July 04, 2010
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14 minute long SOG documentary
Being in SOG meant you were the best of the best, but it also meant a high possibility of never making it home.
In this 14 minute long documentary on MAC V SOG *, shown to us by @WePlayCoD, SOG veterans tell their stories and view on this elite black ops team.
SOG to the public meant Studies and Observations Group, supposedly a bunch of bookworms. At one of President John F. Kennedy's National Security Council meetings he personally had demanded the creation of an elite and top secret team who could stick it to the enemy in their own back yard and performed crucial reconnaissance.
"Things Schwarzenegger might do, or that what Silvester Stallone might do, I actually got to do. It was the greatest adventure of my life." says Ed Wolcoff, former SOG Team Leader. "It turns out that the rules of engagement in our area of operations were unlimited, that's what we were told. Which meant that anything goes."
In an interview with Maj. Gen. John Singlaub he admits to using methods that could as fall outside international treaties or law. The Pentagon secretly armed some SOG teams with chemical agents to temporarily incapacitate everyone, allowing the soldiers to sort out the guys who were armed from the guys that were not. Using these incapacitating agents were a war crime in the international law, but as stated by Maj. Gen. John Singlaub this was most certainly a more humane way of dealing with situations they were put in than just killing everyone.
No fun and games...
But being in SOG meant more than being the best of the best; It also meant almost certain death. And there are no spawn points in real life... SOG teams were often bait, intentionally used to locate enemy troops to draw them out of hiding. So the next day, they could be hammered by air attacks. This sometimes meant for friendly casualties if they SOG members were not extracted in time, possibly captured by the enemy. Why? "There was retribution, and secondly they did not want American captured for political purposes. [..]", tells Ed Wolcoff.
Team leaders of SOG increasingly found their missions compromised as they were detected immediately. "At times we had 100% casualties in a single year. That means every single man was killed, wounded or missing in action..." tells Major John Plaster.
The stories told by SOG veterans are nothing short of heroic movies produced in Hollywood, but with a very grim ending at many times. Even though many of the stories of these vets are inspiration for the missions in Call of Duty: Black Ops, we ourselves think Treyarch will go for somewhat more Hollywood "happy" endings. But that story will be told November 9th of this year.
* "Military Assistance Command, Vietnam – Studies and Observations Group"
