http://news.quickfound.net/intl/vietnam_news.html Jungle training of US Army troops in the Panama Canal Zone during the Vietnam War. The unit is not specified, but possibly the 3rd Battalion 7th Special Forces Group (Airborne), which was for a time based at Fort Gulick in the Canal Zone. Or possibly 8th Special Forces Group, which earlier operated in the Central and South American area. From Your Army Reports No. 6. Public domain film from the US National Archives, slightly cropped to remove uneven edges, with the aspect ratio corrected, and mild video noise reduction applied. The soundtrack was also processed with volume normalization, noise reduction, clipping reduction, and/or equalization (the resulting sound, though not perfect, is far less noisy than the original). http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jungle_warfare Jungle warfare is a term used to cover the special techniques needed for military units to survive and fight in jungle terrain. It has been the topic of extensive study by military strategists, and was an important part of the planning for both sides in many conflicts, including World War II and the Vietnam War... Vietnam War The British experience in counter insurgency was passed onto the Americans during their involvement in the Vietnam War, where the battlegrounds were, again, the jungle. Much of British strategic thinking on counter-insurgency tactics in a jungle environment was passed on through BRIAM (British Advisory Mission) to South Vietnam headed by Sir Robert Thompson, a former Chindit and the Permanent Secretary of Defense for Malaya during the Emergency). The Americans further refined jungle warfare by the creation of such dedicated counter-insurgency special operations troops as the Special Forces (Green Berets), Rangers, Long Range Reconnaissance Patrols (LRRP) and Combat Tracker Teams (CTT). During the decade of active US combat involvement in the Vietnam War (1962--1972), jungle warfare became closely associated with counter insurgency and special operations troops. However, although the American forces managed to have mastered jungle warfare at a tactical level in Vietnam, they were unable to install a successful strategic program in winning a jungle-based guerrilla war. Hence, the American military lost the political war in Vietnam even though U.S. forces, especially special operations troops, won almost every major military battle against the Viet Cong guerrillas and the North Vietnamese Army. With the end of the Vietnam War, jungle warfare fell into disfavor among the major armies in the world, namely, those of the US/NATO and USSR/Warsaw Pact, which focused their attention to conventional warfare with a nuclear flavor, to be fought on the jungle-less European battlefields. US special operations troops that were created for the purpose of fighting in the jungle environment, such as LRRP and CTT, were disbanded, while other jungle-warfare-proficient troops, such as the Special Forces and Rangers, went through a temporary period of decline, until they found their role in counter-terrorism operations in the 1980s... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Gulick Fort Gulick was a U.S. Army base in the former Panama Canal Zone located on the Atlantic side of the Panama Canal near Fort Davis, on Gatun Lake... It was perhaps best known as the location of the School of the Americas. During the 1980s, control of the fort was turned over to the Republic of Panama who renamed it Fuerte Espinar, and the School of the Americas was moved to Fort Benning, Georgia in 1984. The U.S. retook over administration of the fort as a result of the 1989 United States invasion of Panama but kept the name of Fort Espinar. The former site of Fort Gulick is now part of the municipal district of Colón, Panama and is the location of the Hotel Melia... During the period of 1973-1979 Fort Gulick was home to Company B, 4th Battalion 10th Infantry. The rest of the 4th Battalion 10th Infantry was located at Fort Davis while construction of the barracks were on-going. This assignment gave Company B, a unique training environment. The Company supported the U.S. Army School of the America's during its tactical exercises at Fort Sherman and the Pina Training area. As well as supporting the 3rd Battalion 7th Special Forces Group (Airborne) whose home Fort Gulick was. The 7th Special Forces was headquartered at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, but had the 3rd Battalion at Fort Gulick. Prior to the 7th SFG(A)deploying to Canal Zone the 8th Special Forces Group had operated in the Central and South American area. One of the 8th SFG(A) historic participation was in the training of a Bolivian Ranger unit to pursue Ernesto "Che" Guevara and his guerrillas.

• published: 02 Dec 2013
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