Operation Tailwind

A SOG mission goes terribly, terribly wrong, not so much on the ground as in the media, helping contribute to the crisis in media trust.

April 14, 2024

Operation Tailwind

The war in Vietnam is a very significant event in our history and events of such significance help explain the world we live in today. The sharp political divisions are dividing our country, causing broken relationships and resulting in people moving to new homes where their political views are shared with neighbors. One way of understanding this division is whether one views America as a positive or negative presence in the world. The sharp divisions in our nation between those supporting the war and those opposing it can be understood as opposing views on that question. Certainly other times in our history experienced deep divisions, such as in the Civil War, but these divisions were far from the question of whether we are a force for good or evil in the world beyond our borders.

Another prominent feature of our country today is the lack of trust. Trust in almost everything has gone down including trust in science, in public institutions, in government and in the media. Until the Vietnam era, roughly three quarters of Americans expressed trust in government and the media. Today, that number is closer to one quarter and in some surveys, well below that. 

In some respects the decline in trust and government and media is reflected in the dishonesty of the Johnson administration in particular in gaining approval to unleash American might on North Vietnam (see earlier post on SOG). That dishonesty continued with the attempts of the administrations to “spin” the stories about American progress and the frustration with the media when they reported not what the military and political leadership wanted, but what they wanted to present.

You may be wondering what this has to do with Terry Crump and his story. Well, it has a lot to do with it because Terry was one of a small group of Cobra pilots who flew in support of a SOG operation called Operation Tailwind. You may recall that name as thirty years after the operation it became widely known. Not because of the heroism of Terry and the Green Berets, Marines, and indigenous mercenaries engaged in a desperate and bloody battle, but because the operation was used by CNN in a rather desperate attempt to bolster its sagging ratings. 

CNN was launched in 1980 and forever changed the news landscape. A 24 hour news channel focused on what was happening now and the 24 hours had to be filled with something. The Gulf War in 1990 and 1991 established CNN as a leading news channel and Peter Arnett was the face and voice of the events as they happened. Arnett had earned a Pulitzer for his coverage of the Vietnam war, but his controversial reporting in the Gulf War, often taking Iraqi claims at face value, resulted in many considering him unpatriotic and unprofessional. But his career ending-mistake was made in his participation in the debacle that was CNN’s “investigative report” on Operation Tailwind.

The book It Was My Turn about Terry Crump will include more details about the operation and particularly Terry’s important contributions to it. A barebones summary shows that Operation Tailwind was a bit of a sideshow to a major CIA-led operation involving some 5700 Laotian mercenaries hired by the CIA. What prompted this action, called Operation Gauntlet, was that Prince Sihanouk, the leader of Cambodia was overthrown in March, 1970 and replaced by a more pro-American leader, General Lon Nol. The new leader closed the Port of Sihanoukville which was serving as the primary port of entry for equipment and supplies for the VC in the Mekong Delta area. The Ho Chi Minh trail had been used more for NVA troop movements and some supplies, but now the North had to rely on the thousands of miles of rough roadway and trails to get essentially everything to the south. 

North Vietnam sent large numbers of troops into the western part of Laos, overran the CIA outpost in the Bolaven Plateau, captured and occupied key towns and villages in order to protect the much increased traffic through this part of Laos. Terry and the SOG teams were operating in Laos but only about 20 miles from the Vietnam border as controlled by the American ambassador to Laos, William Sullivan. The CIA operation was about 100 miles from the border and west-northwest of Kontum. The CIA operation was failing and the powers in DC decided it needed some help. Even though General Creighton Abrams who replaced Westmoreland as Commander of American forces in Vietnam, as a pure Army guy wasn’t a big fan of SOG, in DC and with Abrams agreement, SOG was called in to help the CIA operation.

A Hatchet team force of 16 Americans from FOB 2 Kontum, Terry’s group, and 120 indigenous Montagnards (‘Yards they were called) were to be dropped into the area of the CIA operation and create a diversion. Called Operation Tailwind, it was the largest insertion of SOG troops of the war and was led by Kontum-based SOG veteran Captain Gene McCarley. Unlike most SOG operations, these men were sent to draw a large contingent of seasoned NVA soldiers to them and stand and fight with the aid of air power, including the Pink Panthers and Panther 38, Terry Crump. They also enlisted a Marine helicopter group flying the large CH-53s called Jolly Green Giants, which could insert or extract many more than the Slicks (Hueys) and Kingbees. Along with the Green Giants, a platoon of Marine Cobras were to provide additional, and it turned out, much needed protection. The account I am providing is from an outstanding book on this written by one of those Marine Cobra pilots by the name of Barry Pencek. The book is Operation Tailwind: Memoirs of a Secret Battle in a Secret War.

