SFC Ethyl W. Duffield explains the 60 mm mortar to the Bolivians.

SPECIAL FORCES HISTORY

The Bolivia Mission

Site Survey, and Mobile Training Team (MTT) Mission Prep

By Charles H. Briscoe, PhD

From Veritas, Vol. 4, No. 4, 2008

FULL SERIES: SF IN BOLIVIA
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The 8th Special Forces Group (SFG), Special Action Force (SAF), Latin America, had been tasked by the U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) in Panama in early April 1967 to prepare a Mobile Training Team (MTT) for a classified mission. The MTT was to organize and train a 650-man Bolivian Ranger Battalion in basic and advanced individual military skills, basic and advanced unit tactics, COIN (counterinsurgency) operations, and conduct cadre training for the unit officers and non-commissioned officers (NCOs) in nineteen weeks. Major (MAJ) Ralph W. “Pappy” Shelton, the selected commander, was to organize, prepare, and deploy a large mobile training team (MTT designated BL 404-67X) for that mission as soon as possible.1 Master Sergeant (MSG) Oliverio Gomez, the team sergeant of Team 11, A Company, was selected by COL Magnus L. Smith, the group commander, because he had a wealth of combat experience. He wore the CIB (Combat Infantryman’s Badge) with two stars that signified three awards in three wars: World War II; Korea; and Vietnam.2

LTC Eldred E. “Red” Weber, Deputy Commanding Officer, 8th SFG and Acting Commander, 8th SFG, 2 June 1967, re-enlisting MSG Roland Milliard.
LTC Eldred E. “Red” Weber, Deputy Commanding Officer, 8th SFG and Acting Commander, 8th SFG, 2 June 1967, re-enlisting MSG Roland Milliard.

MAJ Shelton had several immediate tasks: to select an executive officer; to provide mission prep guidance for the MTT forming; to coordinate a site survey with the U.S. Military Group (MILGP) in La Paz; and to identify personnel to accompany him to Bolivia who would stay there as his advance echelon (ADVON). Because arranging the site survey took the most time, he chose another Korean War veteran, Captain (CPT) Edmond L. Fricke to be his Deputy. Korea and Vietnam veteran Master Sergeant (MSG) Roland J. Milliard, an Intelligence Sergeant, and SFC Hector Rivera Colon, a Heavy Weapons Sergeant from Puerto Rico, were identified to be the advance echelon (ADVON). Lieutenant Colonel Eldred E. “Red” Weber, a First Special Service Force veteran of WWII and deputy group commander, led the site survey team to Bolivia on 6 April while the rest of the team was being formed at Fort Gulick in Panama.4

CPT Edmond L. Fricke, MTT Executive Officer/S-3
CPT Edmond L. Fricke, MTT Executive Officer/S-3
SFC Johnnie E. Reynolds, MTT S-1/S-4 Sergeant
SFC Johnnie E. Reynolds, MTT S-1/S-4 Sergeant

CPT Fricke recruited officers and MSG Gomez chose sergeants from nominees provided by the A and B Company sergeant majors. Numbers and military occupational specialties (MOS) had been specified by Shelton.5 “The team composition was strictly seat of the pants reasoning. I thought that there would be much more classified message traffic and liaison with MILGP and the Bolivians. Hence, we were heavy on ‘commo’ personnel with higher security clearances and brought an extra officer. Since every SF NCO was cross-trained, it worked out,” recalled the MTT commander.6 “I talked with some senior sergeant friends in each company to get their recommendations for personnel and to cross-check everyone. Then, I met each man individually to get a ‘feel’ for him and to find out what secondary skills he had. That proved very useful when we started training in Boliva,” said MSG Gomez.7

While MSG Gomez and CPT Fricke were getting a team assembled in Panama, LTC Weber, MAJ Shelton, MSG Milliard, and SFC Rivera Colon had gone to Bolivia. They were being briefed on the Bolivian armed forces organization by the Army MILGP personnel in La Paz. A list of recommended arms, ammunition, radios, and the equipment necessary to organize the new Ranger unit based on a U.S. Army WWII infantry battalion TOE (table of organization and equipment) was compiled. Requisitions were sent to SOUTHCOM in Panama to be filled from regional war stocks.8

Unit Insignia of the 605th Air Commando, 6th Special Operations Squadron (SOS), Howard AFB, the Panama Canal Zone.
Unit Insignia of the 605th Air Commando, 6th Special Operations Squadron (SOS), Howard AFB, the Panama Canal Zone.

