Why the Pink Panthers Are Important

Two chance encounters convinced me that writing this book is pretty important

The 60th anniversary reunion of the Special Operations Association is over and we have returned home from Las Vegas. I’ll be sharing more of some of the stories I heard and things I learned in upcoming Tardy Salute posts. But perhaps the most important thing to me is that writing Terry’s book is more important than I thought it was. 

Why? The answer is found in two of the most important moments in the reunion. It was certainly great to meet, talk with, and see Terry and Woody with some of the most famous names in SOG history. Like John Plaster, Medal of Honor winner Mike Rose, John Stryker Meyer, Henry “Dick” Thompson, and Barry Pencek. But there was nothing like meeting formerly unknown SOG team members Barry Krutina and Paul Boyd.

I mentioned Barry in the previous post. Big, tall, bushy white beard, handlebar mustache, wearing a ten gallon Stetson. Seemed too big to be a SOG One-One (assistant team leader). We were just passing by, he stopped us to tell us something. I asked about his service with SOG. Thirteen missions. Wounded seriously enough to not return to the fight. He missed it, loved it. He served in CCC Kontum, that’s where the Pink Panthers served. When he found out Woody and Terry were Pink Panthers, he suddenly stuck out his hand and said, “I want to thank you.” 

We sat down at the big banquet that ended the reunion. Next to me was a distinguished African American who looked younger than most of the SOG men. My wife had seen him several times during the three day event. I had not. She encouraged me to talk to him. What was his story? He too was a SOG team member, and also out of Kontum. Multiple missions, but I forget the team. His One Zero was Mike Shepard, I’d heard of him. When I mentioned that Woody and Terry sitting at our table were Pink Panthers, he got up, went over and shook their hands. I could feel it again. The gratitude. The recognition that while these guys flying overhead may not have known who was on the ground, their bravery and skill likely saved his life, and probably on more than one occasion. If it wasn’t them, it was other Panthers flying with them.

Think about it for a moment. Most of us have not had experiences where someone, with great danger to themselves, swooped in to save your life. But, if that happened, and suddenly, over 50 years later, you run into that person, what would you do? 

The SOG team members and the Bikini or Gladiator Huey pilots who risked their lives to extract them under heavy fire, or the Panthers flying the Cobra gunships, didn’t interact a lot during their time in Vietnam. Missions were top secret. The teams involved kept to themselves. SOG teams were billeted at Kontum, or near Da Nang for the north teams and another location for the south teams. Panthers called Camp Holloway home, about a twenty-minute chopper flight away. They might see each other in some mission briefings or after-action briefings but the teams on the ground and their partners in the air didn’t have a lot to do with each other.

Then, you come to the SOG reunion, and suddenly, for the first time, you look into the face of someone you know was there flying above you, swooping in under murderous fire to rescue you and your team, or suppressing fire and killing the enemy dedicated to killing you. 

That’s what makes this Special Operations reunion pretty darn important. The focus is definitely on the Green Berets and all the special forces from all branches who served in Vietnam and in conflicts since then. It’s not about the air war that worked so intimately and successfully with them. I think it could be and should be more. We did have some Marine pilots who flew in Tailwind, like Barry Pencek and Don Persky. I don’t recall if there were many or any FAC or Covey pilots. Forward Air Controllers flew the light observation aircraft, their callsign was Covey. They were crucial to helping the teams on the ground, observing the enemy, calling in air strikes, and coordinating the rescues and the Cobra attacks.  Plaster was a Covey Rider, an experienced recon team leader observing and directing. Plaster was Covey Rider on a number of missions flown by Woody and Terry. (John complained to Woody that when Woody went in to help a team in terrible weather he might have prevented Plaster from getting a DFC.)

The SOG teams on the ground were why the air element was there. But there isn’t a SOG guy alive, I am certain, who wouldn’t say that the Hueys, Cobras, Spads (A1 Skyraiders), FACs, F4 Phantoms, Spectre (C-130) gunships, weren’t an absolutely critical part of their team. I hope that in future SOAR events, the air aspect can become a stronger part of such gatherings.

Which brings me to why Terry’s book It Was My Turn has taken on new importance to me. I do believe there is and will be considerable interest among the SOG teams in information about those guys who flew with them, above them, and for them. There is no doubt that interest in SOG has grown and it may very well be that, it may be one aspect of the war that generates the most interest now. That is probably because it was secret and kept secret until John Plaster wrote about it first in 1995. Paul Hildbrandt is working on a documentary about it. Savage Video Games is seeing good success with their video game called SOG: Prairie Fire, with over 300,000 downloads and counting. A Cobra version of the game is coming. The history of SOG is not complete without the stories of the brave men who flew above them almost daily saving their lives. That part of the story needs to grow and I believe it will grow.

The distinguished and youngish looking former SOG Paul Boyd stood up at our table, walked over to Woody and Terry and shook their hands, thanking them. Paul was career diplomat with the US Foreign Service serving our nation in a different role and a great many countries around the world. I have to believe he did a great job for our nation in this service, as he did while in Vietnam. But, I also believe, he was able to do that because of the two heroes sitting at his banquet table. Seeing him look into their eyes and thank them for what they did makes it all more than worthwhile.