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[Assistant] Through the grapevine that a major hatchet force operation was coming through the chain of command and he volunteered B company for it.


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[Assistant] Assuming it might be another SLAM operation, McCarley researched the after actions reports from the previous missions. He talked to team members in camp about those operations, their successes, their shortcomings.


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[Assistant] In the first days of September 1970, the operations order came down and was assigned to B Company under the command of McCarley.


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[Assistant] And much to McCarley's surprise, Operation Tailwind was targeted for the deepest insertion into Laos ever by a SOG team. 25 to 30 miles beyond the normal area of operations.


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[Assistant] The operation was designed to take pressure off a CIA operation further southwest, bordering Cambodia.


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[Assistant] Because of the unique nature of this mission, McCarley drew upon his years of operational experience in Laos for a daring new tactic.


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[Assistant] Instead of remaining in a static position, like the earlier slam missions, once the full element B Company, 15 Green Berets, and 120 highly trained Montengard tribesmen were on the ground in the deepest penetration of enemy territory during the secret war,


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[Assistant] In hindsight, 47 years later, although no one said so at the time, most agreed, it was a suicide mission.


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[Assistant] And that right there is from the prologue of a book called Sog Chronicles Volume 1 written by


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[Assistant] John Stryker-Meier, otherwise known by his nickname and codename. And call sign. Tilt.


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[Assistant] To understand what Sog was and what heroes these men were, including this man, my hero, John Stryker Meyer. Tilt, thanks for coming back on.


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[Assistant] Good evening. Welcome. Thanks for coming back. It's my honor.


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[Assistant] So uhm, this is just a story that, you know, you and I had talked about some of the different stories that we've covered and, and, you know, you've kinda...


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[Assistant] I guess you kinda somehow ended up being a little bit of the, the SOG historian. Capturing a bunch of these stories.


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[Assistant] From different operations even when you weren't there, but interviewing guys, talking to them, gathering all this information and then capture and put into these books. But it has the,


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[Assistant] I mean, since you were in SOG and you operated in these areas of operations that these guys were in, the way you're able to tell the story is, is, is powerful.


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[Assistant] Yeah, the air superiority that we had was really powerful, but you have to remember that


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[Assistant] It wasn't total air superiority. It wasn't like, look, we have air superiority in Iraq and Afghanistan.


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[Assistant] We very rarely will lose an aircraft and usually it's because there's some kind of an accident or a crash or something like that.


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[Assistant] But even though we, it's pretty easy to say, oh yeaah, we had full air superiority in Vietnam.


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[Assistant] We had a certain level of confidence, but at the same time, we didn't have totally our superiority because there was still


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[Assistant] There was still aircraft getting shot down by either MiGs or getting shot down by surface-to-air missiles.


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[Assistant] Well, I guess we should get into this, this story cause uhm, this, this tailwind is, is just kinda crazy.


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[Assistant] And for everyone that's hopeful out there, there's gonna be volume 2, 3, 4, 5.


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[Assistant] I know there's, there's more stories than when you got time to write. I mean, it's good. There's so many stories. Every one of these operations is a, is its own book.


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[Assistant] Every time I read one of your books and I read one operation.


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[Assistant] I think there's a whole story, a whole book, a three or four hundred page book about every single operation. If you start going into the granular detail in the backstory,


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[Assistant] It's, it's crazy, so get to work, Tilt. Keep writing. Yes sir.


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[Assistant] Routinely under protocols established in early SOG secret war, most Laotian SOG operators were limited to 20 kilometers west of Vietnam's borders. Operation Tailwind was booked to go approximately 40 kilometers further west beyond that limitation.


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[Assistant] To go that deep into Laos required formal approval from the Laotian ambassador and from the US commander of all forces in Vietnam, General Creighton at Abrams.


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[Assistant] The B Company Commanding Officer at the Top Secret SOG Compound in Khon Thun. Am I saying that right Khon Thun? Khon Thun. Command and Control Central.


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[Assistant] Got the word from S3 on September 4th, 1970.


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[Assistant] And he says, I remember getting called by S3 and they told me that we had a special mission. A mission that was deep into Laos. A mission deeper into Laos than ever before. And a mission bigger than any before in the Prairie Fire AO. Said McCarley.


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[Assistant] That all of the approvals had been received and signed off. So this is a massive mission, bigger than any mission, deeper and allows than ever before. And that means you gotta get, you gotta get approval from the ambassador. And generally, if you don't know this,


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[Assistant] Yeah, I mean ambassadors, if you think about it just from a philosophical level, you know, they want to solve things through diplomacy.


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[Assistant] And, and so generally they have a little bit of a...


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[Assistant] Of, of friction with the military elements. Generally. Not always. And then you have Abrams.


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[Assistant] Who's not a fan of special forces, which I believe we've done a good job of moving this in a better direction, but there certainly has been tension from time to time between conventional forces and special forces and special operations guys, uh, generally because special operations guys


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[Assistant] So, you know, you got a guy like General Abrams that doesn't like special forces. Except when he needs him. Except when he needs him. Well, there you go. And he needed him here. So.


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[Assistant] McCarley, a former team leader of SOG recon team Florida, where he ran seven successful missions, transferred to the hatchet force where Green Berets ran platoon and company sized operations across the fence in Laos and Cambodia.


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[Assistant] Just so everyone gets a grip on this, these hatchet forces now you have instead of having


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[Assistant] 12 guys on the ground. Or 6. Or 6 guys on the ground like you would with one of your recon teams.


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[Assistant] A group of special forces guys. Maybe 10, 12, 15 special forces. American special forces guys. And then 120 or 150.


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[Assistant] That means you can conduct these bigger operations and that's really the-


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[Assistant] The fundamental mission of special forces, of the Green Berets, is to work with indige forces, train up these guerrilla forces so that they can become a strong fighting unit.


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[Assistant] The SEALs have a different primary mission. The SEALs primary mission.


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[Assistant] Was always generally considered to be special, uh, direct action and special reconnaissance.


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[Assistant] And the, the special forces was more, hey,


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[Assistant] And it's more of a long-term solution, you know, you'll hear the Green Berets say it's teach them how to fish instead of just giving them a fish. Seal teams, we just kill the fish. We just kill the fish, generally.


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[Assistant] Now, we both cross over, and we both do each one, you know, we do their operations. When I was in Ramadi, that's what we did. We trained a bunch of, uh, the indige forces, a bunch of Iraqi soldiers, and, you know, of course there were special forces units that were doing all kinds of direct action missions there as well. So we do cross over, but if you look at the kind of bread and butter,


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[Assistant] This is just bread and butter green beret operation, a massive indige force going into, to, to do, to harass the enemy. Oh yeaah.


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[Assistant] Explain that background a little bit about what's going on with the CIA there.


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[Assistant] When I was going through, uh, what they call SEAL. It was called SEAL Tactical Training. Before that it was called SEAL Basic Indoc.


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[Assistant] And then it became seal qualification training. It's like what you do when you get done with the basic training. We did a raid on a target. And this is up in Fort Lewis, Washington. And so we do a raid on a target. And they're flying a flag on this little compound, right?


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[Assistant] And they're flying this flag and sure enough the, the, the officer in charge of our class.


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[Assistant] Which was now the platoon commander of our platoon going to do this hit. He sees that flag, walks over to it, undoes the figure eight, starts pulling it down and sure enough the instructors have booby trapped that thing and it blows up. You're a casualty. So when I see that picture on the cover, I always think, man, I was always scared to touch anything that looked good.


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[Assistant] From the war in Iraq, a lot of guys went home with, with paintings of Saddam Hussein. Cause those things were pretty easy to find, they were everywhere.


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[Assistant] Alright, going back to the book. With the hatchet force.


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[Assistant] With the hatchet force, we were used to going across the fence and getting our ass kicked and then getting saved by tac air.


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[Assistant] On Operation Halfback in Laos earlier in the year, we lost two South Vietnamese Air Force H-34s, which included SF medic Bill Boyle, who died in one of those choppers. We got hit hard because we were dug in and the NVA pounded our position. With Operation Tailwood,


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[Assistant] Tailwind, once on the ground, we were going to keep moving day and night to keep the NVA off balance and keep them from massing a large force against our position.


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[Assistant] It's, it's fundamental, it's, what we're talking about is maneuver warfare, right? Instead of saying, hey, we'll do attrition warfare, we'll sit on this, this mountaintop and you attack us.


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[Assistant] Hey, we're gonna move around and you won't know where we are.


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[Assistant] Although no one said so at the time, at least not outright, the mission that McCarly and the CCC hatchet force were gearing up for to execute.


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[Assistant] Could be called a suicide mission. As McCarley briefed the B company platoon leaders, squad leaders,


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[Assistant] Medic Gary Mike Rose and Company First Sergeant Morris Adair in the CCC compound. Operation orders were going out to critical support elements that would play crucial roles in Operation Tailwind.


