‘I relive that mission every single day of my life’: how Black soldiers handled the Vietnam war

During the Vietnam War, long-range reconnaissance patrols (LRRPs) played a critical role in US military operations. These small teams of six to eight soldiers were dropped behind enemy lines to track supply routes and hostile positions, often for days at a time. Despite their importance, the odds of Black American soldiers being selected for such elite assignments were distressingly small in a military still riven by racial discrimination.

One team broke through that barrier: Army Team 2/6 of Company F, 51st Infantry, became Vietnam's first all-Black special operations unit. Their story is the subject of a new documentary, 'Soul Patrol,' directed by JM Harper, which explores their experiences and the lasting trauma they carried. 'Their experience was a perennial one that kind of echoes back to the Iliad, dealing with rage,' says Harper. 'Rage at the betrayal of the country, at being told to stay silent about your fighting experience. But really the profound realization is that rage is really unresolved grief.'

The Cu Chi Mission

The central trauma stems from a reconnaissance mission in the summer of 1968 that sent the special operatives into Cu Chi, a Viet Cong stronghold north-west of Saigon. Their mission was to map out a tunnel network that had figured prominently in the Tet Offensive. Emanuel recounts how the team remained undercover as mortar rounds fell and North Vietnamese platoons marched back and forth, trying to flush them out.

After safely extracting, US forces unleashed airstrikes and artillery on the position, followed by the spraying of Agent Orange. The survivor's guilt has haunted the team ever since. 'I relive that mission every single day of my life,' Emanuel says. 'We survived the war, but there was no peace.'

Living with PTSD

The documentary blurs the lines between past and present as the soldiers wrestle with their trauma. One jarring sequence shows present-day Emanuel in a supermarket as visions of his teammates stalking through the jungle flood back. Harper explains his approach: 'I had to find a way to collapse the past and the present because that's how they experience it.' The film also depicts how soldiers returned home with no time to process their experiences.

Imagine being in the jungle on a Monday and then sitting at a party with friends in South Carolina on Thursday. There was no deprogramming from their combat conditioning. Black soldiers also faced discrimination at home, caught between a military where 'soul patrol' was used as a euphemism to denigrate them and a country with anti-war protesters who degraded veterans.

Black Soldiers' Experience

Black journalist Jesse Lewis, who covered the war for the Washington Post, noted the disproportionate casualties among Black soldiers. 'In some of the units I went to, there was a very high proportion of Black GI casualties – maybe twice the rate among the overall soldier population,' he says. Many Black soldiers volunteered, seeking to demonstrate their loyalty and courage.

Despite the discrimination, the film shows Black GIs finding moments of freedom and dignity in Vietnam, enjoying music and interactions unavailable to them at home. Their bond, forged in extreme circumstances, remains powerful. 'That closeness would be very difficult to find outside a theater of war,' Harper observes. 'Soul Patrol' is now playing in US and UK cinemas, bringing this hidden chapter of military history to light.