The next time you are browsing the aisles at Walmart, just think to yourself that the son of Sam Walton, the founder of the retail giant, was involved in special operations during the Vietnam War. Military Assistance Command Vietnam-Studies and Observation Group — or MACV-SOG — is a name so bland that it shielded the true nature of their top-secret work into deniable areas like Laos, Cambodia, and North Vietnam. How did the 11th richest man in the world intertwine his legacy into one of the most notorious special operations units in U.S. military history?
John Thomas Walton was born in Newport, Arkansas, the second of three sons, and excelled at athletics. He was a standout football star on their public high school football team and was more of a student of life than academics. His father, Sam, opened Walton’s 5&10 in Bentonville, a small business in a small town known for its variety of hunting seasons. Walton had a modest upbringing and after only two years of college he dropped out to enlist in the U.S. Army. “When I was at Wooster [The College of Wooster in Ohio], there were a lot of people talking about the war in the dorm rooms, but I didn’t think they understood it,” Walton said.
Walton enlisted in the Army and became a Green Beret (Army Special Forces). “I figured if you’re going to do something, you should do it the best you can,” he said during an interview with Andy Serwer for Fortune magazine. Assigned to MACV-SOG after the Tet Offensive in 1968, Walton was stationed at FOB 1 in Phu Bai where members of Strike Team Louisiana conducted deep penetration reconnaissance missions. John Stryker Meyer, a teammate and friend of Walton’s, wrote, “In August of ’68, on one such mission, Walton’s six-man recon team was surrounded and overrun by enemy soldiers.” The firefight became so intense that the team leader, William “Pete” Boggs, called an airstrike (napalm) directly on their own position to break contact.
“That strike killed one team member, wounded the team leader and severed the right leg of the Green Beret radio operator Tom Cunningham Jr., of Durham, N.H. Another team member was wounded four times by AK-47 gunfire by an enemy soldier whom Walton killed,” Meyer wrote. As the team’s medic, Walton was responsible in setting up a triage point to tend to the casualties. He applied a tourniquet to Cunningham’s leg that had begun to hemorrhage. The tourniquet ultimately saved his life, but he later lost his leg. Facing hundreds of North Vietnamese soldiers (NVA) and completely surrounded, Walton called in two extraction helicopters.
The first helicopter, piloted by South Vietnamese Captain Thinh Dinh, touched down and picked up members of the team, some of whom Walton personally carried. The enemy soldiers were now sprinting to prevent their escape. Bullets clanged off the chopper and whizzed by their bodies. A second helicopter was needed to get them all out, but realizing how dire the situation had turned, the first helicopter sat back down and picked up the entire team. Their weight was too much, and they barely managed to climb over the treetops. Walton’s determination to get his teammates out of harm’s way earned him the Silver Star, the nation’s third highest award for valor.
During a poker game on the night they returned to base, one of his teammates noticed that the skin on Walton’s wrist was burnt. It was evidence of just how accurate the NVA gunfire was. Walton, Meyer, and his teammates enjoyed poker, Scrabble, and other games that require thought. They spoke about their goals and the dreams they hoped to accomplish when they returned home. Walton’s was a life of adventure.
Meyer shares how Walton had inspirations to travel domestically on a motorcycle and to Mexico, Central, and South America by plane. He earned his pilot’s license and started his own business crop-dusting cotton fields in Texas and Arizona. Crop-dusting provided Walton a new challenge that helped his transition after Vietnam. His aerial theatrics featured ingenuity, too — Walton co-founded the company Satloc in 1999, which pioneered the use of GPS applications in agricultural crop-dusting. He also served as a company pilot for his family business.
It seemed Walton was always searching for his next greatest thrill. He briefly owned a sailing company called Marine Corsair in San Diego, and he regularly traveled to Durango, Colorado, for outdoor activities such as mountain biking, skiing, and skydiving. As Walmart’s success climbed, so too did Walton’s wealth. At one point, he was the 11th richest man in the world, with an estimated $18.2 billion net worth. However, despite the amount of money he made, he always stayed true to his modest roots. Meyer recalled a breakfast the pair had in Oceanside, California, and Walton arrived in a small Toyota hybrid.
Walton was also a strong proponent of education and school vouchers, helping establish the Children’s Scholarship Fund with the goal of sending low-income children to private schools. The Walton family as a whole has donated an estimated $700 million, largely due to John’s advocacy. The William E. Simon Prize for Philanthropic Leadership recognized his contributions in 2001.
