Author Topic: Prarie Fire Emergency-Extraction of a SF recon team in Laos in 69  (Read 566 times)

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Online sneakypete

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https://www.gopbriefingroom.com/index.php/topic,489830.msg0/topicseen.html#new

This is the only example I know of an emergency extraction of a 6 man recon team from Laos while under fire. It was obviously recorded by a helicopter crewman whose helicopter was involved in the extraction. You can hear the recon team leader on the ground talking with the lead extraction chopper,and hear the gunfire.

This can be pretty intense to listen to and I don't mind admitting it really got my adrenaline pumping while listening to it.

The guys on the ground being rescued were all friends of mine. I knew the team leader from Okinawa when I was in the 1st SFG.  His team was composed of SF soldiers from the 1st SFG who all volunteered to go to VN on a 6 month TDY tour. Most of these guys would spend 6 months TDY (temporary duty assignment) in VN,and  then 6 months back on Okinawa. Kinnear's Okinawian wife had just had a baby before this deployment to SOG duty in VN. He was either killed in action on this mission or one soon after it.

Ironically enough,he wasn't even an infantry soldier. He was assigned to an Army Intelligence detachment in the 1st Group,and was the only man I knew in SOG that carried a cut-down M-14 as his primary weapon. I talked with  one guy who was involved with pulling Kinnear's team out of a recon mission into Laos at night while they were under fire,and he said it was easy to track where Kinnear and his team were hunkered down by the muzzle flashes that lit up the area they were in.

He was a big-boned tall redheaded man that looked like he just stepped off a boat from Scotland.

None of this really makes any difference,though. You don't have to have known any of these people or been extracted under fire to feel the tension in the voices as they talk about what they are doing and what needs to be done.

This is the only extraction from Laos under fire that I am aware of,and this was recorded in real time,as it was happening.

This is a rare piece of history,recorded in real time.
« Last Edit: March 21, 2023, 07:11:38 am by sneakypete »
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Online sneakypete

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Re: Prarie Fire Emergency-Extraction of a SF recon team in Laos in 69
« Reply #1 on: November 25, 2023, 02:45:41 pm »
I can't believe that with all the vets here  there has not been one single response to this little piece of military  history.
Anyone who isn't paranoid in 2021 just isn't thinking clearly!