Heroes of U.S. Special Operations

Special Forces Honor COL Bob Howard (MOH) With Building Dedication at Camp Mackall

The Special Forces community in an act that many considered long-overdue, honored the memory of one its most decorated soldiers, Colonel Robert Howard by dedicating the central classroom to him at Camp Mackall.

The Rowe Training Facility is where all Special Forces soldiers receive their classroom instruction when at Camp Mackall. And Howard spent nearly his entire life in helping to train, lead and inspire Special Forces Green Berets.

His son, Robert Howard Jr. was on hand for and helped dedicate the building to his father’s memory.

Bob Howard in Vietnam with MACSOG operators prior to a mission.

The event, organized by the U.S. Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School, was attended by Howard’s family and more than 100 current and former Special Forces soldiers.
Many had stories about Howard, who was wounded 14 times during nearly five years of combat in Vietnam, earned a battlefield commission and was thrice recommended for the nation’s highest award for valor, the Medal of Honor, in the space of a little more than one year.
He was awarded the medal once and also received two Distinguished Service Crosses, a Silver Star, Bronze Star Medal for Valor with three oak leaf clusters and eight Purple Hearts, among many other awards and decorations.
Howard spent 36 years in uniform, officials said. He worked for the Department of Veterans Affairs following his retirement from the Army in 1992 until 2006. He died Dec. 23, 2009, at age 70, following a battle with cancer.
“Contemporaries describe him running alongside an enemy truck one night, tossing a claymore mine into the back among the startled enemy and detonating it,” said Gen. Raymond A. Thomas III, the commander of U.S. Special Operations Command.
“They describe a time he saw two (Viet Cong) on a motorbike throwing a grenade at a group of soldiers,” Thomas said. “He grabbed an M-16 from a startled security guard, calmly dropped to a knee to shoot one of the (Viet Cong) and then chased the other one half a mile to shoot him, too.”
Howard’s fitness and toughness was legendary, Thomas added while relating how — as a company commander in a Ranger Battalion — Howard was known to casually pick pieces of shrapnel out of his arm as he ran without slowing down.
“There have been too many books and movies of late about special operations, but the Col. Bob Howard story almost defies a movie script and his character would be right out of central casting,” the four-star general said.

There are so many stories about Howard and his toughness but he wasn’t all about himself and although a proud man was a very humble one. He touched so many soldiers’ lives and the most amazing thing about him were, all of the stories are true.

Why there isn’t a movie made about him yet is a good question. It truly needs to get done. But in the meantime, all would-be Special Forces soldiers will walk into the classroom that bears his name.

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

Photo courtesy US Army

On This Day in 2011, Navy SEALs Eliminate Osama bin Laden

In one of the most daring raids in US Special Operations history, during the early spring of 2011, US Navy SEALs of SEAL Team 6 or DEVGRU raided the compound of Osama bin Laden in Abbottobad, Pakistan and killed the terrorist leader, who was living less than a mile from the Pakistani military academy.

The raid took place at 1:00 a.m. on May 2 in Pakistan but in the US, it was mid-afternoon on May 1^st. The operation called “Neptune Spear” was a joint CIA, JSOC operation with SEALs and aviators from the 160^th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (The Night Stalkers) flying specially designed stealth helicopters on the mission.

But the operation was actually in the works for several years before it was finally unleashed by President Obama.

The Intelligence Prep: The CIA found out the name of bin Laden’s courier as early as 2007. This was considered a high-value intelligence coup because the CIA learned thru their Black sites and thru interrogations at Guantanamo Bay that bin Laden communicated only via couriers. He stopped using phones since the US tracked a cell phone of one of his subordinates and the US launched a missile strike on the location in Afghanistan back in 1998.

The courier named Ibrahim Saeed Ahmed according to Pakistani officials and his brother lived at the Abbottobad compound with bin Laden. The CIA picked up a wiretap of another individual and the courier and CIA paramilitary operatives tracked the man back to the compound.

The compound then became a focus of intense scrutiny. The CIA had a female analyst that had been on bin Laden’s trail for nearly five years. She earned the team’s and superiors’ respect and she believed with 100 percent certainty, that bin Laden was living there with his youngest wife and children. It was built in the 2004-2005 timeframe and was at the end of a long, narrow dirt road. It was outside of the main area of Abbottobad and about 100 miles from Afghanistan.

The compound cost about a million dollars to build and was constructed on a plot of land much larger than the surrounding properties. Walls 12-18 feet high surrounded it and were topped with 2 feet of barbed wire. There were two security gates and the property had no telephone or internet service. Unlike their neighbors, the inhabitants didn’t put their trash out for collection but burned it inside the compound.

The family lived on the second and third floors of the structure and the third-floor balcony had a seven-foot-high privacy wall installed to conceal the tall (6’4’’) bin Laden. The “principal” was seen in intelligence photos every day pacing in the garden that was partially covered with a tarp. The CIA analysts called him ‘the Pacer”. But the photos couldn’t positively identify the target.

In trying to gather more intelligence, the CIA used a fake polio vaccination program to gain entrance to the compound and rented a home nearby where they could keep up surveillance on the potential target.

Despite intense efforts, the CIA was never able to get a picture of the third-floor inhabitant or get a recording of his voice. But after exhaustive intelligence analysis, the CIA deemed that only bin Laden could be living there.

Planning the Operation: The job of planning this fell to Adm. William McRaven of JSOC. He assigned a Navy captain from DEVGRU to set up the plan of a raid with the help of the agency at the CIA HQs in Langley, VA.

There was also talk in using B-2 Stealth bombers but the problems that arose from that plan was that they’d have no way of confirming the death of bin Laden after the raid and the use of the 2000-pound radar-guided JDAM munitions was sure to cause civilian casualties in the area.

