Heroes of U.S. Special Operations

Marine Col. Peter J. Ortiz, OSS, Career Reads Like Fiction

Marine Colonel Peter J. Ortiz, OSS, Story Reads Like Fiction

The OSS was an eclectic organization; General William Donovan wanted operators, he didn’t care about a soldier’s background or his political beliefs. The OSS wanted as Donovan said, “PhDs who can win a bar fight.” McGeorge Bundy said of the organization, “The OSS was a remarkable institution: half cops and robbers and half faculty meeting.”

But perhaps the most fascinating operator in the OSS was Marine Lieutenant Colonel Peter J. Ortiz. Ortiz’s story reads like a Hollywood fiction story. There were actually two Hollywood films made about Ortiz’s exploits, “13 Rue Madeleine” starring James Cagney and “Operation Secret” starring Cornell Wilde. Ortiz was one of the few Marines who saw combat in Europe during World War II. He was the recipient of two Navy Crosses, an OBE (Order of the British Empire) and numerous French awards. After the war, he became an actor and was in several films.

Ortiz was born in New York to an American Mother of Swiss descent and a French-born Spanish father. He was educated in France and spoke 10 different languages including Spanish, French, German and Arabic.

He did two stints in the French Foreign Legion, the first of which was in 1932 just for the adventure. He father tried to buy his way out once he found out but Ortiz wouldn’t leave. He stayed until 1937 and worked his way up from private to acting Lieutenant. Ortiz was awarded the Croix de Guerre with two palms, one gold star, one silver star, and five citations; the Croix des Combatants; the Ouissam Alouite; and the Medaille Militaire during his first tour and was offered a permanent commission as a Lieutenant if he’d reenlist for five more years and become a French citizen. But he turned them down and returned to the U.S.

He worked briefly in Hollywood as a technical adviser until WWII broke out. With the U.S. officially neutral, he reenlisted in the Legion in October 1939 and by 1940 had gotten a commission again. In 1940 he was wounded and taken prisoner. He escaped 15 months later making his way back to the U.S. thru Lisbon in December of 1941. He was awarded the Croix de Guerre (one palm, one silver star, two citations), Croix des Combattants during his second tour.

He joined the U.S. Marine Corps in June 1942 as a private, but due to his combat experience, his commander at the recruit depot wrote to the Commandant of the Marine Corps about him in July, requesting that he be given a commission. The letter, extraordinary in its own right, considering the subject of it was in boot camp .

Private Ortiz had made an extremely favorable impression upon the undersigned. His knowledge of military matters is far beyond that of the normal recruit instructor. Ortiz is a very well set up an and makes an excellent appearance. The undersigned is glad to recommend Ortiz for a commission in the Marine Corps Reserve and is of the opinion that he would be a decided addition to the Reserve Officer list. In my opinion, he has the mental, moral, professional, and physical qualifications for the office for which he has made application.

With the upcoming invasion of French North Africa looming, the Marine Corps, knowing of Ortiz’s knowledge of French, Spanish, and Arabic, he was offered to the Army to assist in the upcoming campaign. Although he’d only been a 2LT for three months, he was bypassed for 1LT and promoted directly to Captain. He was assigned as the Assistant Naval Attache in Tangiers, Morocco as a cover.

Ortiz organized a patrol of Arabs to scout German forces on the Tunisian front. And while doing so, his men got into a firefight with the Germans. Ortiz was badly wounded in the hand during the action. MG Donovan, Director of OSS, forwarded to the Marine Commandant a message from Algiers which stated, “While on reconnaissance on the Tunisian front, Captain Peter Ortiz, U.S.M.C.R. was severely wounded in the right hand while engaged in a personal encounter with a German patrol. He dispersed the patrol with grenades. Captain Ortiz is making good recovery in hospital at Algiers. The Purple Heart was awarded to him.” Donovan read Ortiz’s after-action report and wrote on it, “Very interesting, please re-employ this man as soon as possible.”

While recuperating in Washington early in May, 1943, Ortiz was reassigned to the Naval Command, OSS. He would become part of the Jedburgh operation.

On January 6, 1944, Ortiz who had over 150 parachute jumps while in the service of the French was air-dropped into the Haute-Savoie region of German-occupied France as part of the three-man “Union” mission, with Colonel Pierre Fourcaud of the French secret service and Captain Thackwaite from the British Special Operations Executive.

Their mission was to evaluate the status of the Maquis and the resistance in the area and impress upon them that to conduct Guerrilla Warfare in their areas, especially after D-Day was the most important factor for everyone involved. But the Maquisards lacked weapons and ammunition. The team arranged several drops of supplies and arms for the Maquis.

Although they jumped into France in civilian clothing, they still carried their uniforms and once there, they became the first Allied troops on the mainland of France since 1940. Thackwaite wrote about Ortiz, that he “knew not fear and did not hesitate to wear his U.S. Marine captain’s uniform in town and country alike” which while it was a morale boost to the French, was infuriating to the Germans.

His team was able to rescue four RAF pilots and Ortiz would accompany them to the border with Spain. Then in an act of derring-do that was particularly amazing, Ortiz raided a German military garage and took off with ten Gestapo vehicles, even snagging a pass which he used frequently. He was awarded the O.B.E. for his action.

His legend grew, there are several stories of him waltzing into German occupied towns in full uniform and having a go with the German troops. While the stories vary, they reinforce the fact that he was not afraid to go anywhere in his operational area. In the book “Herringbone Cloak–GI Dagger: Marines of the OSS” written by LTC Robert Mattingly, perhaps the best version of these events unfolded:

Ortiz, in particular, was fond of going straight into the German-occupied towns. On one occasion, he strolled into a cafe dressed in a long cape. Several Germans were drinking and cursing the maquis. One mentioned the fate which would befall the filthy American swine when he was caught. (The Nazis apparently knew of Ortiz’ existence in the area with the maquis) This proved a great mistake. Captain Ortiz threw back the cape revealing his Marine uniform. In each hand, he held a .45 automatic. When the shooting stopped, there were fewer Nazis to plan his capture and Ortiz was gone into the night.

Operation Union was ended on May 20 and the team exfilled to London. He was then decorated with the first of two Navy Crosses and promoted to Major. Ortiz returned to France on August 1, 1944, the head of a mission entitled UNION II. This OSS mission was no longer a Jedburgh operation but an Operational Group. These were heavily armed teams which were tasked with direct action against the Germans. They were not only to conduct sabotage but they were to also seize key installations to prevent retreating German units from destroying them.

OG members, unlike Jeds, were always in uniform. Along with Ortiz on this mission were Army Air Forces Captain Francis Coolidge, and Marine Gunnery Sergeant Robert La Salle, Sergeants Charles Perry, John P. Bodnar, Frederick J. Brunner, and Jack R. Risler, as well as a Free French officer, Joseph Arcelin, who carried false identification which showed him to be a U.S. Marine.

Things went wrong from the start on the second mission. Perry’s static line snapped causing him to fall to his death on the jump in. The rest of the team buried him on the drop zone. The men were advising the “Bulle” Battalion to support the Allied landings in Southern France. The Army Air Corps dropped 864 bundles of weapons, equipment, and supplies to support the team and their efforts.

The Germans (157th Alpine Division-Reserves) however was on the resistance’s tail almost immediately. On the 14th of August, the Germans shelled the town of Montgirod where they had entered and forced them and the Bulle Battalion into the mountains outside of town. They quickly surrounded them. On the 18th their luck ran out. They ran into a German column of trucks and troops numbering several hundred in the town of Centron.

The Germans kept the men under fire and the fighting was going from house to house. French civilians urged the men to surrender since the Germans had liquidated two entire towns of citizens for reportedly harboring the resistance. Ortiz didn’t want that to happen.

He walked out in full view of the Germans who kicked up the dirt around him with machinegun fire. In perfect German, he asked to speak to the Commander. He agreed to surrender his men if the German officer, a Major Kolb would spare the town any reprisals. Kolb agreed and then he and men were incredulous and then livid when only Bodner and Risler came out. The Germans thought they were in action against a company-sized element, when in fact, the three Marine OSS men held off a battalion.

