Samuel Kamu Toomey III was part of this elite group. The helicopter he was in was shot down over Laos. MIA for years. Remains of him and his men were found in the 90s and buried in Arlington, He was my Dad's cousin and he died serving his country. Thank you for your service.

@CZECHMATE650

3 жыл бұрын

Thom Nicholson talks about losing Sam Toomey because they were serving "real turkey" for Thanksgiving. So Sam Toomey offered to run his Italian Green mission for Capt. Nicholson. The old H34 Helo was loaded down with cases of 82mm mortars. When it was hit it didn't stand a chance. Thank You Major Toomey Rip.

@bigt4331

3 жыл бұрын

@@CZECHMATE650 Thank you so much for that reply!

@CZECHMATE650

3 жыл бұрын

@@bigt4331 the book is called "15 month in SOG a warriors tour" he's kind of jerky? But it's a good read. I still have a MAC SOG Pin given to me by my team leader in Afghanistan. Those guys paved the way for how modern SF troops of all branches operate! Thank you for keeping his memory alive!

@bigt4331

3 жыл бұрын

@@CZECHMATE650 awesome, ill have to get that book., I did a research paper in college on Sam, his family sent me his entire military career record, seems as they fired artilery rounds to defend the downed chopper if case anyone happened to survive. I know my aunts played a traditional Hawaiian song for him at his ceremony in Arlington when they buried the remains oh him and his men.

Vietnam era warfare is so under rated and under appreciated. I feel the Vietnam War is the most interesting war... aside from WW2... but it's close.

@GentryGallery

3 жыл бұрын

I agree! It's an underdiscussed topic - WW2 is undoubtedly interesting, but I've always been extremely fascinated with the 60's and actions taken during the Vietnam war. Thanks for watching!

@stevensheckler3002

3 жыл бұрын

@@GentryGallery No problem bud. Yeah man I agree 100%. Another thing that draws me in is all the great music from that era associated with the war... WW2 didn't have that. When certain songs come on the radio I can't help but think of Nam lol. It's also completely awful the way these vets were treated upon returning home. People are so uneducated about this war it's pathetic. We didn't lose that war.. the u.s. government did with all their BS decisions and restrictions.

@InvisibleHotdog

3 жыл бұрын

Some real shit went down in Africa around the same time period too.

@keithschultz4187

3 жыл бұрын

Yes sir! I could not agree more.

@thinzki44

3 жыл бұрын

We Southeast Asian countries adopted the Vietnam Era warfare from US...

I grabbed one of those indigenous LRRP rations one night. It was kind of weird seeing the food look back at me. But, it was good.

As a former member of 10thSFGA, though not a Vietnam vet, I did use some of this kit in Beirut 83/84. I was unaware of Baker. Thank you for teaching me about some of my history. Great video. Godspeed.

SOG - Legendary Warriors God Bless all these Heroes!

Rest in peace, Ben Baker with heartfelt thanks from a grateful nation.

For me I’m Ex RM commando Recce Uk 25 yrs service , these guys are proper Legends , young leaders exceptional, amazing service courage, selflessness great guys

i seen these troops in vietnam , they were special forces and wore black was told then they were GOV. TROOPS. NVA troops wore green with base ball or jungle hats, VC was who you seen on motor-bikes with sks, ak47, molson nagants, thompson .45. 69th armor 4th div.

@marcoslaureano5562

3 жыл бұрын

Yes, MACV-SOG operators had clothes especially made for them with zero tags or anything that could identify them as Americans. Even the weapons they used were made for the same purpose.

@cwr8618

3 жыл бұрын

Guys , more. This shit is interesting. God bless the US

I have been in awe of SOG’s achievements since I first read Mobile Guerilla Force (James Donahue) and SOG (John Plaster) almost 20 years ago. There has been a lot of material, even acknowledged in video games and declassified information shared in recent years. These warriors deserve the utmost respect. Thank you for the great video.