The idea of using the Pakistanis in a joint operation was quickly discounted as everyone up the chain of command believed that the leaks that would quickly follow would compromise the mission.

Therefore, since the US isn’t at war with Pakistan, the members of the team were taken off military roles and placed as civilians under the CIA control for the duration of the mission.

The agency and DEVGRU built a mockup of the compound in Harvey Point Defense Testing facility in North Carolina, and another in Nevada. The SEALs still were not told what their target was or its location. Nevada was chosen because, at 4000-foot altitude, it would be close to the actual altitude of the target and test the helicopters’ capabilities.

A full-scale replica was built in Afghanistan at Bagram Air Base. The raid team arrived on the 27^th of April at Jalalabad where the operation would base out of. A CH-47 Chinook helicopter with a quick reaction force would be placed nearby in case the unit had to fight their way out of Pakistan. The entire operation was to last 40 minutes.

The order was given at 1:22 p.m. EST on May 1 for Adm. McRaven to proceed with the raid. The President and members of his Cabinet watched the events unfold from the Situation Room at the White House via a Drone flying overhead.

President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, along with with members of the national security team, receive an update on the mission against Osama bin Laden in the Situation Room of the White House, May 1, 2011.

The Operation: The raid force consisted of 79 operators and a dog. The dog team was to be used if there were hidden rooms or compartments that needed to be searched. The Chinook with the QRF of 24 SEAL operators was landed in a deserted field about halfway to Abbottobad in case they were needed on the ground. Another QRF in Chinooks with an addition 25 SEALs would be waiting just over the border in Afghanistan.

After a 90-minute flight, the first of the Blackhawks deployed over the compound where the SEALs were to fast rope to the ground. A second was to land in the compound with the dog team and interpreter. However, due to a weather phenomenon, the first Blackhawk crashed into the compound sliding up onto the security wall. No one was seriously hurt. The second landed outside the compound where the operators scaled it and began the operation.

Using an assortment of breaching tools and explosives the teams began clearing the compound in a methodical, dance of death. The SEALs cleared the guest house and the ground floor of the main building where two men and woman were dispatched quickly. Numerous other women and children were encountered and they were flex-cuffed and moved outside where they’d be found and questioned by the Pakistanis.

The SEALs moved to the second level of the main building where they killed bin Laden’s son on the staircase before moving up to the top floor. There they found bin Laden, wearing the traditional loose-fitting garb of the region. Later it was found out that he carried 500 Euros and two phone numbers sewn into the lining of his clothes.

Nearly 15 minutes had elapsed since the SEALs crash-landed in the compound until they came face-to-face with him on the third floor. The killing of bin Laden is described in detail by Navy SEAL Mark Bisonette who was later reprimanded by the Navy and forced to give up his $6.8 million dollars in royalties from the book he wrote of the incident. But his first-hand account was riveting.

When the team reached the top, bin Laden was behind his wife, with his hands on her shoulders and was pushing her towards the SEALs. The SEAL who shot bin Laden Robert O’Neill has also written a book about the incident. He was the first in the room. Bisonnette’s book describes in detail what happened next.

“We were less than five steps from getting to the top when I heard suppressed shots.”
BOP. BOP. “The point man had seen a man peeking out of the door on the right side of the hallway about 10 feet in front of him. I couldn’t tell from my position if the rounds hit the target or not. The man disappeared into the dark room.”
“In his death throes, he was still twitching and convulsing. Another assaulter and I trained our lasers on his chest and fired several rounds. The bullets tore into him, slamming his body into the floor until he was motionless.”

Bissonette’s role called for him to photograph the body to positively identify it as bin Laden and confirm for the government that they had indeed got their man.

“It was strange to see such an infamous face up close. Lying in front of me was the reason we had been fighting for the last decade. It was surreal trying to clean blood off the most wanted man in the world so that I could shoot his photo. I had to focus on the mission, right now we needed some good quality photos.”

One of the SEALs (pseudonym Will) spoke Arabic and asked one of the children on the third floor who the dead man was. She replied that it was indeed Osama bin Laden a fact that was confirmed by his wife who was lightly wounded in the foot.

“Will knelt down and asked the girls, ‘Who is the man?’
The girl didn’t know to lie.
‘Osama bin Laden.’
Will smiled.
‘Are you sure that is Osama bin Laden?’
‘Yes,’ the girl said.”

The SEAL team leader had a satellite phone and immediately call Adm. McRaven to relay the code phrase that bin Laden was dead.

“‘For God and country, I pass Geronimo,’ Jay said. Geronimo E.K.I.A.’ “

The entire assault took just 15 minutes. Now the team set about finding intelligence that they could bring back with them to Afghanistan. The SEALS recovered three AK-47s and two pistols, ten computer hard drives, documents, DVDs, almost a hundred thumb drives, a dozen cell phones, and “electronic equipment” for later analysis as well as a large stash of opium.

The crashed helicopter was stripped of classified material and then blown in place, with the team placing enough explosives to completely demolish the crashed Blackhawk. Down one chopper, the team brought in one of the Chinooks to exfil the team back to Afghanistan.

After arriving in Afghanistan, bin Laden was positively identified via facial recognition and DNA analysis and his body was transferred to the USS Carl Vinson where he was buried at sea. The US had contacted Saudi contacts offered to turn bin Laden’s body over to them for burial in Saudi Arabia. But they didn’t want him in death any more than they did in life. They agreed with the burial at sea option.

Aftermath: Reports were being leaked out about bin Laden’s death so President Obama addressed the nation at 11:35 p.m. and confirmed the news.

“Good evening. Tonight, I can report to the American people and to the world that the United States has conducted an operation that killed Osama bin Laden, the leader of al-Qaeda, and a terrorist who was responsible for the murder of thousands of innocent men, women, and children.”

