Across The Fence

Written By Bernie Weisz Vietnam War Historian May 12, 2010 Pembroke Pines, Fl. e mail:[email protected]

Title of Review: This book must be read in one sitting! Gut-wrenching!,
In searching for this book, I wondered if the "take-away" was in effect. Being a salesman myself, I know the effectiveness of using this technique to get someone to reach deep in their pockets to pay for a service or product that most people will immediately brush off as way too expensive. The "take-away" is a situation where you have an item of limited quantity or high price for sale and it's very rare, hard to get, it's creator is deceased, and it's not in production or defunct, etc. Finding the existence of John Stryker's book "Across The Fence", I was desperate to read it. I tried all local libraries. No result. I tried national libraries through "interlibrary loan". No go. I tried to buy it through the internet. The least expensive copy was over $100. Was the "take-away" in effect? Was it "that good" that it was worth $100? Then I read on the internet that Mr. Meyer wrote a sequel called "On The Ground". The results to obtain this was worse. No library nor internet seller carried this. I wanted to read this bad. I had read John Plaster's book "SOG", Frank Greco's book "Running Recon", Sedgewick Tourison's book "Secret Army, Secret War", William Shawcross's comprehensive "Sideshow" and finally Joe Parner's thrilling "SOG Medic-Stories from Vietnam and Over the Fence". Reading more on the internet, I came by the fact that John Meyer is currently an editor for the "North County Times" in Oceanside, Ca., where he writes occasional columns. First I tried to contact the publisher of his two books, "Real War Stories", only to find that they are defunct. Then, I called information in California and asked for the North County Times. Calling the newspaper, I asked with trepidation for Mr. Meyer. After a minute, a friendly voice came on the phone and said "can I help you?". Needless to say, after a very amicable conversation, financial arrangements were made, a check was sent, and lo and behold, I was the proud owner of both of Mr. Stryker's treasured books! You can read the other reviews to find out "a taste of this book", but I will add that Mr. Meyer's first book should be read with a 3-4 hour time block reserved. I planned on reading only a few paragraphs before I went to sleep, but the last page was finished as the sun was coming up several hours later! I was very shocked to read Mr. Meyer's mention in his introduction of David A. Maurer's book "The Dying Place", put out by Dell Publishing in 1986. I read that book that year and still own it. I do remember that when I read Mr. Maurer's book I reflected that he had a tremendous imagination and truly his writings were pure fiction and could have never happened. That book, very close to Meyer's, is about the Army who choose 2 Green Beret officers who had total disregard for their personal safety and total hatred for any "rules of engagement" who get paired up with a team of South Vietnamese and Chinese mercenaries who on a Studies and Observation Group mission get dropped from the belly of a Huey chopper loaded to the teeth with C4 explosives and Claymore mines into the NVA's supposedly untouchable stronghold in the highlands of Laos with one mission in mind-kill as much of the enemy as you can! I was shocked to read the parallels between the two books and now know that many of Mauer's anecdotes in his book are more than just "stories". During the Vietnam War, only people in the inner circles of the military knew of SOG operations, and as Mr. Meyer points out, it was on a "need to know" basis. Meyer's job as a member of SOG was to go into "hot areas" that supposedly our military was barred from entering under the "rules of engagement", and those areas is exactly what "Across The Fence" means, i.e. going into areas prohibited, such as running reconnaissance missions across the border of South Vietnam into the North Vietnamese Army's sanctuaries in Laos, Cambodia and North Vietnam. This was, undoubtedly, the absolute most dangerous job during the war, nor was there one as secretive. In fact, this book almost never came into existance, as Meyer writes: "the thought never occurred to me to write about my time in South Vietnam and across the fence, especially since I had signed a government document in 1968 pledging to never write or talk publicly about SOG for 20 years". Another impediment to the publication of this book was the anti-Vietnam climate whereupon this nation, after the killings of Kennedy, M.L. King, the My Lai Massacre, Watergate, the issues of amnesty to draft-dodgers, heroin addicted ex-G.I's and the "Agent