutes for any sounds of enemy movement but there was not any. Darkness was soon approaching, and we found a thick area of undergrowth that we crawled into for the night. Midnight came and I made a commo check by squelch to Moonbeam. Moonbeam was a C-130 that flew all night over Laos. One click of the handset from me would be answered by two clicks from Moonbeam.

Day Two

First light began day two. I had a 0800 commo check to make with Hillsboro, this was made by squelch. Hillsboro was the daytime C-130. Our old French map showed that we had two ridge lines to cross before being able to observe the Xe Pon River valley. The afternoon would reveal the truth, there was three ridge lines to climb. Just before reaching the top of the last ridge or hilltop we came to a high speed trail. It was about 12 feet wide, concealed from the air and several strands of commo wire running along the side. The team had no wiretap equipment, so we left it alone, backed off, and continued down towards the road (Hwy 9). We found a good spot to observe the road and river and took a break. Garland and I got together and wrote a Sitrep (Situation Report) which I had to encrypt and send to Hickory (our radio relay site) by PRC-25 (FM).

By this time, the team was getting seriously low on water. Climbing the third ridgeline had taken more time and consumed more water than we had calculated. Mission planning had been based on 2 ridgelines to cross, not three. Covey asked if we needed a water resupply. We did not want to bring attention to us, but we could not hump hills without water. Our problem was solved when Covey informed us that a large thunderstorm was headed our way. We stretched out a ground cloth and soon a heavy downpour drenched us, and all our canteens were refilled, the storm had moved on, and the sun soon dried us off.  Traveling due West, paralleling the road, movement was now hindered by Wait a Minute vines. They are called this because as you move through them, they wrap around your body, weapon, rucksack and then take a minute to untangle yourself.  We crossed several small streams and trails heading North from the valley. Several of these trails had commo wire along their side. Each one had to be noted in our notebook as to location, direction, size, and anything deemed important like the commo wire.

Day Two was ending when in the distance we heard a single gunshot. This could only mean that a tracker had picked up our trail and was signaling. A dense thicket was found which would be our overnight resting spot. Claymore mines and a few Toe Poppers were emplaced around our thicket. The 1800 hour commo check was made, and Covey was told about the Signal Shot. During the night there was quite a few displays of 37mm anti-aircraft rounds going off to the West. The team maintained a 50% alert status until daybreak.

Day Three

As soon as there was enough light, the Toe Poppers and Claymores were recovered. SFC Garland ordered two Bru to recon our back trail while we packed up, made a commo check, and looked over the map. The Bru returned having not spotted anything. Our movement today was to continue moving West while paralleling the road and river. The dirt road had numerous bomb craters in and around it. Truck tire tracks could be seen weaving around the bomb craters. During the afternoon, several rifle shots were heard behind us. Our Primary Exfil Landing Zone was just a few clicks to the Northwest. Covey was contacted and we requested an Exfil. There was movement coming towards us from the Northeast. Covey called back stating that another team was in contact declaring a Prairie Fire emergency.  He asked if we could hunker down, remain overnight and he promised to get us out at first light. We agreed to the new plan.  

Enemy movement continued getting closer. Due to the proximity of this movement, I grabbed the PRC-25 and called the Marine artillery unit at Khe Sanh requesting a fire mission. In a few minutes I had incoming 155mm rounds landing to our Northeast.  There was a problem. The 155’s were firing at maximum range. The trees were so high that the shells were detonating in them spraying us with shrapnel and wood splinters. I closed out the fire mission as the team finished emplacing claymores around our position which was a large thicket with several large trees laying on top of it. Our alert status was 100% as we could still hear enemy movement toward our Northeast. After midnight, it became quiet.

Day Four

At first light, Covey came up on the radio to brief us about our extraction. There would be a Kingbee and 2 Marine Huey UH-1E’s gunships. Contact with the aircraft would be by signal mirror.  The Exfil LZ was about 300 meters from our location. Two Bru were sent out to recon the LZ. One returned and gave an all clear. The Team movement to the LZ was uneventful. We notified Covey that we were ready for pickup. Soon we heard the helicopters, and a gunship pilot requested a mirror flash to show our location.  Since the wind was from the North, we asked that the Kingbee land from the South.  The Team was positioned on the East side of the LZ as the H-34’s door was on the  Right side. Well, the Kingbee came in 180 deg’s opposite of our request causing a  dangerous run around. Half the Team had to carefully avoid the tail rotor. With everyone safely loaded Garland was the last to load and the Kingbee lifted off and headed East to Vietnam and Khe Sanh.

