The only Special Forces folks that I dealt with while I was in Vietnam were the gents we helped evacuate from the A Shau in March '66.
You are correct about the differences in organization between us and the SF. Our philosophy was that if we had something less than a battalion of us out there in Indian Country, we'd ensure that we had reinforcements right around the corner and lots of artillery and on-call fixed wing on a short leash. p>The enemy was very good at massing in a hurry, so we always had plans in place and were task organized to ramp up fast when needed.
It just seems hard to imagine that you had the mission of finding COSVN - an aggressive recon mission, with a nearly certain contact with major forces - and nobody attached to you for rapid reinforcement or fire support. I wouldn't think that you could expect the whole division to come - just too many helo lifts/too few usable LZs - but a grunt battalion with an artillery battery or two with on-call targets would have been a godsend.
I hope you can beat the system and get that award for that heroic soldier.
You mention the A Shau Valley. Now that brings back a few memories.
I took two reconnaissance patrols into the A Shau in April 1969 and those memories can be found here, if you’re interested:
http://www.projectdelta.net/the_ashau.htm
http://www.projectdelta.net/wrong_valley.htm