He spent the rest of the war as a POW but made numerous attempts to escape. His final one in April of 1945 had Ortiz and three others escape and spend 10 days wandering around looking for British Army units. They were starving and eventually went back to their prison of war camp where they were cheered by the other POWs.

On April 29, 1945, the camp was liberated by the 7th Guards Armored Division and the men were returned to Allied control. When he returned to London, Ortiz was given his second Navy Cross. He returned to civilian life and was a technical advisor for Hollywood films. He was good friends with director John Ford and he put Ortiz in several of his films including “Rio Grande” with John Wayne, Maureen O’Hara, and Victor McLaglen. And “Wings of Eagles” also with Wayne and O’Hara.

Peter Ortiz with Maureen O’Hara in Rio Grande

By his own admission, he was a terrible actor but thought that the making of films was a lot of fun. He died of cancer in 1988, the only battle he ever fought and lost.

With the news of last week where certain historians question the legacy of OSS and that of the US Army Special Forces, I wonder if many Marines know the legacy of Peter Ortiz. While so much of the Corps history centers around the island campaigns of WWII, one officer had an incredibly, packed career in just a short amount of time in Europe. And when it comes to Special Operators, he stands among the best.

Photos: National Archives, Republic Pictures

Former Green Beret Maj. Mark Golsteyn Charged With Murder of Taliban Suspect

A former Army Green Beret has been charged with murder and conspiracy for killing an alleged Taliban bomb-making suspect. The bomber had allegedly planted an IED that killed two U.S. Marines that were fighting with the Green Berets in the Afghan town of Marjah. Reportedly Major Mark Golsteyn and another soldier shot and killed the suspected bomber and then destroyed his remains.

This case, which happened in 2010 has been dragging on for nine years. The US Army Special Operations Command spokesman Loren Bymer said that on Friday that “sufficient evidence exists” to warrant charges against Golsteyn. Originally this story came to light in a polygraph interview that Golsteyn did with CIA officials as part of a job interview.

“Major Golsteyn is being charged with the murder of an Afghan male during his 2010 deployment to Afghanistan,” Bymer put out in a statement.

According to Army Times, Bymer stated that Golsteyn has been recalled to active duty and is under the command of the USASOC headquarters company. An intermediary commander will review the warrant of preferred charges to determine if the major will face an Article 32 hearing that could lead to a court-martial.

That commander has 120 days to make that decision.

Golsteyn had been placed on voluntary excess leave, an administrative status for soldiers pending lengthy administrative proceedings, Bymer said. He is not being confined at this time.

“I think he’s been betrayed,” his attorney, Phillip Stackhouse, told Fox News on Friday after he was interviewed on his client’s actions. Golsteyn is facing the death penalty if convicted of murder in this case.

Golsteyn, a captain at the time, was deployed to Afghanistan in 2010 with 3rd Special Forces Group. During the intense Battle of Marja, an IED planted on a booby-trapped door killed two Marines and wounded three others who were working with the 3rd SFG ODA-3121.

For his actions during the deployment, Golsteyn earned a Silver Star, the nation’s third-highest award for valor. Later, an upgrade for his medal was approved but never given for a Distinguished Service Cross, the nation’s second highest award for valor just beneath the Medal of Honor.

However, due to his CIA polygraph where he admitted killing the Taliban bomber, CIA officials turned the results over to Army CID (Criminal Investigation Command). Although the resultant Board of Inquiry resulted in no charges filed against Golsteyn, it was ordered that he be stripped of his Silver Star and his Special Forces tab, given to Green Berets at the end of their training. It further ordered that he be given a General Discharge under Honorable Conditions.

The Board of Inquiry found no evidence that Golsteyn committed no Law of Armed Conflict violation, they found him to culpable of Conduct Unbecoming of an Officer.

While investigating the bombing in the Marjah marketplace, Golsteyn and his men found bomb-making materials nearby. Local tribal leaders brought in a tied up suspect that they identified as the Taliban IED bomber. Without enough evidence to hold the suspect much longer, Golsteyn told the polygraph examiners that he feared that the Taliban would take retribution against the tribal leaders and their families who were seen to be working with the Americans.

They made the decision to eliminate the Taliban. They took him off base, shot and killed him and then burned his body in a pit where the U.S. destroyed classified documents. His remains have never been found.

Then during a November 2016 and interview with Fox News, Golsteyn again admitted that he had killed the Taliban bomber, who had been captured by American troops, found with bomb-making material and then released.

“There are limits on how long you can hold guys,” he told Fox News for a news special that they produced on the war and our troops.

“You realize quickly that you make things worse. It is an inevitable outcome that people who are cooperating with coalition forces, when identified, will suffer some terrible torture or be killed.”

Asked if he killed the man, Golsteyn said, “Yes.”

That interview can be seen here:

That prompted the Army to open its second CID investigation into Golsteyn.

CID offered immunity to two SF soldiers to testify against Golsteyn but they refused to talk.

The two Marines Sgt. Jeremy R. McQueary and Lance Cpl. Larry M. Johnson, who had been working with Golsteyn’s A-Team are the forgotten ones in this case.

But the parents of one of the slain Marines believe the charges ludicrous.

“I think that’s crazy,” said David Kleinschmidt, stepfather of victim Sgt. Jeremy R. McQueary.

“I don’t understand why they are bringing this up again,” Kleinschmidt told the New York Post on Friday.

“We were in a war — and things happen in war,” he added, “personally, I think they should just drop [the charges] … I’m glad the guy is dead.” McQueary’s mom said her heart goes out to the family of the former Green Beret. “I’m sure his family has to be stressed out beyond belief,” the mom said of Golsteyn.

“And my heart goes out to them.”

Ashley Johnson, the sister of killed Marine Larry Johnson was also, not surprisingly on the side of Golsteyn. “He, from what I read, is a hero and did what he had to do. I believe at a time like that, you wear your heart on your sleeve and I think it’s what anyone with a heart would do,” she said.

While soldiers who worked with Golsteyn told Army Investigators that they doubted that the Captain would kill an unarmed insurgent, it seems he wasn’t popular with senior officers in his chain of command.

“I have a hard time believing that such an incident ever occurred,” a senior medic in his unit told CID in December 2011. “I further find it hard to believe that Matt Golsteyn would do that. The only reason I could possibly conceive him doing something like that is if he felt his men’s lives were at direct risk.”

But a Lieutenant Colonel in Golsteyn’s chain of command differed and told CID that often Golsteyn was insubordinate and would act with a sense of impunity. According to CID, this LTC stated when asked by investigators if he believed Golsteyn capable of murder, he essentially threw him under the bus. “I would hope not, the colonel stated but “would not doubt it either because of the captain’s attitude,” the investigator wrote.

When the Marines returned from the mission that their comrades were killed and wounded, Golsteyn was there as they reentered the compound. He produced a bottle of whiskey (which is forbidden in a combat zone) and toasted the fallen Marines. That small act went a long way with bringing the SF men and Marines closer but infuriated Army brass for drinking alcohol in a war zone. The fact that the Army was more concerned with a toast to killed Marines rather than removing a Taliban bomber speaks volumes to several Special Forces veterans.

Golsteyn has at least one member of Congress on his side, Rep. Duncan D. Hunter Jr. (R.Calif.), a Marine veteran and frequent critic of the Army secretary.

“Major Matt Golsteyn is an American hero, and his experience calls to attention another hero, retired General James Mattis and something he said: ‘There are some assholes in the world that just need to be shot.’ I know you agree that a known Afghan bomb-maker with the blood of American service members on his hands fits into that category,” the congressman wrote to Army Secretary Eric Fanning and Gen. Mark A. Milley, Army chief of staff.

Hunter said: “Golsteyn is an American hero — a true warrior, in fact. Why the Army is hell-bent on destroying a combat hero’s career is truly astonishing. I’m confident that Army CID has more important things to [do] than investigate Golsteyn again, and you both have the ability to fix this stupidity.”

In a handwritten note, the former Marine said, “Gentlemen, come on! This is a joke. I’m sure you have more important stuff to do. This is getting old.”

This brings to mind a case of similar circumstances back in Vietnam that was known as the “Green Beret Affair” where a suspected Vietnamese double-agent who was responsible for the death of several agents was killed and dumped into the ocean.

