So Feared His Own Army Denied He Existed

Colonel Arthur “Bull” Simons built his reputation around one rule: the mission was not finished until his men came home. From fighting behind Japanese lines in World War II to secretly leading 107 Green Berets into Laos and bringing every American back, Simons became the kind of commander soldiers were willing to follow without even knowing where they were going. That loyalty was tested in 1970, when nearly 500 men volunteered for a secret mission with no extra pay and no disclosed target. Simons selected just 56 and subjected them to approximately 170 rehearsals, deliberately removing teams and introducing failures until the rescue plan could function even without him. Their target was Sơn Tây, a prison only 23 miles from Hanoi where intelligence indicated roughly 70 American POWs were being held. The raid itself was executed with extraordinary precision despite Simons accidentally landing at the wrong compound and fighting his way back out, but when the assault team entered the prison, every cell was empty. The intelligence was months out of date. After only 27 minutes on the ground, all 56 Green Berets escaped, with just two men injured, but without a single prisoner. Eight years later, at age 60, Simons received another chance when Ross Perot asked him to rescue two American businessmen imprisoned in revolutionary Iran. This time Bull rejected a suicidal frontal assault, waited for chaos to open the prison, and personally helped bring both men across the border to safety, without firing a shot. At their homecoming, watching one of the rescued men reunite with his daughter, Simons quietly told Perot: “I just got paid.” This is the remarkable story of the legendary commander who spent his life preparing for the worst possible outcome, and refusing to leave Americans behind. - As images and footage of actual events are not always available, Dark Docs sometimes utilizes similar historical images and footage for dramatic effect. I do my best to keep it as visually accurate as possible. All content on Dark Docs is researched, produced, and presented in historical context for educational purposes. We are history enthusiasts and are not always experts in some areas, so please don't hesitate to reach out to us with corrections, additional information, or new ideas. -