Prairie Fire Missions - Randy Jayne
Vložit
- čas přidán 21. 08. 2024
- During the Vietnam war, clandestine teams of MACV SOG green berets would be dropped into Laos Cambodia, and event North Vietnam to study, observe and report on troop communist movement. Quite often these clandestine teams would be hunted by dogs and soldiers resulting in fierce firefights. When these firefights broke out and an emergency extraction would have to take place, the code name for this mission was "Prairie Fire" Randy Jayne takes us on an incredible journey as he recounts just how treacherous these missions were.
Stories are much different when an officer tells them. This is the first time I heard someone actually talking about the "Saigon Mole." The mole was never caught and the damage he did was tremendous for the program. No American was ever held accountable for his escape. SOG HQ KNEW about the mole and still continued sending mission requests without taking measures to protect the teams on the ground. UNFORGIVABLE! (Hint: EVERYONE in SOG HQ should have been polygraphed!)
yes, I'd never heard that before. I listen to Stryker's podcast, SOGCAST, and no one on there have ever mentioned it. I wonder if they just don't want to believe they lost so many because of some pos mole. It's crazy!
@@multitoolish he talks about it in his books. Somebody was squaking to a prostitute and she was telling the nva.
@@multitoolishMeyer talks about it along with bowra.
I think they say he got caught, you can look it up on Wikipedia. It was a spy ring working with the Russians
I forget their names
Some Recon Teams were sequestered for 2 days prior to H-hour/departure and the indigenous team members weren't told where they were going until they were ready to insert. This served to reduce the exposure of the team to counterintelligence by the infiltrators. There were NEVER any Marvin the ARVNs operating in Laos, so we didn't have to brief them. It's easy to dismiss the compromise of SOG recon teams as a result of a double agent. While this was true on occasion, the PAVN troops were incredibly well versed in counter-reconnaissance and man tracking. Their ability to track, intercept and annihilate SOG teams snooping and pooping in their AO was Varsity level and was approached with vicious tenacity. If I were in their boots, I'd go after those teams at all costs, just the same.
@@multitoolish Stryker's KNOWLEDGE about SOG has been at E4 level and talking with with fellow operators. He did not have access to senior level planning. Any recon man was NOT in the loop to know about a mole giving away their mission locations. I was very well informed and knew many of the senior officers in SOG and I still did not know about the mole until AFTER the war ended.
Only had one experience with the A-1 pilots. Company size op and we were getting extracted. Our air over watch had seen movement behind us, as we moved to the extraction clearing. The A-1 came up behind us and dropped on that area, one bomb. The pilot told us where, what, and when it was coming. Maybe the only time I would describe a military action as "surgical." His communication and precision were text book, what you want on the ground.
Without Air like that, almost all SOG activity would have been one way trips.
Pilots in Vietnam were equally badassess just like the SOG boys were.
These guys are like the 160th SOAR of the 60s
Damn Right!
The Jolly Greens and the Sandys "hung it out to dry" every single time they took off to go after a downed pilot or SOG LRP patrol in dire straits. These guys had balls of steel. They had a mission and they did everything humanly possible to carry it out. I went to Air Force weapons school at Lowry AFB,, Denver, Colorado in 1968 and one of the guys in my class ended up loading weapons on the A-1s at NKP, Thailand while I was stationed at Bien Hoa AB in South Vietnam. The day before the Army invaded Cambodia on May 1, 1970, a couple of Joly Greens and some A-1s showed up at Bien Hoa. Nobody knew why they were there at our Weapons Shop on the ramp at Bien Hoa because they were not stationed there. I came to work that night and just happened to see my friend from weapons school out on the ramp near one of the A-1s and I was like Hey, man, what are you doing here!? We talked and he told me he had no idea why he was there either. They were told to get on a plane and would be gone from the base for "a while." Well, the next day, the Army went into Cambodia. They were there to go in after any pilots that went down in Cambodia. When I went in for night shift the next night, the A-1s were gone and I never saw him again. They had transferred to Thon Son Knut AB in Saigon.
Bien Hoa AB supplied 85% of the tacical air support for the entire Cambodia Campaign, in addition to all our regular missions during those eight weeks.
Thanks for recording this history before they these brave warriors are all gone.
Josh Thank you for your very kind note.
Thank God for courageous men like Randy Jayne!
I was a forward observer for a Light Infantry Company just before Christmas 1968. I only had one set of A1 Skyraiders fly for me and they put in napalm on a ridge line. Very effective.
