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Message: <blockquote data-quote="haakon1" data-source="post: 5592990" data-attributes="member: 25619">I used to run RECON for years . . .From an RPG perspective, the Special Forces that mattered in 'Nam were:US Army-- Special Forces (Green Berets).  Main mission was organized CIDG (Civilian Irregular Defense Groups) and MIKE Forces (Mobile Strike Forces), mostly made up of ethnic minorities in the Highlands (montegnard tribes).  Montegnards are not ethnically Vietnamese, mostly came from Stone Age tribes, generally didn't get along with the ethnic Vietnamese, and were fierce guerrilla fighters.  The SF also worked with Nung (ethnic Chinese tribe from North Vietnam).  Delta was originally one of the SF teams.-- LRRP.  Long Range Recon Patrols were informally formed at the division level ~ 1966 and became Rangers (75th Infantry Regiment) in early 1969.  LRRP was a type of training (from the Ranger School stateside and the Recondo school in Vietnam) and later a type of unit.  LRRP missions were to insert in small teams (4-6 men) and do recon (spot enemy forces).  PERFECT for an RPG.Navy:-- SEALs.  Derived from the UDT (Underwater Demolition Teams) or frogmen of World War II fame, the SEAL's had two main missions in 'Nam.  The first was typical special forces recon in the IV Corps region (the Delta and the Rung Sat Special Zone), specifically trying to intercept the supply lines by sea (hiding gear on fishing junks) and working with the Swift Boats and PBR's of the Brown Water Navy.  The second was black ops for the CIA under Operation Phoenix, the plan to win the war by eliminating the "VCI" (Viet Cong Infrastructure) which meant assassinating VC shadow government officials (in retaliation for the VC killing Saigon government officials) and other "wet ops"  (as in bloody, not seaborne!) -- very similar to current day missions against Al Qaeda.CIA:-- Air America.  The CIA fought a proxy war in Laos, which was official neutral.  The CIA supplied "Black Meo" (now called Hmong) tribes whole "Red Meo" tribes were aligned with the Pathet Lao (Laotian Communist) who in turn answered to Hanoi.  The CIA front -- as was quite obvious at the time -- was a private company called Air America, which hired civilian bush pilots in the US to fly supplies to the Hmong.  CIA trainers were on the ground, doing something similar to forming CIDG units, except that it officially "didn't happen".Australia:-- Australian SAS (Special Air Service).  Very similar to and trained by the British SAS, the Australian SAS typically had recon missions to support the ANZAC forces, who had their own province as an AOR (Area of Responsiblity), in a coastal area of rubber plantations in III Corps (near Saigon), called Vung Tau if memory serves.  The Aussie SAS had the highest kill ratio of any ground unit, something north of 300:1.</blockquote>

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