Heroes of U.S. Special Operations

Remembering Douglas T. Jacobson, Medal of Honor, Feb. 26,1945

The fighting to take the small volcanic but the strategically vital island of Iwo Jima was the site of the some of the bloodiest fighting in the U.S. Marine Corps history. Admiral Chester Nimitz said of the battle, “Uncommon valor was a common virtue”, where in fact 27 Medals of Honor were presented, 22 to members of the Marine Corps and 5 to US Navy personnel, four of which were Corpsman assigned to the Marine infantry units.

One of the most heroic of those stories was that of Douglas T. Jacobsen, a PFC in 3rd Battalion, 23rd Marines, 4th Marine Division. Jacobsen single-handedly in one day knocked out 16 Japanese positions, killing over 75 of the enemy including a tank which led to the successful operation of his entire unit. He was awarded the Medal of Honor by President Harry S. Truman on the White House lawn on October 5, 1945.

Jacobson was born on November 25, 1925, in Rochester, NY and grew up in nearby Port Washington. He worked for his father as a draftsman and as a lifeguard before enlisting in the Marine Corps in January 1943 at the age of 17 before he graduated high school in New York.

After his recruit training at Parris Island, SC, he was assigned to the 23rd Marines at Camp Lejeune, NC before shipping overseas late in 1943. He there fought in the campaigns for Tinian, Marianas Islands, Marshall Islands, as well as Iwo Jima.

The 23rd Marines and Jacobson went ashore on Iwo Jima on February 19, 1945, and three days after the historic flag raising at Mount Suribachi, the 23rd Marines were fighting for mere feet at a time at Hill 382, the highest elevation on the northern part of the island, opposite of Suribachi. The fighting was so brutal there, the men called it “The Meat Grinder”.

With his unit pinned down, the 19-year old grabbed a bazooka and a satchel charge off a fallen Marine. Normally a bazooka was a two-man operation, but Jacobson was on his own. Moving forward under heavy fire, he blew up a 20mm anti-aircraft gun and killing the entire crew. Then under heavy fire, he moved forward and destroyed two machine gun positions. But he was far from done.

Still, under heavy fire, Jacobson knocked out two large pillboxes and seven gun emplacements. Then a Japanese tank which was putting heavy fire on the Marines was taken on.

An adjacent infantry company was attacking the flank and Jacobson volunteered to aid them. With the tank pouring fire into the Marines. Moving forward he fired several rounds of the bazooka into the tank’s turret, finally disabling it and taking out the crew. For good measure, he destroyed another blockhouse single-handedly moving forward and neutralizing it and the men inside. So fierce was the fighting, that despite these heroics, it still took the Marines three more days to take Hill 382.

Jacobson was asked by President Truman how he accomplished such an incredible feat, he said simply, “I don’t know how I did it,” he said. “I just had one thing in mind… to get off that hill.”

Jacobson was discharged in December of 1945 but found the job market stifling and decided to give the Marines another shot. He re-enlisted in April of 1946. He later went thru Officers Candidate School and rose to the rank of Major. He served aboard helicopters in Vietnam before retiring for good in 1967. But before that, there was one final test. His commanding officer informed him that Jacobson was one of the only officers in the Marine Corps without a High School diploma, having enlisted early during World War II.

His commander asked him to consider taking the general equivalency exam (GED) to accomplish this. He sought help from two of his captains and finally took the test and got his GED in 1967.

On the 40th anniversary of the Battle of Iwo Jima, Jacobson was asked to speak at the Golden Gate National Cemetery in San Bruno, CA. There he remembered the brutal 36-day battle where over 7000 Marines died trying to take a small eight-square-mile speck of an island the Japanese were determined to hold onto or bleed the Marines dry in taking it.

Jacobson said, “those were the days that men were men and proud of it.” He added, “They never asked if the island was needed or if the war was just. When they were called to do their duty, they stood up and were counted.”

After retirement Jacobson and his wife, whom he met in Okinawa when she was a DOD School teacher from California, lived in Willingboro, and Marlton, NJ. He moved to Florida in 1987 and passed away there on August 20, 2000, in Port Charlotte, FL.

The state of Florida named a veterans nursing home after Jacobson in Port Charlotte.

Jacobson’s wife poses under his portrait in the nursing that bears his name.

Medal of Honor Citation

The President of the United States takes pleasure in presenting the MEDAL OF HONOR to

PRIVATE FIRST CLASS DOUGLAS T. JACOBSON
UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS RESERVE

for service as set forth in the following CITATION:

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving with the Third Battalion, Twenty-Third Marines, Fourth Marine Division, in combat against enemy Japanese forces during the seizure of Iwo Jima in the Volcano Islands, February 26, 1945.

Promptly destroying a stubborn 20-mm. anti-aircraft gun and its crew after assuming the duties of a bazooka man who had been killed, Private First Class Jacobson waged a relentless battle as his unit fought desperately toward the summit of Hill 382 in an effort to penetrate the heart of Japanese cross-island defenses. Employing his weapon with ready accuracy when his platoon was halted by overwhelming enemy fire on February 26, he first destroyed two hostile machine-gun positions, then attacked a large blockhouse, completely neutralizing the fortification before dispatching the five-man crew of a pillbox and exploding the installation with a terrific demolitions blast.

Moving steadily forward, he wiped out an earth-covered rifle emplacement and, confronted by a cluster of similar emplacements which constituted the perimeter of enemy defenses in his assigned sector, fearlessly advanced, quickly reduced all six positions to a shambles, killed ten of the enemy and enabled our forces to occupy the strong point.

Determined to widen the breach thus forced, he volunteered his services to an adjacent assault company, neutralized a pillbox holding up its advance, opened fire on a Japanese tank pouring a steady stream of bullets on one of our supporting tanks and smashed the enemy tank’s gun turret in a brief but furious action culminating in a single-handed assault against still another blockhouse and the subsequent neutralization of its firepower.

By his dauntless skill and valor, Private First Class Jacobson destroyed a total of sixteen enemy positions and annihilated approximately seventy-five Japanese, thereby contributing essentially to the success of his division’s operations against the fanatically defended outpost of the Japanese Empire. His gallant conduct in the face of tremendous odds enhanced and sustained the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.

/S/ HARRY S. TRUMAN

Photos: Wikipedia

Operation Halyard, One of the Great Rescue Stories of WWII

Operation Halyard was the greatest rescue mission of American airmen in our history. And it was conducted by a three-man OSS (Office of Strategic Services) team dropped into Serbia that was occupied by the Germans. The OSS operatives linked up with Serbian “Chetniks” led by General Draža Mihailović in August of 1944.

This three-man Halyard team was commanded by Lieutenant George Musulin, along with Master Sergeant Michael Rajacich, and Specialist Arthur Jibilian, the radio operator. The team was assigned to the United States Fifteenth Air Force and designated as the 1st Air Crew Rescue Unit.

