MACVSOG Command History Annex B

Second book in the three volume series.

This books starts out with a brief history of the beginings of our presence in Vietnam albeit covertly. Once you get past that chapter you are now in the meat and potatoes of the book. There are allot of AAR's here in this volume dealing with the last period in SOG's history whereby Americans running recon across the fence was coming to a close. At least the American lead teams. There are many hints throughout the book where you are led to believe that the team(s) were ARVN lead but had a American or two within the team. You are also introduced to allot of new list of terms used in the closing days. For instance STD which stands for Strategic Technical Directorate is the presumed RVN counterpart to MACVSOG. Other interesting terms are: Soap Bubbles, Soap Flakes, Tar heels, Frantic Goat, Thot Not and NOFORN LIMDIS. Again, like the first volume on the early years, there are some deleted sections(ie., lines, paragraphs, and pages) however, the author doesn't make an attempt to fill in the "blanks" like he did in the first book. I would speculate that based upon what you have read in the first book, he (the author) believes you can fill in the blanks to a point. The AAR's are just downright interesting. They are not printed in this book the way I suppose you guys (AM, Toby, and others in SOG) typed them out back then with some exceptions, they seem to be compressed with only the facts of what was seen and done. No names like you would find in any of Plaster's material. Never-the-less the AAR's are very interesting. One AAR reads like this:

A STRATA (ARVN led) team in BA 351 observed four GMC type trucks moving east on Route 14 on the night of 12 January 1971. On the morning of the 15th, the team observed an estimated twenty personnel moving west on the road. The first three persons were estimated to be between 18-19 years old, female, all with blonde hair and fair complexions. They were followed by two boys 14-16 years of age who carried small rucksacks, but were unarmed. The females seemed to be under no duress of anykind and were willingly walking with the others. At the rear of the column were fifteen enemy pushing bicycles and armed with AK and SKS rifles. The team engaged the enemy resulting with four enemy KIA. The team never gave an expalnation as to what happened to the boys and females and why they opened up.

Here is where you will find out how well the ARVN led RT's and ST's did. It would seem that this book paints a picture of about a 60% failure rate for them actually accomplishing a mission and making it out with any viable intel. One exception to this rule was the teams comprised mostly of former "Chieu Hoi's" They demonstrated time and time again that they HAD the ability to not only merge with the NVA undetected but also complete the mission. In 1971 every AO began a name change. The cat was out of the bag by now and everybody wanted to know who they were, what were they doing, and how far we were going. For
example, CCN was now TF1AE, CCC was now TF2AE, and CCS was TF3AE. Also, operations in Cambodia were renamed from "SALEM HOUSE" to "THOT NOT". Laos went from "PRAIRIE FIRE" to "PHU DUNG". INDIG's were renamed SCU's. AO borders also changed to fit the current political wind. Also, the "Rules for Engagement" start to really change especially in Cambodia because of the changing tide.

This volume is a wealth of info on SOG's latter years and includes SOG's Table of Organization at the time and when it became STDAT. There are no pictures, just maps, and tables within 352 pages of interesting history.

Again, if you would like to become a "student" of SOG's history and its exploits, then I highly reccommend this book along with its two other companion volumes.

Next time I will discuss the third and final volume which deals mostly with SOG's psychological branch/black bag and it takes a look back at the "good old days".

[Roguish Lawyer]

Thanks, MAB. Sounds interesting. I am curious what the FOGs think, if anything, about the book.

By the way anybody want to take a guess as to the nationality of the blonde females?

I found out through another book what they may have been.