Heroes of U.S. Special Operations

SF Working By, With, Through Bolivian Rangers Capture Che Guevara

In the 1960s, Che Guevara was an iconic figure, especially among those who thought that the young revolutionary was hip, chic and achieved almost rock star status. He was young, handsome and very well educated. In fact, Che is now probably more popular in the country responsible for his death, Bolivia, by people who have little understanding of what he truly stood for, than he was then in 1967.

This is a good history lesson for the students of both unconventional warfare as well as those looking for a good counter-insurgency mission lesson. And it shows how quickly a dedicated professional group of Special Operations Forces can turn a group of peasants into a professional, 400-man strong Ranger unit in just a few months.

The Bolivian people rejected his message of revolution and the farmers who saw Che and his band of revolutionaries, turned them into the government. They were hunted down in short order by the recently formed and trained Bolivian 2nd Ranger Battalion.

The Bolivian Rangers were trained by an ODA of Green Berets from the 8th Special Forces Group from Panama. The 16-man A-Team was commanded by Ralph “Pappy” Shelton, who had already conducted several important missions for SF in both Latin America and the Far East.

Shelton came from the enlisted ranks, progressing from private to Sergeant First Class and had fought in Korea before attending Officer Candidate School. Being older at 29, than the other candidates, he earned the nickname Pappy, which stuck. In 1962, Shelton joined the ranks of Special Forces and he had already taken SF A-Teams into Laos to combat the Pathet Lao and in the Dominican Republic in 1965 after the U.S. incursion there.

His team of 16 Spanish speaking Green Berets were sent to Bolivia to train the new Ranger unit that would be going up against the Marxist revolutionaries. The Green Berets with CIA assets in place, aggressively went hunting Che and his band from the moment that they were activated.

One of the SF officers assigned to Bolivia, LT John Waghelstein, later became the commander of the 7th SFG (A), and he recognized what the Bolivian government did to help defeat the message of Che. And he would repeat it later after he took command of the MILGP in El Salvador during the 1980s. ‘You can kill guerrillas and build a wall around this country with bodies of dead guerrillas, but unless you address the root causes of the insurgency, you can’t win. No way,’ he said.

Che grossly miscalculated his ability to foment revolution outside of Cuba. Once the Communists took over, Guevara was put in charge of the infamous “La Cabana”, the 18th-century prison where hundreds of political rivals who were branded “war criminals” were executed. Something the recent followers of Che seem to blot out of their collective conscience.

With the U.S. embroiled in the increasingly unpopular war in Vietnam, once Che announced that he was going to create 2-3 Vietnams in the United States’ backyard in Latin America, his group immediately went on the radar of the government.

He also got on the radar of the Soviets, at that time under the leadership of Leonid Brezhnev and the Soviets were trying to dissuade Castro from supporting revolutions in Latin America. Guevara publicly stated that the Soviets had “forgotten Marx”, and the iciness between the two would prove to be possibly a death knell for his operation in Bolivia.

Guevara Builds Little Support in Bolivia:

Guevara arrived in La Paz from Uruguay, he trademark beard shaved off and his hair died grey under an assumed name. He and his group of 50 revolutionaries moved to the Ñancahuazú valley in the southeastern part of the country. His second in command was an East German, named Haydée Tamara Bunke Bider, known by her nom de guerre “Tania”. They attracted few guerrillas to join their ranks, and those that did were mostly unreliable.

Worse, the support that Guevara expected from the Bolivian Communist Party, was not coming. They followed the leadership of the Soviets and wouldn’t help Guevara. He characterized the BCP in his diary as “distrustful, disloyal and stupid.” And Guevara’s radio, with which he was supposed to keep in contact with Havana didn’t work. So they could not be resupplied.

In a couple of small skirmishes with the Bolivians, Guevara’s guerrillas were successful in the spring of 1967 but that would soon change. They began deploying larger units to the operational area and they were beginning to turn the tide. One group of guerrillas with Tania was ambushed by Bolivian troops. Tania was killed while crossing a river and when her body washed up several days later, it has been largely eaten by piranhas.

Local Bolivian villagers didn’t care for Guevara and his message didn’t resonate well with them. So rather than flock to his banner of revolution, they informed the Bolivian army whenever they were spotted.

Bolivian Rangers Tighten the Noose:

Meanwhile, the raw peasants that Shelton and the Special Forces men inherited were quickly being turned into Rangers. Their training was completed in mid-September and they were immediately transferred to the operational area.

Shelton, in an interview just prior to his death in 2010, described ”We had a job to do and we did it,” Shelton said. ”The people of Bolivia wanted Guevara gone and asked for help, and we were glad to give it. That man is famous now, but he killed lots of innocent people and we were glad to help put him out of business.”

He set up the Ranger training at a small base that was an abandoned sugar mill in La Esperanza, north of Santa Cruz. He quickly recognized the value of a Bolivian captain, Gary Prado who was assigned to the new Ranger unit and the two became very close and Prado would be given command of one of the Ranger companies.

The Rangers with SF instruction became proficient soldiers in just 19 weeks of training. The had learned to operate at night and had become proficient with their weapons, something the regular Bolivian army was not. Shelton kept in close contact with Felix Rodriguez from the CIA’s Special Activities Division who kept him informed of the guerrillas’ activities about 160 kilometers away.

Once they were ready, the Rangers deployed to the operational area in trucks. And they split up into companies, as they’d been taught and soon their training would pay off.

Che Captured and Executed:

On October 8, 1967, Che’s ragged band had been spotted by a local woman. The troops moved in and soon the two sides were locked into gunfire. Guevara was slightly wounded twice and his weapon was rendered useless. He didn’t hesitate. He threw up his hands and surrendered.

“Do not shoot! I am Che Guevara and I am worth more to you alive than dead.”

Captain Prado took him prisoner and Che was quickly bundled off to a schoolhouse in the nearby village of La Higuera. There, he refused to be interrogated by Bolivian officers but would chat quietly with the soldiers.

The Bolivians were in a quandary. They didn’t want to try Che and then have Cubans or those sympathetic to him try to plan an escape. President Barrientos early the next morning on October 9, ordered that Che be executed and that the soldiers would say that he died in combat during his capture.

The Bolivian soldier who volunteered to kill Che, did so because several of his close friends had been shot in combat with Che’s band of guerrillas earlier that week. He shot Che nine times with an M-2 carbine, in the legs, shoulder, chest, and throat. He was pronounced dead that afternoon and the Bolivian brass posed for pictures with the dead revolutionary.

One myth that has endured was that CIA ordered the assassination. That is false, Rodriguez and CIA wanted Che alive and wished to bring him to Panama to be further interrogated.

The amazing thing is how exactly what the Bolivians didn’t want, came true. Che became a martyr in death and in the very village where he was killed, erected a statue of him. Everywhere in Bolivia are pictures and murals of him including the university in La Paz. The same people that rejected and informed on him, now revere his memory.

Epilogue:

The Bolivian Army had an elite Ranger battalion but was distrustful of anyone who could help in overthrow the countless corrupt governments that would ensue. They disbanded the unit not long after. Several years later the Rangers were reformed.

In a testament to the Special Forces men from Panama who trained them, they wear Green Berets with a red flash. Their unit crest is identical to the one the SF wears but in lieu of “De Oppresso Liber”, theirs simply reads “Ranger”.

On a counternarcotics mission training another unit several years later, my partner Dave and I heard that the 7th SFG commander, Hugh Scruggs, and SOCSOUTH Major, later BG Remo Butler were to visit the Ranger Bn. prior to 7th SFG conducting some joint training. We accompanied them to the Bn where their history to Shelton and SF troops from Panama remained strong.