By the time the operation was finished, the OSS had rescued 432 American airmen and 80 other Allied personnel who were airlifted out of Yugoslavia and back into Allied control. The story was captured in the outstanding book “The Forgotten 500” by Douglas A. Freeman.

Setting the Stage: The story of the rescue of 512 Allied airmen should have been front-page news, especially since it was accomplished by just three OSS men. The OSS were the forerunners of the CIA and the US Army Special Forces. But it was kept under wraps and the story never really was told until long after it was over.

The mission was a daunting one. During WWII, Allied forces stationed in Italy were using airbases there to bomb Germany, as well as Hungary, Slovakia, Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria, and Romania. Some of the most important targets were sources of petroleum and petroleum refineries in Ploesti, Romania.

The American bomber crews were suffering increasing losses in the Southern theater, and more and more crewmen were bailing out over Yugoslavia. Some were grabbed by German forces or those loyal to the Germans and were made into POWs. But reports were leaking out to OSS men in Italy that hundreds of airmen were falling into the hands of the Serbian people.

The Serbs were risking their lives hiding Allied airmen from the Germans. They shared their meager, insufficient food with the airmen, usually stale bread and goat’s milk. The Serbian women treated the wounded and operated makeshift hospitals as they shuttled the airmen from village to village to hide them from the Germans.

The OSS men had to infiltrate Serbia, make contact with the Chetniks, then the coalition of Americans and Chetniks had to build clandestine airstrips, large enough to hold C-47s all while hiding them from the Germans and land the cargo aircraft and take off without being detected. It was an extremely risky operation, literally, hundreds of things could go wrong.

The Americans had contacted Marshal Tito of the Communist partisans to secure his cooperation. The British considered Yugoslavia as under their sphere of influence, threw their total support behind Tito and were trying to sever all ties with Mihailović, lest they offend Tito and the Communists. They actively tried to rebuff any American attempt to contact Mihailović’s Chetniks.There were rumors, not proved until 1997 that a group of Communist sympathizers inside the British government were poisoning reports of Mihailović’s collaboration with the Germans which submarined any chance of the Chetniks getting any kind of support initially as Churchill and the British were adamantly against any support for them.

Musulin, who had spent nearly a year with the Chetniks was livid at the way the Allies, specifically the British were in essence handing over the country of Yugoslavia to the communists. He asked to be court-martialed so that the true story of the Chetniks and their loyalty to the allied cause would come to light.

However, in truth, the OSS in the Italian theater was full of communist sympathizers, many of whom naively believed because that Russian was an ally that is just fine.

The OSS team was selected and they were ready for infiltration. The overall operation was headed up by OSS agent George Vujnovich. The British were not pleased, especially since the Americans would not be relying on the Brits to ferry them to Yugoslavia nor using British radio operators. It was to be a completely American operation on the ground. Several attempts to infiltrate the team had gone awry with British pilots that had wrong coordinates which intentionally tried to put them over partisan (Tito) territory. Musulin had enough. He demanded an American plane and crew fly the team to Yugoslavia.

The night of August 2nd, the men parachuted into Mihailović’s headquarters at Pranjani. Musulin landed on a chicken coop which sent chickens flying in every direction. Rajacich landed in a tree where Musulin helped him climb down from. Jibilian had the softest landing, coming down in a cornfield. When the Chetniks saw Musulin, they were overjoyed.

One of the American airmen, Richard Felman (415th Bombardment Squadron, 98th Bombardment Group), witnessed the reunion between Musulin and the Chetniks. “The one who was in the lead was the of a mob of Chetniks—they were kissing him and cheering him with tears in their eyes. He was in an American uniform and was one of the biggest chaps I’d ever seen. He walked over to us and put out his hands. ‘I’m George Musulin’, he said.

Musulin was told to expect 150 airmen at the airfield. Secretly, he hoped the number to be exaggerated so as to make it easier to get them all out. But he was surrounded by no less than 250 airmen.

The next morning, the men began work on the airstrip. The two hundred and fifty men were joined by 300 villagers and Chetnik soldiers who provided 60 oxcarts for hauling stones and debris away from the airstrip. The flat terrain was 700 yards long which was the minimum length an airstrip for a C-47 needed to be.

For six days the men toiled on the airstrip using mostly their bare hands with an occasional hoe or pitchfork to clear the ground. The men cleared some trees at the end of the strip to give the C-47s another precious 75 feet of runway. On August 8, Musulin surveyed the airfield and told his radio operator, “Jibby, tell them we’re ready. We’ll start evacuation tomorrow night.”

The next day the men got a scare when a German Stuka dive-bomber accompanied two German JU-52 cargo planes directly over the airstrip. The men, hiding in the woodline, thought that the Germans were there to bomb the freshly cleared airfield. But just as the planes were passing over at 1000 feet, a large herd of cows, sauntered onto the strip giving it the look of a freshly plowed field. The Germans never noticed a thing.

At 10:00 p.m. Musulin heard the drone of the C-47s approaching but they noticed there were four, not six C-47s circling, two had turned back for engine trouble. The first 48 men would be leaving, as they’d load a dozen per plane. As the planes landed and taxied to the sides of the highway, OSS agent Nick Lalich, bounded out to help the team. The Serbs who sheltered the Americans, fed and protected them were happy for their rescue but sad. There were many hugs, tears among both parties that could barely speak a word of each other’s language.

Allied airmen fly home with their feet in canvas bags after giving their shoes to local Serbs.

The Serbs gave the Americans the traditional Serbian national rugs, wrapping them around the American’s shoulders. The airmen began stripping off their boots, and some with their flight jackets, giving them to the Serbs, most of whom lacked proper footwear.

About 8:00 a.m. the next morning, the men around the airstrip heard the roar of aircraft. Not only were there six more C-47s but they were accompanied by 30 fighter planes, P-38s and P-51s who would protect the airmen on the trip back to Italy. The scene was repeated from the night before with the airmen stripping off their shoes for the Serbs.

A half-hour later, six more C-47s appeared with 25 fighters. The men had made it out and back to Italy. In all 241 US airmen, six British, four French, nine Italians and 12 Russians, a total of 272 airmen had made it out during the days of 9-10 August. But the mission was far from over. What was deemed to be a few week mission turned into a six-month marathon. Allied airmen continued to be escorted down to Pranjane at the airstrip. When it was over, 512 Allied airmen were safely escorted from Yugoslavia. Not a single airman was lost.

OSS Nick Lalich and General Draža Mihailović

Because of this operation, United States President Harry S. Truman posthumously awarded Mihailović (he’d been arrested by Tito and executed after his takeover) the Legion of Merit for his contribution to the Allied victory during World War II. Initially, this high award and the story of the rescue was classified secret by the U.S. State Department so as not to offend the-then Communist Tito government of Yugoslavia.

