THAI LEGENDS 2004/FIFTY YEAR ANNIVERSARY

THAI LEGENDS 2004/FIFTY YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF THAI SF/ RE-SENT
BY JOHN RAYMOND.THERE IS A MISTAKE,I HAVE ONLY EIGHT(8) BRONZE STARS AND NOT NINE(9).

For nearly a week in early June of this year four
living legends, highly-decorated special operations
officers, all friends, whose stellar reputations have
followed them from the dangerous, steamy jungles of
Southeast Asia, were reunited in Lopburi, Thailand,
the home of the Royal Thai Army Airborne, Ranger and
Special Forces commands. They are Thai General
Tienchai Sirisumpan, Thai Colonel Chaicharn Harnnavee,
US Army Major (Ret) Mark "Zippo" Smith and St. Martin
Parish native, US Army Lt Col (Ret) Johnny Raymond.
The events leading up to this historic reunion started
in the Pentagon in early January 1954. There are those
who consider the fact that these four men are still
alive is due to divine intervention. And almost
unbelievable is the fact that among these four friends
are the first POW released by the North Vietnamese in
February, 1973, Smith, and the last POW released by
the North Vietnamese, Chai, nearly two years after the
last American POW returned home.

The chain of events that started the association and
bonding of these men began at the end of 1953.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower was agonizing over the
seriously deteriorating situation in French-Indo China
where the Viet Minh, under the command of Ho Chi
Minh's top general, Vo Nguyen Giap, had the colonial
French forces on the ropes. It was clear that without
US intervention, the French colonial control of
Indo-China was doomed. Ike directed the Pentagon to
ready a 15-man Special Forces A team to standby for
insertion into the area to assist the French by
mobilizing and training Indo-Chinese mountain
tribesmen to fight alongside the French. It was to be
a bold move conducted by the first American Special
Forces team to be sent into battle. A WWII legendary
paratrooper, Colonel Edson D. Raff, commanding officer
of the 77th Special Forces Group at Fort Bragg, NC was
directed to select and train a team for the mission. A
total of 32 captains and first lieutenants volunteered
to lead the team on this historic undertaking. It was
to be the first A team to engage in combat since the
inauguration of Special Forces in June 1952. Raff
selected a battle seasoned veteran of the recently
concluded Korean War over many more experienced and
senior officers to lead the team. He was 1st Lt.
Johnny Raymond from Breaux Bridge, Louisiana who had
recently seen fourteen months of combat as a platoon
leader and company commander in the highly regarded
5th Regimental Combat Team in Korea and was awaiting
promotion to captain at the time of his selection to
command the unit. Raff then gave Raymond, one of his B
team commanders, a free hand in the selection of the A
team he was destined to lead.

Before the team could be deployed to the area, the
French surrendered at the Battle of Dien Ben Phu. The
team's mission was changed and they were sent to
Thailand to train and transition the elite Royal Thai
Army Ranger Battalion into a Special Forces unit in
preparation for an expected invasion of Thailand by
the victorious communist forces.

Upon arrival in Lop Buri, Thailand in early June 1954,
Captain Raymond reported to Brigadier General Siri,
the CG of the Thai Infantry Center and School. After a
formal report to General Siri, Raymond and his team
moved in with the 400-man elite Ranger battalion and
immediately began a six-month program of instruction
to teach the Rangers special operations tactics and
techniques. Captain Raymond worked alongside Captain
Tienchai (the Ranger Battalion Operations Officer) in
coordinating and carrying out the training of the
Rangers in all aspects of Special Forces tactics to
include jungle, guerilla, mountain and amphibious
training throughout Thailand and along the borders of
China, Laos, Cambodia and Malaysia. At the end of the
training period, the team was returned to Fort Bragg
under the new command of 1st Lt. Stephen Doherty,
Raymond's exec, and Raymond remained in Thailand where
he continued to serve as the Ranger Advisor and later
advisor to other Thai Army units.

General Tienchai was a captain at the time and the
operations officer of the Ranger battalion when the A
team arrived to begin the Special Forces training of
the Rangers. He later became the commander of all
special operations troops in Thailand, served in
Vietnam and eventually rose to the position of Deputy
Commanding General of the Royal Thai Army and later
became Thailand's Deputy Prime Minister. He is the
Father of Thai Special Forces whereas Raymond is
recognized as the "American" Father of Thai Special
Forces. Tienchai, like Raymond. is a veteran of the
Korean War and was the first foreigner to complete US
Army Ranger School at Fort Benning, Georgia.

