Interview with Sergeant Terry Buckler About the Son Tay Prison Camp Raid During the Vietnam War

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Vietnam: What else was involved in your training?

Buckler: Quite a bit of physical training. One of our officers, Captain Dick (Richard) Meadows, had what he referred to as the Meadows Mile. It was a 4-mile run in the beach sand that he liked to lead.

Vietnam: Meadows was an extraordinary soldier. He was one of only two, to the best of my knowledge, who received a battlefield commission from General William Westmoreland during the Vietnam War.

Buckler: That’s right. Quite a guy. Getting back to the training, it was very physical. We fought a lot. As a matter of fact, it was listed on the training schedule as the Friday Night Fights. Once training commenced, we were all restricted to base. As a result of being cooped up, one tends to get restless. I recall one night Master Sgt. Herman Spencer had a few too many. He returned to the barracks to get his weapon and kill Bull Simons. I guess he had a disagreement with him on how the mission should be run. Well, we took the weapon away from him. The next morning Simons had him locked at attention and went up one side of him and down the other.

Vietnam: Simons was certainly no one to fool with.

Buckler: Well, he had remarked that he didn’t want a bunch of Boy Scouts, and he didn’t get them.

Vietnam: How long did this training last?

Buckler: Three months. One night they told us to pack our bags and loaded us on a Lockheed C-141 transport plane. From that point on we were not allowed to wear any military uniforms or insignia of any kind. We were what they called sterile. We were flown to Takhli Air Force Base in Thailand and huddled into the special operations area. I felt like I was in prison. There was a big fence around the compound, and there were also guard dogs. After three or four days, we were ushered into a large auditorium. Simons addressed the group and said that Lt. Col. Bud (Elliott P.) Sydnor, in charge of the security command group, had something to tell us. Sydnor stood up and pulled down a huge map of Hanoi, and there was a big red circle around Son Tay. He turned and said, Gentleman, this is where we’re going in. Just then everybody busted out laughing. I guess it was from all the fear and anxiety that we felt inside.

Vietnam: It must have been a great feeling when you first realized you were going to rescue American POWs.

Buckler: Absolutely. It was a real high knowing that. The CIA had made a miniature model of the Son Tay prison. We went in and studied it so we would know what to expect when we hit the ground. It was very accurate. So accurate, in fact, they had a little bicycle parked in the prison compound.

Vietnam: That’s real attention to detail!

Buckler: The night before the mission they gave us sleeping pills so we could get a good night’s rest. After we awoke and got ready, they flew us to Udorn, Thailand. From there, we boarded our choppers for the mission.

Vietnam: There were three assault groups?

Buckler: Yes. The groups were code-named Blueboy, Redwine and Greenleaf.

Vietnam: That was so your group code names would not be confused with the call signs of the choppers, which were Apple 1, Apple 2, Apple 3, Apple 4 and Apple 5. In fact, Apple 4 and Apple 5 hovered 1,500 feet above the Son Tay camp to act as flare ships in the event the other flare ships, the Lockheed C-130E Combat Talons, malfunctioned.

Buckler: That’s probably true. However, I didn’t see any of that.

Vietnam: There was a mix-up with Bull Simons when the groups first entered Son Tay, right?

Buckler: Yes, Simons’ group, Greenleaf, went into the wrong area. They landed at the secondary school. Unfortunately, it was no school at all–it was a barracks filled with NVA soldiers. They had a firefight, killing a lot of NVA before the chopper pilot realized his mistake. Fortunately, there were no American casualties, and they were choppered back to Son Tay.

Vietnam: Who entered the prison camp first?

Buckler: Dick Meadows’ group, Blueboy. The chopper crashed inside the compound after it hit a tree. Luckily, no one was seriously injured. My group, Redwine, landed outside the compound, blew a hole in the south wall and ran in and took up positions. Of course, Meadows thought it was Simons’ group, which was still back at the secondary school. What was really embarrassing was the firefight we got into with Simons’ men when they arrived at Son Tay.

Vietnam: So your group, Redwine, was actually supposed to be following Simons’ group, Greenleaf.

Buckler: Yes. If you look at the initial plan, Greenleaf’s touchdown was to take place 30 seconds before ours. We were only 60 to 80 feet apart. It was dark, and we thought they were the enemy. Simons figured out what was going on and put a stop to it immediately. It was tense there for a while.

Vietnam: Were you scared?

Buckler: Not until we boarded the chopper after the raid. Captain Dan Turner and I were sitting in the tail of the helicopter with a minigun between us, and we could see Hanoi all lit up. About that time what looked like orange telephone poles started coming up at us.

Vietnam: Surface-to-air missiles!

Buckler: That’s right. Our pilot was doing everything he could to dodge them. That’s when it really got tense.

Vietnam: You never entered the compound?

Buckler: No. The only people that went in were the Blueboy group and Bull Simons. He searched every room looking for those POWs.

Vietnam: Of course, they had been relocated.

Buckler: Yes, but we didn’t know that at the time. Boy, Simons was mad.

Vietnam: When you heard the report of negative items, meaning no POWs had been found, what was your reaction?

Buckler: I thought my headset was screwed up. I told Captain Turner, and he didn’t believe me.

Vietnam: The raid lasted only 27 minutes.

Buckler: That’s correct. It wasn’t long at all.

Vietnam: Luckily, with the exception of Bull Simons landing in the wrong place, things went pretty much according to plan.

Buckler: They did. However, Sergeant Noe Quezada was shot in the back of the leg. Also, the crew chief aboard Blueboy suffered a broken ankle. Those are some of the risks you take when you’re part of special operations. When we were first told where we were going, we all had an opportunity to withdraw from the mission. Nobody did. Our plan of escape, if things did not go right, was to pull back with our backs to the river and take out as many of them as we could. Simons told us: There’s a 50-50 chance of us not coming back, guys. If the mission is compromised, we’ll make them pay for every inch of ground we occupy.

Vietnam: You had no prior tour in Vietnam?

Buckler: There were only two of us who had not been in combat before: Sergeant Keith Medenski and I.

Vietnam: What happened when you returned to the United States?

Buckler: They turned it into a media event, trying to get as much publicity out of the raid as they could. In retrospect, it was a good thing to do. It proved that we could get into the enemy’s backyard undetected and get out without losing anyone.

Vietnam: How did you deal with the publicity?

Buckler: Well, I tried to keep a low profile. Besides, in Special Forces there were so many guys who had gone on similar missions, it didn’t matter. Some years later, after I got out of the service, Ross Perot held a big party in San Francisco, for the Son Tay prisoners and the raiders.

Vietnam: Did you talk to any of the former POWs?

Buckler: Oh, yes. It was very emotional. We were quite upset that we did not succeed in bringing them home. One of the most interesting comments I heard was they started receiving better treatment after the raid. The raid proved to the NVA that we meant business.

Vietnam: At least it wasn’t a total loss.

Buckler: Another thing that really impressed me was the dedication the guys on the raid had. I was the youngest person there, so I felt my life was unimportant. But the others had families. They could have gotten off the mission at any time, but they stayed. Those guys were willing to lay down their lives for their comrades. They were true professionals.

This article was originally published in the June 1997 issue of Vietnam Magazine.

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Tags: 20th - 21st Century, Historical Conflicts, Vietnam War

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