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Organization and Mission |
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The twelve subjects in this study were the members of an “A” team, the primary organizational unit of Special Forces. Beginning in the early sixties such teams were sent into the mountainous areas of Vietnam to recruit and train the local tribesmen into Civilian Irregular Defense Groups, (C.I.D.G.), para-military units without formal connection to the South Vietnamese Army. Working with a counterpart twelve man Vietnamese
Special Forces unit, they establish and defend isolated camps at strategic
locations in Viet Cong controlled territory. This study was conducted in a camp located six miles from the Cambodian border and forty miles southwest of the Central Highland city of Pleiku. The site had been chosen so as to provide significant obstruction to the free flow of arms and men from the Ho Chi Mihn Trail into South Vietnam. The threat of attack by an overwhelmingly superior force was always present, but was considerably increased at the start of the monsoon season in May of 1966, at the time this study was initiated. Although no all-out assault on the camp occurred, several members of the team, including successive commanding officers, were killed during this time of threatened attack. A colorful description of life in this particular camp has recently been published by a freelance journalist. |