50 years ago, Operation Ivory Coast

[MikeD]

The helicopter-borne raid in 1970 deep inside North Vietnam to hit the Son Tay prison camp where US POWs were being held. One of the first joint missions by different service elements of US special operations forces. Unfortunately, the raid netted no rescued POWs, who had been moved out of the camp a little while prior to the raid. However, there were no injuries amongst the US forces, who initially hit an infantry training school and got into heavy combat, but had the element of surprise and overwhelmed the enemy, eliminating not only North Vietnamese but Chinese advisors also, just as the other force elements did the same at the intended Son Tay camp next door.

story here:

The Son Tay Raid

 

[Pilot Fighter]

My father participated in the Navy's diversionary attack as an EKA-3B Whale NFO.

 

[ChasenSFO]

That is badass. I'm really amazed at some of the things past generations have done in defending this country, and one another.

 

[guywhoflies]

My dad was a POW. He said that even though no POWs were rescued, the Son Tay Raid boosted their morale because it showed that the US hadn't forgotten about them and that they were capable of executing that type of operation within N. Vietnam.

Fun fact: the training for the Son Tay Raid was conducted at Eglin AFB. Eglin, being the largest military base, had plenty of rural space to use for the training. They were concerned about Russian satellites so they set up the full size prison replica every night, trained all night, and then tore it back down. They repeated that maneuver every day during the training.

 

[Pilot Fighter]

The helicopter-borne raid in 1970 deep inside North Vietnam to hit the Son Tay prison camp where US POWs were being held. One of the first joint missions by different service elements of US special operations forces. Unfortunately, the raid netted no rescued POWs, who had been moved out of the camp a little while prior to the raid. However, there were no injuries amongst the US forces, who initially hit an infantry training school and got into heavy combat, but had the element of surprise and overwhelmed the enemy, eliminating not only North Vietnamese but Chinese advisors also, just as the other force elements did the same at the intended Son Tay camp next door.

story here:

The Son Tay Raid

Thanks for posting this. I have "The Raid" but I'm going to purchase additional books on Son Tay.

Here's a Google Books excerpt describing KA-3B and EKA-3B ops during Son Tay.

The Son Tay Raid

In May 1970, aerial photographs revealed what U.S. military intelligence believed was a POW camp near the town of Son Tay, twenty-three miles west of North Vietnam’s capital city. When American officials decided the prisoners were attempting to send signals, they set in motion a daring plan to...

books.google.com