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"Armed with two thermite grenades and my trusty Swedish-K 9mm submachine gun, I took up a position in the office doorway, prepared to toss the grenades into the classified equipment and document area if the SOG compound were breached. "
NEXT WEEK:
SOG IX -- Singlaub
SOG
VIII:
The Tet Offensive (Part Two)
by Jean d'Isle
' 
s
darkness fell on Saigon the 
night
of February 1, 1968, allied forces were confronted with a
very difficult situation -- how to dislodge the enemy
from the city while avoiding civilian casualties. After
the previous night's surprise offensive, VC and NVA
regulars had hunkered down in various parts of the city
waiting for cover of darkness to press their attacks. In
spite of huge losses, units continued to infiltrate the
city from staging areas in the countryside.
At the SOG compound we received a steady stream of reports of enemy movements along the city streets and through the outlying areas of downtown Saigon. The ubiquitous parachute flares were only a slight comfort. An alert of imminent attack on the SOG compound came from a helicopter hovering in the vicinity -- a squad-sized VC unit had been spotted making its way in our direction.
My office space was on the ground level in the old MACV I communications center, somewhat isolated from the SOG main building because of the highly classified material and crypto devices required for special communications I operated in support of SOG operations. One of my highest priorities was to ensure that none of this material fell into enemy hands, even if I had to destroy it. Armed with two thermite grenades and my trusty Swedish-K 9mm submachine gun, I took up a position in the office doorway, prepared to toss the grenades into the classified equipment and document area if the SOG compound were breached. I recall thinking how vulnerable I felt facing the paved courtyard of the MACV I compound -- a mortar or grenade on that surface would spray lethal shrapnel in all directions.
Location reports on the advancing squad of VC stopped coming over the radio and we began to wonder if it was a false alarm. Suddenly, the distinctive "whump" of an outgoing small caliber mortar round made us aware that the phantom VC squad had set up a mortar position across Rue Pasteur in the backyard of a civilian home directly across from our front gate.
Fortunately for us, the mortars were being fired parallel to Pasteur toward the river, directed at the Rex and Brinks hotels where senior U.S. and allied officers were billeted. One of the SOG troops made his way to the top of our building to get a better angle on the mortar crew and began firing tracers to mark their position for a gunship strike. Once their position was compromised, the squad faded into the night. Over the next several days, pockets of resistence were isolated and destroyed. I recall the surreal situation of barbequeing steaks on the roof of the Rex Hotel while watching the daylight airstrikes on VC positions out by the racetrack and around Cho Lon.
I had heard that Cho Lon took a pretty bad beating during the offensive, so one day, after things had returned to their pre-Tet normality, I drove back to the old "hood." What a disaster area! Block after block had been turned into rubble. It looked like a scene out of WWII or the Watts riots -- a few building facades remained standing, but mostly there were piles of debris. This was the last area cleared of the enemy, at great cost to the businesses and homes of the civilian population. The thriving pre-Tet Chinese community had virtually disappeared.
The Tet Offensive marked the midpoint 
in my one-year tour of duty. The remainder
of the tour was, frankly, unremarkable. Somewhere about
mid-tour, an almost imperceptible attitude adjustment
took place in many who served in Vietnam, probably
related to a growing realization that perhaps you really
were going to make it through. The change was manifested
in a greater sensitivity to potential risk and inversely
related to the number of days remaining before the tour
rotation date. I never met anyone in Vietnam who didn't
know exactly how many days he had remaining in country
("x" days and a wakeup).
It helped to be associated with such an effective and professional organization such as SOG. That professionalism was due in large part to the Chief of the organization, COL Jack Singlaub, whose WWII service with the OSS and unconventional warfare knowledge made him particularly well suited to lead this elite group of volunteers.
__________________________________________________
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.