Original Patch - US MIKE FORCE - CTZ IV - Black Ops Recon - Vietnam War - K.434 for Sale

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Original Patch - US MIKE FORCE - CTZ IV - Black Ops Recon - Vietnam War - K.434 For Sale

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Original Patch - US MIKE FORCE - CTZ IV - Black Ops Recon - Vietnam War - K.434:
$105.00

United States Army Special Forces - Black Ops Recon

Corps Military Tactical Zone - Zone IV - Original Roman Numeral Patch

Skull and Crossed Bones - Blackjack

Rare, Original, Newspaper backed patch.

Vietnam War Patch - MACV-SOG - Mike Force - Mobile Strike Force

Measures - 4 inches in diameter (10 cms)

MOBILE STRIKE FORCE (MIKE FORCE) - BLACK JACK 21 – Blackjack 31

Officially setup in 1965 Mike Force was originally called the \' Mobile Guerrilla Force\' dueto the nature of the actions performed by this group in conjunction with theNung Tribesmen since early 1964.

Headquarteredat Nha Trang, Mike Force had the selection of the best of the Indigenous forcesavailable including tribesmen of the Rhade, Raglia, Koho, Nung and Cham withthe entire contingent of both the Nung and Rhade rated as \'Superb\' in theirjungle fighting skills and all airborne qualified.

The standardsof the other tribesmen allocated/chosen to fight with Mike Force was well abovethat of the normal Indigenous combatant.

In total,approximately 40% of the indigenous combatants were Special Forces trained andqualified. (totalling over 1,000 men at Nha Trang alone).

Unusually, thearea of operation of the 5th Mike Force at Nha Trang was \'Vietnam\' and notrestricted to operations in any particular zone.

Used forre-inforcement of indigenous positions the Mobile Strike Force (Reaction Force)was also used for Recon Ambush, Recon and Combat, Rapid Insertion, JungleTracking and Neutralization and were capable of operating in areas consideredas VC / NVA Strongholds for period of more than 60 days without re-supply orcontact if necessary.

BLACKJACK 21

Developed as atheory of operation and first put into action in November 1966, \'Blackjack\' sawconsiderable success during it\'s five years of operation until 1971.

Further tointelligence provided by Recon teams on long insertion missions a 3 to 4 manRecon Team would be sent to survey an area followed shortly by a 150 Man \'MobileGuerrilla Force\' (MGF) made up of Mike Force Trained Indigenous Soldierscommanded by a US Special Force Command Group.

The first suchBlackjack operation was \'Operation BLACKJACK 21\' in Kontum province in October/ November 1966.

Having beenair-dropped into the Plei Trap Valley on the 13th of October the entire actionforce was eventually airlifted out of the area. Having run into 3 NVA onbicycles (who were killed) the force shortly afterwards came under intense firefrom a large enemy force and spent four days attempting to prevent itself frombeen surrounded.

Enemycasualties (apart from the three cyclist) are unknown, no allied wounded orKIA. They were airlifted out on the 9th of November.

Not deemed adisaster (in fact having returned with a full contingent of personnel afteralmost a month in the field it was considered a considerable success) and inmid 1967 the Mobile Guerrilla Force was integrated into and came under thecommand of the Mobile Strike Force.

Blackjack 21was followed by Blackjack 22 and later Blackjack 31.

CTZ IV - Mekong Delta

The IV Corps (Vietnamese: Quân đoàn IV) was acorps of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN), the army of the nationstate of South Vietnam that existed from 1955 to 1975.

It was one of four corps in the ARVN, and itoversaw the Mekong Delta region of the country.

The Mekong Delta was the heartland of agriculturalSouth Vietnam, it encompassed the fertile alluvial plains formed by the MekongRiver and its main tributary, the Bassac River. With its sixteen provinces, theDelta contained about two-thirds of the nation\'s population and yielded thesame proportion in rice production.

The terrain of IV Corps differed radically fromother regions. Flat and mostly uncovered, it consisted of mangrove swamps andricefields crisscrossed by an interlocking system of canals, natural andartificial. Except for some isolated mountains to the west near the Cambodianborder, few areas in the Delta had an elevation of more than 10 feet (3.0 m)above sea level. During the monsoon season, most of the swampy land north ofRoute QL-4, generally called the Plain of Reeds, was inundated, especially whenalluvial waters raised the level of the Mekong River from July to October.

Other undeveloped swampy areas along the coasthad turned into havens that sheltered Viet Cong (VC) main force units just asthe scattered bases inland offered good refuge for local guerrillas.