Most importantly, MAJ Shelton ran into a Panama friend, Captain “Hoss” McBride, 605th Air Commando, 6th Special Operations Squadron (SOS), Howard Air Force Base (AFB), Canal Zone, who was training Bolivian Air Force T-28 pilots in close air support at Cochabamba. McBride had established a lot of connections in Bolivia. An Army officer from the MILGP accompanied them to Santa Cruz. The Americans flew into the dirt airstrip at Santa Cruz. There they met the 8th Division commander, COL Joaquín Zenteño Anaya, and conducted a reconnaissance of the area.9 At the 8th Division cuartel the Americans met some of the conscripts being assembled to fill the new Ranger unit.10

The communications and storage building and the rappelling tower in the abandoned sugar plantation near La Esperanza.
The communications and storage building (left) and the rappelling tower (right) in the abandoned sugar plantation near La Esperanza.

The first training site recommended, Guabirá, was too populated and lacked space to conduct small unit maneuvers and marksmanship training. A second proposal, an abandoned sugar mill on the outskirts of La Esperanza, seven miles from Guabirá at the end of a farm road, was more remote. The mill contained sufficient buildings to house the battalion and the American training team, structures for confidence exercises, and the surrounding terrain seemed ideal for small arms marksmanship and crew-served weapons ranges. Since the small, 100-150 person village was at the end of a primitive road, the site was sufficiently isolated. Security could be maintained. The townspeople were friendly. While MSG Milliard and SFC Rivera Colon were walking the terrain around the mill choosing possible training sites and range locations, COL Zenteño Anaya confirmed that the area would be available.11

Satisfied that La Esperanza would do, the Americans returned to La Paz. After getting LTC Weber and MAJ Shelton off to Panama on 11 April, Sergeants Milliard and Rivera Colon drove back to Santa Cruz. It was a long three days of hard driving via Cochabamba. “We drove down in a jeep. It was worse than driving that ‘wonderful’ Pan American Highway to Panama. The potholes were huge and rivers had washed away large portions of the road. It took several hours to find safe fording sites,” said MSG Milliard, the MTT O&I sergeant.12 From a hotel in Santa Cruz the two SF sergeants began to coordinate support, arranged to have the firing ranges built, and prepared for the main body arrival two weeks later.13

“It became obvious when we got to Santa Cruz that MILGP personnel in La Paz had not been there and knew nothing about the Army in that locale,” said MSG Milliard. “Hector (Rivera Colon) and I made sketches and took a lot of notes during our reconnaissance. La Esperanza had open areas 400-500 meters wide, sufficient dead space for combined arms training (mortars and light machineguns), and enough vegetation to cover tactical movement. We kept a low profile. I talked with MAJ Shelton on the telephone to keep him posted on our progress. The 8th Division sent troops to La Esperanza to secure the training site. By the time the main body arrived, city newspapers were carrying stories about Che Guevara.”14

Fortunately, an American company had been contracted to build roads in the area. The Paul Hardeman Construction Company had bulldozers, road graders, and other heavy equipment on hand. Sergeants Milliard and Rivera Colon met with Harry Singh, the director of operations, to explain what they needed and to obtain estimated construction costs. Singh, another friend of CPT “Hoss” McBride, proved to be a great supporter of the SF mission.15 While MSG Milliard and SFC Rivera Colon were working in Bolivia, the assembled SF MTT was preparing for the mission.

When MAJ Shelton was in Bolivia, CPT Fricke and MSG Gomez collected related programs of instruction (POIs), lesson plans, and some training aids. A footlocker full of U.S. Army field manuals in Spanish were gathered from the U.S. Army School of the Americas at Fort Gulick.16 The two leaders had chosen the remaining members of the MTT. “CPT Fricke got the other officers, CPT James Trimble, the S-1/S-4 (administration & logistics) officer and CPT Margarito Cruz, the S-2 (intelligence) officer (801st MI Detachment, 8th SAF) to prepare to teach staff procedures to the Bolivian officers assigned to the Ranger Battalion,” remembered SSG James Hapka, one of the assigned medics.17 First time MTT assignees got guidance from the veterans in their units.

