Category Archives: Army

The Green Berets and Aircrews inside the high-security Tac Ops Center at Eglin AFB.

Air Force, Army, Marines, Navy,

Thursday Sept 10th, 1970

…exactly 50 years ago today.

In addition to the “buildings” that we constructed for the Mockup, there were roads made that simulated the area surrounding the POW camp. Earthmoving equipment was brought in which completed a “road by the Son Tay compound and a canal/river” on September 10th. This was recorded in the Log.

Below, you can read a page of that Log kept in the Joint Chiefs of Staff’s top secret TOC (Tactical Operations Center) building at Aux Field #3, recording the events of each day.

The official name of the Log is “Record of Events (Log), US Army Element, JCTG (JCS)”

Translation: Record of Events (Log), US Army Element of the Joint Contingency Task Group (Joint Chiefs of Staff).

The Son Tay Raid was the first mission directly controlled by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The reason: there was no organization in the US military that could manage all the Army, Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps assets involved in the Son Tay Raid.

[Today, we have the USSOCOM, the US Special Operations Command, for this very purpose. USSOCOM’s commanders teach the Son Tay Raid as a textbook example of excellence.]

Read Sgt Terry Buckler’s full story in Who Will Go.

Click Here:  The book.

78 more Green Berets arrive at Eglin AFB…

Army,

Wednesday, September 9th, 1970

…exactly 50 years ago today

On Wednesday Sept 9th, about a week after we arrived as the Advance Team, the other 78 Green Berets arrived and we started our training

The TOC log entry for Thursday, Sept 10th states, “Day 01 of training.”

The first 30 days of training was intense. The training started with PT every morning followed by running the Meadows Mile. Dick Meadows loved to run and he led many of our runs. Now I like to run, but not like Captain Meadows. If you were not in shape, you would soon be.

Training at the Mockup.

Read Sgt Terry Buckler’s full story in Who Will Go.

Click Here:  The book.

Was the Mockup taken down each night?

Air Force, Army,

Tuesday Sept 8th, 1970


The Green Berets are constructing the Mockup at Eglin AFB…

…exactly 50 years ago this week

Multiple books and historians perpetuate an inaccurate story that we took the Mockup down every day. The concern was that the Soviet reconnaissance satellites passing over Eglin AFB each day might be able to determine what we were planning.

But I can clear up the misconception—we never took it down.

It is true that we were concerned, but those concerns were satisfied by a simple experiment (simple if you have an SR-71 Blackbird at your disposal.) An Air Force reconnaissance aircraft took some high-resolution photos for us while the Mockup was installed. Those photos proved that the Mockup could not be seen clearly enough by even the best high-res imagery.

I can tell you as one who constructed it and who used it for months: From the time that we arrived (Wednesday September 2nd) on through at least the end of our time at Aux Field #3 (November 16th), we did not take down the Mockup.

(Also see Sgt Robert Hobdy’s and Sgt Pat St. Clair’s explanations of this in Appendix 4 of Who Will Go.)

This photo was taken by a USAF reconnaissance jet to help in the determination that we WOULD NOT need to take down the Mockup. The photo was taken from an aircraft northwest of C-2 looking to the southeast. (Photo provided by John Gargus.)

Read Sgt Terry Buckler’s full story in Who Will Go.

Click Here:  The book.

Construction of the Mockup at Eglin AFB begins today…

Army,

Labor Day, Monday September 7th, 1970

…exactly 50 years ago.

I and about 25 other Green Berets comprised the Advance Party and one of our tasks was to build this large Mockup of buildings using target canvas as the walls with doors and with cut-outs for windows.

We began constructing it on Monday Sept 7th and it took us several days to complete. We didn’t know why we were having to build it. It wasn’t until we did our first walk-through during our initial training that I realized how it would be used.

We built it on what is known as Range C-2, formerly a strafing range used by the Air Force.
Below is its never-before-revealed, secret location.

We had no idea it was a dimensionally perfect replica of all the buildings and walls of the POW camp in Son Tay, North Vietnam.

Auxiliary Field #3 (today it’s called Duke Field) is on the left.
The green circle shows the location of Range C-2, where we were building the Mockup exactly 50 years ago today.

Read Sgt Terry Buckler’s full story in Who Will Go.

Click Here:  The book.

Aircrews arriving

Air Force, Army,

Saturday Sept 5th, 1970

The aircrews are arriving at Eglin AFB this weekend…

…exactly 50 years ago.

Tomorrow’s post will be USAF Major Roy Dreibelbis’ story of his helicopter crew arriving at Eglin AFB this holiday weekend.

Have you told the next generation about what you did in the military?

Think of one child, or a niece or nephew that you could write your military story for.  AND also… choose at least one grandchild or grandnephew for whom you could write your story.  You need to capture those stories.  Good stories.  Bad stories. 

Fifty years from today, your future generations will wish you had.

We can help.  We’ve captured over 40 veterans’ stories and we’re just getting started at www.TheSonTayRaid.com

(You don’t have to be involved with the Son Tay Raid—but it’s great example of how to start capturing your story.)

Terry Buckler explains in his book Who Will Go that his father earned a Bronze Star in the Pacific in WW2.  But Terry will never know how that Bronze Star was earned.  The military records were all lost to fire.  It’s a very sad story of the saddest day of his life.

These gentlemen were in the Son Tay Raid (I’ll list their names in the next post.) The children and grandchildren of each of these men need to have this great photo.

Today is the day to write down a story, back it up on a computer for posterity, and share it (we can offer to capture it here on our website so that you can easily share it with the younger generations.)

Contact us to help capture your veteran’s story by clicking here:  Contact us.