<ul class="summary-list"><li>US commandos fought a covert war in the jungles of Southeast Asia during the <keyword id="12250934" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="vietnam-war" source="Orion">Vietnam War</keyword>.</li><li>Their operations were supported by dedicated Air Force, Navy, and Army fixed-wing and helicopter units.</li></ul><p>While the US was waging a conventional war in North and <keyword id="13046420" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="south-vietnam" source="Orion">South Vietnam</keyword>, American commandos fought a covert war in the jungles of Southeast Asia for eight years.</p><p>Operating under Military Assistance Command Vietnam-Studies and Observations Group (<keyword id="12359583" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="macv-sog" source="Orion">MACV-SOG</keyword>), Army Green Berets, Navy SEALs, and Air Commandos <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/macv-sog-created-in-vietnam-still-influences-us-special-operations-2021-2" target="_blank" rel="noopener">conducted highly classified operations in Laos, Cambodia, and North Vietnam</a> — where US troops weren't supposed to be.</p><p>SOG operated mainly in small recon teams — usually six to 10 special operators — that went behind enemy lines to track, identify, or sabotage North Vietnamese units and supply lines.</p><p>Although their small numbers afforded them stealth, they faced attack from hundreds or thousands of enemy troops if they were compromised.</p><p>In such situations, their only chance of survival came from the air.</p><h2>Air Warriors</h2><div type="image" title="Air Force Bell UH-1P helicopter in Laos" height="1182" width="1800" msid="89168496" hostid="261"></div><p>SOG's <a href="https://www.sandboxx.us/blog/macv-sog-the-covert-special-operations-unit-youve-never-heard-of/" target="_top">covert nature</a> meant that only a few people could support its operations. That task went to dedicated Air Force, Navy, and Army fixed-wing and helicopter units, in addition to some exceptionally brave South Vietnamese pilots and crews.</p><p>The Air Force's 20th Special Operations Squadron, the "Green Hornets," and the Army's 101st Airborne Division's "Black Angels" <keyword id="13046421" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="huey" source="Orion">Huey</keyword> helicopter gunships were some of the best.</p><p>From 1964 to 1972, these and other units worked with SOG and conducted some <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/green-beret-recalls-dangerous-thanksgiving-mission-during-vietnam-war-2020-11" target="_blank" rel="noopener">jaw-dropping operations</a>, but their approach to supporting the highly secretive SOG had differing levels of rigor.</p><p>Green Hornet pilots were all experienced commissioned officers with several hundred flight hours under their belt, whereas the Army also used warrant officers who tended to be younger and less experienced.</p><p>"The only training process to support MACV-SOG [operations] was on-the-job training and a willingness to be involved in these very dangerous missions, as they were always on a volunteer basis," Roger Lockshier, a crew chief and door gunner with the Black Angels, told Insider.</p><div type="image" title="Army Bell UH-1D helicopter in Vietnam" height="1292" width="2000" msid="89168498" hostid="261"></div><p>When it came to gunners, the Green Hornets recruited experienced crew chiefs and helicopter mechanics and specialists with munitions and weapons.</p><p>"All volunteers and highly experienced in their respective disciplines. I personally had been a Huey crew chief for four years prior to going to the 20th. Crew chiefs usually flew [as] Right Gunner, Weapons guys on the left," Alfonso Rivero, a Green Hornet gunner, told Insider.</p><p>All Green Hornets had to pass a physical exam from a flight surgeon, graduate from the Pacific Air Force Jungle Survival School in the Philippines, receive a top-secret security clearance. Once in the unit, pilots and gunners had to be certified for SOG operations.</p><p>New Green Hornet pilots assigned to both transport and gunship helicopters had to conduct several training flights under the supervision of a qualified pilot, known as a Flight Examiner, Rivero said.</p><p>"After the trainer determined the subject was sufficiently proficient, a final Check Flight took place. If passed, the trainee would be certified by the Flight Examiner," Rivero added.</p><h2>Firepower equaled survival</h2><div type="image" title="Air Force UH-1P Huey helicopter Cambodia" height="1214" width="1800" msid="89168499" hostid="261"></div><p>SOG recon teams often raced to their landing zones with hundreds or thousands of enemy troops just a few moments behind them. The firepower aboard the helicopters picking them up could be the difference between life and death.</p><p>The helicopters had to put down a near-constant rate of fire to keep the enemy at bay and deny them the pleasure of killing or capturing the SOG commandos at the last moment, as the commandos exposed themselves to scramble aboard the helicopters.</p><p>To achieve that, Army and Air Force choppers rolled in with lots of guns.</p><p>"There were several configurations for weaponry throughout the Vietnam War, but during my time, 1967 and 1968, the most common configuration was with one 7.62 mm mini-gun and one seven-shot rocket pod mounted on each side of the aircraft," Lockshier said.</p><p>Lockshier — who has written about his hair-raising experiences in the book "<a href="https://www.amazon.com/We-Saved-SOG-Souls-Airborne/dp/B09NRC4ZB4/ref=sr_1_1?crid=10HXJYKBT7UNI&amp;keywords=roger+lockshier+book&amp;qid=1642888283&amp;sprefix=roger+lock%2Caps%2C90&amp;sr=8-1" target="_top">We Saved SOG Souls: 101st Airborne Missions in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos During the Vietnam War</a>" — and others in his flight platoon each used a 7.62 mm M-60, often firing it with one hand, or "free-hand style."</p><div type="image" title="Vietnam war helicopter landing zone in jungle" height="1350" width="2000" msid="89168500" hostid="261"></div><p>A less common configuration for Huey gunships featured a 19-shot rocket pod mounted on each side of the aircraft with a 40 mm cannon on the nose and the two M-60 machine guns used by the crew chief and door-gunner, Lockshier added.</p><p>"This configuration was called an Aerial Artillery Platform but more commonly called a 'Hog Gunship,' due to the hoglike appearance to the aircraft the nose cannon created," Lockshier said.</p><p>In its gunship configuration, the UH-1P helicopter "carried two rocket pods, each loaded with seven 2.75-inch folding<strong>-</strong>fin aerial rockets. In addition, two pintle-mounted GAU-2B 7.62 mm mini-guns were operated by the door gunners. The maximum load held by the electric-motor-assisted ammo cans was a total of 12,000 rounds," Rivero said.</p><p>The loadout on helicopters in the troop-transport configuration was reduced so the SOG recon team could fit. These Hueys were called "Slicks" because they lacked external armament.</p><p>On such missions, the Hueys had only two door gunners, each with M-60 machine guns, but they also carried rope ladders and McGuire or STABO rigs — <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/us-special-operators-still-use-vietnam-war-era-infilexfil-method-2021-3" target="_blank" rel="noopener">special gear used to lift recon teams off the ground</a> without the helicopter landing.</p><div type="image" title="Army helicopter gunner in Vietnam" height="1317" width="2000" msid="89168501" hostid="261"></div><p>Although "Slicks" could get crowded, the Green Hornet's powerful T-58 engines had no issue carrying a full recon team plus the Air Commandos.</p><p>"Our most effective weapon was by far the mini-guns, which could provide the very close support to the teams on the LZ. We could often fire within feet of the team and do it safely. We never had a friendly-fire incident. With rockets, the level of accuracy was somewhat lesser," Rivero added.</p><p>SOG had a 100% casualty rate, meaning all its members were either wounded, some of them multiple times, or killed in action. Many who made it back owe their lives to the pilots and crew who supported them.</p><p>"SOG rotorheads were the unsung heroes of the eight-year secret war. Time and again their heroics and aviation skills saved the lives of SOG recon teams" and larger SOG units, known as Hatchet Forces, that conducted direct-action missions said John Stryker Meyer, a legendary Green Beret who served two tours in SOG and <a href="https://sogchronicles.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">has written</a> about his experiences.</p><p>These helicopter pilots and crews have had a lasting impact. Today's Air Commandos can trace their lineage back to Vietnam, and the Army's world-famous <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/meet-the-armys-160-soar-night-stalkers-special-operations-pilots-2020-10" target="_blank" rel="noopener">160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment</a>, the "Night Stalkers," drew its first pilots and crews from the 101st Airborne Division.</p><p><em>Stavros Atlamazoglou is a defense journalist specializing in special operations, a Hellenic Army veteran (national service with the 575th Marine Battalion and Army HQ), and a Johns Hopkins University graduate.</em></p>

Before there were 'Night Stalkers,' these daredevil pilots got US special operators to their missions deep behind enemy lines