And now President Trump says he’ll review the case, “At the request of many, I will be reviewing the case of a ‘U.S. Military hero,’ Major Matt Golsteyn, who is charged with murder. He could face the death penalty from our own government after he admitted to killing a Terrorist bomb maker while overseas,” Trump said on Twitter.

This will likely make this case a politicized event …for better or worse.

Photo: DOD

Mission Accomplished 2 for US SOF? No Easy Answers in Syria

President Trump ruffled quite a few feathers both here in the United States and abroad when he tweeted out a few days ago that our troops were being pulled out of Syria. The President said, “We have defeated ISIS in Syria, my only reason for being there during the Trump Presidency,” which he said during the Presidential campaign of 2016 that he would pull us out of there once elected.

We currently have about 2000 troops, mostly Special Operations forces in Syria. They were initially sent there in 2015 by then-President Obama as the civil war in Syria reached a point where the Islamic State (ISIS) had taken advantage of the chaos and carved out a huge swath of Syrian territory as their own, calling it a “caliphate.”

Now the civil war is approaching its 8th year. ISIS is on the run definitely, now controlling just 1 percent of the territory they possessed a few years ago. They are locked into a small enclave around the town of Hanin where they have endured airstrikes from coalition partners.

Part of Trump’s reasoning is that he doesn’t want to help the Syrians (not a US friend in the region), stabilize their own country. While true, the situation remains much deeper than that. There are so many other players involved, it is an extremely fluid situation. Number 1 on the US agenda should be the Kurds.

The Kurds (Syrian Democratic Forces, SDF) were the Americans’ best allies inside the country. The U.S. Special Operations Forces inside Syria have provided training, advising and equipment to fight ISIS and they’ve (with massive US air support) made significant gains against the ISIS forces there. The SOF troops are the only buffer between the Kurds and the Turkish forces that have invaded from the north.

A rapid pullout of U.S. forces sends a bad message to any would-be ally in the region. The French, who worked with the Kurds in Iraq several years ago during the first Gulf War have said that they’ll step up and take the place of our SOF with the Kurdish people.

The Turks, while still technically a member of NATO are growing increasingly anti-West in their sentiments. They pushed into northern Syria because they feel that the Kurds are terrorists. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has promised to launch a new offensive against the U.S.’s Kurdish allies unless the U.S. promises to cut off aid to them.

The Turks have supported non-Kurdish Syrian opposition groups, such as the Free Syrian Army (FSA) since the civil war began. Their biggest worry remains that gains made by Kurds in Syria would embolden the Kurdish population in Turkey to seek independence. Turkey has already launched two operations to help Syrian rebels capture territory from ISIS and the Kurds. And they are threatening more.

Russia has been a longtime Syrian and Assad ally. They provided the regime with air support, as well as troops on the ground. President Putin is trying to keep his biggest foothold in the region and at the same time spread their influence in the region.

The Russian air support which initially targeted ISIS has now spread to targeting other resistance groups including the FSA of Kurdish forces. This past winter a group of Russian mercenaries and Syrian troops attacked a joint US-Kurdish base in a “mistaken” operation and were decimated by airstrikes.

The Iranians, intent on spreading their influence in the region began by offering military advisory assistance to the Assad regime. But now they have several thousand troops in the area and are building bases close to the border with Israel, which they are also doing in Lebanon. The U.S. believes, and rightfully so, that the Iranians are preparing for a long-term presence in Syria. Tehran has spent $16 billion in the area to destabilize the countries of Syria, Yemen as well as Iraq.

So with the President calling for a United States withdrawal in the country, there is definite pushback even among his own administration and political party, calling it a big mistake. Back in June, the President floated around a plan for an all-Arab army to replace the U.S. in a meeting with Jordan’s King Abdullah.

Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis warned against a premature withdrawal that bought some time for those in the administration that wanted to remain. However, with the news that the U.S. is indeed pulling out, Mattis announced he was retiring in February. Obviously, the reasoning behind the timing of Mattis’ retirement was in protest over this latest flap. In his letter of resignation, Mattis said that the President had a right to a Defense Secretary “whose views are better aligned with yours” on policy.

Now Brett McGurk, the U.S. envoy for the global coalition to defeat Islamic State (ISIS), has resigned as well. McGurk was an Obama administration appointee and was due to leave in February but his letter of resignation states that his last day will be Dec. 31.

McGurk in December 11 press conference called the idea of leaving Syria too soon reckless and added that the “enduring defeat of a group like (ISIS) this means you can’t just defeat their physical space and then leave.”

“Nobody is saying that they are going to disappear. Nobody is that naive,” he said. “So we want to stay on the ground and make sure that stability can be maintained in these areas.”

McGurk led the way for the secret talks with Iran where the Iranians released prisoners in return for boatloads of cash.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. called the Trump decision to leave Syria early an “Obama-like decision”. He added, “I don’t know what they’ve done, but this is chaos.”

There have been many positive results because of the albeit smaller but very effective U.S. Special Operations presence in Syria. ISIS has been largely destroyed and removed from nearly all of the areas that they controlled. The northeastern portion of Syria has been stabilized. The Iranian attempt at expansion has been blocked and the Russians have also have been checked as they are no longer the only power brokers in Syria.

What will probably happen now is that the country will again become destabilized as the Turks and their proxies will do their own bidding in the north? They’ve already been accused of massive human rights abuses in Syria and no one believes that will cease without the coalition there. The Kurds? They will bear the brunt of our leaving. The Kurds wanted their own autonomous mini-state within Syria. No one believed that would ever happen. But when the Turks bullied Trump and the U.S. into withdrawing, it is an ominous sign that worse times may yet lay ahead of our allies there.

Some of our troops will remain across the border in Iraq but any incursions into Syria now for our Special Operations Forces would be fraught with peril. Will any other members of the administration be able to talk the President out of an early withdrawal? That will bear watching.

Photo of US Special Operations Forces: DOD

January 1, 1962, The US Navy SEAL Teams Are Born

On this day in 1962 is the official date of the beginning of the United States Navy’s Sea, Air and Land Teams (SEAL) as President John Kennedy established the Navy’s Unconventional Warfare unit. SEAL teams are designed to conduct direct action missions from any environment.

Although the official date for the SEAL Teams is in 1962, they were actually tied to units in World War II that they owe their lineage to. Less than a year after Pearl Harbor, the Navy recognized the need for dedicated beach reconnaissance. The Amphibious Scout and Raider School was established at Little Creek, Virginia and contained both Navy and Army personnel. This first group of special operators also contained Phil Bucklew, who is considered the father of all Navy Special Operations.

And while most people think of the work that the Navy’s beach clearing operations in the Pacific, they also conducted operations in every major amphibious landing in the European theater. They were instrumental in leading the way for amphibious forces in North Africa, Sicily, Salerno, Anzio, Normandy on D-Day, and the landings in Southern France.

The Navy also developed Navy Combat Demolition Units (NCDU) which would blow gaps in beach defenses for amphibious forces to breach during invasions. NCDUs suffered a large number of casualties during D-Day. While in the Pacific they created Underwater Demolition Teams (UDT). The UDTs rewrote the manuals of the NCDUs and wore just swimming trunks (UDT shorts), fins, masks, and a combat knife. They, contrary to orders would get out of their boats to conduct their missions and thus became known as the “naked warriors.”

UDT swimmers conducted operations at Eniwetok, Saipan, Kwajalein, Tinian, Guam, Angaur, Ulithi, Peleliu, Leyte, Lingayen Gulf, Zambales, Iwo Jima, Okinawa, Labuan, and Brunei Bay. During the Korean War UDTs would perform operations all long the Korean coastlines and they targeted bridges, mines, and scouted out the landings at Inchon.

It should be noted that OSS (Office of Strategic Services) had its own Maritime Unit. And many of the missions we think of SEALs today were actually conducted by the special operations unit then. The OSS Maritime Unit conducted operations using newly improved fins, masks, SCUBA (self-contained, underwater breathing apparatus), the use of Swimmer Delivery Vehicles and conducted the first submarine lockout.

