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Who
are the Lost Commandos?
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Tai-Moc
- Team: "Dragon"
Prisonor of war 1963 to 1982
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See
more photos from Chapter 78's members of the "Lost Commandos"
Click
Here!
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In the 1960's the
United States sent hundreds of Vietnamese commandos into North Vietnam,
and then documented the men as dead even though they managed to survive
captivity, and buried the story "under a shroud of secrecy" for years.
At least
200 of the agents survived capture, torture and imprisonment, and
are living in the United States, and they believe that 88 of their
comrades are still in captivity.
The doomed covert
operation to infiltrate North Vietnam was known as OPLAN 34-A. It
was launched in 1961 by the CIA and taken over in 1964 by the Joint
Chiefs of Staff. According to the documents obtained by the NY Times,
the United States trained the commandos, dropped them into North
Vietnam, then began crossing their names off a classified payroll
list one-by-one in December 1965. Many of the commandos were Roman
Catholics who had fled the Communist North in the 1950s and knew
the local dialects.
Some of the
documents describe deaths among a commando team code-named Scorpion.
However, Radio Hanoi announced -- and the CIA recorded -- that the
group was captured alive in June 1964. Many were imprisoned under
unspeakable conditions. Nevertheless, the CIA declared the men dead
and paid their families $4,000 apiece in death benefits.
In
His Own Words by
Tai-Moc - Prisonor
of war 1963 to 1982
Our
group of Lost U.S. Army Commandoes, started spying for the CIA in
1960, and began to parachute small teams of Viet Nam. Cover agents
in to North Viet Nam.
By
1964 the Pentagon was certain these men had been killed Capture
or "Turned" to work for north and began sending new agent in to
North Viet Nam.
By
1968 some five hundred agents had been Lost in the north. Their
Families were told they were dead. Twenty years later, more than
500 of these agent were released From North Viet Nam, Prison of
wars. The surviving former Commandos, Some imprisoned for up to
30 years.
In
January 27, 1973, the PARIS Peace accords were signed and the mutually
agreed upon Cease fire went in to affect all involved in the Viet
Nam war. Will be Repatriated the commandos now expect an early return
home. With orders to make new clothes for their Repatriation, each
prisoner was to receive two sets of clothes.
Beginning
in March 1973, American prisoners held in the North Viet Nam
were turned over to American Officials at Hanoi, and flown to "Clark"
Air Base in the Philippines. American "P.O.W." Returns Home.
The
Commandos were not Repatriated the war was over. After we heard
the bad news that the Commandos could not return home, we went on
a hunger strike for two weeks. Are the Commandos, the tall frogman
was ripped open his shirt and yell "Go ahead shoot me, shoot me."
After
the hunger strike was over, the entire Commandos Contingent was
divided in two barracks A & B. We prepare to transfer to a new location.
The Commandos began to settle in at sub-camp of the barracks of
central prison. Later we were transferred in to the punishment cell.
We suffered days of hard with long working hours. We also suffered
long term Isolation and starvation because all the food was rationed.
In
September 1973, almost 700 of Female prisoners arrived there, we
live together in the camp. And the Commandos can marry one of the
Female prisoners if they wanted to.
More
than two hundred of the former Commandos have been resettled in
the United States. As well as hundreds of widows and orphans of
those who died. Most of these people want to lease in Viet Nam.
Thank
you to the United States Government Support, they resettled in the
United States. They are the most recent the group of the Lost U.S.
Army Commandos receive membership to the national "Special Forces
Association". On behalf of the "Lost U.S. Army Commandos", we would
like to thank you for your support.
More Information on the Lost Commandos
(Warning - this file is 32MB and takes a long time to download)
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