Chapter 78 Officers for 2007:

President Ramon Rodriguez
Vice President Richard Simonian
Secretary David Sullivan
Treasurer Terry Cagnolatti
Sgt-at-Arms Art Dolick

On March 10, 2007 G. Pat Macha, a noted author and speaker provided a presentation at the monthly chapter meeting. He discussed his 44 years of research and investigative field experience about aircraft wrecks in the mountains and deserts of the American west. Mr. Macha has been featured in numerous magazine articles.

On April 14, 2007 at the chapter monthly meeting James Webb discussed his many years of investigation into the POW/MIA Issue. He served for fourteen years from 1989 to 2003 as the U.S. government's senior investigative team commander and in other high level positions for the POW/MIA Issue. He retired from the U.S. Army after 24 years active service in special operations and intelligence. He then worked for over seven years as a government employee on the POW/MIA Issue. James Webb was the Deputy Commander and acting Commander of Detachment One in Bangkok, Thailand for the POW/MIA Issue, the acting Commander of Detachment Two in Hanoi, Vietnam, The Priority Case Investigation Team (PCIT) Commander, the Archival Research Team (ART) Commander, the Research Investigation Team (RIT) Commander, the senior Investigation Team Commander, the Recovery Element Commander, troop commander, worked in the J-2 (Intel) Directorate, the J-3 Operations, was the Underwater Investigative Team Commander, and was the Team Commander on several missions to Cambodia, and much more. James also worked all the Refugee Camps in Asia and is a Vietnam Veteran. James has investigated almost every case of our missing men from the war in Southeast Asia - some cases several times. He is responsible for the returned remains of over 200 cases. The first American to visit every Province in Vietnam , James was the Commander of over 100 missions to Vietnam and is fluent in Vietnamese. He has written a book on the POW/MIA Issue to be released soon detailing his adventures titled "Last Known Alive". In addition James has a two and a half hour interview DVD called "The Truth Be Told" which will be available soon. The chapter members thank James Webb for his frank and informative discussion on a subject close to all our hearts.

Jim Duffy (asst. vice president) was the Detachment CO of A-109, Thuong Duc , Vietnam when the NVA conducted a 60 day siege starting in the spring of 1970. Recently, Jim had the opportunity to contact two men who provided vital support to the team during the siege and asked them to reflect on their time at the camp after some 37 years. Gary Lamberty was in the 5 th Group's 403rd SOD, which was a forty-four man ASA, aka “Radio Research”, detachment of mostly SF qualified operators. Basically, we used various electronic means to gather and disseminate intelligence to both the teams where we were located and to higher echelons. We frequently operated in two-man teams, which would go anywhere the 5 th Group went, incl. the A Teams, Mike Forces, Special Projects, and SOG. If I recall correctly, the A-109 Team only had about four to five hundred CIDG and our intel indicated the NVA were probably going to try, once again, to overrun the camp. There were three to five NVA infantry regiments, plus sapper and rocket battalions poised in their AO. By the time I got to the A camp, around the last week of April, 1970 it seemed like all hell was breaking loose. In the beginning, there were hundreds of 122s, 82s, and B-40s raining on the camp with intermittent ground probes. This slowed down to about fifty or sixty strikes a day for the next month-and-a-half. George Shafer, my SOD partner, was already there when I arrived and had secured a concrete reinforced bunker for us to work out of. We had a starlight scope, an M-60 and two M-79s. At some point during the siege, George Shafer left and was replaced by Harvel Martin. By the first or second week of June, the NVA apparently abandoned their attempted siege and started pulling back, so I left around the third week of June and got sent down to IV Corps, where I finished my extension tour. Other SOD personnel who worked out of Thuong Duc during that time period were John Phillips, who filled in for me during the two times I had to go to Da Nang and Dave Andorka, who replaced me when I left. I'm not really sure why the NVA changed their minds about overrunning Thuong Duc when they did. Maybe they figured we had enough support to make a strong defense, with Marine Force Recon, part of the transitioning 1 st MSFC (B-16), the still intact 5 th MSFC (B-55) ready to move in, and the available air and artillery support? Or maybe they were just practicing for what they planned on doing when Nixon's “Vietnamization” was complete? Regardless, the siege at Thuong Duc proved, once again, that no matter what the odds or how outnumbered, Special Forces was,is, and hopefully will always be a force to contend with. I'm proud and humbly honored to have served with the fighting men of A-109 during the Thuong Duc siege in Spring 1970.

In 1970 Ron Heugel was a Corporal in the Marine Corps serving as a Field Radio Operator (MOS 2531) with 1 st Force Reconnaissance Company in RVN. By 1970 the Marine Corps was concentrating its reconnaissance assets mostly to the west and southwest of Da Nang . Due to the distance from Da Nang and the mountainous terrain in the RAOR (Recon Area Of Responsibility), it was necessary parent units of the recon teams to establish a radio relay site in order to maintain contact with the teams in the field. Thuong Duc Special Forces Camp was the obvious choice – it was an established base, it was well defended, it was strategically located between Charlie Ridge and the “Tennis Courts,” and there was excellent radio reception at the camp. At the end of May 1970 Corporal Phil “Flip” Clark and I flip-flopped with the previous relay team and settled into our bunker at Thuong Duc. The bunker that was assigned to 1 st Force Recon was called the South Fifty. The main feature of this position was the addition of a pedestal-mounted .50 cal. machine gun that had been salvaged from a downed Marine Corps CH-46 helicopter. We already knew that the SF Camp had caught the attention of its VC/NVA neighbors, so we weren't surprised by the constant “incoming.” The camp received a volley of six 122 mm rockets three times a day: at breakfast, lunch and dinner. Harassment fire also came in the form mortars, fired from the Tennis Courts, a plateau across the river from the camp, at various times throughout the day. On 3 June, 1970 the enemy finally scored a hit. One of the rockets scored a direct hit on the South 50 bunker (Photo C-78-4-2Q2007). We could tell it was going to hit close to the bunker by the different sound it made as it approached. There were two things in our favor: the bunker was built extremely well and the rocket hit at the base of the wall. I can still clearly see that wall disintegrating. Luckily, Flip and I escaped with only minor scratches and a loud ringing in our ears. I now work for Vietnam Battlefield Tours and I have recently returned from my eighth trip back to Viet Nam . During two of those trips, I visited the Thuong Duc Camp (Photo C-78-5-2Q2007). All that remains are the concrete foundations of the bunkers. I have also had the opportunity to visit the SF Camps at Lang Vei and Ba To. On future tours I plan to visit some of the camps in II, III and IV Corps.Vietnam. Battlefield Tours (VBT) specializes in travel to Viet Nam and therefore has intimate knowledge of the people, terrain and locations. All guides are Viet Nam combat veterans who have been back to the jungles, mountains, firebases and battlefields many times and pride themselves on their ability to get veterans to the special places they request to visit. They will customize current tours to the participants' needs and will create new tours specific to any group needs. In addition, VBT tours are all-inclusive with no hidden costs. For more information see their website at www.vietnambattlefieldtours.com. Email for Ron Heugel is at shutin40cal@enter.net.

Note: A reunion dinner for former detachment members of A-109 is scheduled during the SFA Convention on Tuesday, 3 July 2007 at 1900 hours. Please review Chapter 78's expanded and newly updated website and sign our guestbook at www.specialforces78.com.

G. Pat Macha, Guest Speaker

James Webb with Recovery Team in Vietnam

James Webb (Left) with Ramon Rodriguez (president)

South .50 Bunker at A-109

Ron Heugel at Thuong Duc in 2001