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[Assistant] First, there was a long distance to the target in Laos. Because it was so far away, neither the older piston-driven H-34 Sikorsky helicopters, the South Vietnamese armies,


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[Assistant] South Vietnamese Air Force 219 Special Operations Squadron, nor regular Army Huey Slicks could be used to insert and extract the 136 man detachment. So you got just a straight up fuel limitation.


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[Assistant] These aircraft, they're not going to be able to fly that deep into Laos. So what does that mean? Back to the book.


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[Assistant] Sog Brass turned to the Marine Corps aviation wing that flew the largest troop carriers in Vietnam, the powerful CH-53D Sikorsky twin-engine helicopters in HMH-463 based at the Corps Marble Mountain Air Facility.


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[Assistant] Using the bigger, stronger, heavier lift helicopters made sense because three Sea Stallions with the, with the design capacity to hold 55 troops could take the entire hatchet force of 136 men, all their equipment and extra supplies such as explosives and ammunition and insert them into the target area.


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[Assistant] So there you go. The uh, the uh, CH-53 helicopter is a massive freaking helicopter. Oh yeaah. It holds 50 something troops. With all their gear. With their gear.


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[Assistant] Uhm, in previous years, Marine Corps aviators from HMH 463 had performed fearlessly in key SOG operations across the fence and Marine brass knew that flying combat troops and supplies into Laos always resulted in the helicopters getting hit by enemy fire.


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[Assistant] Was a door gunner and structural mechanic in HMH 463 when the operations order came into the command shed in Da Nang.


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[Assistant] The most dangerous, and he says the most dangerous and most interesting missions we flew were mission 72, and that was SOG support.


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[Assistant] We called it going over the fence. For me personally, this is why I joined the Marine Corps, to run special missions against the enemy. I was looking for adventure and wanted to be where the action was.


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[Assistant] The marine aviators were told to prepare for a mission 72 insertion deep into Laos. Gro replaced the 50 caliber machine gun with the M60 because it gave him more maneuverability and


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[Assistant] If we got shot down, he said, and quote, if we got shot down, I could carry it and take the fight to the enemy. The 50 was too heavy to carry.


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[Assistant] So just so everyone understands what we're talking about, a .50 caliber machine gun is a big gun.


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[Assistant] And it's, you can't shoot it. You can't, you cannot do it. You can't, you can't carry that thing and shoot it from your shoulder or from your hip. It's, it's meant to be mounted on a vehicle or mounted in an aircraft, but an M 60 you can shoot by yourself. You can carry it and you can, you can fire it from the hip or from the shoulder. And so this Marine's thinking, well,


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[Assistant] Yeah. Uhm, not far away from HMH 463 at Marble Mountain Air Facility, Marine Aviators from HML 367, Scarface got the op order for Operation Tailwind in a more dramatic fashion according to Cobra Gunship pilot Joe Driscoll, who was a first lieutenant at the time.


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[Assistant] And he says, the duty driver came by our room at 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning and told us to pack our gear as we'd be gone for 5 to 10 days on an operation to be ready at 5am.


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[Assistant] My first thought was, maybe we're finally going into North Vietnam.


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[Assistant] Driscoll and fellow pilots flew the early model AH-1G Cobra gunships.


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[Assistant] A relative of the more familiar Huey helicopter, the Cobra gunship had a more narrow profile designed strictly as a weapons platform. Driscoll Cobra had two 19-shot 2.75 rocket launchers, two 7-shot rocket pods, one 7.62


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[Assistant] Mini gun that fired 6000 rounds a minute and a grenade launcher that fired 40mm high explosive rounds. That's why they call it a gunship. That's firepower.


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[Assistant] When the early versions of those Cobras were fully armed and loaded with aviation fuel, the helicopter skids would drag on the runway for a short distance until the pilots gained enough lift to get the bird airborne. However, once in the air,


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[Assistant] They brought the fight to the enemy with precise gun runs and rocket runs. Scarface and several other marine helicopter units had been involved in the secret war in Vietnam for several years, usually supporting recon teams and hatchet forces from FOB-1 at Phu Bai and FOB-3 at Khe Son or FOB-4 at Da Nang.


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[Assistant] I always have to skip through some stuff, get it, get the book so you can get the rest of the details. But, you know, you mentioned that this was a massive joint operation through all these different forces and in this section you're laying out the various air platforms that are going to be brought to bear to execute this mission.


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[Assistant] Go on here in the northern side of Da Nang at the Joint Military Civilian Airfield.


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[Assistant] Air Force SPAD pilots who flew the single wing, single wing A-1 Sky Raiders received their initial op order for Operation Tailwind. So,


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[Assistant] World War One. I looked it up. It's an old World War One airplane. And this thing was such an ancient beast. Yes. That they, they called it the SPAD, the World War One airplane. Uh, awesome looking bird. Uh, going on here.


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[Assistant] The single, the single engine warplane was loved by American ground pounders. This is kinda like the A-10.


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[Assistant] Yeaah, that would have been nice. Oh yeaah, crispy critter time.


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[Assistant] The single engine warplane was loved by American ground pounders and feared by communist troops because of the havoc and death they rained down on enemy troops. Additionally, through the unique design,


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[Assistant] By Ed Heineman at Douglas Aircraft Company during World War II, the Skyraider could stay on station over a target longer than any aircraft. And it brought bombs, cluster bombs, 2.7


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[Assistant] Five rockets, twenty millimeter cannons, and two mini guns to the battlefield. Once again, that's a lot of firepower.


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[Assistant] Some later reported receiving burns on the back of their necks from hot shell casings that fell from the warbird and landed on the soldier's necks, burning their skin once they lodged in the collar.


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[Assistant] However, no one ever complained about those burns. Burns that were often life savings. Life saving. Lieutenant Colonel Melvin Swanson was the group commander.


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[Assistant] When Operation Tailwind OpOrder landed on his desk.


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[Assistant] Sog missions were our primary assignment with SAR as the other priority. When they called, we answered. Always.


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[Assistant] And he says, I had every team member including our indig troops carry at least one pound of C4 because we were going to blow up any enemy caches and structures we found and C4 was always good for clearing LZs.


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[Assistant] Green Beret medic Gary Mike Rose went through his mental checklist preparing to carry enough medical supplies and bandages for a company sized operation.


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[Assistant] He always carried five for insert and snake bites, even in camp, as well as extra bandages, medical tape, rubber tubing, and several NATO surgical kits. Rose worked with his modern yard.


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[Assistant] Koch. Is that right? Koch? Koch? Koch. Koch. Who he described as a loyal, brave soldier and medic who carried a similar amount of medical supplies that I carried.


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[Assistant] And like many young soldiers, Rose never thought for a minute that he would be wounded during combat.


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[Assistant] Thus the stage was set for launching Operation Tailwind on September 11th, 1970 after several weather delays and rocket attacks to the launch site north of CCC.


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[Assistant] It would be a mission where the 16 green berets would receive a total of 33 purple hearts.


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[Assistant] For wounds received during the heavy combat that was about to unfold in Laos.


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[Assistant] Yeah, and we'll get to it because you mentioned it in the book and you talked through that, but a lot of times you never even see these guys. Never. I mean, they're stationed in a different place, they're up in the air, you're on the ground, and you never, you just never, you never meet them.


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[Assistant] Uhm, at the top secret military assistance command base in Vietnam.


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[Assistant] Eugene McCarley, that's the guy in charge, Eugene McCarley gave the order to move out 15 berets, 15 green berets, and 120 Montagnards mercenaries.


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[Assistant] On the morning of September 11th, four of the powerful Marine Corps CH-53D Sikorsky twin engine helicopters


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[Assistant] In HMH 463, based at the Marine Corps Marble Mountain Air Facility, landed outside the CCC compound and loaded up the 136 man unit. Sog Brass had turned to the Marine Corps aviation wing that flew the largest troop carriers to reach into Laos, 25 kilometers beyond the normal Sog area of operations.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Escorted by six Marine Corps Cobras.


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[Assistant] The helicopters headed north to refuel at DAC 2 before heading into the target area. After refueling, they flew north parallel to the border for a while before taking a left turn heading due west into the target area. Could the Cobras make it all the way in? Yes. That's pretty impressive.


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[Assistant] In fact, we took hits in our rocket pods, we had bullet holes in our tail boom, and they shot out our radio.


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[Assistant] When the Cobras made their final gun run, we followed our SOP, which was to stay in formation and keep an eye out for enemy soldiers firing at us.


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[Assistant] End quote. Because they had no radio contact, Driscoll and Baker simply flew through the pattern to cover the ship in front of them without firing.


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[Assistant] Quote, the enemy didn't know we had no radios. I'll tell you one thing, that was a hot target, Driscoll said. We were moving targets, the CH-53s were static targets, but they went in, dropped off the troops, and got out of there post haste. Man.


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[Assistant] Continuing, the CH-53s were big targets. McCarley said all of the CH-53s were hit by enemy ground fire while en route to the target.