Arriving at Khe Sanh there was a large crowd meeting us and handing out beers.  The team was given an hour to cleanup and eat something for breakfast. Of course, the only food available was PIR’s, Lurp’s, and C rations. The rest of the morning was taken up at the operations bunker with our debriefing. ST Tiger came away from this as a successful mission. Four days on the ground with no casualties. Elements of the 304th NVA Division were proven to be in the area our artillery strike had hit. This was backed up by Signal Intelligence the next day.  Myself, I was no longer a Cherry having completed my first mission and I became a permanent team member of ST Tiger.

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Author: Bob Donoghue is a retired Special Forces Master Sergeant who served in 3^rd, 5^th, 11^th, and 20^th Special Forces Groups during his 31-year long career. He was medically retired in 1999 due to a military parachuting injury he experienced in 1997. He served two tours in Vietnam for which he received multiple awards to include the Silver Star and Purple Heart. After his military service he worked as a contractor in Iraq with SOC-SMG and later as an intelligence mentor with the Emergency Response Unit (Iraqi Ministry of Interior) while employed by USIS.

Images: All photos, maps, and images provided by the author.

This story was originally published by the “History of MACV-SOG”, April 30, 2021. Republished with permission of author.

This article by John Gargus was originally published in the Sentinel in January 2021.

Studies and Observations Group, SOG, was established early in 1964 as a top secret unconventional joint task force to conduct clandestine operations against North Vietnam. Its mission to conduct a program of harassment, diversion, political pressure, capture of prisoners, physical destruction, acquisition of intelligence, and to generate unfavorable propaganda was well in step with our strategic limited war thinking of that day. We were prepared to assist nations that were resisting communist aggression, believing that by helping them in their defense and nation building we could win their hearts and minds and promote the evolution of democracy. We also believed that by conducting covert activities we could discourage their ongoing aggression against South Vietnam. Everyone was aware of our dedicated support for the South, however, only the active SOG participants knew about their individual roles in their compartmentalized top secret organization.

Initially, the secrecy of SOG was so profound that there were only five top officers in Saigon who were briefed on its mission. They were General Westmoreland, his chief of staff, his (J-2) intelligence officer, the 7th Air Force commander and the commander of the U. S. Naval Forces. Obviously, this number of high officials grew as the war expanded, but SOG’s umbilical cord ran directly to the Special Assistant for Counterintelligence and Special Activities (SACSA) in the Pentagon who had direct access to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS). [1] All SOG’s commanders in Saigon were U. S. Army Colonels who had distinguished themselves in prior special and clandestine operations.

SOG’s ambitious operations required dedicated airlift support. This was promptly provided by the First Flight which was later described as the most secret squadron in Vietnam. [2] It evolved from the Central Intelligence Agency’s (CIA) 1949 support to evacuate Chiang Kai-shek from the mainland of China to Taiwan. It arrived in Nha Trang in 1964 with 5 C-123 aircraft that were specially configured by the Big Safari procurement program to support clandestine operations in Vietnam. These black painted aircraft with added outboard jet engines that increased their airborne performance had no identifying markings. Internally, they had enhanced navigation suitable for low level flying and passive electromagnetic systems for detecting emissions from hostile radars. Their crewmembers did not wear customary flight suits nor identifying military uniforms. They flew in normal casual street clothes and even with sandals instead of shoes. Even more bizarre was the fact that they were a mixture of Americans, Vietnamese and Taiwanese Chinese. Their daytime flying was conducted by the Air Force crews. This consisted of shuttle airlift for the Green Berets to their in country outposts which had suitable air strips. Nighttime missions were clandestine low level operations over North Vietnam flown by either the Vietnamese, or the Chinese crews. When SOG terminated the employment of Vietnamese crews, the First Flight retained their nonflying ground support personnel which performed warehousing and parachute rigging.

