Good afternoon Art, this is Ben Densley sending a reply with some info on my self and SF history. I joined Special Forces Sep 1956 and after 1st and 2nd eight weeks of Inf Basic went to Jump School at Ft. Benning, GA and got to Ft. Bragg Apr 1957. FB1 for six months and then FB3 until June 1958, when
I went to the Navy Dive School in Key West, FL, as a PFC. Graduated in top ten in my class and was promoted to Cpl and awarded suffix 3, SF Qual and assigned to Cpt. Curtis Terry,s A team.
SFC ROCKY Nesom and myself did most of the underwater demo's for Armed Forces Day and the like. Nov 1959 after I reenlisted I was assigned to Cpt Derby's team and in Dec 1959 we were selected for mission training for Laos. We left Pope AFB on a C-124 and 15 days later landed in Bangkok, Thailand after many stops and over nights for "crew rest". Jun 1960 we landed, by way of an Air America C-46, on the Planes de Jars and were greeted by the out going Team. We had Fake ID cards and we were in civilian clothes and no one believed we were not soldiers.
The first few months we ran a NCO and Officer weapons and Demolition school. I did the demo training and helped out with the weapons training. Cpt Derby, team leader, MSG Stan Rubin, team sgt, SFC Halfast , weapons/ops, SFC Willie Jim Foster Medic, Sgt R Bill Bush Como, a SFC Mech from the 82nd Airborne and my self.