As the war in Vietnam was still in its infancy stage for the Americans, President Kennedy recognized what kind of a war it would eventually become. He helped get the U.S. Army Special Forces the recognition it needed to expand the Army’s Unconventional Warfare capabilities. He foresaw the same need for the U.S. Navy. While making the speech about putting a man on the moon, he spoke about spending $100 million dollars to strengthen the U.S. UW capability. However, while he was the one signing the SEAL Teams into existence, the Navy had already been working on expanding the role of UDTs for several years.

SEAL Teams One and Two deployed to Vietnam to operate in the deltas and thousands of rivers and canals in the country to try to effectively disrupt the enemy’s lines of communication.

SEALs advised and trained Vietnamese forces, such as the LDNN (Vietnamese SEALs) and conducted their own brand of UW. These Navy commandos also perfected the art of nighttime Direct Action missions such as ambushes and raids to capture prisoners of high intelligence value. These are considered the bread-and-butter of the SEAL forces today.

During the war, the intelligence gathering for the troops was generally poor, it was then that SEALs and Green Berets would begin gathering their own intelligence. It was then that the value of the intel gathered by these Special Operators rose up quickly. Both Army and Navy Special Operators would serve together along with CIA personnel in the Military Assistance Command, Vietnam Studies and Observation Group (MACVSOG).

These men while representing less than 1 percent of the ground forces in Vietnam, produced about 75 percent of all the usable intelligence for the troops in the country.

After Vietnam, the SEAL Teams would expand during the buildup of Special Operations forces in the 1980s. SEALs would serve in the battles in Grenada, Panama, the first Persian Gulf war with Iran, Somalia, Afghanistan after 9/11, Iraq and in Syria. They’ve also been involved in more low-visibility operations in the Philippines, in the Horn of Africa and countless other third-world countries where Special Operations Troops generally work in the shadows.

But two of the missions that SEALs have conducted have become mainstream news items. One was conducted in April of 2009 when Somali pirates took over the U.S. ship the Maersk Alabama. The pirates had taken the Captain of the Alabama, Richard Phillips hostage and they were in a lifeboat being towed behind the USS Bainbridge. SEALs from DEVGRU were alerted and transported to the Navy ships in the Area. Then, in a tremendous feat of marksmanship while on the open seas, DEVGRU snipers took out the pirates, each with a headshot.

During the early morning hours of May 1, 2011, in the country of Pakistan that is where SEALs of DEVGRU (Naval Special Warfare Development Group) were alerted after CIA intelligence pinpointed the location of Osama bin Laden.

In a combined operation with CIA assets on the ground in Abbottabad, Pakistan about 35 miles from Islamabad, Pakistan, DEVGRU SEALs infiltrated into the target area using specially designed “stealth” Blackhawk helicopters landed in the compound that bin Laden had been hiding in, with members of his family. They quickly moved thru the facility and killed bin Laden and brought out his body and several of his computers in a tremendous intelligence coup.

Since the initial Iraq War in Desert Storm and thru the on-going Global War on Terror (GWOT), over 80 SEALs have given their lives in the service of our country. Today, there are 10 SEAL Teams and a SEAL Delivery Vehicle Team deployed everywhere around the globe.

Photos: US Navy

William “Wild Bill” Donovan Born Jan.1, Head of OSS, Forerunner of CIA

William Donovan was a man who many hats, he was a decorated soldier, diplomat, intelligence officer, as well as a lawyer. He’s best known as the founder and commander of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), which was the forerunner to both the CIA and the U.S. Army Special Forces (Green Berets). He is considered the “Father of U.S. Intelligence” and a statue of him resides in CIA Headquarters.

Humble Beginnings:

Donovan was born on New Year’s Day 1883 in Buffalo, New York to American-born parents but came from Irish immigrants. His father, Timothy, moved to Buffalo and for a time managed the railroad yard and later the Holy Cross Cemetery.

Donovan attended St. Joseph’s Collegiate Institute, a Catholic school where he played football, acted in plays, and won an award for oratory. He would then follow on to Niagara University, a Catholic university, and seminary where he studied pre-law. Donovan briefly considered becoming a priest but would ultimately decide against it. While at Niagra, Donovan won another oratorical contest, for presenting a speech warning of corrupt, anti-Christian forces that threatened the existence of the United States.

Looking to expand his personal horizons he transferred to Colombia University to study law but also attended religious services of the Jewish and Protestant faiths to gauge whether he wanted to change his religion. He continued to be a star athlete, starring with the football and rowing teams. He won another award for oratory and was voted the “most modest” and one of the “most handsome” members of Columbia’s graduating class of 1905.

While at Columbia, one of his classmates was Franklin D. Roosevelt. Although polar opposites on the political spectrum, the two would cross paths and have a solid respectful relationship.

Donovan was a partner in a law firm in Buffalo, New York when he decided to help form and lead a unit for the New York National Guard. His unit was mobilized and sent to Mexico during the punitive campaigns to catch Pancho Villa. It was part of the “Fighting 69th, the Irish Brigade” from Civil War fame.

World War I Fame:

When Donovan returned from Mexico, he was promoted to Major and joined the 165th Regiment of the famed “Rainbow Division.” Douglas MacArthur was the Chief of Staff for the division. Donovan was an officer who always led from the front, even as a battalion commander. It was here he developed the nickname “Wild Bill” for his boundless energy. While he publicly claimed to dislike it, his wife would say, that privately, he loved it.

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.

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!” Wounded three times he refused to be evacuated until his men carried the day. He was eventually awarded the Medal of Honor for his courage and 4000 veterans attended the ceremony in New York City.

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. Donovan was awarded the Medal of Honor, the Distinguished Service Cross, the Distinguished Service Medal, and the Silver Star, the Purple Heart, and several foreign awards for valor. Donovan and Teddy Roosevelt started the American Legion after the war was over.

Sowing the Seeds of Intelligence Work Between the Wars:

Despite returning to his law firm in Buffalo, Donovan combined vacation and fact-finding trips to Japan, China, and Korea, and Siberia. He also took an extended trip to Europe, where he conducted work for J. P. Morgan and gathered intelligence about international Communism.

Returning home he was appointed to be the Assistant US Attorney for Western New York and became a dedicated crime fighter, especially against bootlegging which was just recently made illegal. He ran for Lieutenant Governor unsuccessfully in 1924, and Governor in 1932 when FDR left office.

With World War II started and looking like the United States would get drawn into it, President Roosevelt who respected Donovan’s experience called on him in 1940 and 1941. Donovan was FDR’s eyes and ears, but strictly an informal observer to Britain, where he was urged by the President to gauge Britain would be able to stand alone against the Nazis.

Donovan’s travels also impressed upon him that the U.S. needed an intelligence service as the British had. He alone was of the opinion that Britain could withstand the Blitz and urged Roosevelt to help them. Churchill was impressed with Donovan and gave him access to everything, including the intelligence services.

Starting an Intelligence Service From Scratch:

In July 1941, FDR established the Office of the Coordination of Information (COI) and named Donovan as its director. This new title infuriated the Army, Navy, FBI (especially J.Edgar Hoover who hated Donovan) and the State Department, who all had terrible and non-cooperating intelligence services of their own. There WAS no coordination of effort between the agencies.

COI set up shop in NYC in the Rockefeller Center. They were located one floor above the Brits, MI6 shop. Allen Dulles ran the operation, he would later serve as a Chief of Station in Europe and much later as the Director of CIA.

Once the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, the U.S. went to a war footing and COI would soon become OSS in July 1942. Donovan was off and running and tried to recruit agents and operators from every walk of life imaginable. He was initially brought back on active duty at his previous rank of Colonel but was promoted to Brigadier General within just a few months in January 1943.

Unfortunately, his turf wars weren’t just with the other Americans. MI6 and their chief, Stewart Menzies began to try to rein in their colonial cousins, trying to protect the empire for after the war. Regardless, by 1944, OSS had spread its wings to the corners of the earth with the exception of South America, where Hoover and the FBI had insisted remain their turf, and had agents and sources in nearly every capital. One of Donovan’s best sources of information turned out to be Catholic priests who were conduits of information unknown to the Vatican.