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[Assistant] By the time that B Company exited the helicopters, four Montagnards had been wounded from enemy gunfire. One died while flying back to base with his three wounded comrade in arms.


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[Assistant] Green Beret medic Sergeant Michael Rose added, it was strange exiting the chopper, stepping over wounded in action to get to the ground.


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[Assistant] So they haven't even started the mission yet, they got one killed and three wounded. We haven't started the mission yet, but we got, we got three wounded and one killed.


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[Assistant] This was no ordinary mission. Company B moved off the helicopters and was on the ground in Laos shortly after noon time.


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[Assistant] One fundamental truism of the Vietnam War as well as the eight years secret surfaced. The communist forces fought when they wanted to fight.


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[Assistant] Thus, when McCarley and the remaining 131 members of Bee Company settled into the wood line, they found complete and utter silence.


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[Assistant] He said, it was so strange, the aircraft pulled back, we were on the ground, and there were no enemy soldiers, no noise, no birds, nothing. So once again, you get that, that weird quietness. Oh yea.


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[Assistant] What do you think make the, make the NVA think we're gonna shoot when they're inserting, but when once they land, we're not gonna do anything? What do they think, what's the enemy thinking at that point?


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[Assistant] Continuing on. McCarley, who was serving his second tour of duty in SOG, wasted no time. The company moved out in a northwest direction. And then the men of B company had another surprise. Surprise. After moving less than 400 meters from the LZ, the point element of the company reported seeing huts.


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[Assistant] The first platoon deployed two squads to search the area. They found an enemy ammo dump, 20 bunkers spread out over 500 meters, hidden in the, under the jungle canopy with vegetation and dark covers. After setting up perimeter security, the B company troops pulled together a quick inventory of what they had found, picked up samples,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] While Demolitions Experts S Sergeant First Class Bernard Bright


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[Assistant] Already on the ground, already found bad guy area, but there was no bad guys there for whatever reason. But a bunch of ammo and what not.


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[Assistant] And then this happens. While, while the B company team worked on this cash, McCarley had one of the most unique moments in its 28, in his 28 years of military service. As he and a few of the SF soldiers were looking at a map, a telephone rang.


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[Assistant] Quote, I couldn't believe it. A phone rang in the middle of Laos, McCarley said.


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[Assistant] Quote, so being SF, one of our guys picked up the phone and answered it.


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[Assistant] Can you imagine the reaction of the communist on the other end of that phone to this day just thinking about it makes me laugh. So there you go.


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[Assistant] As the SF men chuckled at the phone call, others were compiling an impressive list of enemy weapons contained in the bunkers.


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[Assistant] Not resting on its laurels, B company moved north with the platoon, with the 1st platoon breaking point. In a short distance, the 1st platoon found a trail, crossed it, and were proceeding north when a dare and 2nd platoon squad leader, Mike Hagan, observed several NVA soldiers on the trail and opened fire on them.


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[Assistant] An NVA 762 round went through Hagen's gas mask, which he had on his leg, and slammed into his leg. So they're carrying gas masks on this operation. Bernie Bright was slightly wounded. The round actually parted his hair, said McCarley.


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[Assistant] Can't get much closer than that. The NVA fled the area and Bee Company continued to head north after medic Gary Mike Rose patched up Hagen's wound.


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[Assistant] As they marched, they heard two large explosions back at the NVA bunkers. White phosphor- white phosphorus grenades that Brighton Schmidt attached to the demo charges emitted large plumes of white smoke, smoke that Covey readily picked up and proceeded to direct precise follow-up airstrikes. Secondary explosions would continue for more than five hours.


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[Assistant] Yeah, crazy amount of, well, I mean, this is their supply. This is how they're fighting the war.


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[Assistant] Uh, B company then made contact with the NVA, with an NVA company. Which lasted for close to an hour, McCarley said. The hatchet force men used close airstrikes from Scarface Cobras and


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And spads, skillful squad tact- and skillful squad tactics against the surprised NVA to drive him off.


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[Assistant] As darkness approached McCarley and the point element began looking for a location to remain overnight for the night.


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[Assistant] We, we stopped for a commo check when they fired one B-40 rocket into our command post.


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[Assistant] We were fortunate, we were fortunate in one small way. The rocket flew past all of us before striking a bamboo thicket. Thus, when the shrapnel exploded, those of us injured didn't get the full head-on blunt force of the metal shards as the forward momentum of the rocket exploded into the bamboo.


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[Assistant] 45 years later, after that rocket explosion, Rose had one lasting mental image of it.


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[Assistant] At some point while airborne I looked up and saw a blue sky. It was beautiful. And then I landed.


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[Assistant] And here's McCarley. Rose showed us what he was made of that day. He immediately started to go to work on the wounded because everyone in the CP at that time had varying degrees of wounds. In fact, Rose had a serious foot injury.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Somehow the shrapnel had sliced open his jungle boot and cut into his foot. What did he do? He pulled out an ace bandage, wrapped it around his foot, and used his car 15 as a crutch and began treating our wounded.


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[Assistant] End quote. The most serious wounded was a South Vietnamese lieutenant. Shrapnel sliced into his right thigh to the bone in addition to other shrapnel wounds. We stopped and licked our wounds as Rose passed, patched up our people, McCarley said.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] McCarley's plan was to continue to move at night and if B Company made contact with the enemy, the special forces men would determine whether to attack them or maneuver around them or simply pull back and call on fixed wing gunships that could bring deadly fire from the sky upon the enemy troops on the ground.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Fast forward a little bit. Finally, Rose rigged two stretchers from rubber ponchos supported by thick bamboo poles and tied them down with six foot sections of rope.


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[Assistant] They would now be able to carry the most seriously wounded indigenous troops. When Rose gave McCarley the okay, Bee Company took the bold step of moving out at night.


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[Assistant] Bee Company continued to march west, deeper into Laos.


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[Assistant] Nine of the Americans, nine of the sixteen Americans had been wounded. So these guys had been on the ground for... What is it? They got inserted around noon.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So we're, we're talking a very short period of time, 18 hours or something like that. And they already have nine of the 16 Americans wounded. Rose and his indigenous, indigenous medic.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Koch worked tirelessly on the wounded all night even as they moved throughout the dark jungle. So they got, they got nine wounded, just Americans, and they're still moving.


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[Assistant] Man, carrying stretchers is no joke.


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[Assistant] You need to have like a team to carry. If you think, if you think, oh you just get two guys, one on each side of the stretcher, that works for a little while.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But you end up having to either rotate those guys out or you put four guys on the stretcher. So much harder than it looks. Now luckily the yards are smaller though, right? Yea.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They're not like the bigger man. Man, when we were going through training, and I was being a down man, the guys would be like, hey bro, I love you but...


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[Assistant] Continuing on, Captain Gene McCartley had the men of


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[Assistant] B company hatchet force moving north well before the sun rose on day two of Operation Tailwind.


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[Assistant] We zigzagged a lot during that mission because we didn't want the NVA to get a good fix on our position as we knew they'd try to pin us down and attack us in force if that happened.


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[Assistant] Said McCarley. Within an hour, NVA soldiers hit the first platoon with automatic weapons, B-40 rockets and mortars.


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[Assistant] Two squads maneuvered against the enemy while McCarley directed airstrikes against the enemy positions. The tactics worked. Because of thick jungle, they weren't able to get an accurate body count as McCarley continued to march north.


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[Assistant] However, SF medic Gary Mike Rose knew the casualties were climbing among both SF and Indige troops of B Company.


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[Assistant] We had two yards killed, and yards is the short name for mountain yards. We had two yards killed when Captain McCarley and I got hit with shrapnel from the B-40. After confirming they were dead, I wrapped them up and we carried them with us as best we could, Rose said.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] However, after trying to carry them while tending to the two most seriously injured men, I quote, I had to make a decision to leave the two dead men behind because I could see that carrying them as we moved, we were causing too much fatigue for the living.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So we made a decision that has bothered me for nearly half a century. By day two, it seemed as though every day, every hour I kept getting more and more wounded.


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[Assistant] So the SF Medic Rose, he's looking at the situation and we were just joking about how hard it is to carry guys. And clearly he was dealing with that.


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[Assistant] It's, it's, it's incredibly hard and you think, like I said, it takes


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[Assistant] You have to have guys to rotate through. It's taking out a whole lot of your combat power when you're moving wounded. So he, they probably have, you know,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Probably takes ten guys to move these two wounded guys, maybe even more. So that's ten guys out of the fight. And you're moving slower.


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[Assistant] I learned a lesson right then and there, said Rose. We kept the IVs flowing from low positions, allowing gravity to work, but not high enough for the enemy gunfire to destroy them. Were you guys using IV bag, were your IVs glass?


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[Assistant] Okay. That's for the medics, I'm just a comma guy. Yeah, we, well the weird thing, well we all carried IVs.


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[Assistant] We ended up getting smaller IVs, but I don't know if you, he said the IVs shattered, so that makes me think maybe they were made of glass.


