Monthly Archives: October 2020

Did we just lose all these men?!

Air Force, Army,

The Alternate Plans are approved…
Thursday, Oct 15th, 1970
…exactly 50 years ago today.

The TOC Log records that, as of today, the Green Berets began training on the three Alternate Plans that every Green Beret had to memorize:

Alternate Plan Blue (in case Blueboy Assault Group’s helicopter got shot down.)

Alternate Plan Green(in case Greenleaf Support Group’s helicopter got shot down.)

Alternate Plan Red (in case Redwine Security Group’s helicopter got shot down.)

Now Fast Forward to the night of the Raid:
0220 hrs, Saturday November 21st, 1970

When we were just about to land, I heard the chatter in my headset. The voice of Sgt 1st Class Howell came through. He was the RTO for LtCol Sydnor, the ground force commander for the raid:

“Alternate Plan GREEN!” “I repeat: Alternate Plan GREEN. Do you copy?”

[This was only the first of the bad news I would hear tonight.]
I responded, “SAY AGAIN?”
Sgt 1st Class Howell: “Alternate Plan GREEN! Alternate Plan GREEN. Over.”

I said back into my hand mic, “Roger. Alternate Plan Green. Over.”
I thought to myself, Holy crap. This can’t be real. I turned to Capt Dan and told him we were going to Alternate Plan Green. Capt Dan gave me that, “Oh S***” look and calmly told me to pass the announcement on to the others in Redwine.

Alternate Plan Green meant one thing to all of us on the Redwine chopper: We knew we had 22 fewer men. There would be a lot less fire power as we hit the ground. Whether Greenleaf Group had mechanical problems or had been shot down, we knew the mission, including the Alternate Plans. With or without the 22 men of Greenleaf Group, we were going to execute the mission and would now have to perform their role as well as ours.

Life Lesson 6: Don’t be “Indispensable.” Always be training a backup person for your job and always be learning to be a backup for your teammates. This applies to any job in life. The graveyards are full of “indispensable men.”

Had we lost these men?

Read the rest of the Raiders’ first-hand stories in Who Will Go.

Click Here:  The book.

Fast Forward: Joe Murray shot on the NIGHT OF THE RAID.

Army,

Terry Buckler tells this story of his Redwine Group mate Joe Murray.

What amazes me is that, in all this chaos, only one of us Green Berets gets wounded. That is Sgt 1st Class Joe Murray. Joe is a member of Master Sgt Herman Spencer’s team (Redwine Element 1, which also includes SFC Noe Quezeda, SFC Jerry Hill and SSG Tiny Young) whose job is to secure the area south of south wall. That’s the wall closest to where the helicopters dropped us off and later will pick us up.

MSgt Spencer is carrying a 40 lb block of C-4 explosives slung over his shoulder. It is to be used to blow the bridge. It turned out to be a good shield for him.

As we landed and spilled out of our helicopter, Spencer and Murray immediately rushed toward their objective, the guard shack (Building 8D in the diagram in the book Who Will Go) by the south wall. Spencer took a couple of rounds from a guard with an AK-47 in the block of C-4 he was carrying.

Joe Murray would not be that lucky.

When Spencer was dealing with that guard, that delayed Spencer such that Joe arrives at the guard shack alone. The building needs to be cleared immediately, before the enemy troops inside can all emerge. So, Joe decides to use a frag grenade instead of a concussion grenade. As he is about to toss it in the window, he feels his leg push forward with a burning sensation. Joe tosses the frag grenade in, neutralizing the guard shack. He then turns to eliminate the threat. Spencer, now arriving, fires his machine gun first and eliminates three guards. Joe was the only Army Raider to receive a Purple Heart.

(l-r) Standing: MSgt Herman Spencer, Sgt 1st Class Noe Quezada, and SFC Lance Hubel. Front: SFC Joe Murray and SFC Don Wingrove.
About October 20th, 1970. In this photo you can easily see the Special Forces patch on the left shoulder.

Read the rest of the Raiders’ stories in Who Will Go.

Click Here:  The book.

Approval of the Gunship concept…

Air Force, Army,

Monday October 12th, 1970

…exactly 50 years ago.

This past Friday, BGen Manor approved the concept of using an HH-53 as a gunship that Major Donohue proposed last week. Here’s the TOC Log. It states that the practicing to be done this coming week will be on Strafing Range 77 at Eglin AFB.

Here’s a story by USAF Major Ryland “Roy” Dreibelbis, Apple 4

The number of aircraft flying in our formation had grown to seven: One MC-130 with six helicopters.