With the war turned on the side of the Allies, Donovan went ashore with troops on both D-Day and later into Southern France. He met with the Pope in Italy and with Marshall Tito in Yugoslavia. OSS men in Rumania had found a way to funnel over 1300 downed pilots back to Allied control. With the war winding down, Donovan presented a plan to FDR for a post-war intelligence service. One copy of which ended up in the hands of a newspaper reporter who deemed Donovan’s plan akin to creating an American Gestapo.

However, once Roosevelt died in 1945, Donovan found himself on the outs with the new President Harry Truman who disliked Donovan and the OSS. Truman at the war’s end would dissolve OSS and their agents and operators would be scattered to the winds. Donovan would help in the prosecution of the Nazi war criminals at the Nuremberg trials. He would go back to practicing law on Wall St.

Truman would finally recognize the need for a national intelligence agency that operated abroad and not in the U.S. and signed the National Security Act of 1947, which established the Central Intelligence Agency. Donovan’s dream had now come to fruition. Several of Donovan’s “glorious amateurs” who began in OSS would serve as directors including Dulles, James Jesus Angleton, Richard Helms, William Colby, and William Casey.

In 1953, now President Eisenhower, who was a believer in Donovan and OSS during the war, appointed him as the Ambassador to Thailand. The covert task for Donovan in Thailand was to “quietly” assume command not only of the embassy but also the propaganda, military aid, and CIA operations for Thailand. He was to build “a bastion” for democracy there and use it to fight communists overtly and covertly in the neighboring countries, which included Vietnam. Donovan, already thinking ahead, had conferred with old OSS men who worked in Thailand and had already visited Ft. Bragg, NC to meet with the new Green Berets there, the Unconventional Warfare group, headed up by Aaron Bank was a product of his OSS. He also got the Psychological Operations people involved.

Donovan died in 1959 at the age of 76 from complications of dementia at Walter Reed Hospital in Washington D.C. Upon his death, CIA sent out a message to all Station Chiefs, “The man more responsible than any other for the existence of the Central Intelligence Agency has passed away.”

Donovan was buried in Arlington National Cemetery in Section 2. General Donovan was the only American to have received the nations four highest awards: the Medal of Honor, the Distinguished Service Cross, the Distinguished Service Medal, and the National Security Medal.

After his death, Donovan was awarded the Freedom Award of the International Rescue Committee. He is also a member of the Military Intelligence Hall of Fame. The George Bush Center for Intelligence, inside the CIA headquarters building in Langley, Virginia, has a statue of Donovan in the lobby.

Today we remember General Donovan on what would have been his 136th birthday.

Photos: US Army

Remembering Nathan Chapman, Green Beret/CIA KIA Afghanistan 2002

If it seems like the war in Afghanistan has gone on forever, perhaps it is because it has dragged on for an entire generation. The United States has been involved there for over 17 years and there seems to be no end game in sight. And the cost has been very high. More than 4000 Americans (military and civilian contractors) have been killed in Afghanistan. Today, we’ll remember the first fatality from enemy action, Nathan Ross Chapman from the 1st Special Forces Group, who was detailed to the CIA Team Hotel. Chapman was killed on January 4, 2002, in Khost, Afghanistan.

Born into a military family, Chapman was born at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland where his father was stationed. He graduated high school from Centerville High School in Ohio and was active with the wrestling team. He immediately joined the Army and went to Ft. Benning for Basic, Advanced Infantry Training and Ranger training before being assigned to the 2nd Ranger Bn at Ft. Lewis, Washington.

In December of 1989, Chapman participated in the invasion of Panama during Operation Just Cause and parachuted into the airfield at Rio Hato, where the Rangers seized the airfield and took down Manuel Noriega’s beach house which had a headquarters in the upper floors.

In 1991, Chapman would once again go into combat during Desert Storm in January 1991. Later that year, he volunteered for Special Forces training and attended SFAS, and the Special Forces Qualification Course at Ft. Bragg, NC. He graduated in December 1992 as an 18E (Communications Sergeant) and then attended the Defense Language Institute’s Tagalog course, finishing in June of 1993.

Chapman was assigned to the 3rd Bn, 1st SFG(A) in July of 1993 and served on ODAs A-185 and A-195. During 1995, he went with his unit to Haiti during Operation Uphold Democracy. In 1998, Chapman was assigned to 1st Bn, 1st SFG(A) on Okinawa and served there for three years. He returned to Ft. Lewis and the 3/1 SFG in 2001.

After 9/11 he volunteered for a special mission in Afghanistan during Operation Enduring Freedom. Before he left, he told his wife that his chances of returning were 50/50. They took a family photo and he gave her a heart pendant that they broke so that each could take half.

But after arriving in the country, his odds of surviving got better. The Americans with Northern Alliance allies and massive U.S. air support battered the Taliban and bottled them and al-Qaeda up in Tora Bora including Osama bin Laden.

On the fateful day of January 4, Chapman was with a group of 25 Special Operators, CIA men and their Afghan allies commanded by Zakim Khan Zadran. Team Hotel consisted of three Green Berets, two CIA Paramilitary Officers, and one CIA Contractor. When they arrived in Khost, they were met by Afghans loyal to Padsha Khan Zadran, who, although are unrelated belong to the same clan of Pashtuns who dominate the surrounding area.

In a story that goes back hundreds if not a thousand years, the two warlords were locked in a jealous struggle for power and prestige. With the Taliban on the run, the power vacuum opened the door for old rivalries to take center stage.

Padsha Khan Zadran ordered his men to fire on the Americans at their checkpoint in order to convince American commanders to ditch Zakim Khan Zadran and force their alliance to him. To Chapman and the other Americans, they were searching for information that both bin Laden and Taliban commander Jalaluddin Haqqani were holed up in the mountains outside of town.

After the Americans had met with both warlords they set out to inspect two sites where American airstrikes had hit Taliban targets about 3 miles away. One target, a bombed-out mosque, Chapman conducted bomb assessment damage and then drove to a fort where Taliban tanks had taken a beating from U.S. airstrikes.

As they approached a checkpoint manned by Padsha Khan Zadran’s men, Chapman was standing in the rear of the truck with a camera around his neck. Shots rang out, Chapman slumped in the back of the truck, severely wounded. Before he collapsed, he emptied his M-4 in the direction of the enemy. By the time they got back to where they’d left from just a short time before, he was dead. A CIA Paramilitary Officer from the Special Activities Division was wounded.

The fighters loyal to Zakim Khan Zadran stated the fire came directly from the checkpoint but the other warlord disagreed. He claimed that the firing came from 50 yards away behind a half-finished mosque. He said his men had arrested a 14-year-old boy who claimed that he had fired the shots to avenge the removal of the Taliban and the bombing of the mosque. Conveniently, the boy escaped from confinement two days later and fled to Pakistan.

However, witnesses identified three men who fired the shots as fighters of Padsha Khan Zadran who then also, conveniently, fled to Pakistan.

Chapman’s body was returned to Washington state and he was buried about a week later in Tahoma National Cemetery in Kent, Washington. He was posthumously awarded the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart. His awards and decorations include the Bronze Star with “V” device, the Purple Heart, the Meritorious Service Medal, the Army Commendation Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster, the Army Achievement Medal with three Oak Leaf Clusters, the Humanitarian Service Medal, the United Nations Medal, the Kuwait Liberation Medal, the Southwest Asia Service Medal with Bronze Service Star, the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal with arrowhead, the Army Good Conduct Medal (3rd Award), the Armed Forces Service Medal, the Joint Meritorious Service Unit Award, the Army Superior Unit Award, the Combat Infantryman Badge second award, the Master Parachutist Badge, the Parachutist Combat Badge with bronze service star, the Special Forces Combat Divers Badge, the Special Forces Tab, the Ranger Tab, and the Royal Thai Army Parachutist Badge.

He left behind his wife Renae and two children a daughter Amanda (2) and a son Brandon (1) who were too young to remember their father.

The CIA honored Chapman in 2015 by unveiling a star on their Memorial Wall in his honor.

Photos: DOD

Remembering SF MIAs Kinsman, Harwood From Vietnam

Today we remember two of our missing in action brethren from the Vietnam war On this day, January 15, 1971, two Green Berets from the 5th Special Forces Group, SGT James Arthur Harwood, and 1LT James F. Kinsman became missing in action in southwestern Vietnam along the Cambodian border.