<ul class="summary-list"><li>US special-operations forces played a central role in the <keyword id="12250934" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="vietnam-war" source="Orion">Vietnam War</keyword>.</li><li>The Pentagon even created a covert special-ops unit, <keyword id="12359583" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="macv-sog" source="Orion">MACV-SOG</keyword>, to conduct cross-border operations.</li></ul><p>During the Vietnam War, the US military relied heavily on special-operations forces to wage what was a predominately unconventional conflict.</p><p>Individual units, such as the Army Green Berets, Navy SEALs, and Air Commandos, supported the war strategy, but the Pentagon also created a dedicated special-operations organization.</p><p>Military Assistance Command Vietnam-Studies and Observations Group (MACV-SOG) was <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/macv-sog-created-in-vietnam-still-influences-us-special-operations-2021-2" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a covert special-operations unit</a> that conducted operations in Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, North Vietnam, and elsewhere.</p><p>Their highly classified missions came at a cost. The unit had a 100% casualty rate, meaning all its members were wounded at least once or killed in action. The outsize risk they faced was matched by their effectiveness. Time and again, MACV-SOG teams achieved great results.</p><div type="image" title="Vietnam War SOG special operations" height="1614" width="2500" msid="88636471" hostid="261"></div><p>The North Vietnamese and Vietcong understood the danger MACV-SOG troops posed and went to extremes to kill or capture them.</p><p>A mole in MACV-SOG headquarters in Saigon provided key intelligence to the North Vietnamese about the recon teams' movements and operations. SOG operators in the field were often at a bigger disadvantage than they realized.</p><p>But the North Vietnamese went a step further, attacking the "SOG problem" at its root: MACV-SOG bases. One such attack on a forward operating base near Da Nang in August 1968 killed 18 Green Berets in what is still the <a href="https://www.sandboxx.us/blog/attack-on-fob-4-the-worst-day-in-us-army-special-forces-history/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">deadliest day</a> in the unit's history.</p><p>A few months later, in the middle of the winter holidays, the North Vietnamese sought to replicate that success with a surprise attack on <keyword id="12856148" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="new-years-day" source="Orion">New Year's Day</keyword>.</p><h2>New Year's 'wishes'</h2><div type="image" title="Tet offensive 3" height="854" width="1240" msid="88636472" hostid="261"></div><p>The North Vietnamese and Vietcong usually planned or launched attacks during US or Vietnamese holidays, relying on surprise to compensate for the US's overwhelming technological superiority.</p><p>The most well-known example is <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tet-offensive-us-victory-but-turned-americans-against-vietnam-war-2021-1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the Tet Offensive in early 1968</a>. Launched during local new year's celebrations, the massive, coordinated assault across South Vietnam was defeated militarily <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/anniversary-of-the-battle-of-hue-during-the-vietnam-war-2020-1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">at heavy cost for both sides</a> but helped turn the war in North Vietnam's favor.</p><p>"We always had heightened alerts for all US and major Vietnamese holidays," such as July Fourth or the Vietnamese New Year, said John Stryker Meyer, a legendary Green Beret who completed two tours with MAVG-SOG.</p><p>"They seldom hit a base when the base was prepared. They preferred the element of surprise, such as the August 23, 1968, attack at FOB 4 in Da Nang, an attack launched after more than a year of planning and planned to strike on a moonless night," Meyer told Insider.</p><p>A few days before New Year's Eve 1968, the SOG camp commander at Forward Operating Base 1 in Phu Bai, near Hue, ordered his troops to prepare for a surprise attack at the turn of the year.</p><div type="image" title="Phu Bai airfield in South Vietnam" height="1582" width="2000" msid="88636473" hostid="261"></div><p>In addition to receiving intelligence, the base commander had several indications of an imminent attack. SOG special operators had found markers on the roof of the base lounge, which attackers would use to guide mortar rounds. A Green Beret also caught a local worker counting steps to the camp lounge, another tactic to guide mortar or artillery rounds.</p><p>The SOG compound, which adjoined a larger base, was supposed to be highly classified. But the North Vietnamese had agents and informants almost everywhere and knew of the SOG base and its role as a launchpad for cross-border operations.</p><p>Meyer, who <a href="https://sogchronicles.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">has written extensively</a> about American commandos' secret war in Indochina, said SOG commandos, aware of the potential for surprise attacks, took defensive measures.</p><p>"At FOB 1 we had an internal defense element that our [Special Forces] men stayed close to. We had trench lines, mortar pits, areas of responsibility to go to if an attack was launched," Meyer said.</p><p>"To the north and the east there were at least three minefields — the first was the old French minefield, then two additional ones SF put into place," while to the south, behind FOB 1, was a South Vietnamese Army training unit and to the west a high fence, Meyer added.</p><p>The SOG operators held a vigilant New Year's Eve celebration, ready for an attack. Their base faced only a few poorly sighted mortar rounds, however. It was on the field in Laos where disaster struck SOG.</p><h2>A New Year's disaster</h2><div type="image" title="Vietnam War SOG special operations" height="600" width="800" msid="88636474" hostid="261"></div><p>While the SOG commandos at FOB 1 waited for an attack, Recon Team Diamondback — composed of US and South Vietnamese troops, a common feature of SOG teams — was on a recon mission in Laos.</p><p>In the final hours of 1968, a forward air controller did two radio checks with the team, a standard procedure to make sure a team on the ground was OK.</p><p>But on January 1, 1969, RT Diamondback called for an urgent tactical extraction because of heavy enemy activity in the area. The North Vietnamese might not have spotted them, but their sheer numbers made it almost inevitable that they would find the SOG operators.</p><p>As the SOG radioman was talking to the controller in an airplane overhead, chaos erupted. The forward air controller heard explosions and heavy AK-47 fire. He tried to contact the team with no success.</p><p>After some desperate moments, a South Vietnamese member of RT Diamondback came on the radio and, in shaken English, informed the aircraft that the team's three American members had been killed in a surprise attack.</p><div type="image" title="MACV-SOG soldiers troops Vietnam" height="819" width="1050" msid="88636475" hostid="261"></div><p>The South Vietnamese of the team had been left unhurt — a calculated move by the North Vietnamese to undermine the SOG teams and sow division among their members.</p><p>Killing only Americans left the teams shorthanded and was meant to stoke fears about North Vietnam's infiltration of the South Vietnamese military. By the late 1960s, the North was thought to have <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1970/01/07/archives/69-infiltration-to-south-vietnam-is-put-at-100000-allied-estimates.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">tens of thousands of troops</a> and support personnel in the South, helping <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/anniversary-of-the-battle-of-hue-during-the-vietnam-war-2020-1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">organize and conduct attacks</a>.</p><p>The tactic worked at first. Recon teams began questioning the commitment and loyalty of their South Vietnamese members. But strong personal leadership at the tactical and organizational level helped the unit maintain its cohesion.</p><p>The organization was inherently flexible, and team leaders—or "one-zeros"—were chiefly responsible for their team and its culture. It fell on them to dismiss any distrust created by the sinister North Vietnamese tactic.</p><p>SOG teams were soon successfully hunting across the fence again.</p><p><em>Stavros Atlamazoglou is a defense journalist specializing in special operations, a Hellenic Army veteran (national service with the 575th Marine Battalion and Army HQ), and a Johns Hopkins University graduate.</em></p>

A harrowing New Year's Day attack on US special operators during the Vietnam War featured a sinister tactic

<ul class="summary-list"><li>During the <keyword id="12250934" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="vietnam-war" source="Orion">Vietnam War</keyword>, a select group of US commandos carried out secret missions behind enemy lines.</li><li><keyword id="12359583" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="macv-sog" source="Orion">MACV-SOG</keyword>, as it was known, sent small teams on across Vietnam's borders to conduct raids and gather intelligence.</li></ul><p>During the Vietnam War, a select group of American commandos conducted some of the most sensitive missions of the entire conflict, including snatching live enemy prisoners.</p><p>Military Assistance Command Vietnam-Studies and Observations (MACV-SOG) was <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/macv-sog-created-in-vietnam-still-influences-us-special-operations-2021-2" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a covert special-operations unit conducting cross-border operations</a> into <keyword id="12082756" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="cambodia" source="Orion">Cambodia</keyword>, <keyword id="12359584" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="laos" source="Orion">Laos</keyword>, North Vietnam, Thailand, and possibly elsewhere.</p><p>Composed of Green Berets, Recon Marines, Navy SEALs, Air Commandos, and local fighters and mercenaries, SOG specialized in strategic reconnaissance, direct action, and unconventional-warfare operations.</p><p>SOG went where US troops weren't supposed to be, as US presidential administrations had publicly said no American GIs were fighting outside South Vietnam.</p><p>Their main battleground was the infamous Ho Chi Mihn Trail that snaked from North Vietnam through Laos and Cambodia and into South Vietnam, supplying the insurgency there.</p><h2>Across the border</h2><div type="image" title="Vietnam War SOG special operations" height="600" width="800" msid="87186645" hostid="261"></div><p>Cross-border operations were fraught with danger. The small SOG recon teams had to survive on their wits against a devastatingly superior enemy force.</p><p>It was not uncommon for recon teams of 10 or fewer commandos <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/green-beret-recalls-dangerous-thanksgiving-mission-during-vietnam-war-2020-11" target="_blank" rel="noopener">to be compromised and face off against hundreds or thousands</a> of North Vietnamese soldiers.</p><p>SOG commandos <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/us-special-operators-still-use-vietnam-war-era-infilexfil-method-2021-3" target="_blank" rel="noopener">would be inserted by helicopters</a> or small boats miles from their target and patrol toward their objective while trying to avoid the thousands of enemy troops scattered throughout the area.</p><p>One of SOG's primary mission sets was to gather intelligence about North Vietnamese troop numbers and movements. During these reconnaissance operations, SOG commandos would try to observe or take photographs of enemy formations, camps, or other details, such as bulldozer or tank trails.</p><p>They would also often try to bug enemy communication lines along the Ho Chi Minh Trail or place seismic sensors that supposedly could calculate the number of troops passing through. They could also steal documents and maps that contained the positions and numbers of enemy in the vicinity.</p><p>In order to make sense of that intelligence, US commanders and military intelligence officers needed someone to provide context - or, even better, the "plans and intentions" behind it.</p><p>The enemy was the best source for that information, but capturing live prisoners was perhaps the most dangerous and risky mission that SOG commandos conducted.</p><h2>'We want prisoners'</h2><div type="image" title="MACV-SOG Vietnam special operations forces" height="1291" width="2000" msid="87186646" hostid="261"></div><p>MACV-SOG encouraged and incentivized prisoner snatching, either as a specific objective or when the opportunity presented itself. SOG recon teams that captured an enemy soldier received a $100 bonus, plus five days of relaxation and recuperation anywhere in the world.</p><p>SOG teams had "a few contingency-based" standard-operating procedures for prisoner-of-war operations, "not the honey-pot snatch you're thinking about," John Stryker Meyer, a Green Beret who deployed twice with SOG, told Insider, referring to a practice in covert operations in which a person, usually a woman, is used to lure a target, typically a man.</p><p>There were no overarching standard-operating procedures for capturing live prisoners, however, and every SOG team had to come up with innovative ways that worked for them.</p><p>One SOG operator, Lynne Black, devised a creative but dangerous method. Black calculated the right amount of C-4 plastic explosive needed to knock out but not kill a man - only after much trial and error, including testing different amounts on himself and knocking himself unconscious several times.</p><p>Black's method required a SOG operator to place an explosive charge on a path or trail behind enemy lines and detonate it remotely after a North Vietnamese soldier had passed by.</p><p>The blast would stun but not kill the enemy soldier, and the SOG commandos would pounce, apprehending the disoriented North Vietnamese. If they could only find groups of North Vietnamese troops, the SOG recon team would kill everyone but the man targeted for capture.</p><div type="image" title="MACV-SOG Vietnam special operations forces" height="1500" width="2000" msid="87186647" hostid="261"></div><p>Another approach was to actually assault a small North Vietnamese position deep behind enemy lines.</p><p>SOG recon teams carried a lot more firepower than a conventional unit of the same size, but they were only made up of six to 10 operators, which meant they were limited in which outposts they could attack. They couldn't assault an enemy camp, but they could go after one of the checkpoints that littered the Ho Chi Minh Trail.</p><p>Meyer described how those "door-knock missions" were conducted along the trail in 1969 and 1970.</p><p>"The NVA had checkpoints with a booth or a little small station, and we were going to hit one of those to get a live POW," Meyer told Insider. "We're going to hit it with [tear] gas first, go in there quick, kill everybody except for one and bring them back."</p><p>Meyer has written extensively about his and his comrades' experiences in SOG, detailing their cross-border missions in "<a href="https://sogchronicles.com/" target="_top">Across the Fence: The Secret War in Vietnam</a>."</p><p>The commitment of North Vietnamese troops, as well as indoctrination efforts by their commanders, often meant the North Vietnamese targeted by SOG teams fiercely resisted capture, equating it to a slow and painful death in American hands.</p><p>On one mission, a SOG recon team captured a North Vietnamese prisoner and flew back to their forward operating base. While en route, SOG commandos inspected their prisoner more closely, only to find that it was a woman. In their moment of surprise, the prisoner escaped, jumping from the helicopter to her death.</p><p><em>Stavros Atlamazoglou is a defense journalist specializing in <keyword id="11969080" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="special-operations" source="Orion">special operations</keyword>, a Hellenic Army veteran (national service with the 575th Marine Battalion and Army HQ), and a Johns Hopkins University graduate.</em></p>

For the US's Vietnam-era covert special operators, the quietest missions were also the most dangerous