The President decided not to release the photos of bin Laden’s body stating that “we don’t have to spike the football here.” And despite the DNA evidence and confirmation from his wife and daughter at the scene, the non-release of the photos created a conspiracy theory that he wasn’t dead.

The Pakistanis then began to do damage control and arrested the owner of the CIA’s safe house and five Pakistani informants. The doctor who helped the CIA with the fake polio inoculation ruse was arrested and sentenced to 33 years in prison.

Some of bin Laden’s correspondence was released but very little of it has come to light. One interesting tidbit was that bin Laden stated that both General David Petraeus and President Obama should be assassinated if the opportunity availed itself but that VP Joe Biden should remain untouched. Why?

In bin Laden’s own words, “Biden is totally unprepared for that post [of president], which will lead the US into a crisis.”

The tail boom from the crashed and destroyed Blackhawk was eventually returned to the US but not until the Pakistanis allowed Chinese scientists to study the stealth technology in the boom as well as in the paint.

This was one of the better-executed raids in US Special Operations history. The detailed planning, outstanding execution, and professionalism of all of the operators involved, even when things went wrong as they invariably do is a testament to their dedication to their craft and level of training.

In doing so, they rid the world of one of the worst terrorists in history.

Photo courtesy of DOD

Special Operations Legend Keller Gives Back to Vets, Police

A Special Operations legend among his peers has been on operations on all over the world. Bob Keller has been a Ranger, a Green Beret and now is in a non-named ‘secret unit’ in Special Operations Command. But he’s giving back to his peers and the law enforcement officers in his community.

Keller is nearing the end of his military career but runs his own company, Gamut Resolutions which is a practical shooting and tactical training firm in Florida. He’s helping out veterans and especially the police forces which don’t get a lot of range time in their individual departments.

Now, as he nears retirement, rather than seeking a lucrative consulting or contracting job, Keller is giving back — giving back to other Special Operations veterans through extensive charity work and giving back to local law enforcement officers. He’s teaching SWAT teams the shooting techniques that kept him alive through countless engagements — for free — through his start-up training firm, Gamut Resolutions.
“The quality of training he’s capable of delivering is simply the best. If you think of it on an academic scale, Bob is at the PhD level in terms of tactics and shooting — even better than a PhD level. He goes above and beyond,” said retired Sgt. Major Jeremy Morton, who served with Keller in Special Operations. “His research and his thesis are based upon his own experiences.”
Keller is founder and CEO of Gamut Resolutions, a shooting and tactical training firm for the public, corporate groups and law enforcement agencies.
But individual cops he’ll train for free.
Keller also created his own charity, Operation Blue, a year ago based on the SOCF model, after he learned how little time police actually get to spend at the range. He doesn’t draw a salary from the training he provides to these officers.
“I get them to the range, get them shooting their guns, get them more familiar with them. It’s ridiculous how these police departments only shoot once a year for their qualifications,” he said. “After hearing that, I set up a program where they can spend two full days with me at the range shooting.”

Keller supports many charities but began his own because he saw a specific need for the police officers that don’t get enough range time. The training and real-world experience he lends to the officers may save their lives one day.

To read the entire article from the NewsChief, click here:

Photo courtesy Bob Keller

Special Operations is About People Not the Equipment They Use

It is well-known fact inside our Special Operations Forces that being in one of the many units in the United States SOF has more to do with the operators being ‘special’ and not just the gear that they use to get the job done.

But frequently the public gets wrapped around the ax handle with the gadgets that the military has at its disposal and yes while many of them are intriguing, they are not an end-all, be-all for Special Operations.

Special Operations Forces are often compared to professional athletes. While quite different, in one area where they are very similar is that SOF units are always training. They place supreme emphasis on it. The training is what makes the operators special, not the equipment used.

When the Special Operations Command was in its infancy, MG David Baratto, then Commander of the JFKSWC came up with SOF Imperatives to serve as the basic tenets to which SOF should operate.

These were written by a retired Col. John Collins who interestingly enough was not a Special Operations officer. The command adopted them back in 1987 and about twenty years later they were rebranded as “truths”.

But whether they’re called imperatives or truths doesn’t matter. They’re the cornerstone for any operational unit and can be used in both the military and later into the civilian world. For aspiring SOF operators, these truths should become second nature.

At a time when the Special Operations Forces are conducting a lion’s share of operations in Afghanistan and Syria while comprising just a fraction of the total force, it is always important to know what Special Operations is and isn’t.

The five Special Operations Forces Truths:

Humans are more important than hardware:
This one is a no-brainer but at times gets frequently misunderstood in the public’s eye, and at times in our government’s. Operators make the equipment, not the other way around. The training and preparedness of the operator is the critical difference in mission success and failure.

The right operators, the best operators, that are highly trained and working as a team, will accomplish the mission with whatever equipment is available. On the other hand, the best equipment in the world cannot compensate for a lack of a trained force.

Quality is better than quantity:
This one is especially true in Special Operations. A small, well-trained team is much more effective than a large under-or-untrained one. A quality force is a limited resource and is much preferable to conduct sensitive type operations.

Special Operations Forces cannot be mass produced:
Properly training Special Operations Forces operators and units takes years to get them to the level of proficiency that will be needed to conduct the type of missions that these units will be tasked to perform.

Then the joint integrated training within the community amongst the units takes even more time. Any attempt to shorten the process or quicken it to meet operational needs only serves to weaken the entire force as a whole.

Cookie cutter training produces cookies, not special operators. Slapping a beret on everyone’s head and calling them elite is an exercise in futility, not training a force.