Harwood was born March 10, 1950, in Omaha, Nebraska. He entered the service in October 1968 in Dallas Texas. Kinsman was born on June 12, 1945, in Boston, MA. He entered the service and received his commission on July 11, 1969, at Ft. Benning, GA.

5th SFG’s Detachment B-43 was located at the Chi Lang Special Forces camp. It was located in Chau Doc Province, along the very heavily contested border area between Vietnam and Cambodia. The number of Viet Cong and North Vietnamese regulars (NVA) in the area made even training exercises outside of the camp, live combat patrols. It was considered a very “hot” area.

Detachment B-43 was commanded by Major Leary with CPT Harry Purdy as the company commander. Their mission was to train and advise the Khmer Reconnaissance Platoon, 2nd Company, 1st (later the 6th) Cambodian Mobile Operations Battalion. Other members of the Detachment B-43 included 1st Lt. James F. Kinsman, Lt. James J. McCarty, then Sgt. James A. Harwood and Sgt. Stamper.

Conditions were not ideal at Chi Lang, the CIDG (Civilian Irregular Defense Group) strikers, that had been formerly under the U.S. control, had been turned over to the ARVN (South Vietnamese) in the Vietnamization process and their training and reliability had deteriorated as such that by then, now called ARVN Rangers, they were considered less trustworthy than their half-trained Cambodian Khmer troops. The SF also had a worsening relationship with the Vietnamese camp commander, Major Hoa, who in a fit of jealousy over the Special Forces’ training of the Cambodians, refused to stop or discipline his troops for stealing from the Americans. This would lead to the tragedy that befell the Americans.

The Americans, led by 1LT Kinsman, who was the tactics instructor for the Cambodes, LT McCarty and SGT Harwood were leading the Khmer company’s 24-man reconnaissance platoon in a training exercise around Nui Ta Bec Mountain, which was known on the map as Hill 282.

Nui Ta Bec Mountain is nestled in a cluster of peaks only two miles from the Cambodian border, 5 miles northwest of the Chi Lang SF camp.

The green Khmer troops completed their training exercise and were awaiting fresh troops from the 8th Khmer Inf. Bn. to relieve them in the field. The recon troops were moving thru a heavy bamboo thicket on the west side of the mountain, they were searching a large outcropping of boulders looking for the Viet Cong when they came under machinegun fire by the VC.

Harwood, who was with the point element, immediately dropped to the ground and radioed McCarty that he “was crawling toward the point man and that he couldn’t see anything and was receiving heavy fire from the front.” That was the last anyone heard from him. With radio contact lost, McCarty shouted to Harwood but received no response.

McCarty’s radioman was wounded in the leg at the very outset of the battle. He frantically radioed Sgt. Stamper, who was located with a platoon at the base of the mountain, informing him of the situation. MAJ. Leary, the detachment commander, was monitoring the exercise from a Forward Air Control (FAC) aircraft. He could see the firefight commence and was monitoring the radio traffic between the troops on the ground.

Leary immediately relayed the reconnaissance platoon’s urgent request for assistance to Major Hoa and Border Rangers at Chi Lang. Hoa claimed that all of his units were “busy” and any help was not forthcoming from him. Leary immediately radioed for help from a battalion that was part of the 9th ARVN Division. They responded but due to the distance involved, by the time the ARVN troops arrived, the battle was over and the Viet Cong had safely scampered back to their sanctuaries in Cambodia.

McCarty moved forward as quickly as possible toward Kinsman’s position. He caught glimpses of Kinsman directing the Khmer troops into better firing positions. When he reached Kinsman’s position, McCarty found him flat on his back in the small clearing. Kinsman had sustained a serious wound, he was shot in the stomach just to the side of the navel with an exit wound in the back. And, McCarty noted, Kinsman was lying in a large pool of blood.

As McCarty began giving first aid to the grievously wounded Kinsman, enemy fire ripped his weapon apart, tearing it from his hands and destroying it, scattering the pieces everywhere. Just seconds more enemy fire wounded McCarty. With enemy rounds kicking up all around him, McCarty tried to drag the unconscious Kinsman to safety.

However, soon Viet Cong troops moved forward and as they approached the wounded Americans’ position, McCarty, wounded and weaponless was forced to leave the unconscious Kinsman where he was and went to hide in a nearby thicket to escape detection.

The surviving members of the reconnaissance patrol regrouped, and then called in medivac aircraft to remove their wounded and dead. When taking a head-count it was determined that both Kinsman and Harwood were missing.

McCarty reported that during the entire firefight he never saw Harwood and that when he had last seen, Kinsman, he was unconscious with Viet Cong troops approaching his location. The ARVN troops from the 9th Division initiated a ground search and rescue (SAR) operation in and around Hill 282 for the two missing American Green Berets. At the same time, American aircraft were called in to conduct an aerial visual search of the area.

No trace of Harwood or Kinsman was found by either the ground or the aerial search elements. Nor were freshly dug graves in and around the ambush site, or along the Viet Cong’s withdrawal path back into Cambodia.

As soon as the search operation was terminated, James Harwood was listed Missing in Action. At the same time, Gerald Kinsman was classified Killed/Body Not Recovered because of the severe wound he was known to have sustained.

According to MACVSOG records:

In August 1974, a Vietnamese refugee reported the following information to the US government, which he received second-hand from another Vietnamese: “The enemy (Viet Cong) ambushed a Government of Vietnam team, killed one American and captured one American – one officer and one NCO – in that vicinity. The live American was ordered to pull the body of the dead American into the forest. There the American was ordered to dig a hole and bury his friend. As soon as he finished his work, a VC cadre stood beside him and fired at his head with a K .54 pistol. The two bodies were rushed into the hole, and it was filled with earth.” The source also assumed that the gravesite might have been in a valley, but could not provide details of its location. There is no way to determine the validity of this second hand, hearsay report, and the fate of the two Americans remains unknown. Likewise, US intelligence had no way to determine if this report actually correlated to the loss of 1st Lt. Kinsman and Sgt. Harwood, or to any other American casualties.

The CIA also sent cable traffic related to the same incident and relayed that they had intelligence that said that the Viet Cong had executed two American prisoners. However, it was never able to be confirmed as well.

Less than a month later, the 5th SFG (A) would case their colors and leave Vietnam. The long, drawn-out war would be over for the unit that had been there from the earliest days and had more than earned their reputation thru blood and sacrifice. It was time for “The Legion” to go home, although Special Forces troops remained in Vietnam in different capacities until the very end.

Photos: MACVSOG

SF Instructors Slated For Discharge After Pushback on Standards Email

Opinion: The Special Forces community continues to be in the news and for the Green Berets, it isn’t very welcome. The SF community, long known as the “Quiet Professionals” are finding themselves increasingly in the spotlight and for the wrong reasons.

But if the news on that broke on Tuesday is anywhere close to the truth, then two senior NCOs who are instructors at the Special Forces Qualification Course [SFQC] are being singled out for no good reason as the command lashes out at what was a scathing email that decried the lowering of standards in the SFQC.

The two Green Beret instructors, Sergeant First Class Micah J. Robertson, 33, and Sergeant First Class Michael Squires, 31, are being discharged, they say, for no reason other than the association with and beliefs that the writer of the email was correct.

The story that was first reported by “a news service” reported that when an email that was written by a concerned SF NCO late in 2017, it sent shock waves thru the community. These type of complaints are nothing new, instructors were complaining about lack of standards before I went to the SFQC, while I was at the SFQC, and my fellow instructors and cadre members, including myself, complained about the standards when I worked in the schoolhouse at SFAS.

But those things were kept in-house because there were no social media sites around back in the day to blow things up and make them viral. This one instructor (or perhaps many) excoriated the chain of command citing “moral cowardice” among other things.

“[The SFQC] has devolved into a cesspool of toxic, exploitive, biased and self-serving senior officers who are bolstered by submissive, sycophantic, and just-as-culpable enlisted leaders,” the NCO said. “They have doggedly succeeded in two things; furthering their careers, and ensuring that Special Forces [are] more prolific but dangerously less capable than ever before.”