SFC Tom Carpenter, Heavy Weapons Sergeant, calls Panama on the Collins KWM2A commercial single sideband radio.
SFC Tom Carpenter, Heavy Weapons Sergeant, calls Panama on the Collins KWM2A commercial single sideband radio.
SSG William W. Burkett, the Communications Supervisor, sends a Morse Code message using the AN/GRC-109 radio. A Bolivian Ranger is cranking the generator.
SSG William W. Burkett, the Communications Supervisor, sends a Morse Code message using the AN/GRC-109 radio. A Bolivian Ranger is cranking the generator.

“Once we were selected for the MTT, the senior NCOs of A and B Company oversaw individual preparations. Then, we went into isolation at Battery Randolph, the abandoned WWII coast artillery site on Fort Gulick. This was standard procedure for missions and exercises,” said Sergeant (later Staff Sergeant) Wendell P. “Thom” Thompson, a radioman on A-16, B Company. “I was single and available. We were issued a Collins KWM2A commercial single sideband radio. It was a tremendous radio [Morse Code (CW) and voice communications] compared to the AN/GRC-109 radio. Because radiomen dominated the team, I wanted a training assignment rather than being stuck on radio watch. When the major gave me .45 cal pistol training, I was happy.”18 Another radioman had these memories.

“I was a single radioman at the time. Whenever I went into Colon, Panama, on pass, I paid the bar girls to talk Spanish with me for a drink. The contract Spanish language course in Washington, D.C., ‘DLI-East,’ [Defense Language School (vice the real one in Monterey, CA) – East] had been a total waste of time. CPT Duane Boyer, a Sioux Indian in B Company, briefed me on the mission. We were to train troops from the northern highlands of Bolivia in the southwest lowlands. Personal firearms were not allowed. The MTT was classified SECRET. The 8th SFG signal company would operate a SIGCEN (signal center) while we were in Bolivia. One of the SF communicators ‘spilled his guts’ in the V.F.W. (a favorite SF watering hole outside of Fort Gulick). He was replaced the next day. The senior radio operators signed for encryption books and SOIs (Signal Operating Instructions). I read the Bolivia area handbook. I remember reading that every male in the countryside usually carried a gun,” said SGT Alvin E. Graham. “We expected to run a 24-hour radio watch so we packed a lot of batteries. A few AN-PRC-6s were brought along for internal communications during the tactical training and to have contact with the ranges.”21 The SF medics had to be ready to support themselves and the Bolivian trainees for six months.

The American SF medics, Staff Sergeants (SSG) Jerald L. Peterson and James A. Hapka, would have to deal with virtually all American injuries and illnesses in country. SSG Hapka explained, “The training site at La Esperanza was quite remote. Emergency air medical evacuation from Bolivia was very unlikely. Pete (SSG Peterson) and I researched the endemic diseases using a World Health Organization reference and the Merck Manual for prophylaxes and surgical procedures for parasites; scorpion, spider, and snakebites; gunshot; and explosion-caused trauma injuries. We knew what training was to be conducted in southwest Bolivia. Hepatitis B, Yellow Fever, and Chagas Disease were rampant. Everyone on the MTT would get Gamma Globulin and Yellow Fever shots. Supposedly malaria had been eliminated in Bolivia, but mosquito nets would be used.”24 Note: The Armed Forces Pest Management Board maintains a Living Hazards Database by country. “Not much known” dominated the treatment for bites and information on the more than thirty poisonous snakes (hemotoxic, myotoxic, and neurotoxic), bees, spiders, and scorpions in Bolivia today.25

“Basic field medic and emergency medical treatment training was standard for us. Each team member was responsible for teaching classes in his specialty. Since we were all cross-trained, Pete got compass and map reading and I was assigned camouflage and concealment classes. Our basic load of medical supplies was 90 days, but we carried extra and planned for a resupply,” remembered SSG Hapka.26 When MAJ Shelton returned to Panama from the site survey, he shared what information the MILGP had provided and clarified the MTT mission.