<ul class="summary-list"><li>In May 1967, US special operators and Vietnamese troops went behind enemy lines to take out North Vietnam's top general.</li><li>The mission led by the secretive <keyword id="10338078" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="macv-sog">MACV-SOG</keyword> quickly went wrong, and US forces spent days fighting just to keep them alive.</li></ul><p>Fifty-four years ago, a group of American and indigenous commandos fought for their very lives in a small, far away valley in one of the boldest special-operations missions of the <keyword id="67273" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="Vietnam-war">Vietnam War</keyword>.</p><p>Codenamed <keyword id="11239870" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="oscar-8">Oscar-8</keyword>, the target was the forward headquarters of the <keyword id="10338077" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="north-vietnamese-army">North Vietnamese Army</keyword>'s 559th Transportation Group and its commander, Gen. Vo Bam, located alongside the Ho Chi Minh trail complex, which ran from North Vietnam to South Vietnam and passed through <keyword id="190980" type="COUNTRY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Laos">Laos</keyword> and Cambodia.</p><p>US commanders had intelligence that Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap, North Vietnam's top general, was visiting the area. A plan was quickly hatched to kill or capture Giap. US commanders gave the mission to a highly secretive special-operations unit.</p><h2>The secret warriors of a secret war</h2><div type="image" title="Vietnam War SOG special operations" height="600" width="800" msid="82549166" hostid="261"></div><p>Military Assistance Command Vietnam-Studies and Observations Group (MACV-SOG) was a highly classified unit that conducted covert operations across the fence in Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, and North Vietnam.</p><p>Successive US administrations claimed American troops didn't operate outside of South Vietnam, so SOG was a tightly kept secret.</p><p>It was a standard operating procedure for any commandos who went across the border never to carry anything that could identify them as US service members. Their weapons didn't have serial numbers, and their uniforms didn't have names or ranks.</p><p>SOG was composed primarily of Green Berets, Navy SEALs, Reconnaissance Marines, and Air Commandos. They advised and led local forces, from South Vietnamese SEALs to Montagnard tribesmen who had lived there for hundreds of years.</p><p>During the Vietnam War, about 3.2 million service members deployed to Southeast Asia in combat or support roles. Of them, 20,000 were Green Berets, and out of those, only 2,000 served in SOG, with only 400 to 600 running recon and direct-action missions across the fence.</p><p>Although only the best served in SOG, luck and constant vigilance were necessary to survive. Many seasoned operators died because their luck ran out or because they became complacent.</p><h2>A bold mission</h2><div type="image" title="CH-46 helicopter Khe Sahn" height="1560" width="2000" msid="82549167" hostid="261"></div><p>Oscar-8 was a bowl-shaped area in Laos, only about 11 miles from the US Marine base at Khe Sahn in northern South Vietnam. The area was about 600 yards long and 2 miles wide and surrounded by thick jungle.</p><p>The mission was given to a "Hatchet Force," a company-size element that specialized in large-scale raids and ambushes. It was composed of a few Special Forces operators and several dozen local Nung mercenary troops, totaling about 100 commandos.</p><p>Several B-52 Stratofortress bombers would work the target before the SOG commandos landed.</p><p>The Hatchet Force's mission was to sweep the target area after the B-52 bombers had flattened it, do a battle damage assessment, kill any survivors and destroy any equipment, and capture or kill Giap. The plan was to insert at 7 a.m., one hour after the B-52 run, and be out by 3 p.m.</p><p>To support them, SOG headquarters put on standby several Air Force, Marine, and even Navy fixed- and rotary-wing squadrons.</p><p>All in all, there were three CH-46 Sea Knights helicopters to ferry in the Hatchet Force, four UH-1 Huey gunships for close air support, two A-1E Skyraider aircraft for close air support, four F-4C Phantom fighter jets for close air support, two H-34 choppers for combat search and rescue, and two forward observer aircraft to coordinate tactical air support.</p><h2>Disaster at Oscar-8</h2><div type="image" title="Oscar 8" height="1298" width="2000" msid="82549169" hostid="261"></div><p>As the sun began rising, nine B-52 bombers dropped 945 unguided high-explosive bombs, more than 236 tons of munitions, on the North Vietnamese headquarters and the adjoining positions.</p><p>Minutes after the B-52s finishing refurbishing the area, a forward air controller flying overhead spotted North Vietnamese troops coming out of the jungle and putting out the fires.</p><p>The enemy numbers continued to swell, and it quickly became clear to the seasoned SOG operators who were coordinating the fight from above that the North Vietnamese had largely managed to escape the onslaught from above.</p><p>Sgt. Maj. Billy Waugh, a legendary Special Forces operator and later a CIA paramilitary officer, radioed headquarters and advised aborting the inbound Hatchet Force, which was due to touch down 15 minutes after the last B-52 bomber had bombed the target. He was too late.</p><p>The first two CH-46 Sea Knight helicopters full of men were shot down, as were two UH-1 Huey gunships that were providing close air support. An H-34 chopper attempting a rescue was also shot down.</p><p>The SOG force was immediately pinned down and had to take shelter in the bomb craters that pockmarked the area. Only the Hatchet Force's firepower saved them from being overrun by the vastly numerically superior enemy.</p><p>Meanwhile, a pair of F-4 Phantom jets came in low to cover the survivors, but they also took heavy anti-aircraft fire, and one fighter was shot down, the pilot going down with his plane.</p><p>A pair of A-1E Skyraiders then came in to provide close air support, but they too received overwhelming anti-aircraft fire, and one of them crashed.</p><div type="image" title="Oscar 8" height="1346" width="2000" msid="82549170" hostid="261"></div><p>There were about 45 SOG commandos taking cover inside two craters under heavy fire from the enemy on the ground. The American team leader requested napalm and cluster bombs to be dropped within 100 feet of their perimeter.</p><p>Meanwhile, another Hatchet Force was quickly assembled to act as a quick reaction force, while aircraft bound for North Vietnam on unrelated were redirected over Oscar-8 to keep the battered SOG commandos alive.</p><p>The North Vietnamese continued to fend off or shoot down any aircraft that tried to exfiltrate the SOG commandos, which prevented the quick-reaction force from inserting. But two days of concentrated air attacks against the NVA allowed the Hatchet Force to stay alive, and the commandos were eventually able to exfiltrate.</p><p>Twenty-three men from SOG and its supporting air units and about 50 of the indigenous fighters were wounded or killed, went missing, or were captured during the operation.</p><p>In addition, two CH-46 Sea Knight helicopters, one UH-1 gunship, one H-34 transport chopper, one F-4 Phantom jet, and one A-1E Skyraider were shot down.</p><p>During the fight, one seriously wounded American, Sgt. First Class Charles Wilklow, was captured by the North Vietnamese, who used him as bait for a rescue force for four days. Wilklow not only managed to survive his wounds but also escaped, getting picked up by a combat search and rescue chopper five days after the battle began.</p><p>Oscar-8 was a disaster for SOG. The Hatchet Force failed to achieve any of the mission's goals, and if it weren't for the sheer will and grit of the commandos and the aircrews, it would have been a lot worse.</p><p>Indeed, the operation highlights the dangers SOG operators faced on every mission. With the odds always against them, it's miraculous that their successes outweighed their failures.</p><p><em>Stavros Atlamazoglou is a defense journalist specializing in <keyword id="637658" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="special-operations">special operations</keyword>, a Hellenic Army veteran (national service with the 575th Marine Battalion and Army HQ), and a Johns Hopkins University graduate.</em></p>

How a daring mission behind enemy lines turned into a disaster for the US's secretive Vietnam-era special operators

<ul class="summary-list"><li>During the <keyword id="67273" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="Vietnam-war">Vietnam War</keyword>, US commandos developed an insertion and extraction method that is still used today.</li><li>Now, with conflict in Southeast or East Asia a growing prospect, its an increasingly relevant but still risky method.</li></ul><p>During the Vietnam War, American commandos developed an insertion and extraction method for operations in the jungle that is still used by today's special operators.</p><p>The <keyword id="10939535" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="special-patrol-insertion/extraction">Special Patrol Insertion/Extraction</keyword> (SPIE) system is designed for small special-operations teams that operate in areas where an enemy presence or the terrain prevents helicopters from landing.</p><p>The SPIE technique hasn't been used operationally for decades, in part because US air superiority and lackluster enemy anti-aircraft capabilities have meant it wasn't needed.</p><p>But as the US military gears up for great-power competition against near-peer adversaries, like China and Russia, the SPIE technique is relevant again, especially in a potential conflict in the Pacific.</p><h2>Warriors of the jungle</h2><div type="image" title="SOG team STABO exfiltration" height="647" width="960" msid="81533666" hostid="261"></div><p>The SPIE system can be traced to the rope insertion and extraction techniques of the Vietnam War. It was the innocuous sounding Military Assistance Command Vietnam-Studies and Observations Group (<keyword id="10338078" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="macv-sog">MACV-SOG</keyword>) that invented and used the method.</p><p>A highly classified unit, SOG took the fight to the North Vietnamese Army and Vietcong, conducting cross-border operations into Laos, Cambodia, and North Vietnam-where US troops officially shouldn't have been.</p><p>Composed of Green Berets, Navy SEALs, Recon Marines, Air Commandos, and indigenous forces, SOG tried to stop the onslaught from the North and give South Vietnam some breathing space.</p><p>SOG's classified operations mainly took place in rough and inaccessible jungle, where the NVA had built the infamous Ho Chi Minh trail complex, over which flowed supplies to their forces in South Vietnam. The terrain restricted operations and often forced SOG teams to create their own landing zones by either detonating explosives or by requesting B-52 bombing runs to create craters where helicopters could land.</p><p>But landing wasn't always an option. Secrecy was paramount for mission success. SOG patrols of six to 14 men didn't have a chance of survival against hundreds or thousands of NVA in an open battle.</p><p>With so few landing zones available in the jungle, and with the NVA always trying to monitor them, SOG operators came up with different techniques that didn't require landing.</p><h2>Ropes away</h2><div type="image" title="Reconnaissance Marines special patrol insertion/extraction" height="534" width="800" msid="81533667" hostid="261"></div><p>At the time, the SPIE terminology didn't exist, and operators simply used the term "ropes" to refer to methods such as the STABO Extraction Harness, McGuire Rig, and "Swiss Seat."</p><p>The STABO Extraction Harness, or STABO rig, was one of the most used. Designed for quick infiltration into and exfiltration from the jungle, the STABO rig was a mandatory piece of equipment for every recon member. It was worn throughout the mission since recon team members didn't know if or when they would be compromised, which would often mean a frantic race to escape from superior forces.</p><p>During an extraction by ropes, the helicopter crew chief would throw ropes with a sandbag tied to one end down from a hovering helicopter. SOG commandos would hook the ropes to links on their uniforms. The helicopter would then rise straight up to clear the jungle before flying away.</p><p>Throughout the Vietnam War, ropes methods saved several lives, and their use sometimes seemed straight out of a movie.</p><p>In June 1967, a reinforced SOG company composed of Green Berets and local troops entered Laos to conduct battle-damage assessment after an airstrike on a North Vietnamese headquarters hub along the Ho Chi Minh trail complex.</p><div type="image" title="Navy explosive ordnance disposal SPIE aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan" height="1499" width="1999" msid="81533668" hostid="261"></div><p>The roughly 100-man "Hatchet Force" came upon a strong NVA force, and a fierce battle ensued. The American commandos and their local allies were surrounded and pinned down, but their firepower saved them from being overrun.</p><p>The NVA shot down several fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft that tried to exfiltrate or support the battered SOG company. Eventually, some choppers were able to come in and exfiltrate members of the force.</p><p>During one of those trips, a Marine Corps CH-46 Sea Stallion was shot down close to the Hatchet Force's perimeter. Somehow, Sgt. First Class Charles Wilklow survived the crash, though he was badly wounded.</p><p>The NVA captured him but, seeing his wounds, thought he only had a few hours to live. They tied him down and used him as bait for a rescue operation. Considering the certain failure of a rescue mission, SOG headquarters didn't take the bait.</p><p>After four days, Wilklow was still alive, despite his grievous wounds. Yet the NVA didn't guard him, believing he wouldn't survive. Wilklow managed to free himself and crawl into the jungle at night.</p><p>The next day, a SOG forward air controller spotted an almost-dead Wilklow. He was soon extracted by ropes - despite his ordeal, he was still wearing his STABO rig.</p><h2>Moving parts</h2><div type="image" title="Marines SPIE" height="1333" width="2000" msid="81533669" hostid="261"></div><p>As tensions rise with China, and with conflict in Southeast or East Asia a growing prospect, the SPIE method is increasingly relevant, but it remains risky and inconvenient.</p><p>"[SPIE] operations are pretty dangerous, with lots of moving parts that can potentially go wrong," a Marine Raider told Insider. "You have to watch as you exit the aircraft mid-air, and more so if you're the first man out because you've got five, six, sometimes seven guys right behind you while the pilots are trying to hold position midair. You also have to account for the rotor wash in water and desert ops. You can't see much while landing because of the sea spray or dust in the air."</p><p>Since the SPIE technique can be used for both land and water operations, it provides special-operations units with more choices when planning operations in the Pacific theater.</p><p>For example, the SPIE technique can be used to extract Navy SEALs conducting special reconnaissance along the Chinese coast or a Special Forces detachment doing unconventional warfare in support of local forces on China's borders.</p><p><em>Stavros Atlamazoglou is a defense journalist specializing in special operations, a Hellenic Army veteran (national service with the 575th Marine Battalion and Army HQ), and a Johns Hopkins University graduate.</em></p>

