John J. McCarthy Jr.Captain U.S. Army Special ForcesMilitary
Service with additional information about Unconventional Warfare (UW) and so-called Military Justice.
Assignments:I
joined Special Forces, 77th Special Forces Group (SFG), at Ft. Bragg in June, 1960.
On July 1, 1960, the 77th SFG became
the 7th SFG; I was assigned to the 10th SFG in Bad Toelz, Germany in December, 1960 due to a shortage of my job title; Radio
Operator.
(For background information on Special Forces and their secret assignments by the Intelligence Community resulting
in rouge operations see the following links:
10th Special Forces Group (Abn) US Army, Europe,
Cold War Espionage: The Players in the Cold War Spy Game,
The U.S. Army Special Forces Special Operations Teams and
History of Flint Kaserne Bad Toelz, Germany)
In April, 1961, I qualified for the Special Forces "3" on my military designator catagory.
Subsequently I
was assigned as an Intel Analyst and worked for Sully Fontaine, the 10th SFG S-2, (Intelligence Analyst--War Plans) Dan Schubert,
EC White and Ed White.
In 1962, I graduated with honors from the 7th Army NCO Academy across the quadrangle of Flint
Kaserne and was promoted to E-5.
Flint Kaserne Bad Toelz Germany before renovationI
attended the 10th SFG Training School in Lengries, Germany and was assigned as an instructor in D Company, working for Ralph
Puckett.
My mentors in these early years were Llarkyn Winfred (Rock) Nesom, Pop Grant and DJ Smith.
There I assisted
CIA in the training of East Germans who came into West Berlin via the tunnel system for reinsertion back into East Germany
as agents directed by SOTFE, Special Operations Task Force Europe, CIA HQ in Frankfurt, Germany.
After that I was assigned
to an A Team in Bravo Company of the 10th SFG as the junior radio operator with assignments in France, Greece, and submarine
training on the USS Tirante and Tigrone off the island of Crete.
USS Tirante (SS-420) above and USS Tigrone (SS-419) below
I was a member of the European Underwater Recovery Team, the Nuclear Weapons Team and the Mountain Climbing Detachment.
When
the 10th Special Forces Group was moved from Ft. Bragg, NC to Bad Toelz, Germany I worked with Displaced Persons such as Jon
Novy and others who were the initial cadre in 1953. Many of our DP's were OSS (Office of Strategic Services) Veterans and
carried cover names. Jon Novy used his real name. He was from Hungary.
To maintain my "3", which requires a proficiency
in all of the disciplines of Special Forces, I qualified quarterly.
In 1964, I attended Officer Candidate School and
Ranger School at Ft. Benning and was then assigned to the 3rd SFG at Ft. Bragg where I attended the Officers Special Forces
Course in 1965.
The US Army Rangers are America's elite Rapid Deployment Force. They
provide the American armed forces a cohesive fighting unit that can be moved to anywhere in the world in 18 hours. One Ranger
Battalion is on call for deployment 24 hours a day. The Rangers are capable of rapid infantry assaults as well as some special
operations into varied terrain and climates. Ranger arew trained in all types of warfare. The Ranger specialty is rapid assaults
such as airport seizures (which they performed in Grenada and Panama). Some Rangers also undergo SCUBA and comabt swimmer
training, while some train in HALO or High Altitude Low Opening parachuting. Training is hard and specialized; officers train
alongside the men and regularly work from the field with them. (United States Army Rangers)
I was then assigned to the 1st SFG in Okinawa and immediately sent TDY (Tour of Duty) to the 5th SFG in Nha
Trang, Vietnam and further assigned as the XO of an A Team #415 opening a new SF Camp at Ap Bac and Kinh Quan Hai in 4th Corps,
sixty miles West of Saigon in the middle of the Plain of Reeds. Outside artillery range, we were bait.
After returning
to Okinawa I completed the Underwater Demolition Training, Scuba School and Submarine training on the USS Tunny, SS 241, where
I trained Chinese Nationalists in the art of night infiltration from submarines while submerged and underway.
They were
later sent into mainland China as agent provocateurs directed by the CIA.
USS Tunny
I then trained Nationalist Chinese in the art of High Altitude Low Opening (HALO) night parachuting from C-130
at 21,500 feet for infiltration into mainland China, as directed by the CIA.
For these activities I was assigned to Taiwan.
In June 1967, I was on my second voluntary tour in Vietnam and was assigned as the S-3 Operations Officer for Project Omega
working for Pappy Lamar in Plei Djereng, Vietnam.
I was assigned as the Case Officer for Project Cherry of B-57 (Gamma)
running black terror and assassination teams in September of 1967.
This was a CIA operation run out of the US Embassy
in Saigon.
On January 30, 1968, a Top Secret General Court-martial concluded that I had murdered a Cambodian "peasant". Although facing
the death penalty, the court sentenced me to "...be confined at hard labor for the term of your natural life." Deliberation
on sentencing took all of three minutes. Amazingly enough, the sentence to confinement for life DID NOT include reduction
in rank, forfeiture of pay and allowances, nor dismissal from the service. This remains a precedent in the history of Military
Justice, i.e., an accusation followed shortly by a conviction.
After 65 days of pre-trial confinement at Long Binh, Vietnam, in a 5 x 7 foot box, topped with chicken wire, a continuously
burning light bulb, and a tin roof and another 3 months after the trial I was transported in a "prison shipment" to Fort Leavenworth,
Kansas, where I was incarcerated until Oct. 6, 1969.
