5th Special Forces Group

On This Day, Green Berets Insert Into Afghanistan, Link-up With Hamid Karzai

During October and early November of 2001, the United States was hitting back hard at the Taliban in the early days of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan. In the aftermath of 9/11, the Taliban had no idea of what was soon to engulf them.

US and coalition airstrikes pounded Taliban positions. Two US Green Beret teams (ODA-595, ODA-555 The “Horse Soldiers, with Air Force Combat Controllers) inserted into the country with the help of CIA Special Activities Division and linked up with Northern Alliance (anti-Taliban) fighters. In the south, Navy SEALs and in the northwest British SAS were setting up and conducting special operations. Army Rangers jumped in via parachute and seized a key airfield in Kandahar. More SF A-Teams were inserted and one by one, the key cities in Afghanistan fell to the U.S. and Northern Alliance soldiers.

ODA-574 Brings in the Future President:

On November 14, the U.S. inserted ODA-574, another Special Forces A-Team into Afghanistan. It was commanded by CPT Jason Amerine and CWO Bob Pennington and inserted into Uruzgan Province on 4 MH-60K helicopters with Hamid Karzai and a small band of guerrillas loyal to him.

As the force of US and Afghan fighters closed on the town of Tarin Kowt, with about 10,000 people, the local inhabitants revolted against the Taliban controlling the area and expelled them. As Karzai met with the village elders, the Taliban decided to strike back at the village and take it back. They approached the town with 500 fighters.

Karzai a Pashtun, lobbied the U.S. that many Pashtun were allies with the Taliban only out of a sense of survival. He went into Afghanistan prior to the American insertion to round up guerrilla fighters. Another Pashtun leader, Abdul Haq was captured and killed by the Taliban and Karzai escaped into Pakistan with a few followers.

Karzai met with the Green Berets prior to the insertion and the Pashtun leader brought the team up to date on the intelligence in the area.

“Our mission was to infiltrate the Oruzgan province, link up with Hamid Karzai and his Pashtun fighters, and advise and assist his forces in order to destabilize and eliminate the Taliban regime there. More importantly, we were there to ensure that al Qaeda couldn’t operate in Afghanistan anymore,” Amerine remembered after the battle.

Battle of Tarin Kowt:

The combined coalition force was hugely outnumbered by more than 5-1. But the Air Force combat controller attached to ODA-574, Tech Sgt Alex Yoshimoto was a force multiplier and the ODA’s lifeline to the combat aircraft of the coalition in the skies overhead. Amerine correctly deduced that the Taliban’s forces would attack thru the Tarin Kowt Pass. He set up his small team of SF troops and the ragtag untrained guerrillas who didn’t speak English on the plateau overlooking the wide valley below.

Yoshimoto had three F-18 Hornets above them to provide cover, as the first bomb dropped into the valley on the Taliban, the untrained guerrillas with the Americans panicked. Not realizing what was happening, they raced to the trucks and fled back to Tarin Kowt.

The Americans were forced to do the same. Nevertheless, Yoshimoto once again leaped into action. After alerting the aircraft of the tactical situation on the ground, he organized the defense thru the air of the town.

The Taliban split into three groups, Yoshimoto decided to take out the one in the middle first. It was the largest of the three. As Air Force bombers took a toll on the approaching Taliban, they smashed the attacking force.

Only one small group of Taliban managed to reach the rear entrance of the town but they were quickly repulsed and bombed on their retreat. In the end, more than 30 vehicles and over 300 Taliban were killed.

The word quickly spread and one-by-one the towns began switching their allegiance over to Karzai. The Americans now had a Southern Alliance to go along with the Northern Alliance.

Tragedy at the “Alamo” in Shawali Kowt:

As the force moved on Kandahar, they attacked the town of Shawali Kowt on December 2. The Taliban counter-attacked with over 100 fighters. Most of the guerrillas bolted and retreated back. The ODA with just 25 guerrillas who stuck it out, retreated to a hill that was surrounded that the Green Berets dubbed the Alamo.

They called in AC-130 gunship runs to pound the Taliban assembly areas. For the next two days, they called in numerous airstrikes and pounded any attempts to take their position. Then a disaster occurred.

An Air Force bomber dropped a joint direct attack munition (JDAM) that landed on the team. MSG Jefferson Davis, the team sergeant for ODA-574and SSG Cody Prosser were killed instantly. SFC Daniel Petithory was seriously injured. Worse, the team called for an immediate medevac to get Petithory to the Marine base at Camp Rhino where then-BG Jim Mattis commanded 1000 Marines 45 minutes away.

Mattis refused to send a medevac because, at the time, he was unsure on whether the bomb was a US miss-dropped weapon or one from the Taliban. Petithory died later that day from his injuries. Five ODA members and Karzai were also wounded, while 20 of Karzai’s men were also killed. It was a bitter memory for the SF troops towards the future Secretary of Defense.

Within five minutes of the accidental bombing, Karzai was notified via radio that he had been chosen to lead the new interim Afghan government. Hours later, with the Southern Alliance troops with the Americans poised outside of Kandahar, the Taliban leader, Mohammed Omar slipped away in the early morning hours of December 6. The so-called “spiritual home” of the Taliban was in the hands of the Green Berets and Karzai. Just four days later Karzai was sworn in as the Interim Prime Minister.

ODA-574 was awarded three Silver Stars, four Bronze Star Medals for Valor, three Bronze Star Medals, and eleven Purple Hearts during their combat deployment.

Then the US, just as Congressman Charlie Wilson had proclaimed after the Russians were kicked out of Afghanistan a decade before “fucked up the end game.” With the speed at which the Special Operations troops took the country, no one in the US government or the military bothered to plan on what to do after the Taliban was out.