@GentryGallery

3 жыл бұрын

Both books are amazing accounts of heroism against almost unbelievable odds! I wish there was more media on the actions and risks taken by these warriors, but I'd rather it be done right (like Band of Brothers, The Pacific, SPR, etc.) than embellished and fictionalized by videogames or Hollywood. I can't agree enough that they all deserve the utmost respect - true heros often put into situations no man should ever have to face. Thank you for watching and for the great comment!

Comments on "eldest son." The rifle ammo had been spiked with petn, a very high explosive, not C-4. The mortar rounds had a hole drilled through the center of the body so the explosive propellant charge would also detonate the main explosive, as the round was dropped into the mortar. The SOG knife. As I recall, the distributed knife was made by Randall. It had a serial number stamped, and no other marking. When I got to MACVSOG, they stopped giving them out. No one ever returned them. I got the Air Force survival knife, and was more that pleased with it utility. I recall that we had two options for field rations (1967 - 1968 for me). C-Rations or freeze dried meals. The rations made for the indig were also an option. Essentially a plastic bag of dried, cooked rice with a separate contained flavor part. I forget the flavor options. Honorary Members? I was surprised that Col. Maggie (Martha Raye) wasn't mentioned.

@GentryGallery

3 жыл бұрын

Thanks you for your service & for the first hand information! It’s not always easy to find out what’s fact & what’s fiction with SOG so I really appreciate your input. If you ever want to share any more information on your time in SOG or video critiques I’d love to hear it - my email is ritegeist@gmail.com. While most of what was shared in this video came from online news articles, the Baker sog knives stories came from some first hand accounts from around 68-70 & Mike Silveys books on the knives. I actually produced another video recently going further into detail on the progression of the knives (including the "Numbered" SOG with the serial number) that I'd love to get your feedback on. I was in contact with Lt Col (ret) Dick Thompson and he mentioned preferring a standard issue KABAR over his SOG Knife not unlike yourself with the AF survival. As far as the honorary SF part that was all from their website. Again thank you, and feel free to share more of your knowledge any time sir!

@CandC68

3 жыл бұрын

@@GentryGallery Was Col Thompson ever in the 7th. And did he have a brother who owned an electrical supply store in Englewood? LOL If so, when I was in the 7th, he found out where I was from and called me in.

@CandC68

3 жыл бұрын

@@GentryGallery re the knives. I had a bolo knife. No idea where I got it. It was like a big flat slab of steel with sharpened edge. BUT when I was with SOG, we had an "expedition" outside FOB2 yard camp. We went up in the hills to set up a lookout camp. I used the bolo to attempt to cut down a hardwood tree about 4 to 5 inched diameter. The bolo broke in half after a few swings. Finished with the AF survival knife. Tore up my hand, but didn't break.

@GentryGallery

3 жыл бұрын

@@CandC68 I'm unsure of if he had a brother / store in Englewood, he grew up in South Carolina. He joined in 1965 and would've been getting to Vietnam right around 67 though so I'm sure it's possible you two crossed paths! I've heard bad things about those bolos from every vet I've spoken with!

@CandC68

3 жыл бұрын

@@GentryGallery 67 is about right if he was in the 7th. 67 is when I was there. Oh well, never know.

Thanks for this behind the scenes look. Understanding real life specialized needs of those 'on the ground' , and delivering the 'goods' so they can better fulfill their mission objectives is key. Sounds like Mr. Baker was 'the man' in that regard. Nice to honor his memory in this way. Many unsung heros out there, some destined to remain that way , because of the clandestine nature of the work.

This was a great video. I watched the Jon Meyer jocko podcasts and couldnt recall him talking about Conrad. Learnt alot from this and appreciate you making it. Thanks

Loved the video and pictures. Amazing!

Vietnam was a shìtshow but talking to the people who use your equipment and listening to them says everything I need to know about Baker. A good man. I hope he rests well.

Thanks for bringing him to the light. One of those real people that was a hero.

Operation Eldest Son was also known as Italian Green and Pole Bean. One SOG Recon team came under heavy mortar fire on the LZ When they heard a loud "ka-Boom!" A follow up operation found a dead NBA mortar crew and the mortar tube blown out at the base. Plus secondary explosions and damage. I had no Idea that he was behind the Psy-ops in Okinawa! Thank You Ben!