There were numerous pictures on the walls of that time and their unit sign in book that dated back to that time was at the HQs. They asked all four of us to sign in as guests and flipping back to the beginning, Colonel Scruggs showed the rest of us the signatures of the long-before SF troops who helped start the unit. It was a neat moment.

Shelton left Bolivia two days after Che was captured. His mission and Army service were done. He retired soon afterward and settled in Sweetwater, Tennessee. He died on June 29, 2010, and is buried in Athens, TN.

Photos: US Army

“The Catcher Was a Spy” Moe Berg, OSS, A Swing, and a Miss

Like most Special Forces guys, especially of my generation, I can’t get enough of OSS (Office of Strategic Services) from World War II. OSS was the “Greatest Generation” version of both CIA and the U.S. Army Special Forces (Green Berets) as both sprang forth from the extraordinary organization that General William “Wild Bill” Donovan built from scratch. With the help of the British, and learning on the fly, the United States had, for the first time, a professional intelligence organization and a military force that was expert in the art of Unconventional Warfare.

Donovan attracted all types of people, making OSS quite the eclectic organization. He was looking for “PhDs who can win a bar fight.” Moe Berg fit the bill to a tee. A professional athlete, Berg, although far from a star, played major league baseball for 15 seasons as a catcher, no mean feat, as well as being one of the few Jewish players in MLB. He was also a brilliant scholar and could speak 10 languages, seven fluently and graduated from both Princeton and the Sorbonne and studied law at Columbia at a time when Jews didn’t attend in large numbers.

The story of Berg who spied for America before Pearl Harbor on a “goodwill” tour of Japan with other major league ballplayers in the 1930s and joined OSS during the war is well known among the avid readers within the intelligence and SOF communities. But to many, he was an unknown. This film that came out this summer, changed that to a degree.

Director Ben Lewin, based his film off of the bio of Berg, Nicholas Dawidoff’s 1994, The Catcher Was a Spy. He assembled a great cast featuring two of my favorite actors, Paul Rudd, who is fantastic as always as Berg, Mark Strong, and a very good supporting cast with Sienna Miller, Guy Pearce, Connie Nielsen, Paul Giamatti, Tom Wilkinson, who I had the pleasure of working with on a Mossad film (The Debt) and Giancarlo Giannini.

I wanted to like this film, no…I wanted to love this film, as anyone who loves seeing anything about OSS in print or film does. But it doesn’t ever reach that level. In baseball parlance, unfortunately, the film is a “can of corn.”

The film goes out of its way to portray Berg as the enigma that he was. He was an introvert, a scholar and a Jew in the world of professional baseball where those traits were in short supply. But the film takes his solitary life a step farther. Lewin depicts Berg as a closet homosexual, although there has never been any evidence that Berg was.

However, the stretch isn’t too far between being a catcher in the MLB and a spy. After all, catchers are always trying to hide their signals to the pitcher from prying eyes by putting them down between their legs. And if anyone watches games closely, they’ll put down multiple signs to throw off anyone stealing them, in a simplistic but effective code.

Berg, excellently played by Rudd, is finishing up his career with the Red Sox and is ready to go into coaching when the winds of war start to blow before WWII. Touring Japan with other big leaguers, Berg snuck on top of a hospital and filmed the harbor and naval shipyards after reading about the Japanese Empire expanding. His prewar footage of Japan’s military facilities, put him on the radar of Donovan, played by Jeff Daniels. Berg is brought into OSS in early 1943.

After doing deskwork, Berg was assigned to the Special Operations Branch (SO). He was a paramilitary operations officer in OSS that would today be part of the CIA Special Activities Division.

Later he was placed in the OSS Secret Intelligence branch (SI) on the Balkans desk. Berg parachuted into occupied Yugoslavia to evaluate the various resistance groups operating against the Nazis. He met both Draža Mihailović and Josef Tito.

In the film, they touch on his next assignment. While the US is rushing forth with the Manhattan Project, the government is worried about the Nazis getting the bomb first. Werner Heisenberg (Strong), is one of the leading scientists in Germany’s quest for the bomb. While the threat is significant enough, there is some doubt about how close the Germans are. So, if they are close, Berg’s mission is to assassinate him.

He travels with another scientist (Giamatti) and a military escort (Pearce) to Zurich where Heisenberg is and he has to make a determination whether or not to kill him

Miller is cast as Berg’s long-time girlfriend, whom he keeps, like everyone else at arm’s distance. When asked point blank by Daniels if he is “queer”, Rudd/Berg answers, “I’m good at keeping secrets.”

When Berg finally meets Heisenberg, the two dance around in a nicely crafted scene where neither is willing to give much. Berg is looking for anything to confirm that the Nazis are ready to construct the atomic bomb and he’ll be tasked with killing him. While a great scene and expertly played, the film lacks the suspense we’d normally see in a spy film.

The aloofness and repressed part of his supposed homosexuality is the basis for Lewin’s assertion of proof of Berg’s bona fides as a spy. The scene where he sings the Battle Hymn of the Republic was a good one, Berg, despite his closeted personal life, is a patriot and that explains part of his motivation.

But overall, the film was too thin and it could have been much, much better. Especially with the outstanding cast that they surrounded the director with.

Berg was an intriguing character. He was intensely personal and tried to go to work for CIA after the war, but then only getting one contractor type of assignment. He never married and lived with his brother for several years before he was asked to leave, He then moved in with his sister, where he stayed until passing away at the age of 70 in 1972.

He was described as moody and snappish by his family. After WWII, he felt he lost the ability to follow his calling for his second career in the CIA. He was quoted however that, “I’d rather be a ballplayer than a justice of the U.S. Supreme Court” when someone accused him of wasting his talents on baseball.

He was awarded the Medal of Freedom for his service in OSS, but he turned it down. His sister eventually accepted it on his behalf.

He was cremated after his death and had his ashes scattered over a mountain in Israel. His baseball card is on display at CIA Headquarters.

Photos: Wikipedia/IFC Films

William “Wild Bill” Donovan OSS, Awarded the Medal of Honor in WWI

When the name “Wild Bill” Donovan is mentioned, most think of the World War II OSS (Office of Strategic Services) which later became CIA and another part of it branched off to later become the U.S. Army Special Forces (Green Berets) of today. But what many people don’t realize is that long before he became the “father of US intelligence”, Donovan was a much-decorated war hero from World War I who was awarded both the Distinguished Service Cross and the Medal of Honor for bravery.

At the end of World War I, Donovan was arguably the most decorated man in US military history at that time, having been awarded all of the top awards for bravery in combat. He was awarded the Medal of Honor, the Distinguished Service Cross, the Distinguished Service Medal, and the Silver Star.

On this day October 14-15, 1918, the United States 69th Regiment (the famed Irish Brigade of Civil War fame), later renamed the 165th Regiment of the 42nd Division was locked in heavy combat against the Germans at Landres-et-Saint-Georges. Donovan’s actions during this action would ultimately result in him being awarded the Medal of Honor.

Duty in Mexico, Fame in France:

After attending Columbia University to study law and being a classmate of the future president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Donovan was a partner in a law firm in Buffalo, New York when he decided to help form and lead a troop of cavalry for the New York National Guard. His unit was mobilized and sent to Mexico during the punitive campaigns to catch Pancho Villa.

Upon returning from Mexico, Donovan was promoted to Major and joined the “Fighting 69th” which became the 165th Regiment of the famed “Rainbow Division.” Donovan was an officer who led from the front, even as a battalion commander.

