JOHN STRYKER MEYER AND THE SECRET WAR AGAINST THE VIET CONG
John Stryker Meyer was a Green Beret and one of the first American special forces soldiers sent into the top secret war beyond Vietnam’s borders.
Contrary to its official statements, the North Vietnamese Army was using neighboring Laos to move troops and supplies unhindered, so the US put troops in there as well. The four- to six-man teams were made up of American SOF and specially suited local personnel who had volunteered for the assignment (image 2). Deep in foreign territory, their job was to gather evidence of the NVA’s massive troop presence without being spotted. The soldiers operated entirely on their own, had no resupply, and air support was often hours away.
Meyer took part in many of these secret missions as a team leader, scouting enemy forces, intercepting radio traffic and usually slipping out of the NVA’s hands by a hair. On one mission his team fought the NVA so hard that the enemy stacked their own dead and used them as cover. When Meyer called in airstrikes, the enemy fighters charged blindly into the special forces’ rifle fire and were barely held off. Even with the team already aboard the extraction helicopter, NVA fighters closed to within a few meters, set on killing a MACV-SOG soldier to collect the high bounty.
On another mission the special forces dug in on a hilltop at night while large numbers of North Vietnamese hunted them. Meyer walked the fire of a Spooky gunship in so close that he had to assure the pilot he would take responsibility for any friendly casualties.
He still brought the team home without a scratch, and he was nominated first for the Silver Star and then for the Distinguished Service Cross. Meyer turned the award down, because for him it was only ever about the men and the mission. I can recommend his podcast appearances with Jocko Willink and his books and audiobooks without reservation.
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