The Special Forces troops were quickly shooshed out of the country, and replaced by the “Big Army” units. But none of the brigades sent into Afghanistan had any experience of working with the Afghan people and leaders. It was…and is a clusterfuck.

According to Amerine, interviewed just a few years ago, the troops coming in didn’t have the experience of working hand-in-hand with the Afghan leaders. “All of that was forgotten and kind of left behind, and that was kind of the tragedy of what followed,” Amerine said. “When big Army came in, 5th SF Group picked up and went to Iraq. All of our relationships were lost. They had to reinvent the wheel.”

But a handful of Special Operations forces showed how valuable unconventional warfare methods are…when placed in the right hands. The years of hard training and working elsewhere by, with and thru local forces had paid off in spades.

“There is another type of warfare, new in its intensity, ancient
in its origin, war by guerrillas, subversives, insurgents,
assassins; war by ambush instead of by combat, by infiltration
instead of aggression, seeking victory by eroding and
exhausting the enemy instead of engaging him. It preys on
unrest.”
– President John F. Kennedy

Photo: Special Forces ODA-574 with Hamid Karzai (US Army)

Chasing Your Passion Is Seldom the Easy Path But Worth It

The two most important days of your life are the day you were born and the day you find out why

“The Equalizer”

Before I begin here, I first have to say, that although I love the film by Antoine Fuqua, starring Denzel Washington, the quote that they attribute to Mark Twain, was one he never actually said, but it frequently credited to him. Washington’s character in the film has much of the wisdom Twain had, all while being a total badass. And part of it was filmed in my hometown, so it was even better. Twain had so many great quotes…what’s one more …right?

The meaning of that quote, whoever wrote it, is that we are born and we don’t truly live until we find our purpose in life. We have to find out what we were born to do. And that is what is ultimately what makes us a person and if we’re doing what we love, we are going to the most effective we can be.

But one of the other great quotes of our time is “Do Something You Love and You’ll Never Work a Day in Your Life”. And to some degree that is very true. For those of you who are hoping to chase a dream for a career in our Special Operations Forces, it is hardly a career without hard work. In fact quite the opposite.

There are numerous sacrifices that must be made just to get your feet in the door. You’ll have to train extremely hard on your own, just to become a candidate for Selection. Next comes the actual Selection courses which are designed to crush an average troop into the dust. The physical and mental side of the Selection courses are extremely difficult and the ratio between successful candidates and unsuccessful ones are very high. That doesn’t even take into account the qualification courses which depending on your MOS could take over a year.

That just gets your foot in the door. Once you are a member of the operational units, the training, missions and operational tempo become even harder. Getting into Special Operations is very hard. Remaining there for a career is even harder.

But the job satisfaction and feeling of doing something worthwhile and important outweigh any monetary rewards you could get. The fact of the matter is that if you decide to embark on a military you won’t get rich, don’t expect to be living next door to a CEO of a Fortune 500 company. Some researchers have stated that happy employees and those that have totally “bought in” to what they are doing are at least 12 percent more effective than just the ones working to get a paycheck. We’ll get to this more below.

So, you are considering Special Operations as a career, something many troops have in every service…how do you get yourself standing in the formation at Selection?

Research As Much As Possible:

This is a MUST. Read everything you can get your hands on about whatever unit you are targeting as your choice. Be intimately familiar with the unit’s history, their makeup, what makes them so special, and how they operate.

Then do more research. Are the skills and intangibles that the unit is looking for actual strengths of yours? You have to be very self-critical and realistic here. And if they are not strengths, are there ways to make them so?

Obviously, if you are a person that doesn’t enjoy working at night or even has a fear of the dark, then this life probably isn’t for you. So, do the homework first and do a detailed job on whether this job appears to be a fit both personally and professionally.

Map Out a Timeline:

Like anything else, once you’ve decided to try this, you can’t just submit your paperwork and expect to walk in the door on Day 1 of Selection and expect the cadre to hand you the key to the city. Your preparation should begin before you ever submit your paperwork.

Then map out a timeline. If you plan on attending Selection next spring, make a reverse timeline and start the backward planning process (something you’ll be expected to know in SOF). And your preparation is all on you. No one is going to hold your hand either in your prep or in the course. You must be self-reliant and a true self-starter.

A young man spoke with me recently about making such a big leap and asked me what if after all that, how do you know you will excel in Special Operations. Most of that comes with doing the research and homework ahead of time. But in reality, you won’t really know if you fit in SOF or it is for you until you get your feet on the ground there.

Many, the majority of the people that try out fail. It isn’t an indictment on the person, there are many outstanding soldiers that have attempted Special Operations and aren’t a fit. There is no shame in that. It isn’t for everyone, life in Special Operations especially isn’t for everyone. The only shame is, once in, not giving 100 percent of your time, effort and enthusiasm.

Never be afraid of pushing the envelope and reaching high. Of course, the possibility of failure is always there but that is what makes it all worthwhile. As Tom Hanks said in “A League of Their Own”, the hard is what makes it great. If it was easy, everyone would do it. And then, it wouldn’t be “special” at all.

On a personal level, I knew what I wanted to be from the time I was about eight years old. My Grandmother lived nearby and she subscribed to National Geographic. There was an issue about Special Forces in Vietnam and the pictures and story about CPT Vern Gillespie were enthralling. How this shadowy, unit, lived with and fought alongside these hill tribesmen in Vietnam was fascinating.

I then read everything I could get my hands on about this “new” unit. Which in those days wasn’t very much. Making a trip down to the town library, I signed out Robin Moore’s book, “The Green Berets” and was hooked. It wasn’t long after that when the book came to the silver screen and none other than “the Duke”, John Wayne brought the Green Berets in a flawed but memorable film. To the 10-year old in the theater, it made a lasting impression.