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[Assistant] So you're treating your wounded, you're giving them IV in the freaking bags or the jar gets shot at.


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[Assistant] Continuing on, as the hatchet force moved north, it was obvious to McCauley that Rose had his hands full as he continually


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[Assistant] As he had to continually monitor two most seriously wounded men, men who were being carried by him and other team members in stretchers made of bamboo sticks and ponchos. Because there were so many wounded, McCarley directed B Company to find or make an LZ for a medevac to land and take out the wounded.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They found a large bomb crater and began preparing the LZ when the enemy initiated two successive contacts with them. Firing small arms, B-40 rockets, and throwing CHICOM grenades. As they worked on establishing a clearing, B company dealt with the two separate attacks from the NVA using squad tactics and tac air.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Both attacks were neutralized only to have Covey report that the weather had turned bad, prohibiting any rescue attempts for the day.


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[Assistant] Without hesitation, Bee Company moved out again, going west for a while, then north, keeping its pattern of movement unpredictable.


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[Assistant] What I remember most about day two of Operation Tailwind was the disappointment of having the weather turn bad, preventing a much needed medevac, McCarthy said.


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[Assistant] So these guys have the goal, like okay, we got, we got some wounded guys, we need to get these guys out of here, they fight for, to get an, get an LZ, once they get this LZ established under attack, they push the attack back, and then the weather rolls in, and the guys can't, guys can't fly.


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[Assistant] Is there, what's your confidence on the weather predictions?


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[Assistant] Every once in a while, you would get a, a storm and you, we had some sand storms.


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[Assistant] They'd blacken the sky. It's pretty cool to see. But you can't run ops in them. At all. Like, you can't make communications because the sand blocks radio waves. So basically,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If there isn't that kind of biblical sandstorm coming, everyone just kind of stands down. Now you can go out and try and get into a good position, but you can't see anything. You, you can see, you know, maybe, maybe


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] 20 yards or something like that, I mean your visibility is just gone.


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[Assistant] But we could kinda know that they were coming. I never got, let me put it this way, I never got su- I never got surprised by the weather in Iraq. It was, it was sunny and hot 99% of the time.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Every once in a while, there'd be some kind of cloud, maybe a little bit of persis- precipitation by- because we were by the Euphrates River where it was, it was human. People don't know that. By the Euphrates River, it's freaking human.


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[Assistant] And I'm going to show you pictures sometime of this area to the


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[Assistant] Because, because it looked like Vietnam. Yeaah. It looked exactly like Vietnam. Palm trees, rice patties, dykes.


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[Assistant] Oh, is he in the green zone in, uh, in Afghanistan? No. Oh, in Iraq. And by green zone, he means areas where there was...


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[Assistant] Yup. In Afghanistan, they call it the green zone, like areas where there's, areas where they're like heavily, there's a lot of foliage. Right, okay. So in, uh, in Iraq, the green zone is, is the green zone. It's the thing right there in Baghdad, which is big and secure. It's where they had good food and all that stuff.


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[Assistant] So my question was when you would get a weather prediction you're gonna go like these guys Let's say you were going on a four-day mission


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[Assistant] And, and they're telling you, alright, looks like the weather's good.


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[Assistant] Fighting the NVA, fighting the weather.


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[Assistant] During that night we heard tracked vehicles, we heard trucks, McCarley said. Night two sounded like a lot of trucks heading south, bringing troops and supplies south and some to deal with us. We had skirmishes that night and we directed air assets to assist us directly and to the areas where we heard motor vehicle activity.


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[Assistant] So now you got the Spectre gunships coming at night, which is a beautiful thing.


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[Assistant] The NVA also inflicted some more casualties in the company.


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[Assistant] By the time McCarley moved out at 4am for day 3, September 13th, 1970, Rose was tending to more than 30 wounded men.


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[Assistant] Two with deadly serious wounds that required almost constant attention, fluid rejuvenation, and pain management. By that time, Rose was also running low on bandages, IVs, and morphine serrets.


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[Assistant] While the third platoon deployed one squad to maintain contact with another squad of NVA attacking the company's rear. After several gun runs by Scarface and A-1 Sky Raiders from Da Nang in Thailand, the rear action force rejoined the company as it pushed


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Into a good LZ site and began clearing trees with claymore mines and C4 plastic explosives.


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[Assistant] At noon, after Scarface and the Spads performed gun runs on enemy positions near a small LZ, the first Marine Corps 53D approached the LZ. As the large helicopter descended into the LZ, the pilot, Bill Beardall, was concerned that the LZ might not be large enough to land in.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] As he maneuvered the chopper slowly downward, Rose moved toward the rear tailgate of the CH-53 with his most seriously injured soldier, the South Vietnamese Lieutenant with a horrific thigh and hip injury. Inside the chopper, SF Medics John


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Staff Sergeant John Doc Padgett and Sergeant John Brown moved onto the back tailgate as it lowered with Brown supporting Padgett by holding his belt.


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[Assistant] Quote, I was trying to reach the patient that Mike was lifting towards us and just at that moment in time the pilot pulled pitch and lifted to the left.


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[Assistant] End quote. Paget said quote, when that B-40 hit us...


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[Assistant] There was aviation fuel everywhere. How it didn't ignite, I'll never know, but surely God was riding with us.


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[Assistant] End quote. Bear doll, pilot of the CH-53, radioed, Mayday, Mayday, we're going in, as the CH-53 began losing fuel in its hydraulic fuel, uh, uh, fluids.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] YH-14, that's the number of this particular CH-53, crashed without any injuries to the medics or crew members who immediately exited the wounded bird and set up a defensive perimeter, with Paget overseeing the impromptu team on the ground.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] As the NCOIC for SOG CCC dispensary at CONTOOM, Pageant could have pulled rank and stayed behind.


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[Assistant] And he said quote, but that, that wasn't how I did things. I usually took my turn riding on the chase medic ship. So here you have a guy that's a senior guy that could have been, you know, sitting back in the, in the, in the hooch.


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[Assistant] In the air conditioned who's pooch back on base, but he's, he's not that kind of leader.


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[Assistant] Steps up and gets in there. And now these guys are getting shot down. Maybe he's questioning that decision right now.


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[Assistant] Call CH-53 aircraft number YH-20 piloted by Mark McKenzie. Met them at a rally point and led them to the crash site where Scarface and Spads made gun runs in preparation for the chase medic aircraft.


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[Assistant] Called SAR by, by the Marines to arrive for the down, downed crew and SF medics.


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[Assistant] While en route to rescue the crew of YH-14 said YH door gunner Larry Groh, I was admiring the beautiful countryside and I couldn't help thinking of all the bad guys down there waiting for us.


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[Assistant] An NVA 51 caliber anti-aircraft heavy machine gun opened fire on the aircraft's left side.


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[Assistant] Gro's left side window was only about 25 yards away from it.


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[Assistant] And the muzzle flashes from the gun were huge and the rounds seemed to be the size of basketballs.


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[Assistant] Gro pulled the trigger on his M60 and held it until the 51 cal was silenced.


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[Assistant] The CH-53 started to bounce around and I knew, quote, and I knew we had taken some hits. Sergeant Whitmer was working his gun on the right side as Captain Capola and Sergeant Spalding were at the rear ramp throwing out the 120 foot aluminum extraction ladder.


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[Assistant] End quote. Meanwhile, Scarface cobras were making gun runs. Spads following suit hitting enemy sites. Quote, everything seemed to slow down as the action heated up, Groh said. Everything was in slow motion.


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[Assistant] When the ladder landed on the ground, Paget told everyone to climb in, climb it, and hook onto it.


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[Assistant] There was so much confusion and noise that no one moved to the ladder, he said. Finally, I said, follow me. And up I went. They followed suit.


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[Assistant] Grow said the liftoff from the LZ wasn't easy. Quote, we had no idea just how bad the battle damage was, but we were bouncing all over the sky and we had a huge


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Meaning that the, that there was something terribly wrong with our main rotor blades. End quote. Now the crew of YH-20 was concerned about the safety of the aircraft and the men below riding on the extraction ladder. So, you have the helicopter get shot down.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then this other helicopter comes in to rescue, they get lit up with a, with a Dishka machine gun, 12.7mm, 51 cal, which is a freaking massive machine gun. They get shot up with that, they throw the, the extraction ladder out the back, a bunch of the guys,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Only when we finally made it back do we learn just how bad our damage was. Numerous rounds it cut the hydraulic lines to the tail rotor. One round from the 50 cal it almost cut the main rotor tail drive shaft in half.


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[Assistant] That round had hit next to the Thomas coupling, which connects the tail rotor drive shaft sections together. We were extremely lucky to have made it back to base. God was with us that day, Padgett said.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Man those helicopters are beasts to take that kind of damage. Oh yeaah. Yeaah.


