Here's the latest by Jerry Hogan, retired SF Officer who writes human interest articles of local residents who served/are serving in the military. His latest is on a Son Tay raider I put him in touch with a couple of weeks ago, George Petrie. Gutes lesen!
Richard's $.02
http://www.themilitaryview.com/
Son Tay Raid.."A Thrilling and Spine Tingling Story"
In 1970 the United States was fighting the unpopular war in South Vietnam. Casualties were increasing and more and more young men who had been drafted under the selective service system were being returned home to towns all over America in flag draped caskets. The political rhetoric was mounting and protests in the street were increasing while students on college and university campuses were starting to make their voices heard. Adding to the general dissatisfaction with the war was the treatment and unknown status of over 500 American Prisoners of War (POW’s) who had been captured by the North Vietnamese forces. The families of these men were starting to make their voices heard too and even though negotiations had been going on for over two years with representatives of North Vietnam on this issue of POW’s, no progress had been made.
In August of 1970 the US government started the planning for a bold raid on a North Vietnamese POW prison camp located 23 kilometers west of downtown Hanoi. The US had the names of 70 US prisoners who were being held in this camp called Son Tay and the plan was to fly in with a small raiding force, kill the enemy guards, free the prisoners and then fly them back to a US base.
1st Lieutenant George Petrie, a Special Forces Soldier at that time, who currently lives in Greenville, Texas, was on that raid. This is his story of how it all happened and his personal observations of what he saw and did on that raid.
George was assigned to one of the Special Forces Groups at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, in August of 1970 after just returning from his last combat tour in Vietnam. As he said, “we got an announcement one day saying they were looking for volunteers for a special assignment. About 600 of we Special Forces and Ranger guys showed up in the post theater when we were told to be there. An old Airborne/Special Forces full colonel by the name of “Bull” Simons came out on the stage and said ‘we need 100 volunteers to be involved with a special assignment. There will be no TDY pay (travel pay given to Soldiers when they go on a temporary assignment), no per diem pay (an allowance for being away from home base), you will be gone for up to 6 months, there is some risk, and I can’t say anymore.’ About 300 guys came back that afternoon and each person was then interviewed by Simmons, two Sergeant Majors, and Doctor Joe Cataldo. 100 of us were selected and we still were not told anything about what, where, or when.”
The 100 men who were selected were then transported to Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, where they were isolated and started their initial selection training. As George says, “we were told ‘don’t ask any questions and keep your mouths shut. While 100 were selected, we only need 56 for the mission and they will be selected as the training progresses.’ The training itself was pretty standard Special Forces stuff; lots of Raids and Ambushes and really a lot of physical training (PT). They also built a mock up of the prison camp and we rehearsed and rehearsed the attack and seizure of the facility. We assumed by this time that we were going into a prison for some purpose, but we still didn’t know where or when. Every day the ‘mock prison’ was disassembled so Soviet Satellites would not detect the activity and then every night we would put it back up so we could rehearse again. All in all we went through at least 30 step-by-step practices of attacking the camp and leaving with the POW’s. In all, over 150 rehearsals were done of the entire operation.
We were organized into three elements; an Assault Platoon made up of three, four man assault teams, a Security Platoon responsible for securing and holding the perimeter of the camp, and a Support Platoon which had the task of stopping any reinforcements along the road. I was in the Assault Platoon and our task was to land in the middle of the camp compound, and then my team was to quickly take out the guard tower and gate guards, and then go to the solitary confinement prisoner cell near the front entrance and release the POW’s in that area. We went over and over these tasks.”
As you would imagine, by this time the “Raiders”, as they were to be known, were certain of the mission, just not where or when. Originally the plan, which was heavily dependent on weather and moon light conditions, called for the raid to occur on October 21. It was briefed to Henry Kissinger and General Alexander Haig in the White House on Oct 8 but because of President Nixon’s unavailability on that day, final approval from the President could not be obtained in time to meet this scheduled date. The next window-of-opportunity was November 21. That date was set and Presidential approval was given to proceed with the plan.
On November 14, 1970, four C-141 airplanes with all of the Raiders aboard departed Eglin Air Force Base for their initial staging area at Takhli, Thailand. Arriving two days later, the men were all ushered into a CIA secured compound to start their final preparations. As George said, “this is the first time we really believed they were going to let us go through with the raid even though we still didn’t know for sure what it was or where it was to be. Now we started worrying they would call it off for some reason.”
On the first day in the compound in Takhli the men rested from their long trip from the States. On the second they broke all of their gear down and did final checks. Their weapons- CAR 15’s, M-60 machine guns, AR-15’s and M-79 grenade launchers- were all test fired and re-zeroed. And this is when they learned the details of the raid. As George said, “Colonel Simons called us all together and told us: ‘we were going to rescue 70 or more POW’s from a camp called Son Tay, if you don’t want to go, let us know now, and if we walk into a trap, there will be no Escape and Evasion on our part. Instead we will back up on the ground and take as many with us as we can.’ The whole force stood up and cheered. We got the approval message from the White House and we were ready to go.”
The next step was to move from Takhli to Udorn Air Force Base also located in Thailand to marry the force up with their helicopters that would be used to make the 3 1/2 hour flight across Laos and into North Vietnam. At this point George was told they had the names of the 70 POW’s that were to be in Son Tay, but unfortunately his cousin, who was a POW, was not on the list.
The plan called for the Assault Platoon members to all ride in an H-3 helicopter that would be landed in the middle of the compound once arriving on site. Because of the small size of this area, it would not be possible for the H-3 to become airborne again after landing so it was to be destroyed on the ground. The remaining personnel would be in 6 CH-53 helicopters. All of the helicopters were to be escorted by C-130 airplanes that would be dropping flares, etc during the assault.
Unfortunately the H-3 helicopter could not maintain the same speed as the other slowest airplane in the attack force. A means had to be found to increase the speed and the range of the Assault Platoons ride. And this is where it really gets hairy and frightening even before the assault site is reached.
A technique was developed and practiced during the rehearsals back at Eglin where the H-3 would “draft” off the C-130. To do this, the C-130 airplane would fly straight and level and the helicopter would tuck under the wing of the larger plane. That is, the body of the helicopter would be under the wing while the rotating blades of the helicopter would be above the wing. In this manner the down-wash of the helicopter blades would strike the wing of the C-130 which would provide an enhanced “ground effect” creating more lift and more speed for the helicopter while conserving fuel. Hard to believe, isn’t it? But, according to George, it worked even though it scared the heck out of a lot of the Raiders.
The final briefing was conducted at Takhli and the selected 56 Raiders boarded C-130 aircraft to take them to Udorn about 10:00pm on November 20. The trip was short and they quickly off-loaded the C-130’s and climbed aboard their assigned helicopters. At 11:18PM, the first helicopter launched and the mission was on its way.