Three helicopters flew behind the left wing. One of them was the HH-3 that was going to land inside the prison walls carrying Green Berets that were going release the POWs from their prison cells and two HH-53s. They would land in a safe area near the prison and stand by for potential rescue needs and pick up POWs as they were released at the prison.

Three HH-53s flew behind right wing on the MC-130. Two would carry the ground assault teams and the third was assigned the responsibility of suppressing ground fire (the Gunship, Apple 3).

I distinctly remember one refueling flight over the Gulf of Mexico at night. I was at the controls and always took pride in my refueling capability – trying to be smooth on the controls and make a connection with the refueling basket deployed from the C-130 always on the first try. This night tested my refueling skills. It was a totally dark night and we were far enough from shore that shoreline lights could not be seen. It seemed like the HC-130P tanker and my H-53 were suspended in space. I could not recognize movement except by looking at the flight instruments and the C-130 ahead of me. It seemed like we were in a dark hole, suspended in space.

You have to put the refueling probe of the HH-53 into the drogue–remember that there’s a huge rotor spinning just a few feet above. Note the distinctive dome on the top of the HC-130P. That is the long-range antenna that can detect survival beacons, the Cook Aerial Tracking Antenna Radome. NASA helped develop them for the recovery of Apollo missions.

Read the rest of Roy Dreibelbis’ story in Who Will Go.

Click Here:  The book.

The greatest thing that happened in Vietnam…

Air Force, Army, Marines, Navy, POW,

“No Fail” Fridays
[This is the first in a series. It will be a weekly challenge to historians: The Son Tay Raid was a SUCCESS. No qualifier is appropriate. Over these next few Fridays, I’ll show you why.]

Challenge 1: There is a word that is too often used in conversations about the Son Tay Raid. That word should be banished from any analysis of the Raid. You could say it’s an ‘F-word.’ We will challenge your thinking. It may take some humility to accept the truth. For far too long, the humility requirement has only been one-way. The truth is only revealed when you can take on a more mature mindset.
* The simple mind obsesses over what is seen.
* The mature perspective takes into consideration the unseen (for two-and-a-half years after the Raid, there was major progress that no one outside Hanoi was aware of.)
* The simple mind is swayed by immediate shiny objects like punditry and political gossip.
* The mature mind trusts that a little time is needed to gather all the facts (even though Senators Gore and Fulbright and others were relentless in publicly scolding and scoring political points, the civilian and military commanders were mature in accepting the heat knowing they had made the right decision to approve the mission.)
* The simple mind is slave to personal bias against a political leader.
* The mature mind weighs the actual results, letting the data objectively guide their conclusions.

In yesterday’s photo, you saw President Nixon and Dr Kissinger. At least half of our country has pre-conceived biases against them. I’d like to challenge all of us give them credit for their noble intentions. Can we be humble enough to do that?

Humility accepts ambiguity in this world and doesn’t worry excessively about what other people will think. A commander has to make decisions even in the Fog of War. And character is to be judged in how they deal with the Friction of War—when things don’t go fully as you planned. Do you blame? Do you distance yourself from the results of your decisions? Or, to protect your image, do you avoid making difficult decisions in the first place?

It is important to note that yesterday’s Oval Office photo was AFTER the Raid. Nixon and his leaders did not distance themselves. They weighed all the best intel that technology could provide, committed themselves to the Raid’s prioritized list of objectives, made the hard decisions, and, with heroic integrity, stood publicly to honor the men who laid their lives on the line for their fellow man. We’ll post more photos of how proud America is of the Son Tay Raid.

When you consider this, how do you feel about President Nixon’s decision to approve the Son Tay Raid?

US Senator Jeremiah Denton (formerly a POW and then an Admiral) said it this way:

“The Son Tay Raid was the greatest thing that happened in Vietnam.”

Right to Left: Gen James Cartwright, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, and Senator Jeremiah Denton at the National POW/MIA Recognition Day Ceremony at the Pentagon on Sept. 18, 2009.

Reading the Raiders’ stories in Who Will Go will challenge historians (and maybe you.)

Click Here:  The book.

Briefing Dr Henry Kissinger…

Air Force, Army,

Thursday October 8th , 1970

…exactly 50 years ago today.

Bull Simons, BGen Manor, and BGen Blackburn were in the White House today briefing Dr Henry Kissinger (National Security Advisor).

The photo below was taken after the mission, but it includes the decision makers that BGen Manor and Col Simons briefed at the White House exactly 50 years ago this morning.

This photo was AFTER the Raid. But I show it here because it has Dr Kissinger, BGen Manor, Colonel Simons and LtGen Vogt (far left) in the White House.

Read the Raiders’ stories in Who Will Go.

Click Here:  The book.