Joe Parnar - SOG Kontum: Top Secret Missions in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, 1968–1969

Published in the United States of America and Great Britain in 2022 by

CASEMATE PUBLISHERS

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and

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Copyright 2022 Joe Parnar and Robert Dumont

Hardback Edition: ISBN 978-1-63624-234-7

Digital Edition: ISBN 978-1-63624-235-4

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Front cover: Joe Walker (Jason Hardy); jungle image. (Shutterstock)

Back cover: Montagnards firing during Operation Nightcap. (Phil Rice)

Staff Sergeant Joe Johnnie Walker

Code name Gladiator

RT California One-Zero

January 9, 1943January 28, 2022

This book is dedicated to the memory of

Staff Sergeant Joe Johnnie Walker,

SOG Kontums consummate recon One-Zero.

Few could fill his shoes.

Joe was inducted as a Distinguished Member

of the Special Forces Regiment in 2021.

Americas largest covert action organization since World War II was MACV-SOG, the deceptively named, Military Assistance Command, VietnamStudies and Observation Group. The public, of course, never heard of SOG those many years ago and very (very) few of those who fought in Vietnam knew of SOGs existence or its top-secret operations in Laos, Cambodia, and North Vietnam.

When SOG disbanded in 1972, its highly classified records were ordered to be destroyed. For a quarter-century, SOGs story remained largely unknown, until the declassification process began in 1995. That year, I started research for my book, SOG: The Secret Wars of Americas Commandos in Vietnam. After each operation, I knew, a detailed after-action report was sent to Saigon, and surely these thousands of reports would yield incredible stories of courage, sacrifice, and triumph. Think of it: first-person accounts of 10 Medal of Honor actions, plus individual debriefs of hundreds of our Green Beret Recon and Hatchet Force men, freshly recorded within a day of their return from their top-secret missions.

To my utter disappointment, it turned out that not one of these reports had survived the wholesale document destruction of 1972. Determined to tell SOGs story despite this lack of records, it required two years to track down and interview more than 100 SOG veterans, obtain citations for numerous valor awards, consult POW/MIA reports, and much, much more. This mosaic of facts and interviews formed the basis for my SOG history.

Despite having given that effort my all, I was disappointed that so many additional SOG mens great deeds remained unknown. I think every SOG veteran who came home felt an obligation to honor and recognize our comrades, especially those who did not come homeand there were many. Knowing of their incredible displays of courage and great sacrifices, their stories needed to be told lest they remain in oblivion forever.

I was not the only SOG veteran who felt this way. After my book was published, several other SOG comrades authored their own accounts of Command and Control North, Central, and South. In 2018 my longtime friend, Joe Parnar, a Special Forces medic and fellow CCC vet, wrote SOG Medic, an excellent first-person addition to the growing list of SOG memoirs. However, like me, Joe knew that more stories needed to be told, and more veterans of SOGs cross-border missions deserved recognition.

Joe spent several more years expanding his research to track down and interview numerous veteransnot only our Green Beret Recon and Hatchet Force men, but crewmen from our troop-lift helicopters and helicopter gunships, fighter pilots, and many other participants in SOGs top secret world. Ask anyone who ran recon in SOG, and youll be told their lives were saved by courageous aviatorsthey had to be included too. Thanks to the internet, Joe networked to find men not heard from since 1971 and, through them, found still more witnesses and participants.

Assisted by Robert Dumont, his co-author and editor, Joe assembled these voluminous transcripts and then masterfully weaved them into coherent, complete storiesa true oral history. Their book is well organized, well edited, and its stories well told. Rich in first-person accounts, they describe some of SOGs most dramatic operations from multiple perspectivesground commanders, team leaders, helicopter pilots, Forward Air Controllers, medics, and SOGs warriors. The resulting stories flow smoothly, almost seamlessly. Parnar and Dumont held their narrations and explanations to the absolute minimum, largely letting the stories tell themselves.

What especially impressed me is that the men Joe interviewed did not thump their chests or pat their own backs. After fighting alongside men you respect witnessing their courage, their selflessness, and tragically, their lossesyou cannot help but learn humility. No better example of this is Joe Parnar himself.

Joe risked his life many times to save the lives of our wounded, often exposing himself to the same enemy fire that had hit them. He was wounded three times. Yet, it is others that this book features; nothing tells of Joes humility so sincerely as when he cleaned the body of John Kedenburg, who had given his life to save a teammate and already was destined to receive the Medal of Honor posthumously.

Washing his body and preparing him for shipment back to the States, Joe wrote, is the greatest honor I have ever had.

Thank you for this book, Joe. Youre a fine man.

John L. Plaster

U.S. Army Special Forces, MACV-SOG, 19681971

SOG Kontum is a collection of narrative accounts of MACV-SOG operations originating at FOB-2/Command and Control Central (CCC) from April 26, 1968, through April 10, 1969. These operations took place both in-country and across the fence into Cambodia and Laos near the tri-border area of the Central Highlands.

It is not a comprehensive account of every mission carried out during that time period, nor are the authors asserting these were necessarily the most significant ones. Each mission, however, was noteworthy in its own right.

The narratives are primarily based on information obtained by the authors following publication of SOG Medic, Joe Parnars personal story of his time with the Studies and Observations Group (SOG), which closely corresponds to the timeframe for this new book. Although there is some carryover, SOG Kontum differs greatly from SOG Medic, which was entirely told from Joes viewpoint. That book detailed his reasons for enlisting in the Army, his Special Forces training, and his experiences with SOG during the Vietnam War. It was very much an I book.