Chapter 2
(The Story Continues)

After completing the Special Forces Basic Training Course we
were all moved into Operational Groups. I was assigned to the
6th Special Forces Group. We were trained in the basic skills,
but now would start advanced training with our assigned teams.
Since each of us were instructors we would train the other team
members in our areas of expertise. We'd also get specialized
training in many other areas of interest. Every day in Special
Forces life is training or preparing for a mission.

It was during this time we had another addition to the family.
Julie decided to make an appearance. The family was now complete
with two boys and two girls.

In 1966 Viet Nam was going strong. I knew that to advance I'd
need more combat time. There was an Engineer Detachment being
formed within the 6th Special Forces Group for duty in Viet
Nam. I volunteered to join the detachment, and was accepted.
Our first order of business was to learn the Vietnamese
Language. We spent 6 weeks taking a condensed language course.
We learned a lot, but it was mostly "high" Vietnamese. There's
so many different dialects over there what we'd learned was
mostly a waste of time. We did a lot of training in other areas
to include a trip to Detroit to learn well drilling. In the
well drilling course we used a Rotary Driller, and learned the
basics. We then put that knowledge into play by building a
portable drilling rig using 3/4 inch steel pipe, a water hose, a
water pump and some fittings. Running high pressure through the
pipe we could punch a hole into the ground in short order. By
adding 10 foot sections of steel pipe as we went down we could
go as deep as we needed to.

By July 1967 we were ready to go. Everyone was given a 30 day
leave to get our families settled, and told to report to
Oakland, California on a certain day. I took Lola and the kids
to her parents in Oregon. We got her an apartment close to
them, and I bought her a nice car. When the day arrived for me
to go, it was the hardest day of my life. Several soldiers we
knew and a few of our friends were killed in Viet Nam. We all
knew there was a chance I wouldn't be coming home. We didn't
mention it to each other, but the fears were there. However, we
all kept a stiff upper lip, and I was on my way. Since we were
going over as a unit we were put on a Navy Troop Ship along with
some other units. The first leg of our trip was 18 days and
nights to Okinawa. During that 18 days we saw every kind of
weather you could dream of from warm calm seas to near blizzard
conditions with 50 foot waves. During this trip I saw things I
would never have believed until I saw them myself. I guess the
flying fish were about the most spectacular. They'd come out of
the water near the ship and fly several hundred yards before
going back into the water.

We arrived at White Beach in Okinawa in mid afternoon. We were
ready for a break, and wanted to soak up a few suds at a local
bar. A few of us didn't get the chance. Since all 30 of us
Special Forces were Officers and Non-commissioned Officers they
decided to make us the Courtesy Patrol to keep the younger
troops out of trouble, and get them back to the ship by morning.
Baby sitting 1500 youngsters was a job, but we made it with a
little help from the Military Police stationed there and the
local Japanese Police.

We moved out mid-morning for our last leg of the trip, and
arrived off the coast of Viet Nam 4 days later. We spent that
first night sitting on the ship deck about 4 miles out to sea
watching the beautiful fireworks. We could see for miles both
up and down the coast, and saw many aircraft shelling different
locations. It was a bit frightening knowing we were going
ashore the next day. Needless to say the Navy had high security
around our ship that night.

We went ashore early the next morning. We were in the northern
part of South Viet Nam. They had a C-130 airplane waiting to
take the 30 of us to our headquarters in Nha Trang which was
located on the coast near the center of the country. The next
couple days was spent getting us orientated and processed in.
We were then split up and sent to several locations throughout
the country. The location I got was back in the northern part
of the country. It was an outpost several miles into the jungle
where a Special Forces A-Team had a camp.

The Special forces A-Team is the people that gets the job done.
They consist of 2 Commissioned Officers (a captain and a 1st
lieutenant), and 10 NCOs. There's a junior and a senior for
each position. The Team Sergeant and Intelligence Sergeant are
both trained in Operations and Intelligence. They have two
communications specialists, two weapons specialists, two combat
engineers and two specially trained medics. Each member is
trained in their own field and cross trained into each of the
other fields. The A-Team camps in Viet Nam were designed
usually on a hill or high ground. The Team house was the only
building above ground, and it sat over the communications
bunker. All living and sleeping quarters were underground. The
camp was designed in a circle with bunkers and concertina wire
around the perimeter. Tangle foot wire and mines were placed
all around the camp. The mines were electrically charged with
the control board located inside the communications bunker.
Along with the U.S. Special Forces Team there was a Vietnamese
Special Forces Team designed like the U.S. Team. They had their
own location within the camp, and didn't interfere with our
operations. We had 2 companies (about a hundred) local
Montagnard fighters trained in special warfare to provide
security and go on operations. To explain what a Montagnard is
it's best to think about America's early days. They are tribal
members somewhat like our early American Indians. They live in
conditions much the same way, and have their own tribal
leaders. Just like our own Indians, they have several different
tribes. Most of them liked the Americans, but hated the regular
Vietnamese. The Vietnamese considered them a very low class of
people, but they were the best fighters available.

My first day in camp I was introduced to the other team members,
and taken on a tour of the camp. I was briefed on my fighting
position to take in case of an attack. I was assigned as
assistant gunner on an 81 MM Mortar position. The evening was
quite so about 10 P.M. we headed for our private bunkers to get
some sleep. About 2 A.M. I got a rude awakening. I had never
heard so much firing even during any training I had gone
through. I hit the deck running, and made it to my Mortar
position. My gunner was dropping rounds down the tube as fast
as he could. There was several flares in the air at all times
making it seem like daylight. Tracer bullets were going
everywhere, and several Mortar tubes were pumping out the big
explosives. After what seemed like hours the all clear was
given. By the time my nerves had calmed down enough to
communicate, they told me it was just a live fire alert. It
seems the camp commander (our captain) wanted to initiate me to
the team. (He's probably still laughing about the fear he put
into me).

