MACV-SOG Profile picture
Oct 5 7 tweets 2 min read Twitter logo Read on Twitter
On this day in 1968, RT Alabama was inserted into Laos with 1-0 Jim Stride, 1-1 Steve Engelke, and 1-2 Lynne Black

As the helicopter was coming in, Black noticed an NVA flag flying which told him there was a large NVA base camp nearby. Stride ignored the request to abort (1/6) From left to right: Lynne "Blackjack" Black (12 - Radio Operator), Loc Hua (01 - VN Team Leader), Steve Englke (11 - Assistant Team Leader), Du Nguyen (Scout), Khan "Cowboy" Dan (Interpreter), Cuong Nguyen (Scout) KIA 5 Oct 68, Hoa Nguyen (Point Man) KIA 5 Oct 68, and Quang Do (Scout). Photo belongs to Lynne Black Jr.
The team was on the ground with the point man Hoa leading the way and 1-0 Stride not far behind

While walking along a low spot, they were caught in the middle of an elevated L shaped ambush. Stride was killed along with the point man Hoa (2/6)
1-2 Lynne Black was forced to take over the team as it seemed the 1-1 was also killed in the ambush

While he was getting the team ready to charge through one side of the ambush, Lynne notice the 1-1 was still alive. He was curled up in ball begging God to take him home (3/6)
On his first mission in SOG, Lynne and his interpreter Khanh Doan, were able to organize his team and break the initial ambush

As they made there way through, several of the indigenous team members were wounded including Khanh, they all continued to fight (4/6)
Lynne and RT Alabama would come up against a total of roughly 10,000 NVA soldiers who came wave after wave constantly throughout the day of October 5th

As they killed wave after wave, they would drag the bodies back to their perimeter and use them as sandbags (5/6)
The team would eventually extract from the area thanks to the 37th ARR who sent 2 Jolly Green Giant HH-3E helicopters

One was shot down on the 2nd extraction attempt, 2 men were killed and were never recovered. The remaining crew was taken out with RT Alabama (6/6)
This story is covered in detail in Lynne’s book, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot. It’s my favorite SOG book and would recommended to everyone.

Read the alt caption to the picture to get all the names of the indigenous men who were on Alabama that day.

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with MACV-SOG

MACV-SOG Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @MAC_VSOG

Apr 4
One of MACV-SOG’s most prolific warriors, Billy Waugh, has passed away today.

If you do not know about “Good Deal” Billy Waugh I highly encourage you to spend some time today looking over his life. What he did for Special Forces and for our country has hardly ever been matched.
Rest In Peace SGM Billy Waugh
1929-2023

You will never be forgotten.
Read 4 tweets
Nov 30, 2022
Perhaps the most prestigious anti-terrorism operator there has ever been, Sergeant Major “Good Deal” Billy Waugh. Billy served in the Army from 1948-1972. After a brief stint in the USPS he joined CIA where he stayed from 1977-2005. His awards are as follows: Image
Silver Star
Legion of Merit
Bronze Star Medal (4)
Purple Heart (8)
SGM Waugh conducted the first combat High Altitude, Low Opening (HALO) jump, a parachuting maneuver designed for rapid, undetected insertion into hostile territory. In October 1970, his team made a practice Combat Infiltration into the NVA owned War Zone D
Read 6 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

:(