Again, the details of what ensued on the ground is terrifying, thrilling and disturbing. But, the aftermath 30 years later is nothing less than disgusting. The men were inserted and in short, they fought against overwhelming odds for three days and nights, facing attack after attack from NVA veterans over a thousand strong. When the battle was over 500 NVA lay dead. Everyone one of the Americans was wounded and a number of the ‘Yards were killed when the decision was finally made to try and extract them. Despite weather problems, “fast movers” (Air Force F-4 jets) and Spads (A-1 Skyraiders) plus the Cobra gunships helped keep the enemy in check but they continued to press the attack. Spads were loaded with munitions including some cluster bombs using riot control tear gas, and the team on the ground was told to put on their gas masks. Finally, the Green Giants came in to extract the exhausted and badly shot up team. The last helicopter to extract the team had one engine shot out and the other strained to lift the heavy load out as it was covered by the Cobras. Then, that engine failed and the pilot autorotated to a crash in the thick jungle. One of the surviving ‘Yards, Che, was flung out in the crash and crushed as the helicopter rolled on its side.

A Search and Rescue Green Giant was nearby and the wounded were brought on board and flown to Kontum and Pleiku for medical treatment. There were medals all around, including a much delayed Medal of Honor for the heroic medic, Mike Rose. End of story? Sadly, no.

In 1998, CNN had teamed with Time Magazine, had new leadership and was looking to recover their glory days enjoyed during the Gulf War. They set up an investigative documentary unit led by Pam Hill, Jack Smith and April Oliver. Oliver did most of the investigative work. Early on, based on stories she was told by one of the platoon leaders, she developed a story line that was sure to bring CNN the ratings it was looking for and a boost to her career. The platoon leader was a serial liar, prone to exaggeration and making things up, had served prison time, converted to a fundamentalist pastor, and was caught in various unsavory schemes. Oliver even noted his unreliability in her notes, but the story she went with suited her needs, while the truth that others told her didn’t. How she and the others involved, including Peter Arnett, tricked other witnesses into giving them the quotes they needed for the story is a whole story in itself. 

In April, 1998 their fabricated report called “Valley of Death” aired, as did a print version of it in Time Magazine. They said the mission was to locate and kill American deserters, that they attacked a village with women and children, and that they used sarin nerve gas to kill the innocents as well as enemy. This would be a major war crime, if it was true. But none of this was remotely true as Barry Pencek in his book admirably makes clear. The military advisor to CNN was never consulted and resigned in protest. The Pentagon launched an investigation and CNN launched its own internal investigation. Flawed as that was by conflicts of interest, the story was shown to be false, the three primary reporters and producers resigned or were fired, Arnett was reprimanded so he quit and ended up working for NBC. There were lawsuits aplenty. CNN issued a retraction and apology and Ted Turner, CNN’s founder, said that despite two divorces and other bad things happening in his life, he never felt more remorse than over this CNN report.

The tragedy of such a story like this is that the retractions and apologies and attempts to correct the record never have the impact that the initial report does. Cries of “baby killer” applying to those who fought in the war and participated in Tailwind came out again, even 30 years later. The harm done by CNN and Time Magazine to the incredibly courageous men who fought in Tailwind is incalculable and makes me absolutely furious in even writing about this. I’m just grateful that Barry Pencek and others who have written on this have helped to set the record straight.

I’m hoping that by revealing this story even in this small way we can help bring some honor to the men who suffered from this tragedy. Feel free to share this story and help with that.

Trust in the media in free fall? It is no wonder.

(It’s a small world update: I wrote this on April 14 during the day, then went to a birthday party for my son-in-law in the evening. At the party I met a work client of my son, a video/film producer. The client’s name is Elgin and he’s a senior producer for CNN in New York, working on long-form content for the channel. After hearing this I immediately, maybe rudely, asked if he heard of Operation Tailwind or the Valley of Death program. He thought it sounded vaguely familiar. So I filled him in on it and suggested he check it out. To add a further coincidence, he was talking to some of the other guys at the gathering as we sat around a fire smoking cigars and mentioned that his great uncle, or maybe great great uncle had invented a method used to extract soldiers from behind enemy lines. He said it involved a C-130. My ears perked up. This is the Fulton Skyhook rig that I had just read about in several of the books by John Plaster. It was used occasionally to extract SOG. A C-130 would drop a rig consisting of a line, a balloon and a harness to a soldier needing extractions. The harness would be put on and tied to the line and the balloon inflated and it would lift the 100 foot line into the air. The C-130 would extend the skyhook, two long wings at the nose of the plane, and fly into the suspended line. This would jerk the man on the ground up into the air at 125 miles per hour. Quite a ride! Elgin hadn’t mentioned the name of this system and I said, hey, that’s the Fulton Skyhook system, and showed him a picture of it on my phone from Plaster’s SOG book. He said yeah, my last name is Fulton. The inventor of the Fulton Skyhook was the great great great nephew of steamship inventor Robert Fulton, and Elgin is the great great great great grandson of the famous inventor. It’s a small world indeed.)