Good video, hope you make another one explaining the basics of it.

Amazing, informative video. Thank you.

Absolutely BRILLIANT

Great information.! Thanks for sharing 👍

Bravo ! Great work . What i needed this day .

@GentryGallery

3 жыл бұрын

Glad you enjoyed! Thanks for watching!!

Thank you, thank you, thank you for sharing the story of how brave & humble men unheard of but need to be brought to our attention. What a gift he was. Love & Light to his proud family. Much Sympathy as well. Prayers & blessings. ❤🤍💙

Mystery solved. I went to high school on Okinawa back in the early 1970s. I collected a lot of TA-50 and there were a few Okinawan surplus stores. A few of them sold items featured in the video. A family friend was a supply SGT down at Machinato Industrial Area north of Naha. He must have been involved in shutting Parasol down. From him a got several models of the indigenous rucksack, including a later one all nylon. He also gave me the heavy bolo knife shown early in the video. When I joined the Army in 78, I never saw any of this stuff. The supply SGT said they had a pretty large workshop making all of this stuff, employing several hundred Okinawans. Until 1972 the island was a protectorate under the RYCOM government, so a lot of black things were done throughout the 1940s-1972.

Damn the eldest son part is genius. Never heard of that before.

Excellent vid ! More like this !

Sounds this man was ahead of his time 👍

@GentryGallery

3 жыл бұрын

He was indeed!

Ben Baker! Talk about an unsung hero.

The 'Black Pyjama' concept was fine... unless you're working with local's then the inherent height differential automatically negates the Pyjama as camouflage. The 'Footprint' sole for the jungle boots was experimental and judged a failure due to boots often sinking to the natural level of the (much larger) sole. The steel plates were counteracted by 'bullet traps' - a piece of bamboo with a bullet mounted atop a nail in it- Squaddie stands on bullet trap, bullet passes through foot, plate turns to shrapnel and shreds the foot. Most armies have legions of guys like Baker, from the grunt that customizes his webbing rig, to guys who make their own kit (like Fairburn & Sykes and their eponymous commando knife) or who devise new tactics. But there are a rare few who can source the kit guys need, when they need it wholesale. I believe the S/F widely used the indigenous rations too - that way they would 'smell local' in the field.

@efnissien

3 жыл бұрын

We regularly had 'trophy' days where our officer commanding would set tasks to obtain 'trophies'. The only rules were no violence or threats of violence to be used, no destruction of property & no exploitation of those not capable of defending themselves.

You deserve wayyyyy more subscribers. Awesome video

VERY GOOD!! THANK YOU !

things to make life easier in a difficult situation are always appreciated i remember using a hexi burner to cook my food dead simple idea but brilliant bit of kit .

Awesomely video!

I like this video a lot. I’m a logistics enjoyer myself.

All these MACVSOG operators were special......They were in the SECRET WAR in LAOS....Iknow.

@bigt4331

3 жыл бұрын

Did you know Samuel Kamu Toomey? Him and his men were shot down over Laos, there remains were discovered in the 90s and buried in Arlington.

@jairoukagiri2488

3 жыл бұрын

An uncle of mine was a tank operator but 'may' have operated in Cambodia like that, the Mung honored him for it.

Excellent video!!!

Great video, very interesting. Please make more

@GentryGallery

3 жыл бұрын

Thank you! I’m working on more for y’all!

Great video

Well done!

Awesome video dude

@GentryGallery

3 жыл бұрын

Thanks man! Glad you found the channel!

I appreciated the subject, thanks.

Very good video, thank you very much! One of my biggest wishes is a movie about MACV- SOG! If it was done like We were Soldiers was done it would be excellent!

@GentryGallery

3 жыл бұрын

I've often wondered why there haven't been any dramatic retellings of some of the SOG stories. They would make for amazing military films!

@DavidLLambertmobile

3 жыл бұрын

I'd think Sly Stallone's Balboa Productions could do a prequel about John J Rambo & how he earns the MoH 🏅. Baker Team.

Great job!!

Awesome channel. New sub 👍

Nice video

Logistics the most underrated position in the military

Godspeed Ben, thanks.