The rescue, one of the most daring in U.S. military history and conducted by a handful of OSS men was kept a secret as not to offend the communists.

Photos: US Archives

On This Day in 2016, Navy SEAL Edward Byers Awarded Medal of Honor

Naval Special Warfare Operator Edward Byers was awarded the Medal of Honor by President Obama on February 29, 2016, in the White House for actions he conducted in the country of Afghanistan on December 5, 2012, while freeing an American hostage from the Taliban.

Byers is the Navy’s most decorated living SEAL and one of only a handful of Medal of Honor awardees still on active duty. The day after he was awarded the MOH by the President, Byers was inducted into the Hall of Heroes in the Pentagon.

Byers was born in Toledo, Ohio and grew up in the tiny village of Tontogany, Ohio where he was a Boy Scout. After joining the Navy in 1998, he spent four years as a Corpsman before volunteering for Naval Special Warfare and graduating BUDS training with Class 242 in 2002.

During his time in the SEALs, Byers was deployed 11 times including nine times for combat tours in both Iraq and Afghanistan. He is also the recipient of the Bronze Star five times, two with “V” device for combat operations in 2013 and 2014.

Afghanistan, Dec. 2012: An American citizen, Dr. Dilip Joseph who was working for an international aid organization was abducted by the Taliban along with his driver and an Afghan interpreter on December 5, 2012. Intelligence reports indicated that Dr. Joseph might be transported to another location as early as December 9th and that he may be killed. He was being held in a small, single-room building in a remote area beside a mountain in the Qarghah’i District of Laghman Province, Afghanistan.

The SEALs were launched from their operational base on the night of December 8 and inserted by helicopter. The team had to hike for four hours over mountainous, steep terrain to reach the compound where the Taliban were holding the hostages. Surprise and speed were essential to the SEALS accomplishing their mission and rescuing the hostages unharmed.

As the SEALS neared to within 25 meters of the target building, a Taliban guard became aware of the rescue force. The point man for the SEALs, Petty Officer 1st class Nicolas D. Checque shot at the guard and ran towards the door to make entry as the guard disappeared inside. Chief Byers was the second man in a sprint towards the door, which consisted of six layers of blankets securely fastened to the ceiling and walls. As Byers was ripping down the blankets, Checque pushed his way through the doorway and was immediately shot by a Taliban with AK-47 fire in the room where the hostage was held.

A split second later, Byers burst into the room, shooting dead the Taliban fighter. Byers then tackled and straddled another insurgent who was scrambling to the corner of the where there were rifles on the floor. Byers was trying to adjust his night vision goggles to positively identify whether this man was the hostage, he called out the man’s name.

When Joseph called out to Byers from across the room, Byers killed the insurgent he was straddling and then jumped atop of Joseph to protect him from harm as is SOP. At the same time, he pinned another Taliban to the wall by his throat until another SEAL shot the terrorist.

Byers spoke to Dr. Joseph, confirming that he was okay and ready to leave. He and his Team Leader identified themselves as American military. Once Dr. Joseph was moved to the helicopter-landing zone, Byers, a certified paramedic and 18D medic, assisted with the rendering of medical aid to the mortally wounded Checque. Byers and others performed CPR during the 40-minute flight to Bagram Airfield where his teammate was declared deceased.

A month after President Obama presented the Medal of Honor to Byers, he requested to return to his SEAL unit.

Medal of Honor Citation:

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty as a Hostage Rescue Force Team Member in Afghanistan in support of Operation ENDURING FREEDOM from 8 to 9 December 2012.

As the rescue force approached the target building, an enemy sentry detected them and darted inside to alert his fellow captors. The sentry quickly reemerged, and the lead assaulter attempted to neutralize him. Chief Byers with his team sprinted to the door of the target building. As the primary breacher, Chief Byers stood in the doorway fully exposed to enemy fire while ripping down six layers of heavy blankets fastened to the inside ceiling and walls to clear a path for the rescue force.

The first assaulter pushed his way through the blankets and was mortally wounded by enemy small arms fire from within. Chief Byers, completely aware of the imminent threat, fearlessly rushed into the room and engaged an enemy guard aiming an AK-47 at him. He then tackled another adult male who had darted towards the corner of the room.

During the ensuing hand-to-hand struggle, Chief Byers confirmed the man was not the hostage and engaged him. As other rescue team members called out to the hostage, Chief Byers heard a voice respond in English and raced toward it. He jumped atop the American hostage and shielded him from the high volume of fire within the small room. While covering the hostage with his body, Chief Byers immobilized another guard with his bare hands and restrained the guard until a teammate could eliminate him. His bold and decisive actions under fire saved the lives of the hostage and several of his teammates.

By his undaunted courage, intrepid fighting spirit, and unwavering devotion to duty in the face of near-certain death, Chief Petty Officer Byers reflected great credit upon himself and upheld the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.

Photos: US Navy

Operation Anaconda, Began on This Date, March 2 – 10, 2002 in Afghanistan

Operation Anaconda took place in early March 2002 in the Shahi-Kot Valley and Arma Mountains southeast of Zormat, Afghanistan.This operation was the first large-scale battle in the United States War in Afghanistan since the Battle of Tora Bora in December 2001. And it was also the first operation in Afghanistan to involve a large number of U.S. conventional forces other than aircraft participating in a direct combat role.

During the period of March 2 – March 16, 2002, the U.S. airlifted 1700 troops and 1,000 pro-government Afghan militia to take on between 300 and 1,000 al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters to obtain control of the valley. The valley was the scene of heavy fighting between the Russians and mujahadeen during the war in the 1980s.

The Taliban and al-Qaeda forces operated from the high ridges of the steep mountains and utilized a vast array of caves. There they used accurate and heavy fire from mortars and machine guns against the coalition forces. The U.S. and coalition air forces hit the Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters with a vast array of air strikes. By the time the battle was over, the U.S. estimated that they killed over 500 Taliban and al-Qaeda forces.

In February, a Special Forces intel analyst noticed a pattern that massing in the Lower Shahikot Valley, then, initial plans were to attack the Taliban using Afghan security forces and US Special Operations. However, the Commander of the Operation, MG Franklin L. Hagenbeck decided to use conventional troops.

The coalition troops consisted of elements of Task Force Dagger: ODAs from the 5th SFG, B company, 2nd Battalion, 160th SOAR and Combat Tactical Air Controllers. AMF (Afghan Militia Forces): Commander Zia (Task Force Hammer), Kamil Khan and Zakim Khan (Task Force Anvil). Task Force Rakkasan: 3rd Brigade,101st Airborne Division, 1st and 2nd battalion 187th Infantry Regiment, 1st Battalion, 87th Infantry Regiment, 10th Mountain Division. Task Force Commando: 2nd Brigade, 10th Mountain Division, 4th Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment 3rd Battalion, Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry. Task Force 64: 1 Squadron, Australian Special Air Service Regiment. Task Force K-Bar: ODAs from the 3rd SFG. Task Force Bowie: AFO (made up of a 45-man reconnaissance unit Delta Force and augmented by selected DEVGRU operators recce specialists). Task Force Sword/11: Mako 30, 31 and 21, Task Force Blue/DEVGRU.