Battery Randolph team isolation site before MTT.
Battery Randolph team isolation site before MTT.

MAJ Shelton briefed the assembled team in Battery Randolph. “We were to organize, equip, and train a group of 600 newly conscripted soldiers. They were not a unit, but we were going to make them into one and it would be a Ranger Battalion. The training site would be an abandoned sugar mill. Shelton didn’t have many details. He showed us the area on a photo imagery map. The duration of the mission was 179 days and we would fly from Howard Air Force Base to Bolivia (Santa Cruz) on two C-130 Hercules on 29 April,” said SSG Hapka.27 “We were not briefed in great detail, but we knew from the start that we were going to train the Bolivians to combat an ongoing insurgency.” said SSG Jerald Peterson.28

After his first encounter with the MILGP, Shelton realized that he should expect little more than weapons, ammunition, and equipment for the Rangers from the MILGP in La Paz. “If we didn’t make commo with them regularly, we’d be out of sight, out of mind. Our life line would be 8th Group in Panama. Official visitors would fly into Santa Cruz; mountain ranges separated the widely separated cities and there was only one main highway connecting them. To get to La Paz from Santa Cruz by road, you drove to Cochabamba. There was no real road to La Paz from Santa Cruz,” said the MTT commander.29 “The major compiled a list of necessities, gave it to MSG Gomez, who was an extremely experienced and organized soldier, and simply told him to ‘fill in the blanks,’” recalled SGT Al Graham, a radioman.30

8th SFG monthly payday formation at Fort Gulick, Panama.
8th SFG monthly payday formation at Fort Gulick, Panama.

29 April 1967 arrived quickly. Early that morning a small convoy of 2½ ton trucks and a bus departed the 8th SFG area at Fort Gulick for Howard Air Force Base, fifty-five miles away on the Pacific side of Panama. Two U.S. Air Force C-130 Hercules medium transports awaited them. Fourteen soldiers, personal and team equipment, training materials (from paper targets to manuals), and an estimated six months of canned and boxed food almost filled both airplanes to capacity. “As we were taxiing out for takeoff with the ramp open, MSG Gomez leaned over to me and said, ‘You should have brought your VW bug. There’s plenty of room on the ramp. We’ll probably need it down there.’ I had to laugh because I’d sold it just before we left Gulick,” said SGT Al Graham.31 8th SFG MTT-BL 404-67X was off to Bolivia.

