Heroes Under Fire: Jungle Ambush DVD

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I wanted to watch the video but I turned it off finally because I couldn't tolerate the very annoying rhythmic beating noises in the background. I fail to see why these background noises need to be added to videos. Just let the dialog do the work; stop adding distracting noises in the background.

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"Jungle Ambush" is a documentary made from Lynne Black's book "Whisky Tango Foxtrot." The viewer will learn about an exceptional period in American history, experiencing events and life and death situations a scant few will ever know about. It is the story of Lynne M. Black, affectionately known as "Blackjack," and his triumph over adversity as an elite member of the "Studies and Observations Group" during the Vietnam War. This is also a story of a man that faced hardship in various forms, nevertheless always finding a way of coming out triumphant regardless of the fiasco. While in his acknowledgement in his memoir, he gives kudos to his wife Judith for the encouragement to complete this seven year endeavor, Black asserts that this book amounted to: "Picking at very personal wounds and grievances in order for me to better understand my place and contributions in this life. The theme of this memoir is clearly determined perseverance regardless of the calamity anyone is faced with. Black never had a childhood. He was born on April 22, 1945, the same day Adolf Hitler declared defeat in Nazi Germany, deciding he would commit suicide as a consequence. As an adolescent, Black was reluctantly placed in charge of his two younger brothers, as well as forced to defend his masculinity due to being taunted about his name by his peers. Black graduated from high school in 1963 in Seattle, Washington. Immediately following that, he was informed by his parents that he either starts paying rent to live at home or move out. Faced with either homelessness or three hot's, a cot and a rifle, he enlisted in the Army. With the conflict rapidly gathering momentum in S.E. Asia, he would soon be transported to a world where the grim reaper would never be far away. Black was about to partake in a situation so unusual, rare and testing of human courage and fortitude that when he suffered through the divorce of his parents, grappled with survivor's guilt over the near death of his brother and close friend, as well as agonized over an atrocity where the victims were small homeless children living in an orphanage, they would be considered minor events. Lynne M. Black would experience all of the aforementioned, plus be part of a brigade that arrived in Vietnam in May of 1965 that proved to be the first major ground combat unit of the U.S. Army to serve in the Vietnam-all before he turned 21 years old. By the time he was 25, he had experienced two additional tours of duty in S.E. Asia as part of the exclusive Special Forces branch the U.S. Military had to offer, the "Studies and Observations Group,"known as the acronym "SOG." Eventually he would be a participant in one of the most lopsided battles America has ever been engaged in, coming out the winner. Black was caught by the North Vietnamese Army in an ambush with eight other SOG team members. When the dust cleared, three of his associates laid dead on the Laotian terrain, 17 helicopter crew members lost their lives attempting to support or extract RT Alabama, and incredibly over 5,000 of the enemy perished.

Black's memoir had to be written, not to chronicle history but rather for the author to psychologically deal with what he went through. "Jungle Ambush" amplifies the main thrust of the book, the occurrences on that horrible October day back in 1968. One of the reasons Black's book took almost a decade for him to complete was his reluctance to dredge up those emotions of being in the "life and death game" again. By both reading Black's story and viewing "Jungle Ambush," you will empathize with his ordeal. Growing weary of living in the past and wanting to quietly live in the present, Black completed his memoir to speak for himself. Explaining his journey in life, the very next day after his parents told him to pay rent or move out, Black enlisted in the Army and was on a flight to Fort Ord, California to attend basic training. This was in July of 1963. If Black had clairvoyance and could get a two second futuristic glimpse at the events of October 5, 1968, he would have thought twice about his actions. Nevertheless, his journey continued on to the place where they keep all the gold, Fort Knox, Kentucky. There, Black underwent Advanced Leadership and Armor School. It was during Armor School that his mettle was again tested, asked if he was "man enough" to make three parachute jumps. Volunteering would be a recurring theme in his life, and with the additional incentive of an extra $55 a month to his meager $79 base pay, he was easily recruited into jump school at Fort Benning, Georgia as a paratrooper. Upon completion Black was assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Thinking his destiny would take the course of being stationed in Germany and having the liberty to tour all the great art museums of Europe, he was shocked when after six months with the 82nd Airborne he received orders for the 173rd Airborne Brigade on Okinawa, Japan. "Sky Soldier" Black reported to D Company, 16th Armor sometime in April 1964. The 173rd Infantry Brigade is an airborne infantry brigade combat team of the U.S. Army and was the first major U.S.Army ground formation deployed in Vietnam, serving there from May of 1965 until 1971. "Sky Soldier" was the term used by the Nationalist Chinese in their description of U.S. paratroopers who made thousands of parachute jumps in dozens of different Pacific area countries. In May of 1965, Lynne Black was part of this initial brigade. Their first mission in South Vietnam was to secure the air base at Bien Hoa, just outside of Saigon, which was experiencing a severe pounding from Viet Cong rockets and mortars. In the combat operations to follow, Black would get his first taste of fighting a well trained, albeit elusive enemy.

