Post by 2nd Bat on Nov 22, 2016 14:01:40 GMT -5
On this date 20-21 November 1970 the US Army conducted the most technically challenging and elaborate raid on the SonTay prison compound in the Heart of North Vietnam. The raid was ostensibly planned as a means to free American POWs housed there. Upon arrival it became obvious that the POW compound had recently been abandoned.
There was (at the time) a top secret secondary mission which succeeded brilliantly and because it was a politically and internationally sensitive objective was not revealed until quite recently and with little or no fanfare. The media at the time berated the US Military about its ineptitude and it proudly accepted the ridicule knowing it helped to cloak the actual assignment.
The raid placed a highly skilled and thoroughly rehearsed SF raiding party on the ground at night in the most air defensed and radar sensitive location on earth and extracted them with only minor injuries to a couple of the raiders. There were 2,500 enemy troops billeted within a five mile radius of the two compounds assaulted.
It is estimated that there were 2oo plus KIA enemy troops created during the 48 minutes our raiders were on the ground. These enemy troops were mostly housed in an adjacent compound for whom the POW compound provided protection from aerial attack. Back in the day the military did not have the capacity for precision bombing or cruise missile attack like we have today. This barracks housed middle and radar technicians who trained and manned the AA batteries throughout the North they were remarkably tall and Caucasian for North Vietnamese soldiers and therein lies the real story of the Son Tay Raid. Air losses over North Vietnam dropped dramatically following the raid and the treatment of our POWs improved substantially as the NVA and her unofficial allies discovered America's true capability and resolve.
There was (at the time) a top secret secondary mission which succeeded brilliantly and because it was a politically and internationally sensitive objective was not revealed until quite recently and with little or no fanfare. The media at the time berated the US Military about its ineptitude and it proudly accepted the ridicule knowing it helped to cloak the actual assignment.
The raid placed a highly skilled and thoroughly rehearsed SF raiding party on the ground at night in the most air defensed and radar sensitive location on earth and extracted them with only minor injuries to a couple of the raiders. There were 2,500 enemy troops billeted within a five mile radius of the two compounds assaulted.
It is estimated that there were 2oo plus KIA enemy troops created during the 48 minutes our raiders were on the ground. These enemy troops were mostly housed in an adjacent compound for whom the POW compound provided protection from aerial attack. Back in the day the military did not have the capacity for precision bombing or cruise missile attack like we have today. This barracks housed middle and radar technicians who trained and manned the AA batteries throughout the North they were remarkably tall and Caucasian for North Vietnamese soldiers and therein lies the real story of the Son Tay Raid. Air losses over North Vietnam dropped dramatically following the raid and the treatment of our POWs improved substantially as the NVA and her unofficial allies discovered America's true capability and resolve.