John T. Walton died on June 27, 2005, when his custom-built CGS Aviation Hawk Arrow plane crashed in Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming. He was 58 years old. An investigation determined that loose flight control components were the cause of the fatal accident. Walton left behind a wife, Christy, and son, Lukas.
Though Walton’s name will always be immediately recognized as the heir to the Walmart empire, his legacy is also inextricably tied to MACV-SOG. Two years before his untimely death, Walton chartered his private jet to pick up the family of Thinh Dinh, the South Vietnamese pilot with whom he served decades prior. They reunited in Las Vegas, never forgetting the lasting bonds forged in war.
I was also MACV-SOG. The reason none of us got the medals we deserved was the simple fact that our government adamantly denied what we were doing and where we were doing it. A few of us were decorated by the South Vietnamese government, but we have never been permitted to wear or claim those medals - and when the MACV-SOG mission was finally declassified that government no longer existed to contest it.
Walton worked out of CCC (Command and Control Central). I flew out of CCS (South) There was also a CCN. From those three locations, small recce teams were inserted deep into bad guy country where they gathered intel on the Ho Chi Minh Trail, and performed other devious activities before being extracted after as long as a week. By the time I flew that mission, we were no longer using American assets on those teams. We used Vietnamese, Montagnard, Cambodian, and mercenary Chinese teams. Helicopter assets were Vietnamese H-34 King Bees for team insert/extract and US Special Ops UH-1N Green Hornets for cover. We FACs flew unmarked O-2s as command ships. We FACs were in control of all operations, using interpreters to communicate with the ground teams.
Most of our teams went "hot" at some point most often during extraction. Just finding the team in that terrain was the first hurdle, then attempting to recover them under enemy fire. We lost as many as one third of the teams, in fact. Many simply were never heard from again. And some of them we heard die.
If you want to watch some interesting stuff on MACV-SOG, go on youtube and check out the podcasts Jocko has up. I just finished reading the book by John Stryker Meyer. Those guys had some balls.
Worked a bit with CCN teams and first Marine Recon back then. I swear upon a Marvel comic book that I’ve never been in Laos or North Vietnam. They were as crazy as it gets.
I am..........disturbed.
Concerning the difference between man and the jackass: some observers hold that there isn't any. But this wrongs the jackass. -Twain
For an interesting but little known piece of history, I recommend "The Black Bats". Most of the CIA missions in SE Asia and over Communist China were flown by Nationalist Chinese pilots. Incredible bravery and airmanship. I had a small peripheral role on Taiwan in the late '50s. The last B-17 shot down was two weeks after I left to return to the States, coincidentally my wife's 18th birthday. The MiG pilot who shot it down over Guangdung province was a Korean war ace.
The book tells of one Chinese lady who lost her husband on a mission over mainland China. She then married another pilot, and he too was killed. Tremendous sacrifice.
Stupidity has its way, while its cousin, evil, runs rampant.
Added: as an example of just how bizarre deep covert operations can get, consider that my best interpreter/right seat guy was an NVA Captain. No chit.
Rocky, Do you know John Plaster? I have enjoyed a lot of his articles and writings. He did a great piece on the XM-177 in “The American Rifleman” magazine a few years ago.
I never met John, but his works are pretty much bible on MACV-SOG. You have to understand how rigidly compartmented covert ops have to be. You are never told anything except your own tiny little corner of things. I flew out of CCS, for example, but wasn't told that was a CCC or CCN until years later. (You might infer or assume such, but deception runs very deep even amongst the "in" crowd.) I flew missions that I couldn't discuss even with my fellow pilots at CCS, and I'm sure they did, too.
I never met John, but his works are pretty much bible on MACV-SOG. You have to understand how rigidly compartmented covert ops have to be. You are never told anything except your own tiny little corner of things. I flew out of CCS, for example, but wasn't told that was a CCC or CCN until years later. (You might infer or assume such, but deception runs very deep even amongst the "in" crowd.) I flew missions that I couldn't discuss even with my fellow pilots at CCS, and I'm sure they did, too.
Thanks. Been there done that too after 1500 hours in the B52 G/H. “NEED TO KNOW”
I’ve always enjoyed reading about the men and exploits of MACVSOG. I’ve also listened to a lot of the podcasts by Meyer, Plaster and others. They actually did some of the first HALO operations also. These men were as brave as any who have marched to battle and I never tire of their stories. I had the pleasure of meeting a man a couple of years back who had served under Col. Bob Howard after the war…..another legend with an oversized pair.