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[Assistant] The N.V.A. intensified its attacks against the men of B Company, throwing an estimated 600 plus hand grenades into the defense positions of the hatchet force, even as it moved a few times during the night. So now we're taking 600 hand grenades.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] By now, the B company meant it gained an important tactical advantage over the NVA. I like this, this is a good attitude to have right here. We got a freaking down helicopter, we got all these wounded guys, we received 600 grenades, and you know what? Here we go.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] By now, the B company men had gained an important tactical advantage over the NVA. They learned the NVA combat signals during the close in fighting. The NVA would hit two bamboo sticks together or use a whistle for signals. The hatchet force men learned that


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] One click or one whistle signaled the NVA to move.


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[Assistant] Two meant throw hand grenades and three meant withdraw.


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[Assistant] Hatchet force men would then radio what signal, what the signal was to the other team members so that they could adjust accordingly.


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[Assistant] More than once when the NVA signaled to withdraw, the hatchet force men would then attack when they were more vulnerable.


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[Assistant] It was one more tactical advantage that they used to their advantage against an enemy force that continued to grow on the battlefield despite losing hundreds of men to airstrikes, bombing runs, and team ground fire.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Meanwhile, back in Da Nang at their air base, the Marines returned to repair their aircrafts as the warning order came down for day four.


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[Assistant] The weather and NVA hoards were closing in on Bee Company.


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[Assistant] Cause that means they're throwing those grenades. So there's, this is close fighting.


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[Assistant] And not to mention, you wanna know how close it was? It's so close that we can hear their signaling when they're banging two bamboo sticks together.


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[Assistant] Going back to the book, the morning of Operation Tailwind Day 4 dawned upon B company hatchet force of Mac Vsauge moving toward an LZ to lift out the more seriously wounded among the remaining 127 men who could still walk.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] All 16 Green Berets had been wounded at least once. And about 40 Montagnard troops were wounded during the first three days of this secret foray deep into Laos. So there you go.


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[Assistant] The company commanding officer, Captain G. McCarley, had the point element moving toward an apparent clearing with one thought in mind. Get one Marine Corps heavy lift CH-53 helicopter in to pick up the wounded and then continue to march to destroy any NVA fortifications, supplies or troops they encountered.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] By now the entire second platoon was being used to help care for and transport the wounded under the tireless leadership of medic Gary Mike Rose. Including three wounded who were carried on impromptu stretchers. So there you go, you have an entire platoon of what, 40 guys?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So that's how hard it is to deal with wounded and move wounded.


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[Assistant] And Pathet Lao troops that were moving toward the Highway 165 area near the tiny hamlet of Chavaine.


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[Assistant] So these guys don't know it, but there's massive enemy coming, and bad weather. Now,


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[Assistant] When this bad weather hits, just to be clear if I didn't make this clear enough,


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[Assistant] The only thing that really keeps, keeps you guys alive on the ground at a certain point is just the fact that we have air superiority and you can drop bombs. Cause they got hundreds, if not thousands of troops going against you. So if you lose air support,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's a matter of time, because the, look, the, the NVA, they don't care, they'll keep coming, they'll come in waves until they finally just overwhelm you with, with just attrition. So if you lose tac air, at some point you're gonna be overrun and everyone's dead.


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[Assistant] We took our mission seriously. Meaning he's saying, look, we're not even thinking about leaving yet.


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[Assistant] We're thinking about getting our wounded out, but we're ready to go. We're gonna stay.


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[Assistant] We took our mission seriously. Relieved the pressure on the CIA's operation.


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[Assistant] Thanks to TAC Air, we had hurt the enemy, no question, and by continuously moving, we had kept the NVA off balance. We were tired, but our morale was good.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We'd been on the move about an hour when we heard dogs.


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[Assistant] These weren't dogs that sounded like tracker dogs the NVA used on us. They sounded like pet dogs.


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[Assistant] So we moved toward their sound and the first platoon followed them. The dogs led B company to what would become one of the greatest military intelligence coup of the eight year SOG secret war in Laos.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If your dogs, they're not tracking dogs, but they're just like pet dogs and the guys follow them back to this camp.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, no, the first time, I think it was the first time you were on and we were talking about those tracking dogs about halfway through the conversation after you're talking about these dogs, they're smelling you and they're closing on you. And I was like, Tilt, do you still like, do you not like dogs? And you said, I hate dogs. Totally understood.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] An enemy position with bunkers, and what do they do? Attack it.


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[Assistant] Third platoon protected our right flank. We caught them napping. We hit the outpost when they were cooking breakfast. There were open fires, fires with cooking pots on them. Hell, they never had anyone mess with them before this deep into Laos.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A few NVA, a few NVA hidden in a couple of the bunkers.


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[Assistant] Within a short period of time, more than 70 N.V.A. were killed as B company swept through the base. As B company drove the remaining N.V.A. out of the outpost, they discovered a bunker in the base of camp.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That, quote, appeared to be like a basement in a regular house.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Within 15 minutes, the base camp was overrun. The area was searched for intelligence and photographs were taken as medic micros continued to treat the wounded men of the company. So, this is a


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] By now it was clear to B company intelligence men that they had stumbled into an NVA battalion base camp that was a major logistical command center and probably the headquarters that controlled the nearby Laotian Highway 165. Remaining true to his original operation order,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] McCarley had all the intelligence documents packed and ordered B company and all of its walking wounded to march out of the battalion base camp, while demolitions experts wired 120 millimeter mortar, four enemy trucks, and more than nine tons of rice for destruction. As usual after the special forces charges exploded,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A1 Sky Raiders followed up with gun napalm and bombing run to completely destroy all enemy structures and supplies. Boom.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Meanwhile, back at Contomb, fast forward a little bit. Meanwhile, back at Contomb, while all that's happening, all the air assets, the A1 Sky Raiders of the Da Nang based operating location Alpha Alpha, Scarface pilots,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And CH-53 pilots are getting a detailed briefing on the weather.


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[Assistant] And a sighting by Covey of hundreds if not more than a thousand NVA and Path at Lao troops moving east towards B Company.


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[Assistant] Quote, during that final briefing it was very clear. Today, it was do or die.


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[Assistant] End quote from Scarface pilot Joe Driscoll.


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[Assistant] The big thing was the stark seriousness of the moment.


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[Assistant] Everyone knew they had suffered heavy casualties and now the weather was closing in on them.


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[Assistant] A1 Skyraider pilot Tom Stump added, quote, On the ground in Laos, McCarley pressed forward until he received a disturbing radio call from Covey, sometime in the early afternoon of September 14th, day four of Operation Tailwind.


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[Assistant] Quote, I believe it was Covey Rider, Jimmy, War Daddy Hart.


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[Assistant] Radio down and told us the NVA were massing and if that, and that if we didn't get out of there today, we weren't going to get out. Period. That got my attention.


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[Assistant] Frankly, he mentioned the weather issue too, which up to that point in time I wasn't aware of because we were in the jungle. End quote.


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[Assistant] So I had a, uh, it's cash. Cash, oh thank you sir. It's cash.


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[Assistant] I got corrected that, I got corrected on that when I was a, I think I was like an E5 or something, an E4.


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[Assistant] And, you know, I was briefing something and I said, well, there's a cache over there. My officer said, actually, Jocko, it's cache.


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[Assistant] I didn't believe him. You had to go to the dictionary and back then you actually had to get a dictionary.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, so these guys are in a bad way, and now McCarley kind of realizes we got the enemy coming, we got weather moving in. Back to the book, realizing they needed a large LZ.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A large LZ, large enough to handle a CH-53, cause CH-53's are massive birds. In the light of, and by the way, there's no opportunity, you're not gonna get 50 guys out on strings. So this thing's gonna have to land.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In light of losing one of the 53's heavy lift helicopters on a tight LZ the previous day. Yeah, by the way, we already lost one of these things. McCarley moved down a road towards a clearing that was large enough for an LZ. However, the open area was seated too deeply in a valley.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Which had hills on two sides of it where the NVA gunners would be able to have clear fields of fire on the marine rescue helicopters, as well as the supporting TAC air assets Scarface.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, Cobra gunships. To facilitate the continued movement of B Company, A1 Spads and Cobra Scarface, Scarface Cobras quote, gave us fire protection to the front and to the rear.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] At some point, Covey ran dangerously low on fuel, returned to base and connected SPAD pilot Tom Stump directly with McCarley about future airstrikes shortly before the first CH-53 arrived in the area of operations.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He had that slow southern draw and calmly said he was getting his ass kicked down there.