He was wounded by shrapnel and nearly blinded by a German mustard gas attack. He was awarded the French Croix de Guerre for a daring rescue under fire of a wounded soldier. But Donovan refused to accept it since a Jewish soldier who also took part in the same action was snubbed. After that omission was changed, Donovan accepted the honor.

During the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, the 165th was in heavy action at Landres-et-St. Georges. Donovan, now a Lt. Colonel, led one of three regiments with the objective of capturing an enemy position which was well entrenched on a steep ravine surrounded by machine guns and artillery.

Because of the heavy German fire and strong defensive positions, the other two supporting regiments refused to advance, but Donovan persisted and rallied his regiment and led the advance under absolutely murderous conditions.

Donovan refused to conform to the convention of the times, by not stripping off all of his rank and insignia which was common for officers, he told his men, “They can’t hit me and they won’t hit you!”

The brass were expecting up to 60% casualties from this assault, can you say proper planning?. Despite being hit in the knee and two other times during the battle by enemy fire, Donovan refused to leave the field until all of his men were administered to or removed from the battlefield. While he remained, American light tanks were turning back because of the accuracy and amount of fire they were taking.

Because of the efforts of Father Duffy, the erstwhile Chaplain of the regiment and a close friend of Donovan’s, he was awarded an Oak Leaf Cluster (2nd award) to his DSC. The brass was correct in one thing. After the battle was over, 600 of the 1000 men in Donovan’s regiment were killed, wounded or missing in action. They were ripped up in the assault.

After the war, Duffy kept up the pressure on Washington to upgrade Donovan’s DSC to the Medal of Honor. In 1923, he succeeded. Donovan was awarded the Medal of Honor in New York City. In a move that speaks volumes about the men of the unit and how they felt about him, the ceremony was attended by over 4000 veterans.

In another move that speaks more about Donovan than the medal itself, he refused to keep it. He stated that the medal belonged not to him but “to the boys who are not here, the boys who are resting under the white crosses in France or in the cemeteries of New York, also to the boys who were lucky enough to come through.”

Hollywood later made a film about the Meuse-Argonne Offensive and the heroism of Donovan in a classic, “The Fighting 69th” with James Cagney, Pat O’Brien as Father Duffy and George Brent as Major Donovan.

Medal of Honor citation:

Rank and organization: Lieutenant Colonel, U.S. Army, 165th Infantry, 42d Division. Place and date: Near Landres-et-St. Georges, France, 14–15 October 1918. Entered service at: Buffalo, N.Y. Born: 1 January 1883, Buffalo, N.Y. G.O., No.: 56, W.D., 1922.

Lt. Col. Donovan personally led the assaulting wave in an attack upon a very strongly organized position, and when our troops were suffering heavy casualties he encouraged all near him by his example, moving among his men in exposed positions, reorganizing decimated platoons, and accompanying them forward in attacks. When he was wounded in the leg by machine-gun bullets, he refused to be evacuated and continued with his unit until it withdrew to a less exposed position.

World War II and the OSS:

Donovan was contacted by his old Colombia classmate now President, Franklin Delano Roosevelt to help him find out information about the war in Europe which FDR was certain that the U.S. was going to be dragged into.

Despite being complete opposites on the political spectrum, the two remained close friends and Roosevelt trusted Donovan to meet with King George VI and Winston Churchill. Today’s political leaders should take note.

US Ambassador to England, Joseph P. Kennedy’s assessment was that England was finished and would capitulate to Hitler and Nazi Germany. Donovan’s assessment was much more optimistic and he urged Roosevelt to provide resources to assist England. Roosevelt trusted Donovan’s opinion more than Kennedy’s and as a result, the U.S. began sending war equipment thru the Lend-Lease program.

Maj. Gen. William Joseph Donovan the namesake of the prestigious OSS Society award. OSS photo

With a non-existent national intelligence network, FDR knew the United States needed one, not only for the coming war but in the years to come. He selected Donovan first at the “Coordinator of Information” but then in 1942, as the commander of the OSS. And as Paul Harvey said, and now you know the rest of the story.

Photos: US Archives.

Special Operations Forces Selection PT Preparation Week 13, Day 5

Back to the gym this Thursday morning for a Chest (Flat, incline bench, Flies, pushups) and Triceps (Cable pushdowns, dips) workout today at the gym before heading out for a 4-mile run.

Remember to stretch well before and after and to stay hydrated. Mark your progress down in your workout log book.

UBRR Training:

More Preparation for the UBRR:

3 x 12 Bench Press

3 x 10 Dumbbell Flies

3 x 10 Dumbbell Incline press

3 x 20 Pushups (alternate sets with wide, narrow and shoulder width)

3 x 10 ‘V’ Ups

3 x 20 Sit-ups

3 x 20 Cable Push Downs (rope)

3 x 20 Dips or until muscle failure

4-mile run (32 minutes maximum)

Stretch well after completion

October 19, 2001, America Strikes Back, SF Troops Arrive in Afghanistan

Just five weeks after the horrible events that unfolded on 9/11 back in 2001, the United States answered. Coalition air forces were already hitting targets in Afghanistan, taking out terrorist training centers and key government installations. But on that day, the first Special Forces troops infiltrated into Afghan territory from Uzbekistan over the Hindu Kush mountains.

The men selected were from the 5th Special Forces Group (5th SFG) and they were tasked with conducting a classic SF mission. Infiltrate a denied country, coordinate with CIA Special Activities Division members on the ground, link up with resistance bands. Several of these crossed ethnic boundaries and were historic enemies. But they were loosely grouped into what was called the Northern Alliance, Afghan warriors who were fighting the Taliban.

There the SF A-Teams would train the Northern Alliance, supply them and while coordinating between the various groups, attack the Taliban by calling in airstrikes and accompanying the resistance fighters into combat.

The 5th SFG was the key component of Task Force Dagger along with the CIA’s Special Activities Division and the Night Stalkers of the 160th Special Operations Regiment (Airborne) along with a handful of Air Force Special Operations Combat Controllers. The pilots of the 160th said 5th SFG Commander, Colonel, later Lt. General John Mulholland are “the finest aviators in the world, bar none.”

Night Stalkers Fly Teams In Terrible Conditions:

The weather was so bad, it delayed the original infiltration planned for October 17 for two days. The Special Ops MH-47s flown by the 160th were flying at 20,000 ft. to cross the mountains, and several of the men became airsick because of the altitude. Visibility was near zero and the pilots had to deal with sleet, ice, wind, sandstorms, and enemy fire.

The first two SF A-Teams, known as ODAs (Operational Detachment Alpha) was 595, and 555. When the SF men alit off of the Chinooks, they were truly alone. The moment wasn’t lost on them. The mountains in Afghanistan were the same as they had been for centuries. The mode of transportation was on horseback. The roads …dirt.

The Commander of ODA-595, Captain Mark Nutsch recalled that the land was “rugged, isolated, beautiful, different colored stones and geographical formations, different shades of red in the morning as the sun came up.”

He described his infiltration area as “a canyon with very dominating, several-hundred-feet cliffs.” The SF men had no idea what to expect. Their counterparts were waiting for them and the ODAs were surrounded by armed militants. Although there were a few tense moments, the two sides quickly linked up.

The Famed Horsemen:

The SF teams quickly broke down into split teams and split even further into three-man teams. The Northern Alliance fighters traveled on horseback. The Americans soon found themselves on borrowed horses sitting in saddles much too small for American built SFers and riding horses that wanted to fight each other as much as the Afghans fought amongst their different factions. Most of the men had never ridden horses before.

