Special Operations Association Reunion, Las Vegas, 2013. The reunion's main ballroom fills with attendees beneath banners bearing the Special Operations Association's shield — a green-bereted skull over crossed arrows. Held annually since the 1970s, SOAR draws veterans of American special operations units, most prominently the Military Assistance Command, Vietnam — Studies and Observations Group (MACV-SOG), whose reconnaissance teams operated across the borders of Laos and Cambodia between 1964 and 1972. By 2013 the majority of those veterans were in their seventies, and the reunion functioned as much as a gathering of families and a preservation effort as a social event. Project: 219861