The plan was for the Special Forces men and Afghans to sweep into the valley and the conventional infantry battalions to block their avenues of escape. Any fleeing al-Qaeda or Taliban forces that got away from the conventional units would then hit the outer ring of SF and Afghan troops.

Things went awry from the start. First, the enemy didn’t run as was expected but decided to stand and slug it out, content with the caves and high ridgelines that they were in good shape to defend. They also had much better weapons, (mortars and machine guns) than previously thought. The Americans had spent a lot of time on the proper treatment of civilians for what they perceived to be a heavily populated target area. It turned out that virtually no civilians were left in the valley. They had almost all left, having been paid by the Taliban.

The Afghan forces were met with heavy accurate mortar fire. Another Afghan column led by SF Warrant Officer Stanley Harriman was misidentified by an AC-130 gunship and taken under fire. Harriman was killed and several Afghans were wounded. Australian SAS troops were positioned in the mountains and ridgelines to pinpoint enemy positions and call in fire tp support the advance.

The 10th Mountain Division met heavy fire from the dug-in enemy as they had the valleys below zeroed in due to their intimate knowledge of the terrain. The 101st troops were facing the same kind of battle. The advance slowed to a crawl as the fighting got intense.

The next day Special Operations troops inserting by CH-47D Chinooks came under heavy fire by machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades. One Chinook crashed although only one man, a Navy SEAL was killed. A quick reaction force of about 30 SOF troops came under heavy fire and were pinned down. But the Australians, operating high above the valley on the ridgelines, called in devastating AC-130 gunship support as well as AH-64 Apaches.

By the night of March 4, the U.S. sent in helicopters racing in under covering fire from dozens of strike fighters and attack helicopters to extract the Special Operations forces and their dead and wounded. After that, the 10th Mountain troops were extracted. In all, there were 7 U.S. troops killed, there were 40 wounded, of which 18 were treated and returned to duty.

The next few days saw the U.S. commit fresh ground troops, both American and Afghan and the clashes were much smaller in scope than the previous few days. The Taliban fought in smaller numbers and were effectively using what one Special Operations operator called “spider holes”, which were well-camouflaged shallow caves that could hide a few fighters and were nearly impervious to the bombs dropped by American aircraft. A couple of Taliban fighters could slow the advance of an entire company in some locations.

The Afghan troops under General Zia resumed their advance on March 6, with coalition aircraft providing a lot of close air support. According to a Pentagon briefing, the coalition dropped 450 bombs on the enemy between March 2-5, of which 350 were “smart munitions”. Eventually, the bombing took its toll on the Taliban and they began to run low on ammunition.

On March 7, sandstorms slowed the Allied advance but near dark, 15 old T-55 tanks and BMP-1 APCs under Northern Alliance commander Gul Haider entered the fray. The tanks kept the Taliban snipers in their caves. By March 10, the Taliban numbers in the area dwindled down to about 200 total. The Americans began withdrawing their troops back to Bagram air base.

After the battle, General Tommy Franks called Operation Anaconda an “unqualified success.” Investigative reporter Seymour Hersh called it a “debacle”. The truth probably lies somewhere in between. There were issues right from the beginning but in the end, the coalition forces pushed the Taliban out and killed nearly 1000 of their fighters.

It was during the battle that the record for the longest kill by a sniper was set by Canadian Army sniper Corporal Rob Furlong of the 3rd Battalion Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry until surpassed in 2009. Using a McMillan TAC-50 .50-caliber rifle, Furlong killed a Taliban fighter armed with an RPK machine gun at a confirmed distance of 2,430 meters (1.51 miles). His record has since been broken but it was an incredible feat of marksmanship.

Photos:DOD

US Army Admits it Mishandled War Dogs and Will Comply With Reforms

The dogs who serve ably and bravely among U.S. and coalition troops in war-torn areas of Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and other places are not being treated with any respect once they return home. The Army confirmed an Inspector General’s report that it mishandled war dogs and vowed to comply with recommendations in the DOD report that calls for reforms.

In a report released on Friday, the Inspector General said that canine heroes, which saved the lives of U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan while working with brigade combat teams to sniff out roadside bombs, were mistreated by the Army after they returned to the United States.

Army spokesman Major Christopher Ophardt said in a statement emailed to Reuters, “The Army concurs with the DoDIG [cq] (Defense Inspector General) report and is complying with” its recommendations.
The report said that some dogs were left in kennels for up to 11 months, beyond a deadline for giving them away for adoption or re-using them in the military or other government agencies. It said they were mistreated through lack of care and attention, and others may have been put down.
Contrary to military rules, new owners were not screened before the Army allowed them to adopt the dogs. It said that some dogs with histories of biting were given to families with children, and others were given to owners who lacked the ability or resources to care for them.
In some cases, the report said, soldiers who wanted to adopt dogs with which they had worked were not told they had the right to do so. An investigation was started after soldiers who had handled the war dogs complained about their fate.

The bond between the working dogs and their handlers is as close if not closer than the bond between soldiers who experience combat. Why would anyone involved in the adoption process look to deny the dogs to live out their lives in peace with their handlers? It makes no sense.

The handlers should always be given first priority if they wish to adopt these dogs who have given so much of themselves. And to neglect them in a kennel without proper care is nearly as bad as the VA scandals where our troops don’t get proper care. It needs to be fixed…now.

To read the entire article from Reuters, click here:

Photo courtesy Wikipedia

On This Day in 1966, Barry Sadler’s Ballad of the Green Beret Goes to #1

In 1966, the average house cost $14,200 or less than a decent Harley today. The median income was $6900.00, the price of gas was 32 cents a gallon, the Dow Jones Average at years end was 785. Batman, the campy comic book come to life, debuted on Network television as did Star Trek… “Space the final frontier.”

Americans found out what a “Miranda Warning” meant and why it was important. And mass killings weren’t a 2010s only phenomenon. Richard Speck murdered eight nurses in Chicago and Charles Whitman, who perched himself in the bell tower of the University of Texas with a rifle (not an AR-15) shot and killed 14 people and injured 31.

In China, the Cultural Revolution starts and Mao Tse-Tung begins to purge intellectuals. Mini-skirts are in fashion. Ronald Reagan enters politics and becomes the Governor of California, and the Houston Astrodome opens, complete with a 710 diameter of the dome. And there are now 500,000 U.S. troops in South Vietnam.

