On the night of 20-21 November, 1970 U.S. Special Forces Soldiers and aviation crews conducted the Son Tay Raid into North Vietnam to rescue American prisoners of war held in a prison camp. The unit that conducted the raid was the Joint Contingency Task Group Ivory Coast commanded by Air Force General Leroy Manor. The ground force commander was Green Beret Colonel “Bull” Simons.
The raid party was inserted by helicopter and completed its mission in under 30 minutes – however the POWs had been relocated to another prison prior to the raid. The Son Tay Raid is credited with prompting the North Vietnamese to improve treatment of the U.S. POWs. In addition, once the U.S. POWs learned of the raid morale improved significantly.
(Image from USSOCOM Facebook 21 Nov 2016)