Competent Special Operations Forces can’t be created after emergencies occur:
The first word here is perhaps the most important. Competent. As we mentioned above, the training of the individual operators and units takes time. Here is where the commanders of the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine SOF units have to be on top of their games.

Not only must they ensure that the force is properly trained and equipped to fight the current wars that we’re involved in, but they must be proactive rather than reactive and have the foresight to see what the next conflict [there will always be a next one] will entail and have the operators ready to take on the challenges of that one.

It requires smart, forward thinking and not reacting to events as they occur.

Most special operations require non-SOF assistance:
This was one of the imperatives under Baratto that was originally left off of the list. Perhaps he and General Wayne Downing, the commander of SOCOM at the time were trying to defend their new slice of the pie without getting too much interference from the “Big Army” at the time. It isn’t known, just speculation on my part.

But Adm. Eric Olson SOCOM Commander found the final imperative or truth and resurrected it in 2009. And it is true.

However, it is true, while the Type-A personalities in SOF will disagree outwardly, it takes a joint effort with everyone pulling together to ensure mission success. With the integration of the conventional force in support of SOF missions, this will increase the effectiveness of the missions that are tasked.

So, with fewer big wars but with many more conflicts all over the globe, the Special Operations Force operators must be prepared, trained and ready to lead. Not only in the current conflicts but in the ones that will follow. And nobody is more prepared than the force of SOF professionals that the United States has.

Photo Courtesy DOD

The Golden Age of Special Operations, But is the OpTempo Too High?

The United States’ Special Operations Forces are seemingly everywhere and that perception is not far off. In 2016, they were deployed to 138 countries around the globe or about 70 percent of the world.

From battlefields in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria, to Somalia and West Africa, to advising counter-narcotics units in the Andean Ridge, working with allied troops in the Far East or braving the bitter cold of the Arctic. Special Operations Forces [SOF], are being used to protect US interests everywhere. This is the age of the Quiet Professional. The demand for their use everywhere has never been higher.

While conventional forces are being under-utilized, the SOF warriors are scarcely a fraction of the total force but are doing the lion’s share of the fighting across the globe. SOF units are taking on the forces of ISIS, al-Qaeda, al-Shabab and other terrorist organizations in the most visible of their operations.

But a resurgent and increasingly belligerent Russia, an expansionist China and a seemingly loose cannon in North Korea are factors in the deployment of troops. SOF are also combatting these threats, in the shadows, like they’ve always done.

Now the question is, are the powers in the US government and the Pentagon burning out the force by giving the operators an operational tempo [OPTEMPO] that is too high and will prove to be their undoing?

General Raymond Thomas, Commander of the US Special Operations Command testified before a House Armed Services Committee that the command is suffering from “unforecasted deployment tempo”. The command forecasted the US end to operations in Afghanistan in 2014. But here in May of 2017, there appears no end in sight to combat deployments and operations.

Theresa Whelan the acting Under Secretary of Defense for Special Operations/Low-Intensity Conflict said that the command has been forced to mortgage the future to fulfill current combat operations. It has hurt the readiness, she said and will only get worse as the demand increases for future operations.

According to Special Operations Command, 55.29 percent of special operators deployed in 2016 were sent to the Middle East. That is a drop of 35 percent since 2006. SOF deployments to Africa have increased dramatically to 17.26 percent last year, up from just one percent ten years ago. European Command deployments at 12.67 percent, Pacific Command with 9.19 percent, Southern Command with 4.89 percent and Northern Command at 0.69 percent round out SOCOM’s deployments in 2016.

From intelligence gathering missions to direct action, SOF operations are the front line of defense in the war against terror organizations like ISIS working with both the CIA and under the auspices of JSOC [Joint Special Operations Command].

The Command has taken to targeting the leaders of ISIS and removing them and the flow of fresh fighters to the battlefield. Defense Secretary Ash Carter told the Armed Services Committee in previous testimony that the operations are successful.

”We are systematically eliminating ISIL’s leadership: the coalition has taken out seven members of the ISIL Senior Shura. We also removed key ISIL leaders in both Libya and Afghanistan… And we’ve removed from the battlefield more than 20 of ISIL’s external operators and plotters.”

“We have entrusted this aspect of our campaign to one of [the Department of Defense’s] most lethal, capable, and experienced commands, our Joint Special Operations Command, which helped deliver justice not only to Osama Bin Laden, but also to the man who founded the organization that became ISIL, Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi.”

But the constant combat deployments are a drain on the units and the personnel who never have time to recharge and retool after more than a decade of combat. And the cracks are beginning to show.

General Thomas said that “I closely monitor the parts of our force that are under the most stress,” he stated. “There are forces that are meeting themselves in some regards. Others are in better balance…it’s a challenge”

The challenge he speaks about can be seen in the increasing suicide rate among the nation’s soldiers. Thomas wouldn’t answer how high the rate is, saying talk like that is morbid. But the allegations of high drug use among the Navy’s top unit the SEALs is another sign that the force is getting burnt out.

The units have had issues with widespread cases of divorce, domestic violence, drunk driving, depression and sleep problems; outbreaks of angry violence; chronic physical ailments and pain.

The demand for the United States’ SOF operators has never been higher. But as we pointed out in our piece of May 1, Special operations troops cannot be mass-produced. The training takes time, and for the units to do the proper identification, assessment and selection and training, the washout rate will remain high. The standards must never be lowered to meet number requirements.

But in the meantime, the operators of SOF carry on the mission and the tempo gets increasingly higher.

USSOCOM Wants Performance-enhancing Products for its Operator Dogs

“Cry Havoc and let slip the dogs of war.” USSOCOM is trying to upgrade the performance of its working dog component and they’re looking at pharmaceutical companies to help them do so.

