U.S. Army Special Forces:

The Special Forces had been in Vietnam since the early 1960s, following other observing, and Secret Operators, like the Office of Strategic Service, Military Assistance Advisory Group, and other intelligence operations, had reconnoitered and evaluated the South Vietnamese Forces, which they deemed not strong enough, didn’t trust their government, or ours, nor in large want to have anything to do fighting a war, since the demise of the French, and likely a quagmire would ensue, so they were then ordered to start training all indigenous forces to support the ARVN and US / Allied Forces. The government did not follow through with the advice, other powers, calling the shots.

It was John F. Kennedy who sent the very first large force of U.S. military personnel to support the ineffectual autocratic regime of South Vietnam in their fight with communist Viet-Minh North. Three years later, the South Vietnamese government was failing, and, with JFK having been murdered in November 1963, the newly sworn-in President, Lyndon B. Johnson, ordered limited bombing raids on North Vietnam, Congress had authorized the use of U.S. troops in the Republic of Vietnam.

By 1965, North Vietnamese offensives left President Johnson with two choices: To either escalate U.S. involvement or withdraw and pull out. As we know LBJ ordered to send in American forces, and the troop levels soon some 300,000 troops were in the country, and U.S. Air Forces commenced the largest bombing campaign in history.

A prerequisite was to be an NCO just to sit in on the evaluations, but exceptions were made due to necessity, and a person’s training, or expertise in a certain field. There would be some very interesting individuals who became a part of this institution, and some moved on to very high positions in the Army. They would come from all over to go through the courses, and those that got all the way through became proficient in specific talents such as signals, medical, shooting, training indigenous peoples, etc. Were then cross-trained in many different curricula, and went on to do amazing things. Some of it is still classified though long after the event and therefore has gone unrecognized for it.

Fort-Bragg, NC. 1962-64 Sergeant First Class, Berry Sadler:

I lost the story for Berry, I’ll get it back in here at some point in the near future.

Sergeant First Class   5th Special Forces Group (Airborne) Ft. Bragg, North Carolina 1962 –1964:

Special Forces, also known as Green Berets, trace their heritage back to the Office of Strategic Services, or OSS of World War II fame.  The OSS was a para-military intelligence service that operated behind enemy lines in both the European and Pacific theaters, conducting reconnaissance, sabotage, and other clandestine activities directed against the Nazi and Imperial Japanese forces.  Members of the OSS went on to serve in both the CIA and Special Forces.

Special Forces were formally established in 1952 by the indomitable Colonel Aaron Bank, himself an OSS legend, who had parachuted into Nazi-occupied France, eventually formulating a plan to capture Hitler if he had tried to flee from Berlin.  Located on Smoke Bomb Hill in Ft. Bragg, North Carolina, the Special Forces began recruiting.  They had their pick of the best America had to offer battle-hardened paratroopers, former OSS men, and other veterans of World War II and the Korean War.  The wearing of the distinctive green beret by Special Forces soldiers was controversial amongst Army leadership until General Yarborough cleared it up for us in 1961.

US Special Forces came into their own, proving themselves in the jungles, villages, and cities of Southeast Asia, especially in Vietnam.  As the Vietnam War escalated, Special Forces soldiers carried out their primary duty as military instructors, coaching and mentoring South Vietnamese forces as they fought against the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army.  Special Forces worked with South Vietnamese, Chinese Nhung mercenaries, and the Montagnards, some of whom were fresh out of their jungle villages.  These tribal peoples turned in their loincloths for military boots and uniforms, their Green Beret mentors molding them into an effective fighting force.

Like many of the Special Forces this Master Sergeant Mustard has served in combat before, he wears Parachutist Wings as well as the Combat Infantry Badge.  He wears spit-shined Corcoran jump boots with starched fatigues as he prepares younger Green Berets for combat.

