Patch designed to be suspended from left shirt pocket button, ca. 1967-1968.

The Combined Action Program was an undertaking of the United States Marine Corps during the Vietnam War. Running from 1965 to 1971, its purpose was to organise and support individual Vietnamese villages through the I-Corps area of South Vietnam. Image File history File links CAPMarineUnitPatch. ... Image File history File links CAPMarineUnitPatch. ... This article is becoming very long. ... Combatants Republic of Vietnam United States Republic of Korea Thailand Australia New Zealand The Philippines National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam Democratic Republic of Vietnam People’s Republic of China Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea Strength US 1,000,000 South Korea 300,000 Australia 48,000...

This small program had a number of phases. At its inception it was unofficial and did not have a standard organization. Some units were called JACs, or "Joint Action Companies." Since in US military jargon the word "joint" refers to something pertaining to a combination of forces from one nation, and "combined" references a combination of forces from more than one nation, they became CACs, for "Combined Action Companies." This was eventually changed to CAP, or "Combined Action Platoons." In the last phase of development, when Marines were no longer permanently assigned to individual villages, the program was renamed to CUPP, for the "Combined Unit Pacification Program."

There were many similarities between what CAP did and what was done by the United States Army Special Forces, the famous Green Berets. One important difference was that the Marines concentrated most of their efforts in the heavily-populated coastal lowlands rather than the sparsely populated central highlands. Most CAP units consisted of a Marine rifle squad with a US Navy Medical Corpsman, and a Vietnamese Popular Forces platoon (VPF was roughly equivalent to the US National Guard, but with less prior training and poorer equipment). CAPS were generally commanded by a Marine sergeant (E-5), but were sometimes commanded by corporals (E-4). Combined Action Platoons were frequently semi-isolated and usually independent units. The United States Army is the largest branch of the United States armed forces and has primary responsibility for land-based military operations. ... Special forces or (sometimes colloquially and incorrectly) special operations forces (general term) are military units formed and trained to conduct missions of unconventional warfare, counter-terrorism, reconnaissance, direct action, and foreign internal defense. ... Shoulder sleeve patch of the United States Army Special Forces, the Green Berets. ... Sergeant is a rank used in some form by most militaries, police forces, and other uniformed organisations around the world. ... Corporal is a rank in use in some form by most militaries, police forces or other uniformed organizations around the world. ...

Literature

A series of six novels based on the CAP program, The Night Fighter Saga, was published during the late 1980's by David Sherman, a Marine participant of the program. This is a series of six novels written by David Sherman and is loosely based on the kind of activities experienced by the US Marines and Vietnamese Popular Forces units of the combat-outpost type of the Combined Action Program of the United States Marine Corps. ...

External links

United States Marine Corps Portal

• Tim Duffie's CapVet Website
• www.capveterans.com
• CAP-Marine Vietnam
• CAP Delta 4