Nutsch was one of the few men who had experience on horses as he grew up on a ranch. But even he was amazed at how fast the men on the teams adapted to this new but very old style of warfare. A Civil War and history buff, prior to deployment he studied cavalry battles of yore, never dreaming that one day he’d be leading one.

Nutsch requested lightweight McClellan saddles be airdropped for the US troops since the Afghan models were too small. In mid-November, they were airdropped in.

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld saw pictures of the SF men and briefed the press and the legend of the Horse Soldiers was born.

It was the first instance of U.S. troops riding into battle on horseback since January of 1942 in the early days of World War II. The U.S. Army’s 26th Cavalry charged a Japanese advance column on the march from Manilla in the Philippines. Today, a 16-foot, bronze statue of an SF Soldier on horseback, named De Oppresso Liber — the SF motto, “to free the oppressed”, the Horse Soldier, stands near ground zero in New York City, watching over the 9-11 memorial and honoring those first special operations teams that struck back at terror.

Combat Controllers Were Big Force Multipliers:

The AFSOC Combat Controllers really helped turn the tide for the Northern Alliance fighters. They were on horseback with just AKs and a handful of light machine guns going against the Taliban that had tanks, armored personnel carriers and heavy artillery, courtesy of the Soviet Union when they pulled out of Afghanistan in 1989.

In an interview with Army Times, retired Chief Master Sgt. Calvin Markham, who received a Silver Star for the operation, remembered that the controllers tried “to bring that close air support expertise with our air traffic control background, having multiple stacks of aircraft … from fighters to bombers overhead.”

“It annihilated the enemy,” he said, noting that this was the first time B52s had been used for close air support since the Vietnam War. “I think it really broke their will to fight. You kill 10, 15 enemy combatants on the battlefield at one time, I’m sure it’s a devastating blow to them, but when you’re talking about hundreds of enemy combatants losing their lives from one strike, it makes the other guys think about what they’re doing and that maybe they should retreat.”

In less than a month, 10 ODAs from the 5th SFG were operating in Afghanistan. The Special Forces men fighting alongside the Northern Alliance and with massive air support from B-52s, B-1Bs, and other platforms, decimated the Taliban. In less than two months, they had wrested control of the country away from the Taliban.

Then as Charlie Wilson had remarked a dozen years before, after the U.S. had helped to oust the Soviets from Afghanistan…”We fucked up the end game.”

Seventeen years later, U.S. troops are still fighting and dying there.

Photo: DOD

Speed Up Your Recovery After the 12-Mile Rucksack March

Our Sunday daily workout piece to help our prospective candidates prepare for Selection featured a 12-mile rucksack march. And hopefully for those that followed it and conducted it, (it was a cold 40 degree, rainy morning here), followed our normal rucksack marching tips. Wearing the correct boots and socks, having the correct and comfortable clothes on with anti-chafing powder, packing your rucksack correctly and having the weight up high where it belongs. Now we’ll talk a bit about recovery.

Back in the day, when I was a young buck and going thru Special Forces training, recovery wasn’t something that we paid any attention to. At best, we’d drink water, eat and take a nap. As we got a little bit older, and our recovery time increased, we got a bit smarter about recovery, but the troops today have much better trainers and training staffs on hand and they’ll help the troops out in what is a very important part of fitness.

We preach here that there are “no days off” and we have to be ready to go back at it first thing in the morning. So now recovery is even more important… and then the nap will feel even better. As we mentioned above, it was cold and rainy here, and that cold and damp plays hell on arthritic joints, but it will put a damper on just about everyone as it tends to take a bit longer to get your speed and pace going. However, it does help with not overheating. Although wearing a lightweight rain jacket this morning, it was almost halfway unzipped allowing plenty of that cool air to stop overheating from occurring.

Rucking, in general, will put some strain on your joints, your knees, back, ankles. But rucking over a longer distance like a 12 or 20 miler increases that stress on your joints and these techniques will help speed your recovery time.

Feed the Beast:

While you should be drinking water throughout the ruck march, and with our Camelbak system we were doing just that, you need to eat soon after finishing. Everyone is different and your body may not react well to food or different things going into it so soon after exercise.

As soon as possible, preferably less than 30 minutes from completion of the ruck, down a protein shake. My trainer tells me that your body is depleted and hungry for nutrients to replace what was burned up during the three hours or less of the ruck march. By introducing a protein shake it stops your body from introducing cortisol into your system.

After that, eating a meal, if your body allows it is preferred. I’m always ravenous after a long ruck march. But everyone is different.

Ice Bath or Cold Tub:

While some recommend that you jump right into a cold tub as soon as the ruck march is over if you are like me, you have to shower first. I hate getting into a tub, hot or cold without having a shower. On Saturday, I bought three bags of ice from the liquor store and as soon as the shower was done, I filled the tub with cold water and dumped the bags of ice in there.

My bulldog has been conditioned to know that when the bathtub is getting filled it is HER bath time. So, with all the subtlety that bullies are known for, she burst into the bathroom using her head to push open the door and was contemplating diving in on top of me until she noticed the ice. Sticking her snout in for a second, with a quick shake of her head, she nixed that idea and promptly padded out…Bitch didn’t even close the door.

However, all it takes is about 10-20 minutes of the ice bath to reduce any inflammation in your muscles and helps ease those sore shoulders, hips, and knees from rucking. I did save two cubes for a medicinal glass of Single Barrel Jack …although that part isn’t what the docs would call smart. Ah well.

Foam Roller and Lacrosse Ball Time:

One of the best things my trainer ever introduced me to was the foam roller and a lacrosse ball. I was never a believer in either until I tried them and they help immensely. They help to get everything back in line after the strain of the rucksack compressing your lower back, hips, and shoulders.

I start with the lacrosse ball under my lower back and do some slow crunches and sit-ups. Eventually, I move the lacrosse ball up between my shoulder blades and during the sit-up motion, I extend my arms out, that will stretch out the shoulders.

The foam roller works wonders at getting your lower back, rib cage area and upper back/shoulders stretched back out and feeling like everything is back to where it needs to be. All of the compression of the ruck march is erased in just a few short minutes.

Stretching It All Out:

The last thing we do is a nice, slow stretch which really helps out after a long-range movement. Most people, myself included, feel shoulder fatigue, or sagging after a ruck. That is completely normal and once you get in Special Operations and begin carrying those ridiculous amounts of “light-weight” gear, you will too.

I begin with a shoulder shrug/stretch. Stand up straight pull your shoulders back and rotate them up and down. That will help loosen them up after being pulled down with the weight of the rucksack. And then open your arms wide, almost like a Predator pose and stretch your shoulders out wide. Keep your chest up and pull your shoulders back.

I then do some standing calf stretches and then finish it off with glute and hip stretches that always feel like they get everything back in line.

These are the things I wished I did back in the day, it may have helped many of the aches and pains I suffer from today. But they will definitely aid in speeding your recovery times. Remember that while in the Selection course, your recovery/downtime is liable to be much shorter if not almost non-existent.

But this will help you in your quest to get prepared for the rigors of the Selection course that will follow. And soon after the long ruck marches, you’ll be ready to go do it all over again. Now, I’ll finish this and head over to the easy chair and ice my aching knees. Whoever said, aging gracefully is a given? DOL, Happy Rucking.

