1. RECON TEAM DAKOTA (TIGER TEAM 3) OPERATION SHINNING BRASS
MACV-SOG
RECON TEAM DAKOTA
(TIGER TEAM 3)
OPERATION SHINNING BRASS

2. Background
Shining Brass
On 21 September 1965 the Pentagon authorized MACSOG to begin cross-border operations within Laos in areas contiguous to the South Vietnam's western border. MACV had sought authority for the launching of such missions (Operation Shining Brass) since 1964 in an attempt to put boots on the ground in a reconnaissance role to observe, first hand, the enemy logistical system known as the Ho Chi Minh Trail (the Truong Son Road to the North Vietnamese). MACV, through the Seventh Air Force, had begun carrying out strategic bombardment of the logistical system in southern Laos in April (Operation Steel Tiger) and had received authorization to launch an all-Vietnamese recon effort (Operation Leaping Lena) that had proven to be a disaster. U.S. troops were necessary and SOG was given the green light. In November the first American-led insertion was launched against target Alpha-1, a suspected truck terminus on Laotian Route 165, 15 miles inside Laos. The mission was deemed a success, but the operations in Laos were fraught with peril, and not just from the enemy. William H. Sullivan, U.S. ambassador to Laos, was determined that he would remain in control over decisions and operations that took place within the supposedly neutral kingdom.
The civil war that raged intermittently between the Communist Pathet Lao (supported by North Vietnamese troops) and the Royal Lao armed forces (supported by the CIA-backed Hmong army of General Vang Pao and the aircraft of the U.S. Air Force) compelled both sides to maintain as low a profile as possible Hanoi was interested in Laos due only to the necessity of keeping its supply corridor to the south open. The U.S. was involved for the opposite reason. Both routinely violated Laotian neutrality, but both also managed to keep their operations out of the limelight.

3. Background (continued)
Shining Brass/Prairie Fire Area of Operations, 1969
Ambassador Sullivan had the unenviable task of juggling the bolstering of the inept Lao government and military, the CIA and its clandestine army, the U.S. Air Force and its bombing campaign, and now the incursions of the American-led reconnaissance teams of SOG. His limitations on SOG's operations (depth of penetration, choice of targets, length of operations, etc.) led to immediate and continuous enmity between the embassy in Vientiane and the commander and troops of SOG, who promptly labeled Sullivan the "Field Marshal." The ambassador responded in kind.
Regardless, MACSOG began a series of operations that would continue to grow in size and scope over the next eight years. The Laotian operations were originally run by a Command and Control (C&C) headquarters located at Da Nang. The teams, usually three Americans and three to 12 indigenous mercenaries, were launched from Forward Operating Bases (FOBs) located in the border areas (originally at Kham Duc, Kontum, and Khe Sanh). After in-depth planning and training, a team was helilifted over the border by aircraft provided by the U.S. Marine Corps (who operated in the I Corps area) or by dedicated South Vietnamese H-34 Kingbee helicopters of the 219th Squadron, which would remain affiliated with MACSOG for its entire history. The team's mission was to penetrate the target area, gather intelligence, and remain undetected as long as possible. Communication was maintained with a Forward Air Control (FAC) aircraft, which would provide liaison with Air Force fighter-bombers if the necessity, or the opportunity to strike lucrative targets, arose. The FAC was also the lifeline through which the team would communicate with its
FOB and through which it could call for extraction if it became compromised.

4. Background (continued)
By the end of 1965, MACSOG had shaken itself out into Operational Groups commanded from its Saigon headquarters. These included Maritime Operations, which continued harassment raids and support for psychological operations (via kidnapped fishermen); Airborne Operations, which continued to insert agent teams and supplies into the north; Psychological Operations, which continued its "black" radio broadcasts, leaflet and gift kit drops, and running the operation at Cu Lao Cham; the new Shining Brass program; and Air Operations, which supported the others and provided logistical airlift. Training for SOG's South Vietnamese agents, naval action teams, and indigenous mercenaries (usually Nung or Montagnards of various tribes) was conducted at the ARVN airborne training center (Camp Quyet Thang) located at Long Thanh, southeast of Saigon. Training for the U.S. personnel assigned to recon teams (RTs) was conducted at Kham Duc.

