A Vietnam vet’s classified mission

The Poplar Bluff Museum has tales about us, our family and our history. I want to tell you some of those tales found within the museum walls.

Paul Schuerenberg’s missions in Vietnam were classified until 2001. He was part of the secret unit Military Assistance Command, Vietnam-Studies and Observation Group (MACV-SOG). They reported directly to the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the Pentagon. Mostly Special Forces soldiers and indigenous rebels, they operated throughout Cambodia, Laos and North Vietnam. Besides interdicting troops along the Ho Chi Min trail, their teams conducted reconnaissance missions, search and destroy raids, and downed pilot/POW rescues. Their operations forced Hanoi to keep four divisions of troops behind their lines for rear security. Their losses were up to 100% but they achieved an enemy kill ratio of 158 to 1.

Paul joined the Army in 1969 after an unfulfilling college experience. He wanted to be a Green Beret. Paul was sent to Ft. Bragg for the year-long Special Forces training. “220 of us started and only 25 graduated,” Paul said. When he arrived in Vietnam, Paul was asked if he wanted to join the “Project.” He volunteered and was assigned to the Studies and Observation Group in the central highlands. At the Mobile Strike Force (Mike Force) compound at Kon Tum, Paul joined a team of eight Green Berets and 110 Montagnard tribesmen. The Montagnards were not Vietnamese and were routinely massacred by them. They wished to be independent, making them the perfect guerrilla fighters. They already had their own army called the Fulro. Paul was about to live up to the Green Beret motto “De Opperesso Liber” meaning “To Liberate the Oppressed.”

The MACV-SOG missions usually came from CIA intelligence. Paul went out in small groups called Hatchet Teams and would be inserted by helicopter or parachute. Their missions lasted from 5 hours to 5 days. Upon enemy contact, what wasn’t killed by the Fulro was killed by Paul’s radio. He called in naval gunfire, fighters, cobras, spooky, sandy, jolly green giants and even arclight (B-52’s).

Paul left Vietnam in 1972 as a staff sergeant with a Bronze Star. He continued serving in the Special Forces until 1977. His photo is displayed in the Poplar Bluff Museum Hall of Heroes. Welcome home, Paul.

The Museum is open every Sunday free of charge from 1-4 p.m. at 1010 Main St., Poplar Bluff (Formerly the Old Mark Twain School). Tell them Mike sent you!

Mike Shane is a veteran, Poplar Bluff resident and board member for the Poplar Bluff Museum.