Share This:
As the U.S.’s involvement in Vietnam steadily grew with more conventional troops, so did its secret war. To counter the Viet Cong’s guerrilla campaign, which was supported by the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) and was raging inside South Vietnam, the Pentagon established a highly secretive special operations organization in 1964.
The Military Assistance Command Vietnam-Studies and Observations Group (MACV-SOG) was tasked with taking the fight to the enemy regardless of where they were. Cross-border operations in Cambodia, Laos, and North Vietnam where U.S. troops weren’t supposed to be became SOG’s specialty.
Special Operations Pioneers
When Bargewell retired in 2006, he was the most decorated soldier on active duty.
Eldon Bargewell knew he would serve in the military from a very young age.
With Vietnam War heating up, he enlisted in the Army in 1967 and went straight to Special Forces selection. Once he received his Green Beret, he deployed to Southeast Asia. There, he further volunteered for the elite Military Assistance Command Vietnam-Studies and Observations Group (MACV-SOG).
SOG was a covert unit that conducted cross-border operations in Cambodia, Laos, and North Vietnam. It was composed of Green Berets, Navy SEALs, Recon Marines, and Air Commandos. As conventional units struggled against the North Vietnamese and Vietcong, these operators fought America’s secret war.
During the Vietnam War, the US created a highly classified unit that still influences modern special operations Stavros Atlamazoglou US Air Force Bell UH-1P helicopters from the 20th Special Operations Squadron fly into Cambodia, around 1970. As the US waged a conventional war in South Vietnam, a group of special operators carried out a secret war inside and outside the country. The Military Assistance Command Vietnam-Studies and Observations Group, as their unit was known, was disbanded after the war, but it had a lasting influence on modern US special operations forces.
As the US s involvement in Vietnam steadily grew with more conventional troops, so did its secret war.
Share This:
Photos of John Stryker Meyer, SOG team: Wikipedia
On this day 57 years ago, the Military Assistance Command Vietnam (MACV), activated the “Studies and Observation Group” which became known simply as SOG.
MACV headquarters in Saigon issued General Order 6, which created a highly secret new organization, Joint Special Operations Task Force to execute clandestine operations. SOG, was approved by President Lyndon Johnson three years after President Kennedy had called for covert actions against North Vietnam.
MACV-SOG was first activated on January 24, 1964. It was commanded by an Army Special Forces colonel but would be comprised of troops from all the services: Army Green Berets, Navy SEALs, Air Force, Marine Corps Force Recon, as well as CIA personnel as SOG would soon be conducting most of the Agency’s covert operations in North Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia were all part of the organization.