I, in some respects, was lucky (maybe unlucky) enough to live through and be part of the two most transformative and turbulent decades in American history since the Civil War. The 1960s and 1970s. Initially, there were the civil rights, women’s, and racial rights and justice of the 60s. I kind of knew what was going on, but I was a little affected by all the noise from the college campuses. We didn’t think much of college kids in my group. They were privileged wimps. Officers were either ROTC, West Point, or OCS. OCS was the only one given full respect by enlisted soldiers because they came up from the ranks. When I entered the Army (before the draft) there were no women, except in separate units of the Women’s Army Corps (WACs), and very few black and brown soldiers. Most of the military forts are in the south, so I experienced separate restrooms, drinking fountains, bus waiting areas, etc. There were very few black or brown soldiers in Special Forces. It was a prevalent belief that they were neither smart enough to get through the training nor brave enough to be successful in combat. Of course, that changed quickly when the Vietnam War began officially in the mid-60s. That war was another defining event of those decades. The U.S. officially entered the war in 1964 when the draft started. I would get into the deceptive reasons for the war, but it would distract from my story. Before 1964, beginning in 1960, the U.S. “supported” the South Vietnamese army’s fight against a communist North Vietnam takeover. It was told to the American people that we were just supplying “advisors” and “trainers” to the South Vietnamese army. And, of course, we did, but unbeknownst to the American people, special U.S. operating teams were also performing clandestine, counter-guerrilla, insurgency, counterinsurgency, and rescue operations in South and North Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. Even today, the United States government denies any knowledge that such operations were being conducted. I know they were because I was there. I was a member of teams that spent almost four years fighting a phantom, clandestine war under the direction of the Studies and Observation Group (SOG). Most know it as the Military Assistance Command Vietnam-Studies and Observation Group (MACV-SOG). Few know that before 1964, it was under the control of the CIA, which directed most, if not all, of the secret special operations missions. Many of my comrades were killed fighting a war that didn’t exist. No Purple Hearts or awards for valor were awarded because we and the fighting didn’t exist. No entries on military records were made. What we did was ghost-like in many ways. I was lucky to have received a few non-serious wounds that were readily treated. Then in 1964, we entered the war. Thousands of young men, average age of 19, from lower and middle class families (those in college or with money and political connections were excluded from “Selective Service”), some volunteers but most drafted, and many black and brown people were sent to a very different area of the world. They went alone, not as part of a unit that had worked and trained together, but as a lone kid. They had little idea of what to expect. One day they were standing in line in modern airport kissing their loved ones goodbye and a very few days later they standing in a dense jungle soaking wet from sweat in 120-dgree heat carrying eighty pounds of weapons, ammunitions, C-Rations, canteens of water, first-aid kits, poncho, changes of socks, mosquito repellent, cigarettes, maybe a Claymore mine or two, and a picture of the girl back home. 58,300+ Americans and 250,000 South Vietnamese military members were killed fighting for lies perpetrated by the U.S. government and revealed by the Pentagon Papers.