And finally, in January 1966 Barry Sadler, a Green Beret from the 7th SFG appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show and sang his “Ballad of the Green Berets” to a national audience. Sadler later appeared on other television shows such as the Jimmy Dean Show and the Hollywood Palace. He and the unit by the same name became household words in the United States. By March 6, his song skyrocketed to #1 on the Billboard Top 100 hits of the USA. It would remain there at #1 for five weeks.

Sadler’s song was co-written by Robin Moore who wrote the book about Special Forces, “The Green Berets” which became a 1968 pro-US involvement in the war film by John Wayne. The song was a tribute to SP5 James Gabriel, a Special Forces soldier who was killed in Vietnam in 1962. The original song had a verse with a reference to Gabriel but it wasn’t included in the recorded version by Sadler.

Sadler was an SF soldier who suffered a severe punji stick wound to his leg, which cut short his tour in Vietnam in 1965 where he was a team medic. During his long rehabilitation from his injuries, Sadler submitted his song to RCA after he and Moore cut the song from a 12-verse long version to a length that was more palatable for pop radio at the time.

Within two weeks after its release by RCA, the song sold a million copies. It would become Billboard’s top song of 1966. In an era of the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Beach Boys et al, it is amazing that Sadler’s anti-war song was the top-selling song of the year. And make no mistake, while it is a VERY pro-Special Forces song, it speaks of the cost of war and how it never seems to end. Something we can all understand quite well 52 years later.

The album which sold two million copies, (the single sold nine million) had a total of 13 tracks on it.

Ballad of the Green Berets
I’m a Lucky One
Letter From Vietnam
Badge of Courage
Saigon
Salute to the Nurses
I’m Watching the Raindrops Fall
Garet Trooper
The Soldier Has Come Home
Lullabye
The Trooper’s Lament
Bamiba
The A-Team

Sadler was sent by the Army on a publicity tour during 1966, and it turned him against the military, although he loved being a part of Special Forces. He left the military in 1967 and had a few walk-on roles in television westerns. He then tried Nashville but his career never took off.

Later he was writing a series of pulp fiction books about a Roman soldier, Casca Rufio Longinus, who is assigned to watch Christ die on the crucifix. Bored, he thrust his lance into Jesus’ side to shorten his time. Because of this, Chris sentences Casca to be a soldier who cannot die to wander the earth aimlessly until the Second Coming.

Sadler sadly died at the age of 49. He was shot in the head in a cab in Guatemala and died a year later. The circumstances have always been murky surrounding his shooting and have never fully been explored. His was a tragic life cut far too short.

But for a brief period in 1966, the Ballad of the Green Berets was the top song in the land.

Photos: Wikipedia

SF Soldier Honored For Saving Lives in Car Wreck

A staff sergeant in Ft. Bragg’s 3^rd Special Forces Group was awarded the Soldier’s Medal for saving the lives of two people, pulling them from a burning vehicle in Asheboro, NC.

Staff Sgt. Adams didn’t hesitate.
As he watched a truck veer off the road ahead of him and tumble down a steep, tree-covered embankment, the Fort Bragg soldier knew what he had to do.
When he lost his shoes running to the vehicle, he didn’t stop — even as glass became embedded in the soles of his feet.
And when he reached the truck, the billowing smoke gave him no pause.
“The only thing I could really think about was the people in the vehicle,” Adams said, two years after he leapt into action to save two people following a deadly crash on U.S. 64 near Asheboro.
Adams, a soldier with the 1st Battalion, 3rd Special Forces Group, repeatedly returned to the scene of the crash, carried four victims up the steep embankment and rendered emergency aid until rescue personnel arrived.
On Monday, Adams — who is not being identified by his first name because of the nature of his job as a Special Forces soldier — received the Army’s highest award for heroism outside of combat.
During a ceremony on Fort Bragg, officials praised Adams for risking his life to save others and presented him with the Soldier’s Medal.
Adams said he and his wife were returning from a weekend trip at a family lake house on Oct. 10, 2016, when they witnessed the crash.
According to the Asheboro Courier-Tribune, the single-vehicle wreck occurred about 4 p.m. The newspaper said a N.C. Highway Patrol trooper reported that Lillie Mingin, 33, of Lexington, was driving a 2006 Chevrolet Silverado when the vehicle ran off the road, went into a ditch and then down the embankment.
One passenger, 26-year-old Brittany Goodman of Salisbury, was ejected from the vehicle and pronounced dead at the scene.
A child, 12-year-old Colby Springle of Angier, was trapped in the vehicle and died shortly after being extracted.
Springle was the son of Mingin, who survived the wreck alongside another of her sons, 7-year-old Eric Mason Mingin of Fuquay-Varina.
Army officials said the pair likely would not have lived were it not for Adams, who pulled them from the vehicle before a fire could start and provided lifesaving medical care.

Adams’ family was in attendance as he was being lauded for his bravery and the 1^st Special Forces Command’s deputy head, BG Richard Angle encouraged all soldiers to emulate the example put forth by Adams.

To read the entire article from the Fayetteville Observer, click here:

Photo courtesy US Army

March 9-12, 1966, CSM Bennie Adkins Awarded Medal of Honor

CSM (retired) Bennie Adkins was awarded the Medal of Honor for bravery above and beyond the call of duty during the Vietnam War. Fifty-two years ago today from March 9-12, 1966 Adkins distinguished himself during a 38-hour close-combat battle against North Vietnamese Army forces during the Battle of A Shau. During this pitched battle with the North Vietnamese Army (NVA), Adkins was a then sergeant first class serving as an Intelligence Sergeant with Detachment A-102, 5th Special Forces Group, 1st Special Forces.

Adkins was initially awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for his bravery during the battle in 1967, however, in 2002, several awards of the DSC were being reviewed to see if the recipients had been given awards beneath the level of what the men had performed. Adkins’ story was one of them. He was finally awarded the Medal of Honor by President Obama in the White House in August 2014. Adkins was credited with killing 175 of the enemy and taking on a tiger outside the camp during the battle and subsequent evacuation.

Adkins graduated the Special Forces Qualification Course in 1961 and served for more than 13 years in several SF groups including the 3rd, 7th, 6th, and 5th SFGs. He served three combat tours in Vietnam, in 1963, 1965-66, and 1971. He was a graduate of the Sergeant Majors Academy and was the Sergeant Major at the Jungle Warfare School before retiring in 1978.

A Shau Combat: Adkins team was assigned to A-Camp 102 in A Shau and was being targeted by the NVA’s 325B Division and specifically by two regiments, the 18B and the 95B regiments augmented with reconnaissance and engineer elements. They were also supported with three battalions of artillery.

Camp A Shau had 210 CIDG “strikers” who were local men who were trained by the SF team. They were augmented with 143 Nungs and seven additional SF men from the A-503, the Nha Trang Mike Force. The total force consisted of 435 friendly troops of which only 17 were American SF troops, going against two NVA regiments. The camp’s only artillery consisted of one 4.2 inch mortar, four 81mm mortars, nine 60mm mortars and one 57mm recoilless rifle.