A real life Superhero...What a man. We need his spirit in our country today!

Funny how the car he was holding resembles the ar- pistol we have now, even the stabilizing brace

Pretty cool. Thanks for sharing.

@GentryGallery

3 жыл бұрын

Thanks for watching!

Badass, God bless this man!

2:59 That is STILL an issue... you will see random ak47s just explode while using old military surplus ammo

@GentryGallery

3 жыл бұрын

Great point, I've always heard it's bad news to use old surp AK ammo. Especially the Chinese stuff where most of the eldest son rounds ended up after the war. Thanks for watching!

@BOB-wx3fq

3 жыл бұрын

@@GentryGallery yea man, thanks for the quality content, happy shooting

@duceawj5009

3 жыл бұрын

Its why we don’t import surplus stuff from southeast asia

@BOB-wx3fq

3 жыл бұрын

@@duceawj5009 my norinco type 56s comes into frame

@duceawj5009

3 жыл бұрын

@@BOB-wx3fq surplus ammo China isn’t technically southeast asia i don’t think also but i could just be bad at geography I also don’t think your type 56’s are surplus but were built specifically for export like Norinco likes to do

Good video.

What an interesting gentleman & topic. Nice video.

Great thank you

Well done bud

Sounds like an extraordinary chap. God on you.

YOU ARE MY HERO MISTER LOGCS

That's a professional soldier. A true legend forever in the US Army special forces.

These guys wreak havoc behind enemy lines.

SOG was not just Army special forces, there were Marine Force Recon teams and SEAL's involved. Know that for a fact Panther83

@GentryGallery

3 жыл бұрын

This is true! Primary recruitment came from Green Berets and Rangers but others were definitely involved.

@iansmith8944

3 жыл бұрын

@@GentryGallery I’m currently friend with a guy who was a sog team leader for two years in nam. He’s a green beret and has some good stories although he doesn’t talk much about combat.

New a fella how taught me a lot ol apache fella great dude

True hero’s right there , the backbone of our nation..#22aday

LEGEND

Anyone else catch that Ross Perot was an honorary member of the regiment? @4:50

@americanwarrior7253

3 жыл бұрын

I seen that

@kamuelalee

3 жыл бұрын

According ot Wikipedia, Perot was a Navy veteran who left military service in 1961 with the rank of lieutenant. He'd served on ships -- destroyers and an aircraft carrier.

Interesting vids. Do you have anything on Clifford “Skip” Newman, the one-zero of RT Ohio? He was also the team leader of the first combat HALO jump…

MACVSOG- I am not at liberty to discuss that office, if that office ever existed sir.......

Does anyone know anything about the machete shown at 1:07 ? I have one and want to know whether to restore or leave as is (poor condition)

He is very cool

Ben Ready 💪

"SOF LOG...is always HARD and Ready for Action!" Lol. Yes, served in a number of units and capacities. That "Supply Room/S-4/G-4/J-4 Guy" is always welcome at the cook-out. Lol.

4:03 now there's an idea for a SteveMRE1989 video

@GentryGallery

3 жыл бұрын

Lmao that's so true! I would love to see Steve eat 55 year old freeze dried squid 😂

Legend

Wow what a guy .

I have one of the Seiko 5s that Baker bought for the SOG.

@GentryGallery

3 жыл бұрын

That’s badass, I’ve only seen them in videos and images. If you’d ever want to sell it keep me in mind!

Can we just take a moment to appreciate that the legend got his honors and passed away before common covid restrictions would have made it impossible for him to have guests or to have visitors in the hospital?

@KB4QAA

2 жыл бұрын

No. No, you may not .Get your vaccines.

Check out the Hidden woodsmen new pack based of the Tropical Lightweight rucksack.

@GentryGallery

3 жыл бұрын

I'll give it a look! Thanks for watching!

In regard to the " eldest son " program, I seem to remember reading about a similar program called " pole beam ". Does anyone have any information in regard to pole beam?

@GentryGallery

3 жыл бұрын

I believe Pole Beam was an alternate code name for Eldest Son, but I'd also be interested to know if anyone has any further insight! Thanks for watching!