So there was never a doubt where my “passion” was going. But making it happen is always a different path, the same for everyone else. But once there, I was the happiest I ever was at any time in my life.

I couldn’t believe they paid me to go to work there every day. I got to meet a ton of tremendous NCOs, the backbone of SF, where excellence is a given. On a podcast on SOFREP Radio, I once told the host, Ian, when on the show that I felt like a member of the ‘27 Yankees, where everyone was a star at what they did. My battalion had a plethora of our officers make General, far exceeding the normal ratio. And the amazing thing was, there were a few more who should have made it.

I was fortunate and consider myself lucky to be able to do what I loved, despite the injuries which came down the road and I have to live with today. I hope that all of you find that niche in life as well. There is no feeling like it. And if it brings you into the Special Operations brotherhood, that is the best feeling of all. Don’t quit. DOL

Photo: DOD

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

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

Early Life and the USMA:

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

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

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

Vietnam Tours, Capture and Execution:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Medal of Honor Citation:

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

Epilogue:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Night Stalkers Fly Teams In Terrible Conditions:

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

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

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

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

The Famed Horsemen:

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

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

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

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

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

Combat Controllers Were Big Force Multipliers:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Photo: DOD

MG Sidney Shachnow, Legend in Special Forces Dies at 83

The Green Beret community lost a legend this week as Sidney Shachnow, who survived a concentration camp for three years starting when he was just seven years old. He served in a variety of Special Forces units and a few conventional billets and eventually retired as a Major General. He retired in Southern Pines, NC and passed away this weekend at the age of 83.

Early Life:

Shachow was born on March 5, 1934, in Kaunas, Lithuania. After the Nazis invaded the former Soviet Union in 1941, Shachnow and his family were thrown into the Kovno concentration camp because they were Jews. He survived by doing heavy manual labor and was a witness to the brutal treatment the inmates were forced to endure. Only 5 percent of the inmates of Kovno would survive until the camp was liberated.

The Nazis in March of 1944 decided to liquidate all of the children at Kovno by shipping them to Auschwitz to be gassed. Shachnow escaped and hid the woods, narrowly missing being murdered. He lived mostly in seclusion and nearly starved to death on a couple of occasions. When the Soviets liberated Kovno and began to implement communism to the people, Shachnow fled on foot, heading west and would walk nearly 2000 miles before ending up in the care of the Americans at Nuremberg. While there he engaged in black-market activities just to survive.

Shachnow was deeply affected by his experiences in the camp and it would shape how he viewed people for many years. Although he was not one to talk about himself and was, for the most part, a deeply personal man, he opened up a bit at the time of his retirement. He told the Fayetteville Observer in 1994 how this time shaped his outlook.

“After I finished that experience, I was very cynical about people,″ he said. “I didn’t trust people. I thought that there is a dark side to people.”

Life in the US and the Military:

He made it to the United States from Nuremberg and he and his family settled in Salem, Massachusetts, where for the first time in his life, he was able to attend school.

He later joined the U.S. Army as a private in 1955 despite barely speaking any English. After rising thru the enlisted ranks to Sergeant First Class, he applied and graduated from Officer’s Candidate School in 1960. Shortly after joining the Army, he would marry his high school sweetheart Arlene. They remained together until his passing last week.

Two years later he joined Special Forces and his life’s work was laid out before him. He would serve most of the next 32 years in SF.

As a Captain, he would command the 5th Special Forces Group’s A-camp, Camp A-121 at An Long. There he would be awarded the first of his Silver Stars for valor as well as a Purple Heart. Shachnow applied a tourniquet to his own leg wound and continued to lead his men. He was also shot in the arm.

While recovering from his wounds in the United States, he received his bachelor degree from the University of Nebraska and went back to Vietnam again where he received another Silver Star and three Bronze Stars with “V” device.

Later in the 10th Special Forces Group in Germany, Shachnow would command the highly secretive Detachment-A, known to the SF men simply as “Det-A”, Berlin Brigade, a clandestine unit of Cold War Green Beret who remained on high alert 24-hours a day. This covert unit consisted of selectively trained and language qualified members of Special Forces, who brought vital culture, geographical and language skills to the assignment. Their missions were classified. They dressed in civilian clothing and carried appropriate non-American documentation and identification at terrific risk if they were caught by Soviet or East German security forces.

For a fascinating four-part look at what Det-A did read the story by Jack Murphy here: Amazing that as part of Det-A, Shachnow commanded several soldiers who were in the American Army due to the Lodge Act and several, who fought for the Nazis in World War II.

In 1990, Shachnow would be a two-star, and command all of the US troops in Berlin and was a witness to the Berlin Wall coming down. For Shachnow, it was coming full-circle. He told the Observer in his 1994 interview, that the experience was moving for a Lithuanian Jew who spent time in a concentration camp.

“Here it is the very capital of fascism and the Third Reich. The very buildings and streets where they were goose-stepping and heil-Hitlering and the very system that put me in the camp and killed many people,” he said. “Here we are 40 some-odd years later, and I come back to be commander of American forces in that city and a Jew on top of that… It sort of adds insult to injury, doesn’t it?″

He also served as the Commanding General, United States Army Special Forces Command, as well as the Commanding General, John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School.

It was there that our paths crossed a couple of times, albeit very briefly. We spoke one time during a briefing and he did a double take at me and at the conclusion of which he asked, “Where are you from Chief?” I told him Boston, at which time he smiled and said, “that’s pretty obvious,” to the chuckles of those close by. When I told him I had attended college at Salem State, he smiled, and said, “I know that place really well.”

