The Son Tay Raid: U.S. Special Forces Risked It All to Save U.S. Prisoners All the Son Tay Raiders were awarded the Silver Star, the nation’s third-highest award for valor under fire, for the determination to go above and beyond the normal call of duty to save their compatriots. Six years of overt and covert war, mainly in South Vietnam but also in North Vietnam and the adjoining countries, had produced a lot of American prisoners of war, primarily aviators who had been shot down by North Vietnamese anti-aircraft fire. The U.S. intelligence community estimated that by 1970 approximately 450 Americans were held as prisoners of war in North Vietnamese prisons, often under harrowing circumstances, with forced starvations, lack of medical care, and torture all thinning down their numbers by the day.