Being in good physical shape is important to any solider who is going into combat. One of the Raiders, Sgt 1st Class Jake Jakovenko, went beyond the rest of us. I believe there was a good reason why Jake was selected to carry an M-60 machine gun, our heaviest gun. Jake was what you would think of when you think of a Special Forces soldier. He was over 6 foot, with a big barrel chest and shoulders about two axe handles across with a waist of maybe 30 inches.
After our morning PT and the two- or three-mile run, while the rest of us where resting up from the PT, Jake would add more as his own personal workout. We would watch Jake place his feet on the second or third step and knock out fifty or one hundred push-ups, depending on how he felt. To say Jake was in good shape would be an understatement.
Read Sgt Terry Buckler’s full story in Who Will Go.
Our orders were that no one was allowed entrance to the TOC (Tactical Ops Center) building without checking their ID. Our job was to confirm that they were who they said they were. No matter who they were or how many times they had been in the building we had to check their ID every time they entered the building. After confirming their identity, we would call into the building on the field phone and would verify whether they were authorized to enter the building at this time. Someone from inside would come out and escort them into the building.
Now, the Bull wasn’t the only legendary officer attached to the Son Tay Raid. Captain Dick Meadows would lead Blueboy Assault Group, which would land directly inside the POW camp walls. Enlisted in 1946, a paratrooper in the Korean War, in the early 1960s, Meadows served a stint with British Special Air Service. In Vietnam, Meadows captured video footage proving North Vietnam Army was infiltrating South Vietnam and impressed General Westmoreland so much that, in 1967, he received a battlefield commission directly to Captain. He was the commanding officer of Ranger School when Bull Simons recruited him for the Son Tay Raid.
Lieutenant Colonel Bud Sydnor was selected by Bull Simons to serve as the Ground Forces Commander (whereas Bull Simons’ role would be the on-scene eyes and ears of the Joint Contingency Task Group, in constant contact with General Manor.) Sydnor had the reputation of a gentleman and a consummate professional.
One day, Brigadier General Blackburn from the Pentagon, Brigadier General Manor (Commander of USAF Special Operations Forces), Bull Simons and Captain Dick Meadows (both Simons and Meadows have statues at the Army’s Special Forces Museum today—see images at the end of Appendix 4) showed up as a group and requested access to the Operations Center. I checked their IDs and called in for someone to come out and escort them in. Out walks Lieutenant Colonel Bud Sydnor. Can you image how I felt? Here I am a 20-year-old buck sergeant standing in the midst of some of the most notable Special Operations Forces officers ever. I remember they treated me as one of them and made small talk with me until LtCol Sydnor escorted them in. This is one of the great things about Special Forces. The officers and enlisted men treat each other with respect. I believe it is because we have to depend on each other when you operate in small teams like Special Forces.
Brigadier General Donald Blackburn, who first developed the concept of the Raid with BGen James Allen, Colonel Norman Frisbie and their Pentagon feasibility study group.
Read Sgt Terry Buckler’s full story in Who Will Go.
As one of the 25 Green Berets of the Advance Team aboard our C-123 from Pope AFB, NC, to Eglin AFB, we landed at around 6am on Wednesday September 2nd, 1970. It was typical Florida weather, hot and humid.
Now, I had never been on an Air Force base. I thought all military mess halls were the same. Let me tell you: I was wrong! This Air Force mess hall was more like a restaurant! I remember at breakfast the cook asked me how I wanted my eggs. I thought, “You must be trying to pull a joke on me.” In the Army, eggs were either cold & scrambled or warm & scrambled. I told him I’d like them over easy. He asked how many and I told him two would do it. I thought to myself, “I’m gonna like this.” They had several different fountain drinks and when they told me I could have seconds I was hooked.
They bused us to “Auxiliary Field #3” (today it is named Duke Field.) The other Ft Bragg Green Berets would be arriving in another week or so. One of our first tasks was to secure the Tactical Operations Center building, which was only about 200 yards from the runway. The OSI (Office of Special Investigations) guys swept the building for bugs and did their security checks. We placed three rolls of concertina wire around the building, creating only one entrance. We installed a field phone at the entrance for communications to the staff inside. From September 3rd on, this building was guarded 24×7.
Six of us were given that round-the-clock task of guarding the building. While on shift, we would rotate a guard every two hours: you’d pull guard duty for two hours, then you’re free to do other things for the 10 hours before your next shift. If I wasn’t on guard duty, I was training or sleeping. It was hard work keeping up with training events, and the PT events, AND guard duty.
This TOC building that we guarded was where a lot of the Top Secret planning for the raid was accomplished. I never entered it, but inside this building there would be a lot of brass spending the next few months planning the mission.
Read Sgt Terry Buckler’s full story in Who Will Go.