One of the biggest charges against the command was that once a prospective candidate passed Selection [SFAS], the command removed all physical barriers that could hold a candidate back from passing the SFQC.

As it was reported on Tuesday,” It was then published by a news site started by former special operations forces”, which was SOFREP/NEWSREP, as if Breitbart [oops] didn’t know who it was, when one SF instructor sent it over. MG Sontag felt strongly enough about the email and what was said that he actually answered the charges levied in the email.

“If SFAS is correct, and we believe it is, the SFQC is not a place where high attrition rates should occur. Instead, the mission of the SFQC cadre is to train to standards,” he said at the time. Sonntag also said no “fundamental SF standard” has been “removed.”

One CSM that answered the charges admitted in an astounding statement, that the school fostered substandard Green Berets onto the Regiment and it was up to them to fix it, which itself gave credence to the email in the first place.

“‘We push some of these issues forward [to the Regiment] because we believe that the Groups can succeed in fixing those problem graduates when they arrive. That is an amount of risk we willingly accept because after all, it’s much easier to get a tab removed at Group if he doesn’t pan out than to risk relieving what’s basically a fully qualified student who might have been able to fix himself and become a solid Green Beret.’”

But those issues notwithstanding, what does this have to do with SFCs Robertson and Squires? Nothing. Except that the command believed that they were involved with this email chain in the first place. And they were looking for blood.

The company commander of the soldiers thought to be the guilty parties was given the lowest grade possible on his annual Officer Evaluation Report [OER] basically ending any chance he has of a military career.

Both NCOs were given Article 15s as was the alleged author of the email. Article 15 is non-judicial punishment under the Uniformed Code of Military Justice [UCMJ], getting one of those as a low ranking member of the military is generally not a big deal. For a senior NCO that is the kiss of the death for one’s career.

Both SFers declined to accept it, which is their right and chose to proceed with a General Court Martial. The two were charged with the email as well as creating an App which the command stated violated the instructor ethical code by using their position for financial gain.

The instructors claimed BS and claim they were singled out with no evidence for the email because both had spoken during open “town halls” with the command over concerns of the standards dropping.

MG Sontag dropped the Article 15s and declined to press forward with a Court Martial he could not win. However, he issued both a General Officer Memorandum of Reprimand [GOMOR].

A General Officer Memorandum (or letter) of Reprimand (GOMOR) is a memorandum written to a soldier by a General Officer reprimanding the soldier for bad behavior. It’s essentially an ass-chewing by a General.
However, The significance of a GOMOR is that it can become part of one of your military files. It can be filed “locally”, which means in your Military Personnel Record Jacket [MPRJ], or in your “permanent” file, which means in your Official Military Personnel File (OMPF). A GOMOR filed locally will be removed eventually
[usually when a soldier PCS]. A GOMOR filed in your permanent file will very likely stay there forever.

This too can be a kiss of death for any senior NCO. It is unknown if the NCOs sent in a letter of rebuttal for this letter which is their right to do so. It does seem that the soldiers are facing an uphill battle in this.

Now they are being told that both are being discharged from the Army. Both want to know…for what? And that is a very legitimate question. Why are these two NCOs being singled out for discharge? Do they have a series of unfavorable NCOERs in the files, stating they were doing a substandard job? Something tells me that isn’t the case or they wouldn’t be SFQC instructors.

Robertson has 13 and a half years of service, Squires with more than 12.

U.S. Army Special Operations Command’s Director of Public Affairs Lt. Col. Loren Bymer said in a statement:

Army Special Operations Command is predicated on high standards and character attributes that define a Soldier’s service. There was not an all-inclusive investigation launched, but all allegations of misconduct were handled by commanders at the appropriate levels and adjudicated accordingly. The Special Warfare Center and School has a responsibility to ensure each soldier attending training is prepared to meet the needs of the nation now and in the future. This includes ensuring professional instruction, consistently strenuous mental and physical standards, inclusive training, and upholding the expectation that cadre and candidates demonstrate the Army Special Operations attributes at all times.

When this story broke, many of us here who have been in the Regiment were talking about this very subject. And we all feared, and now it has been proved rightly so, that the command would be more interested in finding and punishing the parties who sent the message rather than fix the issues that the email addressed.

This is sadly exactly what is happening. There is no proof that these two did anything wrong whatsoever, besides trying to protect the force that they serve in by doing the best job that they can as instructors? Isn’t that what we expect, or actually DEMAND from our cadre?

This is a witch hunt plain and simple. Those of us saw this coming and unfortunately, especially for Robertson and Squires, it has become a reality.

Back in the day before social media blew up the way we converse, there were a couple of “underground” Special Forces newspapers that were immensely popular with the troops and very unpopular with the brass.

One at the JFK SWC was “The Resister” it was marvelously written and called out all of the BS that one would encounter at the schoolhouse. The Resister was an equal opportunity paper, they called out General Officers down to the lowest NCOs if need be. It was so well written that the wonderful ladies who ran the library at the SWC kept copies of the Resister on file.

The command eventually seized all of the copies from the library like some sort of housecleaning like ridding the community of blight or subversiveness when the works of Mao, Lenin, Stalin, and Marx were all there for all to read.

In Panama, the 3/7 SFG had their own paper, “The Bend-Over Daily”. The BOD was a much more irreverent, hysterically funny, but equally well-written piece. Again it would poke fun at the chickenshit antics of some NCOs or Officers and everyone looked forward to the next issue.

Like when SGM Ivanov insisted on planting banana trees on the island in front of 3/7 buildings, every night someone would go out and cut them down. It got so ridiculous, Ivanov put the staff duty runner and NCO outside on the porch. Eventually, the poor private had to piss, and watching from the barracks was the perp. Ivanov was livid.

Of course, the next BOD wanted to know “Who is the Night Whacker???” We all knew who it was, or at least we think we do….

Later the Bn Cdr would make the rounds with the SGM and inspect the buildings once in a blue moon. The BOD warned the troops, “Beware of the dirtbag and the douchebag.” That battalion commander didn’t freak, speaking to an assembled group on NCOs, he said, “I sure hope that I’m the dirtbag!”

Stop the nonsense, reinstate Robertson and Squires and fix the damn courses. DOL

Photo: DOD

Congress Authorizes Blacks To Enlist in the Continental Army 1776

During the Revolutionary War, about 5000 African-Americans both enslaved and free men fought for the American colonies and their fight for freedom against the British. But the process was anything but a smooth one. Slavery was still in practice in all 13 American colonies at that time.

And the British were the first to take advantage of that fact. They openly recruited African-American slaves, promising freedom for those that took up arms for the Crown against those pesky Rebels. In November 1775, Virginia’s British Royal Governor, Lord Dunmore, issued a proclamation that the British would free any slave who left his slave master to serve alongside the British Army. Over 300 joined within the first month that Dunmore dubbed his “Ethiopian Regiment.”

And even today, many still debate whether more African-Americans fought for the British than the Americans.

But that changed in 1776 when the Continental Congress authorized the Continental Army to allow black men to enlist. Initially, George Washington was against this. Coming from Virginia in the south where plantations held many black slaves, like many Southern Americans, he feared guns in the hands of slaves as the thought was, they would revolt against their slave masters.

Although Washington had initially banned blacks from serving in the Continental Army, many free blacks served in the Colonial militias. Washington finally did relent, but would only allow free blacks to serve in the Continental Army. Slaves were still banned.

The first casualty in the war for American Independence is generally agreed upon as being an African-American, Crispus Attucks who was the first man killed during the Boston Massacre in 1770.

Attucks himself was a runaway slave, not from the south, but from Framingham, Massachusetts. There was an ad in the 1750 Boston Gazette that mentioned he had run from his master’s home. William Brown offered a ten-pound reward for the return of his “property”.

“Ran away from his Master William Brown from Framingham, on the 30th of Sept. last, a Molatto Fellow, about 27 Years of age, named Crispas, 6 Feet two Inches high, short curl’d Hair, his Knees nearer together than common: had on a light colour’d Bearskin Coat.”