Staff Sergeant, Special Forces, RVN:

This is another variation of the uniforms seen in Vietnam, a later example, but he just hasn’t been able to ditch his bright SF shoulder pace, Hell bent on leather, he may have been looking forward to the assignment still, hearing all kinds of horror stories, and training hard to be sharp, so he can maybe make a difference. There is unfortunately no real story here, his story is lost in the annals of military history in some small notes. But he represents one of the all-volunteers Special Forces People, who took the challenge and went to do a Tour in Vietnam, to help the South Vietnamese and help train the people living in small hamlets throughout the region, to help them fight the Communists and gain intelligence, through operations working with the various local indigenous peoples there. This one is dedicated to all the lost servicemen and women in the Vietnam Conflict and all the souls who lost their lives during that time we call the Vietnam War, and to the POW/MIAs still over there and have never been able to be re-acquainted with their homeland.

Special Forces, Vogel Leutnant:

The following uniforms are all of the later / Subdued Format of the Vietnam War era. In the very late 1960s the ERDL camouflage pattern had become an issue item, prior to that camouflage was not issuer-but it was acquired in its various available form, the “Tiger-Stripes” pattern being the most famous, and most common, even more popular, but they used what they could get when they needed them. but this was the standard “Fatigue” style being used. Camouflage uniforms were generally completely sterol of insignia prior to 1969. The 5th SP Beret Flash a Black shield (During Vietnam the RVN flag was added to the background) carried over for years of use “State Side” for many years and even was re-issued for use once or twice.

‘Lauri Törni’ (Thorne) 1Bn. 10SP. Group, Bad Tolz, Germany:

Special Forces trace their roots back as the primary proponent of unconventional warfare from purpose-formed special operations units like the Alamo-Scouts, the Philippine Commandos, the first special service force, and the operational groups (OGs) of the Office of Strategic Services. Although the OSS was not an Army Organization, many Army and military personnel were assigned to it and later used their influences to form up the ‘Special Forces’.

During the Korean War individuals such as former Philippine guerilla commanders, Colonel Wendell Fertig and Lieutenant Colonel Russel W. Volckmann used their wartime experience to formulate the doctrine of unconventional warfare that became the cornerstone of the Special Forces. In 1951, Major General Robert A. McClure chose former OSS member Colonel Aaron Bank as Operations Branch Chief of the Special Operation Division of the Psychological Warfare Staff (OCPW) of the Pentagon.

In June 1952, the 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne) was formed under Colonel Aaron's bank soon after the establishment of the Physiological Warfare School, which ultimately became the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School. By the end of June 1952, the 10th Special Forces had 122 officers and men assigned to it. Many, prior OSS people, Rangers, and Airborne trained individuals who had served in WWII. The group’s mission was to conduct partisan-like warfare behind Soviet lines. in the event, the Cold War went ‘Hot’ and the Soviets began an invasion of Europe, they could respond with clandestine operations within their safe areas. (Thank God this never came to that). But 10 November 1953, the ‘10th Special Forces Group A” SFG(A) was split in half, with half of them going to Bad Tolz, West Germany, and the other half remaining at Fort Bragg to become the 77th Special Forces Group.

With the Cold War heating up in Europe it was originally planned that half of the members of the Special Forces there would be ‘Native Europeans’. In 1950, the Lodge Act was passed providing the recruiting of initially 2,500 foreign nationals into the United States Military, where they would exchange service in the military for citizenship. Many of the initial members of the 10th SFG(A) were Lodge recruits, who were serious ‘Anti-Communist’, among one of the more notable accepted of these men, was Lauri Allan Torni (Larry Thorne), a former Finnish Army Soldier, who was drawn into the Germans Waffen-SS, He had won both the Mannerheim Medal and the Iron Cross in World War Two. Thorne was later decorated by the U.S. Army, after getting killed during his deployment to the Republic of Vietnam. There is no way to put his interesting story in here, but the uniform depicts him.

SF. Mike Force, IV Corps, A-503 Nah Trang, Mekong Delta, RSVN:

The Mobile Strike Force Command, or MIKE Force, was a key component of U.S. Army Special Forces operations in Vietnam. They served with the indigenous soldiers selected and trained through the large minority, ‘non-Vietnamese, Civilian Irregular Defence Group (GIDG) composed of the persecuted Degar, Bahnar, Hmong, Nung, Jarai, Khmer Krom, and, the Montagnards peoples. MIKE FORCE was active under Military Advisory Command Vietnam of the Army Special Forces, from 1964 to 1970.