When it was over, he spoke to the SF guys in a manner that resonated with everyone. He had tremendous respect within the community. Several SF guys could speak with much more familiarity than myself, but the results would be no different. His bona fides and respect within the community were impeccable.

Later he wrote a book about his life in the concentration camps, moving to the U.S. and his military career. It is titled, “Hope and Honor” which he wrote with author Jan Robbins and is highly recommended. It can be found here:

Despite his terrible experiences in a concentration camp, he and his wife raised a loving and close family with four daughters. His family would grow to include fourteen grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. He never took his adopted family for granted and knew full well the struggles and price for freedom.

Shachnow came to this country as a penniless immigrant who could barely speak the language. He rose up to become a commander of one of the most prestigious headquarters in the U.S. military. And he did so without ever tooting his own horn.

He said of life’s struggles, “Oppression was still an enemy. But I realized how important it was to keep hope, courage, and perseverance, and we would someday erase this scourge from society.”

A memorial service for MG Shachnow will be held at 3 p.m. Oct. 13 at Boles Funeral Home in Southern Pines.

Photos: US Army

On This Day Special Forces A -Camp at Thuong Duc Defended

The U.S. Army Special Forces built a number of camps to defend South Vietnam from Communist infiltration during the war in Vietnam. These would be manned by a typical Special Forces A-Team and manned by paramilitary Montagnard tribesmen, called camp strikers, in the Civilian Irregular Defense Program (CIDG).

Special Forces camp A-109 at Thuong Duc was a typical SF camp. It was located southwest (about 40 KM) of Da Nang close to the Laotian border. It was strategically located between the heavily populated coastal plain and the more rural areas west. It was also located within a key river valley where the Song Vu Gia and Song Con rivers converged and afforded the Americans and Vietnamese the ability to monitor and interdict enemy activity from the west and protect Da Nang.

From an SF veteran website: It consisted of an American compound surrounded by an outer band occupied by the CIDG troops. The outer area also contained the Vietnamese ‘District government’ headquarters. To the south (and slightly west) was a CIDG outpost. The outpost and camp A-109 straddled ‘fingers’ — ridges that extended down from the high plateau to the river valley. As such the camp had a commanding view of the river and the river valley.

The 5th Special Forces Group maintained an A-Team at Thuong Duc from 1965 until 1970. Because of the proximity to Da Nang and its strategic importance, the North Vietnamese Army (NVA), made the capture of the camp a priority. It was along a major infiltration route by the NVA. and always under attack. The I Corps Mike Force was frequently sent to Thuong Duc to help defend the camp.

The NVA placed anti-aircraft guns on the mountains surrounding the camp and would attempt to shoot down any aircraft attempting to use the airstrip. This made resupply for the camp a tricky situation when the enemy was attacking, which was often.

In September of 1968, the NVA was making another major push for Da Nang. First, they had to take Camp 109 at Thuong Duc. They slowly infiltrated in the mountains on three sides of the camp, building up their forces in an attempt to overrun the camp.

On September 28, at 0200 the NVA 21st Regiment attacked and overran Outposts Alpha and Bravo, about 600 meters southwest of the main camp area. Later that day, CIDG strikers led by Special Forces troops took back the two outposts in hard fighting.

The NVA kept up the pressure by taking several surrounding villages in the area and either killing or driving out the local inhabitants. Meanwhile, the Special Forces troops with their organic mortars along with artillery support and air strikes from the Air Force were taking a huge toll on the enemy.

The A-Team in Thuong Duc had in their possession a captured enemy radio set (Chicom) and were able to monitor the enemy’s transmissions. The NVA was in desperate need of replacements and medical supplies as they were taking severe casualties. Because of these monitored transmissions, CIDG and SF personnel from Camp 109 attacked and routed an enemy resupply column when they entered a killing field of the open area northwest of the camp several days later. They caused an additional 100 casualties of the enemy.

While the NVA kept up pressure against Thuong Duc with several rocket and artillery attacks as well as many probes against the surrounding area villages, but it was clear that they had lost the element of surprise and as well as the initiative.

Then the Seventh Marines was tasked with relieving the surrounded Thuong Duc camp area; 2d and 3d Battalions, 5th Marines were attached to the regiment. Facing elements of 21st Regiment of the 2d NVA Division and the newly established 141st Regiment, the Marines and supporting South Vietnamese units began to help clear the area.

Together, the SF troops, CIDG and the Marines with support from attack aircraft, AC-47 gunships, artillery from 3d Bn, 11th Marines and the Army’s 4th Bn, 8th Field Artillery, the Marines slowly pushed the NVA back to the Laotian border.

Casualties for the Special Forces Camp from the A-109 After Action Report included: 21 CIDG strikers Killed in action (KIA) 8 RF/PF, Killed in action (KIA). 9 Special Forces, 32 CIDG, 6 RF/PF (South Vietnamese), Wounded in Action, (WIA).

NVA dead in direct camp assaults were counted as 68, however many more were killed in artillery and air strikes outside of the camp.

Thuong Duc (Camp A-109) would be attacked again by the NVA again during the time period from late April to early June 1970. In spite of this, the Military Assistance Command, Vietnam, (MACV) insisted on shutting down the CIDG program and converting the camps over to Vietnamese Ranger BNs. By November 1st, after the 5th Special Forces Group delayed the termination order as long as they could, closed Camp A-109.

The last bastion in I Corps was gone. The South Vietnamese were incapable of running the programs correctly and the Montagnard strikers quit in large numbers, not trusting the South Vietnamese government who treated them like second-class citizens.

The conventional MACV advisors lacked the experience and communications to adequately defend the camps and eventually, the NVA swept thru the areas with ease.

