Vietnam war special forces units

ENDNOTES

1. Most readers are more familiar with the current operational detachment alpha (ODA), however from the late 1950s until the late 1970s, the term usually used by the Special Forces soldiers to describe the basic element was “A Teams;” Brigadier General James Lawton Collins Jr., Vietnam Studies, The Development and Training of the South Vietnamese Army 1950–1972 (Washington DC: Center for Military History, 1991), 38; By the beginning of 1965, the U.S. Army Special Forces Group Vietnam (Provisional) had a strength of less than 1,300 assigned and attached, to a high of 3,725 by 1968 assigned to the 5th Special Forces Group, Colonel Francis J. Kelly, U.S. Army Special Forces, 1961–1971 (Washington DC: Center for Military History, 1989), 5.^[return]
2. Earl Bleacher, interview by Lieutenant Colonel Robert W. Jones Jr., 18 November 2005, Fort Bragg, NC, digital recording, USASOC History Office Files, Fort Bragg, NC; Lowell W. Stevens Sr., interview by Lieutenant Colonel Robert W. Jones Jr., 27 October 2005, Fort Bragg, NC, digital reco
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      Special Forces History

   Home > Conflicts > Vietnam

   The U.S. Army Special Forces had a 14-year long history of involvement in Vietnam. The first members of Special Forces to serve in Vietnam were from the 14th Special Forces Operational Detachment. This 16-man detachment entered Vietnam in 1956 to train a cadre of Vietnamese Special Forces teams. The first Special Forces Soldier to die in Vietnam (1956) was Captain Harry G. Cramer, Jr. Throughout the 1950s and into the 1960s many Special Forces detachments would deploy to South Vietnam.

   5th Special Forces Group. In September 1964, the 5th Special Forces Group set up its headquarters in Nha Trang. The 5th Group would stay in Vietnam until it re-deployed to Fort Bragg, North Carolina in 1971.

   MACV-SOG. The Military Assistance Command Vietnam - Studies and Observations Group or MACV-SOG conducted reconnaissance, intelligence, and special operations during the  Vietnam War. This secretive organization ran several operations within South Vietn

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   Hank Cramer is one of the best-loved folksingers in the American West. He is widely known for his booming bass voice, smooth picking on a vintage flat-top guitar, and his wry sense of humor. He has a repertoire of over a thousand modern and traditional songs, spanning the genres of celtic, appalachian, maritime, cowboy, and plain old folk music. He is more than simply a performer, however. He is a historian and educator who weaves music and history into presentations which bring to life the rich story of America’s westward movement, and give his audiences insight into the “folk process” by which traditional songs evolve and change to describe new events.

   Hank was born in North Carolina. His father was an Army “Green Beret”, his mother an elementary schoolteacher. Hank’s father, Captain Harry G. Cramer, was killed in Vietnam in 1957, the first American soldier lost in that conflict. Hank’s mother never remarried, but raised her three children as a “single mom”. Hank inherited a gift of music from his father, and by high school was a prominent performer in glee club, choir, and sch