The First Flight could not keep up with the expansion of SOG’s operations. From its early 1964 beginning, the top secret chain of command requested additional and more capable C-130, aircraft to cope with the steadily accumulating airlift backlog. [3] Once more the Big Safari procurement provided the answer by modifying a fleet of 14 C-130 aircraft for clandestine operations in what became the Stray Goose program. Four of these aircraft went to Pope AFB for crew training. Four went to Nha Trang in 1966 to share the First Flights well established support facilities there and four more were destined to go to Germany to support European Command’s (EUCOM) special operations forces. These aircraft, which soon acquired their present day Combat Talons name, were the most sophisticated transport aircraft of their time. Their most important feature was an integrated navigation system that included a terrain following radar which permitted them to fly at low altitudes where they could avoid early detection by enemy’s radar nets. They also possessed an array of up-to-date electromagnetic countermeasure systems that would identify and even passively counter some enemy threats. However, the most distinguishable feature of these Combat Talons was their modification for the Fulton Recovery System, now better known as the STARS (Surface to Air Recovery System). Each aircraft had an unconventional nose drooping radome on top of which was a “V” yoke with a truss for retractable fork arms that also held propeller guard cables that stretched between it to the aircraft’s wing tips. [4] This appearance revealed that it was a very special aircraft. On top of that, the aircraft was painted with very dark green jungle camouflage color and its fuselage bottom as well as the bottoms of wing surfaces had dirty white clouded sky color. This paint had very special stealth characteristics. It contained diatomaceous earth particles that made the painted surfaces feel like they were covered with very fine sand paper comparable to a manicurist’s fingernail file. This surface absorbed much of received energy from scanning radars which gave their receivers much smaller aircraft signature.

Combat Talon’s security was unprecedented. Our Combat Talons had to be parked in secured areas away from other aircraft assigned to the base and required two armed guards to control access to individuals with special security ID cards. This policy was followed even after Vietnam no matter where or in which country the aircraft had to remain overnight. On such temporary duty assignments (TDYs) the aircraft support personnel included the necessary complement of armed guards. These guards also discouraged curious photographers who came to their close proximity. Photography of the aircraft’s systems and instrumentation from the inside was forbidden. Terrain following radar (TFR) and its integration into the navigation systems was classified as Top Secret. Even more guarded was the Electromagnetic Countermeasures (ECM) equipment that was located outside of the cockpit behind the aircraft’s bulkhead where it was hidden behind a thick curtain to conceal it from anyone except the crew and their ground maintenance technicians.

At the start of the Stray Goose program, C-130 qualified airmen were chosen based on complex criteria that included the scope of knowledge and performance during their military careers. For example, “flight engineers were required to have a minimum of 4,000 hours experience in the C-130.” [5] All were surprised by the secrecy and the lack of information about their future missions in Vietnam. Those of us who volunteered for the Stray Goose program were told by the Air Force personnel office that we would learn all we needed to know from our instructors at Pope AFB. Once at Pope, we learned that none of our instructors had prior experience with the aircraft in Vietnam. They were trained at Lockheed Air Service in Ontario, California by technicians who performed aircraft modifications and who were proficient only in training us with the new aircraft systems that included the STARS and a tactic to deliver leaflets from high altitudes. They simply did not know anything about the missions we would perform once in Vietnam. The first six crews that deployed with Combat Talons to Vietnam were being reassigned to Ramstein AFB in Germany which was receiving its complement of four aircraft. The word we had was that we did not yet have a need to know about our aircraft’s missions in Vietnam. However, we concluded from our training that we would be flying in a hostile environment, conducting psychological operations with leaflet drops and rescuing downed crewmembers with the STARS.

In 1967 each class at Pope AFB trained two eleven member crews. Our class had crew numbers S-05 and S-06. This told us that we were the 11th and 12th of the crews that had been trained for Vietnam. Assignments to a crew were made on the first day of training and remained fixed even after deployment to Vietnam. Each crew had three pilots and two navigators that were required by the terrain following radar system. The sixth officer crewmember was the Electronic Warfare Officer (EWO). Two of the five enlisted crewmembers were flight engineers (required by STARS), two loadmasters and one radio operator. Everyone had a specific task to perform during pick-ups of people from the ground.