Photos: US Army Special Forces

5th Special Forces Group, Activated 21 Sep 1961, “The Legion”

On this day during the early 1960s, the 5th SFG (A) was activated at Ft. Bragg, NC. One of the most storied units during the Vietnam War, the 5th SFG has been the vanguard of Special Forces units in Operation Enduring Freedom and during the Global War on Terror.

The 5th SFG like all of the U.S. Army Special Forces draws its lineage from the OSS troops of World War II and to a lesser extent, the 1st Special Service Force, also from WWII. Today the 5th SFG is primarily responsible for operations within the CENTCOM area of responsibility as part of the Special Operations Command, Central (SOCCENT). The 5th SFG specializes in operations in the Middle East, Persian Gulf, Central Asia and the Horn of Africa (HOA).

Vietnam War Honors:

With the “Wars of Liberation” or guerrilla wars springing up in the late 1950s and early 1960s, the United States was no longer employing troops with a knowledge of Unconventional Warfare.

President Kennedy authorized the formation of several Special Forces groups to counter this threat. The troops would be steeped in guerrilla warfare and trained at the Special Warfare Center at Ft. Bragg, NC. Kennedy visited the base in 1962 and was impressed with the troops, their commander, General William Yarborough and their mission.

He authorized the troops wearing of the distinctive Green Beret as “A symbol of excellence, a badge of courage, a mark of distinction in the fight for freedom.” The 5th SFG wore a beret flash of solid black at the time. After service in Vietnam, the unit would change it to a different flash with an added diagonal yellow stripe with three narrow red over-stripes, which was inspired by the flag of South Vietnam.

The unit reverted back to the simple black flash in 1985 but in March of 2016, in an effort to draw lineage to those veterans from Vietnam, the unit would change back to the Vietnam era beret flash.

The Green Berets of the 5th SFG began deploying to Vietnam in 1962 on 6th month TDY missions. But in early 1965, the entire unit moved to Vietnam and would remain there until March 15, 1971, when the unit officially withdrew from the country and returned to Ft. Bragg. However, small units from within the group would remain in Vietnam until the country’s fall in 1975.

CIDG, SOG Buildup:

Perhaps the greatest paramilitary force the United States has ever trained with the Civilian Irregular Defense Group (CIDG). The CIDG program was begun by the CIA in 1961 to counter Viet Cong (Communist) infiltration and takeover of the ethnic minority population centers in the countrysides of Vietnam.

Centering mostly on the mountainous Montagnard people, who were distrusted and hated by both the North Vietnamese and lowland South Vietnamese, the marriage between the simple mountain people and the Green Berets was a perfect union.

The Green Berets would send an A-Team into a small village and recruit the local tribesmen into CIDG “Strikers” and then build a camp that could defend the base, the surrounding area and interdict Viet Cong activities and influence in the area.

The CIDG program was incredibly successful. The 5th SFG at its peak had 84 A-Camps and over 42,000 Strikers under their command. The 5th SFG also trained several Mobile Strike Force Command units, locally known as “Mike Force” units that were quick reaction forces that could rapidly deploy to any A-Camp in country that was under attack or siege. Led by American and Australian Special Forces troops, they provided valuable QRF, search and rescue support as well as search and destroy capabilities.

The programs were disbanded after the U.S. withdrawal in 1971 and converted to Vietnamese Ranger Battalions.

The Green Berets of the 5th SFG were also the majority of the troops that comprised the MACVSOG (Military Assistance Command Vietnam, Studies and Observation Group). This unit conducted special operations in Laos, and Cambodia as well as Vietnam.

MACVSOG, Newsrep’s John “Tilt” Meyer was one of the SF operators that conducted missions “over the fence”

These small covert unit missions diverted up to 40,000 North Vietnamese troops to cover their infiltration routes along the Ho Chi Minh Trail. The casualty rate for the elite SOG teams was around 100 percent. Despite this, the men continued to operate at a very high rate and they killed an average of 158 enemy troops for every American lost.

When the 5th SFG left Vietnam there would be 20 SF men awarded the Medal of Honor.

Other “Cold War” Deployments:

The 5th SFG took part in combat operations during Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. The group was called upon to conduct operations in Southwest Asia in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. The group deployed in August 1990 and returned in April 1991.

From the USASOC web page, During this time, the Group conducted Foreign Internal Defense operations in support of the Saudi Arabian land forces and provided Coalition Support Teams to every allied contingent among the coalition; becoming what Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf would call “the glue that held the coalition together.” The group also conducted Special Reconnaissance, Direct Action, and Combat Search and Rescue Missions.

Operation Enduring Freedom:

Just after the hijackings of 9/11, President Bush authorized the 5th SFG to set up an operational base in Afghanistan to conduct unconventional warfare against the Taliban and the al-Qaeda terrorists behind the 9/11 attacks. The SF teams were to initiate contact with both CIA Special Activities Division and the Afghan members of the Northern Alliance.

The two SF A-Teams ODA 555 and ODA 595 with Air Force Combat Controllers inserted into Afghanistan hundreds of miles away from U.S. support. There they linked up with their CIA and Northern Alliance allies and began operations that would oust the Taliban from the country.

5th SFG and AF Combat Controllers ride into combat on horseback in Afghanistan.

The troops were issued horses as this was the only suitable transportation available in the mountainous region. They would become the first U.S. soldiers to ride into combat on horseback since the early days of 1942 in the Philippines.

When Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld saw the pictures of the SF and AF men on horseback, he shared it with the press and the 5th SFG men became known as the “Horse Soldiers” and a statue was created by a sculptor and resides now in New York City as America’s response to 9/11.

