The snake-eaters' beef is with my source (cited above). He was writing about his in-country experience from early 1969 to sometime in 1970. He emphasizes how quickly the insertion teams were picked up by the NVA (and they were regulars by that time) and talks about the pressure it put on the teams when they were trying to accomplish some task. Too, U.S. assets were well drawn-down by 1970, and he mentions that about half the fire bases that the U.S. had built by Tet had been abandoned in his operational area two years later. He discusses the impact that had on his group's operations.
First off,he wasn't SF and working in Laos,Cambodia,or North Viet Nam. He was a conventional LRRP recon man. Having said that,it seems like he had the misfortune to "work" the Ashau Valley area,and that was ALWAYS a MF'er. Nobody I ever knew in SF ever had any "beef" with these LRRP's,only sympathy. It was almost impossible to get in or out of that area without being spotted. Conventional and SF teams worked the VN side,and SF teams worked the Laotian side. The NVA were VERY concentrated in that area,and had elaborate cave systems set up with AAA pieces,12.7's,etc,etc,etc. that were almost immune to bombing and artillery strikes. By 69 EVERY spot in the Ashau Valley big enough to land a helicopter on had NVA "trail watchers" setting on it,ready to call in the tracker dogs and the Soviet Spetnaz-trained "anti-recon team" teams on your trail. Yeah,you could lose them if you were lucky,or even fight them off if you couldn't lose them. The thing is you couldn't accomplish your mission while you were doing all this and looking over your shoulder.
All this lead to SF even going so far as to insert recon teams by HALO (sky diving)methods at night.Imagine jumping at night into a jungle that is full of enemy troops,and the problems with getting hung up in trees,seperated from your other team members,etc,etc,etc. The fact that the army would even consider something like this gives you a idea of how hard it was to get into the Ashau Valley unnoticed. There are still a few of these guys left living and running around (including the guy who came up with this idea and who was the original HALO recon team leader. He's 74 now,and still jumping),and there IS such a thing as a "HALO combat wing". It wasn't approved and awarded until 20 years after the war was over,but there are a half-dozen or so guys running around who have earned the right to wear it. They are welcome to it. I can get the shivers just thinking about doing something like that.