The MACV-SOG 1-0 School at Camp Long Thanh (B-53) during the Vietnam War was a three-week(approximately 21-day) intensive training course. It prepared experienced Special Forces soldiers to serve as team leaders (“One-Zero” or 1-0) conducting high-risk, cross-border reconnaissance.
School Focus and Curriculum
- Tactics: Reconnaissance, patrolling, ambush techniques, and sabotage.
- Operations: Insertion and extraction methods, intelligence gathering.
- Psychological Warfare: Basic PSYOP overview relevant to deep-penetration missions.
- Operations Area: Training for classified cross-border missions into Laos, Cambodia, and North Vietnam.
In Mike Eiland words.
In the Fall of 1968, I was the Officer-in-Charge (OIC) of the 10 course at Camp Long Thanh (CLT). The instructors in the course included Squirrel Sprouse, Jaw Miller, Richard Gross, and Travis Mills. With a cadre like that it was the easiest job I ever had.
The handbook was developed during and just after the 10 course in the fall of 1968. It was compiled by the instructors from that course, among them Squirrel Sprouse, Jaw Miller, Richard Gross, and Travis Mills. I was the OIC. With a cadre like that it was the easiest job I ever had. Some of it was original, some was taken from other documents. The section on photography came from somewhere else, the section on tracking from a British document, etc. But all the good parts were written by our guys. We had some of our drafting sessions in a conference room at SOG hqs in Saigon.
This was probably not the most efficient course, as Saigon offered distractions. We cobbled the whole thing together in a couple of weeks, as I recall. It was reproduced and distributed as it appears in these photos. It was a pretty rough product in appearance, but it later did become the basis for a smoother looking handbook.
We did some of the drafting at CLT, the rest in a conference room at SOG hqs on Pasteur Street. I’m not sure I can come up with many more details from 52 years ago. I’m afraid if I do they might come from imagination rather than n memory!
Some of it was original, some was taken from other documents. The section on photography came from somewhere else, the section on tracking from a British document, etc. As to the British document on tracking that we used, as I recall it was several pages almost as informally put together as our handbook. It was based on British experience in Malaya. But all the good parts were written by our guys.
We had some of the drafting sessions at CLT, the rest in a conference room at SOG hqs on Pasteur Street, Saigon.
This was probably not the most efficient course, as Saigon offered distractions. We cobbled the whole thing together in a couple of weeks, as I recall. It was reproduced and distributed as it appears in these photos. It was a pretty rough product in appearance, but it later did become the basis for a smoother looking handbook.