Attucks escaped to Nantucket where he worked on a whaling ship. In March of 1770, he and some other sailors were ashore in Boston when hotheads from Massachusetts began accosting a British sentry in the street. The alarm went out and a quick reaction force from his unit, the 29th Regiment of Foot soon was face-to-face with an angry mob of Bostonians with clubs in their hands. At some point, the soldiers fired into the crowd and Attucks, with two bullets in the chest died almost immediately.

Grave of Peter Willard, free African-American of the Revolutionary War. (Photo: Author, Millbury Historical Society)

Here in my hometown of Millbury, Massachusetts, we like to claim Peter Willard as one of, if not the first African-American soldiers in the United States Army. Willard was part of the militia here and he traveled with them to fight during the battle at Lexington and Concord. When he was allowed to in 1776, he joined the Continental Army and fought until the end of the war.

He returned to his home and lived out the remainder of his years quietly. You won’t find his name in any history books, but his town remembers him. A portrait of Willard hung in Millbury’s Town Hall until the building was destroyed a fire in 1971,

Peter Salem is one of the first and possibly most famous of the Revolutionary War African-Americans to fight in the war. He was a slave but his owner freed him so that he could join the militia and fight the British after the Battle of Lexington and Concord, which he did with the 6th Massachusetts.

During the battle of Bunker Hill, Salem was credited with the killing of the British Major Pitcairn during the fighting After it was over, Salem was introduced to General George Washington and was commended for his bravery and service.

His bravery was captured in artwork by painter John Trumbull “The Death of General Warren.” In the work, it shows both General Warren and Major Pitcairn dying, on the far right is an African-American soldier with a musket that is believed to be Salem. The featured image shows a more recent drawing of Salem shooting Pitcairn.

Perhaps the most famous mixed-race infantry unit in the Continental Army was the 1st Rhode Island Regiment. Organized in 1778, the 1st Rhode Island fought mainly in the Northern Theatre during the war. The organization of this regiment was endorsed by Washington, despite his misgivings over the organization of its members. Enlisting in the regiment were 88 slaves who were guaranteed freedom at the end of their service. That is something Washington was very much opposed against, coming from the plantations of the south. The Rhode Island State Assembly promised compensation to the former slave masters for the men signing up to fight.

Even enslaved African-Americans fought in the south. The guerrilla fighters of Francis Marion, “The Swamp Fox” had some enslaved members of his unit. However, when Lord Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown, there were many African-Americans in the ranks of the Continental Army, including the 1st Rhode Island Regiment who were there.

It should be noted, however, that Washington, upon his death in 1799, freed his 124 slaves. Was it because his faithful servant, William Lee stood by his side through thick and thin and always accompanied Washington into battle? Washington admired his bravery and his faithfulness and mentioned Lee in his will. Washington in it thanked Lee for “his attachment to me” and for “his faithful services during the Revolutionary War.”

He was to be given his freedom immediately, given an annual stipend of $30 and the choice to remain at the estate, which he did until his own death, as a free man in 1810.

So although Black History Month is still a few weeks away, we thought we’d jump the gun a bit and lean forward in the foxhole to pay respect to our first African-American soldiers who have served our country faithfully since the time of the American Revolution.

Photos: Smithsonian, Millbury Historical Society, author

Remembering Gordon Yntema, 5th SFG(A), Medal of Honor, 18 Jan. 1968

Gordon Yntema was just 22 years old at the time of his death, but he was a Green Beret assigned to the 5th Special Forces Group Airborne, ODA-431 and was awarded the Medal of Honor for bravery while fighting in Vietnam in 1968. The enlisted men’s club was named in his honor on Ft. Bragg.

Yntema was born on June 26, 1945, in Bethesda, MD. He graduated high school from Holland, MI and entered the United States Army on July 10, 1963, in Detroit, MI. He volunteered for and passed the Special Forces Qualification Course. In October of 1967, he was assigned to Vietnam as part of Company D, 5th Special Forces Group Airborne, 5th SFG(A) and stationed with ODA-431 at Camp Cai Cai, in the Plain of Reeds as an Operations and Intelligence Sergeant.

Camp Cai Cai was a frequent target of Vietcong mortars and artillery since it opened in April of 1965. The camp also flooded twice in 1965 and 1966 and was rebuilt as a floating camp. On January 16 and just prior to the Tet Offensive, Yntema was an American advisor accompanying to companies of CIDG (Civilian Irregular Defense Group) strikers as they became embroiled in a two-day firefight with Viet Cong troops.

The senior American and South Vietnamese commander were wounded in the fighting. Yntema took over as the CIDG strikers tried to conduct blocking positions east of Thong Binh. Under heavy fire from Viet Cong bunkers, Yntema advanced the strikers to within 50 meters of the bunkers before being forced to withdraw to a trench line.

The Viet Cong deployed a company to the flanks, taking the strikers on three sides with intense fire, which included accurate mortar fire which caused several casualties. The strikers began to pull back. Yntema, already seriously wounded himself, refused to abandon his wounded commanders. He carried them to a gully about 50 meters away to shield them from enemy fire.

With his ammunition gone, the Cong tried to take him as a prisoner. But Yntema was going to be captured. He turned his rifle around like a club and took on the 15 Viet Cong who were attempting to capture him. So intense was his fighting the Viet Cong were forced to shoot him.

His body was returned home to the U.S. and he was buried at Pilgrim Home Cemetery in Holland, MI. He left behind his young wife Peggy and two young daughters.

Gordon’s decorations include the Medal of Honor, the Silver Star, two (2) Purple Hearts, the Combat Infantry’s Badge, and the Parachutist’s Badge.

Gordon is honored on the Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial in Washington DC. Name inscribed at VVM Wall, Panel 34e, Line 73.

A 1966 Army video of the camp at Cai Cai and the camp’s defenses are shown here:

An interesting side note about Cai Cai, Sean Linnane wrote an interesting blog post about Martha Raye, the entertainer who would visit the SF troops in Vietnam in places most entertainers would never venture in.

Colonel Maggie was visiting the A and B camps of D Co in the Delta and the S-4 Air Ops was assigned to be her escort officer. She had visited Cai Cai A-431 and moved on to RON somewhere else. They were hit that night. When she heard the news the next day, she ORDERED her slick to go back to Cai Cai so she could see if they needed her. She was a qualified nurse. The escort radioed back for instructions and IIRC, the CO (Colonel Bob Hassinger) said HE wasn’t going to countermand Maggie and he didn’t think it would be a good idea for anyone else to try either. She ALWAYS put the men first.

Medal of Honor Citation:

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his life and above and beyond the call of duty. Sgt. Yntema, U.S. Army, distinguished himself while assigned to Detachment A-431, Company D.

As part of a larger force of civilian irregulars from Camp Cai Cai, he accompanied 2 platoons to a blocking position east of the village of Thong Binh, where they became heavily engaged in a small-arms firefight with the Viet Cong.

Assuming control of the force when the Vietnamese commander was seriously wounded, he advanced his troops to within 50 meters of the enemy bunkers. After a fierce 30-minute firefight, the enemy forced Sgt. Yntema to withdraw his men to a trench in order to afford them protection and still perform their assigned blocking mission.

Under cover of machinegun fire, approximately 1 company of Viet Cong maneuvered into a position which pinned down the friendly platoons from 3 sides. A dwindling ammunition supply, coupled with a Viet Cong mortar barrage which inflicted heavy losses on the exposed friendly troops, caused many of the irregulars to withdraw.

Seriously wounded and ordered to withdraw himself, Sgt. Yntema refused to leave his fallen comrades. Under withering small arms and machinegun fire, he carried the wounded Vietnamese commander and a mortally wounded American Special Forces advisor to a small gully 50 meters away in order to shield them from the enemy fire. Sgt. Yntema then continued to repulse the attacking Viet Cong attempting to overrun his position until, out of ammunition and surrounded, he was offered the opportunity to surrender. Refusing, Sgt. Yntema stood his ground, using his rifle as a club to fight the approximately 15 Viet Cong attempting his capture. His resistance was so fierce that the Viet Cong were forced to shoot in order to overcome him.

Sgt. Yntema’s personal bravery in the face of insurmountable odds and supreme self-sacrifice were in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service and reflect the utmost credit upon himself, the 1st Special Forces, and the U.S. Army.

Photos: Hall of Heroes, JFK SWC, Virtual Wall