How US special operators use a Vietnam War-era method to get into and out of dangerous spots quickly

<ul class="summary-list"><li>As the US waged a conventional war in South Vietnam, a group of special operators carried out a secret war inside and outside the country.</li><li>The Military Assistance Command Vietnam-Studies and Observations Group, as their unit was known, was disbanded after the war, but it had a lasting influence on modern US <keyword id="637658" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="special-operations">special operations</keyword> forces.</li></ul><p>As the US's involvement in Vietnam steadily grew with more conventional troops, so did its secret war.</p><p>To counter the Viet Cong's guerrilla campaign, supported by the North Vietnamese army (NVA), raging inside South Vietnam, the Pentagon established a highly secretive special operations organization in 1964.</p><p>The Military Assistance Command Vietnam-Studies and Observations Group (<keyword id="10338078" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="macv-sog">MACV-SOG</keyword>) was tasked with taking the fight to the enemy regardless of where they were. Cross-border operations in Cambodia, Laos, and North Vietnam-where US troops weren't supposed to be-became SOG's specialty.</p><h2>Special-operations pioneers</h2><div type="image" title="MACV-SOG Vietnam special operations forces" height="1291" width="2000" msid="80771569" hostid="261"></div><p>Composed of Green Berets, Navy SEALs, Recon Marines, Air Commandos, and their indigenous allies, SOG primarily conducted reconnaissance and direct action operations, such as ambushes, in South Vietnam and across the border.</p><p>Cross-border recon missions often led to epic gunfights, as the small SOG teams would be compromised and hunted down by devastatingly superior enemy forces. It was more common than not for a recon team to be extracted under fire and with their perimeter <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/green-beret-recalls-christmas-day-sog-mission-during-vietnam-war-2020-12" target="_blank" rel="noopener">minutes, if not seconds, away from being overrun</a>.</p><p>"SOG operations hurt the NVA [and] impeded the shipment of supplies/soldiers south on the Ho Chi Minh Trail," John Stryker Meyer, a legendary SOG operator, told Insider.</p><p>"There were also major intel coups. For example, Operation Tailwind, which saved the CIA in Thailand, produced troves of key NVA intel. There was also Bargewell, who found valuable intel on an NVA base camp despite having been shot in the chest," Meyer added, referring to Eldon Bargewell, who went on to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/legendary-leaders-who-transformed-us-military-special-operations-units-2020-11" target="_blank" rel="noopener">be a renowned general and commander </a>in the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/operation-acid-gambit-delta-force-rescues-cia-operative-in-panama-2020-12" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Army's Delta Force</a>.</p><p>Just one day with SOG could produce a lifetime of stories. For Meyer, a veteran of two SOG deployments who has<a href="http://sogchronicles.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> written about his hair-raising experiences</a>, it was hard to pick the most notable moment. Despite a late-night and personal encounter with an NVA soldier in the field, Meyer's most memorable operation was when his recon team went against <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/green-beret-recalls-dangerous-thanksgiving-mission-during-vietnam-war-2020-11" target="_blank" rel="noopener">three NVA divisions - 30,000 men - Thanksgiving Day</a>.</p><div type="image" title="MACV-SOG patch" height="1135" width="800" msid="80771571" hostid="261"></div><p>In the end, the US lost the war despite the herculean efforts of SOG and its contribution to the fight.</p><p>"There were contributions that we never learned about. For example, we pulled off a few wiretaps [in the Ho Chi Minh Trail], but we never heard back from the CIA on results," Meyer said. "Getting honest answers from the Communists about SOG's impact is impossible, but you take a case like October 5, 1968, when Recon Team Alabama and its air assets were responsible for 9,000 enemy troops KIA or WIA-that had an impact on troops moving south."</p><p>As direct US involvement in the war shrank, SOG became less needed, and in 1972, it was deactivated.</p><p>"Like anything else, politics interfered. Our command structure often had to fight to keep close air support units assigned to support SOG, such as the A-1 Skyraider support," Meyer said of why SOG wasn't kept after Vietnam.</p><p>But SOG alumni continued to serve, which would prove key for the future of US special-operations forces.</p><h2>Paving the way for JSOC</h2><div type="image" title="MACV-SOG Vietnam special operations forces" height="1500" width="2000" msid="80771574" hostid="261"></div><p>Eight years after MACV-SOG was deactivated, the Pentagon was forced to create a similar organization.</p><p><keyword id="973752" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="Joint-Special-Operations-Command">Joint Special Operations Command</keyword> (JSOC) was born after the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-failed-iran-hostage-rescue-raid-influenced-us-special-forces-2020-9" target="_blank" rel="noopener">failure to rescue the American hostages from Iran</a> during Operation Eagle Claw.</p><p>Col. Charlie Beckwith, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/legendary-leaders-who-transformed-us-military-special-operations-units-2020-11" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the founder of Delta Force</a> and ground force commander during the mission, argued for a joint command that would bring together America's special operators. Beckwith had served in SOG and thus already had an idea of what such a command could look like, despite the enemy now being terrorists and not the NVA.</p><p>As a result, the Pentagon created US Special Operations Command, its subordinate service commands, and JSOC.</p><p>JSOC contains the military's tier-one units and is considered a national strategic asset. Initially, Delta Force and SEAL Team 6, which were JSOC's counterterrorism direct-action units, were predominately manned with Vietnam veterans, several of whom had served in SOG.</p><div type="image" title="MACV-SOG soldiers troops Vietnam" height="819" width="1050" msid="80771576" hostid="261"></div><p>Although the conditions under which JSOC was created were completely different from those in which SOG worked, they share lots of similarities.</p><p>Both organizations are joint, meaning that their units came from across the military and not just from one service. Additionally, they focus on both covert and clandestine operations. They also share a close relationship with the intelligence community, often working directly for it, like on the Osama bin Laden raid, during which the SEAL Team 6 operators were nominally under CIA control.</p><p>There are divergences as well. A significant difference between the two organizations-and between the times in which they fought-is their relationship with risk.</p><p>SOG leaders and operators didn't hesitate to take an extreme risk in their fight against the North Vietnamese. Indeed, several SOG operations could be considered suicidal.</p><p>Whether it was when a SOG team went after three NVA divisions or when a reinforced SOG company went deep into Laos to help the CIA, SOG operations were characterized by their high-risk level. That was reflected in SOG's 100% casualty rate, meaning every operator was either wounded, often multiple times, or killed.</p><div type="image" title="MACV-SOG soldiers troops Vietnam" height="1050" width="962" msid="80771577" hostid="261"></div><p>Conversely, today there is a <a href="https://sofrep.com/news/risk-aversion-in-special-operations-when-aid-workers-have-more-freedom-in-a-combat-zone/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">risk-averse culture</a>, even in the most elite special-operations organizations.</p><p>"You can't even enter the room if you carry a CONOP [concept of operations] similar to SOG's," a former Delta Force operator told Insider. "There is no way anyone would approve that today."</p><p>"The SAR window plays a big part in that," the Delta operator said, referring to the military's requirement that troops - commandos or not - be within range of a search-and-rescue asset in case their mission goes south.</p><p>"But, to be fair, it's a very different environment. We aren't engaged in a major war like Vietnam, and our organizations are different. We're the national mission force. We can't afford the casualty rate these guys had."</p><p>SOG operators agree with that view.</p><p>"Every spec-ops operator I've met in recent years from today's conflicts all agree that many of the missions we ran would never be allowed today due to threat levels," Meyer added.</p><p>In the end, policy limitations notwithstanding, JSOC is continuing SOG's special-operations legacy.</p>

During the Vietnam War, the US created a highly classified unit that still influences modern special operations