Photo: US Army

On This Day in 1983, Marine Barracks in Beirut is Truck Bombed

During the Lebanese Civil War of 1983, two suicide trucks laden with explosives are driven into the barracks at Beirut’s airport where the Multi-National Force in Lebanon (MNF) peacekeepers were staying. A total of 307 people are killed. 241 Americans, 58 French, 6 civilians and the two bombers. A terrorist group calling themselves Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility and said that their goal was to drive the MNF out of Lebanon.

This was the single deadliest day in the Marine Corps since the Battle of Iwo Jima and for the U.S. military since the Tet Offensive in Vietnam in 1968. Another 128 were wounded. The blast was the equivalent of an estimated 21,000 pounds of TNT.

The second attack on the French Drakkar barracks occurred just minutes after the attack on the Americans housed the 1st Parachute Chasseur Regiment as well as the 9th Parachute Chasseur Regiment, 58 French paratroopers were killed with another 15 wounded. For the French military, it was their single largest loss of life, since the civil war in Algeria.

Although political leaders stated otherwise publically, these attacks caused the removal of the MNF in Lebanon. They’d been put in place since the PLO was ousted from Lebanese territory in 1982.

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence called the bombings in 2017 “the opening salvo in a war that we have waged ever since—the global war on terror”

Background to the Bombing:

On June 6, 1982, the Israelis invaded Lebanon under the pretext of creating a buffer between the PLO and the Syrian forces inside of Lebanese territory. The Israeli “Operation Galilee” was conducted to create that 40 km of space and had the approval of the United States as well as the democratically elected President, Bachir Gemayel.

However, Gemayel was a part of the Christian Phalangists and the bitter enemy of the Druze and Muslims. The Phalangists attacked a PLO refugee camp and other Muslim and Druze communities while the Israelis turned a blind eye. Gemayel was assassinated in September 1982 by a bomb and was replaced by his brother Amine.

The Muslims of Lebanon, especially the Shiites, resented the MNF peacekeepers believing that the Americans were siding with the Christian Phalangists. They steadily harassed by mortar and artillery fire.

The Americans and French troops were hamstrung by the ridiculous “peacetime” rules of engagement, in the middle of a civil war. Being neutral the U.S. and French had to follow strict guidelines for peacekeepers.

When on a post, mobile or foot patrol, keep a loaded magazine in the weapon, bolt closed, weapon on safe, no round in the chamber.
Do not chamber a round unless instructed to do so by a commissioned officer unless you must act in immediate self-defense where deadly force is authorized.
Keep ammo for crew-served weapons readily available but not loaded in the weapon. Weapons will be on safe at all times.
Call local forces to assist in self-defense effort. Notify headquarters.
Use only the minimum degree of force to accomplish any mission.
Stop the use of force when it is no longer needed to accomplish the mission.
If you receive effective hostile fire, direct your fire at the source. If possible, use friendly snipers.
Respect civilian property; do not attack it unless absolutely necessary to protect friendly forces.
Protect innocent civilians from harm.
Respect and protect recognized medical agencies such as Red Cross, Red Crescent, etc.

In 1982, the Iranians built a base inside of Syrian-controlled territory in Lebanon. That base, opened by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards and housing Hezbollah, is still operational today. Hezbollah was and still is, a proxy for the Iranians who get their orders straight from Tehran.

On September 26, 1983, the NSA intercepted an Iranian diplomatic communications message from the Iranian intelligence agency, the Ministry of Information and Security (MOIS),” to their ambassador, Ali Akbar Mohtashemi, in Damascus, Syria.

The message directed the ambassador to “take spectacular action against the American Marines.” The Marines in Beirut were never notified about the intercepted message in a timely fashion. The government would finally notify the Marine commanders about the intercepted threats on October 26: a full three days after the bombing.

American military commanders and government officials failed to connect the dots that an incident on April 18, 1983, when a suicide bomber had detonated an explosives-laden delivery van outside the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, killing 63 people, including 17 Americans.

Things heated up between June and September with a number of incidents. Druze militias had confrontations with Lebanese Forces in a number of places and shelled the Beirut airport, closing it temporarily. That is where the HQs of the Marine 24th Amphibious Unit (24th MAU) was located.

Sunday, October 23, 1983:

Early on the morning of October 23, just before 6:30 a.m., a 19-ton yellow Mercedes-Benz truck driven by Iranian citizen Ismail Ascari pulled into the Beirut International Airport.

Believing the truck be the water truck, the Marines were expecting, it was instead filled with explosives. The driver accelerated and crashed easily thru the 5-foot barrier of concertina wire, then passed between two sentry posts and through an open gate in the perimeter chain-link fence, crashed through a guard shack in front of the building and smashed into the lobby of the building serving as the barracks for the 1st Battalion 8th Marines.

As the building collapsed upon itself, it immediately crushed to death within the mountain of rubble, 241 U.S. military personnel—220 Marines, 18 Navy sailors, and three Army soldiers.

On the day of the bombing, the Marine sentries were ordered to keep a loaded magazine inserted in their weapon, bolt closed, weapon on safe and no round in the chamber. Only one sentry was actually able to chamber a round in his weapon but by then the truck was already crashing into the building.

As the truck slammed through the entrance and come to a halt in the midst of the lobby, there was an ominous pause of a second or two, then the truck erupted in a massive explosion, lifting the building in the air, shearing off its steel-reinforced concrete support columns (each 15 feet in circumference) and collapsing the structure.

As the building collapsed upon itself, it immediately crushed to death within the mountain of rubble, 241 U.S. military personnel—220 Marines, 18 Navy sailors, and three Army soldiers.

Major Bob Melton the Logistics Officer for the 24th MAU, called to his commander Colonel Tim Geraghty, “My God, the BLT building is gone!” Rabbi Arnold Resnicoff and assistant chaplain for the U.S. Sixth Fleet recalled that “Bodies and pieces of bodies were everywhere. Screams of those injured or trapped were barely audible at first, as our minds struggled to grapple with the reality before us.”

Within 10 minutes of the attack and a few miles north of the airport, another suicide bomber driving a pickup truck targeted the barracks of the 3rd Company of France’s 1st Parachute Chasseur Regiment. Guards immediately recognized the hostile intent of the driver and shot and killed him, stopping the truck 15 yards short of the building. However, either the terrorist or the gunfire initiated the explosive. Though only half as powerful as the bomb that had leveled the Marine compound, the second blast brought down the French barracks, killing 58 paratroopers.

Ironically many of the French troops were standing outside on the balconies of the building, as they had heard what had occurred at the U.S. base just down the coast and were trying to identify what happened there.

Recovery and rescue efforts began immediately. U.S. troops were harassed by intermittent sniper and artillery fire from Druze units. The last survivor, LTJG Danny Wheeler a Chaplain for the 1/8th Marines was pulled out of the rubble late that night. While others survived the blast, by the time they were rescued, they would succumb to their injuries.

The French immediately launched an airstrike in the Beqaa Valley against Iranian Revolutionary Guard units. The U.S. planned a massive strike in conjunction with the French at the Sheik Abdullah barracks in Baalbek, Lebanon, which housed Iran’s IRGC and was believed to be training Hezbollah militants. But the attack was called off when US Defense Secretary Casper Weinberger lobbied against it, because, at the time there was no definitive proof Iran was behind the attack.

The U.S. would leave in February of 1984, as the Marines departed on board ships, the battleship New Jersey, firing her 16-inch guns pounded Druze and Syrian artillery and missile positions in the Beqaa Valley. The Syrian commander in Lebanon was killed during the nine-hour bombardment of nearly 300 shells. Lebanese civilians would later remark on the bombardment of Volkswagen-sized artillery shells and long bombardment.

