[55] The South Vietnamese General Staff, strapped for cash and equipment in the final stand-down period, never used the STD in a strategic reconnaissance role. Similar operations had originally been under the purview of the CIA, which had carried out the emplacement of agent teams in North Vietnam using airdrops and over-the-beach insertions. Download the Shining Brass, Book 2 Part for Bb Tuba; Audio downloads. Further, in conjunction with planning cross-border missions, Larry Thorne flew as the observer for many intelligence gathering reconnaissance In May, Operation Freedom Deal, a continuous aerial campaign against the PAVN/Viet Cong and the Khmer Rouge was initiated. 230, 236, MACV Command History 1971–72, Annex B, p. 337, MACV Command History 1971–72, Annex B, p. 11, MACV Command History 1971–72, Annex B, pp. Neil Sheehan, Pentagon Papers reporter, Vietnam author, dies Intelligence for the campaign was supplied by both the recon teams of MACV-SOG and by the strings of air-dropped electronic sensors of Operation Igloo White (the successor to Muscle Shoals), controlled from Nakhon Phanom. SOG also broadcast "Radio Red Flag," programming purportedly directed by a group of dissident communist military officers also within the north. 1969 saw the apogee of the bombing campaign, when 433,000 tons of bombs were dropped on Laos. Nixon had escalated U.S. involvement in Cambodia by authorizing the secret Operation Menu bombings and by the time of Sihanouk's ouster, the program had been in operation for 14 months. [36], The teams were ferried into action by RVNAF H-34 Kingbees of the 219th Helicopter Squadron and assorted U.S. Army aviation units in the Prairie Fire area, and by the USAF helicopters of the 20th SOS in the Salem House area. This second reported attack led President Lyndon B. Johnson to launch Operation Pierce Arrow, an aerial attack against North Vietnamese targets on 5 August. North Vietnamese security forces simply captured a team, turned its radio operator, and continued to broadcast as though nothing had happened. The CIA had been loath to conduct such operations in the north, since similar operations in the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, and the PRC had been abject failures and North Vietnam was considered an even tougher target to penetrate.[30][31]. On the afternoon of 2 August, three P 4-class torpedo boats of the Vietnam People's Navy came out from Hon Me and attacked the Maddox. Operations into Laos commenced in September 1965 as part of Operation SHINING BRASS, renamed PRAIRIE FIRE in 1968. The following afternoon, the destroyer USS Maddox began an electronic intelligence-gathering mission along the coast of North Vietnam, in the Gulf of Tonkin. This was the origin of STRATA, the all-Vietnamese Short Term Roadwatch and Target Acquisition teams. Since the use of exploitation forces was forbidden in Cambodia, these troops were utilized in securing launch sites, providing installation security, and conducting in-country missions. In Laos, the North Vietnamese cleared their logistical corridor to the west for security reasons and increased their aid and support for the Pathet Lao. Unknown was the extent of that use. [4]b At this point the mission of the Special Forces was the conduct of guerrilla operations behind enemy lines in the event of an invasion by conventional forces, not in the conduct of agent, maritime, or psychological operations. Regardless, MACV-SOG began a series of operations that would continue to grow in size and scope over the next eight years. Shining Brass… MACV, through the Seventh Air Force, had begun carryi… Shining Brass… [12] MACV had sought authority for the launching of such missions (Operation Shining Brass) since 1964 in an attempt to put boots on the ground in a reconnaissance role to observe, first hand, the enemy logistical system known as the Ho Chi Minh Trail (the Truong Son Road to the North Vietnamese). On 21 September 1965 the Pentagon authorized MACSOG to begin cross-border operations within Laos in areas contiguous to the South Vietnam's western border. No matter the team's primary mission, capturing enemy soldiers always remained the team's secondary mission when the opportunity presented itself due to valuable intelligence gained related to PAVN troop movements, size, and base locations. Further information on the origins of the Southeast Asian conflict: Further information on the communist logistical system in Laos: Further information on the communist logistical system in Cambodia: Further information on the struggle in I Corps: Further information on the NVA/VC offensive: Further information on the aerial interdiction effort in southeastern Laos: Further information on the electronic sensor system: Further information on the conflict in Cambodia: Further information on the conflict in Laos: Further information on the U.S./ARVN incursion: Further information on the ARVN incursion in Laos: Further information on the PAVN offensive of 1972: Further information on the U.S. aerial campaign: Further information on the U.S. aerial offensive of December 1972: Further information on the final NVA offensive of 1975: harvnb error: no target: CITEREFPlaster1997 (. Operation Shining Brass: 230: A series of cross-border reconnaissance and intelligence operations conducted by mixed Special Forces and Montagnard teams to counter PAVN infiltration through Laos into South Vietnam, perform bomb damage assessment, and control airstrikes. The U.S. was involved for the opposite reason. This was the first time SOG vessels had attacked North Vietnamese shore facilities by shelling them from the sea. [56] More specific was the release of documents dealing with the early days of the operation in the Pentagon Papers and by the testimony of ex-SOG personnel during congressional investigations into the bombing campaigns in Laos and Cambodia in the early 1970s. and advice to the STD. U.S. Senate, Records of Senate Subcommittee on POW/MIA Affairs. first Shining Brass mission was that "they were