<ul class="summary-list"><li>As Americans at home sat down for Thanksgiving dinner in 1968, a team of special operators was setting out to solve a deadly puzzle in <keyword id="6373180" type="LOCATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="cambodia">Cambodia</keyword>.</li><li>US intelligence had lost track of tens of thousands of North Vietnamese troops, and with memories of the Tet Offensive still fresh, American commanders wanted to know where they were and what they were doing.</li></ul><p>During the <keyword id="67273" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="Vietnam-war">Vietnam War</keyword>, the US military had a covert special-operations unit that conducted cross-border operations in Cambodia, Laos, and North Vietnam.</p><p>Composed of Army <keyword id="6466913" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="special-forces">Special Forces</keyword> operators, Navy SEALs, and Air Commandos, and other personnel, the Military Assistance Command Vietnam-Studies and Observations Group (<a href="https://www.army.mil/article/216498/macv_sog_history" target="_blank" rel="noopener">MACV-SOG</a>) took the fight to the enemy without hesitation.</p><p>SOG teams were primarily tasked with strategic reconnaissance deep behind enemy lines and would often end up fighting against overwhelming superior enemy forces. The unit's 100% casualty rate meant a SOG assignment came with a body bag or a Purple Heart, sometimes multiple ones.</p><p>Complicating matters, the US adamantly denied its troops operated outside South Vietnam. Accordingly, SOG operators wore sterilized uniforms and carried weapons without serial numbers — for all intents and purposes, they weren't Americans when they crossed the border.</p><h2>Where is the NVA?</h2><div type="image" title="Vietnam War SOG special operations" height="1875" width="2500" msid="79431861" hostid="261"></div><p>As Americans at home sat down for Thanksgiving dinner in 1968, John Stryker Meyer and his team of operators, ST Idaho, were called in to solve a deadly puzzle.</p><p>Army intelligence and the CIA had lost track of the 1st, 3rd, and 7th <keyword id="10338077" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="north-vietnamese-army">North Vietnamese Army</keyword> divisions, totaling 30,000 troops, somewhere on the South Vietnam-Cambodia border.</p><p>US intelligence estimated that more than 100,000 NVA troops were in Cambodia, and SOG headquarters was worried that the missing NVA were preparing to launch another attack on Saigon or overrun one of the Special Forces A camps in the area.</p><p>The NVA had recently attacked several A camps, and the Tet Offensive in January that year had caught American forces off-guard across South Vietnam.</p><p>It fell on Meyer and his team to locate the missing NVA, and if they got the opportunity, to snatch an enemy soldier alive.</p><div type="image" title="Vietnam War SOG special operations" height="600" width="800" msid="79431863" hostid="261"></div><p>ST Idaho — a six-man team of two Americans and four indigenous operators — <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/weapons-gear-special-forces-teams-carried-during-the-vietnam-war-2020-4" target="_top">went in packed</a>.</p><p>They carried CAR-15 rifles, sawed-off M-79 grenade launchers, detonation cord to clear landing zones, dozens of M-26 fragmentation grenades and Claymore mines, and thousands of rounds of ammunition. In the field, firepower was life.</p><p>For the Claymores — small boxes with C4 explosive and hundreds of small metal balls — the team carried five- and ten-second fuses. In case they were compromised and running toward a landing zone, they would drop the Claymores and pull the fuse. The NVA were often so close behind that those fuses were barely long enough.</p><p>ST Idaho was used to operating in Laos. In Cambodia, however, the game was played differently.</p><p>The State Department had imposed strict limitations to the rules of engagement there. The teams couldn't rely on fixed-wing aircraft for close air support or use white phosphorus, and they could only go 20 km from the border.</p><p>ST Idaho, however, found consolation in the Air Force's 20th <keyword id="637658" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="special-operations">Special Operations</keyword> Squadron. Nicknamed the "Green Hornets," these airmen flew the UH-1P Huey, a better version of the helicopter also in use by the Army.</p><p>More importantly to ST Idaho was the Green Hornets' arsenal, which included rockets, M-60 machine guns, and M134 mini-guns with tens of thousands of rounds.</p><h2>A Thanksgiving to remember</h2><div type="image" title="Vietnam War UH-1P Huey helicopter" height="1622" width="2500" msid="79431864" hostid="261"></div><p>On Thanksgiving Day, the team was inserted without incident and began patrolling. After a few minutes, they sighted smoke and moved toward it.</p><p>They were soon in the periphery of a huge enemy base camp, but the NVA weren't home. As the point man, one of the indigenous operators, scouted for the enemy, Meyer snapped pictures.</p><p>Suddenly, the point man shouted, "Beaucoup VC!" Although Meyer couldn't spot any enemy, he trusted his indigenous teammate and gave the call to withdraw. As he did, the NVA arrived.</p><p>Seemingly hundreds of enemy soldiers came pouring in from the south and north. The team leap-frogged toward their landing zone, planting Claymores, lobbying grenades, and firing their CAR-15s as they went. Despite their casualties, the NVA kept running after them.</p><p>ST Idaho set up a hasty perimeter around the LZ, waiting for the Green Hornets. As more and more NVA appeared, the cavalry arrived.</p><p>The Huey gunships put down a devastating rate of fire that kept the NVA at bay long enough for ST Idaho to climb up the helicopters. As Meyer's Huey was getting ready to lift off, a lone NVA soldier broke through the hail of fire and stopped feet away from the chopper.</p><div type="image" title="Air Force UH-1P Huey helicopter Cambodia" height="1214" width="1800" msid="79431866" hostid="261"></div><p>"I remember watching the clumps of mud from his boots slowly kicking upward toward the rotors as the door gunner and I hit him in the chest with a burst of gunfire," Meyer told Insider.</p><p>As the choppers rose, several more NVA burst into the perimeter, firing at the Americans. Meyer threw a white phosphorus grenade as a parting gift. Minutes later, ST Idaho was safely back on base. They had found the missing divisions.</p><p>"It was one of the most terrifying missions of my 19 months in SOG," Meyer told Insider.</p><p>That says a lot, given the hair-raising operations that Meyer participated in and <a href="http://sogchronicles.com/Home_Page.php" target="_top">has written about</a>. But ST Idaho wouldn't have made it without the Green Hornets.</p><p>"Nothing gave us more satisfaction than getting our SF brothers out when they got in trouble, which was almost all the time," Alfonso Rivero, a Green Hornet gunner, told Insider. "The feeling of camaraderie and brotherhood among all of us SOG people remain to this day. Nothing like it."</p><p>Despite barely surviving, the team's morale was unaffected.</p><p>"We were very sober at first, realizing how close we came to getting whacked," Meyer said. "We took pride in accomplishing the mission, but there was no braggadocio about it. We went in again two days later."</p><p>Just another day in SOG's secret war.</p><p lang="en-GB"><em>Stavros Atlamazoglou is a defense journalist specializing in special operations, a Hellenic Army veteran (National Service with the 575th Marine Battalion and Army HQ), and a Johns Hopkins University graduate.</em></p>

A Green Beret recalls the brutal Thanksgiving Day mission he barely survived after running into 30,000 enemy troops

<ul class="summary-list"><li>US special operators are shifting focus to jungle warfare as the potential for conflict with China grows.</li><li>Marine Raiders recently completed a jungle warfare course in Hawaii showing the requirements of jungle operations.</li></ul><p>After spending more than 20 years fighting in the wars in the Middle East, US special operators are pivoting to other environments. With the potential for a conflict with China in the Indo-Pacific looming ever larger in the background, the US special operations community is focusing more and more on jungle operations.</p><p>A relatively recent exercise involving Marine Raiders highlighted the challenges and unique requirements of jungle warfare.</p><h2><strong>From the desert to the jungle</strong></h2><p>Last summer, a small team of Marine Raiders completed a jungle warfare course that addresses the challenges US forces might encounter in an Indo-Pacific conflict.</p><p>Taught by special operations and law enforcement veterans at the <a target="_blank" href="https://ttoscorp.com/jungle-training">Tactical Tracking Operations School</a>, the course began in 2015 but really took off in 2021. The two-week course takes place on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, and is designed to take small special operations teams and teach them the necessary skills to survive and thrive in jungle operations.</p><p>The Marine Raiders trained in jungle mobility skills, such as navigating thick brush, scaling and rappelling cliffs, and traversing rivers, counter Improvised Explosive Device (IED) techniques, reaction to contact, and ambushes. Throughout the course, the special operators either tracked an adversary or prevented them from tracking the team.</p><p>"Looking at the Pacific and deployments in that region, learning these skills is essential," a Marine Raider said in a <a target="_blank" href="https://sof.news/marsoc/marsoc-jungle-training/">press release</a>. "For so long we trained for desert environments and now we have to look at where we could be needed next, and the jungle is top of that list."</p><div type="image" title="A Marine Raider with Marine Forces Special Operations Command traverses a river during a jungle mobility course, Aug. 4, 2023." height="943" width="1406" msid="108751913" hostid="261" sizebytes="118858"></div><p>The course ends with a final exercise that lasts up to three days and tests all the skillsets taught. After a simulated ambush, the students must regroup and hunt down the adversary using their tracking skills.</p><p>Two decades of counterterrorism and counterinsurgency operations in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria largely dulled the jungle warfare capabilities of many units. Jungle warfare presents a whole different level of difficulty and requires specialized training to operate effectively.</p><p>"These same problems that we have now: low visibility, difficulty for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance platforms, broken communications, and logistical issues, they all existed for troops during WWII and Vietnam," Cody Carroll, the vice president of the school, said. "We didn't need to reinvent the wheel, just build the skills that we stopped training because we spent 20 years in the desert."</p><div type="image" title="A Marine Raider with Marine Forces Special Operations Command navigates a single rope bridge during a jungle mobility course, Aug. 4, 2023." height="937" width="1407" msid="108751915" hostid="261" sizebytes="76618"></div><p>For example, movement in the jungle is much more restricted and visibility is often limited to just a few yards. Moreover, there are many small and large animals that can ruin someone's day, necessitating the right survival training. Tracking is another important part of jungle operations. With so much foliage, it's easy for an untrained unit to leave evidence of its direction in the jungle.</p><p>"I've been through this training with two teams now and both experiences were beneficial to everyone on the team," a Critical Skills Operator, or CSO, said. "I really think every company that can deploy to a jungle environment should come do this training. It's invaluable."</p><h2><strong>A history of jungle operations</strong></h2><p>US commandos have a long history of conducting jungle operations.</p><p>During World War II, US special operations units like the Alamo Scouts and the Marine Raiders fought the Japanese in the jungles of southeast Asia and the Pacific.</p><p>Then, during the Vietnam War, special operators serving in the secretive Military Assistance Command Vietnam-Studies and Observations Group (MACV-SOG) fought a classified war against the North Vietnamese and Vietcong in Laos and Cambodia.</p><p>Although the White House had assured the American public that no US troops were on the ground in the two countries that border Vietnam, the Pentagon understood that to stem the flow of weapons and insurgents in South Vietnam, it had to fight the enemy where it hurt. </p><p>Small teams of Green Berets, Navy SEALs, Force Recon Marines, and Air Commandos conducted some of the most impressive missions in US special operations history.</p><p>Today, as the US attempts to redirect its focus to the Indo-Pacific amid steadily rising tensions between the US and China, it looks like jungle operations are back on the menu for the US special operations community.</p>