The NVA were building in the A Shau Valley and a feared attack was imminent. At 0350 hours on March 9, a thick ground fog enveloped the low hanging clouds in the vicinity. It was then that the NVA unleashed a mortar barrage, that pounded the camp’s defenses until 0630. During the shelling, the NVA moved up two companies who probed the south wall of the camp and was intent on blowing gaps in the concertina wire with Bangalore torpedoes.

During the shelling, two American SF troops were killed and five others wounded as well as several Vietnamese. The antennas for the camp’s radio were knocked out.

By 0900, the camp was receiving emergency resupply drops as well as wounded men were evacuated. At 1100 hours the first tactical airstrikes were conducted around the camp by USAF pilots.

Manning a mortar position, Adkins was wounded numerous times, being blown out of the mortar pit more than once. He then learned of more soldiers wounded in the center of the camp. He left the mortar position to another soldier and dodged mortar rounds and sniper fire, getting the wounded men to a securer location.

Later, under enemy fire, some of it coming from the South Vietnamese LLDB SF allies who had defected to the North during the battle, Adkins took the wounded troops to an airstrip outside the camp for evacuation and drew the enemy’s fire away from the Medevac aircraft. He left the camp again to retrieve supplies from an airdrop that fell into a minefield. And that was just the first day of the battle.

“The bottom line is that it was just not my day to go,” Adkins said later in an interview.

According to the Army’s report on the battle, on the 10th, he continued his bravery:

“Within two hours, Sergeant First Class Adkins was the only defender firing a mortar weapon. When all mortar rounds were expended, Adkins began placing effective rifle fire upon the enemy as they infiltrated the camp perimeter and assaulted his position. Despite receiving additional wounds from enemy rounds exploding on his position, Adkins fought off relentless waves of attacking North Vietnamese soldiers,” the Army report says.

After falling back to a smaller bunker in Camp A Shau, Adkins killed more enemy troops with small arms fire, destroyed equipment and classified documents to prevent them from getting into North Vietnamese hands, and led a group of soldiers in digging their way out of the rear of the bunker and escaping the besieged camp.

They escaped and evaded into the jungle with the NVA hot on their heels. But they were also stalked by an even scarier predator, a tiger. The tiger smelled the blood of the wounded Americans and CIDG troops and began stalking them in the dark, foreboding jungle.

“The North Vietnamese soldiers had us surrounded on a little hilltop and everything started getting quiet,” Adkins said. “We could look around and all at once, all we could see were eyes going around us. A tiger had stalked us that night. We were all bloody and in this jungle, the tiger smelled us and the North Vietnamese soldiers were more afraid of the tiger than they were of us. So, they backed off some and we were able to escape.”

The men evaded capture until March 12 when they were finally rescued. By then Adkins had suffered 18 different wounds.

Adkins remembered his CIDG troops who fought by his side and didn’t quit when the going got tough.

“There were about 410 indigenous Civilian Irregular Defense Group soldiers there with us, and of those, only about 122 survived, and most of those were wounded. It was a horrible, horrible battle. There was valor on all sides, not only from the Americans but from the CIDG soldiers also,” he said.

“I’m just a keeper of the medal for those other 16 (U.S. troops) who were in the battle, especially the five who didn’t make it,” Adkins said.

Medal of Honor Citation: The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress, March 3, 1863, has awarded in the name of Congress the Medal of Honor to

SERGEANT FIRST CLASS
BENNIE G. ADKINS
UNITED STATES ARMY

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty:

Sergeant First Class Bennie G. Adkins distinguished himself by acts of gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving as an Intelligence Sergeant with Detachment A-102, 5th Special Forces Group, 1st Special Forces, during combat operations against an armed enemy at Camp A Shau, Republic of Vietnam from March 9 to 12, 1966.

When the camp was attacked by a large North Vietnamese and Viet Cong force in the early morning hours, Sergeant First Class Adkins rushed through intense enemy fire and manned a mortar position continually adjusting fire for the camp, despite incurring wounds as the mortar pit received several direct hits from enemy mortars.

Upon learning that several soldiers were wounded near the center of camp, he temporarily turned the mortar over to another soldier, ran through exploding mortar rounds and dragged several comrades to safety. As the hostile fire subsided, Sergeant First Class Adkins exposed himself to sporadic sniper fire while carrying his wounded comrades to the camp dispensary.

When Sergeant First Class Adkins and his group of defenders came under heavy small arms fire from members of the Civilian Irregular Defense Group that had defected to fight with the North Vietnamese, he maneuvered outside the camp to evacuate a seriously wounded American and draw fire all the while successfully covering the rescue. When a resupply airdrop landed outside of the camp perimeter, Sergeant First Class Adkins, again, moved outside of the camp walls to retrieve the much-needed supplies.

During the early morning hours of March 10, 1966, enemy forces launched their main attack and within two hours, Sergeant First Class Adkins was the only man firing a mortar weapon. When all mortar rounds were expended, Sergeant First Class Adkins began placing effective recoilless rifle fire upon enemy positions. Despite receiving additional wounds from enemy rounds exploding on his position, Sergeant First Class Adkins fought off intense waves of attacking Viet Cong.

Sergeant First Class Adkins eliminated numerous insurgents with small arms fire after withdrawing to a communications bunker with several soldiers. Running extremely low on ammunition, he returned to the mortar pit, gathered vital ammunition and ran through intense fire back to the bunker. After being ordered to evacuate the camp, Sergeant First Class Adkins and a small group of soldiers destroyed all signal equipment and classified documents dug their way out of the rear of the bunker and fought their way out of the camp. While carrying a wounded soldier to the extraction point he learned that the last helicopter had already departed.

Sergeant First Class Adkins led the group while evading the enemy until they were rescued by helicopter on March 12, 1966. During the thirty-eight-hour battle and forty-eight hours of escape and evasion, fighting with mortars, machine guns, recoilless rifles, small arms, and hand grenades, it was estimated that Sergeant First Class Adkins killed between one hundred thirty-five and one hundred seventy-five of the enemy while sustaining eighteen different wounds to his body.

Sergeant First Class Adkins’ extraordinary heroism and selflessness above and beyond the call of duty are in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service and reflect great credit upon himself, Detachment A-102, 5th Special Forces Group, 1st Special Forces and the United States Army.

Photos: US Army

Jonathan Wainwright, Hero of Corregidor, Rescued By OSS August 1945

When President Roosevelt ordered General Douglas MacArthur to Australia to take over command of the Allies South West Pacific Area on March 12, 1942, Lieutenant General Jonathan Wainwright inherited command of the US and Filipino forces on the Philippines.

