5th Special Forces Group

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

SERGEANT FIRST CLASS
BENNIE G. ADKINS
UNITED STATES ARMY

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Photos: US Army

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Photos: Wikipedia

Remembering Fred Zabitosky, Green Beret, Medal of Honor 19 Feb 1968

SSG Fred Zabitosky was a member of the MACV-SOG (Military Assistance Command, Studies and Observations Group) in Vietnam and was awarded the Medal of Honor for heroism in combat for his actions on February 19,1968.

Zabitosky’s mission on that day would take him into Laos where the nine-man joint American Special Forces and Nung indigenous soldier patrol would encounter a vastly numerically superior North Vietnamese Army (NVA) force while trying to gather intelligence on troop movements along the Ho Chi Minh trail.

Zabitosky was born in Ewing Township, New Jersey where his father was a barber. He had an unsettled childhood and by his own admission was an undisciplined, rebellious teen who lacked direction. When he joined the army in 1959, everything fell into place for him. There he found what he’d been lacking and looking for and in the fledgling US Army Special Forces, he found a home.

He was on his third combat tour in late 1967 when he was assigned to the Military Assistance Command Vietnam Studies and Observations Group (MACV-SOG), their mission was to conduct over-the-border reconnaissance operations into Laos and Cambodia. This particular operation, it was Zabitosky’s mission was to infiltrate across the Laotian and Cambodian borders to monitor the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

Zabitosky was the leader of Spike Team Maine, which consisted of three Americans and nine indigenous troops, usually Chinese Nungs. Their rifles were mostly either Russian AK-47s or Swedish K-submachine guns. They carried North Vietnamese combat gear and ate only Vietnamese food. On this operation, Zabitosky offered to be the assistant team leader for SSG Doug Glover, a good friend of his.

Zabitosky, (left) and two other Green Berets at MACV-SOG.

The team inserted east of Atopeu, Laos using two helicopters. As the Green Berets moved through 10-foot-tall elephant grass and bamboo thickets near the landing zone (LZ), Zabitosky and the team members started into the jungle and suddenly realized they were in the middle of a large NVA (2000+ man) complex. There were bunkers and K-wire everywhere.

Zabitosky, although the senior man was the assistant on this patrol asked Glover what he wanted to do. Glover urged him to take over. Zabitosky directed the men back to the LZ while he covered their retreat with Claymore mines wired to white phosphorous grenades.

Glover called airstrikes, conducted by A-1E Skyraiders onto the white smoke from the white phosphorous grenades as soon as they exploded.

With 750-pound bombs and napalm falling all around him and the NVA trying to close the distance, he knew the small patrol had to hold out before the choppers arrived to get them out. Zabitosky organized the men into a small perimeter just outside the LZ.

The embattled team beat back wave after wave of NVA assaults on their perimeter with the Skyraiders dropping a furious load of bombs, napalm and cluster bombs. The NVA knew the only way to get the team was to close the distance and get too close for air support. Soon the team was running short of ammo.

When the UH-1 Hueys arrived, the two choppers signaled the LZ was too hot and directed Zabitosky to move 500 meters to a secondary pickup zone. A third chopper circling overhead head SF medic Luke Nance.

Finally, some Bell UH-1’slicks’ arrived. These unarmed, stripped bare utility helicopters were designed to carry as many troops as possible. Two of the choppers came over the team, while a third circled above them. Medic Luke Nance was in the third helicopter.

The team arrived at the secondary PZ just as the Hueys did. Two Nungs and one American boarded the first chopper. The six remaining members of the team boarded the second chopper. Zabitosky on the left side was firing at the NVA rushing the PZ trying to pin them down with the chopper’s door gunner. Then an NVA soldier launched a rocket-propelled grenade which impacted solidly on the tail boom.

The impact caused the helicopter to go into a death spin, Zabitosky was thrown out 20 feet from the impact and his clothes were on fire. He didn’t know it yet but his back was broken as well as several ribs. He was out of ammunition and the barrel of his weapon was bent from the fall making his weapon useless anyway.

Zabitosky dragged the pilot out and went back for the co-pilot who was screaming as he was on fire as well. Overhead, Nance convinced the third chopper pilot that there was movement below and there were survivors left on the ground.

The third chopper land about 50 meters from the crashed Huey and Nance could see the survivors and didn’t hesitate, he leaped from the chopper before it hit the ground and killed NVA troops who were closing on the survivors.

Zabitosky, armed with a .45 pistol and a grenade was carrying the co-pilot to the third helicopter and dragged the pilot along as well. About 10 feet from the helicopter, Nance pulled all three to safety. Zabitosky credited Nance with saving his and the pilot’s lives. Sadly the co-pilot died in the hospital. Glover, the three Nungs, and the two-door gunners died in the crash. Zabitosky spent six weeks in the hospital in Pleiku recovering.

The team and the aircrews flying cover killed several hundred NVA soldiers in the action, including over 100 at the first landing zone. President Richard M. Nixon presented the Medal of Honor to then promoted SFC Zabitosky in March 1969 at a White House ceremony attended by his wife and son.