The harsh circumstances were a harbinger of Black's next thirteen months, including blistering heat, too much water, or not enough, a steady diet of food from cans, snakes, leeches, jungle-rot, and no sleep. Black partook in the 173 rd's first assignments in War Zone D, including destroying enemy base camps as well as searching for the Viet Cong by use of long range reconnaissance patrols. Black believed what he had been told, that this would be a short police action and that the 173 rd would all be back on Okinawa for Christmas. Hugh Black, one of Lynne's two younger brothers, would start the string of events that would lead to Lynne reenlisting for two more tours. Hugh was in the 173 rd Engineering Company, which was attacked and stealthily mortared on July 16, 1965 by the Viet Cong. Hugh suffered life threatening injuries during the attack, thus ending his military career. Medivaced back to the U.S., he spent several months recovering in the hospital and endured a lengthy convalescence after he was released from military duty. In October of 1965, Lynne's Company departed Bien Hoa for the Iron Triangle on a search and destroy operation. En route, a command detonated mine killed one of their drivers and severely wounded three others. Finally, after a Christmas party at a local orphanage that Black had attended, the Viet Cong struck. They murdered any of the orphans that accepted gifts from the Americans, and had laced a loaf of bread with finely shaved crystals of crushed glass. A soldier had eaten from this and almost died. During his entire first tour of Vietnam with the 173 rd Airborne Brigade, Black never once saw the face of the enemy and even though he DEROS 'd out of the Army in July of 1966, he was consumed with a burning passion of exacting revenge on this unscrupulous enemy. Despite the fact that he moved to Hawaii, the war was never out of sight. Black worked there for the art department of a local television station, Being America's first "television war," Black eyed the action on the nightly news. Between the televised fire fights of soldiers firing at an empty Vietnamese jungles loaded with phantom NVA cadre and the metal boxes carrying America's finest on their last ride home, Lynne Black knew what he had to do. After talking with other veterans who said they had never seen the enemy, but had lost buddies to Viet Cong covert jungle tactics, Black decided it was time he took the fight to the enemy. The Communists were about to find out they had angered the wrong person.

SOG was charged with the responsibility of retrieving lost equipment or documents captured through enemy action. SOG Recon Teams entered their mission, referred to as the "area of operation" (AO) with no personal identification nor serial numbers on their weapons. To complete a SOG assignment, a volunteer was required to run a minimum of three cross-border operations referred to as going "Over The Fence." There were times when teams were covertly inserted wearing NVA uniforms carrying AK-47's. Recon Teams were led by three Americans and supported by nine mercenary commandos, making a 12 man team. The American team leader was designated a "One-Zero, the assistant team leader a "One-One," and the radio operator was designated a "One-Two." The nine Vietnamese mercenaries were paid by SOG and functioned as armed security for their American counterparts. Similarly, the mercenaries were designated as follows: the "Zero-One" was the mercenary team leader, "Zero-Two" the interpreter, "Zero-Three" the point man, all the way up until "0-9." All members carried CAR-15's or M-79 Grenade Launchers with the exception of the Zero-Nine who was the tail gunner. SOG had its own air force, the 90th Special Operations Wing. This consisted of a squadron of UH-1F Green Hornet helicopters which generally performed search and rescue missions. The fearless Vietnamese 219th "King Bees" H-34 helicopter squadron did the majority of insertions and extractions of SOG teams that went on missions "Over The Fence." Insertions were either by a normal helicopter landing and the RT member hopping off the chopper onto hostile terrain or by the more difficult method, rappelling down rope in areas inaccessible to a normal landing. When a reconnaissance team became compromised, ambushed or overwhelmed and could not break contact with the enemy, an emergency aerial extraction was requested. Often the jungle canopy was impenetrable making it impossible for a helicopter to land. The teams were then extracted on "strings," which were 100 foot long ropes dangling from the extraction ships.

