MIKE Force

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The Mobile Strike Force Command, or MIKE Force, was a key component of United States Army Special Forces in the Vietnam War. They served with indigenous soldiers selected and trained through the largely minority Civilian Irregular Defense Group (CIDG) and were led by American SF and Australian Army Training Team Vietnam (AATTV) personnel. MIKE Force was a force multiplier, operating what is today called a Foreign Internal Defense mission.

History[]

United States Army Special Forces had been in South Vietnam since 1957; by 1964, over 1400 Green Berets were in-country, with their headquarters at Nha Trang. Their primary mission was to train and advise CIDG groups, many of whom were hostile to Viet Cong (VC) efforts to promote socialist revolution in the countryside.

In late 1964, there was increasing Viet Cong activity in the area surrounding Saigon, a zone officially controlled by the South Vietnamese III Corps; this suggested a need for CIDGs with more mobile capabilities, and able to move to encampments and villages under VC attack. The first such force, known as "Mike Force" was named for Special Forces Lieutenant Colonel Miguel de la Pena who supervised its creation. It was initially principally composed of Nung people, an ethnic group that had migrated from southern China in the 4th century. (The name Mike Force later came to be applied to other locally recruited mobile forces that operated throughout South Vietnam. These organizations were composed of Bahnar, Hmong, Nung, Jarai, and Khmer Krom minorities, and other members of the Degar peoples, also known as Montagnards.)

Mike Force was active under MACV, Army Special Forces, from 1964 to 1970 and under ARVN until 1974. The unit waged special warfare against the Viet Minh, Viet Cong and People's Army of Vietnam (North Vietnamese Army) forces in various detachments.

Mike Force's mission was to act as a country-wide quick reaction force for securing, reinforcing, and recapturing CIDG A Camps, as well as to conduct special reconnaissance patrols. Search and rescue and search and destroy RT missions were also assigned. The conventional unit alternative to Special Forces detachments like Mike Force was Tiger Force, which was primarily tasked with counter-guerrilla warfare against enemies from behind their lines that emphasized body-count rather than force multiplication.

Nung people from Mike Force manned Hurricane Aircat airboats in the Mekong Delta under American Special Forces command starting in late 1966. One base was at the A-414 SF camp in Moc Hoa just south of the Cambodian border.[1] There was an accidental incursion into Cambodia on November 20, 1966, involving these airboats, helicopter insertion of South Vietnamese troops and PACVs (hovercraft) that resulted in the deaths of 56 communist soldiers caught by surprise in the open. General Abrams arrived the following day for a debriefing. The King of Cambodia objected a week later.

Mike Force had a critical role in the search and rescue of downed American pilots because they were mobile and often in close proximity to the DMZ. MIKE Force also designated drop zones and landing zones, conducted bomb-damage assessments, called in air strikes on high-value targets, and collected intelligence during recons, much like the American LRRPs.

In 1971 MIKE Force was disbanded after Vietnamization.

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ Stanton, Shelby L. (2008-06-15). Special Forces at War: An Illustrated History, Southeast Asia 1957-1975. Voyageur Press. ISBN 9781610601344.

External links[]

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