Our training at Pope AFB also taught us not to fraternize with other airmen who were naturally curious about our special aircraft and our secret nighttime flying. This was even more important once we arrived in Vietnam after we were finally briefed on our new unit’s mission. Tight Combat Talon security restricted our interaction with other Air Force units and friends whom we knew from prior assignments. All were curious about our unusual aircraft and we were discouraged from fraternization with them because we could not speak about our mission. Only our enlisted crewmembers and maintenance personnel were quartered on base where they lived in self improved well-furnished air conditioned quarters. Officers lived in a contracted hotel down town where they had their own club and bar for feeding and entertainment. All First Flight personnel also lived off the base in a big well protected and isolated French built villa on the beach.

Our incorporation into the 14th Air Commando Wing (ACW) in October 1967 is an example of some ridiculous security hurdles. Prior to that date, both the First Flight and our Stray Goose detachment belonged to the 314 Tactical Airlift Wing based at Ching Chuan Kang (CCK) Air Base in Taiwan. It was logical to have us transferred into the special operations wing at Nha Trang that was already hosting us and employed about a dozen aging aircraft types that were modified for special operations missions. At the time of the transfer to the 14th ACW, our Stray Goose detachment was renamed as the 15th Air Commando Squadron. This transfer did not change our mission at all. We remained the SOG’s airlift asset along with the First Flight. We also remained outside of General Westmoreland’s command that managed the war in Vietnam. Our immediate boss was Colonel John K. Singlaub who expressed his chain of command as follows: “I reported directly to the SACSA in the Pentagon, but always kept General Westmoreland well briefed on our past operations and future plans. The General had veto authority, but approval for operations came from Washington. We were also required to inform the Commander in Chief, U.S. Forces in the Pacific, (CINCPAC)…” [6]

The 14th ACW Commander at that time was Col. John M. Patton. He was kept out of the chain of command between us and Colonel Singlaub. He was not briefed in on the SOG missions of the C-123 and C-130 units he had just acquired because he had no “need to know”. He required an escort to enter our guarded aircraft and he definitely did not have the need to know what kind of electronic countermeasures we had behind the curtain inside of our aircraft. When he showed up unannounced and unescorted to check out the First Flight’s living quarters on the beach, the Nung guards (Vietnamese of Chinese origins) would not let him pass through the gate. He had to wait until a member of the first Flight came out to escort him in. We also had Nung guards at our hotel, however, he would always come in invited and accompanied by our commander. It was awkward and unusual to have a wing commander who was not fully involved in the wartime operation of his subordinate units because he did not have the need to know. I spoke with Colonel Patton about this anomaly 45 years later. He was still very upset over the fact that the first officer who came to the gate had no idea who he was and another one had to come to vouch for him. [7]

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Endnotes

[1] Plaster, John L. SOG; The Secret War of the American Commandos in Vietnam, 23.
[2] Moore, Bernard II. Tip of the Spear, “Vietnam’s Most Secret Squadron”, 36-37.
[3] Thigpen Jerry L. The Praetorian STARship – The Untold Story of the Combat Talon, 15.
[4] Bill Grimes, The History of Big Safari, “Stray Goose” and “Combat Talon”, 255-275.
[5] Michael E. Haas, Apollo’s Warriors: United States Special Operations during the Cold War, 295.
[6] John K. Singlaub with Malcolm McConnell, Hazardous Duty, 294.
[7] Phone conversation with author on June 14, 2013.

About the Author

John Gargus was born in Czechoslovakia from where he escaped at the age of fifteen when the Communists pulled the country behind the Iron Curtain. He was commissioned through AFROTC in 1956 and made the USAF his career. He served in the Military Airlift Command as a navigator, then as an instructor in AFROTC. He went to Vietnam as a member of Special Operations and served in that field of operations for seven years in various units at home and in Europe. He participated in the air operations planning for the Son Tay POW rescue and then flew as the lead navigator of one of the MC-130s that led the raiders to Son Tay, for which he was awarded the Silver Star. His non-flying assignments included Deputy Base Command at Zaragoza Air Base in Spain and at Hurlburt Field in Florida and a tour as Assistant Commandant of the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California. He retired as a full Colonel in 1983 after serving as the Chief of USAF’s Mission to Colombia. He has been married to Anita since 1958. The Garguses have one son and three daughters. He is the author of The Son Tay Raid: American POWs in Vietnam Were Not Forgotten, Combat Talons in Vietnam : Recovering a Covert Special Ops Crew, and is a past contributor to the Sentinel (November 2016, December 2016, January 2019 and April 2019).