Initially "McGuire Rigs" were used, which were a nylon strap fashioned into a loop large enough for a man to sit in. There was a smaller cinch-loop which a hand was inserted. Wounded men often slipped out of the McGuire Rig and dangled for an hour by one wrist while being taken home. That method of extraction was replaced by the "Swiss Seat," which was a length of rope tied around a Recon Team member's waist and looped through the legs. A D-ring was attached the front of the seat and then to the 100 foot rope. This allowd both hands to be free so a recon man could return fire and if wounded not slip out. The downside was that if you were wearing a rucksack, the center of gravity was so low that you flipped upside down for the one hour flight home. Both these extraction methods were replaced with the "STABO Rig," which was a parachute like harness integrated into the combat web-gear. There was a D-ring on each shoulder that was attached to the extraction rope allowing freedom of both hands and an upright body position during extraction. A negative aspect of being extracted on strings was that there were times when Recon Team members were left to dangle under the chopper at 100 knots of speed for however long the trip was to return to their Forward Operating Base. These unfortunate men were often frozen in the high altitude the helicopter would travel and as a consequence couldn't walk for at least 20 minutes due to their leg circulation being cut off by all three rigs. Rarely would a SOG member be left behind when in trouble. When a team was in dire trouble, decimated and their remains needed to be recovered, or a downed pilot needed to be rescued, a heavily armed rescue team, called a "Bright Light" mission would be called upon to do the job. If a SOG team was being overrun, or massive, destructive air power was needed, a B-52 air strike, called an "Arc Light" served the purpose. There were times where recon teams were trapped with no possible chance of rescue, and the North Vietnamese allowed them to live knowing one Bright Light mission after another would come to rescue them. The whole sadistic purpose was to ambush and shoot down one rescue team after another, using the trapped recon team as "sacrificial bait."

Lynne Black's memoir contains entertaining anecdotes of various missions and experiences he experienced during his first tour of SOG, which ran from July of 1968 to June of 1969 as a member of RT Alabama, as well as RT Idaho which he later joined as the "One-One" pairing up with team leader John Stryker "Tilt" Meyer. "Jungle Ambush" focuses on the disaster that occurred on October 5th, 1968. When "Tilt" went back to the U.S. in April 1969, Black went on to become Idaho's team leader. Tilt's comments are intelligently inter-spaced throughout "Jungle Ambush." However, Black leaves the reader numb with the bone chilling, nerve racking description of RT Alabama's fateful mission on October 5, 1968. It would leave three Alabama team members, 17 aircrew personnel, and incredibly 5,000 North Vietnamese soldiers dead on Laotian soil. On this day, RT Alabama inadvertently landed right on top of both an armed 2000 man "Binh Tram" unit as well as a 3000 man NVA regiment they were sent in to find, with odds very highly stacked against them to survive. The "One-Zero" was James "Bulldog" Stride, the "One-One" was Stephen Engelke, the One-Two was Black. The Indigenous force consisted of Loc A. Hua the "Zero-One," Doan "Cowboy" Khan was the "Zero-Two," (Cowboy now lives in California), Hoa Nguyen was the "One-Three" who sadly was killed shortly after landing, along with the tail gunner, Cuong T. Nguyen. Black's description of what happened to Cuong is both awe inspiring and simultaneously tragic. The mission had all the omens of disaster even before it happened. No Recon Team wanted this mission, as the last twelve that went in there were either never heard from again or so shot up the team had to be folded. The moniker "Oscar Eight" was used to designate a suicidal area of operation that would result in a "one way mission," and this assignment fit all of its requirements. Therefore, it became necessary to be involuntarily assigned to a team via a lottery system., which tragically Alabama won. On October 3rd, 1968, two days before the doomed mission, Black and Stride flew a visual reconnaissance over the target in a Vietnamese Air Force U-17 to take photographs and study the area. The plane took off from Phu Bai airfield and circled over the South China Sea. Black noticed from the air sampan fishermen carefully observing the U-17 as they flew over.