The U.S. learned a valuable and costly lesson in Beirut and would not deploy troops again with inadequate means to defend themselves.

Photos: DOD

Operation Urgent Fury, The U.S. Invades Grenada

On this day in 1983, members of the 1st and 2nd Ranger Battalions, 82nd Airborne Division, Marine Corps 8th Marine Regiment, US Army Delta Force and Navy SEAL commandos invaded the island nation of Grenada. The small island, located about 100 miles north of Venezuela was under strife after Prime Minister Maurice Bishop was placed under arrest and executed. The military operation, conducted with members of the Jamaican forces as well as troops from the Regional Security System overwhelmed the Grenadian and Cuban forces in the country in a matter of days.

However, despite the battle being basically a cakewalk for the U.S. forces, the operation brought to the forefront, several flaws in the US warfighting machine. The inability to communicate between the services, the lack of joint interoperability and coordination would bring sweeping change to the way Americans go to war. This would lead to the Goldwater-Nichols Act and soon the creation of the Special Operations Command.

Background to Invasion:

Grenada had been a colony of the United Kingdom but it was granted its independence in 1974. Maurice Bishop led the New Jewel Movement which was a Marxist-Leninist organization and he seized power in 1979. However, Bishop was a relatively moderate in terms of foreign policy and it upset the more hard-line members of the military. On October 19, 1983, military junta members arrested Bishop and executed him, his partner Jacqueline Creft, along with three cabinet ministers and two union leaders. The new head of the government was Hudson Austin.

President Reagan justified U.S. intervention by stating that the American government was worried about the fate of the 600 U.S. medical students going to school at St. George. The Iran hostage fiasco had been resolved less than two years before.

Interestingly enough, the Grenadian people supported the U.S. invasion, the government of Austin was ousted and replaced with a democratic regime. The date of the invasion, October 25 is now a National Holiday in Grenada.

Cuban Dilemma:

At the time of the invasion, there were nearly 800 Cubans on the island. Fidel Castro at different times, identified most as construction workers while at others calling them soldiers. The Cuban commander, Colonel Pedro Comas, later said that he issued most of the construction workers with weapons for self-defense. The Cuban soldiers and “construction workers” were forbidden to surrender to the American forces. There were some stories floated around afterward that the construction workers were actually Cuban Special Forces or Combat Engineers.

SEAL Recon Mission Ends in Disaster:

Two days before the planned invasion, the SEALs were tasked with doing a reconnaissance of the island. Members of DEVGRU or SEAL Team 6 with Air Force combat controllers were parachuted at sea to conduct a reconnaissance mission on Point Salinas. Something went horribly wrong and as a result, four SEALs drowned. The bodies of Machinist Mate 1st Class Kenneth J. Butcher, Quartermaster 1st Class Kevin E. Lundberg, Hull Technician 1st Class Stephen L. Morris and Senior Chief Engineman Robert R. Schamberger were never recovered.

The survivors continued on with the mission but their boats flooded and the mission had to be aborted. A second mission on October 24, likewise was beset by bad weather, so very little of the needed intelligence was gathered.

25 October – Invasion:

After departing Hunter Army Airfield at midnight and refueling in Barbados, A&B Companies of the 1st Ranger Bn conducting a classic airfield seizure by parachuting at Pointe Salinas airport. The original plan called for an air-land seizure. They learned while in-flight that there were obstacles in the middle of the runway. The 2nd Bn of the Rangers would be closely behind the 1st and jump in.

The Rangers began their assault at 0530 and received antiaircraft fire from Russian made ZSU 23-2 as well as BTR-60 Armored Personnel Carriers. Accurate fire from the Rangers’ 90mm Recoilless Rifles and AC-130s suppressed the antiaircraft fire and knocked out the APCs. After securing the airfield, the Rangers moved on and took the heights surrounding the airfield.

By 1000 the obstacles were removed and reinforcements (Carribean Peace Force troops) began unloading and other aircraft began to airland on the strip. Beginning at 1400, elements of the 82nd Airborne Division (325th Abn Inf) began to arrive and land on the ground and began spreading out. Landing in the aircraft was a bitter pill to swallow for the 82nd. They pride themselves on being airborne and when the US next seized a major airfield, in Panama in 1989, the 82nd would get their jump. Even though the Rangers seized the airfield again, they would not be denied. And although some of their heavy drops ended up in the ocean, they would get their combat jump.

The Grenadians attacked with a Motorized Rifle Company with three more BTR-60s but the Rangers 90mm and the Air Force AC-130s drove them back. Four Rangers, looking for the medical students at the True Blue campus, got disoriented and were killed in an ambush. The students were later found but only 140 were located, the rest were at the campus at Grand Anse.

Meanwhile, the Pearls Airport was captured by SEALs from SEAL Team 4 who came ashore just after midnight and Marines from the 2 Bn., 8th Marine Regiment who flew in on CH-46s and CH-53s. They encountered light resistance and swept it aside easily.

Elements of SEAL Team 6 captured Radio Free Grenada unopposed, however, soon after capture, they were attacked by Grenadians in armored personnel carriers. The frogmen were forced to evade by cutting a hole in the chain link fence and swimming out to US ships. Two SEALs were seriously wounded in the action and were medevaced by helicopter to the USS Independence.

Due to the lack of good intelligence, the raid by Delta Force on Fort Rupert and Richmond Hill Prison nearly turned into a disaster. Delta commandos and C Co. of the1st Ranger Bn were tasked with the taking of these two targets with helicopters from Task Force 160, now known as the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment. The Night Stalkers were flying UH-60s and MH-6 “Little Birds”.

The raid of Fort Rupert was very successful, several members of the People’s Revolutionary Council were captured. The raid on the prison at Richmond Hill, where political prisoners were held was another story. The ground was very steep, too much so to land helicopters. There were also several anti-aircraft guns on site. One helicopter was shot down and the pilot killed. Several of the commandos were wounded. The Rangers sent reinforcements to assist in the Delta commandos in safely exfilling the area.

SEALs conducted a rescue operation for Governor General Paul Scoon from his mansion in Saint George. They entered the area unopposed but a counterattack by Grenadian forces supported by BTR-60 APCs had the SEALs trapped inside. The US forces called in air strikes with AC-130 gunships, A-7 Corsair strike planes, and AH-1 Cobra attack helicopters. The SEALs were forced to hold inside the mansion for 24 hours.

The next morning 250 Marine reinforcements with M-60 tanks relieved the SEALs and were able to bring Paul Scoon safely out. The Marines then overwhelmed the enemy opposition.

The fighting continued the next day as the 82nd Airborne pushed out the perimeter around the Salinas airfield. They got into a huge firefight with the Cubans and lost two dead and six wounded. The Cubans were pounded with airstrikes and artillery, and their resistance quickly faded after that.

By Day Three, the major fighting was over and the island secure.

UN, US Reaction:

President Reagan stated the purpose for the invasion was to protect American citizens, including medical students, living on the island. The reaction in the US was that the operation was justified.

In the UN, however, the situation was much different. From Wikipedia,On 2 November 1983 by a vote of 108 in favour to 9 voting against (Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, El Salvador, Israel, Jamaica, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and the United States), with 27 abstentions, the United Nations General Assembly adopted General Assembly Resolution 38/7, which “deeply deplores the armed intervention in Grenada, which constitutes a flagrant violation of international law and of the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of that State.”

Free elections were held less than 14 months later and the vast majority of the people in Grenada voted for the Grenada National Party and a government was formed led by Prime Minister Herbert Blaize.

