Did you miss:
Pre-SOG
SOG
I
SOG
II
SOG
III
SOG
IV
SOG
V
SOG
VI
"Our route took us past the side gate of the Palace where several bodies in civilian clothes lay sprawled in the street."
NEXT WEEK:
SOG VIII
The Tet Offensive
( Part 2)
SOG
VII: The Tet Offensive (Part One)
by Jean d'Isle
' 
hortly
after my return 
from up country (see
last article), the MACV SOG Headquarters
moved from its somewhat isolated location in the Cho Lon
suburb to the more secure, high rent district of downtown
Saigon, taking over General Westmoreland's old MACV
I compound on Rue Pasteur. Westmoreland and his
staff had moved into a new facility on Tan Son Nhut
Airbase, a much larger and more secure location from
which to direct the war. This new Tan Son Nhut building
was identical to buildings I had been in in the
Washington, D.C. area, but with access to strategically
placed bunkers in the event of enemy attack.
With SOG's move across town, I had to bid an emotional farewell to my 9th floor luxury accommodations with the intermittent electricity and water, and relocate to a 3-story structure within walking distance of the new SOG compound. Life definitely got better with this move. Whereas I had long ago accepted that the day would start and end with a 9-story hike up/down the narrow stairway of my quarters (I quit using the elevator even when it worked, knowing that fate would eventually place me between floors during a power outage), I could now slog my way up one flight of stairs and be "home."
The change in neighborhood was not entirely without its drawbacks. Proximity to the Palace and the American Embassy, both of particular interest to VC gunners, made life a little more exciting than living in the urbs. A favorite enemy pastime was to lob Soviet-made 122mm rockets in the direction of these high value targets. The "rocket belt" around Saigon described an area located at a distance from the Palace matching the nominal range of the 122mm rocket. After dark, VC gunners would creep into the "belt", quickly set up and fire, and be gone before allied forces could respond.
This hurry-up launch procedure resulted in zero hits on the Palace or Embassy, but lots of anxiety for the neighbors. The Indian Consulate, next to my quarters, received a direct hit one night; and a number of times rockets hit close enough to take out windows and splatter our building with shrapnel. The first time it happened, I rolled out of bed and groveled around on the floor in the dark looking for a hiding place; but over time I realized that they fired only one rocket at a time, so whether it landed on me or not, there was no point in looking for cover. It was times like that when I sort of longed for the tranquility of Cho Lon. The night of January 31, 1968, and in the days immediately following, however, Cho Lon was not a good place to be.
The Tet Offensive has been described 
by historians as the turning point of the
Vietnam War. In spite of overwhelming losses, North
Vietnam, with the aid of skewed media reporting,
convinced the U.S. public that the U.S. was losing the
war. For me, personally, the Tet Offensive began in the
wee hours of the Tet New Year (1 Feb.) with the sound of
nearby small arms fire. After the first bursts, the
firing continued off and on well into the new day. A sign
was posted on the gate of our quarters to stay off the
streets. I decided to try to make my way to the SOG
compound where I might be of some use. When I stepped out
through the gate it was positively eerie: the normally
busy street was completely deserted; and in the
background bursts of gunfire could be heard in every
direction.
As I carefully made my way along the street, Swedish K at the ready, a jeep roared up and two MP's asked me where I was headed. They then suggested it would be safer to ride with them. Our route took us past the side gate of the Palace where several bodies in civilian clothes lay sprawled in the street. The MP's pointed out the armbands which identified them as VC (worn so they wouldn't shoot each other). These particular troops had been hiding in a building under construction across from the gate -- a building they had slipped into the day before and past which I obliviously strolled the previous evening.
As we pulled up to the SOG compound, a jeep full of American civilians screeched to a halt in front of us. They were from the American Embassy and were looking for ammunition. The VC had breached the Embassy wall and were on the grounds of the compound. The sounds of a pitched battle could be heard from that direction. Eventually, Marine security guards would kill all the attackers before they could enter the building.
As the day wore on, the extent of the offensive became clear. VC and NVA regulars had attacked almost every major city and allied military installation in South Vietnam. As darkness fell on that first day, the enemy troops around and in Saigon began to make their way through the city streets, taking cover in areas where it was almost impossible to bring fire to bear without endangering the civilian population.
__________________________________________________
Jean
d'Isle is a retired naval officer living
in Hawaii.
During his
military career he served in a number of overseas
assignments, including Germany, England, Spain, Viet Nam
and Puerto Rico. Following his retirement, he was an
adjunct faculty member of Hawaii Pacific University and
is currently under contract with the U.S. Navy at the
submarine base in Pearl Harbor.
Jean's column, View From d'Isle, is a regular feature of VegSource On-Line Magazine.