Flying west over South Vietnam's rice paddies which gave way to towering mountains, the plane cruised at a safe altitude. When they reached the Laotian area of operation, Stride ordered the pilot to pass over the projected landing zone to make a photo pass at a hundred feet. When the pilot objected, deeming it unsafe, Stride slapped the pilot in the head and reiterated his command. The plane dropped down to tree level, and Black managed to take one photograph. Before he could take a second one the plane was stitched with multiple rounds of machine gun fire exiting the ceiling of the aircraft. The copilot's head was blown apart with parts of it landing in Black's lap. Black believes that the sampan fishermen tipped off the 5000 NVA soldiers in "Oscar Eight" that the U-17 was about to fly over their Binh Tram and to take action accordingly. The one photo Black took actually picked up the NVA tracer rounds fired at the plane, the fusillade was so intense. Another of the idiosyncrasies of MACV/SOG at Phu Bai was the infamous "Green Beret Lounge." In his memoir "Bright Light, Steve Perry describes the lounge as follows: "The Green Beret Lounge was a place for social interaction within FOB-1. It was one of the few air conditioned places in the compound and therefore, a good place to escape the almost unbearable heat and humidity of S.E. Asia. We would gather here as a family to share a drink, a sad story of a lost friend, or the joy of something good happening back in the world." When Black first came to FOB-1 he thought everyone was sitting around the lounge playing a ridiculous game called "liars dice" and bragging what they did. His opinion changed, recalling: "It didn't take me long to figure out we were all telling each other how to stay alive...how to transfer the battle lessons learned." Despite going over with his 1-1 every bit of intelligence they could get their hands on of "Oscar Eight," Black knew there were times more information could be picked up in the club other than in official reports. Black later reflected: "Not in this case. There were no surviving old hands to talk about "The Lottery."

On Saturday, October 5th, at 8 AM,the fateful day of the mission, two Kingbees loaded with RT Alabama took off from Phu Bai. They flew into Laos and prepared to touch down to infamy. The first H-34 had "A Team" and the second had "B Team" with Black in the second Kingbee. He recalled the following: Several feet off the landing zone's touchdown, I spotted an NVA flag posted near the edge. I remember thinking "Not Good!" The mission should have been aborted right then and there, considering they were landing on a hornet's nest buzzing with 5000 NVA heavily armed soldiers. Immediately after his team was inserted the Kingbee that Black debarked from was shot out of the sky and crashed violently into the Laotian landscape. The team moved off the landing zone into the jungle to find cover, as the NVA set up on all sides of them, drawing the ambush tighter. Hoa, the point man, saw this and advised Stride to call for an immediate extraction. Stride ignored this advice and ordered the mission continued. Despite being a Korean War Veteran, Stride made a fatal mistake that would cost both his and Hoa's life by ordering the team to move over a well traveled trail across the LZ into the jungle. Reflecting, Black wrote: "The first rule of recon is, never use trails, especially well traveled trails. That trail, I said to Stride, definitely fits that description. He told me he was in command and that I would follow his orders without question." Immediately after that, a torrent of NVA lead flew out at RT Alabama, with Hoa hit multiple times in his chest and lower body. Jim Stride would be shot over 20 times, three fatally to his head. What happened next would make the reader think Lynne Black is another superman or a raving lunatic. He assumed command of RT Alabama and calmly ordered his team to form a circle giving 360 degree coverage. Every man laid prone or got down on one knee and fired repeatedly on automatic at the enemy except Black. He stood up, changed the selector on his CAR-15 to single shot and from left to right methodically killed one NVA after another. He killed so many charging NVA that the team stacked corpses of dead NVA around them and built a "cadaver wall." Another NVA charged up on Black and screamed "Chieu Hoi." Black answered by blowing the Communist soldier's head off, simultaneously declaring: "I don't think so!" RT Alabama would be on that piece of Laotian real estate almost until sundown.