With eyes on China, US special operators are back to battling the jungle

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Fighting between <keyword id="6355882" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="israel">Israel</keyword> and <keyword id="39745" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="Hamas">Hamas</keyword> has killed hundreds of people in recent days.</li><li>Israel has a number of secretive special-operations forces that engage in such fighting.</li><li>Those forces' past operations indicate what kind of missions they might be doing now.</li></ul><p>The <keyword id="669687" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="Israel-Defense-Forces">Israel Defense Forces</keyword> and the Palestinian militant group Hamas have clashed in Gaza and Israel for almost two weeks, with the death toll on both sides rising.</p><p>The violence - from riots and airstrikes to lynchings and rocket volleys - has reignited despite the signing of the Abraham Accords, which normalized relations between Israel and several Arab countries and were seen as potentially reducing tensions in the region.</p><p>Behind the headlines and the spotlight, it's Israel's special-operations units - <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/best-non-us-special-operations-forces-from-around-the-world-2020-8" target="_top">among the world's finest</a> - that are moving the pieces and enabling the IDF's operations against Hamas.</p><h2>A mission gone awry</h2><div type="image" title="A rocket launched from Gaza city controlled by the Palestinian Hamas movement, is intercepted by Israel's Iron Dome aerial defence system, on May 11, 2021" height="683" width="1024" msid="82808334" hostid="261"></div><p>For good reason, most Israeli special-operations in Gaza, the West Bank, or East Jerusalem go unreported.</p><p>Indeed, publicity usually means that a mission went south, as was the case in 2018, when a botched covert operation in Gaza offered a rare glimpse into the shadowy world of Israeli special-operations missions against Hamas.</p><p>Commandos from the elite Mista'arvim, an Israeli counterterrorism unit that conducts covert operations in denied or non-permissive areas, were compromised in Gaza during a highly sensitive intelligence operation.</p><p>The Israeli commandos had been operating inside Gaza for weeks when their cover was blown.</p><p>According to reports, the Israelis were trying to map out the location of mid- and senior-level Hamas leaders and plant tracking devices, presumably for follow-on strikes or another future contingency, such as the current conflict.</p><p>At some point, the Israeli team was compromised, leading to a shootout in which the Israeli commandos killed six Hamas terrorists, including a senior member of the organization's military wing, but lost the mission commander to friendly fire.</p><h2>Deception and <keyword id="637658" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="special-operations">special operations</keyword></h2><div type="image" title="IDF Israel security forces West Bank Palestine protest" height="1321" width="2000" msid="82808335" hostid="261"></div><p>The IDF certainly knows how to play the game, and its <a href="https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/idf-deception-leads-to-massive-aerial-assault-on-hamass-metro-668182" target="_top">deception tactics</a> are remarkable.</p><p>As the Iron Dome air-defense system <a href="https://www.sandboxx.us/blog/what-is-israels-iron-dome-and-how-does-it-work/" target="_top">intercepted thousands of Hamas' rockets</a>, the Israeli government suggested that a ground invasion of Gaza was imminent.</p><p>The IDF called up thousands of reservists while several brigades and equipment, including tanks and armored personnel carriers, moved to the border.</p><p>That was enough for Hamas' military leadership to send its thousands of fighters into the very extensive and well-developed underground tunnel complex the terrorist organization has been building.</p><div type="image" title="Hamas Gaza tunnel" height="1333" width="2000" msid="82808338" hostid="261"></div><p>However, instead of sending in the infantry and armor, the IDF commenced a heavy bombing campaign, with hundreds of airstrikes against the tunnel complex, where thousands of Hamas fighters were waiting to fight.</p><p>Not only did the Israelis avoid a protracted and bloody urban-warfare campaign - arguably one of the most difficult types of military operations, as battles from Stalingrad to Fallujah have shown - but they also put Hamas on the spot for hiding in populated areas and thus intentionally increasing the likelihood of civilian casualties.</p><p>Such an operation couldn't have been successful without the necessary intelligence.</p><p>In the years and months prior, commandos from the Mista'arvim or from the Sayeret Matkal, which is also known as General Staff Reconnaissance Unit 269 and is the IDF's equivalent to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/the-tough-selection-process-to-join-army-delta-force-2021-4" target="_top">the US Army's Delta Force</a>, would have worked with Mossad, Israel's intelligence agency, to create target packages for Hamas' leadership and its infrastructure.</p><div type="image" title="People inspect a damaged car after Israeli warplanes hit coastland in Gaza City, Gaza on May 17, 2021." height="1333" width="2000" msid="82808339" hostid="261"></div><p>Special operators serving in the Mista'arvim usually have an Arab background - much of the Israeli population is ethnically Arab - and can blend in to a hostile environment like that in Gaza, Lebanon, or Syria.</p><p>They would have been responsible for operating within the denied territory or for recruiting assets within Hamas who could provide intelligence to the IDF.</p><p>Details about safe houses, headquarters, and underground tunnel entrances, exits, and vents would be categorized for future use.</p><p>"The Israelis are top-notch, easily among the top five special-operations communities in the world. Although we work and have operated more closely with the Brits, Aussies, Kiwis, and Canadians, we do work with the Israelis quite often and have a reasonably close relationship with them," a former Delta Force operator told Insider.</p><h2>Underground fighting</h2><div type="image" title="Israel Hamas Gaza tunnel" height="1333" width="2000" msid="82808341" hostid="261"></div><p>The Israelis are certainly not the first ones to deal with complex underground tunnels that are meant to avoid enemy airpower.</p><p>During the Vietnam War, the North Vietnamese Army and the Vietcong constructed hundreds of miles of tunnels alongside the Ho Chi Minh Trail, which snaked through North Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia to supply the insurgency in South Vietnam.</p><p>"The NVA had tunnels and underground facilities in Laos. We had teams that ran into air vents from underground structures. They could smell food cooking." John Stryker Meyer, a former Special Forces operator who served in the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/macv-sog-created-in-vietnam-still-influences-us-special-operations-2021-2" target="_top">covert Military Assistance Command Vietnam-Studies and Observations Group</a> (MACV-SOG), told Insider.</p><p>Eldon Bargewell, a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/legendary-leaders-who-transformed-us-military-special-operations-units-2020-11" target="_top">highly regarded</a><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/legendary-leaders-who-transformed-us-military-special-operations-units-2020-11" target="_top"> </a><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/legendary-leaders-who-transformed-us-military-special-operations-units-2020-11" target="_top">MACV-SOG and </a><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/legendary-leaders-who-transformed-us-military-special-operations-units-2020-11" target="_top">Delta Force operator</a>, "chased an NVA into a tunnel that was an NVA underground structure of some sort and was shot in the chest by the enemy," added Meyer, author of "<a href="https://sogchronicles.com/" target="_top">Across the Fence</a>," which details covert operations during the Vietnam War.</p><p>"So the NVA/VC had tunnel structures, like at Marble Mountain, where SOG's Command &amp; Control North had caves under it," which US special operators visited years later, Meyer said, referring an area near a US airfield south of Da Nang in South Vietnam.</p>

What the IDF's past special-ops missions reveal about how Israel takes out Hamas' rockets and tunnels

<ul class="summary-list"><li>The US military is shifting its focus toward the Indo-Pacific region amid competition with China.</li><li>That shift means US troops are doing more training to deal with conditions specific to that region.</li></ul><p>Georgia-based Air Force special operators deployed to the Pacific this spring for jungle-warfare training.</p><p>Such training is nothing new for US troops, but this exercise comes as the US military is shifting its focus a potential conflict with China in the Indo-Pacific region — where US conventional and special-operations forces may find themselves up against a well-armed enemy in a dense, sweltering jungle.</p><p>Air Force Special Operations Command commandos from the 38th Rescue Squadron based at Moody Air Force Base spent almost a month between March and April in <keyword id="11940260" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="hawaii" source="Orion">Hawaii</keyword> to hone their jungle-warfare skills.</p><p>As <keyword id="14236253" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="pararescuemen" source="Orion">pararescuemen</keyword>, these commandos focused their training on tracking personnel in the jungle and on avoiding being tracked themselves, while also testing their tactics, techniques, and procedures in other skill sets.</p><p>In a press release, Lt. Col. Michael Vins, the squadron's commanding officer, <a href="https://www.dvidshub.net/news/418363/welcome-jungle-special-warfare-airmen-acclimate-indo-pacific-environment" target="_blank" rel="noopener">noted</a> that the jungle is a "very unforgiving environment" and that US special operators "need to be ready for that kind of environment by training there, understanding how to survive there."</p><div type="image" title="Air Force pararescuemen jungle training Hawaii" height="1331" width="2000" msid="92321506" hostid="261"></div><p>As US special operators found in World War II and Vietnam, the jungle is probably one of the hardest places to fight. Visibility is limited — sometimes to just a few yards — and the surroundings are rife with dangers, including poisonous plants and lethal animals, that can put troops out of commission pretty quickly.</p><p>US troops have had "to take a step back" from what worked in the deserts of Iraq and Afghanistan and figure out what works in the jungle, "which is way more difficult to operate in," Staff Sgt. Evan Rogowski said in the release.</p><p>"It's pretty unpredictable out here," Rogowski added. "It can be raining in the morning and then completely sunny in the afternoon, and back to rain. Outside of carrying the proper equipment, there's not much we can do to control that."</p><p>During the Vietnam War, US special-operations recon teams from the highly secretive Military Assistance Command Vietnam-Studies and Observations Group lived and fought in the jungles of Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, and Vietnam, where they <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/capturing-prisoners-was-most-dangerous-macv-sog-vietnam-war-mission-2021-10" target="_blank" rel="noopener">tracked the movements</a> of North Vietnamese and Viet Cong troops and fought <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/green-beret-recalls-dangerous-thanksgiving-mission-during-vietnam-war-2020-11" target="_blank" rel="noopener">running battles against an often overwhelming enemy</a>.</p><p>MACV-SOG <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/macv-sog-created-in-vietnam-still-influences-us-special-operations-2021-2" target="_blank" rel="noopener">still influences modern US special operations</a>, but many of the jungle-warfare skills those Vietnam-era operators developed have atrophied.</p><div type="image" title="Air Force pararescuemen jungle training Hawaii" height="1331" width="2000" msid="92321507" hostid="261"></div><p>"As highly trained special warfare operators, we're always thinking about modern-day warfare and high-tech weapon systems, but something so primitive like grenades that roll out of bamboo if you kick the wrong stick over is enough to wipe us all out," Staff Sgt. Evan Orth said in the release.</p><p>The importance of fundamental combat skills and small-unit tactics are constants wherever troops find themselves, but what troops need to do to properly apply them can change radically in different locations.</p><p>Orth added that by training in the jungle, the pararescuemen would be "more aware of threats" that they wouldn't otherwise expect.</p><p>Tracking people in the jungle has dual importance for pararescumen and other special operators. Whether they are pursuing an enemy or trying to rescue a friendly, the principles are the same.</p><p>The "footprint" of that target "is going to explain a story to you," Rogowski said in the release. "Where that person went, what they did, how fast they were moving, where they're going to, are they paranoid? And I think that's kind of hard to put into words unless you've actually been there."</p><h2>Air Commandos</h2><div type="image" title="Air Force pararescuemen jungle training Hawaii" height="1331" width="2000" msid="92321510" hostid="261"></div><p><keyword id="12145991" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="us-air-force-special-operations-command" source="Orion">US Air Force Special Operations Command</keyword> is the Air Force component of <keyword id="11993049" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="us-special-operations-command" source="Orion">US Special Operations Command</keyword>, and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/air-force-changes-how-it-recruits-and-trains-special-operators-2020-2" target="_blank" rel="noopener">its Air Commandos</a> provide air transport, close air support, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/us-air-force-command-and-control-exercise-in-alaskan-arctic-2022-2" target="_blank" rel="noopener">precision strike, and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities</a> to other special-operations units.</p><p>AFSOC itself has two components. In the air, it operates a variety of special-operations aircraft, including the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ac130-gunship-has-supported-special-operations-for-55-years-2021-7" target="_blank" rel="noopener">AC-130 "Spooky" gunship</a>, the CV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft, the MQ-9 Reaper drone, that support other US commando units.</p><p>On the ground, AFSOC's pararescuemen, special reconnaissance operators, combat controllers, and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/us-troops-in-asia-europe-train-for-close-air-support-2022-6" target="_blank" rel="noopener">tactical air control party commandos</a> augment other special-operations units as individuals or in teams, acting as a link to forces in the air.</p><div type="image" title="Air Force pararescuemen jungle training Hawaii" height="1331" width="2000" msid="92321511" hostid="261"></div><p><keyword id="14236252" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="pararescue" source="Orion">Pararescue</keyword> is unique among the US military's career fields. Pararescuemen specialize in combat search and rescue and personnel recovery and are probably some of the most competent medics in the entire military.</p><p>Reflecting their motto, "so that others may live," pararescuemen are ready to deploy anywhere to search for or recover US troops. To do so, pararescuemen need to be familiar with and proficient in every operational environment.</p><p>"The lessons and skills learned here will further expand the way we operate in the" Indo-Pacific, Rogowski said of the exercise in Hawaii. "We'll take these lessons and shape our [tactics, techniques, and procedures] for the future of special operations, personnel recovery, and combat search and rescue."</p><p><em>Stavros Atlamazoglou is a defense journalist specializing in special operations, a Hellenic Army veteran (national service with the 575th Marine Battalion and Army HQ), and a Johns Hopkins University graduate.</em></p>

US Air Force commandos trained to rescue other troops are getting used to a 'way more difficult' environment in the Pacific