I stayed at that camp about 30 days. I was then told I was
needed at another location. One of the Special Projects Teams
were going to relocate, and we needed to build them a camp.
This was a Top Secret organization known only by the name Omega
Project. Six of us arrived at an abandoned air field. There
were no other Americans within miles, and it was a lonely
feeling being there with no security other than our own
weapons. We had no problems though, and did our assessment of
what we needed. Since I was an Engineer Equipment Mechanic my
job was to request the heavy equipment I'd need, and operate the
machines doing all the ground work. We set up a large temporary
camp near where the permanent camp would be. We put up about 10
large tents. Eight of them were for personnel, one for a mess
hall and one for a club. The club tent was our watering hole,
and we stocked and used it a lot. We built bunkers by each tent
so we'd have a place to go in case of an attack. A large Mike
Force of about 150 Montagnard fighters was brought in. Their
job was to keep us safe while we worked, and patrol the
surrounding area. Team members started arriving, and it wasn't
long before we were fully functional. We still had a camp to
build, but it was second to the mission of the Omega Project.
Since the bad guys knew a little about our people, they had
placed a bounty on our members. When we were away from the
camp we'd have a couple body guards with us, and they were all
business. My two were small, but they were vicious when the
need came about.

Since it's no longer Top Secret I guess now's a good time to
tell what the Omega Project was all about. The teams were made
up of two Americans and four highly trained Montagnards. These
Montagnards were very well screened, and could only join the
team if they had a severe grudge against the North Vietnamese
and Viet Cong. This was usually a result of some of their close
family members having been killed by them. The mission was not
to engage with the enemy, but to observe and report. The teams
were infiltrated into Cambodia, and observed close hand what the
enemy was doing, and their movements. Had it been known we were
going into another nation the politicians would have screamed
around the world. These teams are the ones that located the
pockets of North Vietnamese troops President Nixon sent ground
forces into Cambodia to clean out. It was very dangerous work
for six people to lay in the weeds beside a trail watching as
large groups of those that would kill them pass only a few feet
away. Some times you'd think they could surely hear your heart
beat.

This type work earned Special Forces one of their most famous
nicknames. Around the Military community they're often referred
to as "Sneaky Petes". The logic around this type training is so
simple very few would ever think of it. If you're well
camouflaged the eye will not focus on you well. Movement and
sound will give you away. If you must move do it with out
disturbing anything around you, and don't make any noise. It
may take you an hour to move a few feet, but the object is to
get there. If they're not expecting anyone to be there they're
not as observant.

Infiltrating into an area was also a work of art. Omega Project
had six Air Force helicopters dedicated to our mission. Four of
the choppers were gun ships and two were "slicks". The slicks
had teeth too, but they were only armed with .30 caliber machine
guns. The gun ships had what we called Mini-guns. Those ships
were loaded to the max with ammunition. Each gun had six
revolving barrels and they could fire seven thousand rounds per
minute. With four ships firing at once you had 28,000 bullets
hitting the ground each minute. That could easily ruin a
person's day if they were the target. When we'd infiltrate we'd
get on the first slick chopper. All the other ships would fly
in line behind each other with all doors closed. We'd fly a
pattern around and over the target area just above the tree
tops. When we'd get to the place we wanted to go in our chopper
would drop down, drop us off, close the doors and come up in the
rear of the line. That way unless we dropped right into their
laps they never knew where we dropped off.

We had also practiced drills to get out of trouble if we came
face to face with the enemy. The one most often used was
simple, but very effective. Before I explain the way it worked
I have to tell you about our equipment. We had nothing on us to
show we were American. We each carried a small pack, a canteen,
ammunition and an AK-47 rifle. The American M-16 rifle has a
sound unlike any other. We carried the same rifle the enemy
carried so ours wouldn't sound any different than theirs. Our
team traveled through the jungle in trail (one behind the
other). The point man was always one of the locals followed by
an American. The next three were locals followed by an American
tail gunner. We kept a distance of about 10 feet between each
of us. The American in the rear had a claymore mine strapped to
his back pack. The mine had a thirty second fuse attached with
a fuse lighter ready to pop. If the point man made contact his
first reaction would be to fire off his thirty round magazine of
ammunition on fully automatic spraying the area. As he was
doing this each of us would step aside. When his magazine was
empty he'd come back between us while the second man did the
same thing. As each of the five did this the rear man would set
the Claymore mine pointed towards the enemy and pop the fuse
igniter. We'd then dog-leg either to the right or left, and get
out of the area. Within a few seconds of our leaving the
Claymore loaded with plastic C-4 explosive would send 600 BB
size pellets raining through the area.

Our teams had no lacking of support. If one of the teams got
into trouble they had anything available from B-52 bombers on
down to the little single engine "Birddog" FAC planes. The
quickest responses usually came from the Air Force fast movers.
We did have another Air Force plane that was my favorite. It
was called Super Spook. It was a C-130 four engine plane with
four Mini Guns and several 40 MM Canons. It could lay down fire
covering a space the size of a football field with a 7.62 MM
bullet every 2 feet and a 40 MM high explosive round every 4
feet in seven seconds. There was another C-130 plane
called "The Blackbird" that was High Tech. He could come in
too high to be noticed on the ground and using heat seeking radar
spot each of us and count the enemy. He also had a small black
box he could drop to give us some cover. When it hit the ground
the most fierce firefight you ever heard would start up to the
rear of the enemy. This was good to pull them away from us most
of the time. The black box was nothing more than a high tech
tape recorder with a loud speaker. When the tape finished the
box would destroy itself.