The majority of US troops would be pulled from Grenada by December. The lack of usable intelligence and the issues with communication were things that pointed to massive changes that needed to be made.

From Wiki also, The Goldwater-Nichols Act reworked the command structure of the United States military, thereby making the most sweeping changes to the United States Department of Defense since the department was established in the National Security Act of 1947. It increased the powers of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and created the concept of truly unified joint U.S. forces (i.e., Army, Air Force, Marines, and Naval forces organized under one command). One of the first reorganizations resulting from both the Department of Defense analysis and the legislation was the formation of the U.S. Special Operations Command in 1987.

Photos: DOD

Remembering Humbert “Rocky” Versace, MOH, 29 October 1963

Humbert “Rocky” Versace was captured early in the Vietnam War on October 29, 1963, by the Viet Cong and showed his indomitable will by refusing to be indoctrinated by the Communists and resisted fiercely. He so enraged his captors by his insistence on adhering to the code of conduct and protesting their treatment of American POWs, the Vietcong executed him on September 26, 1965. He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.

Early Life and the USMA:

Versace was born the eldest of five children in Honolulu, Hawaii in 1937. His mother was an author and one of her novels was later turned into the television series, “The Flying Nun.” His father was a Colonel in the U.S. Army. Like most military families, the Versace clan moved quite frequently and Rocky grew up in Alexandria, VA, right outside of Washington, D.C.

After graduation from high school in Norfolk, VA, Versace got an appointment to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point as his father did. He graduated in 1959 as a Second Lieutenant in the Armor Branch. He went to Ranger School, the Class 4-60 and graduated on December 18, 1959. After attending airborne school, Versace was shipped to Korea where he was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 40th Armor, 1st Cavalry Division as an M-48 tank platoon leader from March 1960 – April 1961.

After being promoted to Captain, Versace was then assigned to the 3d U.S. Infantry (Old Guard), the ceremonial unit near Washington at Ft. Myer, VA and known the “Escort to the President.” While in Virginia Versace volunteered for duty in Vietnam and was transferred to Ft. Holabird, MD for the intelligence course and then the Vietnamese Language Course at the Presidio of Monterey in California.

Vietnam Tours, Capture and Execution:

Versace began his first tour as an intelligence advisor serving with the 5th Special Forces Group in May 1962. At the end of his year-long tour in May 1963, he volunteered to extend for six more months. At the conclusion of that, Versace decided that he was going to join the seminary and become a Catholic priest and return to Vietnam as a missionary.

With only two weeks remaining on his tour and the Army, Versace went to visit an old USMA classmate at the 5th Special Forces camp A-23 located at Tan Phu in the Mekong Delta. The Special Forces men were advising a Civilian Irregular Defense Group (CIDG) unit that was trying to dislodge a Viet Cong stronghold located in the thick U Minh Forest at the village of Le Coeur. Versace joined the men on the operation. The Viet Cong, however, ambushed the Montagnard/Special Forces patrol. While reacting to the ambush, an American Special Forces medic Dan Pitzer, broke his ankle, his A-Team XO, 1LT Nick Rowe moved to help him. Versace remained in place and put down enough covering fire to allow most of the CIDG troops to withdraw safely. However, Rowe was clubbed from behind by a Viet Cong and he, Pitzer and Versace were taken, prisoner.

The Viet Cong really had no idea on what to do with American prisoners so they subjected them to brutal interrogations, horrible conditions at a small jungle prison camp located deep in the U Minh Forrest. The Viet Cong, in addition to physical torture and interrogations, attempted to starve their American captives. Although he was wounded from the action at the ambush and very weak, Versace continued to display his absolute adherence to the Code of Conduct.

He tried to escape on four different occasions, once in such a weakened condition that he was on his hands and knees crawling outside the compound where he was easily recaptured by his guards. This infuriated the Viet Cong but not as much as his actions did. Using his Vietnamese language skills, he lambasted the Communists for their treatment of POWs, and their complete disregard for the Geneva Conventions. Using a mixture of Vietnamese and French, he kept the counterattacks going on his interrogators. Although his body was broken, his spirit was not.

The Viet Cong tried to separate him from the other captors and for a while left him gagged in his cell so that he couldn’t communicate with other Americans. The last time he was seen by his American countrymen, he was loudly singing “God Bless America.” His resilience after 23 months of brutal captivity, inspired his fellow Americans and infuriated the Viet Cong. On September 23, 1965, Viet Cong National Liberation Radio announced that Versace had been executed.

Versace was initially awarded a Silver Star for his actions but after a much-needed boost from many of his friends and family, his Silver Star was changed to the Medal of Honor and President Bush awarded it to his siblings in the White House in 2002.

Medal of Honor Citation:

Humbert Roque Versace
Rank and organization: Captain, U.S. Army, Intelligence Advisor, Special Operations
Place:Republic of Vietnam
Entered service at: Norfolk, Virginia
Born:Honolulu, Hawaii
Citation:
For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while a prisoner of war during the period of October 29, 1963 to September 26, 1965 in the Republic of Vietnam. While accompanying a Civilian Irregular Defense Group patrol engaged in combat operations in Thoi Binh District, An Xuyen Province, Republic of Vietnam on October 29, 1963, Captain Versace and the CIDG assault force were caught in an ambush from intense mortar, automatic weapons, and small arms fire from elements of a reinforced enemy Main Force battalion.
As the battle raged, Captain Versace fought valiantly and encouraged his CIDG patrol to return fire against overwhelming enemy forces. He provided covering fire from an exposed position to enable friendly forces to withdraw from the killing zone when it was apparent that their position would be overrun, and was severely wounded in the knee and back from automatic weapons fire and shrapnel. He stubbornly resisted capture with the last full measure of his strength and ammunition.
Taken prisoner by the Viet Cong, he demonstrated exceptional leadership and resolute adherence to the tenets of the Code of Conduct from the time he entered into a prisoner of war status. Captain Versace assumed command of his fellow American prisoners, and despite being kept locked in irons in an isolation box, raised their morale by singing messages to popular songs of the day, and leaving inspiring messages at the latrine.
Within three weeks of captivity, and despite the severity of his untreated wounds, he attempted the first of four escape attempts by dragging himself on his hands and knees out of the camp through dense swamp and forbidding vegetation to freedom. Crawling at a very slow pace due to his weakened condition, the guards quickly discovered him outside the camp and recaptured him. Captain Versace scorned the enemy’s exhaustive interrogation and indoctrination efforts, and inspired his fellow prisoners to resist to the best of their ability.
When he used his Vietnamese language skills to protest improper treatment of the American prisoners by the guards, he was put into leg irons and gagged to keep his protestations out of earshot of the other American prisoners in the camp. The last time that any of his fellow prisoners heard from him, Captain Versace was singing God Bless America at the top of his voice from his isolation box. Unable to break his indomitable will, his faith in God, and his trust in the United States of America and his fellow prisoners, Captain Versace was executed by the Viet Cong on September 26, 1965. Captain Versaces extraordinary heroism, self-sacrifice, and personal bravery involving conspicuous risk of life above and beyond the call of duty were in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Army, and reflect great credit to himself and the U.S. Armed Forces

Epilogue:

The full story of Versace’s actions was not known until Rowe escaped from captivity on December 31, 1968. Rowe had steadfastly stuck to his cover story that he was an engineer assigned to build schools and other civil affairs projects in the camp. He kept this up for years although the Vietnamese tried to catch him by forcing him to do different engineering problems to test him.

It was until the anti-war protesters including noted activist Tom Hayden visited Vietnam that he furnished the Communists with the background of several captives including Rowe. When the Viet Cong found out his background was intelligence and Special Forces, they were incensed.

