SIGHTINGS


 
Former AF Intel Officer
Reconfirms Use Of Nerve
Gas In Viet Nam War
From Wes Thomas <west@sonic.net>
7-13-98

 
 
Major Bob Worn (USAF, Retired, 2305 Tilman Drive, Bossier City, Louisiana 71111-5909, Phone 318-746-0766, Fax 318-747-3738, E-mail BOBWORN@AOL.COM) stated to me that while assigned to First Flight Detachment (the flying arm of SOG), Nha Trang AB, RVN as the Intell Officer, he had first-hand knowledge of the amount, movement and use of nerve gas.
 
Caveat: I have not yet fact-checked these statements or Bob Worn's background.
 
The following is a letter Bob Worn sent to CNN and on July 9 to Jack Smith, the CNN producer of the Tailwind expose who was later fired by CNN.
 
- Wes Thomas
 
 
News Department
Cable News Network
Atlanta, Georgia
404-827-1500
404-681-3578 Fax
 
Re: Agent GB (Sarin)
 
I and several of my fellow airmen that served in Studies and Observation Group (SOG) are happy and relieved that the story on the use of the hideous agent GB (Sarin) finally was put before the American people.
 
Your Peter Arnett did a short, shallow expose` on SOG on Impact several months ago. In my letter to you immediately after the airing of the segment, I urged you to look deeper, beyond the "tip of the iceberg" at SOG and Operations such as Tailwind (originally "Illwind"), Heavy Chain, Heavy Anchor, Star-light, Bright Boy, Phoenix, etc.
 
The stockpiling and use of agents such as GB (Sarin) and just-as-lethal CS (also used in the Waco raid) together with biological warfare agents was almost commonplace in "special covert ops" carried out by the air arm of SOG, First Flight Detachment, based at Nha Trang, RVN.
 
As Mr. Arnett pointed out in the Impact article, if we could not recover "assets" shot down and/or captured by the Viet Cong, we would divert an Arc-Light air strike into the area.
 
If an airstrike could not be diverted in a timely manner, close-in support aircraft were deployed to the area to dispense special, lethal chemical agents, sometimes referred to as "the worst of the worst". Assets could not be permitted to be exploited by the VC nor could the knowledge and expertise they possessed be compromised. At all times we had to guaranty that the president had total "plausible deniability".
 
The lab and storage area (among others) for such agents as well as other hideous weapons was "House 50" in Saigon. Logistics and delivery of "covert agents" was accomplished by the aircraft assigned to SOG, UC-123K "Tailhook" black birds, A1-E close-in support aircraft, UH1-E (twin engine) helicopters ("Huey 2") and F4-G(U) "Wild Weasel".
 
The "Wild Weasel" aircraft assigned to SOG carried radiation seaking missiles that would home in on and destroy radio frequency sources, from enemy gun-laying and surface-to-air (SAM) control radars to the "special" one that would home in on civilian radio stations and agricultural truck transmitters used in the worst examples of psychological warfare.
 
Rest assured, this country of ours can never again sing the song, "Onward Christian Soldiers" ... Christian soldiers we're not!
 
Respectfully submitted,
 
Bob Worn, Major-USAF (Retired)
Former Member - SOG
 
 
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