If they were going to survive, they needed to get out of there in a hurry. Their point man had been right, ST Idaho was now facing an utterly overwhelming enemy force. Before long, it was clear that they were coming straight at them from both the north and south. John Stryker Meyer (middle back) surrounded by indigenous mercenaries (Courtesy picture).īut as they were leaving camp, hundreds of North Vietnamese troops poured into view from seemingly out of nowhere. Meyer, who trusted his teammates with his life, took him at his word and made the decision to exfiltrate. While most of the commandos were focused on their treasure-hunting expedition, their point man, an indigenous mercenary, literally sensed the enemy’s approach and alerted the team. The commandos started snapping pictures and searching for documents and maps that could prove useful to their intelligence shops. But it was an empty camp… and no one challenged them-at least for now. ST Idaho soon found itself inside a huge North Vietnamese camp. After a few minutes, they spotted campfires, and moved in their direction.
On Thanksgiving morning, ST Idaho inserted and started patrolling toward where they believed the North Vietnamese might be. Related: ST Idaho: The Special Forces team that vanished in the jungle Not Your Average Thanksgiving They could only go 12 miles inside Cambodian airspace. If going after 30,000 enemy troops with just six men wasn’t enough, the MACV-SOG commandos were further hindered by the fact that they couldn’t call in fixed-wing close air support because the State Department had imposed very strict rules of engagement for the area of operations. If they could snatch an enemy prisoner while they were at it from whom vital intelligence could be gleaned, that much the better. Once they had located the North Vietnamese troops, ST Idaho was to relay their position and exfiltrate as quickly and quietly as possible (in other words, get out of dodge). These troops were part of an approximately 100,000-strong North Vietnamese presence in the neighboring country, and the Pentagon feared that they could stage an attack on Saigon from their safe haven in Cambodia.
Their job was to find the 1 st, 3 rd, and 7 th North Vietnamese Army divisions, about 30,000 troops, that had gone missing somewhere on the border with Cambodia. John Stryker Meyer (left) and Lynne Black Jr. Leading the MACV-SOG recon team was John Stryker Meyer, a legendary Green Beret who has written extensively about his experience in the elite special operations organization. So when three entire North Vietnamese divisions went missing in November, Army intel and the CIA were eager to find them.Ĭomposed of six commandos, two Green Berets, and four local mercenaries, ST Idaho went after the missing North Vietnamese divisions. intelligence community was concerned about practically all North Vietnamese troop movements. Related: MACV-SOG: The covert special operations unit you’ve never heard of Turkey, Gravy, and the North Vietnameseįollowing the Tet Offensive in January 1968, the U.S. The operation of Spike Team Idaho during the closing days of November 1968 was such a mission. intelligence community and ran some of the most daring special operation missions in U.S. The covert outfit cooperated closely with the U.S. Using their unconventional warfare and foreign internal defense-the training and advising of foreign troops-capabilities, Green Berets recruited, trained, and led teams of native mercenaries against the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong. But it was the Army Special Forces operators-nicknamed “Green Berets”-that formed the cornerstone of the unit. special operations community, including Navy SEALs, Recon Marines, and Air Commandos. The special operations unit was comprised solely of commandos from across the U.S. administrations had insisted that no American troops were in. As a result, MACV-SOG teams operated in countries that successive U.S.
But if the North Vietnamese were there, so had to be American commandos.