looking for a crashed US Air Force C-123 cargo aircraft that was lost near the South Vietnamese/Lao border." I first reported on the anti-brass shining stance of the National Park Service after Memorial Day 2009. After a slow initial start, the first agent team was recovered from the north. The Studies and Observation Group (as the unit was initially titled) was in fact controlled by the Special Assistant for Counterinsurgency and Special Activities (SACSA) and his staff at the Pentagon.a This arrangement was necessary since SOG needed some listing in the MACV table of organization and the fact that MACV's commander, General William Westmoreland, had no authority to conduct operations outside territorial South Vietnam. In the end, it was running one of the most successful counterintelligence operations of the post-Second World War period. The cessation of the bombing of the north also freed the North Vietnamese to reinforce their anti-aircraft defenses of the trail system and aircraft losses rose proportionately. About SOG; SOG Chiefs. [46] Unlike the Cambodian incursion, however, the North Vietnamese stood and fought, gradually mustering 60,000 troops. The second incident, in which Maddox and Turner Joy were claimed to be attacked, never took place. The 1988 book won the Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction. In addition to VIETNAM JOURNAL, Lomax contributed stories to TWO-FISTED TALES, created the mini-series HIGH SHINING BRASS about covert operations in Vietnam, and was also the the writer for 'THE NAM and THE PUNISHER for Marvel Comics. Colonel Clyde Russell (SOG's first commander) had difficulty in creating an organization with which to fulfill his mission since, at the time, United States Special Forces were unprepared either doctrinally or organizationally to carry it out. It was also continuously tasked by the JCS with maintaining forces in readiness to once again take up northern operations if called upon to do so. Since the enemy had to come out from his cover and launched conventional operations, the U.S. and South Vietnam lost no opportunity in engaging them. Missions into North Vietnam were initiated as early as I February 1964 under Operation Plan 34A. Others, however, laid more of the blame on the operational ineptitude of SOG, which simply continued to repeat a failed formula. Under pressure from Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara, the program, along with all other agency para-military operations, was turned over to the military in the wake of the disastrous Bay of Pigs Invasion operation in Cuba.[3]. Operation SHINING BRASS. Vietnam Journal collections were published by … The 1988 book won the … Thorne’s last action occurred on Oct. 18, 1965, during the secret Operation Shining Brass in Laos. The conundrum was what would happen had the program succeeded. During the year, 454 reconnaissance operations were conducted in Cambodia. The unit's naval arm picked up northern fishermen during searches of coastal vessels and detained them on Cu Lao Cham Island off Da Nang, South Vietnam (the fishermen were told that they were, in fact, still within their homeland). Both stations were equally adamant in their condemnations of the PRC, the South and North Vietnamese regimes, and the U.S. and called for a return to traditional Vietnamese values. By 1970, they had created a layered and effective system, and SOG recon teams found their time on the ground both shortened and more dangerous. The unit would eventually consist primarily of personnel from the United States Army Special Forces, the United States Navy SEALs, the United States Air Force (USAF), the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and elements of the United States Marine Corps Force Reconnaissance units. 216, 300, & 383, USMACV Strategic Technical Directorate Assistance Team – 158 Command History, 1 May 1972 – March 1973, pp. By 1971 the U.S. was steadily withdrawing from Southeast Asia. Shining Brass was renamed Prairie Fire in 1968 and finally Phu Dung on 8 April 1971 Thorne’s last action occurred on Oct. 18, 1965, during the secret Operation Shining Brass in Laos. This was made possible by the close-out of Rolling Thunder, which freed up hundreds of aircraft for interdiction missions. For most of the year MACV-SOG's operations centered around in-country missions in support of field forces. Every effort would be expended to retrieve the teams when their missions were accomplished. When helicopter operations were finally authorized for Daniel Boone, they were provided by the dedicated support of the Huey gunships and transports of the U.S. Air Force's 20th SOS (callsign Green Hornets). They originally consisted of 244 U.S. and 780 indigenous personnel each, but they were quickly drawn down by the elimination of the exploitation forces. List of allied military operations of the Vietnam War (1966), https://www.1rar.org.au/vietnam-1965-66/173rd-airborne/, "Combat Operations After Action Report Operation Bloodhound/Bushmaster II", Information About Records Relating to the Vietnam War Operations Analysis (OPSANAL) System, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_allied_military_operations_of_the_Vietnam_War_(1965)&oldid=997766110, Military operations involving the United States, Battles and operations of the Vietnam War in 1965, United States Marine Corps in the Vietnam War, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, Combined U.S. Navy and South Vietnamese Navy effort to stop the flow of supplies from North Vietnam into South Vietnam, U.S. 2nd Air Division aerial interdiction effort targeted against the infiltration of NVA men and material moving south from North Vietnam, A series of cross-border reconnaissance and intelligence operations conducted by mixed Special Forces and, U.S. 2nd Air Division operation to interdict the, U.S. riverine patrol operation to deny Viet Cong access to the resources in the, This page was last edited on 2 January 2021, at 03:34. 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