The value of working dog teams with the Special Operations teams with whom they operate can’t be understated. Perhaps no dog is more well-known than Cairo the Belgian Malinois who accompanied SEAL Team 6 into Abbottabad, Pakistan on the mission to get Osama bin Laden in 2011. Cairo even has broken ranks with the Quiet Professionals and has his own Facebook page.

In fact, the enemy has decided that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and have taken to using dogs themselves now. Part of the new task for SOF dog teams is to neutralize and inhibit the work of the enemy’s dogs.

SOCom relies on dogs for jobs like detecting explosives and enemy personnel and works to keep enemy dogs from exposing its secrets.
So the command submitted a request last month through the Pentagon’s Small Business Innovation Research portal for companies interested in developing the necessary products. They are asked to respond via email to [email protected].
For its own dogs, SOCom is seeking products that optimize hearing, vision and scent, improve recovery time when wounded, and increase survivability.
The goal, according to the request, is to help the animals — called “multi-purpose canines” — perform at “very high levels for long durations” under “high levels of stress and distraction.”
At the same time, the request says, the products “must be safe, affordable and easily administered.”
The request includes references to six scientific studies on the subject.
About 150 multi-purpose canines are in use across SOCom, said Ken McGraw, a spokesman for the command.

The upgrade of the dog capability shows how quickly the operational landscape changes and how the SOF community is constantly adapting. These enhancements will make the dog teams much more effective in accomplishing their mission and reduce their chances of compromise.

To read the entire article from the Tampa Bay Times click here:

Photo courtesy USSOCOM

Roy Benavidez MOH Epitomized What A Special Operator Is

He was wounded 37 times by bullets, shrapnel, a bayonet, and a rifle butt but his only thoughts were on those others who were hit on that day in May 1968. His actions saved eight other men’s lives in Vietnam on that day. He was awarded the Medal of Honor for his bravery but it wouldn’t be for 13 more years. Because nothing ever came easy for Roy Benavidez.

Benavidez was born in 1935 outside of Cuero, Texas to a Mexican sharecropper father and a Yaqui Indian mother. Both of them would be dead of tuberculosis before Roy was eight years old. He was moved to his grandparents with his younger brother and he grew up with eight other cousins in the household.

He struggled in school before dropping out in the seventh grade. He worked odd jobs to help support his family; in a tire shop, on farms in the area, even shining shoes in the bus station.

Everything began to change for him in 1952 when he joined the National Guard. Three years later he enlisted in the Regular Army. He married his wife and joined the 82^nd Airborne Division in 1959. Like many other men, he moved down the street and joined Special Forces.

On his first tour of duty in Vietnam in 1965, he stepped on a landmine and was airlifted out to the states where he was told that he’d never walk again. Determined to prove the doctors wrong, he’d sneak out of his bed and began a furious nightly regimen where he’s crawl to a wall and slowly force himself up to a standing position. He recalled in a speech the agony he’d go thru to walk again.

“The doctors were initiating my medical discharge papers, but at night I would slip out of bed and crawl to a wall using my elbows and my chin. My back would just be killing me and I’d be crying, but I get to the wall and I set myself against the wall and I’d back myself up against the wall and I’d stand there — like Kaw-Liga, the Indian. I’d stand and move my toes, right and left…every single chance I got — I got. And I wanted to walk — I wanted to go back to Vietnam because of what the news media was saying about us: that our presence was not needed there; they’re burning the flag.”

A year later in July 1966, he walked out of the hospital accompanied by his wife, determined to resume his Special Forces career.

Benavidez returned to Vietnam in January 1968. He was assigned to Detachment B-56, 5^th Special Forces Group at Loc Ninh, an SF base along the Cambodian border.

On May 2, 1968, Benavidez, a devout Catholic was attending a prayer service when he heard that a 12-man patrol had inserted into a hornets’ nest of NVA, numbering between 1000-1500. The patrol of three Americans and nine Nung tribesmen was shot up and calling for immediate extraction. The ensuing battle would last for over six hours.

Three attempts to extricate the team by helicopters were driven off by intense ground and anti-aircraft fire. Grabbing a medical aid bag and armed with only a knife, Benavidez leaped on a rescue chopper and off they went.

The helicopter got to within 75 yards of the trapped men and Benavidez jumped from the hovering Huey and raced to the trapped team coming under withering fire. He was hit in the leg and knocked down. But he continued to the team and blasted by a grenade blast suffering shrapnel wounds to his face, arm, and back.

Reaching the trapped team, four men were already dead and the rest were wounded. Benavidez treated the wounded, grabbed an AK from one of the dead men and passed around ammunition. Then he directed air strikes around the perimeter to keep the NVA at bay.

Calling in a Huey to evacuate part of the dead and wounded, he was shot again in the leg. Ignoring his own wounds, he dragged the dead and wounded to the chopper, he provided covering fire. The chopper moved to the second group of men for extract with Benavidez under it, firing at the enemy.

NVA fire increased and smashed into the Huey, killing the pilot and sending the Huey crashing into the ground. Benavidez had made it to the dead team leader and removed the classified documents from around the man’s neck. He was then shot in the stomach by an NVA soldier and another grenade tore into his back and shoulders.

Despite this, and now coughing up blood, he crawled to the downed helicopter. There they formed a small perimeter and passed out the remaining ammunition. He continued to direct air strikes from F-4 Phantom jets and helicopter gunships to push the NVA back. Several of the strikes were danger close.

The North Vietnamese fire increased and mortar rounds were falling everywhere. All of the wounded including Benavidez were hit again. The American helicopter pilots were ready to attempt another rescue attempt.

