Operation Ivory Coast Battle Analysis

Thesis
The purpose of this paper is to examine a historical battle utilizing the four steps of battle analysis to provide an alternate outcome. This paper will define the battle, review the settings, describe the actions, and assess the significance of the actions for Operation Ivory Coast. Furthermore, this paper will relate the causes and effects of essential elements critical to the tactical success and mission failure of Operation Ivory Coast. Ultimately, all contributing factors will coalesce into lessons learned from the operation that are still applicable to this day.
Define the Battle
The United States Army Special Forces conducted a joint operation with the United States Air Force, with support from the United States Navy,
The elements of speed, surprise and benefitted the soldiers. They were able to fly undetected for 5 hours from an airfield in Thailand to Son Tay. The confusion led to the successful deployment into the target area and allowed for swift extraction as well. The mission occurred in special phases. One team responsible for destroying the guard tower, another team’s responsibility was to successfully crash land on the prison grounds. One of the teams landed in the wrong spot, leaving the other two teams to change their individual team objectives but once again due to their countless hours of alternative contingency training, the other teams were quickly able to adapt to the evolving situation and search for any prisoners. The third team that landed in the wrong location quickly found themselves in a fire fight with forces that did not belong to the North Vietnamese Army. The raiders were to approach the camp by air aboard helicopters with fighter cover above to deal with any North Vietnamese MiGs. All told, 29 aircraft played a direct role in the mission. Due to the impending approach of Typhoon Patsy, the mission was moved up one day to November 20. Departing their base in Thailand at 11:25 PM on November 20, the raiders had an uneventful flight to the camp as the Navy's diversionary raid had achieved its purpose. At 2:18 AM, the helicopter carrying Blueboy successfully
The intelligence proved wrong. It was revealed that the prisoners were moved to another prison camp 15 kilometers away from the Son Tay Prison sometime in July. While the Special Forces did not achieve their stated mission of rescuing American prisoners of war, they demonstrated that a joint force could not only conduct joint operations together but had done so on a level that had never been attempted. The efficiency of their tactical operation would lay the foundation of how to properly train and execute joint operations in the years to come. The strategic mission ended in failure, however the tactical success would soon become the standard when coordinating joint operations against enemy forces. The situation at hand was the result of a combination of factors that spanned across military considerations into political sphere. While the operation succeeded tactically, the media reported the mission a disaster because the operation failed to rescue prisoners. The media did not take into account the amount of operational planning, tactical training, and lethal execution exhibited by Colonel Simons’ men when they encountered enemy forces and minor setbacks such as landing at the wrong building. The only deaths to occur that night were from enemy forces and the equipment lost was already built into the