I will allways remember you my friend "steve Dennys" Sandy driver
To all of you un thanked heroes (That's what you are!) of the war in Vietnam, THANK YOU!!!
Your stories and deeds molded many young minds into the warriors of the last 50 years.
Thank you so much for these stories!!!
Yup. The unthanked Vietnamese veterans who defended their country from foreign oppressors certainly deserve their thanks.
These men presented exemplary courage under extraordinary circumstances every day for the entire tour. Welcome home all of you 🇺🇸
Those guys were a different breed! Thank God we have them. Welcome home! God bless 🙏
Yes they are
The Samoan 1st Sergeant point was interesting to me. I went to Afghanistan with the 101st, one of our brother platoons had a Samoan E6 who was on his 7th tour...yes 7. It was my understanding in the early days of Iraq you could waive your dwell time and hop right back on with another unit going back over and apparently that's what he did. He couldn't get enough. I will always say this about Samoans, and our Charlie Troop had a Samoan guy too, much better to fight with them then against them. Our Troop's Samoan apparently was admonished by our 1st Sergeant for taking trophies....in the age of cell phones you can't do that I guess. Samoans, glad they're on our side.
Me too, that guy sounded pretty intense. He was ready to be on the ground at any moment and was not going in naked.
God Bless You Randy Huett! Sgt. May 25th Infantry RVN 70-71
Had the honor of meeting and knowing Dale Potton when he was a commercial pilot up here in central WI in the early 80s.
An absolute and major salute to these men! Thank you men, for your service, despite the communist efforts to destroy you.
Now Biden and his Communists are pushing Agenda 30 and The Great Reset …
SOG - "Studies and Observation Group".
Actually "Studies and Observations Group."
this definitely explains the 100% casualty rate for all of MAC V SOG .
If you get a chance to read Uncommon Valor by Stephen L. Moore, you will have a better understanding of the 100% casualty rate. A GREAT READ! amzn.to/3vlYEoh
Thank you for the job you did. I can't even imagine what it was like to do that.
Total respect Randy Jayne what a man and he flew with some good men and went into hell to get his comrades out of some battle zones where angel's fear to tread . It's a disgrace the MOLE was Never caught disgraceful. What a Gentleman and I have total respect for Randy Jayne 🤝🙏👏
Thank you.
Amazing
@interviewswithwarriors thank you for your comment, we are blessed to be able to document so much of these oral accounts of the Secret War
MAC V SOG by far the bravest & best soldiers to represent the US.
Amen!
Randy Jayne. Not doing well. ICU Wife is spoon feeding him. Has been doing better
We chatted with Randy the other day via text, he said that he was still in the hospital but hoped to be out in a few weeks. Randy is a fighter, and seems to be in good spirits, He signed the text "I'll be back"
Crew chief is reliable, as usual.
So the enemy he was firing at and the rounds he was placing were about 20 feet from the helicopter cabin while he is flying by at ~150mph? Staggering from every point of view.
Brave men
He was talking about Aquanenoc, the, he pasted away 2022, I served with him in SOUTHCOM
SOG--studies and observation group....that was their cover name.
Big sky little bullet theory. It’s a thing, the artillery are practitioners of the craft. Air Force ground support pilots don’t like it much.
Isnt SOG Studies and observation group not special operations group
It was studies and observation group
@@patrickharvey158 Originally they were known as the Special Operations Group. But, because they operated in Laos and Cambodia in the "Secret War, and "we were not fighting there," their name was changed to Studies and Observation Group as a cover to the general public. These guys pulled LRP missions collecting intelligence in Laos, Cambodia and North Vietnam. These missions were exceedingly dangerous and the casual rates were 100%. Small, 5-8 man team members with some being a combination of US and Montagnard Tribsesmen. Team members were combinations of Green Berets, Seals and Army Rangers in various combinations. They were some badasses in everybody's book!!! There were Several SOGs that were decorated with the Medal of Honor.
Bump.
JOHNYYYY!!!1
Sog
Rov
Rocksc
Hope you’re aware of John Stryker-Meyer, associated with Jocko Willink, who is the unofficial/official documentarian of the MACV-SOG operations, self accepted position of responsibility and report ability...
Hello Roy, John (Tilt) Stryker Meyer is one of our close friends. We consult with him on many of our videos. We are chatting with him about a visit to our studios in the very near future. Stay tuned hopefully we will have some behind the scenes clips for you.