Grabbing a seriously wounded American SF team member, he hoisted him over his shoulder and lurched toward the waiting helicopter. An NVA soldier believed dead, leaped up and clubbed Benavidez with the butt of his Ak-47, breaking his jaw and knocking him to the ground. As the NVA soldier lunged at Benavidez with his bayonet, Roy grabbed it with his right hand and used his Bowie knife in his left. Pulling the enemy soldier forward he stabbed him but not before suffering a slash to his right hand and his left arm being run thru with the bayonet.

Again, he attempted to drag his American comrade to the helicopter and then noticed two more NVA run from the jungle in the blind spot of the American door gunners. Benavidez grabbed an AK-47 and somehow managed to drop both of the enemy soldiers.

He then made another trip into the perimeter and brought out the team’s interpreter before finally being pushed into the helicopter and lifting off. Holding his intestines in with one hand, he held his dying teammate’s hand with the other.

Having almost bled out on the helicopter, Benavidez slipped into near unconsciousness. A doctor felt for a heartbeat and not registering one, indicated that he should be placed in a body bag with the dead. Benavidez, unable to speak because of the broken jaw, spit in the doctor’s face to let him know he was still alive.

He was then taken into the hospital where the doctors began to treat his myriad of injuries. He had seven gunshot wounds, one of them went thru his back, destroying his right lung and exited just beneath his heart. He had 28 shrapnel wounds in his back, neck, head, legs, feet, and buttocks. Both arms were pierced by a bayonet as well as his hand. His jaw was broken and the back of his head smashed by the enemy’s rifle butt. None of the doctors expected Benavidez to survive. They were wrong.

His wounds were to take a year to heal and he went back to Brooke Army Medical Center. His commander wanted to put Roy in for the Medal of Honor but instead opted for the Distinguished Service Cross believing that he’d at least receive that before his wounds would kill him. Benavidez was awarded the DSC by Gen. William Westmoreland the Chief of Staff of the Army.

Years later after the war, his commander tried to get the Army to reconsider and upgrade Benavidez’s award to the Medal of Honor. But was told that no other American had survived and could confirm his deeds.

Far away in the Fiji Islands, an American, Brian O’Connor who had been the radio man that called for that first frantic call for extraction, read about the development in the newspapers. He wrote a detailed description of the fateful event on that day in May 1968 and that Benavidez was responsible for saving the lives of eight men.

The Pentagon reconsidered and in 1981, President Ronald Reagan presented Benavidez the Medal of Honor. Reagan turned to the press and said, “If the story of his heroism were a movie script, you would not believe it”.

The official citation for Benavidez’s Medal of Honor can be read here:

President Reagan urged Benavidez to speak to the young children of the USA, something Roy took to heart and enjoyed immensely. He spoke about getting an education, learning a trade and love of country.

Here is a YouTube clip of one such speech he gave and it shows the humbleness and patriotism of the man.

Fast forward several years, my path would briefly cross with Benavidez as he was still helping with the American SF’ers hurt. While on a deployment to Central America with the 7^th Special Forces Group, my ODA commander suffered a terrible injury which would result in him becoming a quadriplegic.

In the typical snafu of the passing between the Army and the VA, his benefits were put on hold. Benavidez, who was made aware of the situation jumped in and immediately set things straight, going straight to the head of the VA and said he’d contact then ex-President Reagan if need be. The VA benefits kicked in immediately.

We thanked him and Roy would have none of it. “If I can’t use this medal to help out fellow SFers, then it isn’t worth anything,” he said. He was still bringing guys to the chopper in a way. I still have the autographed picture he gave me. It is one of my prized possessions.

Benavidez died from complications of diabetes in 1998 but his legend will live on. He’s the consummate Special Operator. And on this day 49 years ago, he showed the never quit attitude that the Special Operations Forces pride themselves on. He often finished his speeches with this closing.

I’m asked hundreds of times: Would you do it over again? In my 25 years in the military, I feel like I’ve been overpaid for the service to my country. There will never be enough paper to print the money nor enough gold in Fort Knox for me to have to keep from doing what I did. I’m proud to be an American; and even prouder — and I’m even prouder that I’ve earned the privilege to wear the Green Beret. I live by the motto of “Duty, Honor, Country.”

Photo courtesy Roy Benavidez Facebook

National Special Forces Green Beret Memorial Planned for Ft. Bragg

The National Special Forces Association has collaborated with artist Rebecca Clark to honor the Special Forces men of past and present with a National Green Beret Memorial.

The advisory board for this project includes five General Officers from the Regiment and officers and NCOs who have also served in Special Forces. The planned location for the memorial is the Ft. Bragg, NC area, home of Special Forces training as well as 1st Special Forces Command (Airborne) H.Q. and the U.S. Army Special Operations Command H.Q.

This historic memorial tribute will portray the Special Forces Green Beret “A-Team”, the Operational Detachment-Alpha (ODA), in 6 different iconic and contemporary action scenes with monumental, 8-foot tall bronze Soldiers and a total of 25 heroic scale bronze figures all together, reflecting the different aspects of the ODA mission.
A Medal of Honor centerpiece and pillar will also be created with the names of Special Forces Medal of Honor recipients, past, present, and future.
Granite walls with bronze relief sculpture panels will be created portraying Special Forces Soldiers through different eras, highlighting Special Forces missions, values, culture, and history. Accent lighting will be added to create a dramatic effect.
Once complete, with each of the bronze sculpture sections brought together in epic scale, this iconic monument will convey the full essence of the Special Forces A-Team (ODA), and provide an enduring tribute to the elite Special Forces “Green Beret” Soldiers of every era, past, present, and future and the legacy of the Special Forces Regiment.
The National Special Forces Green Beret Memorial is planned to be placed on public view, as a premier international tourist destination, near Fort Bragg in North Carolina. Fort Bragg is the home of the 1st Special Forces Command (Airborne) H.Q. and the U.S. Army Special Operations Command H.Q.

