This operation was extremely successful and important, so much so that they sent the three other Americans on the teams and me to Saigon to brief General Abrams.
See radio text message below. It was about a month later that we Americans on the two teams were alerted that the Commander of the Fifth Special Forces Group at Nah Trang was coming to give us our awards for this mission personally. We found out that the Bronze Stars that we would be receiving were for Achievement, not Valor. We were really pissed and almost decided not to accept them.
His reasoning for this, the Commander of the Fifth Special Forces Group, was due to the fact that there were not shots fired by the enemy or us. So I guess that when you are behind the enemy lines and sneak into their compound while they are having lunch and blow up hundreds of weapons that were going to be used to kill Americans with about 80 pounds of C4 plastic explosives and get out unscathed, that is not considered as a valorous deed???????
We did, begrudgingly, accept the awards but, as you can see, it still bothers me to this day. Larry was intense and demanding but I liked that, and we got along very well. When he heard I was leaving he offered any other job if I wanted if I would agree to stay on. He wrote me a very nice letter of recommendation see enclosed letter. Bob and I met through my background in the military, he is really a great guy. I told him I was getting bored and looking for something else. He said there was The World Pistol competition in Johannesburg South Africa and he was submitting a team, if I was interested, he would put me on the list for a visa as a competitor see enclosed letter.
He said from there I could go to Rhodesia where they were having trouble with communist infiltrators coming in through Mozambique. I said great lets do it. The competition starts in about six weeks.
I told Larry Flynt the date I would be ending my employment, and he asked me for one last favor. He was leaving for England then France on the Concord and really wanted me to go with him, of course I agreed.
I got home just in time to catch my flight to Africa. After a very long flight myself and two other Americans landed in Johannesburg and made it to the Johannesburger Hotel.
We spent a little time in Johannesburg and met some people that could help us get to Rhodesia. You must remember I just got back from Cannes France a few weeks earlier, but I could not believe how beautiful the town was and had the finest cuisine from all over the world. We made it to Salisbury Rhodesia and again I was impressed by to town and people.
We passed out our resumes and soon got offers. We met our guide Samson and started our work. We were paid We stayed there for a few months. We had to get back to South Africa because of the limit of our visas. In Johannesburg I spent a lot of time with an extremely sharp individual, I was very impressed with him.
He offered me a job and gave me 24 hours to make my decision and If I decided to take his offer, I could not talk to anyone I knew or family member for 6 years. Obviously, I wonder what my life would be like if I took that job.
I know what the job was as it is well publicized in the worldwide news years later. Of course, it is just another one of the things I cannot talk about. Things worked out great for me because when arriving back in the US I met my wife now and have been together for over 42 years and have a wonderful family.
There is more info in my book on Amazon if interested. His book, No Guts, No Glory can be found at amazon. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Notify me of follow-up comments by email. Notify me of new posts by email. Reviews MCM. Sign in.
Log into your account. Forgot your password? Password recovery. Jim was united in marriage on August 28, , to Veronica R. Letter at St. Sebastian Catholic Church in Isaar. The couple dairy farmed in Clintonville for many years. Jim also worked part-time for some years delivering new fire trucks for Seagrave Fire Apparatus in Clintonville.
He was employed for close to 10 years driving truck for Marion Body Works as well. Jim was a longtime member of St. He also served on the Clintonville Public School Board for 10 years. She was in charge of all Special Forces movement. I walked into her office and laid down my file and asked her if I was Special Forces qualified. She said yes more so than most Special Forces on active duty now, why do you ask? I told her my story about trying to get to Viet Nam.
Again I like to task myself and asked what is the most dangerous, toughest unit in Viet Nam. I was told first that I was crazy then they told me about SOG.
I must have impressed them because I was allowed to become part of this exclusive club. Jim Bolen: I did not get much of an introduction all I was told is that it is very dangerous and that was enough for me. Again it is hard to explain but the way I was brought up if I worked for someone I always wanted the hardest job not the easiest so at the end of the day It made me feel more satisfied about my accomplishments. Jim Bolen: The roll of a SOG team is to infiltrate behind the enemy lines in a classified country and bring back as much intelligence information as possible.
Intelligence information can be anything from ground conditions, vegetation, movement on trails all the way to POW snatches. A normal recon team consists or 2 American and 4 Indigenous personnel. I started as an assistant team leader out of Kontum for 2 missions then I was given my own team, Recon Team Auger.
I had over 40 missions as a team leader and came out under fire more than 30 times. Modern Forces : SOG had great leeway in choosing equipment, can you describe some key items of your uniform, weapons and equipment?
Jim Bolen: We were very lucky to get the best of everything in my opinion. Just about anything we asked for we got. We also got the best in the way of support for infiltrations or extractions. The team leader on the ground could call in air support without any hesitation.
We could not get artillery because of our location too far away from artillery bases. Our weapons were modified for silencers, depending on the mission. Our uniforms were all sterile without American markings. We had the best medical pill kit including Morphine.
Modern Forces : Can you share any memorable missions with our readers? Read my following military citations for a brief description of my actions. On the first day, moving through the jungle, I started noticing that every third or fourth tree had been cut off at ground level. The NVA did that so that the overhead canopy cover would not be unduly disturbed and noticeable from the air.
That was the first time I had ever seen anything like that. Even my point man did not notice this. I knew that the enemy must be building something large close by. We started moving more slowly, expecting to come across an enemy compound close by. Within an hour, we spotted two large buildings under the canopy located on a high-speed trail. Both buildings were under roof, but the sides were left open.
The buildings were only about 20 feet apart. We moved into the compound and found that one of the buildings was housing a huge cache of enemy weapons, the largest found in enemy held territory. The other building was empty. We took pictures of the weapons and moved out of the compound. During our next scheduled radio check, I reported to FAC what we had found. I requested that they support me with another team with demolitions to destroy the weapons.
They contacted me and said they would start putting a team together right away. I moved out of the area for about a day in order to stay as far away from the enemy compound as possible and looked for a safe LZ to bring in the supporting team. The next day the second team was inserted and we spent that day preparing and going over where the demolitions would be placed.
On 30 June , we headed back through the jungle to the enemy compound. Everyone, including our Commander at FOB 2 base camp, was worried if I could find my way back to the enemy compound without being detected. I have a good sense of direction and have always been good with maps, even the old French maps that we were using.
We hit the compound dead center. To my dismay, when we got there, there was a small enemy unit cleaning the cache of weapons. I radioed back our predicament and our Commander said to abort the mission.
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