After the surrender of the American and Filipino forces in the Philippines in May of 1942, the POWs were spread around the Japanese Empire. As the war moved to a close, the Americans feared the POWs were ripe for murder as the Japanese had done to Americans in the Philippines. So the OSS (Office of Strategic Services), the forerunner to the CIA and the U.S. Army Special Forces was tasked to rescue Wainwright in Manchuria before that could happen.

The mission was a particularly daring one, the men had to worry about the Japanese forces on one side and advancing Russians who could hold the Americans hostage on the other.

American Defeat in 1942: A third generation cavalry officer, Wainwright’s father had been killed in the Philippines in 1902, his grandfather died during the Civil War. He had the unenviable job of trying to hold Manila Bay from the Japanese with no relief force coming to his aid.

Less than a month later, on April 9, Major General Edward King, unbeknownst to Wainwright surrendered the 70,000 troops on Bataan. On May 5, the Japanese attacked Corregidor and were advancing on a tunnel where 1000 wounded American and Filipino troops were hospitalized.

Fearing a slaughter, Wainwright considered the unthinkable. He’d surrender the troops on Corregidor, but he hoped to spare the rest of the troops under MG William Sharp on Mindanao that so that they could fight on. The Japanese, when hearing this stormed out of the meeting. Either all of the Americans would surrender or none at all. Wainwright gave in and then it was Sharp who was placed in a bad spot. Had his troops continued fighting, he was worried that the prisoners would be murdered.

Wainwright announces U.S. surrender on Corregidor with Japanese censors standing by.

Sharp surrendered as well and the Americans with Wainwright as the senior American POW. Many of Sharp’s men, the majority of them Filipino joined the guerrillas. The POWs suffered terribly under the brutal treatment of the Japanese who considered surrender as unmanly. Wainwright was not spared any mistreatment and suffered along with his fellow POWs.

They were kept in Luzon, Formosa and finally in Manchuria where they were in 1945. The war had turned and the Japanese were in full retreat. And America was worried about her POWs.

The OSS Steps In: In 1945, the OSS had set up specially constructed teams to infiltrate ahead of the allied advance and assist with the freeing of Allied POW camps. They had already used them in Germany but for China, the logistics were much, more difficult in terms of the distances that needed to be covered.

OSS named these six-man teams, “Mercy Missions” and assembled nine teams to insert into China and Manchuria in the hunt for the POW camps. Of these teams, the one code-named “Cardinal” would be the key. Cardinal would parachute into Manchuria, 900 miles from the base in Chunking.

The two atomic bombs had been dropped on Japan on August 6 and August 9 and the collapse of Japanese resistance seemed imminent. The Russians, eager to gobble up as much land as possible, invaded Manchuria on August 8. No one knew how the Japanese army in Manchuria, still over a million men strong, would react.

The team was commanded by Major Robert F. Hennessy. Major Robert F. Lamar, a physician, was second in command. With four other OSS operatives, the men inserted into Manchuria in August 1945 near the POW camp at Hoten. The camp commandant advised Hennessy that Wainwright was not at this camp but at another in Sian, 100 miles farther north.

Hennessy sent Lamar and Sgt Harold Leith an OSS operative fluent in both Russian and Chinese to Sian to locate Wainwright. After a long trek to Sian, the two OSS men arrived on August 19. The then had a confrontational meeting with the camp commandant. But eventually, Wainwright was brought before them.

The general stood before the stunned OSS men, emaciated and in tattered clothing. “Are you really Americans?” he asked. “General, you are no longer a prisoner of war. You’re going back to the States,” Lamar said.

Wainwright’s nightmare was far from over, now he was conflicted believing his country thinking the worst of him for surrendering his troops. He didn’t know at the time that he was recommended for the Medal of Honor earlier in the U.S. but the man who left him behind, MacArthur was vigorously against it, claiming Corregidor should have been held and it was squashed.

Wainwright thought he’d return to the United States in disgrace. He asked a bit hesitantly, “what do the people in the states think of me?” The OSS men tried to explain to the General that he was considered a hero at home, but the general was unconvinced.

Lamar was in a quandary. His radio wasn’t working and the Russians had cut the telephone lines. Worried that the general would be kidnapped by Japanese troops still everywhere, he decided that he’d leave Leith with Wainwright and he’d return by train to the camp at Hoten and try to arrange vehicles to escort all of the POWs from Sian to Hoten for exfiltration to Chunking.

Lamar arrived in Mukden, outside of Hoten, but the Russians had arrived and were in a drunken rampage. They were not interested in helping the Americans at all. Three days passed. Leith and Wainwright believed Lamar was killed before he could report the site of the POWs which included LTG Arthur Percival, the British commander at Singapore.

It was then that a Russian convoy driving American Lend-Lease trucks appeared at the camp. Using Leith as an interpreter, Wainwright explained the dilemma to the Russian Commander. The Russian explained that he was on his to link up with Russian troops in Mukden and Wainwright and the POWs were welcome to accompany them, …if they provided their own transportation.

Wainwright quickly converted from emaciated POW to a General Officer. He ordered the camp commandant to furnish the POWs with the needed vehicles. Enroute the trucks were stuck in the mud. The Russian commander stopped a train and ordered it to take the POWs to Mukden. He also promised to send more support as soon as they reached their comrades.

The train broke down and the men were stuck once again. But the Russian train did arrive and the Russians escorted the men to Mukden, arriving on August 27 at 1:30 a.m. after taking three days.

The OSS men had two aircraft waiting to whisk Wainwright, Percival and a few others immediately to Chunking. There he was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal as tears flowed down his cheeks. He was not in disgrace but revered by his country.

He flew to Tokyo where he had an emotional reunion with MacArthur. The two men embraced and shared a whispered moment.

But Wainwright’s story doesn’t end there. On September 2, 1945, with 250 American warships at anchor in Tokyo Bay, Wainwright and Percival stood onboard the battleship USS Missouri. MacArthur stood by a small table with Wainwright and Percival in positions of honor right behind him. MacArthur directed the representatives of the Japanese Empire to sign the formal articles of surrender.

When they had finished, MacArthur sat down and signed the document. He gestured to Wainwright to come forward and accept the pen. A second pen was handed to Percival.

Generals Wainwright and Percival stand behind General MacArthur at the Japanese surrender in Tokyo Bay.

Wainwright then traveled to the Philippines where he was a witness to the Japanese surrender of the brutal commander LTG Tomoyuki Yamashita. His vindication was now complete.

Congress eventually righted another wrong and awarded Wainwright the Medal of Honor. It was dated September 19, 1945.

Citation:

Distinguished himself by intrepid and determined leadership against greatly superior enemy forces. At the repeated risk of life above and beyond the call of duty in his position, he frequented the firing line of his troops where his presence provided the example and incentive that helped make the gallant efforts of these men possible.