The first monument of the memorial is slated to be unveiled in 2019 with the entire project completed by 2024.

Ms. Clark has already worked with the 7th Special Forces Group as technical advisors and retired Special Forces A-Team 726 Soldiers, to create an original limited edition print series to portray and honor Medal of Honor Recipient Colonel Roger Donlon, (Ret.) U.S. Army Special Forces and his A-Team 726 that served bravely in Vietnam.

To read the entire article from SF Green Beret Memorial, click here:

Photo courtesy SFGBMemorial

Pineland Role Players Show Importance of Popular Support in Unconventional Warfare

The final training in Special Forces Qualification Course (SFQC) is the Unconventional Warfare (UW) exercise “Robin Sage”, which we went over in detail in an earlier post, that you can read here:

The prospective Green Berets put all their training together and infiltrate into the fictional country of Pineland via an airborne operation. The SF candidates must raise and train a guerrilla force that will fight the enemy government troops and attempt to restore the friendly Pineland government.

As we stated the fictional country of Pineland encompasses 15 counties in North Carolina including Alamance, Anson, Cabarrus, Chatham, Davidson, Guilford, Hoke, Montgomery, Moore, Randolph, Richmond, Rowan, Scotland, Stanly and Union counties.

This unconventional warfare, (UW), training environment has been in use by the Special Forces School for many years and what makes this operation and training so realistic has to do with the scope of interaction with the community. Not only have the citizens of the operational area given their support for the exercise, they’ve become deeply involved.

Many of the role players have been involved for decades and then their children follow on to take over the role of underground or auxiliary in the exercise. And they have proven time and again just how important having popular support in the UW area of operations is to mission success.

It was a point driven home by one of our UW instructors, a Vietnam vet with multiple combat tours who said this of popular support, “you can be the 12 baddest MFers on the planet, but if the people in your area aren’t even nominally behind you, you won’t last a minute out there.”

To the people of these counties, the SF students are “the good guys” and the OPFOR forces are most definitely “the bad guys.” Case in point, moving the entire guerrilla base camp was an undertaking and two major roads had to be crossed. Approaching one in the dark, the lead element woke a farmer’s dog from a house about 200 meters away. The dog was causing a racket.

A light came on and a few moments later, the farmer appeared with a shotgun in hand.
“Are you fellas the SF?” he asked with a heavy drawl. When he was assured that the group was, he smiled. “I told them other fellas, that they couldn’t use my property, they are trying to bushwhack ya.” He then proceeded to tell us where the OPFOR had set up blocking positions knowing we’d be crossing somewhere along the line.

He saved us countless headaches of exposure, firefights and then trying to run cross country with the OPFOR on our trail. We asked the farmer if he was part of the underground for Robin Sage. “Nope, just lookin’ out for the good guys.” He then told us to wait. A minute later he reappeared with a bag of apples that he gave us and wished us luck.

The depth of knowledge these role players have of their own areas is fantastic. Our underground contact knew every single inch of the terrain in the 50-square miles around our guerrilla base. No matter where we’d have to go, he could get there on his ATV, regardless of how thick the vegetation was. We quickly learned that when traveling between different points in the area, he’d give tremendous insight on the areas to avoid, the discrepancies of what the maps showed and what was on the ground and who to avoid in the area.

During on Direct Action (DA) mission, the guerrillas were tasked from the Area Command to blow a small bridge that was defended by elements of the OPFOR. The vegetation around the bridge was incredibly thick. Visibility was about 15-20 in most places. It made the recon of the target very difficult.

Our underground contact stepped in…”My brother and his son fish there all the time, we cut out a trail that can take you right up to the river on the near side for a good look, without making any noise,” he said.

Even better, he sent his brother and nephew “fishing” off the bridge. They ran into the OPFOR, spent the better part of an hour shooting the breeze with the soldiers, and his 11-year old son quickly made his way around the small perimeter talking with the bad guys.

They came into our hasty patrol base and the 11-year old produced a sketch that would make a Ranger instructor proud. All of the fighting positions were marked including the two machine gun emplacements. He even had their walking patrol paths down. We were impressed, his dad said, “He’s been doing this since he was 9, he’s getting pretty good at it.”

These role players helped ferry supplies and equipment, move troops in covered trailers around the operational area as well as provide an early warning network for the guerrilla force. As it is with all people who live in the country, nothing happens out there without all of them knowing about it and they invariably warned the good guys.

Whenever the OPFOR guys were moving in the area, the calls went out and got to the G-Force (Guerrillas) in no time. The area was wired in tight for the resistance movement. It was an eye-opener with how valuable they truly were.

The final target was a big substation for the electric company. The guerrillas had to overwhelm the small detachment of OPFOR guarding it and blow the generators using platter charges. The time to hit the target was 0430 hrs. When the leader’s recon came back, they reported that half the town was set up across the street, huddling in the cold to “watch the show.”

While that kind of gave away the time for the OPFOR that something was about to happen, including having the instructors on site as well, it hit home how much the people have bought in. There were close to two hundred people there to watch the students take down the target. The G-force and students didn’t disappoint. It went flawlessly and the allotted time on target was met with less than a minute to spare before the charges were blown.

The instructors put on a show by throwing an inordinate number of simulators, firing off star clusters and parachute flares for the people out there that chilly October morning. As the last of the explosions died away, the G-force and students were racing back to the rally point, the cheers from the town could be heard from quite a way back.

The role players, the underground and the auxiliary are key components of Robin Sage but it also strikes home how important having popular support is when either helping or countering a resistance movement. If a foreign invader ever comes to the US, one area they will be bound to bypass would be the Uwharrie National Forest. Because the transition from role players to actual underground would be done in the blink of an eye and an invader would find himself in a bad way.