The Green Berets of the 5th SFG would go on to serve in Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom and the fall of the Baath Regime in 2003 through the final withdrawal of U.S. Forces and the end of Operation New Dawn in 2011, 5th SFG (A) has conducted Special Operations in support of Coalition Forces and the Iraqi government

The 5th SFG currently still operates in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria as well as many other countries in their area of operation. The men of “The Legion” will celebrate their unit’s birthday from many places around the globe but will have a tip of the Beret to those who came before them back 57 years ago.

Photos: US Army

Can Special Forces Teach Everything?… Pretty Darned Near

As a member of a Special Operations unit, you can be tasked with damned near anything and probably will. The best indicator of having a skill is the fact that you can teach it to others.

As we wrote here some time ago, “Teaching is An Art in Special Forces”, and some of the best SF NCOs also happen to be the best instructors you’ll find anywhere. As a prospective Special Operations candidate, know that if you graduate, you’ll have to be prepared to teach almost anything to anyone while you’re deployed overseas.

And much of it can be MOS immaterial. Just because you are a Heavy Weapons man on a team, doesn’t mean that you can’t or won’t be assigned to teach about anything under the sun.

In Special Forces, we can and frequently do conduct operations that might not have much to do with your current operation but help United States government assets in fostering goodwill of the host nation thru a variety of subtasks that often center around civic action projects.

While teaching a 6-month counter-narcotics course in a jungle camp in Bolivia, our team was supposed to get a two-week break at Christmas, as the host nation forces would be given block leave to celebrate the holiday in the middle of our course. We were slotted to go back to Panama, enjoy some beach time and head back.

But the Ambassador came calling, he got roped into rebuilding a school that taught elementary students early in the morning, high school in the afternoon and adult education at night. It was completely falling in and the bathrooms were broken with raw sewage on the floors.

The US government thru USAID had about a quarter of the funds to rebuild. We were asked to help. No Christmas leave on the beach after all. The only way we could make it work was to get a ton of labor from the citizens who would volunteer their time. And each of the team guys became a construction foreman, teaching the locals how to do their own small piece of the pie. It got finished under the time limit and under budget. Most had no experience doing it but it got done and done well.

Another time, my partner and I got tasked with teaching basic combat shooting to the wives of the MILGP personnel. There were threats to U.S. personnel in-country and the women had asked for classes to teach them how to defend themselves in the event they were forced to use a weapon to defend themselves or their children.

The only two stipulations from the women were that we treat them like anyone other troops we’d train and that their husbands stay away. We borrowed the combat pistol range in the city and took them for a few days with a ton of range time. The ladies all that telltale callous on their right thumb from loading so many pistol magazines.

Despite their stipulation, we taught them quite differently than we would have our normal host nation troops but the women caught on extremely fast and their shot groups got tighter and tighter. We even had time to teach them double-tapping their targets. At the end of our training, the husbands from the MILGP and the Military Attache’s Offices came out to see the women show off a bit. They took great delight in double-tapping their targets. Thankfully, no one, in our time there, ever had to utilize the training we conducted.

One of the most fun (for us) of our pop-up training activities was teaching a door gunner course for the helicopter machine gunners. Most of them weren’t trained that well and they had little to no refresher training until the operations called for them to do it for real.

We were asked if we were familiar with this, and answered: “of course we are.” We studied up and got a bird and a couple of M-60s for our own train up prior to the class.

We practiced it and had a blast burning up copious amounts of ammo on our own until it came time to teach the class. It lasted all of one day when the host nation shut it down (temporarily) because they needed all hands on deck for a live operation. We’re still waiting for them to kick back in for the training class but we had a blast at least.

One of the most challenging was an all-classroom course. Our Bolivian counterparts had staff officers assigned to all of the top positions, but in reality, never functioned as a staff would in the United States. Our counterpart, a Major in the Bolivian military asked for our assistance in teaching a staff course.

The Army Attache stated (and correctly so) that they needed a CGSC (Command and General Staff Officers’ Course) graduate to teach it. We were firmly in agreement with him there. But the problem was, not many SF NCOs or Warrant Officers have been to CGSC. And of course, with just the two of us there, we were stuck. Would he like to teach it? Of course not.

So we got as much material from the old School of the Americas that we could and taught a senior staff course. They were even surprised at who was teaching it. So while I never attended CGSC…I can say I taught it…kind of.

Anyway, old anecdotes aside, you’ll find your career in Special Operations a very different type of experience from anything you’ll ever encounter anywhere else. Your duties and responsibilities will far outdistance your rank in the U.S. military. It is par for the course.

When hit with a subject that you don’t have much experience with, do the research, study and get it done. Your biggest asset is the ability to sell your expertise to our host nation forces and get them to trust that you’ll get it done.

Every day on nearly every mission can be a very different set of circumstances that can be a rewarding and challenging experience. So, back to the title, “Can Special Forces Teach Everything?”… The short answer is, ABSOLUTELY.

Photo: US Army

Where Were You on 9/11? A Dark Day for the US

Like many of us, we can remember exactly where we were on 9/11, like the generation before us could recall where they were when JFK was shot in Dallas. The memories of that awful day and the days that followed will forever be burned into our memories and it shaped our national policy for years to come.

And many of our young people flocked to the military after the attacks in New York City, the Pentagon and in Pennsylvania after we learned that America had been under a coordinated attack. And now the post 9/11 era veterans are the second largest veterans group in the country after the Vietnam Era.

But like any significant event, there are always the ones who look to change the narrative. There are many in the world that foolishly now claim that the Holocaust is a myth and didn’t actually happen, despite the fact that the Nazi Germany regime of Hitler was nothing if not meticulous record keepers, who documented everything.