It's funny. When we were actually doing it, it didn't seem all that heroic or even dangerous. Even getting the real "Mission Impossible" briefing where they tell you you will not be rescued if shot down, you will be disavowed by the government, and you are expected to commit suicide rather than be captured. It was just flying.
Decades later, however, at reunions of other FACs and troops, when told what we did, the universal response was "You did WHAT?" Considering that FACing itself was considered to be a near suicide job, that sorta made me realize that it wasn't so mundane a job after all.
Yeah, and you fellas had a wicked sense of humor. 😁
Mentioned this in my “book” but WTH...got shot at one day along the east rim of the A Shau Valley...entire battalion opened up in me. Guess they missed their coffee, it was kinda early. About the time I cleared the hot zone a Bilk FACCER called and asked if we needed help. Snake lead was agreeable. Bilk told us he had a flight of 4 F4’s doing RTB from some place he couldn’t talk about, with a full load. Weather had socked in their target and they were low on fuel.
No way in hell was I going to mark the target but we passed along verbal description of the target site which was easy to see in the tall mountains. He said he would mark the target and told us to move well south of the target. His marking shot was good and about 10 seconds after confirming that the flight dropped in with a Thunderbirds style diamond formation. Never had seen that before, nor had I seen an F4 drop ALL of its bombs at the same time; certainly not 4 of them in close formation. Sooooo, about 48-50 thousand pounds of bombs hit the target at one time. Pretty much looked like a nuke detonation.
Lead asked if I wanted to check it out...”Oh yeah!” Did not receive a single round of fire, and it was impossible to count the number of NVA killed. You see, all their parts and pieces were mostly hanging on nearby tree limbs. One leg still had a boot on its little foot.
Death was our business, and on that day business was good.
I am..........disturbed.
Concerning the difference between man and the jackass: some observers hold that there isn't any. But this wrongs the jackass. -Twain
Thanks for sharing some of your expériences. Too many young people have no idea what war can be like or what the heroes went through. Thank you for all you have done the courage of the m'en on the ground and the pilots and their créw are ledgendary. Did you guys know Mad Dog Shriver?
Considering the anger and frustration we civilians are feeling in regards to our nation's current state of affairs, I can't begin to imagine what you heroes, who have put your lives on the line to preserve our way of life, must be experiencing. God Bless all of you, and please know that your sacrifice is deeply appreciated.
I think I can speak for many or most of us. Those of us who fought to defeat Communism feel deeply betrayed by those who today are voting for Communists.
Did you ever work with a Special Forces medic, Paul King? He was our PA when I was working on the slope. He told some spell binding stories of his time there. He worked some with the Montagnard. Great PA and good guy.
Chronographs, bore scopes and pattern boards have broke a lot of hearts.
I think I can speak for many or most of us. Those of us who fought to defeat Communism feel deeply betrayed by those who today are voting for Communists.
I think I can speak for many or most of us. Those of us who fought to defeat Communism feel deeply betrayed by those who today are voting for Communists.
You do speak for many of us, unfortunately this is the campfire where some freedom fighters will title us covtard boomers and communists if we fail to sing in tune w/ the chorus. It is fun to tickle their soft underbellies though.
#browneyeandcohortsmayreact
mike r
Don't wish it were easier Wish you were better
Stab them in the taint, you can't put a tourniquet on that. Craig Douglas ECQC
I think I can speak for many or most of us. Those of us who fought to defeat Communism feel deeply betrayed by those who today are voting for Communists.
I had a very good friend who served in Vietnam. Although I was in the Army many years ago, there was the Cold War in full progress, but no "hot" war at that time so no combat for me. My friend and I were both very disturbed about what was going on in our country. I do not ask combat vets what they did in combat but once, however, I asked my friend, "When you were fighting the communists in Vietnam, did it ever cross your mind you might have to fight them here someday?"
He said, "No, but it has crossed my mind lately."
That day will not come. He died this past February, from cancer. He thought it was Agent Orange related. I did ask him if he'd ever been sprayed with Agent Orange? He said, "No, but I've crawled through a helluva lot of it."
No kids, just his wife. After his death, I was talking with his wife and she was asking my advice on a couple of things. She said, "Would you like to see a picture of his medals?"
