Yards as fighters

I was assigned to the 5th Special Forces Group from October 1967 through October 1968. Part of that time was at Detachment A-238 Buon Blech. Buon Blech is midway between Pleiku and Ban Me Thuot. We had 4 companies of "strikers" (650) to run operations in our AO. That is what we called the indigenous soldiers we recruited. Our strikers were predominantly Rhade with a few Jarai and almost no Vietnamese. They worked for and were paid by the U.S. goverment and were loyal to the U.S., not the Vietnamese. There is absolutely no question that the Yards hated the Vietnamese. They would tell us that once they had defeated the VC/NVA they would go after the South Vietnamese. There is a long history between the two peoples.

They were an extremely loyal and honest people. It was common to run operations with 2 Americans and the rest made up of strikers. Literally, we put our lives in their hands. I turned 22 while on operation during the Tet offensive near a village named Tieu Atar a few kliks from the Cambodian border. My Montagnard company commander was named Mblik (sp). He had first fought with the Viet Minh against the French and then switched to our side when the communists moved in. He said he was at Dien Ben Phu. I had all the fancy formal SF training but he had the experience. I look back and I figure the Yards are the single biggest reason I came back to the world in one piece.

I hold no hard feelings from the war, save one. That is the fact that we left them to die when we pulled out. They did so much to help us and we did nothing for them. Enough of my ramblings.

D.