Vietnam offers unprecedented support to US POW/MIA recovery issues

President Donald J. Trump recently scored a major political accomplishment in Vietnam regarding on-going POW/MIA efforts in Southeast Asia (SEA) stemming from the Vietnam War that the mass media and many Vietnam veterans organizations are apparently ignoring. After remaining reticent for nearly a year on the topic of finding, identifying and returning to America the […]

A hot SOG Christmas Day in Laos

Christmas Day, 1968 was just another day for MACV-SOG Spike Team Idaho. Early that morning ST Idaho was loaded onto Kingbees and flown to the Quang Tri launch site. That day’s target was one of the MA targets west of the DMZ in Laos, along the river that ran through the DMZ. In the briefing […]

The Haunting Begins: Rescue mission with James Shorten

[Editor’s Note: This is the sixth in a series of exclusive SOFREP stories of what led to the MACV-SOG Bright Light mission that haunts SOG Green Beret SSG James H. Shorten (Jones) to this day. It has taken him back to Cambodia twice and he hopes to return to Cambodia in 2018 to help DPAA […]

Exfil under fire: Rescue mission with James Shorten

  [Editor’s Note: This is the fifth in a series of exclusive SOFREP stories of what led to the MACV-SOG Bright Light mission that haunts SOG Green Beret SSG James H. Shorten (Jones) to this day. It has taken him back to Cambodia twice and he hopes to return to Cambodia in 2018 to help […]

Live or die in Cambodia: Rescue mission with James Shorten

[Editor’s Note: This is the fourth in a series of exclusive SOFREP stories of what led to the MACV-SOG Bright Light mission that haunts SOG Green Beret SSG James H. Shorten (Jones) to this day. It has taken him back to Cambodia twice and he hopes to return to Cambodia in 2018 to help DPAA […]

So close, yet so far: Rescue mission with James Shorten

[Editor’s Note: This is the third in a series of exclusive SOFREP stories of what led to the MACV-SOG Bright Light mission that haunts SOG Green Beret SSG James H. Shorten (Jones) to this day. It has taken him back to Cambodia twice and he hopes to return to Cambodia in 2018 to help DPAA […]

Into Cambodia: Rescue mission with James Shorten

[Editor’s Note: This is the second in a series of exclusive SOFREP stories of what led to the MACV-SOG Bright Light mission that haunts SOG Green Beret SSG James H. Shorten (Jones) to this day. It has taken him back to Cambodia and he hopes to return to there in 2018 to help DPAA officials […]

Across the Fence: Rescue mission with James Shorten

[Editor’s Note: In the eight-year secret war fought by Green Berets during the Vietnam War across the fence in Laos, Cambodia and North Vietnam from 1964-1972 under the aegis of the Military Assistance Command Vietnam – Studies and Observations Group (SOG), no mission was more dangerous than a Bright Light Mission. Heavily-armed SOG recon teams were sent in to […]

Colonel Wesley Fox: For Corps and Country

Over these past several weeks we have lost several very popular figures, like David Cassidy (one of the Partridge Family for those youngsters out there) and recently, Rance Howard, father of Ron and Clint Howard, and an actor in his own right (see “Apollo 13,” “A Beautiful Mind” and so on). However, we have lost […]

Think like a Green Beret: Be subtle

During a firefight near the Cambodian border on June 6, 1968, a 1st Infantry Division soldier got a pleasant surprise as he watched a North Vietnamese Army infantryman aim his rifle, pull the trigger and explode in a cloud of black smoke. American troops later examined the remains of the NVA soldier and his exploded […]

Lt. James Fleming, Awarded Medal of Honor November 26, 1968

US Air Force pilot Lt. James Fleming, assigned to the 20th Special Operations Squadron in Vietnam was awarded the Medal of Honor for risking his life and his aircraft above and beyond the call of duty to rescue the lives of seven Green Berets on November 26, 1968. The seven-man Green Beret unit was conducting […]