One of the enlisted Rangers trained by Captains
Tienchai and Raymond was Chaicharn Harnnavee who,
during his legendary career as a Thai Special Forces
NCO in Laos, was captured by the North Vietnamese
forces and held alongside American POWs in the Hanoi
Hilton where he remained for 10 years. Sgt. Chai was
held in captivity by the North Vietnamese longer than
any other prisoner held during the Vietnam War. He was
finally released two years after the American POWs
came home and only after sustained pressure from the
US government for his release. The King of Thailand
then commissioned him as a Captain, returned him to
duty with Thai Special Forces units where he
eventually retired as a colonel. Chai was awarded the
Silver Star medal, one of America's highest awards for
gallantry in action along with the coveted Legion of
Merit and his picture hangs in the "Hall of Heroes" in
the Pentagon, the only foreigner so honored. A movie
of his exploits is being considered at this time by
Hollywood.

Major Mark "Zippo" Smith is the legendary company
commander of Company C, 506th Airborne Infantry, 101st
Airmobile Division of Vietnam War fame. He organized
and led the infamous "Zippo's NVA Hunting Club" that
was feared by the North Vietnamese regulars and highly
regarded by other American units for their outstanding
kill ratio while on search and destroy missions in
their area of operations. Smith went on to become the
hero of the last battle of Loch Ninh where he was
recommended for the Medal of Honor after a long,
bloody battle against superior North Vietnamese
forces. When their camp was invaded by the NVA forces,
the ARVN commander hoisted a white flag and attempted
to surrender his command. Smith killed the South
Vietnamese commander, lowered the white flag and
assumed command of the remaining forces and conducted
one of the largest infantry battles of the Vietnam War
until he was disabled by numerous wounds in the
ensuing battle. As he lay bleeding and helpless, he
was captured by the North Vietnamese forces and held
in Cambodia until he became the first POW to be
released. Smith is an advocate of the POW/MIA program
and works out of Thailand in pursuit of information on
the Americans left behind in Vietnam and has engaged
in several attempts to rescue these men since the
conclusion of the Vietnam War. His decorations include
the Distinguished Service Cross, the Silver Star, nine
Bronze Stars and four Purple Hearts.

The occasion for this gathering was the 50th
anniversary of Thai Special Forces that officially
began on June 4, 1954, the day Raymond and his team
arrived in Lop Buri.
Nearly two years ago, General Tienchai directed that
Raymond and the surviving members of his team be
located. General Tienchai wanted to insure that these
men were brought to Thailand for the ceremonies to be
held in 2004 at Lop Buri. Raymond was located quickly
by "Zippo" Smith and the remaining three survivors
were located by Raymond. Working through Chapter III,
SFA in Bangkok and the Thai Airborne Association
arrangements were made to have Raymond and his team
members attend the ceremonies. Ultimately, Raymond
agreed to go and was accompanied by his wife, Coatney
and his daughter, Carol, who was born while he was in
Thailand in late 1954.

On the third and fourth of June at the Special
Operations Center in Lopburi, Thailand, the four aging
warriors were reunited to celebrate the 50th
anniversary of the establishment of Thai Special
Forces, the event that started their paths to cross
some fifty years ago, continuing through the Vietnam
War and until today. They were all present when Johnny
Raymond was honored by the Royal Thai Army and the
Thai Airborne Association for his part in the historic
chain of events that has led to the establishment of
one of the largest and most respected Special Forces
units in the world. Besides the awards bestowed on
Raymond by the Thai Special Forces, Ranger and
Airborne units, a tree was planted in his honor in the
Special Operations Garden in Lopburi and he was
further honored by being asked to lay a wreath at the
monument of the " Fallen Thai Soldier" under the
watchful eye of a proud family and many of his Thai
and American friends who were among the over 1,000 in
attendance for the ceremony. Raymond considers the
highest compliment he has ever received is the remark
by Mark "Zippo" Smith who stated "there have been over
20,000 American Special Forces men pass through
Thailand and the only name the Thai's remember is
Johnny Raymond".

Raymond's decorations include the Silver Star, two
Legion of Merits, the Bronze Star, two Air Medals, two
Army Commendation Medals and the Gallantry Cross with
Gold Star.