Mike Forces Mission was to act as a country-wide fast reaction force, for securing sites, reinforcing, and re-capturing CIDC A-CAMPS, as well as conduct special reconnaissance patrols, search and rescue, and search and destroy missions.

IV Corps was the Southernmost of the 4 sections of Soth Vietnam and that’s where Detachment-503’s Camp was located, at Nha Trang in the Mekong Delta. Captain Rust wears a Saigon tailormade custom uniform variation, for use while training his group of people, he’s got a custom cover for his helmet, again for training but he preferred the beret, he had matching trousers bloused into his jump boots. They usually lived off the land and traveled lightly often just the web belt and holster, or with the web straps, and magazine pouches.

The area of operations was huge, with many waterways that were being used for infiltration, so the CIDG used Air Boats and rubber boats and, the like was often used by these forces, through the Mekong, very quickly, along the tributaries of the Delta.

2nd Lieutenant, ODA-321 CIDG, (Civilian Irregular Group):

The 60s and 1970s was the best time to grow up in the US. But as I am thinking about it, it was quite many in their late teens or early 20s, they had volunteered early on, and later many were drafted to go fight a war overseas, to keep war off our shores, and to help the people of South Vietnam, they would have their memories none the less. This is the story of one guy, his uniform tells us quite a lot, albeit non-regulation and to the untrained eye quite ominous. The U.S. Special Forces troops worked in Vietnam actually for the first time in 1957. On the 24th of June 1957, the First Special Forces Group was activated at Okinawa, and in the course of a year, a team from this unit trained 59 men from the Vietnamese Army at the Commando Training Center in Nha Trang RVN. The trainees would later become the nickelous, instructor cadre, for the First Vietnamese Special Forces units.

Up to 1961 the Government of South Vietnam and the U.S. Mission in Saigon in dealing with the insurgency had placed primary emphasis on developing the regular military forces, which for the most part was focused on the regular military forces, the most part excluded the ethnic and religious minority groups.

Under U.S. sponsorship of the U.S. Mission of Siagon still in 1961, however, several programs were initiated in the late part of the year, to broaden their counterinsurgency effort by developing the paramilitary potential of certain minority groups. Special Forces Detachments were assigned to “The U.S. Mission in Saigon” to provide training and advisory assistance in the conduct of these programs, which eventually came to be known as the “CIDG” or Civilian Irregular Defence Group Program. The development of paramilitary forces amongst the minority groups became the paramilitary mission of the Special Forces operation in the Republic of Vietnam.

Originally the focus was on the Montagnards, people living in the strategic Central Highlands. The first was taken in October 1961 with the beginning of a project designed to prevent the Rhade tribesmen in Darlac Province from succumbing to the Viet Cong control. Exploratory talks were held with the Rhade leaders in Darlac to seek their participation in a village self-defense program. In November of 1961, the first medical specialist’s troops of the U.S. Special Forces were employed in Vietnam in a project originally designed to provide assistance to the Montagnards tripes in the high plateau county around Pleiku. Out of this modest beginning grew one of the most successful programs for using civilian forces ever devised by a military force, the Civilian Irregular Defence Group. Eventually, the organization, development, and operation of the CIDG proved to be the chief work of the U.S. Special Forces in the Vietnam War.

This Second Lieutenant wears a lightweight / In-Country produced version of the early “Duck Hunter” camouflage. He has applied a locally made “Special Forces” patch in a subdued format. As with most of the A-Teams in Vietnam ODA-321 will eventually produce their own unofficial patch. Canvas cartridge belt, 3x20 round, 5.56mm magazine, ammo pouches with a canteen complete the Officer’s equipment. He does not carry the standard .45 Auto pistol as he has exchanged it for the new M-16 rifle for its higher rate of fire. Early in the conflict he still wears black leather jump boots, He wore either his group's Green Beret or a camouflage hat out in the field.