The final stand on beleaguered Corregidor, for which he was in an important measure personally responsible, commanded the admiration of the Nation’s allies. It reflected the high morale of American arms in the face of overwhelming odds.

His courage and resolution were a vitally needed inspiration to the then sorely pressed freedom-loving peoples of the world.

Wainwright passed away in 1953 in San Antonio, TX from a stroke and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

(For further reading, search the OSS website and read an excellent take on the operation in World War II magazine)

Photos: US Archives

March 13, 1981, US to Send 15 Green Beret Advisors to El Salvador

The United States had always had a rocky political relationship with many of the countries of Latin America. However, the U.S. had been sending Special Forces troops to several decades and the decision to send U.S. Green Berets to El Salvador in 1981 would be the beginning of a relationship that was forged in the brutal civil war that raged there for many years and has stood the test of time.

El Salvador was on the brink in 1981, the civil war being waged against the communist insurgents in the FMLN was close to being lost, the country was wracked by right-wing death squads and the Salvadoran army was in tatters.

The Reagan administration had drawn its line in the sand. El Salvador was not going to fall under communist sway. With Castro in Cuba and a leftist regime in Nicaragua, the U.S. was going to do what it had to do to stem the flow of communism. The bloody civil wars in El Salvador and Guatemala would receive United States support.

But in 1981, the Vietnam war ended just six years before, the country would not stand for another war with open-ended involvement with U.S. troops. So they cooked up a scheme where they basically pulled the wool over the people’s eyes. The troops would not be in a combat role, they would be strictly there as advisors and would only carry sidearms for personal defense.

When the first 12 Green Berets arrived, the U.S. Embassy and the MILGP Commander Colonel Eldon Cummings put on a dog and pony show for the press. They were invited out for a “photo op” where they were only allowed to shoot pictures of the Green Berets from the rear. No questions were allowed and then Cummings gave the men the briefing in front of the press that they were only allowed to carry sidearms in a defense posture only. It was a CYA moment for the government.

That rule wouldn’t last long.

The mission of the SF troops was to train and advise the Salvadoran army. And an even touchier subject was the mission to report human rights abuses. And several did, with always a threat to themselves if the host unit took exception to it. It was a very tricky situation.

Greg Walker, a senior non-commissioned officer with the 7th Special Forces Group went to El Salvador as both an advisor and later as a journalist. He’s been in more journals and newspapers than we can bother listing here. He wrote a book called “At the Hurricane’s Eye” and spoke about the U.S. SF men and the issues of reporting human rights violations.

I was the Special Forces advisor who reported being shown a guerrilla’s skull (at the unit’s base in El Salvador) that had been turned into a desk lamp. My report was delivered to the US Embassy in El Salvador at the time through the proper chain of command.

The vast majority of SF advisors serving in El Salvador did likewise as this was part of the mission statement. For example, there was a senior Special Forces advisor at El Mozote the day/night of the massacre (and only one). He attempted multiple times to dissuade Colonel Domingo Monterosa to spare the victims. When Monterosa ignored him, the advisor departed by foot and made his way, alone, back to San Salvador. There he made a full report to embassy officials of what the unit and Monterosa were doing in El Mozote.

Little if anything was ever done about the reports that the men risked their lives to report. Walker brings up a great point in that, the Special Forces advisor’s reputation for reporting any human rights abuses were recognized even by the enemy. He said that the peace accords had the FMLN wanting the SF troops to monitor it. We’ll add more to that below.

At the conclusion of the war as brokered under a UN peace agreement, it was the guerrillas of the FMLN that requested US “Green Berets” remain with Salvadoran military units during the early stages of the accord. This because the guerrillas had learned of our commitment to human rights, and the sometimes dangerous reporting we made to the US embassy regarding thugs like Monterosa.

The military decided to freeze the amount of “official” U.S. advisors at 55 for some arcane reason. Those men were spread about the country in pairs with the different brigades.Some remained at the MILGP in San Salvador. The advisors had a strict curfew that they had to be back in their bases every night by, checking in with radios and repeaters all over the country.

Other SOF and conventional training went on as well as at any given time there could be 200-300 troops there. But they were on very short TDY status. Many Special Forces teams would rotate thru El Salvador for just a 2-week TDY training mission.

Although not listed by the Pentagon as a “combat mission”, 22 soldiers were killed in El Salvador during the civil war there. One SF A-team, ODA-7 from 3/7, had their base attacked in San Miguel, which was the subject of an excellent piece from Dr. Charles H. Briscoe.

Still, the Pentagon persisted that the SOF troops there were not in a combat environment. Thanks to the efforts of men like Walker and others that wrong was corrected, but not until 1996.

The FMLN knew (as was stated above) that the SF soldiers would observe human rights which was why, they requested that they oversee the initial peace process to ensure that there were no issues. Another incident shows how much they did indeed respect that.

One of the “55” relayed a story that happened to him one evening. He was racing to get back to his cuartel (base) before the curfew hit. He was running late and speeding along the highway. Darkness was approaching and he knew he was going to be late.

Then he saw an older woman laboring with heavy bags walking up a long dirt road. The area was rife with bandits as well as guerrillas and he knew, her chances of being robbed or worse were high. F**K it, he said, I’m going to be late anyway. He stopped and drove this woman up a couple of miles to her tiny village. They made small talk and the woman said she was surprised anyone would stop, no less an American on that stretch of road.

He dropped her off and raced back to the cuartel without incident. Sometime later, this SF advisor and his El Sal soldier assigned as his security were in the small village outside the cuartel eating when they noticed a couple of men enter obviously armed under their shirts. Soon others entered, they were virtually surrounded by armed men and thought the chances of getting out were slim and none.

Then another man entered, flanked with two bodyguards. He made his way to the table and addressed the SF guy by name and asked if he could sit for a moment. He identified himself as a local FMLN commander and asked him about the incident with the woman and why he did that, knowing he’d be late for his curfew.

The SF advisor answered that the woman was someone’s mother and he’d hope that someone would pick up his if the situation was reversed. The guerrilla nodded and told him that he appreciated it because the woman was a relative of his. The subliminal message was that the woman was man’s mother.

He said that he knew Americans collect patches and pins and gave him a small box with FMLN patches and a pin mounted on black felt. He gave him a letter citing his “humanitarianism” in a time of war. He then motioned to his men who began peeling out of the small establishment. He made a wry smile, “Don’t leave for about 30 minutes.”

The message was you’re my enemy tomorrow, you’re my enemy tonight but there is a level of respect that can be shown. One FMLN local commander recognized that in the SF troops there was the respect for human rights in a civil war where they were at a premium. It is no coincidence that they requested SF troops be part of the peace process.

The SF advisors in El Salvador helped turned the tide in a civil war that appeared unwinnable in 1981 to a victory for the government and the people, where the FMLN came to the peace table after a long bloody conflict. It all began with the first group of Green Berets in 1981.

Photos: US Army