November 2018
Chapter 78
Meeting
Presentation:

SOG Green Beret
Jim Shorten (Jones)
Addresses
Chapter 78

By Mike Keele
Originally published in the December 2018 Sentinel

Jim Shorten (Jones) is among the most unique Special Forces soldiers to walk the face of the Earth. He not only served in the U.S. Navy prior to his Army Special Forces stint of duty, he heard how much fun the Para Rescue Jumpers were having in the Air Force, and he jumped ship (so to speak), for the privilege of jumping into freezing water, bailing off of a perfectly good—if not warm helicopter in raging winds to go play with his new-found Air Force buddies. In addition to this, he turned down a promotion to E-8 just to get there quicker.

Jim’s second Vietnam tour with SF was an 18 month junket with MAC-V SOG, where he holed up at CCC in Kontum and bunked with the irrepressible John Plaster. He became the One-Zero for RT Delaware after a short stint as their One-One, and with his mastery of the Vietnamese language; Jim had unparalleled communications with the “little people.”

Jim’s most enduring memory of missions he ran deals with being on Bright Light mission out of Dak To to recover the crew of an F-4 Phantom. This led his team to a series of hills near Cambodia’s border with Laos. Upon inserting into the AO, one thing was clear. He may not have known exactly where he was, but the enemy did, and there were a lot of them to complicate matters. In a very short period of time, they were told to prepare for extraction, or face staying there overnight, with about fifteen hundred of the enemy.

The Phantom was on a bombing run when it was hit by anti-aircraft fire at low altitude and bounced off the first of three hill tops, then plowed across a second hill top, and then augering into the top of a third hill. Shorten was close to the terminal point for the Phantom, but clearly not near enough to reach and inspect the wreckage with the enemy bearing down on them.

Everyone was assembled for the extraction. The One-One and two indigenous team members ascended the ladder far enough for everybody to be clipped in for the vertical ascent necessary to clear the jungle before the transition into horizontal flight without the extraction bird dragging the team through the trees. This portion of their escape went without a hitch, but as the second aircraft lowered slowly into position to pick up Jim and the rest of the team, he heard a loud “bang, bang.” This proved not to be explosions from RPG’s or grenades, but the ends of the rotor on the Huey smashing into a tree during its descent. With about a foot of each rotor blade now missing, the Huey dutifully lifted the remaining four men from the jungle and into a freezing wind for the forty minute flight back to Dak To.

Jim Shorten is nothing, if not dedicated to successfully completing his mission, and meeting with the crew of the surviving Phantom was very hard for him, as the Air Force pilots were waiting anxiously for good news which Jim did not have. This rode heavily on Jim’s mind until 2002, when he mounted a self financed trip back to Cambodia to again search for and again be frustrated in his efforts to recover the remains of the two Air Force crew members of Cobra 84.

To read a greater in-depth account of that story and details of the amazing life of Jim Shorten (Jones), please read the seven part 2017 SOFREP article by Chapter 78 President John Stryker Meyer. Links to all seven parts of the article are listed below. Jim is a remarkable man, and this space cannot do justice to all of his adventures and endeavors. Perhaps we can expect an episode of The SOG Chronicles on James H. Shorten (Jones) in the future (the Jocko Podcast produced SOGCast #002 was posted on YouTube in December 2021.

Honoring SOG’s Secret Warriors—Links to John Stryker Meyer’s seven part SOFREP story about Jim Shorten (Jones):

Part 1: ACROSS THE FENCE: BRIGHT LIGHT RESCUE MISSION WITH JAMES SHORTEN

Part 2: Into Cambodia: Rescue mission with James Shorten

Part 3: So close, yet so far: Rescue mission with James Shorten

Part 4: Live or die in Cambodia: Rescue mission with James Shorten

Part 5: Exfil under fire: Rescue mission with James Shorten

Part 6: The Haunting Begins: Rescue mission with James Shorten

Part 7: Back to Cambodia for MIA Air Force officers: Rescue mission with James Shorten