Flight hours: More than 6100 hours (381 Combat flying hours in Southeast Asia and 105 flying hours with the Colombian Air Force).

Photos: All photographs are courtesy of the author. Top Photo: Nha Trang – Special Forces Camp McDermott and the Air Base.

The Sentinel is the monthly publication of Chapter 78, Special Forces Association located in California. The article by John Gargus was republished with the permission of Chapter 78 and the author.
https://www.specialforces78.com/

Editor’s Note: In 1966 and 1967 Buck Walters was deployed to South Vietnam with U.S. Army Special Forces. Read how he was made a member of the Jarai Montagnard tribe. His story is below.

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PREFACE

It has been 55 years since these events unfolded. I have made every effort to ensure this depiction of them is accurate. I must admit, however, there are dates and names I can no longer recall. I mean no offense or disrespect to any person or organization. Buck Walters, De Oppresso Liber.

In 1963 or thereabouts, President John Kennedy decided that the emerging US Special Forces would benefit from the infusion of some Regular Army officers. I was one of those officers. I applied for and received an inter-theater transfer from an infantry battalion in the 3rd Armored Division to the 10th Special Forces Group at Bad Tölz, Germany. It was March 1964 when I stood, heels locked, in front of the desk of the legendary, Colonel Jerry Sage. “Sir, Captain Walters reports.” Sage looked me up and down. It seemed an eternity, before he welcomed me with these words, “Walters, you know, I could knock you out with a single punch?” I replied, “Sir, I do not doubt that.” I was dismissed.

Photo: Author (right, front) and SF team chuted up for a training jump at Baker AAF, Bad Tölz.

Along the way I became friends with the Group Sergeant Major, John Pioletti. John set the standards at Bad Tölz and he seemed to take special interest in making sure I met them. Whenever our paths crossed, I got inspected, from the folds in my Green Beret to the shine on my Corcoran’s. He never said anything, but I knew I was being inspected and I was OK with that. Pioletti left the 10th to become the Group Sergeant Major of the 5th Special Forces Group in Nha Trang, South Vietnam. I do not recall when, but on my arrival in country in February 1966, he was there to pick me up at the airport. As we drove to the compound, he said that he had assigned me to Detachment B-52 (Project Delta). I took note that he said, “he had assigned me…” I was OK with that too.

Charlie Beckwith had been severely wounded and evacuated. He was replaced by a colonel named Warren if I recall correctly. Bo Baker had departed earlier, too. I replaced him as the operations officer. Project Delta was a MACV, J2 asset for tasking purposes. We conducted reconnaissance as they directed, often on behalf of deployed divisions. We were also capable of direct-action missions and with our two attached Vietnamese airborne-ranger companies could line up against the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) from time to time. That is what we were doing in Song Be when I got the fateful radio call. I will get back to that in a bit.

As the operations officer, I could not call myself a “Recon Man”. Never did, but I didn’t like asking men to take risks I wasn’t willing to undertake myself. So, I went on a couple of missions, not as the team leader, just a team member. One day I’ll tell you about the insertion that left us 10 kilometers on the wrong side of the Cambodian border. Later I told the pilot-in-command he owed us all a drink for missing the entire damn country. I flew on every insertion and extraction, sometimes as door gunner if we had weight issues.

A word or two about our Vietnamese airborne-ranger companies. When they were first attached, they were just Vietnamese Ranger companies. It was up to us to qualify them for airborne operations. I set up a two-week program of instruction (POI) and I suspect the Black Hats at Benning would not have approved. We left out the push-ups and the running around and we never came up with a Vietnamese Jody-call. Anyway, we taught them the critical parts and then started pushing them out of our Hueys. I made every jump with the sticks I personally trained. If memory serves, it added up to about 70 over a two-week period.

Somewhere in there we got our hands on a couple of MC-1B’s. I think that was the nomenclature…it had forks you unseated to permit the risers to be slipped to steer the canopy. They did not come with instructions, but I had been a member of the Bad Tölz Sports Parachute Club so I thought I could figure it out. I asked the pilot to take me to about 4,000 feet AGL since I needed a little time for the “discovery learning” I was about to experience. Once was enough.