Some would have you believe today that 9/11 was brought upon the US by the US itself, by our own actions. Some real tin-foil wearers go as far to say that it was radical Muslim terrorists but Israeli Mossad agents, while others say that a plane never hit the Pentagon that it was some kind of missile. All of this despite mountains of evidence to show that the bin Laden followers indeed caught the US sleeping. Something that must never be allowed to happen again.

Hate carried the day on 9/11 sixteen years ago. The terrorists who flew those planes were manifested by hate for the West, our beliefs, and more than anything else our freedoms. They also hated that their twisted version of Islam was not in a position of being globally supreme over all of the world. And their mission was to murder their way to success.

The terrorists, through their own propaganda machines, would have you believe that their terror tactics are the weapon for the weak masses to rise up against Western, read that Non-Islamic interests. When in fact it is quite the opposite. It is a weapon against the weak, the civilians who only want to go about their daily lives in peace.

So on the 16th anniversary of the events of 9/11, let us remember what we set out to do in the very aftermath of those horrible days. Stamp out the terror and hate wherever they may reside.

The timeline of that day is listed below as the events unfolded.

8:46 the first plane hits the World Trade Center: This is the moment when Mohammed Atta and the hijackers and passengers on Flight 11 smashed into the 93-99th floors of the WTC North. Everyone on the plane and several hundred people were killed instantly. Firefighters from the NYFD on the ground right below the scene witness this and move quickly into action. This was captured by a film crew doing a documentary on the Firemen. Little did they know they would be capturing history.

9:03 the second plane hits the World Trade Center: Now, hijackers crash United Airlines Flight 175 into floors 75-85 of the World Trade Center’s South Tower, killing everyone on board and hundreds more inside the building. Now there is no longer the fallacy of the first plane being an accident. That plane was caught on film by hundreds of photographers and news video camera who were covering the initial crash, thinking it was an accident. The fireball of thousands of gallons of aviation fuel and the explosion burst thru the opposite side of the World Trade Center and create a fireball which will weaken the structure beyond its saving.

9:37 the Pentagon is Hit: Hijackers aboard Flight 77 crash the plane into the western façade of the Pentagon in Washington, killing all 59 on board the plane and 125 military and civilian personnel inside the building. It created a hole that went deep inside the building and by a miracle didn’t kill many more.

9:59 am the South Tower of the World Trade Center collapses: Shock is the only way to describe watching that unfold. It looked surreal, like a bad disaster film, and the only thing one could think about was the hundreds if not thousands of people trapped inside.

Later as we’ve seen in the documentaries done on 9-11, the NYC Fire Department was inside the building and making their way up to the worst hit floors. As filmmakers recorded the firemen, what sounded like artillery shells hitting outside was the sound of bodies impacting on the concrete as people hurtled out the windows rather than be burned alive. There were no illusions now as to what they were facing.

10:07 am Flight 93 crashes into a field in Pennsylvania: After passengers and crew members aboard the hijacked Flight 93 contact friends and family and learn about the attacks in New York and Washington, they mount an attempt to retake the plane. In the ensuing fight, the hijackers deliberately crash the plane into a field in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, killing all 40 passengers and crew aboard.

One passenger was on the phone with his family when they learned of the other hijacked planes and their fates. The passengers decide to mount an attempt to retake the plane. In the middle of this group of passengers is a pilot who they hoped would be able to refly the plane to safety. The last thing his family heard was “Let’s Roll! As they crashed into the cockpit and were retaking it from the terrorists, the terrorist pilot put the plane into a steep dive that it was impossible to recover from.

10:28 am the World Trade Center’s North Tower collapses: 102 minutes after being struck by Flight 11, the first tower that was hit collapses. It was a stunning sequence of events, Manhattan was covered by a pall of smoke and dust. It was a shocking spectacle that no one could believe was happening. Manhattan was invisible from across the river on Interstate 95. The entire world was watching on television and much like the moon landings of 1969 but for an entirely different reason, we were glued to it for much of the next few days.

The aftermath triggered the U.S. government response. Massive investigations followed as we tried to figure out where everything had gone so wrong. The Patriot Act came into being over this, something social activists would point to as a government overreaction.

But a few weeks later the United States would begin to strike back. A handful of Green Berets from the 5th Special Forces Group would be airdropped into Afghanistan to make contact with the Northern Alliance fighters that were in combat against the Taliban, who gave the Al-Qaeda terrorists their safe-haven from the West.

In short order, these men would begin to direct the efforts of ousting the Taliban and Al-Qaeda from Afghanistan. Osama bin Laden would leave and flee into the mountains and be forced into hiding. It took a long time but he eventually paid for 9/11 in a small town in Pakistan when Navy SEALs took him out. The mastermind of 9/11 was dead. But the struggle against terror moves on. The terrorists now aren’t being as bold as in 2001. But while their tactics have changed, their aims have not.

Photos: Wikipedia

Jose Rodela, Special Forces, Medal Of Honor, Sept. 1, 1969

Remember Your Regiment…

Former Green Beret, SFC Jose Rodela who was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for gallantry in Vietnam, did not find the news that his award was being upgraded to the Medal of Honor, many years later in 2014 very well. In fact, he wished that the government hadn’t brought up that fateful day at all.

The war, and the memory of close friends who didn’t survive that battle still haunt the veteran and he’d prefer to leave the battle and the results far away.

“I’m a little disturbed,” said Rodela, when he found out his medal was being upgraded. “I don’t like it, but I go along with it because of service to my country. I really wish they had left me alone, but I’m here and I’m going to give you the best I know.”

