"No
posterity, you will never know how much it has cost us to preserve your
freedom. My hope is that you will make good use of it. If you do not, I shall
repent in heaven that I have took half the pains to preserve it.” –John Adams
VIETNAM
30 June, 1970
Day 1
“Oh God, Oh God, Oh God!” Captain Jacob Walden
yelled out through his oxygen mask as his ejection seat violently propelled him
through the Vietnam sky.
The
sounds of his yells were muffled by the oxygen mask over his face and the
almost deafening sounds of the ejection seat rockets that just seconds before
lifted him out of the exploding aircraft he was in. Over the mid-morning sky of
Vietnam, the rockets propelling Captain Walden’s ejection seat extinguished,
his parachute opened, and the ejection seat separated, falling towards the
earth almost 20,000 feet below. The entire time from initial ejection to the
point where the parachute fully opened took about five to eight seconds, but
for Captain Jake Walden it seemed like an eternity.
For
Jake, this was the first time that he had been exposed to this level or type of
danger. The 24-year-old Captain had been assigned to Vietnam less than a month,
and although he had received training in what to do if he were shot down—the
training was still much different from the reality.
The
previous violent moments were now transitioning to a surreal quietness and
peacefulness. The cold sweat Jake experienced was caressed by the breeze of the
air as Jake drifted under his parachute. As he regained his composure, he
looked around and then down to see what under normal circumstances any sport
parachute enthusiasts would be thoroughly enjoying. It was eerily quiet, except
for the slight sound of the air passing through the parachute as he had begun
from an unusually high altitude of about 20,000 feet.
During
his descent, Jake was transitioning to becoming one more American falling
victim to the Vietnam War. While Jake already had memberships in several
personal and professional organizations and clubs, he was about to join a
unique and somewhat ironic privileged membership in three more, one as a
Prisoner of War and another as a Veteran of the Vietnam War. The third one,
however, would not receive any real recognition for the sacrifices made by
soldiers like Jake Walden. People like Jake did not receive recognition,
memorials, or even a national monument in their honor or remembrance. Captain
Jacob Walden was about to take up membership in a fraternity of “Forgotten
Soldiers.”
Chapter 1
Missing In Action
Four Months Later
18 November, 1970
Day 142
By mid-November of 1970,
the fate of Jake Walden and many other Americans who were missing and presumed
captured was uncertain. Months earlier in July of 1970, the outcome of the
Vietnam War had, for the most part, already been determined, and while the war
did not end for almost three more years, President Nixon had already put into
place plans and negotiations for ending it. The Vietnam War was highly
politicized, dramatized, and in some cases very personalized by the American
people. In many instances, Americans were disconnected from the reality of the
individuals making the sacrifices—individuals like Jake who had been shot down.
Back in the United States, at places like the San Francisco airport, people
were spitting and yelling at soldiers who proudly wore their uniforms as they
walked through airport terminals.
While
there was no lack of public opinion and political agendas, one view of the
military leadership focused on the recovery and rescue of its own people. In
June, 1970, discussions began in Washington DC concerning options to conduct
rescue operations. President Nixon was quite interested in the possibility of
not only rescuing prisoners, but also forcing the North Vietnamese to the peace
negotiations.
EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, FLORIDA
18 November, 1970
Air Force General Leroy J. Manor, his staff, and less than a hundred
other military personnel were at a secret operations center at Eglin Air Force
Base in Florida. A few months earlier General Manor had been appointed the
Commander of a secret operation, named Task Force Ivory Coast, to
research, prepare, and possibly execute a rescue operation of American
Prisoners of War inside North Vietnam. The second in command was Army Special
Forces Colonel Arthur D. “Bull” Simons. Bull Simons recruited Army Special
Forces volunteers—Green Berets—from Fort Bragg, North Carolina, to sign up for
a mission that they were told nothing about, except it was classified and they
may not make it home. Without hesitation, they all volunteered, as did the Air
Force crews that would fly the helicopters and other support aircraft on the
operation.
During
the mid-afternoon, another rehearsal of a rescue operation at a mock POW camp
had just finished. General Manor, Colonel Simons and other staff members were
going over their daily post rehearsal details, which had become more of a
routine than rehearsal. On this day, however, the briefing was interrupted by a
knock on the door of the briefing room, followed quickly by a Sergeant sticking
his head inside the room.
“General,
call for you on one. Think you're gonna want to take this one, sir.”
General
Manor walked over to the table where the secure telephone was located and got
on the phone with the Secretary of Defense. General Manor listened for a moment
and then said, “Thank you sir.” After hanging up the phone, General Manor
looked around the room at everyone and then at Colonel Simons with a slight
smile: “The President has given his approval. We’re a go.”
Eager to get the operation
going, Colonel Simons cracked an ever so slight smile.
BANGKOK THAILAND
19 November, 1970
Day 143
After General Manor had
received the green light, it didn’t take long for the Task force to get loaded
up on an aircraft headed for Thailand. When they departed Eglin, however, the
members of the Task Force were told they were heading to California for more
training. The flight ended up passing through Alaska, Japan and on 19 November
ended up at Takhli Royal Thai Air Force
Base north of Bangkok, Thailand, an air base that also doubled as a CIA
secret compound.
The
following day at 1800 hours the 56 men of the ground force were assembled at a
theater on Takhli waiting for a mission briefing from Bull Simons. While they
waited the men talked among themselves about the still unknown location of the
upcoming operation. During the previous three months at Eglin Air Force Base in
Florida, the Green Berets and Air Force Crews had prepared and rehearsed for
the upcoming tasking. During that time, they conducted a total of 170
rehearsals on a mock-up of the POW camp, but they were never told the actual
location. The camp was a replica built from a photograph of the actual camp
where the mission would take place. The entire operation and training, which
included the daily breakdown of the camp and rebuilding of it to prevent pictures
from being taken by the daily fly over of Soviet satellites, had to be kept
secret...
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