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[Assistant] Oh, and all the while I could hear gunfire, gunfire explosions and hand grenades.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We were on station for two hours doing just that, providing close air support. With all the SF wounded and the large number of casualties they had, I couldn't see how we'd get them out.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, McCarley and his men were grateful for the close air support of Stumpf, his fellow spad pilots, Scarface and Tacair, but Stumpf stood out in his mind. McCarley said, quote, Tom Stumpf's flew so close to us during some of those gun runs, I could tell if he had shaved or not.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's just how close those A1 Sky Raiders flew in support of us. We were extremely grateful for all the air support, believe me, but seeing Stump was something that stuck with me.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I also think it's safe to say that because this was a SOG mission deep into Laos, none of the air assets got the credit they should have received for the remarkable coverage they provided to us over four days, from the fast movers right down to Scarface and the Covies.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] As they moved, Covey writer Jimmy Ward-Daddy Hart told McCarley he had spotted another quote, horde of N.V.A. end quote, moving toward B company.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This time Hart told B company to put on their gas masks and directed A1 sorties flown by Hobo 20 and Firefly 44 based in Thailand to deliver CBU 30 tear gas ordnance.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] On the next horde of NVA, while B company found and secured a second LZ for the Marine CH-53 to land. This drastic tactic worked.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It slowed down another NBA horde, but many of the men in B company, including McCarley, Rose, and others were hit by the gas, which had a lot of our guys crying and choking on that CS. McCarley said, but it also bought them some time.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So they called, they called in some, some, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Some coughing gas in it. Some irritant. Indeed. Right? Which is a lot different. This is where, this is where it gets a little tricky and it comes up later, but.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That is a chemical, right? Sure. And people say, well this is a chemical weapon.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And it is technically a chemical weapon, but it's a freaking non-lethal chemical weapon. It doesn't kill you. Right, just you cry a lot and feel bad.


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[Assistant] Continuing on, the Scarface Cobras led the CH-53s into the LZ with deadly gun runs as an Air Force F-4 Phantom Jets pounded two enemy mortar pits that were marching 82mm rounds toward the LZ that was large enough for only one CH-53 to land at a time.


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[Assistant] Quote, we escorted the CH-53s into the LZ. The first run wasn't as bad as the previous day when I could see dozens of enemy soldiers out in the open firing at us and the choppers said Scarface.


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[Assistant] The first heavy lift helicopter landed on the LZ picking up a majority of the wounded B Company men, including the three most seriously wounded who were carried in stretchers since being wounded on night one of the operation.


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[Assistant] Since platoon, second platoon placed the wounded on the first marine helicopter before it lifted off successfully and headed back to contune.


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[Assistant] Scarface again led the second Marine Corps CH-53 into the LZ, this time taking an increased volume of enemy gunfire as aviators pointed out to McCarley.


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[Assistant] Another large contingent of NVA moving toward the LZ. Now it appeared that the NVA brass realized that B Company had hit the 559th Transportation's base camp and taken all of its maps, reports, records, and money and had directed masses of enemy troops towards B Company.


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[Assistant] Quote, they told me they could see hundreds of them coming for us, said McCarthy.


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[Assistant] The second Marine Corps CH-53 picked up the remaining wounded men and several other members of B Company and lifted off the LZ successfully, drawing more enemy fire than the first heavy lift helicopter.


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[Assistant] And now we go, Scarface led the third CH-53 into the LZ, taking even more enemy fire than the two previous choppers had encountered. However, for McCarley, Rose, 1st Sergeant Morris Adair, and the remaining men of B Company, the drama wasn't over. CH-53 C-Stallion pilot,


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[Assistant] Don, First Lieutenant Don Persky and his co-pilot, First Lieutenant Bill Batty, or Bady,


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[Assistant] We're concerned about the amount of rounds hitting the heavy lift chopper. I like the way they explain that.


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[Assistant] I'm a little, I'm a little concerned. I'm concerned about this.


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[Assistant] Quote, on our final approach we took heavy enemy fire, Persky said. We knew that this was the last element on the ground and we had to get them out.


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[Assistant] Sergeant 1st, Sergeant, or SF Sergeant Mike Hagan said, quote, I can tell you that big bird was a welcome sight to us. We were all beat. We were all wounded and we were all ready to go home. Believe me. End quote. B company commander, Captain Gene McCarley, Hagan,


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[Assistant] Medic Sergeant Rose and 1st Sergeant Morris Adair held a tight defensive perimeter with a few mountain yards as others beat a hasty but orderly path into the large marine warbird as dozens of NVA soldiers surged out of the CS gas clouds towards the LZ. McCarley was on the radio with Covey. He said,


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[Assistant] You have to get out of there now. This is, so this is uh, McCarley saying that Covey said


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[Assistant] You have to get out of there now. There's hundreds and hundreds of them coming after you. NOW!


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[Assistant] That's what McCarley's getting told. You have to get out of there now. And I don't know how many are left on the ground, but it's probably 15 or 20 or something like that.


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[Assistant] He got shot in the head, McCarley said. There was blood all over the place. Another yard looked at him, turned to me with a sad look, and simply said, He's dead.


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[Assistant] A1 Skyraider pilot Tom Stump vividly remembers those long moments before the men of B company boarded CH-53.


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[Assistant] Quote, it was a wild scene down there. As we provided close cover to the team on the ground, Air Force F4s attacked anti-aircraft guns that the NVA had moved into the area.


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[Assistant] They, meaning the NVA, had really, had really wanted them. They were masked to get them. They wanted to get back.


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[Assistant] What the team had taken from the base camp. Covey Riders told us that NVA 12.7mm and 37mm anti-aircraft weapons were opening up on us.


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[Assistant] Meanwhile, the Scarface Cobra gunships reacted to enemy gunfire on their aircraft while Gene directed us to enemy troops moving toward them. Keep in mind,


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[Assistant] There was a moment in time when I couldn't see how we'd get them out. It was that intense.


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[Assistant] As he was severely wounded in the foot, hand and arm on day one, Rose had tightly wrapped a torn jungle boot and bleeding foot with an ace bandage to keep it shut and had used his Kar-15 more as a cane to support his weight than as a weapon because he was so busy treating and tending to more than 60 wounded men. His left hand had suffered a shrapnel wound also.


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[Assistant] Which he quickly rapped before returning to caring for the wounded team. Now, as he, Adair, and Hagen moved up the ramp, the semi-mobile medic opened fire on the rapidly approaching NVA after they placed their dead Montagnard soldier on the helicopter.


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[Assistant] As we were backing up the ramp, they were coming toward us. They were coming at us hard, he said. I'm guessing the CS gas had them confused. Because they were getting close to us.


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[Assistant] As me, Mike and Morris stood, but none of them threw a grenade into the chopper. I never understood why they didn't. They were that close. And they kept coming even as we lifted off from the LZ while mowing down NVA soldiers.


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[Assistant] So they go through all that, and it looks like we're gonna be in a pretty good spot, possibly. But it ain't over till it's over.


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[Assistant] As the CH-53 lifted off from the LZ, pilot Persky said he and co-pilot Batty. What do you think that's, Batty or Beatty?


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[Assistant] Adair, McCarley, and Rose had just sat down next to Sergeant First Class Bernie Bright when someone tapped Rose on the shoulder and pointed to the left door gunner, Marine Sergeant Stevens, who was bleeding profusely from a gunshot wound in the neck.


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[Assistant] Got him on all fours and remember telling him, listen you lucky son of a bitch, if you're gonna die, you'd be dead by now.


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[Assistant] Sometimes as a medic, you have to be harsh with people to break them out of shock.


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[Assistant] As Rose struggled with Steven's bleeding neck injury, neither realized that the Marine door gunner's helmet


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[Assistant] Helmet's open microphone was live. So explain this a little bit. When you're on a aircraft, the people in the aircraft have what they call interior communications, which is basically a, you know, if you're the pilot, you can talk to the co-pilot and then you can both talk to the air crew and everyone's got these little helmets on with microphones.


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[Assistant] Right. And if you, I know it looks like in a movie, everyone's talking in an aircraft, in a helicopter, you can't hear anything in a helicopter. You have to scream directly into someone's ear to hear someone, especially in a CH-53. Those things are freaking loud.


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[Assistant] And so the aircrew has these headsets with these microphones that are built a special way so that they don't pick up the, they don't pick up the external noise, they just pick up the voice. Well, when you key that handset,


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[Assistant] You're transmitting, you're filling up that interior communications network with whatever noise you're putting into it. And so, I'll go back to the book here, communications were almost impossible.


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[Assistant] As he was on a hot mic, a hot mic is when you're keying up your microphone when you shouldn't be. And all I could hear was gasping and gurgling.


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[Assistant] Said Persky who is having a potentially deadly loss of power issue with the severely damaged CH-53C stallion.


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[Assistant] As the heavily laden helicopter lifted off from the LZ and went from a hover mode into a transitional lift, where the helicopter begins to gain both altitude and speed, engine failure emergency lights and warning systems screamed alerts of a pending engine failure. Within seconds, one engine died.


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[Assistant] He and Batty had another challenge on their horizon. How to avoid the mountains that they were approaching with only one engine. That ridgeline was sheer granite, Persky said.


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[Assistant] By now, in the back of the chopper, Rose had pulled off Steven's helmet, giving Persky and Batty improved communications between them and other air assets as the granite mountain loomed larger by the second. Quote, We were worried as we had to use extra energy from the last engine to get over that ridgeline, Persky said.


