[MilTimes] It was 50 years ago today that a special operations group raided the Son Tay prison compound in North Vietnam in an attempt to rescue some 61 prisoners of war.
About 15 years had passed since the Vietnam War began. Along with the raid on the prison camp, located just outside of Hanoi, the U.S. concurrently sent three Navy carriers as a distraction and to help suppress potential enemy air support on Nov. 21, 1970. The support mission is heralded as the largest night carrier operation of the almost 20-year conflict.
It turned out the prisoners had been moved to other camps prior to the raid, but the mission, known as Operation Kingpin, has stood as a stellar example of planning and coordinated execution for similar covert attacks since.
Son Tay was "the best modern example of a successful spec op [which] should be considered textbook material for future missions," retired Navy SEAL Adm. William McRaven wrote in his 1995 book "Spec Ops: Case Studies in Special Operations Warfare: Theory and Practice."
Sixteen years after that book was first published, McRaven, as the three-star commander of Joint Special Operations Command, devised the daring Navy SEAL raid that killed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.
A new documentary about the raid, "Kingpin: 27 minutes at Son Tay," is in post-production and features interviews with some of the special operators who were there.
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