Spycraft - Melton [164]
The solution devised by TSD would later be called the Triple Tube Rocket Launcher. “The genesis of the Triple Tube Launcher, what we called the TTL, started with a single antitank rocket fired from an improvised launcher that wasn’t much more than a piece of angle iron,” said one tech who followed the development of the device. “The original concept was to fire a 3.5-inch antitank rocket by stuffing a wad of match heads and time fuse in the back end. Crude but simple, it was used in urban guerilla warfare scenarios like the Hungarian uprising with a civilian population combating tanks. We thought that if one rocket was good, then three ought to do a better job with greater chance of hitting a target. So we set the rockets with a three-degree spread between tubes and added electrical firing for more precise command and control.”
The three-tube launcher was mounted on a modified backpack frame that allowed team members to accurately sight and adjust inclination. “We tried to do all this so the saboteurs didn’t have to do any thinking,” Jameson explained. “They’d just go in there and go right to the place where they’ve been shown, aim it like this, raise it, hit two buttons, and go.” For the rockets to penetrate the tanks’ steel and ignite the fuel inside, the techs added incendiary adaptors, aluminum packages filled with magnesium, that would burn fiercely when exposed to oxygen after the initial explosion.
Time delays were attached to the launcher package, allowing the team to initiate the firing sequence and head out of the area before launch. “We didn’t want to have our guys firing the rockets, then running like hell for nine miles to the boats,” said Jameson. “So we adapted time-delay mechanisms that gave the team several hours to get back to the rubber boats and head downriver before the rockets went off.”
To prevent spent rocket launchers from later being used against American troops, the techs added a self-destruct mechanism with half a pound of explosives to destroy the unit after firing. But that left another concern. If an enemy patrol discovered the launchers before they fired, the NVA would acquire an effective weapon. TSD engineers responded by incorporating an antidisturbance device. If tampering was detected after the safety was removed, the rockets launched automatically and 1.35 seconds later, the explosives detonated.14
Another TSD innovation, the firefight simulator, resembled a collection of fireworks and other explosives, set on a timer. The device mimicked the sound of automatic weapons fire, mortars, and grenades. U.S. military units infiltrated the simulators into enemy base camps to create diversion and confusion. In one instance, when the device went off in the middle of the night, the panicked and disoriented North Vietnamese began shooting each other.15
In 1962, the Kennedy administration initiated the transfer of covert Southeast Asian paramilitary programs from CIA to military control. The official date for the transfer was to be November 1, 1963. However, the timing was disrupted first because of the overthrow and murder of South Vietnamese President Diem on November 2, then, three weeks later, by the assassination of President Kennedy on November 22. In December, a plan was approved by Defense Secretary Robert McNamara to increase covert attacks into North Vietnam and in January 1964 the U.S. Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (MACV) organized a clandestine unit composed of Air Force Air