Deep behind enemy lines inside Laos, Cambodia, and North Vietnam, U.S. Special Forces teams stalked the enemy. Typically composed of several Green Berets leading a handful of indigenous soldiers, these men conducted recon missions on enemy logistical lines amongst many other activities.
Life expectancy was on a short fuse in this unit, and when they were killed in action, they were officially listed as having died in South Vietnam to maintain the cover around what was a top-secret covert war.
The unit was called Studies and Observations Group (SOG), and their exploits are legendary in the Special Forces community. Now declassified, their missions are some of the most hair-raising and death-defying operations in the history of all of Special Forces. Some SOG teams pulled off the impossible, others were inserted behind enemy lines and never heard from again, with dozens of SOG members still listed as Missing in Action to this day.
Fortunately, veterans of the unit have recorded their history in memoirs and various interviews over the years but a new video game called ARMA 3: S.O.G. Prairie Fire aims to introduce SOG to a new generation.
"We decided to focus on going into enemy territory, to turn the tables on the player, and have them play as the hunted, not the hunters. This is an aspect of mission design you don’t often see in Vietnam war movies or games and it makes for a thrilling ride," Rob Graham of Savage Games Design told Connecting Vets.
In order to make the game as authentic as possible, his team connected with experts with the first-hand experience, consulting and interviewing actual SOG veterans like John "Tilt" Meyer who served on RT Idaho which conducted ops in Laos and Cambodia.
"We helped with fundamental stuff like team structure, immediate reaction drills, and more," Meyer told Connecting Vets. "What they wore, hand signals, provided pictures, Standard Operating Procedures, choppers, you name it. So we did a lot of stuff that way, sharing history."
The game designers were also introduced to helicopter pilots who flew air support for SOG missions to ensure that aspect of the game was as realistic as possible.
The ARMA 3: S.O.G. Prairie Fire game put a lot of attention into the details, capturing the feel of what it was like to be on patrol behind enemy lines. Stealth was the key to staying alive in the triple canopy jungle, with North Vietnamese soldiers actively hunting for the SOG teams. The creators also went out of their way to capture the intensity of the combat the ensued whenever teams were compromised.
"We added positional audio enemy voices, trackers (sounding shots to bring in neighboring patrols), more useful mines to defeat trackers, and an avalanche system, where the longer you’re in contact, the more enemies converge on your team," Graham described, pointing out that the game forces the player to make tactical decisions.
The attention to detail won over Meyer and other SOG veterans. “They put you there,” he said. "It has been a really positive experience. They are paying homage to SOG and doing it with respect."
"When you play the game now, you get a really deep sense of immersion in the missions, which is in large part thanks to the audio and the look and feel of everything you interact with. Immersion in the reality of the mission and the war-torn landscape is the ultimate objective of making a historical game. When people are transported to the time and place, they experience it which is a much deeper engagement than just reading a book or visiting a museum," Graham said.
More information about the game can be found on its website.
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Reach Jack Murphy: jack@connectingvets.com or @JackMurphyRGR.