Congress, several years ago, began scanning records of Black, Hispanic and Jewish troops to see if there was any bias that would have prevented them from receiving the Medal of Honor from World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. There were 19 men that fell into that category, two were Special Forces veterans from the Vietnam war. One of them was Rodela. He was eventually awarded the Medal of Honor by President Obama at the White House on March 18, 2014.

Vietnam veterans Sgt. 1st Class Melvin Morris, Master Sgt. Jose Rodela, and Sgt. Santiago J. Erevia, along with 21 other veterans from World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War, had their Distinguished Service Crosses upgraded to Medals of Honor. Here, they take part in a Medal of Honor presentation ceremony at the White House, March 18, 2014. Of the 24 who fought in World War II, Korea and Vietnam, only Morris, Rodela and Erevia are living. (Department of Defense photo by J.D. Leipold, Army News Service, Defense Media Activity)

Rodela was born in Corpus Christi, TX and left school in his sophomore year because he was bored and looking for the discipline that the military offered. Rodela joined Special Forces and was assigned to Detachment B-36 of the 5th Special Forces Group, although an NCO was a company commander of a group of Cambodians, he helped to recruit, train and then lead into combat.

In an interview he did with the media in December of 2013, Rodela said that recruiting the Cambodians was a normal occurrence. “Every three months we’d go to Cambodia, load up the volunteers in C-130s, and take them to war,” he said. Rodela and the other SF NCOs would train them through basic combat training and then lead them into combat.

Rodela (center front row) with his Cambodian strikers

Rodela would sometimes recruit Vietnamese but preferred Cambodians as he said they were the superior fighters. But the Green Berets would never mix the two ethnic peoples as they both disliked and distrusted one another.

On September 1, 1969, the Mobile Strike Force that the SF troops were leading, would get into a pitched battle with North Vietnamese regulars at Phuoc Long Province, South Vietnam.

The North Vietnamese outnumbered, and outgunned the SF-led strikers but that never deterred the Green Berets. “We looked for them, found them and killed them,” Rodela said. “That’s what we were there to do.”

But the NVA regulars were dug in and prepared for the battle which was to come and would last 18 hours. At the very outset of the battle, the Cambodian troops under the SF men came under withering machine gun, rocket and artillery fire.

Rodela displaying immense coolness under fire moved out into the open and began to move his men into a half-moon defensive perimeter. His actions gave the rest of the battalion time to organize a coordinated defense and saved his unit from sustaining even worse casualties. The strikers lost 11 dead and 33 wounded.

During the battle, he was the only man moving, as he went from position to position, physically checking on the status of his men. Encouraging them, moving them to more stable defensive positions, checking on the wounded, he was an inspiration to the rest of the men. Despite being targeted by machine gun and rocket fire, he kept this up for the entire 18 hours and ignored his own wounds, shrapnel in his back and head.

In an interview with the San Antonio Express, Rodela recalled having to take out a machine gun position, armed by young teenagers just 16-17 who didn’t realize the predicament they were in until it was too late. They were laughing and jeering at Rodela as he tried to clear the position and free his men who were under fire.

“The rest of them left but they hung around that machine gun, and they kept shooting. I just went around the bushes and they just wouldn’t leave, wouldn’t leave. I shot them. I (yelled), ‘Get out of here!’” Rodela remembered. “I was trying to recover my people; they were being shot by the machine gun. They kept interfering. Young kids! Wow, that’s what bothers me. I had to shoot them.” During the battle, Rodela lost his two best friends, Green Berets SSG Rudy Chavez and SFC Joe Haga who were killed in the intense firefight.

Rodela and his Cambodians came across an orphaned 12-year old boy who was all alone with no one in the jungle. He took him in and was planning on adopting the boy and bringing him to the United States. So the boy stayed with the unit and one night he stepped on a landmine and was killed. Rodela said, he had already thought of the boy as his own son and his death haunted him.

After Vietnam, Rodela was assigned to the 7th Special Forces Group and utilizing his Spanish language skills, he served in Colombia and many other countries in Latin America before retiring from the Army in 1975. He went into business with a Latin American seamstress making maternity clothes for a while but has lived quietly since. Until his DSC was upgraded to the MOH, his own children didn’t know about his exploits. Asked why, he said, “because you have the mission of giving them orders and they don’t come back.”

It is doubtful, the proud and private Rodela will be making many appearances as a speaker. “I can’t forget it, it’s just I don’t repeat it. I don’t want to repeat it. There was a lot of people hurt, a lot of people who never came back. Let them rest,” Rodela said.

Rodela still lives, quietly in San Antonio.

Medal Of Honor Citation:

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

Sergeant First Class Jose Rodela distinguished himself by acts of gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty while serving as the company commander, Detachment B-36, Company A, 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne), 1st Special Forces during combat operations against an armed enemy in Phuoc Long Province, Republic of Vietnam on September 1, 1969.

That afternoon, Sergeant First Class Rodela’s battalion came under an intense barrage of mortar, rocket, and machine gun fire. Ignoring the withering enemy fire, Sergeant First Class Rodela immediately began placing his men into defensive positions to prevent the enemy from overrunning the entire battalion. Repeatedly exposing himself to enemy fire, Sergeant First Class Rodela moved from position to position, providing suppressing fire and assisting wounded, and was himself wounded in the back and head by a B-40 rocket while recovering a wounded comrade. Alone, Sergeant First Class Rodela assaulted and knocked out the B-40 rocket position before successfully returning to the battalion’s perimeter.

Sergeant First Class Rodela’s extraordinary heroism and selflessness above and beyond the call of duty are in keeping with the highest traditions of military service and reflect great credit upon himself, his unit and the United States Army.

Citation represents Soldier’s rank at time of action.

Photos: US Army/DOD