United States Army - Together We Served

April 2, 1967 -- Vietnam War

On this day in U.S. Army SF history......02 April 1967 - 356 troops (including Montagnards) of 5th Special Forces Group (ABN), 1st Special Forces: Detachment A-503 Mike Force: Co's. 2 & 3 jumped into Bunard, Phouc Long "Happy Dragon" Province Vietnam as part of Operation Harvest Moon. It was the second mass tactical combat jump by US forces in Viet Nam, and the first by 5th Special Forces GP. A member of the Pathfinder element on ground was an old friend Skip Ettinger. The actual junp was commanded by a friend of mine, then CPT Lee B. Wilson. One of the medics on the jump was Scott Whittington, another friend. Lee was injured on the jump and had to be evacuated. He sprained his ankle on an abandoned piece of logging equipment.

Something you Airborne will enjoy is that some of the jumpers had only been through one week of training with no practice jumps. Their very first jump was a fully equipped combat jump from 700 feet into hostile territory with an obscure drop zone many missed anyway. AIRBORNE!

I arrived at Bunard about 21 months later.