What followed next is one of the most incredible stories of courage, determination, and intestinal fortitude ever in print! The NVA threw concussion grenades at Black and his team, only to be caught and thrown back! Black remarked: "You're mine now you bastards!" He even yelled out to the NVA as he continued to kill one NVA after another with expert marksmanship: "Chieu Hoi, surrender!". Eventually an NVA soldier hit Black in the head with a grenade, which dropped to his feet and exploded. The blast bent the barrel of Black's CAR-15, knocked him unconscious, and filled him with shards of shrapnel. After Cowboy poured water on him, Black came to, making him even more determined to kill every living NVA soldier on that battlefield. Black recorded his thoughts: "You have now officially crossed me." I am declaring a Prairie Fire Emergency! A Prairie Fire should drop enough Napalm on you suckers to ruin your day!" In a Prairie Fire, all aircraft in South Vietnam that were within flight distance of Black's position were obligated to immediately divert to support him. With 5000 Communist soldiers against one surrounded SOG Recon Team, it was obvious they could have overran Alabama anytime they wanted to. There were multiple extraction attempts with repeated disastrous results. As long as the NVA were downing American birds, they were content. Whisky Tango Foxtrot is a story of American perseverance, never quitting regardless of the odds. How that day ended has to be read to be believed, as only Blackjack can tell it. He paints a poignant mental image, as if the reader is right next to him firing over the cadaver wall at the charging NVA onslaught. At a post battle debriefing, he was asked why he reenlisted a second time. Aside from avenging his brother, his answer was classic Blackjack: When I got out the first time and went home it bugged me that so many of us had been killed or wounded and I couldn't say I had really seen the enemy. If I'm going to fight a war, I want to see the enemy. I want to see the look on their face when I pull the trigger or have them roasted with napalm. Don't ask me this stuff again. I'm doing a job that most guys back home don't want to do. Just be satisfied you can get people like me who want to be here and are qualified."

On his own mortality, he would comment later in his tour: "The enemy might shoot me, fill me full of shrapnel, or blow me up, but I'm not going to die. I refuse." Blackjack would later soften his position, realizing the biggest danger to him would ironically be himself. Experimenting once with C-4 he blew himself up on the range, being unconscious and AWOL for 2 days until he came to. Although the memoir only describes his first tour of SOG, he would go back for a second dose. Doug Le Tourneau, Blackjack's 1-1 with RT Idaho, would remember him as follows: "Black's one of those guys you can go to the field with and come back alive, but go to the firing range with him and you'll get a Purple Heart!". Addicted to the combat adrenalin, Black explained himself: "I'm not even interested in sex most of the time. I calm my nerves with alcohol and after mission stories in the club. I live for the field, the mission, that "Okay what's next?" rush. Fast forward to 2011. Blackjack has put it all down for others and can now move on, without living in the past, living on yesterday's emotions. There were other participants of October 5th, 1968, that could not leave the past in the past. According to Michael Orban, author of "Souled Out," he asserts that: "More Vietnam Veterans have died by suicide than died in the war." This includes a few veterans Black knew. Blackjack puts it all in perspective: "It's the quality of our lives that count. If we are staring at "The Reaper" and are in debilitating pain, ending our own lives is a viable option. Many of my friends have ended their lives under those circumstances. I miss them, but am happy they are at peace." While simultaneously being both horrifying and astonishing, "Jungle Ambush" tells this Sogger's story, allowing Lynne Black his personal serenity to move on! This is a memorable documentary about an incredible man you will never forget!

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This is rare history.
Wish we had more stories on Secret War in Vietnam.

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great educational dvd