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[Assistant] After narrowly getting over it, a second granite ridge line came into view. It too had to be flown over. Now the big warbird was struggling.


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[Assistant] And the tail was lower than it should be. We could tell something was wrong. Really wrong. We just didn't know how wrong.


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[Assistant] Their, their aircraft's filled up with a bunch of wounded guys, they're taking rounds, they can feel the rounds hitting, and they still have to fly this thing, and now they gotta fly it under conditions that they've never flown under before, which is having one engine, and, and damaged controls, and not being able to communicate with each other, this is just mayhem.


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[Assistant] Back to the book, seconds after barely getting over the second ridgeline, the second CH-53D


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[Assistant] At that moment, quote, I can remember First Lieutenant Persky's exact words to this day, said McCarley. He said, Mayday, mayday, we've lost all hydraulics, we're going down. I looked out.


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[Assistant] Quote, all I saw were those huge granite cliffs with no engines.


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[Assistant] I fully expected to crash and burn at any moment.


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[Assistant] End quote. Persky hollered into the radio one more time. We've lost our second engine, we're going down.


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[Assistant] Basecamp hinged on perskies, piloting skills and the six 72 foot long rotors that were keeping the 15 foot wide helicopter aloft, biting into the air, descending at a rapid rate, but at a rate


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[Assistant] Better than dropping from the sky like a dead quail.


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[Assistant] After he got out a second mayday alert, Persky said he was hoping a pilot or covey pilot would say something.


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[Assistant] After a second engine went out, there was nowhere to go. All we could see was jungle and granite ridgelines.


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[Assistant] Quote, I really expected someone, Covey, Scarface, The Spads or Army Cobras to say, Hey go left, go right, something. But the radio was dead silent.


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[Assistant] For Persky and Batty, the silence was deafening.


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[Assistant] Marine Corps door gunner Larry Grow, who was in the first CH-53 that pulled out many of the wounded men from B Company earlier, said quote, At that time, no one had ever done a full auto rotation with a fully loaded CH-53 with no power.


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[Assistant] Quote, it was like a depression he headed towards. It was trailing smoke. It was ugly, real ugly. I worried that it might explode in mid-air or worse get hit by one of the, or worse hit one of those granite mountains or the jungle. From my seat up in the old trusty Skyraider,


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[Assistant] I couldn't see any LZ or any area that was open or large enough for those Marines to land that bird without crashing. By now I had heard that they were auto-rotating with a chopper full of troops. It didn't look good.


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[Assistant] So basically when a, when a helicopter, if a helicopter loses power, you know, if an airplane loses power, you can glide.


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[Assistant] Somewhat. You're not gonna gain altitude. I mean, I guess you, you could technically if you get in a, if you get in an updraft or current or whatever, but you're generally gonna come down. When a helicopter loses all of its power,


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[Assistant] What the, what the pilot has to do is let the blades, the rotor blades of the helicopter keep spinning.


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[Assistant] Yeah, it would, it would spin a little bit, but yeah, as you move it, it can spin. Yeah, so that's keeping those things spinning.


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[Assistant] You control the tilt of the blades. You can make them kind of flat, or you can make them like at a bigger angle so they're grabbing more air. So what you do is you kind of make them flat so they're not getting much resistance but they're spinning. And this is just like, I've never done this before.


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[Assistant] This is how I simplify stuff with the rocks up in my head.


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[Assistant] And then when you get close to the ground, you slam that thing so it grabs a bunch of air.


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[Assistant] Continuing on. And then, divine intervention. Persky and Batty saw a body of water.


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[Assistant] With a little patch of beach. It was just blind luck. We didn't know what was there. Or...


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[Assistant] With the blood, hydraulic fluid and aviation fuel leaking and pooling in the passenger compartment, Persky headed in that direction. At first he thought about landing in the water to buffer some of the impact of the landing.


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[Assistant] So the autorotation factor would keep the aircraft moving forward instead of dropping from the sky. The plan was to flare, a procedure where the rotor's angle pitch is changed to slow down the rate of descent and minimize the severity of impact upon landing on terra firma. So I was right.


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[Assistant] The rocks worked. The rocks worked. Dave Burke's got nothing on me. Good deal, Dave.


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[Assistant] It was supposed to cushion us. It didn't. What's more, that beach had a huge boulder on it that slanted to the right.


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[Assistant] The helicopter violently landed on the angled slope, hitting the slope surface and instantly slamming to the right into the ground, ejecting several of the Green Berets and their Montagnard tribesmen team members while six rotors shattered upon impact with the ground.


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[Assistant] B company commanding officer, Captain Gene McCarley, was violently slammed into the roof of the helicopter before being ejected from it. I remember hitting the roof of the helicopter, I remember hitting so hard, I felt my teeth crumble into sand.


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[Assistant] The next thing I knew I was outside on a rock. We were all dazed, amazed we were still alive.


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[Assistant] Mike was standing beside us. I was wiping the blood and my crushed teeth from my mouth. Then Mike said, we've got people in there, we have to get them out.


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[Assistant] I could smell the aviation fuel. There was blood everywhere. There was hydraulic fluids. The helicopter was broken by the severity of the crash and it was smoking. How it didn't explode, I'll never know. How that young marine pilot landed, albeit a hard landing, I'll never know. End quote.


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[Assistant] Then, Macaulay had one of those unique inexplicable moments in wartime in the middle of all the rubble, the smoke, the dazed confusion at the crash site.


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[Assistant] He looked to his right and observed 1st Sergeant Morris Adair standing in the water with a smile on his face holding his car 15.


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[Assistant] A dare says, to this day I can't explain exactly what happened that day. I came out on my own but I've been trying to figure out how ever since. When I came to my senses I was standing in water. Gene told me later I was standing there smiling. Can't tell you why I was smiling, maybe I was just happy to still be alive after getting my bell wrong.


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[Assistant] We were batting around like BBs in that chopper when it crashed. At the time, I didn't realize how much damage had been done to my nerves on my left side of my body, my head, neck, shoulder, arms, and hip.


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[Assistant] The brief reverie ended when Rose and McCarley headed back into the smoking helicopter. Cause it ain't over yet, cause they got guys in there.


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[Assistant] But what do they do? They go help. Rose helped to carry out


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[Assistant] SF Lieutenant Pete Landon, who had only been in country one week when Operation Tailwind launched.


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[Assistant] Get untangled from the wires and debris inside the aircraft. Then they exited the helicopter to strengthen the perimeter around the backside of it. In the pilot's compartment, Persky unstrapped Batty who had pulled a bad back compression stemming from the crash. I kinda pulled Bill from the helicopter. He was mobile but still stunned.


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[Assistant] When Persky set Batty down on the ground in front of the helicopter, he didn't see any SF men on that side of the bird.


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[Assistant] In the back of the helicopter, Rose McCarley and Mike Hagan helped the stunned troops exit the helicopter.


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[Assistant] So even though these guys have been through all this freaking mayhem, and they still go back and rescue their guys, and they're still thinking tactically about how to get through this.


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[Assistant] I forget how long it took from the time we crashed until I received radio contact from either Lieutenant Colonel Sexton or Covey.


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[Assistant] Said McCarley. They told him that the backup helicopters fuel levels were getting low and that when he came into the LZ, we'd only have five minutes or less to get the hell out or we might not have enough aviation fuel to make it back.


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[Assistant] After dodging Russian assisted NVA attack aircraft weapons, including Russian manufactured AK-AK weapons that exploded in midair in the fashion of anti-aircraft weapons in World War II,


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[Assistant] And hundreds of enemy ground forces firing automatic weapons and rocket propelled grenades at them. Pilots in the first scar face.


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[Assistant] Cobras that led the rescue helicopter toward the LZ were surprised to receive no enemy ground fire.


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[Assistant] The heavy lift marine sea stallion followed closely behind the Scarface gunships due to the heavy enemy ground fire throughout Operation Tailwind to provide extra defensive firepower for the big helicopter, Captain H... Kipola?


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[Assistant] What do you think? Capola? Captain H. Capola was on the rear ramp with an M60 machine gun in addition to right door gunner Sergeant T. McBride on the left, door gunner Sergeant T. Winnicki, and crew chief Sergeant Smith.


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[Assistant] Even though we had our bell rung, when that chase ship


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[Assistant] I remember Hagen, Jean, First Sergeant helping me, helping people up the ramp.


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[Assistant] Marine pilot Persky knew that he had bitten through his lip upon the crash impact, but he didn't realize how severely damaged it was until he moved up the ramp of the CH-53 and one of the door gunners pointed out that his lower lip was merely hanging on by a thin piece of skin.


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[Assistant] As the Sea Stallion lifted off with the wounded and extremely fatigued men of Bee Company, Rose made another surprising discovery. Maggots had helped to treat the two most seriously wounded team members who had been carried since day- since the command post was struck by an RPG round during day one.


