This is Jockel Podcast number 248 with Echo Charles and me, Jockel Willink. Good evening, Echo.

Good evening.

As the summer of 1970 evolved, the deadly secret war in Laos raged into its sixth year.

The communist NVA and its secret advisors from Russia, China and Cuba continued supplying

growing numbers of light and heavy weapons, state-of-the-art anti-aircraft artillery missiles and vehicles.

The communist campaign against SOG reconnaissance teams resulted in the green berets exceeding a 100%

casualty rate. Meaning of the special forces soldiers who went across the fence into Laos and

Cambodia, all were either killed in action, wounded more than once in combat with enemy forces,

or they simply disappeared. As of July 4, 2017, there are 50 green berets listed as missing

an action in Laos alone from the secret war, along with 105 aviators who died supporting SOG missions.

SOG hatchet force operations of platoon or company-sized missions didn't fare much better.

In an effort to bring a temporary halt to shipping supplies flowing down the Ho Chi Minh trail,

three separate hatchet force slam operations were conducted in Laos west of South Vietnam between

March 1969 and February 1970. The area of operations was codenamed Prairie Fire.

Again, due to the severe political constraints placed on SOG operations, the Prairie Fire area of

operations extended west of South Vietnam about 30 miles. No SOG teams went beyond that area of operations.

The three slam operations were titled Nightcap, Spin Down, and Halfback. Each of those operations had

a hatchet force company helicopter to a hilltop on the main segment of the Ho Chi Minh trail.

The trips would dig in, set up ambushes, and target NVA trucking. After the lead trucks were hit,

there would be a traffic backup along the jungle trail. Oftentimes large portions of the Ho Chi Minh

trail were not visible from air due to clever camouflage efforts by the NVA and their conscripted

forced labor of local indigenous tribe people. Thus, when the first trucks were hit, hatchet force

...