Special Forces hero
It is with a heavy heart I write to thank the Bangkok Post for publishing an obituary concerning the passing of my Special Forces colleague and friend, Col Chaicharn Harnavee. Perhaps someone who walked the meandering roads of life and death with him these past decades should attempt to address his true meaning to the much-misunderstood relationship between the Thai and American militaries. After all, if not for the demands of his fellow American-released prisoners, Chaicharn and other Thais might well still be languishing in the gulags. Thankfully the American Returned Prisoners of War (RPW) could not and would not forget their brave Thai colleague, even though they had no way of knowing he had been shipped from Hanoi to the far north of Vietnam, to very possibly never be released. Finally in September 1974 the Thai soldier known to the Americans as “Chip” was at last released to resume his life. In his always stoic, professional fashion he faced and conquered all those personal and professional obstacles accumulated during his decade of being missing and presumed by most to have perished in combat or the cruel prisons.
From 1981-84 I led the first United States Special Forces team to return to Thailand after a long absence and reunited with my fellow RPW, then-captain/major Chaicharn. At that point, as with today, terrorism and how to deal with not only the external threats but what remained of the internal threats were forefront in our training and planning. Chaicharn wrote a book in Thai about his terrible experiences in the communist gulag and about the friendship and loyalty of his American prisoner colleagues, making in many cases their and his very survival possible. There were days when he would not have made it without them, but many more days when many of them would not have made it without him.
The stoic Special Forces sergeant became an accomplished messenger but mostly he became an astute thief of not only things they needed but the secrets the enemy kept from them. As the days and years went by the Special Forces soldier proved brilliant at absorbing and perfecting the Vietnamese language while never letting on he understood much at all. In other words he beat them in their own camp. For this he received the Silver Star, America’s third-highest combat award for gallantry in action. Further, he was awarded the American Legion of Merit, an award rarely bestowed on a soldier of his rank at the time.
Down through the ensuing decades Col Chaicharn and I remained close as only combat soldiers and those of shared experiences can be. He read the English-language press as I did daily and often we would speak of those who wrote in professing great knowledge of those issues of terrorism and communism, subjects we knew well. He always opened in the same manner: “Did you see what this so-called expert said on things he only has read about and we actually lived through?” Then he would become quiet and say “Thank God, they have the freedom to just be stupid.” This did not surprise me because my dear friend had a far-reaching intelligence in dealing with such things few men will ever know.
In his waning days, others would report things they claimed Col Chaicharn had said, but the next time he called I simply asked if he had said it and he simply said “No!” We both understood that as some attempt to stand in the reflected glory of conspicuous gallantry and, though unworthy, an attempt to assume that mantle themselves without merit. A retired Special Forces soldier Ray Caron (and his wife Dr Natcha Caron) and myself were charged by Col Chaicharn to have his book and thoughts translated into English and provided to his American Special Forces and RPW brethren, so that they and all others would know the terrible truths of his experiences. This will be done. Thank you, Bangkok Post, for recognising the passing of my valiant professional colleague and friend. I am at a time in my life when colleagues, friends and family seem to be dying almost weekly aznd many were truly great and did great things in their lives. Yet,I have not been truly left with the longing for a simple phone call like I have been since the passing of Col Chaicharn Harnavee, a hero to Thais and Americans alike.
MAJOR MARK A SMITH US Retired Returned American Prisoner of War
Vietnam/Cambodia