Orange" disaster, as Mr. Meyer put it: "The anti-Vietnam Veteran sentiment in the country at the time made it difficult to find a publisher who would buy the concept of a Vietnam book that dealt with real people striving against unbelievable odds in a politically handicapped war". The Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy What makes the stories contained in this book (they are all true!) incredible is that Mr. Meyer was part of a "Hatchet Force", code-named "spike teams" that were 4-12 man reconnaissance teams inserted via helicopter secretively "across the fence" deep into Laos, Cambodia or North Vietnam to monitor, interdict and kill superior NVA forces along the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Meyer relates that each man would not carry any identification papers, dog tags, photos, diaries, love letters of any form. All uniforms of SOG "spike teams" were generic, i.e. no company insignia, no nametags, no unit designations whatsoever. The reason for this was because the U.S. Government publicly proclaimed that they respected Laotian and Cambodian neutrality. The U.S. Government would explain that no Americans were stationed in Laos, Cambodia, or North Vietnam, which was technically accurate. The U.S. Government had "plausible deniability" if we were captured or killed" And if captured, we were to speak a foreign language." Finally, once "across the border", a SOG member was on his own-there was no conventional military units for support. And because these troops were so far west of South Vietnam, if enemy contact was made that called for an immediate extraction, it would take friendly helicopter units more than an hour to effectuate a rescue! Meyers writes:"there would be no traditional support from (U.S.)Army and Marine Units. Once engaged with the N.V.A., the Pathet Lao (Communist Laotian Guerrillas) or the Khmer Rouge (Communist Cambodian Guerrillas), conventional (U.S.) forces would be prohibited from coming to our aid. There would be no tank support, no armoured personnel carriers. Only C & C assets (SOG's field headquaters in Da Nang, South Vietnam) would be allowed to cross the border. Again, the reconnaissance teams would be so deep into enemy territory that the only way help could arrive would be via aircraft, mostly helicopters". Meyer's individual stories of operations long ago will keep you sweating with anticipation. In my phone conversation with the author, Mr. Meyer agreed with me that he is etremely lucky to be alive after being suspended by one foot upside down, trapped by his own extraction line and swinging from a speeding at full speed helicopter over an extraction site from Laos (read "Upside Down Over Laos"). Equally titillating is Mr. Meyer's tearful phone reunion with an ex N.V.A. officer that Mr. Meyer's shot 3 times during a heated battle. All was forgiven in a unique comraderie only one there could comprehend. Finally there was the story of how SOG members keep, rather than being captured, the "last bullet" (that is the actual name of the chapter) for themselves rather then submit to communist capture. There is also the story of when a SOG team was surrounded by charging NVA troops, U.S. airstrikes involving the dropping of "Napalm" (jellied gasoline) on NVA troops would stop the enemy dead in it's tracks. However, when being faced with a dousing of napalm, the NVA troops would charge the surrounded Americans to, as Meyers describes:"getting close to the belt. In this case, the NVA soldiers moved toward or outright charged the strike team to get as close to the team members as possible to avoid getting burnt" by Air Force ordinance. Mr. Meyer's also uncovers the unique cooperation and bravery of cooperating elite South Vietnamese SOG troops and pilots. After reading Tom Marshall's book "The Price of Exit" and his description of cowardice amongst retreading ARVN troops swarming his helicopter for extraction during operation "Lam Son 719" (Marshall asserts that so many Arvn elite troops dropped their weapons and refused to fight the NVA that when he went to evacuate them in Laos he had to "grease his helicopter skids" to prevent hordes of fleeing Arvn troops overwhelming his Huey). Mr. Meyer's book reveals that this was not the norm and there were in fact extremely tough and brave allies amongst the South Vietnamese we were suporting. If you are a student of the Vietnam War or a historian of that era of American History, this is a book you simply cannot be without. The only tragedy here is that this book is not in every high school library and mandatory reading for any American History collegiate course! Find this book! You can read more about Mr. Meyer at the following web address: http://sogchronicles.com/