BAC SI: A Green Beret Medic's War in Vietnam

by Jerry Krizan

Overview

During the Vietnam War, U.S. Army Special Forces A-Teams were deployed to isolated outposts or "camps” in the remote areas of South Vietnam. Their job was to recruit, train, and house members of the indigenous population while molding them into combat-ready fighting units. A-Teams consisted of up to 12 Green Beret soldiers who were experts in both combat and their individual military specialties. The role of the indigenous units, in conjunction with their American advisors, was to provide border security, counter the Viet Cong insurgency in the countryside, provide intelligence on enemy troop-strength and activities, and when necessary engage elements of the invading North Vietnamese Army.

Bac Si (the Vietnamese term for “medic”) is the story of Sgt. Jerry Krizan who was assigned to Special Forces Camp A-331 in the III Corps tactical zone, only 10 miles from the Cambodian border. Because of its proximity to a major north-south NVA infiltration route, there were constant enemy troop movements through the camp's area of operations and A-331 itself came under attack on more than one occasion.

The author meantime needed to accompany patrols and probes into enemy territory, not only prepared to provide aid but fight as a soldier if the squad was ambushed, or itself chose to attack. In this small-unit warfare against an expert enemy, U.S. soldiers had to survive as best they could, with their only succor a Huey, and meantime on the ground by themselves against unknown opposition.

Our Green Beret base camps were our very first line of defense along the borders of South Vietnam, and in this book, through the eyes of a medic, we learn how dire, and confusing, a role we asked our Special Forces to play during that era.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781612002460
Publisher:	Casemate Publishers
Publication date:	07/29/2014
Pages:	224
Sales rank:	140,794
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.00(d)

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Foreword by Joe Parnar
Introduction—Background

The Journey to Special Forces
Arrival at Loc Ninh
First Contact
Running Through Rubber
Right There
Chieu Hoi by the KKK
Battle of Loc Ninh
Loc Ninh, September 1968
An Execution
Operations in the Rubber
Adventures at Village 2
Thanksgiving Dinner
Medical Duties in Camp
Medical MEDCAPS
Camp Sanitation
Dry Season/Typhoid
Claymores, Ambushes, and Hand Grenades
Camp Defenses and Attacks
New Directions of the War
Helicopter Attack
Chinese Claymores
Ambush at An Loc
Recon
Incoming at An Loc
Team With a Tank
Song Be Officers Club
Celebrities
Three Times
Going Home

Epilogue—After Vietnam
Appendix A—Coda: The Battle of Loc Ninh, April 1972
Appendix B—The Battle of An Loc

Editorial Reviews

"He [Jerry] was not only on my Team; he was on every Team. He was that young, cocky, just out of Training Group E-5 medic who held the Camp and sometimes your life in his capable hands. He was Doc. Jerry’s book is a depiction of a warrior’s tour. It is a first person account of life on an A-Team deployed in support of Indiginous troops fighting a conventional force in a counter insurgency environment. From Civic Action Sick Calls to Fire Missions, from that unbreakable bond with your opts partner to the insanity of a B Team’s dictates, it’s all here."

The Drop