History -- Heroes Under Fire Jungle Ambush Review

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(More customer reviews)"Jungle Ambush" is the video version of what happened on October 5th, 1968, when twelve members of SOG team Alabama accidentally landed in a hornet's nest of 5,000 heavily armed North Vietnamese soldiers in Laos. The events described in this documentary are based on Lynn Black's book entitled "Whisky Tango Foxtrot." This is a memoir about the early life of a unique man who was part of 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 "WTF," 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. Secret Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines with the Elite Warriors of SOG 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.
This book had to be written by Black, not to chronicle history but rather for the author to psychologically deal with what he went through. One of the reasons this book took almost a decade for Black to complete was his reluctance to dredge up those emotions of being in the "life and death game" again. By reading Black's story, you will see that all his life he was charged with the responsibility for others welfare and leading the way in one form or another. Growing weary of living in the past and wanting to quietly live in the present, Black completed WTF. Accomplishing this enabled him to move on with his life and focus on his priority, taking care of his family and himself. The Ether Zone: U.S. Army Special Forces Detachment B-52, Project Delta Explaining his journey in life, the very next day after he enlisted in the Army he 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. Talking with Victor Charlie: An Interrogator's Story 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.
In June of 1967, Black took and passed the Special Forces examination, reenlisting. Back at his old stomping grounds with the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, Black impatiently waited for the next Special Warfare School class to begin with determined resolve to see the enemy as he killed him. Between the mortaring of his brother, the massacre at the orphanage and the sneaky booby trap incident, Black would make sure he evened the score. His wish would come true, as in June of 1968, Black was back in South Vietnam with classified orders to report to the elite Military Assistance Command Vietnam/Studies and Observations Group (MACV/SOG). His first assignment was to report to FOB-1, the acronym for Forward Operations Base-1, located outside Phu Bai, on the outskirts of the old imperial capital city of Hue. This was the scene of some of the heaviest fighting of the Vietnam War during the Tet...Read more›

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