I said, "Of course." I knew he was in the Navy, and was badly wounded, therefore knew he'd have received the Purple Heart. I also knew he'd been a Navy SEAL with SEAL Team One, out of Coronado. I never asked about medals or rank as I did not think it my business. This is what she sent me. I'm sure you Navy and Marine members will recognize that medal just beside his Purple Heart. Another fine, brave, patriotic, warrior and my friend, gone.
FWIW.
L.W.
"Always go straight forward, and if you meet the devil, cut him in two and go between the pieces." (William Sturgis, clipper ship captain, 1830s.)
I think I can speak for many or most of us. Those of us who fought to defeat Communism feel deeply betrayed by those who today are voting for Communists.
.......... Some of those commies of today are the same A-holes that were calling guys in uniform "Baby Killers" circa 1970. Remember that ?
I do. And I also note that the same azzwipes who called me a baby killer are today the most strident supporters of abortion. The irony seems to escape them.
Worked with a guy who worked the brown water navy and had extensive knowledge of the rivers in northern Vietnam. Did a few things where we didn't go according to the gubmint. When he came back he and a navy buddy were sent to a Redline Brig. Eventually they learned to say what the psychologists wanted to hear and got out. Later Jimmy Carter sent a letter apologizing for what they did to my bud. He had already burned his uniforms and all other stuff related. He burned the Jimmy Carter letter. Years later when he wanted some credit so he could get certain benefits he found out his records had "burned in a tragic fire" in a St. Louis warehouse. I consider him my brother and we spent many an hour watching and transporting crooks for the state of Misery. I hope Rocky, DD, and all you vets know that some of us honor you vets more than most others. The U. S. military of today scares me..... Be Well, RZ.
Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy. Its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery. Winston Churchill.
Rocky, I read both your books and e-mailed you my thoughts. I read Dan's early writings on this forum and told him the same thing. I covered Scouts, so I knew Dan's mission well. I had no knowledge except rumors about FOB's and SOG missions, so your books opened up my eyes a little. In our unit, a down bird scrambled every available ship, and nobody got left, although not always alive. When I read about the single ship FOB FAC scouting missions in your outfit, it gave me a little chill. I guess you can get used to anything, but that was a lonely way to fight a war. Thanks again to you and Dan for doing it and putting it all to paper. MLP
My first boss in corporate was the VP of sales and had the only original Shelby Cobra 427 I've ever laid eyes on. He was MACV-SOG. Had a tattoo on the inside of his forearm. Skull with a beret and a lightning bolt IIRC. Great guy. Gave up a collegiate career as a running back for USC and joined up. He said he spent most of his time over the fence. Also said, they weren't worried as much about bad guys as they were the tigers. Slept in a wheel spoke configuration one night and a couple came through. Scared the schitt outta them. Couldn't shoot them because of noise discipline. He said he did a few Bright Lights, but those still couldn't be talked about. Lotta respect for those dudes.
RIP Doug. Fuggin' tigers and gooks couldn't get ya, but the Orange did.
Thanks, MLP. It was best to not dwell on being out there alone, 100 miles into Indian country and out of radio contact. But at least I wasn't on the ground with the mosquitoes, leeches, tigers, mines, booby traps, and all those bad guys. When we weren't actually dodging tracers, missions were more like lovely afternoon sightseeing trips.
We were very grateful to the smart people at Cessna and Continental, though. And doubly so to our maintenance guys. They're the ones who got us home.
Fascinating history of SOG operator 1-0 William Phillips out of Lowell, MA. For those interested, watch this. He references Walton near the end. Good thing one cannot strangle an interviewer through a laptop display. The part about the NVA officer's head expanding like a balloon upon being penetrated by a tear gas round out of a M-79 at close range is something of a jaw-dropping,head-shaking then grinning moment.
Rock, your two books and the personalized words inscribed under the cover are in a place of honor in my little library.
Hey Wiley, no comment? Tried emailing recently but the Nutwood contact seemed dead. You have my contact. Love to catch up.
KG, I can't remember if it was anything else. Prairie Fire was a code phrase that an American recce team was in serious trouble. I don't think it was restricted to ops in a certain country. If you made a Prairie Fire call on the Guard radio frequency as a FAC, you essentially took control of every asset in SEA. That's how seriously we took saving those teams.
By 1971, our mission didn't use US GIs on the ground, and we never called in outside forces when a team went hot. Our rescue/extraction efforts were all done "in house" because Nixon adamantly denied we were doing what we were doing. In essence, we protected Nixon more than our teams.
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