5. Orders

6. RT DAKOTA (Tiger Team 3) 1965
TDY from 1st SFG, Okinawa

7. Training at Long Than
The fun begins

8. Training at Long Than
Beer break in safe area

9. Training at Long Than
Eating , in a safe area, freshly killed, & cooked Venison, shot & air-dropped by the King Bees

10. Kham Duc
Mess Hall Crew

11. Fowler & Nguyen Thai Kien
Kham Duc
Fowler & Nguyen Thai Kien

12. Kham Duc
Tabata & Strausbaugh

13. Kham Duc
Tabata & Strausbaugh

14. Bomb Damage Assessment Mission In Laos
The following photos depict the BDA mission for the first B-52 bombing mission in Laos. The bombers succeeded in hitting only about 20% of their target. RT Dakota launched from Dak To, but was compromised two hours after insertion. After initial contact, they were perused by an estimated platoon size force. An airstrike was called in to break contact. The Team was extracted later that day. Due to high altitude, it took two H-34’s flown by the Kingbee’s, to execute the extraction. The first H-34 with most of the Team on board, extracted without incident. The second one carrying Fowler, Kien and the Vietnamese RO, along with the Base RO, came under fire. The Hydraulic fluid system was damaged. The Kingbee pilots were able to ascend to 800 feet, and about one kilometer away from the extraction site, before auto-rotating down into a dried stream bed, with a hard landing. All the crew and Team were extracted unhurt, by a rescue H-34.

15. Dawn take off to target

16. Dawn take-off to target

17. Enroute to target

18. Bomb crater used as LZ

19. Punji stake factory

20. Fowler

21. NVA Hut

22. NVA Hut

23. Fowler directing airstrike

24. Tabata looking for extraction LZ

25. Kien, “There it is”

26. Extraction chopper on way in

27. Extraction chopper as close as it can get down

28. Point-man up, no ladder

29. Next man up

30. First chopper out, chase chopper on way in

31. Chase chopper down, calling for rescue chopper

32. Back on safe terra firma, both chopper crews, Fowler, Kien, VN Team RO, & Base RO

33. Note Pope’s picture in background
Post Post Operation
Breaking bread & celebrating with the Kien Family in Saigon

34. Tu Do St. Saigon, Vietnam
Navy SEAL’s & MACV-SOG Special Forces, enjoying Camaraderie outside the Sporting Bar

35. Fowler’s Reunion with Nguyen Thai Kien
Survivors of OPLAN-34 at SOAR XXIX in 2005, with Fowler

36. SOAR XXIX, Las Vegas, NV 2005
Kien & Fowler

37. SOAR XXIX, Las Vegas, NV 2005
Kien & Fowler

38. SOAR XXIX, Las Vegas, NV 2005
Kien & Fowler

39. Tribute to Nguyen Thai Kien 1928-2009
He was born in Northern Vietnam in He began his Warrior days at age 14 fighting against the Japanese occupiers during WWII.
At the end of the war, and return of the French, he joined Ho Chi Minh as a Nationalist fighter against the French. Being a Catholic, when the Communist regime began persecuting Catholics, he defected to the French in He attended jump school and became a member of the 8th Baton Parachute Commandos de Choc, In 1953 he was awarded Palm Hero Dien Bien Phu, Later that same year he was capture and spent eight months in prison before escaping to the South and joining ARVIN 1st Airborne Div.
He was promoted to Lieutenant in 1956, and was recruited by MACV -SOG in 1964 and assigned to the 5th SFG, Abn. He was then trained at Camp Bearcat, Long Thanh, to include the Fulton Skyhook System. He became the Team Leader for Tiger Team Three, (Team Dakota), Shinning Brass Program. He was promoted to Captain in 1966 and inserted into North Vietnam, OPLAN-34,Team Red Dragon, along the Chinese border. His mission was to join up with a Chinese Special Forces Team out of Taiwan and infiltrate China. However upon landing Kien's unit was engaged by the NVA. He was wounded in the left leg and right hand, captured and spent the next 18 years in a "Re-education Camp".
After being released, he rounded up his wife and three children and escaped to Malaya. There while in a refugee camp, he was sponsored by a Lutheran Organization helping refugees, and relocated to Marietta, GA in 1989.
Kien was a true Special Forces Warrior!
I consider having served with him, in RT-Dakota, an honor and a privilege
Frank H. Fowler, SFC (Ret.) U.S. Army

40. In Remembrance of Our Special Operations Warriors Who Gave Their All
You have never lived, until you have almost died
For those who have fought for it, life has a special flavor, the protected will never know.