U.S. Army Special Forces personnel served in Vietnam between 1957 and 1973. Initially restricted to training their South Vietnamese counterparts, Lac Luong Dac Biet (LLDB), in late 1961 Special Forces were also tasked with developing the Civilian Irregular Defense Group among the Montagnard tribesman in the central highlands. Though it began as a village defense system, from 1964 the CIDG program's focus shifted towards border surveillance. Camps were built along the Laos and Cambodian borders, from which SF and CIDG strike teams launched missions to detect and interdict enemy infiltration routes.
Following the introduction of conventional American combat units in 1965 the need for accurate intelligence on Viet Cong / North Vietnamese Army movements increased. Consequently Special Forces and specially trained CIDG troops began undertaking unconventional operations, including long range reconnaissance patrols and mobile guerilla actions in enemy controlled areas. U.S. Army Special Forces also provided most of the personnel for the highly classified cross-border reconnaissance teams operated by SOG.
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Special Forces Captain Edward Rybat and Vietnamese Lieutenant Huyen Phuoc Thoi use the radio to call in troops during a mission against the Viet Cong in war zone "D".
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Vietnamese Strike Forces and their U.S. Army Special Forces advisors take a look at a map during a mission in war zone "D".
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Special Forces Captain Edward Rybat looks at a Viet Cong suspect captured during mission in war zone “D”, north of Ben Cat (III Corps).
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A wounded CIDG Strike Force member is helped to the medical aid station at Ap Suoi by his comrades after a fire fight with the Viet Cong in War Zone “D”.
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Vietnamese Strike Forces discover a Viet Cong dugout in the Ap Suoi rubber plantation in war zone “D”, north of Ben Cat (III Corps).
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U.S. Special Forces fire an 81mm mortar against a company of Viet Cong, which had attacked a CIDG Strike Force that had attempted to take the hamlet of Bau Bang (III Corps).
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A Special Forces machine gunner fires a Browning M1919 at a group of Viet Cong insurgents on the edge of the Ap Suoi Tre rubber plantation in war zone “D”, north of Ben Cat (III Corps).
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A CIDG Strike Force member leads a captured Viet Cong guerrilla after a firefight at Bau Bang hamlet in war zone “D”.
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SSG. Coy, 503rd Mobile Strike Force, 5th Special Forces Group, (ABN), gives parachuting instructions.
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Special Forces Detachment A-321, under Captain Edward Rybat (middle row, center), at their CIDG camp at Ben Cat in War Zone "D" (III Corps).
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