@danieldabella4869

3 жыл бұрын

The name of the program was changed twice when the original name of the operation was leaked.

Badass

Tyfys!! 🌟

2:50 that is awesome. Def psychological warfare

RIP BEN BAKER Your life mattered!

What is the name of the background soundtrack?

@GentryGallery

3 жыл бұрын

It's from the KZread audio library - track is called "A trip around the moon" by Unicorn Heads

What a G

Shocked to see H Ross Perot on the lists...

May he rest in pease and may God bless him for what he did for the USA!!!!!!!!!

Cool

How do I find out more info about this OSS General John St. Cloud? He seems very interesting

@GentryGallery

3 жыл бұрын

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_K._Singlaub Thanks for watching!

@anon9852

3 жыл бұрын

@@GentryGallery Aha! I found out his name is actually John K Singlaub, it was hard to read that letter but I figured it out. Very interesting person. Thanks for turning me on to the OSS, never heard of them until I watched your video

in the rear with the gear

Semper Fi

Why is this -40DB

To be on MacArthur's staff you had to be short. In photos, it made MacArthur look taller

3:00 Man's got nice kicks

Noticed you put some Rhodesian pics in this video too

@GentryGallery

3 жыл бұрын

Must’ve been a mixup, thanks for pointing that out. There are a few errors in this video but unfortunately I have no way of correcting them at this point :/ Appreciate you watching!

@evilgrandmaofficial

3 жыл бұрын

@@GentryGallery Great video nonetheless! Still showed black pyjamas and specialist or modified equipment so it got the point across! Don't mind it just noticed it.

Logistics gang 😎

The difference between a “click or a bang” is called LOGISTICS.

2:58 Damn, I wonder if these rounds are still around and in use today. I live in Vietnam and have been shooting AKs on the range for soon a decade without incident. I suppose they've got newer stock but this still gives me pause. 🤔

@GentryGallery

3 жыл бұрын

Just gotta be especially careful with surplus ammo! Especially stuff out of China - that’s apparently where most of the unused 7.62 ended up. Im sure it’s exceptionally rare / unlucky to fire one today, but videos of it happening recently exist. Cheers man

@duceawj5009

3 жыл бұрын

In America at least everyone avoids importing ammunition from south east asia I find it kinda unlikely the Chinese would have gotten into the eldest son stock given the war between them and the remaining bad blood don’t know how it’d exchange hands really Figure its just bubbas pissin hot loads blowing up guns today

@rider660r

2 жыл бұрын

It wasn't on a huge scale because the guys running those missions couldn't carry a lot of it nor would they want to sabotage mass numbers of the ammo in the cache or the enemy would just destroy caches once one was found to be "contaminated". Was there thousands emplaced,sure,but it wasn't on a mass scale in the 100's of thousands nor millions of rounds,possibly not even 10's of thousands. Remember,after we (US) left they were still fighting,then fought the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia and the Chinese.Or the supplies the Pathet Lao and Khmer Rouge also needed and used.The NVA were backing them with training,supplies and manpower beforehand.Much of the battles the Khemr and Pathet fought were led by the NVA then the NVA would let them finish it so they would look to be the victors to their countrymen. Don't forget the 10's if not 100's of thousands they killed after the war (political prisoners,anyone that helped the ARVN/US,and the ARVN themselves,etc.),how many of them were shot... Don't forget training,you must shoot to get good at it. And lastly don't forget how many caches may have been forgotten and rotting in the ground. Some SOG also talk about just dropping a round here and there along a trail or base area in hopes a VC/NVA would pick it up and use. All in all you'll be more likely to be struck with lightning after being run over by a airplane on the runway after the tiger that ate you the day before passed you and you dropped in a steaming pile on that runway.....lol

4:58 - Is that THE Ross Perot, who ran for President in the 90s?

We could have used him in afg.

They didn’t put C4 in the doctored ak rifle ammo. They used Comp B explosives.

i scoured millitary show 's & collect custom vietnam patches ive got CCS (comand control south) MF (mike force) & RT ANNOCONDA VERRY SPECIAL