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Since the mid-1960s, the Air Force has used the <keyword id="625473" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="MC-130">MC-130</keyword> to support special-operations missions all over the world.</li><li>The Air Force is now rolling out the MC-130J model, and it will remain important as special operators adapt to new challenges.</li><li>"The MC-130 is a very versatile and flexible aircraft," a former Air Force officer and Combat Talon pilot told Insider.</li></ul><p>The US military has thousands of aircraft that can launch attacks and support conventional operations, from the futuristic F-35 and F-22 fighters to the venerable A-10 and AC-130 close air support planes.</p><p>When it comes to supporting special-operations units, the MC-130 has an essential if little-known role.</p><p>MC-130 variants have participated in every major and minor US military campaign since the Vietnam War, backing up special-operations units in some of the biggest commando missions.</p><p>The first versions of the aircraft flew in <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/successful-failure-vietnam-war-son-tay-raid-changed-special-ops-2020-12" target="_top">the Son Tay prisoner rescue</a> in North Vietnam in 1970. Ten years later, MC-130s participated <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-failed-iran-hostage-rescue-raid-influenced-us-special-forces-2020-9" target="_top">in Operation Eagle Claw</a>, the failed mission to rescue American hostages held in Iran.</p><p>MC-130s were also part of the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/story-of-first-special-ops-mission-afghanistan-after-911-attacks-2020-11" target="_top">first major Delta Force and Ranger mission</a> in Afghanistan in 2001, and an MC-130 was the first aircraft to land at Baghdad <keyword id="6356001" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="international">International</keyword> Airport after the invasion of Iraq in 2003.</p><h2>From the jungles of Vietnam</h2><div type="image" title="An MC-130E Combat Talon I in flight" height="1430" width="2000" msid="84552069" hostid="261"></div><p>During the Vietnam War, the Air Force began experimenting with using a large transport aircraft to support large commando operations. Helicopters could only lift so much and fly so far.</p><p>Military Assistance Command Vietnam-Studies and Observation (MACV-SOG), <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/macv-sog-created-in-vietnam-still-influences-us-special-operations-2021-2" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a secretive force that conducted missions behind enemy lines</a>, specifically needed the capability to support its recon teams that went across the fence.</p><p>Composed of Green Berets, Navy SEALs, Recon Marines, and Air Commandos, SOG conducted covert operations in Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and North Vietnam, where US troops weren't supposed to be.</p><p>The introduction of the MC-130 allowed SOG to be more effective in its covert war in Southeast Asia. The Air Commandos who flew the aircraft received the Presidential Unit Citation for their performance, which paved the way for a mission that is still going nearly 70 years later.</p><h2>A special-operations workhorse</h2><div type="image" title="The cockpit of an MC-130J special operations plane" height="1429" width="2000" msid="84552072" hostid="261"></div><p>The MC-130 fleet of about 60 planes is the backbone of <keyword id="9962313" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="air-force-special-operations-command">Air Force Special Operations Command</keyword>'s fixed-wing force.</p><p>The latest iteration, the MC-130J Commando II, specializes in the infiltration, exfiltration, and resupply of special-operations units in semi- or non-permissive areas.</p><p>It can also support psychological operations - dropping leaflets and broadcasting messages - and provide aerial refueling for special-operations helicopters.</p><p>Each Commando II costs $114 million and is operated by a crew of five Air Commandos. It can haul up to 164,000 pounds as far as 3,000 miles without refueling. It also has significant external and internal upgrades over previous versions.</p><p>It has new engines that are 25% more powerful than those on the previous model, which is known as the Combat Talon. Internally, the Commando II has state-of-the-art digital electronic and navigation systems that can be used by the same operator, meaning it needs fewer crew than earlier MC-130 variants.</p><div type="image" title="Australian special forces paratroopers jump from US MC-130 aircraft" height="1343" width="2000" msid="84552073" hostid="261"></div><p>The MC-130 can fly as low as 250 feet in adverse weather conditions using its potent terrain-following, terrain-avoidance radar system, the AN/APQ-187 Silent Knight. This means that in capable hands, the aircraft can fly nap-of-the-air routes to avoid detection from enemy radars and anti-aircraft systems.</p><p>"The MC-130 is a very versatile and flexible aircraft that can accomplish a wide range of special-operations missions," a former Air Force officer and Combat Talon pilot told Insider.</p><p>"You will seldom, if ever, see or hear about the aircraft and the men who fly it. We aren't as sexy as our <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ac130-gunship-has-supported-special-operations-for-55-years-2021-7" target="_blank" rel="noopener">AC-130 [gunship]</a> colleagues, whom your audience might be well aware of," the former officer said.</p><p>"Nevertheless, we fulfill an important mission - transporting and resupplying special operations forces anywhere in the world. We don't kick in any doors, but we enable the special operators on the ground to kick them."</p><h2>Adapting for the future</h2><div type="image" title="An MC-130J airdrops a boat" height="1331" width="2000" msid="84552075" hostid="261"></div><p>The Air Force has begun retiring the -E, -H, and -P versions of the MC-130 fleet and plans to completely replace them with the MC-130J by 2025. The "Combat Talon" designation, active since 1977, will also be retiring.</p><p>But the MC-130 will remain an important asset as US special operators adapt to new challenges. One key role for the Commando II will be as a Forward Arming and Refueling Point (FARP).</p><p>During FARP operations, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-special-operators-refuel-and-rearm-aircraft-behind-enemy-lines-2020-2" target="_top">an MC-130 can refuel and rearm</a> special-operations aircraft, such as AH/MH-6 Little Bird helicopters, and unmanned aerial vehicles while using austere or improvised airfields in semi- or non-permissive areas.</p><div type="image" title="Air Force F-22 refueling Alaska" height="933" width="1400" msid="84552077" hostid="261"></div><p>The MC-130's FARP capability isn't limited to special-operations aircraft. The Air Force has been <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/air-force-special-operators-practice-refueling-f-22s-in-alaska-2020-2" target="_top">experimenting with </a><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/air-force-special-operators-practice-refueling-f-22s-in-alaska-2020-2" target="_top">using</a><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/air-force-special-operators-practice-refueling-f-22s-in-alaska-2020-2" target="_top"> MC-130 refuel some of its more advanced fighter jets</a>, such as the F-22 Raptor, from impromptu airfields.</p><p>The US military, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/air-force-agile-combat-employment-means-new-tasks-for-airmen-2021-3" target="_top">the Air Force in particular</a>, is looking to counter the growing size and reach of China's military by dispersing its forces across the Indo-Pacific region, often <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/air-force-studying-different-austere-bases-to-fight-in-pacific-2020-11" target="_top">using</a><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/air-force-studying-different-austere-bases-to-fight-in-pacific-2020-11" target="_top"> </a><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/air-force-studying-different-austere-bases-to-fight-in-pacific-2020-11" target="_top">dilapidated or</a><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/air-force-studying-different-austere-bases-to-fight-in-pacific-2020-11" target="_top"> under-developed bases</a>.</p><p>A more robust FARP capability could therefore be invaluable in a conflict with China, especially if paired with the Marine Corps' F-35B fighter jet, which has a short-take-off-and-vertical-landing capability that makes it suitable for very austere environments.</p><p><em>Stavros Atlamazoglou is a defense journalist specializing in special operations, a Hellenic Army veteran (national service with the 575th Marine Battalion and Army HQ), and a Johns Hopkins University graduate.</em></p>

One of the Air Force's biggest planes has helped pull off every major special ops mission since Vietnam

<ul class="summary-list"><li>During the Vietnam War, US special operators conducted covert raids deep behind enemy lines.</li><li>Their missions often took them close to disaster, including on Christmas Day in 1968.</li></ul><p><em>This story was first published in December 2020.</em></p><p>While the US military fought tooth and nail to stop the Communist tide in South Vietnam, a small group of special-operations troops took the fight across the border to the North Vietnamese Army.</p><p>Military Assistance Command Vietnam-Studies and Observations Group (MACV-SOG) was a top-secret outfit composed of Special Forces operators, Navy SEALs, and Air Commandos.</p><p>Their mission was to conduct covert cross-border operations deep inside Laos, Cambodia, and North Vietnam, where no US troops were supposed to be.</p><p>SOG had a 100% casualty rate — everyone was wounded, sometimes multiple times, or killed.</p><h2>How the NVA stole Christmas</h2><div type="image" title="John Stryker Meyer Vietnam Army Green Beret" height="600" width="800" msid="79957075" hostid="261"></div><p>Christmas 1968. Recon Team ST Idaho was tasked with locating and destroying a fuel pipeline inside Laos. It was part of the Ho Chi Minh Trail complex, which the NVA and Vietcong relied on to continue their guerrilla war in South Vietnam.</p><p>John Stryker "Tilt" Meyer, then only 22 years old, was ST Idaho's One Zero, or team leader. Alongside him were two more Green Berets and three indigenous personnel.</p><p>Just shy of a month earlier, on Thanksgiving Day, ST Idaho <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/green-beret-recalls-dangerous-thanksgiving-mission-during-vietnam-war-2020-11" target="_blank" rel="noopener">had barely survived</a> a cross-border operation in Cambodia.</p><p>Reports of heavy anti-aircraft concentration in the area complicated the mission. A few weeks earlier, NVA anti-aircraft fire had downed a SOG helicopter, killing everyone aboard.</p><p>Usually, helicopters would fly at higher altitude and suddenly drop on the landing zone, or LZ. But now the H-34 Kingbee helicopters would fly as close to the ground as possible and straight to the LZ, which was in a remote valley that intelligence indicated was far from NVA positions.</p><p>ST Idaho was in the hands of the best. The pilots of the 219th South Vietnamese Air Force, an elite unit that supported SOG missions, were known for their mind-blowing bravery and coolness under fire — both lifesaving traits when literary hundreds of NVA troops were firing at them. Their airmanship was a rare point of comfort for the SOG operators.</p><p>As they made their final approach to the LZ, a few locals spotted the helicopter, raising concerns that the team would be compromised — residents of the undeclared war zone had little choice but to cooperate with the NVA.</p><p>The team landed on a knoll in a canyon bordered by mountains. Because of the area's geography, they couldn't rely on fixed-wing air support in case of an emergency.</p><div type="image" title="South Vietnam air force H-34 Kingbee helicopter" height="689" width="800" msid="79957077" hostid="261"></div><p>The whole area was covered by thick, 10-foot tall elephant grass that stalled the team's progress as they looked for high ground on which to spend the night.</p><p>After patrolling for a few minutes, the point man spotted something and let out a sudden burst of fire. The NVA fired back. Soon rocket-propelled grenades came whizzing at them.</p><p>ST Idaho debated if it was possible to lose the NVA and continue their mission but ultimately deiced against it. Meyer declared a "Prairie Fire" — the codeword for troops in contact that would redirect every available aircraft to their position — and called for immediate extraction.</p><p>ST Idaho began moving back to the LZ.</p><p>The SOG operators could hear noises coming from all directions except the northeast. The elephant grass prevented them from seeing anything or hearing properly, but Meyer suspected the NVA was trying to surround the team before it reached the LZ.</p><p>Then, a forward observer flying above the team warned them that an urgent intelligence report stated that NVA troops might be coming from the northeast.</p><p>"This was the first and only time in SOG's history that a team had received a tactical intel update," Meyer, who participated in some jaw-dropping operations and lived to write about it, told Insider. "It had never happened before."</p><p>What ST Idaho didn't know was that a few miles from them, another SOG team that was under fire had intercepted an enemy radio transition — with a radio that had been shot four times — detailing the NVA's intent to ambush ST Idaho from the northeast.</p><p>ST Idaho adjusted its path and continued its slow progress, throwing grenades at any noise they heard, nightmares of previous close-calls on their minds.</p><h2>Out of the frying pan and into the fire</h2><div type="image" title="Bargewell ii (John Stryker Meyer)" height="1875" width="2500" msid="79957080" hostid="261"></div><p>All of a sudden, smoke began engulfing the team's perimeter — the NVA was setting the elephant grass on fire in an attempt to smoke ST Idaho out or burn them alive.</p><p>Gusts of wind fueled the fire that was coming from all sides. With the helicopters still minutes away, the SOG operators tried everything to stop the inferno, even using strips of C-4 explosives to knock back the flames momentarily.</p><p>Thick black smoke choked and blinded ST Idaho, but the SOG operators could see enemy troops advancing close behind the flames. Then the Kingbees arrived, but conditions on the ground kept them at bay.</p><p>"The smoke was thick [and] made it difficult for him [the pilot] to see our LZ," Meyer told Insider. "It felt as though we were trapped in some sort of 'Twilight Zone' episode, with the smoke and fire rushing up the mountain, enemy soldiers firing at us, and salvation within sight but out of reach."</p><p>With agonizing slowness, the H-34 touched down in the apocalyptic scene. The wash from its rotor blades helped clear the air around the team as it boarded the chopper, pushing the flames and smoke back at the NVA. Moments after takeoff, ST Idaho's perimeter was overrun by flames.</p><p>Although no one was killed, ST Idaho's desperate firefighting attempts in enemy territory left the team members with scorched eyebrows, singed hair, and some minor burns.</p><p>Just another day in SOG.</p><p><em>Stavros Atlamazoglou is a defense journalist specializing in special operations, a Hellenic Army veteran (national service with the 575th Marine Battalion and Army HQ), and a Johns Hopkins University graduate. He is working toward a master's degree in strategy and cybersecurity at the Johns Hopkins' School of Advanced International Studies.</em></p>

