Son Tay Prison Raid
On the night of November 20th, 1970, a raiding force of 56 US Army Special Forces, or Green Berets, boarded HH-3E “Jolly Green Giant” and HH-53E “Super Jolly Green Giant” helicopters that flew them from a staging base in Thailand to execute Operation Ivory Coast, a daring rescue mission to free an estimated 65 American prisoners of war held at Son Tay prison camp, about 20 miles west of the North Vietnamese capital of Hanoi.
It was an exceptionally hazardous operation, in which speed and precision of execution were extremely important: there were an estimated 12,000 North Vietnamese soldiers stationed within 5 miles of the camp, so it was vital that the raiders complete their mission quickly, and be gone before the enemy had time to react and bring overwhelming numbers to bear.
Three raider teams landed in Son Tay, with the first intentionally crash-landing its helicopter at 2:19 am in the middle of the camp to get into position as quickly as possible. A second helicopter mistakenly landed 400 yards away, at the guards’ headquarters. Its Special Forces attacked the headquarters and killed or wounded an estimated 100 guards. The third helicopter disembarked its attackers outside the camp complex, who rapidly secured the perimeter, then helped secure the camp’s facility.
The raid was a brilliant tactical success, and wholly accomplished its objective of seizing control of the camp within minutes of touching down, with the attackers sustaining only two injuries: one shot in the leg, while another broke an ankle. There were no prisoners to rescue, however.
As it turned out, the mission had been planned based on outdated intelligence: the POWs had been moved months earlier from Son Tay, which was adjacent to a river that the North Vietnamese feared was prone to flooding, to another prison camp. Within 26 minutes of landing, the raiders were airborne again, en route back to base.
While a tactical success, the mission was clearly an intelligence failure by the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and other entities involved in the gathering and dissemination of the information upon which the assault was planned. In the raid’s aftermath, criticism of the faulty intelligence that led to a risky operation to rescue prisoners from a prison camp that held no prisoners led to an extensive overhaul and restructuring of the intelligence apparatus.