ENDNOTES

  1. MTT BL 404-67X, 8th Special Forces Group (Airborne), 1st Special Forces, Special Action Force, Fort Gulick, Canal Zone, Situation Report (SITREP) SUBJECT: Report of Mobile Training Team to Bolivia (RCS CSGPO-125) dated 10 December 1967, hereafter cited 8th SFG MTT BL 404-67X SITREP with date and Ralph W. Shelton interview by Dr. Charles H. Briscoe, 12 April 2007, Sweetwater, TN, digital recording, USASOC History Office Classified Files, Fort Bragg, NC, hereafter cited as Shelton interview with date. MAJ Ralph Shelton was a Korean War veteran who was awarded his second Combat Infantryman Badge for service in Laos in 1961. [return]
  2. MSG Oliverio Gomez was a WWII (32d Infantry Division), Korean War (1st Cavalry Division), and Vietnam (1st SFG) veteran with three awards of the Combat Infantryman’s Badge. Oliverio Gomez, interview by Dr. Charles H. Briscoe, 12 November 2008, Pacific Grove, CA, digital recording, USASOC History Office Classified Files, Fort Bragg, NC, hereafter cited as Gomez interview with date. [return]
  3. Gomez interview, 12 November 2008. [return]
  4. Gomez interview, 12 November 2008, Shelton interviews, 12 April 2007 and 20 October 2008 and Roland J. Milliard, telephone interview by Dr. Charles H. Briscoe, 15 October 2008, Dracut, MA, digital recording, USASOC History Office Classified Files, Fort Bragg, NC, hereafter cited as Milliard interview with date. [return]
  5. CPT Fricke was a former Staff Sergeant, a Korean War veteran of the 187th Airborne Regimental Combat Team (ARCT), and a Ranger Department instructor. Daniel V. Chapa interview by Dr. Charles H. Briscoe, 18 April 2008, Fort Bragg, NC. Digital recording, USASOC History Office Classified Files, Fort Bragg, NC, hereafter cited as Chapa interview with date. [return]
  6. Shelton interview, 20 October 2008. [return]
  7. Gomez interview, 14 November 2008. Staff Sergeant (SSG) James A. Hapka, A Company,8th SFG, was the Medical Specialist (“junior” medic) on Team 11 and MSG Gomez was his Team Sergeant and golfing buddy in Panama. James A. Hapka, telephone interview by Dr. Charles H. Briscoe, 3 November 2008, Lawton, OK, digital recording, USASOC History Office Classified Files, Fort Bragg, NC, hereafter Hapka interview with date. [return]
  8. Henry Butterfield Ryan, The Fall of Che Guevara: A Story of Soldiers, Spies, and Diplomats (NY: Oxford University Press, 1998), 91. [return]
  9. Shelton interview, 1 October 2008. [return]
  10. Ryan, The Fall of Che Guevara, 91. [return]
  11. Shelton interviews, 13 April 2007 and 1 October 2008. [return]
  12. Milliard interview, 15 October 2008. [return]
  13. Shelton interviews, 13 April 2007 and 1 October 2008. [return]
  14. Shelton interviews, 13 April 2007 and 1 October 2008 and Milliard interviews, 15 and 20 October 2008. [return]
  15. Shelton interviews, 13 April 2007 and 1 October 2008. [return]
  16. Shelton interviews, 14 April 2007 and 20 October 2008 and Gomez interview, 14 November 2008. [return]
  17. Hapka interview, 3 November 2008 and 8th SFG MTT BL 404-67X SITREP dated 10 December 1967. [return]
  18. Wendell P. Thompson, telephone interview by Dr. Charles H. Briscoe, 7 January 2008, Cleveland, OH, digital recording, USASOC History Office Classified Files, Fort Bragg, NC, hereafter cited as Thompson interview with date. SGM Wendell Thompson was drafted in 1962 and served first as a Military Policeman (MP) in Kerat, Thailand. After going through Special Forces radio training in 1964, he was assigned to 8th SFG in Panama. While there, he met and joined SFC Daniel Chapa, 8th SFG, on the U.S. Army Southern Command (USARSO) rifle team. When Chapa was sent to Bolivia to replace SFC Hector Rivera Colon, he asked MSG Oliverio Gomez to allow newly promoted Staff Sergeant (SSG) Thompson to help him with weapons training. Thompson interview, 20 December 2007. [return]
  19. Thompson interview, 20 December 2007. [return]
  20. Alvin E. Graham, telephone interview by Dr. Charles H. Briscoe, 16 October 2008, Phoenix, AZ, digital recording, USASOC History Office Classified Files, Fort Bragg, NC, hereafter cited as Graham interview with date. [return]
  21. Graham interview, 16 October 2008. [return]
  22. Jerald L. Peterson, interview by Dr. Charles H. Briscoe, 6 April 2007, Fort Bragg, NC, digital recording, USASOC History Office Classified Files, Fort Bragg, NC, hereafter cited as Peterson interview and date and Peterson email to Dr. Briscoe, Subject: Personal Bio dated 28 November 2008, USASOC History Office Classified Files, Fort Bragg, NC. [return]
  23. Hapka interview, 3 November 2008. [return]
  24. Hapka interview, 3 November 2008. [return]
  25. Armed Forces Pest Management Control Board, Living Hazards Database, Bolivia at afpmb-webmaster@osd.mil. [return]
  26. Hapka interview, 3 November 2008. [return]
  27. Hapka interview, 3 November 2008. [return]
  28. Daniel V. Chapa and Jerald L. Peterson, interview by Dr. Charles H. Briscoe, 11 April 2007, Fort Bragg, NC, digital recording, USASOC History Office Classified Files, Fort Bragg, NC, hereafter cited as Chapa and Peterson interview with date. [return]
  29. Shelton interview, 1 October 2008. [return]
  30. Graham interview, 16 October 2008. [return]
  31. Graham interview, 16 October 2008. [return]