MACV, J2 ordered Delta down to the Song Be area. I want to say it was late May or early June 1966. I do not recall precisely. They wanted us to lite up an NVA outfit they had located. We got ourselves down there, established a base and got on with it. Along the way the boss decided I should be the senior advisor to the two companies we were committing to the fight. It made sense. They knew me and I had earned a measure of respect from them as a result of the airborne training we put them through. I reckon it was the second or third day of fighting when my radio operator handed me the handset. It was Group and the message conveyed was: “Take a helicopter to Saigon; there’s a fixed wing waiting to fly you to Nha Trang; report immediately to the Group Commander on arrival.” I radioed back words to the effect, “I am in a fight; will comply once wrapped up.” That resulted in, “I say again…” Seems the old man was not inclined to await Captain Walters’ pleasure.

It was 0300 hours when I found myself with heels locked in front of Colonel “Splash” Kelly’s desk. I do not recall being told to stand at ease and I certainly was not offered a chair.

Kelly’s orders to me were direct and clear. The 400 Jarai Montagnard Strikers at Camp A-221 located in Cung Son in the central highlands had thrown down their weapons and abandoned the camp. He had relieved the SFOD-A commander, and I was to replace him. My orders were to “do whatever is necessary to save the camp.” He told me I had 90 days. If I failed, he would close it. “Do you have any questions?”, he asked. “No, Sir”, I replied. I saluted and headed to the waiting UH-1.

Photo: General Westmoreland, commander of U.S. forces in the Vietnam War from 1964 to 1968, visits Special Forces camp. Author is standing to the right. Two middle ‘civilians’ are reporters who were on the trip with the general.

The LU’C LU’O’NG DAC-BIET (LLDB) team, was the direct cause of the crisis and my guess is that my predecessor, though I never met him, was a well-intended, but misguided contributor. The camp sat on a hill overlooking the village of Cung Son and the river that ran nearby. By any reasonable standard, it was only marginally defensible and the positions the defenders were required to occupy, and hold were little more than hovels. I got there and walked the camp with my team. Fields of fire were not cleared; fighting positions were shallow holes in the ground with wood and cardboard for cover. The Strikers had been brutalized by the LLDB team, they had been shorted on pay and on rations and finally they had enough. They threw down their weapons and they left.

I met with my counterpart. We both had team members present. My 1911A1 was in my hand, a round chambered, hammer back and the safety off. He spoke some English, I spoke no Vietnamese, but had an interpreter at my side. I helped him understand that my definition of “advisor” was different from the guy I replaced. We took control of the funds, the food, and everything else of value. After a couple of weeks, when “face” had been saved, he, too, was relieved. He was replaced by a captain who had fought the French at Dien Bien Phu. I was free to do anything I wanted except get him outside the wire. I was OK with that.

Then the hard work started. I went into the village, hat in hand, and got the Strikers back. We brought in laborers to build fighting positions, clear fields of fire, reinforce barriers and generally make the place both livable and defensible. We cared for them, we respected them, and we led them. Above all, we gained their loyalty. We kept half of the force in the field pretty much constantly. Typically, we were out two weeks at a time conducting operations to interdict infiltrating NVA units. We were very good at our work.

After our first operation, they made me a Jarai brother complete with loin cloth, bracelets, and rice wine. For the record, I was not offered a wife. Importantly, we had a carefully selected Jarai platoon that was focused on the Americans personal security. They made it possible for Green Berets to do what we do.

EPILOGUE

SFOD A-221 in 1966-67, made a difference in a small piece of a long, ugly, and some would say fruitless, war. We came home as individuals, not as units or teams, and we were often reviled by the very people we fought to protect.

They did not know what we did; They did not know what we endured; and They did not know what we achieved. De Oppresso Liber, Buck Walters, Soldier

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Author: Buck Walters served in the 5th, 7th, and 10th Special Forces Group.

Photos: Courtesy of Buck Walters private collection. Top image is a post-mission photo of split-team A-221. Just returned from a highly successful mission against NVA. Buck Walters on the right.

Command Sergeant Major (Ret.) Bennie Adkins died on Friday, April 17, 2020 after being hospitalized with coronavirus. He was a career Special Forces NCO who served in the Vietnam conflict. He was also a Medal of Honor recipient.