Mike-Force (Special Forces) Indigenous Group Advisor. #2:

With increasing Viet Cong reports around Saigon In late 1964, The zone was officially controlled by the South Vietnamese in III Corps. The door opened for the CIDGs, they had ample capabilities, and their mission was to be a quick reaction force so to speak, for SF Camps, and Southern-supported villages under attack by the Viet Cong. The "Mike Force" was named after Special Forces Lieutenant Colonel Miguel de la Pena, he had been the man who supervised its creation. Originally it was composed of Nung people, one of the ethnic groups that had migrated from southern China, back in the 4th century. Nut the Mike Force application soon was used in reference to other organized groups as well as the Bahnar, Hmong, Jarai, the Khmer Krom minorities, as well as the Degar peoples, commonly known as the known as Montagnards.

The Mike Force’s mission was country-wide from top to bottom. The idea was to have a quick-reaction group not, for stop-gap orders, but more for quickly securing, reinforcing, and recapturing CIDG A Camps'. The second purpose was as a “Special Reconnaissance Capability (for where other Recon and LRP groups could not go-special zones), and the third mission would be for “Search and Rescue”, “Search and Destroy Operations, and then some Recon Team Missions being assigned.

This is not to be confused with the Tiger Force, this black op groups job was primarily tasked with counter-gorilla warfare, that is to create fear and the enemy, secretly operating from well behind the enemy lines, aimed at places like maybe a training center, or port, ammo dumps, more emphasized on body-count, rather than force multiplication.

Unfortunately in typical US form, the American political actions of 1970, had the ‘Mike Forces’ disbanded after the “Vietnamization” of all the Vietnamese Armed Forcers, giving the wars ‘Allied’ control to the South Vietnamese Military, and less and less US control (Who had taken over in 1965.

This completely let down all the CIDG forces and ruined the loyalty of all these indigenous personnel when U.S. Special Forces, abandoned them! telling them they were Commanded by the South Vietnamese now. And that was a very bad call. Many Montagnards were Christian, and like the Jews of Europe in WWII the South Vietnamese did not treat them as equal human beings, but as sub-peoples, generally referring to them as savages! (As if the South Vietnamese were so civilized).

And in 1974 the indigenous people that had remained of the Mike forces in Vietnam, and all their tribes of origin were systematically hunted down, town by town, they were murdered, completely annihilated, by the North Vietnamese Army. After the U.S. forces had bailed and when the South crumbled, Falling quickly to the mass Communist forces.

Sergeant First Class, JANSSON, Special Forces, (Fort Bragg):

The uniform depicted is the standard 1970s 3rd pattern Jungle Fatigue. This does not necessarily mean he is in Vietnam, The Special Forces were spreading all over the globe through the 1970s, as well as being used as the Standard Issue in the United States. So that said, he could have been operating in any of 17-80 places in the world then. SFC. Jansson had his “Jump Qualification Wings” sewn in above the Army name tape, but his Combat Infantryman’s Badge is pinned on still.

5th Special Forces, Sergeant, Presnell:

Some special forces soldiers never received the CIB, and they never operated in a declared war, others received them from places like Korea, where the war never officially ended, just a ceasefire in place. Or this could represent a troop-just in-country, on his first tour in a war zone. But there were plenty of places he could have been involved in fighting even though he did not receive the Badge for it. Anyways it is a good example of a typical M65 field jacket. He is also in the position of a team leader, having Team Leader Straps on his shoulder loops.

5th Special Forces, Fort Bragg, Lieutenant Colonel, Quinn, 1971-75:

This uniform shows the Colonel had done a Prior tour of Vietnam with MACV where he earned the CIB, and Master Para wings. He had gone through the MACV-Rcondo School, with a group from the 82nd ABN. Div) (He has also gone through the Armies Path-Finder School at some point (Over the uniform in one shot is a STABO-Rig web-straps with D rings for remediate extraction purposes, these particular straps have black strips sprayed over it). This Lieutenant Colonel, Quin has seen and done a lot in his day and would have ended up in a command position, a real Colonel Kirtz example.