![]() ![]() After 1964, Special Forces soldiers rotated in and out of Vietnam on one-year tours as individual replacements to SF teams throughout the country rather than deploying as a unit. Teams from the 7th SFG at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and the 1st SFG on Okinawa, Japan, deployed to meet the requirement. The early Special Forces presence in Vietnam was primarily “A-Teams” (today’s operational detachment alpha or ODA) that rotated in for six-month tours to train the CIDG forces throughout Vietnam. Private Lowell Stevens prior to his first jump January 1960 at the 101st Jump School. ![]() ![]() “Vietnam” is actually spelled as two words in the Vietnamese language, i.e., “Viet Nam” (pronounced “vee-it” and “nom,” rhymes with “Tom”). Then A teams from the 1st and 7th SFGs rotated as units for six-month temporary duty (TDY) tours to “train, advise, and lead Civilian Irregular Defense Group (CIDG) Montagnard (sometimes Nung, Cambodian, and Vietnamese) irregular soldiers against the Viet Cong in the Central highlands of South Vietnam.” This article centers on the experiences of Team A-312, 1st SFG in 1964, and will explain the early role of SF in the CIDG program in Vietnam prior to the arrival of the 5th SFG. Special Forces A teams rotated in and out of Vietnam on mission-specific mobile training teams until 1960. It began in 1957 with a ten-man SF detachment sent to train Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) soldiers in Ranger tactics and techniques. The Special Forces commitment to Vietnam had a more humble start centered around twelve-man “A” teams. That did not happen until post-1965 when the 5th SFG took over operations in Vietnam. The typical image of Special Forces in the Vietnam War is one of a huge 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne) (5th SFG) running specialized covert operations country-wide and cross border operations into Cambodia, Laos, and North Vietnam. ![]()
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