Adkins passed away after a weeks-long hospitalization with COVID-19. He was 86 years old at the time of his death. He died in the intensive care unit at the East Alabama Medical Center.

He had received the Medal of Honor in a ceremony at the White House in 2014. The award was for his actions in Vietnam in March 1966. His Medal of Honor citation says that he sustained 18 different wounds in the four-day battle and had killed an estimated 100 plus of the enemy.

Adkins served more than 20 years in the Army – most of that time with Special Forces. He served with the 3rd, 5th, 6th, and 7th Special Forces Group. He served three tours in the Vietnam War.

After he retired from the Army in 1978 he attended Troy State University earning two master’s degrees in education and management. He opened his own accounting firm and taught night classes at Auburn University and Southern Union Junior College in Alabama.

In 2018 he co-authored a book about his military experiences and life after the Army. The book was titled A Tiger Among Us: A Story of Valor in Vietnam’s A Shau Valley. He also established the Bennie Adkins Foundation to provide educational scholarships for Special Forces soldiers who are returning to civilian life.

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Photo: Credit to U.S. Army.

More info: On December 14, 2020, CSM (R) Atkins was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

Intel Update 20170109 – gadgets that spies use, questions to be posed during CIA confirmation hearings, Trump to revamp Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), a CIA contract aircraft’s final flight, a partisan CIA, Trump and Intel, and more.

“Earthquake’s Final Flight”. The painting above by Jeffrey W. Bass was done in 2006. It was donated to the Central Intelligence Agency’s art museum (no, you can’t visit it) by the Fairchild Corporation. The painting is of the final flight of two American pilots (contracted by the CIA) and two French paratroopers who dropped resupply bundles to French fighters under siege at Dien Bien Phu, Vietnam. The day after the flight the French garrison fell to Communist Vietnamese forces. The Fairchild C-119 (with US Air Force markings painted over with French Air Force markings) was struck by anti-aircraft fire and finally crashed just over the Laotian border. Read more in a CIA description of the painting in Earthquake’s Final Flight.

Spy Gadgets. A transmitter in a shoe, camera on a pigeon, rectal storage capsule to hold ten different types of espionage tools, glasses that hold cyanide pills, and more. Check out some creative ways spies plied their trade in an article posted in The Irish Sun, January 2, 2017.

A Partisan CIA? Trumps statements of distrust about the CIA have troubled some but there are a few critics out there that say there should be concerns about the spy agency. Read “Is the CIA partisan?”, by Michael Rubin, American Enterprise Institute, December 14, 2016.

Trump’s Intelligence Feud. The Donald is getting off to a rough start with the intelligence community. He recently cited Julian Assange of Wikileaks fame as a credible source on Russian social media and cyber attacks. Hmmmm. I am not sure if the ‘tweets’ denigrating the U.S. intelligence agencies are helpful. Read “Trump Knocks U.S. Intelligence Agencies Over Russia Hacking Review”, The Wall Street Journal, January 3, 2017. See also “Trump Gives Intelligence Agencies Their Daily Briefing”, The Onion, January 3, 2017.

Re-Org of ODNI? It appears that President-Elect Donald Trump might want to change up a lead intel organization – the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Could this have something to do with LTG Mike Flynn? Read “Donald Trump Plans Revamp of Top U.S. Spy Agency”, The Wall Street Journal, January 4, 2017. (Paywall).

CIA Confirmation. The nominee, Congressman Pompeo, faces questioning on five hot topics. Interrogation, surveillance, Russian hacking, morale at the CIA, and his actions while on the Benghazi Committee. Read more in “Five hot issues for the CIA confirmation hearings”, The Hill Blog, January 1, 2017.

Gary Rose, a U.S. Army medic, was part of the secret Studies and Observation Group (SOG) – an organization made up of Special Forces volunteers who served in Vietnam. During the Vietnam War SOG conducted cross-border operations into Laos – tapping communication lines, attacking North Vietnamese convoys, snatching captives, and more. On one of those raids – Operation Tailwind – Rose distinguished himself by saving the lives of many of his fellow comrades. Read more in a news report by Dave Philipps – “Secrets, Denial, and, Decades Later, a Medal of Honor for a Vietnam Medic”, The New York Times, July 30, 2016.