Preserving The Oral HistorIES of Combat Veterans
4:24 | Newly commissioned 2nd Lieutenant John Overcash made his way through the toughest schools, Airborne, Ranger and Special Warfare School. By then he was a 1st Lieutenant and he made his way to the 1st Special Forces Group in Okinawa to join an A-Team. The next stop was the Vietnam/Cambodia border.
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It was at a way station for VC and NVA on the Ho Chi Minh Trail that A-Team member John Overcash narrowly dodged a sniper's bullet. Undeterred, his team surprised the enemy while they were eating lunch. After the firefight, they found two survivors. They were crying for their mother.
After his first tour in Vietnam, Green Beret John Overcash went though a grueling underwater demolition course run by the Navy. Then he was sent back to the war as part of a new top secret outfit that aimed to disrupt enemy activity in neighboring countries.
He was setting booby traps on the Ho Chi Minh trail when John Overcash stepped on a punji stake. The wound didn't seem bad but the next day, it was apparent that he had blood poisoning. After he recuperated and had a quick visit with his family in Okinawa, his commander had a new assignment for him. He was to lead a recon team into Laos. Part 1 of 2.
The Special Forces recon team was looking for an ammo and supply dump in Laos. John Overcash was the team leader and, after they found a huge rice cache, he split off to look for the ammo dump. Almost immediately, he heard gunfire back with the main group. The mission was now compromised. Part 2 of 2.
After his second Vietnam tour, John Overcash spent a year in Okinawa and then went to Fort Benning to develop and run a small unit tactics course for the Ranger School. This is where he got the nickname Phantom Ranger. He then tendered his resignation to devote time to his family, but the Army wasn't through with him yet. "Needs of the service," meant that he was going on a third tour.
During his last Vietnam tour, John Overcash was advising an ARVN division and coordinating air support. He managed to reduce the response time significantly. This was his last rodeo and he headed home to North Carolina.
John Overcash had three tours in Vietnam, but it was during Ranger training that he first flirted with death. The final exercise took place in the Georgia mountains. A three man team was to escape and evade their way out of the back country, but as night approached, the weather took a turn for the worse.
Green Beret John Overcash went through a lot of tough training but the toughest was the underwater demolition course run by the Navy. The grueling pace was similar to SEAL training and men were dropping out every day until there were only three left.
It was during his second Vietnam tour that Green Beret John Overcash had to practically throw his team of Chinese mercenaries up to a hovering chopper that couldn't land because of the slope. Problem was, once he was the only one left, how was he going to get aboard?
John Overcash describes the weaponry and gear used by the Special Forces in Vietnam. Stealth was their main tactic. Their movement had to be silent and invisible. He knew a little Vietnamese but he always had interpreters on hand, both for the Vietnamese and for his Chinese mercenaries. He trusted the Chinese. The Vietnamese, not so much.
The Montagnards were the original inhabitants of Vietnam. They were pushed into the highlands as other ethnic groups came into the region. For Green Beret John Overcash, they were stalwart allies. They could live off the land in the jungle, unlike the Vietnamese, who were dependent on their rice bowl.
