And, they're people. Vulnerable.

For an interesting read, though it's a big book, try "Fighting Dirty - the inside story of covert operations from Ho Chi Minh to Osama Binh Laden", by Peter Harclerode, Cassell Military Paperbacks.

It has some stuff in there that explains a couple of things which puzzled me for a long time. (I was NOT Special Forces, by the way.) Anyway, in spite of enormous technical advantages, they could be roughly handled on a regular basis by some fairly unsophisticated folks.

And, only one of 'em captured ever came back from Laos or Cambodia. The rest who were captured were never repatriated, left behind by Nixon and Kissinger. I would have never believed the US would do that. Ever. In my entire life. And they were. Their repatriation was contingent upon US aid for rebuilding, and the climate in the US wouldn't permit that. Nixon was gone, anyway. Don't know how Kissinger can hold his head up in public, though.

Folks were left behind in Korea, too, but that's another story.

Arf