A Green Beret recalls the Christmas Day mission that was almost his last

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Many storied leaders have helped shape and refine the US military's special-operations forces.</li><li>The three below are among the most decorated and accomplished, and their ideas and actions have had a lasting impact on the units they led.</li></ul><h2>An unconventional visionary: Col. Charles "Chargin' Charlie" Beckwith</h2><p><keyword id="10267239" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="charlie-beckwith">Charlie Beckwith</keyword> commissioned in the Army in 1952, volunteering for Special Forcers a few years later.</p><p>In 1960, he deployed to Laos as part of a covert special-operations program to harass the North Vietnamese. Following that tour, Beckwith was an exchange officer with the British <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sierra-leone-operation-barras-hostage-rescue-british-special-operation-2020-10" target="_top">Special Air Service (SAS)</a>.</p><p>He was given command of an SAS troop (about 15 operators) and deployed to Malaya, where the British were fighting a Communist insurgency. That deployment had a profound impact on "Charlie Blister," as the British called him.</p><div type="image" title="Beckwith i (Vietnam)" height="588" width="800" msid="79202159" hostid="261"></div><p>At the time, the British commandos were pioneering special-operations, unconventional warfare, and counterterrorism doctrine. They had recently adopted an "individualistic" approach to selection and assessment, scrutinizing a soldier's ability to operate and excel on his own.</p><p>Beckwith put lessons from the SAS to good use when he redeployed to Vietnam in the late 1960s, but by the 1970s, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-british-sbs-commandos-train-to-recapture-hijacked-ships-2020-10" target="_blank" rel="noopener">international terrorism was becoming prevalent</a>. Beckwith saw the need for a unit with counterterrorism and hostage-rescue capabilities.</p><p>After years of cajoling senior officers and navigating military bureaucracy, Beckwith created the 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta, better known as <keyword id="621779" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="Delta-Force">Delta Force</keyword>.</p><p>The unit was part of the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-failed-iran-hostage-rescue-raid-influenced-us-special-forces-2020-9" target="_blank" rel="noopener">attempt to rescue American hostages</a> in Tehran 1980. The failed operation, and Beckwith's recommendations afterward, led to the creation of the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC).</p><div type="image" title="Col. Charles Beckwith" height="2825" width="4272" msid="79202160" hostid="261"></div><p>Beckwith's greatest accomplishment was Delta Force. His vision, buttressed by his buzzing energy, achieved what others could not.</p><p>"He dug the foundations but also paved the future," a former Delta Force operator told Insider. "He knew he wouldn't be there forever, so he had to recruit the best guys — the best noncommissioned officers and officers — who would safeguard his baby. And they did. Look at where the unit's at today."</p><p>During his career, Beckwith received the Distinguished Service Cross, the second-highest award for valor under fire, and two Silver Stars. He retired in 1981 and died in 1994, but in 2001 he received the Bull Simons lifetime achievement award, the highest honor given by Special Operations Command (SOCOM).</p><h2>One hell of a soldier: Maj. Gen. <keyword id="10267238" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="eldon-bargewell">Eldon Bargewell</keyword></h2><div type="image" title="Bargewell i (US Army)" height="699" width="1200" msid="79202161" hostid="261"></div><p>Bargewell enlisted in the Army in 1967 and went straight to the Special Forces, aiming to serve in Vietnam.</p><p>He was assigned to Military Assistance Command — Vietnam Studies and Operations Group (MACV-SOG), a secretive special-operations unit that conducted highly classified operations in Laos, Cambodia, and North Vietnam.</p><p>Bargewell led cross-border missions that recovered valuable intelligence and put him in close contact with the enemy. During one such operation, a North Vietnamese soldier shot Bargewell in the chest as he cleared a NVA camp, but the bullet got stuck on his chest rig.</p><p>On another mission a few years later, he was shot in the face but fought on, allowing his team to exfiltrate, and was the last man out before the NVA overwhelmed the perimeter. His actions earned him the Distinguished Service Cross.</p><p>"Eldon always strived to learn," John Stryker "Tilt" Meyer, a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNyo7DZ0QBY" target="_top">Green Beret legend</a> who served alongside Bargewell in SOG and has <a href="http://sogchronicles.com/Home_Page.php" target="_top">written about</a> the unit's daring operations, told Insider.</p><p>"He always wanted to the job better, and he was relentless that way. His desire to learn never left him, not even when he made general. He never changed in all his years. He was one hell of a soldier," Meyer said.</p><div type="image" title="Bargewell ii (John Stryker Meyer)" height="1875" width="2500" msid="79202163" hostid="261"></div><p>Bargewell commissioned as an officer after Vietnam, and in 1981, he passed Delta's arduous selection process and became an operator in the new unit. Bargewell went on to command at all levels in Delta.</p><p>"He always pushed his men to practice the basics," Meyer added. "If there was an operational lull, Eldon filled it up with training. He knew it would come handy in the future."</p><p>And it did. In 1989, Bargewell commanded Operation Acid Gambit, the daring rescue of Kurt Muse, a CIA operative held captive by Panamanian forces in a heavily defended prison.</p><p>During the extraction, the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/meet-the-armys-160-soar-night-stalkers-special-operations-pilots-2020-10" target="_top">MH-6 Little Bird</a> carrying Muse and some operators crashed close to prison, wounding several of them. Bargewell, then a lieutenant colonel, exposed himself to enemy fire to provide cover with a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/weapons-gear-used-by-us-military-special-operations-delta-seals-2020-10" target="_top">machine gun</a> while his troops exited the damaged helicopter.</p><p>The operation was one of Delta Force's first successful hostage rescues and firmly established it as the US military's top hostage-rescue outfit.</p><p>Bargewell went on to command Special Operations Command Europe (SOCEUR) and to have key positions in JSOC and SOCOM. When he retired in 2006, after almost 40 years in uniform, he was among the Army's most decorated soldiers.</p><p>Bargewell spent almost his entire career in Army special-operations units, including Special Forces and the Rangers, but he left his mark with Delta Force. In 2010, he received the Bull Simons award. Bargewell died in 2019.</p><h2>The networker: Gen. Stanley McChrystal</h2><div type="image" title="general stanley mcchrystal" height="1163" width="1800" msid="79202164" hostid="261"></div><p>Stanley McChrystal commissioned in the Army in 1976 and served in airborne, Ranger, and Special Forces units during a 34-year career.</p><p>When the US invaded Iraq in 2003, McChrystal was a rising star. He assumed command of JSOC, which includes Delta Force and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/seal-team-6-parachute-skills-distinct-among-special-operations-units-2020-11" target="_top">SEAL Team 6</a>, and went after Iraq's growing Islamist insurgency.</p><p>With the motto "it takes a network to defeat a network," McChrystal put liaisons everywhere, from the CIA to conventional military units, putting JSOC at the center of a web of units and agencies that shared intelligence like never before and acted fast.</p><p>For example, a Delta Force troop would hit a target early one night, gather intelligence, and conduct another raid immediately afterward, sometimes hitting three targets all over Iraq in the same night.</p><p>"We really turned it on with him," a Delta Force operator told Insider. "The op tempo was crazy, but we pulled it off. We'd do two [or] three hits a night for weeks."</p><p>As a result, JSOC dismantled the insurgency and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/stanley-mcchrystal-leaders-and-lessons-from-al-qaeda-leader-al-zarqawi-2018-12" target="_top">killed Al Qaeda's top man in Iraq</a>, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.</p><div type="image" title="Stanley McChrystal Kandahar Afghanistan" height="933" width="1400" msid="79202165" hostid="261"></div><p>Shrewd and tactful enough to navigate bureaucracy, McChrystal was still a warrior at heart.</p><p>At a counterterrorism meeting in an East African country, the CIA station chief present took a cavalier attitude toward McChrystal, who let him finish before saying, "Hey look, if you ever talk to me that way again, I'm going to come around this desk and beat the s--- out of you," according to journalist <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/08/jsoc-manhunt-special-operations-pentagon/402652/" target="_top">Sean Naylor</a>.</p><p>In 2009, McChrystal assumed command in Afghanistan, where he devised the counterinsurgency strategy. Following Gen. David Petraeus' example in Iraq, McChrystal argued for a surge of troops to defeat the Taliban. In the end, he persuaded President Barack Obama and the Pentagon despite the political cost of sending tens of thousands of additional troops to what many saw as a forgotten war.</p><p>But that command, and McChrystal's career, ended with a blemish after he and his aides were quoted disparaging the Obama administration in a Rolling Stone article.</p><p>McChrystal retired with the defeat of Al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) and JSOC's renovation as his greatest achievements and with "his place secure as one of America's greatest warriors," <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/24/us/24mcchrystal.html" target="_top">according</a> to former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates.</p><p lang="en-GB"><em>Stavros Atlamazoglou is a defense journalist specializing in special operations, a Hellenic Army veteran (National Service with the 575th Marine Battalion and Army HQ), and a Johns Hopkins University graduate.</em></p>

You Searched For "macv sog" and got 13 results

Before there were 'Night Stalkers,' these daredevil pilots got US special operators to their missions deep behind enemy lines

Stavros Atlamazoglou

A harrowing New Year's Day attack on US special operators during the Vietnam War featured a sinister tactic

Stavros Atlamazoglou

For the US's Vietnam-era covert special operators, the quietest missions were also the most dangerous

Stavros Atlamazoglou

How a daring mission behind enemy lines turned into a disaster for the US's secretive Vietnam-era special operators

Stavros Atlamazoglou

How US special operators use a Vietnam War-era method to get into and out of dangerous spots quickly

Stavros Atlamazoglou

During the Vietnam War, the US created a highly classified unit that still influences modern special operations

Stavros Atlamazoglou

A Green Beret recalls the brutal Thanksgiving Day mission he barely survived after running into 30,000 enemy troops

Stavros Atlamazoglou

With eyes on China, US special operators are back to battling the jungle

Stavros Atlamazoglou

What the IDF's past special-ops missions reveal about how Israel takes out Hamas' rockets and tunnels

Stavros Atlamazoglou

US Air Force commandos trained to rescue other troops are getting used to a 'way more difficult' environment in the Pacific

Stavros Atlamazoglou

One of the Air Force's biggest planes has helped pull off every major special ops mission since Vietnam

Stavros Atlamazoglou

A Green Beret recalls the Christmas Day mission that was almost his last

Stavros Atlamazoglou

3 legendary leaders who made America's special-operations units into the elite forces they are today

Stavros Atlamazoglou