Special Forces soldiers are well trained in the area of working with indigenous personnel. It is their bread and butter. The inner workings of Robin Sage show how valuable that area of expertise is. Using language skills and cross-cultural communication, these lessons will serve the Green Berets well in their follow-on assignments in Special Operations.

Photo courtesy of Randolph County History

How the OSS Shaped Special Operations Forces and CIA of Today

Just a few short months after Pearl Harbor, the United States was locked in a global war with both the empire of Japan and Nazi Germany. And the country had no formal intelligence gathering apparatus.

So, in July 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt created the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) and appointed BG William “Wild Bill” Donovan as its head. It was an agency that fell under the auspices of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to coordinate espionage activities behind enemy lines, conduct special operations, propaganda, subversion, and sabotage.

Prior to the OSS, the business of American intelligence had been done on an ad-hoc basis conducted by various elements of the State Department, Navy, Treasury, and War Departments. There was no joint interaction, control, and no direction. Both the Army and Navy had separate code-breaking units that reported only to the individual services.

Donovan was an interesting choice to lead this ground-breaking unit. To begin with, he was a Republican and Roosevelt a Democrat and the two had many disagreements and political battles in New York prior to the war. One must wonder if a sitting US president today would appoint a political foe in the political morass that plagues Washington.

But Roosevelt had befriended his political foe in the ensuing years and respected his vision of foreign affairs. Donovan had traveled extensively thru Europe and had even been allowed by Benito Mussolini, the dictator of Italy to visit the front line during Italy’s war with Ethiopia. Donovan was sent to inspect US defenses in the Pacific during the time before the war and found them wanting. Roosevelt also sent him on fact-finding missions to the Middle East and the Mediterranean. Donovan had many close contacts with the British and he urged FDR to support Winston Churchill.

Thus, when FDR appointed Donovan the head of the OSS in July 1942 he had already been laying the groundwork from the previous year to build a centralized intelligence program. But they were starting with only their imagination to guide them. Donovan immediately based OSS on the British model of intelligence with their Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) and the Special Operations Executive (SOE). This would prove to be the groundwork for the future.

There was considerable push-back from the FBI, as Director J. Edgar Hoover was openly hostile to Donovan and because of that, operations in Latin America were virtually non-existent as Hoover kept that part of the intelligence area for himself and the FBI. Consequently, the level of sharing of intelligence between the two organizations was zero. Several high-ranking generals held the fledgling organization and Donovan in low esteem, including Douglas MacArthur. It would later keep OSS from helping the liberation of the Philippines, an area that was tailor made for OSS.

Donovan built OSS from nothing to over 10,000 operatives by the end of the war in just three short years. They trained spies, commandos, saboteurs, propagandists and had support personnel to conduct operations all over the globe. At war’s end, Donovan had a plan in mind to bring OSS to the next level and build a post-conflict national intelligence service. But with Roosevelt’s death, President Harry S. Truman disbanded OSS and parceled out its functions to the different services. He then created the Central Intelligence Agency in 1947, but Donovan was not to be its head.

Many of Donovan’s OSS operatives became the face of CIA including Allen Dulles, Richard Helms, William Colby, and William Casey.

Dulles was the agency’s first head and ran a very successful espionage operation against Germany from Switzerland during World War II. Helms, who succeeded Dulles, had run post-war intelligence operations in Berlin against the Russians. Colby who ran the CIA later was an OSS operative who led commando raids in France and Norway. And Casey who was head of CIA during the Reagan administration worked during the war at the Secret Intelligence Branch in Europe under Donovan.

The Special Operations side of OSS later morphed into the CIA’s paramilitary Special Activities Division but it became the backbone of the US Special Operations Command of today. The Special Operations branch of OSS was the basis for many of the Unconventional Warfare (UW), Counter-Insurgency (COIN), and Foreign Internal Defense (FID) tactics and techniques used by today’s U.S. Army Special Operations Forces.

During the war, OSS’ Special Operations Branch fielded units called Operational Groups (OGs) that conducted raids, ambushes, sabotage, and armed resistance groups. These OGs were active in Yugoslavia with the partisans, in Burma as well as France, Italy, and Norway. The most well-known were the Jedburgh OGs which carried out operations in Europe.

Col. Aaron Bank created the 10^th Special Forces Group in 1952, he was a Jedburgh assigned to Europe and recruited other paratroopers, OSS operators, and the 1^st Special Service Force. Using the training and tactics he learned with OSS, Bank created the Special Forces groups that we know today.

The Navy SEALs are well known to have evolved from the famous frogmen and UDTs of World War II. But they also trace part of their lineage to OSS, although they don’t claim it. The Maritime Unit (MU) of OSS was created to conduct special operations, espionage and to develop special equipment, tactics, techniques, and procedures for other special units. This describes closely to what the Navy’s SEAL Team 6 officially known as Developmental Group (DEVGRU) is tasked with today.

One of the most famous of the MU’s operators was Walter Mess. He had conducted sensitive missions in Poland and Czechoslovakia before heading to the MU. He conducted over 100 secret missions, rescued 220 downed pilots using scout swimmers and PT boats and had 15 jumps into Thailand and Burma.

Although an Army officer, and an honorary Green Beret, Mess fits the bill for a quintessential example of a Navy SEAL. He should be recognized as such by USSOCOM.

While many of Donovan’s intelligence operatives became the backbone of the CIA, the special operations side of OSS became the beginning of the Special Operations Command and the units assigned to it.

And to show the lineage to the OSS, the U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) wears an adaptation of the unofficial OSS spearhead insignia as its shoulder patch.

From humble beginnings 75 years ago, the United States Special Operations Command and the CIA owe its legacy to a group of free thinking, “glorious amateurs” as General Donovan liked to call them.

Photo courtesy CIA