They were taking him to be executed in the jungle when his guards were startled by an air assault nearby of U.S. helicopters. Rowe overpowered his guard and rushed out into a rice paddy and got the attention of the crew by waving his mosquito net. He was nearly killed by his beard (the Vietnamese rarely grew) convinced the crew he was an American and he was rescued after five years.

Rowe was brought back into the Army in 1981 as an LTC and was tasked with developing and running the Army SERE School at Camp Mackall, NC. His developed course left behind a lasting legacy in the Special Forces community. SERE – Survival Evasion Resistance Escape, is taught to all Special Forces soldiers and to selected other Special Operations troops. The mission is to avoid capture at all costs but if caught, to return home alive and with honor. Rowe wrote a book about his experiences as a POW called “Five Years to Freedom.”

In 1989, Rowe was assigned at the JUSMAG Joint U.S. Military Advisory Group in the Philippines. He was assassinated while on his way to work one morning by Filippino Communists.

Photos: Rocky Versace with his father, Dan Pitzer and Nick Rowe- DOD

Michael E. Thornton, SEAL, MOH Oct. 31, 1972

Michael Thornton was a Navy SEAL and was awarded the U.S. military’s highest decoration, the Medal of Honor, for his actions during the war in Vietnam. He was decorated for saving the life of his senior officer, Lieutenant Thomas R. Norris, who also a recipient of the Medal of Honor in another combat action in Vietnam.

Thornton was born in Greenville, SC and graduated from high school in 1967 and immediately joined the U.S. Navy. He was trained as a gunner’s mate and served on a destroyer until he volunteered for Naval Special Warfare. Thornton graduated from Class 49 Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL Training in Coronado, CA in November 1968 and was assigned to SEAL Team One and served in several tours in Vietnam between 1969 and 1972.

He was a member of MACVSOG (Military Assistance Command Vietnam, Studies and Observations Group), the Special Operations Forces joint command in Vietnam. During the final year of the U.S. involvement in Vietnam during 1972, only a handful of Navy SEALs remained in Vietnam. But the combat didn’t lessen for those who were there. And Thornton, now a Petty Officer would see some horrific combat where he’d be awarded the nation’s highest honor.

Quang Tri Mission:

Thornton and Lt. Thomas Norris would accompany three South Vietnamese troops on a mission on October 31, 1972, to gather intelligence and capture enemy personnel. The three Vietnamese were members of their Special Forces and they had worked extensively with the two SEALs in the past.

They boarded Vietnamese junks and then after dark took rubber boats ashore near the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone). The five men slipped around several North Vietnamese encampments and began their reconnoiter.

Realizing too late they had actually landed in North Vietnam, they scouted several bunkers and large amounts of NVA troops. Moving back toward the shore, they scouted two NVA troops which they would attempt to capture.

When one of the NVA troops broke towards the jungle, Thornton chased him to prevent him from alerting the others. That is when all hell broke loose. All of a sudden, 50 NVA troops were turning the tables on Thornton and firing at him. He moved from position to position trying to link back up with his small team as he was taking fire.

Thornton was constantly moving about, giving the NVA troops the impression there were many more Americans on the ground than they thought. He called for Naval gunfire from two destroyers nearby but they had been driven off by shore fire from several North Vietnamese artillery batteries.

The tiny band of five men held off a force of about 150 NVA for the next four hours. One of the South Vietnamese junks had a mortar on board and Thornton called for them to come in and lend some indirect fire support but the destroyers wouldn’t allow them to get close enough.

Near dawn, Norris had the men withdraw towards the beach, but bounding while he covered them from the rear. He called in a fire for effect mission from the cruiser USS Newport News (CA-148) to cover their withdrawal. As he was attempting to fire a LAW rocket to suppress the enemy. He was shot thru the head. The South Vietnamese assumed he was dead.

When they told Thornton, he raced to Norris’ position to recover his body. To his shock, Norris was alive but “the whole side of his head was completely gone.” He took down several NVA who tried to overrun their position. He then hoisted Norris over his shoulders despite having suffered a wound in his back from grenade shrapnel, he ran to the beach.

Just then the first shells from Newport News hit the beach. The concussion threw both Thornton and Norris 20 feet into the air. He then dragged the barely alive Lieutenant into the surf and began swimming out to sea. One of the South Vietnamese was shot thru his hip and into his butt and couldn’t swim. Thornton pushed, pulled both he and Norris out to sea as bullets rained around them. The Newport News left believing the team was dead.

One of the other South Vietnamese reached a junk and reported the rest of the team had been killed. Despite this, Thornton bandaged Norris’ head as best he could and then fired his AK-47 to draw the attention of the junks. They were finally picked up and transported to the Newport News. Thornton carried his SEAL Lt to the operating room. The doctor there told him that there was no way that Norris would survive.

But he did and Norris was the guest of President Gerald Ford on March 6, 1976, at the White House as he was awarded the Medal of Honor for his rescue of Air Force LTC Iceal Hambleton in the famous “BAT 21” story.

Thornton would receive the Medal of Honor from President Richard Nixon at the White House on October 15, 1973, nearly one year from the action that took place. In doing so, he became the first man ever to receive the Medal of Honor for rescuing another man who was a fellow MOH awardee. Thornton also was awarded a Silver Star, Bronze Star with “V” device with two oak leaf clusters, and the Purple Heart. He later served in Desert Shield and Desert Storm.

After the war in Vietnam, Thornton would continue to serve in the SEALs and from 1974 -1977, Thornton served as a BUD/S instructor at NAB Coronado. In 1978 he was selected to serve two years with the British Royal Marines’ Special Boat Squadron (SBS) in an exchange program. In 1980, the Navy was putting together SEAL Team Six, which was the Navy’s first Counter-Terrorism Force. Thornton was personally chosen by the first Commander, Richard Marcinko to be a founding member of the team.

Thornton later became a commissioned officer in June 1982 and retired as a Lieutenant in 1992.

Under heavy gunfire from dozens of North Vietnamese soldiers, Navy SEAL Mike Thornton lifted critically injured fellow SEAL Tom Norris onto his shoulders and carried him in the darkness down the beach into the South China Sea surf. (Navy SEAL Museum)

Medal of Honor citation:

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while participating in a daring operation against enemy forces. PO Thornton, as Assistant U.S. Navy Advisor, along with a U.S. Navy lieutenant serving as Senior Advisor, accompanied a 3-man Vietnamese Navy SEAL patrol on an intelligence gathering and prisoner capture operation against an enemy-occupied naval river base.

Launched from a Vietnamese Navy junk in a rubber boat, the patrol reached land and was continuing on foot toward its objective when it suddenly came under heavy fire from a numerically superior force. The patrol called in naval gunfire support and then engaged the enemy in a fierce firefight, accounting for many enemy casualties before moving back to the waterline to prevent encirclement.

Upon learning that the Senior Advisor had been hit by enemy fire and was believed to be dead, PO Thornton returned through a hail of fire to the lieutenant’s last position; quickly disposed of 2 enemy soldiers about to overrun the position, and succeeded in removing the seriously wounded and unconscious Senior Naval Advisor to the water’s edge. He then inflated the lieutenant’s lifejacket and towed him seaward for approximately 2 hours until picked up by support craft.

By his extraordinary courage and perseverance, PO Thornton was directly responsible for saving the life of his superior officer and enabling the safe extraction of all patrol members, thereby upholding the highest traditions of the U.S. Naval Service

Photos: Michael Thornton (right) and LT Tom Norris, US Navy