Photos US Forces
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Military Assistance Command-Vietnam (MACV), Studies and Observation Group member Sgt William Evans
Born in 1948 in Spring Valley IL, the 5th Special Forces Sgt. William Anthony “Billy” Evans (Recon Team Plumb team leader) and SP4 Michael May (Recon Team Radio Operator) were part of an eleven man team conducting a secret mission inside Cambodia. They were operating as an element of MACV-SOG, B-50 Project Omega.
MACV-SOG (Military Assistance Command, Vietnam Studies and Observation Group) was a joint service high command unconventional warfare task force engaged in highly classified operations throughout Southeast Asia. The 5th Special Forces channelled personnel into MACV-SOG (although it was not a Special Forces group) through Special Operations Augmentation (SOA), which provided their “cover” while under secret orders to MACV-SOG. The teams performed deep penetration missions of strategic reconnaissance and interdiction which were called, depending on the time frame, “Shining Brass” or “Prairie Fire” missions.
Evans and May’s team operated under Command and Control South, which was located at Ban Me Thuot, but operated from FOB’s (Forward Operations Bases) along the Cambodian border. Working with the 11-man American team was an unspecified number of ARVN troops.
After being inserted at a landing zone, the team moved toward its objective. As the team approached the wood line, several members of the team heard the sound of rifle safeties being clicked, followed by a blast of weapons fire from the front and left flank. It was later judged that the team had been hit by a battalion-size NVA force from its base camp. The team fell back 60 meters to a mound located in the area. A perimeter was formed, and the enemy closed in on the position.
Gunships were called in to repel the enemy advance, and after they departed the area, at about 1700 hours, the enemy attacked again. Later that day, a projectile thought to be a B-40 rocket exploded directly over the team’s position resulting in wounds to 8 of the 11 men.
Evans at that time sustained a lethal head wound and died shortly thereafter. May received multiple wounds to the head and chest and died 30 minutes later. The surviving members of the team moved about 60 meters from the area, leaving the remains of Evans, May and three ARVN team members behind.
Their bodies were never recovered during the war and post-war searching operations have continued but have not yet found the bodies of Recon Team Plumb.
Born in 1948 in Spring Valley IL, the 5th Special Forces Sgt. William Anthony “Billy” Evans (Recon Team Plumb team leader) and SP4 Michael May (Recon Team Radio Operator) were part of an eleven man team conducting a secret mission inside Cambodia. They were operating as an element of MACV-SOG, B-50 Project Omega.
MACV-SOG (Military Assistance Command, Vietnam Studies and Observation Group) was a joint service high command unconventional warfare task force engaged in highly classified operations throughout Southeast Asia. The 5th Special Forces channelled personnel into MACV-SOG (although it was not a Special Forces group) through Special Operations Augmentation (SOA), which provided their “cover” while under secret orders to MACV-SOG. The teams performed deep penetration missions of strategic reconnaissance and interdiction which were called, depending on the time frame, “Shining Brass” or “Prairie Fire” missions.
Evans and May’s team operated under Command and Control South, which was located at Ban Me Thuot, but operated from FOB’s (Forward Operations Bases) along the Cambodian border. Working with the 11-man American team was an unspecified number of ARVN troops.
After being inserted at a landing zone, the team moved toward its objective. As the team approached the wood line, several members of the team heard the sound of rifle safeties being clicked, followed by a blast of weapons fire from the front and left flank. It was later judged that the team had been hit by a battalion-size NVA force from its base camp. The team fell back 60 meters to a mound located in the area. A perimeter was formed, and the enemy closed in on the position.
Gunships were called in to repel the enemy advance, and after they departed the area, at about 1700 hours, the enemy attacked again. Later that day, a projectile thought to be a B-40 rocket exploded directly over the team’s position resulting in wounds to 8 of the 11 men.
Evans at that time sustained a lethal head wound and died shortly thereafter. May received multiple wounds to the head and chest and died 30 minutes later. The surviving members of the team moved about 60 meters from the area, leaving the remains of Evans, May and three ARVN team members behind.