I hope so he is a humble great man I talked 2 him a bit on fb after purchasing his books
What plane was this guy flying? OV-10?
Hello Aaron on this mission Randy would have been flying an A-1 Skyraider, most likely an E model, or it was commonly referred to as a Fat Face, the two pilot version of the A-1 Skyraider
@@militarytales OK makes sense now. I didn't know there was a 2 seat version of the Skyraider.
What is the bursting radius and bomblet quantity of a CBU bomb?
Why did they have to spray anything
@@1anre The term "spray" refers to what the CBUs looked like as they fell out of the canisters on the wings of what ever plane they were mounted on. The covered a very large area. The canisters resembled a rocket pod. Some CBUs detonated on impact, others would open on impact, send out trip wires and would detonate when somebody walked by later and hit one of the trip wires. They were deadly. They were also banned sometime after the Vietnam War. I was trained on loading weapons in the Air Force, but never loaded any CBUs.
@@williammoeglin6191 oh got it.
You served during the Vietnam era in 60s?
@@1anre Yes, I did. I entered the Air Force in September of 1968 and was Honorably Discharged in September of 1972. Served in Vietnam in '69-70 at Bien Hoa AB. I was a weapons specialist and loaded bombs, rockets, missiles and even Nuclear Rockets. I also removed armament control panels and made modifications and reinstalled them in the cockpits of jet fighters. I also removed, repaired and reinstalled bomb racks on jet fighters. I worked on
F-100s, A-37s, F101s and F-106 during my time in the Air Force.
What are knives and what are the CBUs he was going to drop?
Hello Another DeJa Vu: The Knives were a Helicopter Squadron, the 21st Special Operations Squadron, 56th Special Operations Wing, Nakon Phanom Air Base, Thailand from March 1969 to February 1970. They pulled a lot of the Prairie Fire Emergences Extractions. CBU is a Cluster Bomb Unit in to words of one pilot, A People Killing Weapon - CLUSTER BOMB UNIT - 1964-1975 Vietnam War Cluster bombs made great advancements since the time of World War II. The “bomblets” were smaller, could fit more in a single canister and could cover a wider area once dropped. Imbedded in the shell of the bomblets were about 300 steel balls and when the cluster bomb hit the ground, these steel balls would explode and shoot in all directions.8 These and other anti-personnel weapons were being mass produced “to meet the needs of the anti-guerrilla campaign”. Since guerillas were hard to see, cluster munitions were developed so that they could be deployed from the sky, infiltrate the enemy area and cover a large area of land.9 Between 1966-1971 the Department of Defense (DoD) ordered 423,778 CBU-24 series cluster bombs and 59,192 bomblet-filled units used in B-52 bombers, making a total of 285 million bomblets. That equates to 7 bomblets each to every man, women and child in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.10 In addition, the DoD ordered 37 million BLU-3 or “pineapple” cluster bombs for production. These cluster bombs had six metal tail fins which were folded against the aluminum case. Inside there were 255 steel balls embedded in the case and would explode upon impact.11
@militarytales WOW! Thank you so much for your detailed, educational response to my question. I had know idea.
What's the song you guys use for your end credits in this video?
Hello Diehard, The song at the end is one form our playlist. It it Titled " Spads With a Load" It and about 30 other great songs are on our Plays Lists under Songs of South East Asia - Here is the link to Spads With a Load - czcams.com/video/6BAPxWjIEkM/video.html
It was written and sung by pilots of the 56th SOW - OLAA based out of DaNang. Their mission was pretty Hush Hush they sat a special alert, they only flew SAR Search and Rescue Missions and Prairie Fire Emergency Missions. Their unit was pretty much dedicated to the support of SOG teams who were "Across The Fence" covert missions in Laos & Cambodia. If you would like to know more. There is a website that is under construction www.spadsforsog.com/
What is this song???
All of the songs used can be found on our play list under Songs of South East Asia. One of our earliest supporters and fans sent us a hue reel of reel to reel music which we use in these videos
how could randy be contacted ?
DISGUSTING if ANYONE in any of command positions, ANYWHERE up the chain knew about the Mole and did nothing.
DISGUSTING that no one decided to point out the obvious; the only way they could be hitting us like this, is because they are getting intel about our OPs. 😪😥
What is most important to remember is that we lost a stupid war we should never have started
still lost
Studies and observation group. No special. Never on Chinese border either. Mostly in Laos and Cambodia.