Son Tay raider recalls the hunt for POWs in North Vietnam 50 years

It was 50 years ago on 21 November that a special operations group raided the Son Tay prison compound in North Vietnam in an attempt to rescue some 61 prisoners of war.

A new documentary about the raid, “Kingpin: 27 minutes at Son Tay,” is in post-production and features interviews with some of the special operators who were there. See Trailer below. Terry L. Buckler was the youngest on the teams that that made up the almost 60 raiders selected for the mission. His book, “Who Will Go: Into the Son Tay POW Camp,” published earlier this month, details the raid and the events leading up to it. Buckler was a radio operator who went through Green Beret special operations training. He knew how to use a multitude of weaponry, handle explosives and jump out of airplanes, like the others in his cadre.



Months of training at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida at a mock-up compound build by the Central Intelligence Agency made the complex plan relatively easy to execute, Buckler told Military Times in a Friday phone call. Though the raiders weren’t able to rescue any American prisoners of war, the Viet Cong began treating its prisoners more humanely, likely because it didn’t want to suffer another covert raid, Buckler said.

The Raid

The C-130 was their mothership. It cruised slowly in front of six rescue helicopters in formation and carrying teams “Red Wine,” “Green Leaf” and “Blue Boy” just above the North Vietnamese canopy. It was a dangerous flight for the plane, but the airmen piloting it were skilled. Dip a bit too low and the plane would clip the tops of the trees. Reduce speed by 5 knots and the bird would stall. The air group had to stay together.

The plan was clear, and each team had its mission set. Blue Boy was to land inside the compound and eliminate any guards, then locate and release the prisoners. Green Leaf was the assault team. They were primarily charged with clearing guard buildings.

Red Wine was to pull security, locate and secure the communications building to prevent any potential reinforcements from Hanoi being called in.

In the dead of night, with no lights to guide them, no communications between aircraft, “Apple-1,” Green Leaf’s helicopter broke from formation early and mistakenly landed at a building which looked similar to that of Son Tay. “So, we were short 22 guys with some good firepower,” Buckler said.

This put the task of initial assault on Red Wine, Buckler’s team. When the group neared the target, their C-130 increased altitude and dropped flares, illuminating the compound. As the newly-designated assault element, the Red Wine helicopter’s minigun opened fire on the guard building. “When we got out, the structure was on fire,” Buckler said.

Once off the helicopter, his training kicked in. The helicopters flew off to safety about a mile away. "It was just like we were training back at Eglin, the only difference was that bullets were coming back at us,” Buckler said.

The team executed its mission, just as planned, until Buckler got a call over the radio. “Negative items” was code for no POWs at the compound. “It was a shock for us after three months of training,” Buckler said. “We hit a dry hole.”

About the time the call was transmitted, Apple-1 arrived and crashed inside the compound. Members of Green Leaf set explosives charges to destroy it, Buckler said. With the mission scrapped, the birds were called back in for extraction. “The lights of Hanoi looked like a major city in the States,” Buckler said. “It was amazing to me how big that city was.”

Just then, a surface to air missile zoomed past his helicopter, narrowly missing the aircraft. Overhead, an A-1E circled the group with orders to destroy anything that crossed a nearby bridge. “Having never seen one, it was pretty intense there for a few minutes,” he said. “It was actually scarier in the chopper than it was on the ground. As an Army guy, you can kind of roll around and hide but up there them flyboys are just sitting ducks.”

Documentary in the works

Over the weekend, the film crew will work with the Silent Warrior Association to film re-enactments of the training that led up to the Raid and a portion of the mission execution, Army veteran and documentary producer Dan Smith told Military Times in an email. The organization is holding a raider reunion, which will also feature day and night ranges with the weapons used during the raid, Smith said.

Smith and others are also working to turn the raiders’ stories into a podcast series. “In both projects we have been working directly with raiders, POWs, and other service members who supported the mission,” Smith said. “We began with the Son Tay Raider Association at the invitation of one of the raiders, Command Sgt. Maj. Pat St. Claire who I served with in Iraq and the Horn of Africa in 2003.”

The film still needs funding for completion, Smith said, and its producers have set up Paypal and Go Fund Me accounts for that effort.

Article from the Military Times

POW-MIA Chief to Push for Private-Group Aid to Find War Dead

The head of the Pentagon's new agency in charge of recovering and identifying remains of U.S. war dead said he will push for more partnering with private groups that have resources and interest to help reinvigorate a troubled POW-MIA accounting mission.

Michael Linnington, a recently retired three-star Army general and veteran of combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, took over the Defense POW-MIA Accounting Agency in late June and intends to complete its top-to-bottom reorganization by the end of the year. His agency was created by merging the two offices that had previously been in charge.

He has little experience in the MIA mission, but told The Associated Press last week that he knows its history is riddled with controversy as well as criticism from Congress and groups that advocate for families of the missing.

"I am aware of some of the reports on the dysfunction," he said, referring to 2013 reports of deep conflict among multiple agencies previously assigned to the accounting mission.

"Whenever you have disparate organizations all focused in the same area, there's going to be a natural tendency to step on each other," he said.

Linnington said he sees promise in partnering more extensively with private groups like History Flight, a Florida-based group that has worked with the Pentagon in discovering and recovering war remains abroad, including dozens of Marines killed in the World War II battle of Tarawa in the Pacific.

"There are lots of folks out there that want to help us," he said.

Linnington said he has a thick skin. If the history of his agency is any guide, he'll need it. In addition to periods of internal conflict, the POW-MIA agency has faced heavy criticism from veterans' organizations and MIA family advocacy groups.

"I don't mind criticism," he said. "I applaud criticism."

The POW-MIA accounting effort, while far more aggressive and extensive than similar undertakings by any other country, has suffered from many problems over many decades. Last July, the AP disclosed an internal Pentagon report that said the organization responsible for finding and recovering remains on foreign battlefields and identifying them at a Hawaii-based government laboratory was wasteful, acutely dysfunctional and often mismanaged.

Shortly after the AP report, the Government Accountability Office issued a report saying the MIA accounting effort was hampered by weak leadership, infighting and a fragmented approach to planning. The report recommended a more streamlined chain of command and other organizational changes, which are now being implemented.

Together the reports prompted calls in Congress to ensure that the government lives up to its pledge to account for as many MIAs as possible. Congress in 2009 set a legal requirement that the Pentagon identify at least 200 remains a year by 2015. It has not come close to that figure in recent years and almost certainly will not reach it this year, with only 34 accounted for so far, according to figures provided by the Pentagon.

One of the leading voices in Congress on this issue, Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., said she is reserving judgment on Linnington but is pleased that the Pentagon finally has a single agency in charge.

"I'm looking forward to meeting with (him) to hear how he intends to address some of the ongoing challenges at the agency and will continue to hold the Pentagon's feet to the fire until we start seeing real results," McCaskill said in an emailed statement to the AP.

Once he builds what he thinks can be an effective, single chain of command, Linnington said the results will be quickly apparent.

"We will have a much greater ability this year, next year, the year after, to increase" the number of remains identified and returned to families, he said.

Despite his thin experience with the MIA accounting mission, Linnington said his experience as a combat commander has prepared him for the kind of commitment it takes. He cited the soldier's pledge to never leave a fallen comrade.

"That's the background that brings me to this mission," he said.

Article from Associated Press