Publisher's Synopsis
ABOUT THE YOUNGEST GREEN BERET: TERRY MCINTOSH. DOB 01.16.1950.
Department of Defense Records confirm that Terry McIntosh was only 17 years old when he joined the army and was assigned to an elite long range Airborne patrol unit in Germany. He impressed the Special Forces with his skills and physical fitness, and they recruited him for a permanent assignment. He was issued a full flash Green Beret in 1968, at age 18, and he became one of the youngest soldiers to ever serve with Special Forces. He did not volunteer for the assignment, but he accepted it.
Most Special Forces soldiers were 30 to 35 years old during the Vietnam war, but SF lowered the age requirement to 18 for some critical positions. Terry met all the criteria. He was trained in three military skills, qualified as a paratrooper in two countries, and satisfied the SF mental and physical requirements. He later earned the Vietnamese jump wings which made him qualified in three countries.
Terry was entrusted with top secret intelligence and assisted Project Gamma team members as needed, a covert operation that ran secret ops into Cambodia with a double agent who betrayed the team and was executed by his superiors. This incident sparked a national scandal in 1969 known as the "Green Beret Affair." Terry participated in 22 combat missions, including air assault and river boat operations. He commanded dozens of ambush patrols. He was evacuated from the Nui Coto Mountain range near the Ho Chi Minh Trail due to a severe illness, but he returned to his team after he recovered.
Terry became the youngest soldier to serve on an operational A-team and earn the Combat Badge for engaging the enemy in ground combat when he was just barely 19 years old. He filled a team slot that was meant for an experienced E-7, and he was promoted to Sergeant. SF praised him for his extraordinary service and asked him to extend his assignment, but he chose to go back to his former LRP unit, which was stateside and reforged as Co. A, 75th Rangers.
Terry McIntosh was a remarkable soldier who served with Special Forces at a very young age. After the war, the average age of a Green Beret soldier went back up to thirty, because it was hard to find someone as mature as Terry among younger candidates.
This is his true story about real people, espionage, and combat in the Mekong Delta 1968-69. Terry wrestles with his own doubts and fears while protecting the rights of others to live free. His border camp was surrounded by a thousand enemy troops and his team conducted clandestine operations to observe and engage an even larger growing number of Viet Cong armed forces 15 miles into Cambodia. This is his story about the transition from boy to man in the jungles of Vietnam where he met himself for the first time with a sense of shame and honor.
