As an airsoft player and military history follower, I always make it appoint to seek the history of whatever product that comes our way here at Popular Airsoft. This is so as weapons and tactics evolve over time and appreciation of history can give us a good perspective on the effects of the past to present and future. Whether failures or successes, historical events serve to give lessons that either need to be avoided and corrected or adopted and improved for future purposes.

I was reading an entry at Soldier Systems about The Son Tay Raid Historical Project. Whilst Son Tay Raid is the famous name of the operation, the actual operation itself was called Operation Ivory Coast. It is the attempted raid by US Special Operations Forces to free up POWS in the North Vietnamese Prison Camp in Son Tay, just at the outskirst of Hanoi. It was a well executed operation, but the rescue mission was a failure as they were not able to find any of the POWS in the prison camp.

If they were able to extract the POWs, it could've been one of the greatest rescues in military history, up there with the likes of the Great Raid that happened in Cabanatuan, Philippines in World War II.

56 Special Operations Forces participated in the raid, supported by elements in the US Military. It was considered to be a tactical success due to its execution and preparation, but considered to be an intelligence failure as they were  not able to find their mission objectives. Still, this mission was proof that well-trained, and well-equipped special units can conduct such dangerous missions deep into enemy territory.

The Son Tay Raid Historical Project aims to preserve the remaining barracks that were used in preparation for the Son Tay Raid as they are scheduled for demolition. The proponent,  Nichole Vild, had resorted to the crowdfunding, setting a page at GoFundMe.com She intends to raise US$120,000 to transfer the barracks near the 7th Special Force Group at Eglin Air Force Base as a heritage centre dedicated to the Son Tay Raid.

If you think it is worth supporting, why not spread the word around about this project. It was able to raise a small amount of money in the past two weeks, and it's still long way off its projected US$120k target. There needs to be more push on the part of the project owner such as providing a video on what the Son Tay Raid project is all about so that the general public will become aware and involved in such a project.