The Covert Vietnam War Misty Experiment Documentary

Review by Kathleen Grathwol

As we approach the 50^th anniversary of the end of the American combat presence in the Vietnam War, more and more veterans’ stories are being told in memoirs, novels, and documentaries.

One fascinating documentary that aired on public television stations across the country over Memorial Day weekend, The Misty Experiment: The Secret Battle for the Ho Chi Minh Trail, chronicles the largely unknown story of a covert Vietnam War operation.

The Misty Experiment consisted of a group of U.S. Air Force pilots who volunteered for scores of dangerous, secret missions destroying weapons, trucks, and war material traveling south from North Vietnam along the Ho Chi Minh Trail. The missions also included rescue operations of U.S. and allied aircrews shot down while flying over the jungles of North Vietnam and Laos.

Listening to the first-person accounts of the Misty veterans narrating the film offers a highly human view of this aspect of the war. Officially known as Operation Commando Sabre, the Misty squadron was classified as top secret during and immediately following the war.

Misty pilot Don Sheppard, who flew 58 missions, says that he and his fellow were “a bunch of guys who would do anything to accomplish the mission we were given—an impossible mission to stop the flow of arms and material coming south.” Despite the “impossibility” of the mission, the Misty experiment proved highly successful, if also costly in terms of the loss of life.

Other Misty veterans refer to themselves as “crazy” or “adrenaline junkies,” and all agree that they were a special group of highly skilled fighter pilots. Of the 157 Misty pilots, 34 were shot down; eight were killed and four became prisoners of war. About half of the men who served are living. Two Misty became Air Force Chiefs of Staff; two others later were astronauts. One received the Medal of Honor.

Despite the difficulty and dangers, many Misty pilots loved the thrill of flying risky sorties. “There were a few of us thought ‘gee, this is so much fun. How can I go back to South Vietnam? This is where the action is,’ ” said Misty pilot and military historian Dick Rutan, who appears in the film.

The Mistys flew hours-long missions, putting their bodies through extreme physical stress from G-forces during quick evasive maneuvers, which they called “jencking.” “You’re constantly bending the airplane around, jencking, trying to stay alive,” George “Bud” Day, the Medal of Honor recipient, said. “Missions were tremendously fatiguing.”

Upon their daily returns, and regularly finding their planes riddled with battle damage, the pilots would help intel create detailed maps with their reports. “There was an atmosphere of innovation,” Misty Intelligence Officer Roger Van Dyken says in the film. “One flight reconnaissance fed into the next. The next day’s group of pilots tested the theories from the day before. There was constant pressure.”

The first-person recollections of the veterans who volunteered for the mission are enhanced in the documentary by never-before-seen footage from the war. The film brings to life this largely unknown story of one successful Vietnam War “experiment” and of the men who achieved that success.

For more info about the doc, including scheduling showings of PBS stations, go to themistyexperiment.com

June 30, 2022

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