MIKE Force

Their primary mission was to train and advise CIDG groups, many of whom were hostile to Viet Cong (VC) efforts to promote socialist revolution in the countryside.

In late 1964, there was increasing Viet Cong activity in the area surrounding Saigon, a zone officially controlled by the South Vietnamese III Corps; this suggested a need for CIDGs with more mobile capabilities, and able to move to encampments and villages under VC attack.

These organizations were later composed of Bahnar, Hmong, Nung, Jarai, and Khmer Krom minorities, and other members of the Degar peoples, also known as Montagnards.

Mike Force also conducted operations gathering intelligence, disrupting/eradicating VC/NVA activities in remote areas, search and destroy missions and bomb damage assessments (BDA).

[2] There was an accidental incursion into Cambodia on November 20, 1966, involving these airboats, helicopter insertion of South Vietnamese troops and PACVs (hovercraft) that resulted in the deaths of 56 communist soldiers caught by surprise in the open.

Mike Force had a critical role in the search and rescue of downed American pilots because they were mobile and often in close proximity to the DMZ.