Their bodies were never recovered during the war and post-war searching operations have continued but have not yet found the bodies of Recon Team Plumb.
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Range Reconnaissance Patrol (LRRP) of the 173rd Airborne in War Zone C during Operation Junction City to search out and destroy the VC and PAVN in the area of Tay Ninh Province, South Vietnam, 1967.
In February 1969, all US Army LRRP units were folded into the newly formed 75th Infantry Regiment (Ranger), a predecessor of the 75th Ranger Regiment, bringing back operational Ranger units for the first time since the Korean War.
In February 1969, all US Army LRRP units were folded into the newly formed 75th Infantry Regiment (Ranger), a predecessor of the 75th Ranger Regiment, bringing back operational Ranger units for the first time since the Korean War.
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Modern Forces Living History Group
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Nick Brokhausen, MACV-SOG, 1970-1971 Vietnam/Laos.
Nick was a Special Forces soldier, who served with the highly classified Military Assistance Command Vietnam - Studies and Observation Group. Having already done a previous tour of Vietnam with the 173rd Airborne, Nick returned to Vietnam and served with SOG from 1970-1971. He served on Recon Team Habu, assigned to Command & Control North (CCN).
**Yes, he IS rocking a stahlhelm through Vietnam, as a practical joke**
Nick was a Special Forces soldier, who served with the highly classified Military Assistance Command Vietnam - Studies and Observation Group. Having already done a previous tour of Vietnam with the 173rd Airborne, Nick returned to Vietnam and served with SOG from 1970-1971. He served on Recon Team Habu, assigned to Command & Control North (CCN).
**Yes, he IS rocking a stahlhelm through Vietnam, as a practical joke**
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Good thing you made the clarification, friend, because that was going to be my next question...
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MAC-V SOG Recon Team Adder’s Hurley Gilpin practices firing a suppressed “Swedish K” Carl-Gustav M/45 9mm submachine gun, a CIA-supplied, non-American standard firearm used for deniability purposes during MAC-V’s missions in Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam.
Useful for ambushing trackers, removing sentries and seizing prisoners, the integrally suppressed Swedish K was SOG’s most accurate submachine gun and very popular, having an American made copy, the Smith & Wesson M76 produced later in the war due to high demand from the Recon Teams.
Useful for ambushing trackers, removing sentries and seizing prisoners, the integrally suppressed Swedish K was SOG’s most accurate submachine gun and very popular, having an American made copy, the Smith & Wesson M76 produced later in the war due to high demand from the Recon Teams.
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ACH-47 Chinook gunship Co$t of Living at An Khe base, Vietnam in 1967, later lost along with its 8 man crew in a crash in may of the same year when its 20mm cannon shot into the forward rotor system due to its mounting pin vibrating loose causing it to elevate during a gun run
Four chinooks where converted into gunships by Vertol in 1965 under a program called guns a go-go, they packed 5 M60 or 50 caliber machine guns, 2 20mm cannons mounted on top of the stub wings, 2 rocket pods or 2 minigun pods and a nose mounted 40mm grenade launcher commonly seen on the UH-1 gunship and sent to vietnam on a temporary 6 month duty.
The four chinooks were:
Four chinooks where converted into gunships by Vertol in 1965 under a program called guns a go-go, they packed 5 M60 or 50 caliber machine guns, 2 20mm cannons mounted on top of the stub wings, 2 rocket pods or 2 minigun pods and a nose mounted 40mm grenade launcher commonly seen on the UH-1 gunship and sent to vietnam on a temporary 6 month duty.
The four chinooks were:
- CO$T of LIVING - lost in 1967 with all crew KIA
- Easy Money - museum
- Stumper Jumper - lost in 1966 when it ran into another chinook while Taxiing at Vung Tau Airfield, fortunately no injuries to the crew
- Birth Control - lost in 1968 when it took ground fire and lost aft transmission pressure, landed in a field and crew rescued by Easy Money, before a aircraft recovery could be attempted a report came in that it was destroyed by NVA arty fire
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