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[Assistant] And that RPG hit. Rose had suffered serious wounds in two places, McCarley in several places, and two indige team members had been seriously incapacitated. The one thing I never thought about or planned for, said Rose, was for the use of maggots, which in the end proved to be the most likely lifesaver


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[Assistant] For the two most critically wounded team members. During those four days on the ground, Rose and the Montagnard medic trainee Koch were kept busy caring for them, giving them extra fluid, morphine shots and IVs, but during those days,


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[Assistant] And a few other yards, and the eggs hatched.


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[Assistant] According to the doctors at the evacuation hospital, the maggots got to the necrotic flesh before infection could set in and in fact did a better job of debriding the wounds than a surgeon could do. Who would have thought of it?


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[Assistant] We, we, we covered a book where that happened with the, uh, prisoner of war camps in, uhm, in, in, uhm,


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[Assistant] The medics would actually utilize maggots. They would get them to plant, uh, their, their, their,


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[Assistant] The CH-53 returned to DAC-2 to refuel while the A-1 pilots Swanson and Stump destroyed the crashed CH-53. The rescue C-Stallion then returned B-Company to the LZ outside the top secret SOG compound in Contum.


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[Assistant] An S2 officer approached McCarley and took his rucksack, which contained the enemy currency and some of the intelligence documents collected from the NVA command post in Laos. I never saw that rucksack again nor the NVA currency again, McCarley lamented.


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[Assistant] The CIA's operation was able to regain control of the strong point atop the plateau 10 days after we were extracted on the final helicopter. We had tied down an estimated regiment of NVA and Pathet Lao


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[Assistant] forces while destroying one major enemy ammo dump.


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[Assistant] And an enemy base camp after we remove the enemy documents and maps. A subsequent DOD report confirmed McCarley's final analysis that Operation Tailwind


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[Assistant] With SOG's deepest penetration into Laos during the 8 year secret war. The final count. 3 Montagnards were killed in action. 33 were listed as wounded in action.


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[Assistant] A total of 33 Purple Hearts were awarded to the 16 Green Berets who served in Operation Tailwind for wounds they received during the 4 day mission.


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[Assistant] McCarley required nine months of dental repair and surgery due to crashing, crushing his teeth when the CH-53 crashed.


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[Assistant] Two days after the Green Berets returned to CCC, completed their reports and got patched up by Special Forces medics on base, a huge party was held in Contoon Base with food, soda and alcohol for all the participants in Operation Tailwind, including the aviators from the


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[Assistant] HMH 5th 463 unit, Scarface Cobra gunship crews, Army Cobra gunship crews, and some Air Force Covey pilots.


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[Assistant] Somehow, the word did not get delivered to the A-1 SPAD pilots and ground crews from the Da Nang base.


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[Assistant] 47 years later, Swanson mused, quote, It's just as good that we didn't get the word because we were busy supporting other SOG and SAR missions. You know, just another day in the prairie fire area of operations for our Sky Raiders.


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[Assistant] End quote. To this day Rose can't touch the thumb on his left hand with his little finger due to the serious nerve and muscle damage he received when wounded on day one. On day one.


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[Assistant] So all that medical treatment he provided with no thumb in action. For more than two years, his wife pulled pus coated shrapnel and bamboo shards from his body, stemming from the many times he was hit with shrapnel while on the ground.


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[Assistant] A dare still suffers from nerve damage to his neck, left shoulder and arm from Operation Tailwind.


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[Assistant] But what's crazy is no Green Berets killed in action. That's, that's amazing. Beyond amazing.


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[Assistant] That's just a, it's an incredible, I mean it's a beyond incredible operation.


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[Assistant] Oh, amazing. And uh, I mean just the, the,


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[Assistant] The mission focus for McCarley just to


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[Assistant] Look, we get shot at while we're on insert.


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[Assistant] We up, we're still going. We get contacted, we're still going. We get wounded, we're still going. We get more wounded, we're still going.


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[Assistant] We find an enemy base camp, are we gonna, are we gonna back away? No, we're gonna attack it.


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[Assistant] We're gonna keep going. He's relentless. Totally relentless.


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[Assistant] And moving at night? At night. You guys didn't move much at night normally.


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[Assistant] That was like one of the things that they did that was like outside the box, you know.


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[Assistant] That's one of the things that they did, was they moved at night.


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[Assistant] Uhm, now you kind of, you kind of referred to this earlier, uhm, these guys do this beyond heroic operation, of course no one ever hears about it because it's SOG and you all, you guys all signed a 20 year, huh, uh, uh, you know, oath of silence on this stuff.


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[Assistant] Yeaah, and we kind of breezed through it, but also, uh, you heard McCarley say that, I think it was McCarley say that,


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[Assistant] Because it was so secretive, these, a lot of these pilots, they didn't get any recognition at all. I mean, you're freaking flying a helicopter into an LZ where there's massive machine gun fire to extract guys. I mean, that's just insane bravery.


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[Assistant] Yeah, the seals had a relationship like that with the, uh, with the seawolves. The Navy helicopter pilots. And we've had a couple of seawolves on here.


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[Assistant] You're a freaking badass. Same thing. They were going. Like if they got the call, they were going. That's all there was to it. Scramble the Sea Wolf. Alright, cool. What do you got? We're gonna get you out.


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[Assistant] That's the cable news network broadcast a disgraceful, erroneous story that stained the reputation of the men who participated in that mission portraying them as war criminals.


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[Assistant] Instead of reporting the facts of the successful mission, CNN accused the Green Berets and airmen of gassing American POWs held captive in Laos with deadly sarin gas.


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[Assistant] CNN used that error-laden work of fiction in an effort to compete with CBS's popular 60-minute program when it launched a new program on June 7th, 1998 called Newsstand.


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[Assistant] The title of the bogus, slanderous story entitled Valley of Death.


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[Assistant] It alleged that 16 Green Berets and 120 Indige troops from Operation Tailwind had destroyed a village and killed innocent women and children while directing U.S. aircraft to drop lethal sarin nerve gas on U.S. war defectors they said were POWs of the communists.


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[Assistant] To compound the egregious attack against America's finest soldiers and airmen, the next day, Time Magazine repeated


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[Assistant] The hideous allegations in the news story written by CNN staff members headlined, Did the US Drop Nerve Gas?


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[Assistant] During the eight-year secret war in Laos during the Vietnam War and run under the aegis of Military Assistance Command Vietnam Studies and Observation Group or simply SOG.


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[Assistant] There was an additional political ramification stemming from the CNN Time magazine report in 1998.


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[Assistant] At a July 21st, 1998 press conference repudiating the CNN Time Report, then Secretary of Defense William Cohen said, quote,


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[Assistant] The charge would be used to discredit the United States attempt to curb the proliflation, the proliflation of weapons of mass destruction. In fact, Iraq immediately incorporated CNN's charges into its anti-use, anti-US propaganda effort


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[Assistant] Cohen ordered a full scale across the board investigation of the CNN time story from all military branches involved in Operation Tailwind while requesting at the same time from the CIA and the Joint Chiefs of Staffs.


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[Assistant] Of course these guys found out, you know, reported what had really happened. And then there's some retractions and some apologies.


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[Assistant] Secretary Cohen said I think all Americans should know that the 16 men who conducted this mission were heroes


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[Assistant] But that they have been hurt by this report. I can assure you that you and your colleagues


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[Assistant] And your families, you did nothing wrong. And he's, obviously he's addressing the men.


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[Assistant] Quite to the contrary, you did everything right. 16 Americans fought steadily for four days. All of them were injured. All got out alive. The documents that they captured provided intelligence bonanza. General Abrams, the commander of our troops in Vietnam, said Tailwind was a valuable operation executed with great skill and tremendous courage.


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[Assistant] In a CNN retraction, CNN news group chairman, president and CEO Tom Johnson said an independent investigation concluded that the report quote, cannot be supported. There was insufficient evidence that sarin or any other deadly gas was used and CNN could not confirm that American defectors were targeted at the


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We apologize to our viewers and to our colleagues at time for this mistake. CNN owes a special apology to the personnel involved in Operation Tailwind, both the soldiers on the ground and the US Air Force pilots and US Marine Corps helicopter pilots who were involved in the action.


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[Assistant] On July 13th, Time Magazine printed an apology to its readers, headlined Tailwind An Apology.


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[Assistant] They noted that the allegations reported on June 7th and 8th, 1998 could not quote, be supported by the evidence. End quote. In July 14th, 1998, Ted Turner wrote a letter to McCarley.


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[Assistant] I hope you'll accept my personal apology for the CNN newsstand's recent erroneous reporting on Operation Tailwind. This entire episode has been very painful for me as the founder of CNN. However, my greatest distress comes from knowing that our coverage upset those on the front lines.


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[Assistant] Carly said in a 2015 interview, quote, I personally spoke to Ted Turner and he reiterated that he wrote what he wrote in the letter. He also told me he was going to call the other members of our team and write them a letters of apology to my best, to the best of my knowledge. That did not happen. End quote.