Several years later, I had the pleasure to meet with Zabitosky along with several other SF soldiers. He was tall, lean and spoke with the quiet confidence as someone who has been there but wasn’t arrogant at all. He made it clear, he didn’t consider himself a hero, but wore the MOH for everyone he served with. “I wear the medal, but I wear it for all the guys who served in the project,” said Zabitosky. ‘All the guys who wore that beret in combat have done just as much as I have and deserve it as well.”

“I always say the most important thing is you’ve got to be able to live with yourself. And I can live with myself.”

He remained bitter at the Army for what he deemed sweeping under the rug the issues of PTSD, which went untreated and he blamed for alienating his wife. But he assured everyone, he was ready to do it all over again if need be.

Sadly Zabitosky passed away from cancer at just 53-years old in 1996.

Medal of Honor Citation:
For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. Sfc. Zabitosky, U.S. Army, distinguished himself while serving as an assistant team leader of a 9-man Special Forces long-range reconnaissance patrol.

Sfc. Zabitosky’s patrol was operating deep within enemy-controlled territory when they were attacked by a numerically superior North Vietnamese Army unit. Sfc. Zabitosky rallied his team members, deployed them into defensive positions, and, exposing himself to concentrated enemy automatic weapons fire, directed their return fire. Realizing the gravity of the situation, Sfc. Zabitosky ordered his patrol to move to a landing zone for helicopter extraction while he covered their withdrawal with rifle fire and grenades. Rejoining the patrol under increasing enemy pressure, he positioned each man in a tight perimeter defense and continually moved from man to man, encouraging them and controlling their defensive fire.

Mainly due to his example, the outnumbered patrol maintained its precarious position until the arrival of tactical air support and a helicopter extraction team. As the rescue helicopters arrived, the determined North Vietnamese pressed their attack. Sfc. Zabitosky repeatedly exposed himself to their fire to adjust suppressive helicopter gunship fire around the landing zone. After boarding 1 of the rescue helicopters, he positioned himself in the door delivering fire on the enemy as the ship took off. The helicopter was engulfed in a hail of bullets and Sfc. Zabitosky was thrown from the craft as it spun out of control and crashed.

Recovering consciousness, he ignored his extremely painful injuries and moved to the flaming wreckage. Heedless of the danger of exploding ordnance and fuel, he pulled the severely wounded pilot from the searing blaze and made repeated attempts to rescue his patrol members but was driven back by the intense heat. Despite his serious burns and crushed ribs, he carried and dragged the unconscious pilot through a curtain of enemy fire to within 10 feet of a hovering rescue helicopter before collapsing.

Sfc. Zabitosky’s extraordinary heroism and devotion to duty were in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service and reflect great credit upon himself, his unit, and the U.S. Army.

Photos: US Archives

SSG Justin Peck, Part of Trump’s SOTU Address Everyone Can Applaud

Watching and following politics in this country at the national level is a very difficult proposition these days. If you label yourself an Independent voter it is even more difficult. Media outlets aren’t content to report the news now, those days are going, going gone. We live in the hot take era. Media members now ARE the news, the more controversial the hot take, the more that commentator gets their name out there as an “expert” at whatever they happen to be reporting.

The major networks have become mouthpieces for whatever side of the debate they happen to be on. Fair? Balanced? Unbiased? Anyone? Bueller?

Depending on what channel a viewer watched or what outlet you read on Wednesday morning after President Trump’s State of the Union Address on Tuesday night, you’d get very conflicting reports. CNN reported that the initial reaction from the people taking a poll after the President spoke said his numbers were the worst in the past 20 years. The panel of political experts said that the people taking the poll were much more Republican than Democrat since “people who watch speeches are usually fans of the person making it.” Really? I always believed that people watch speeches of their leaders, whether they were “fans” or not to see where they stand.

CNN’s numbers showed, according to AOL that 70 percent of the people approved his message. And in the same AOL reported that 75 percent of Americans approved of Trump’s message, the same numbers cited by CBS News.

There were the normal gloom and doom and racist accusatory rants as well as the “MAGA” people who believe the President can do no wrong. The over-the-top reporting was difficult to take. One media outlet hired body language experts who watched the First Lady, to watch her reactions to all of President Trump’s comments. I’m glad they didn’t watch me during the address after eating Thai food last night. One veteran was so put out by this and the political climate here that he says he plans to renounce his citizenship and move out of the country to Canada. Don’t let the door hit you on your fourth point of contact.

One area of President Trump’s address should and did appeal to everyone in the audience. Seated behind First Lady Melania Trump was SSG Justin Peck of the 5th Special Forces Group, The Legion, yes the REAL one. Along with him was Captain Matthew Bradford and 11-year old Preston Sharp. Bradford became the first blind double amputee to re-enlist in the Marine Corps while Sharp has a plan to plant a flag on every veteran’s grave in the country.

But Peck’s story is one that got an ovation from everyone in attendance, not just one side or the other of the political spectrum. And it deserves to be retold as the President did last night.

Peck was in Syria during the recent fighting in Raqqa which was a horrible, brutal battle that went street to street, house to house in routing the Islamic State terrorists from their “caliphate” in Syria. Our U.S. Special Operations troops were there supporting Syrian Kurdish fighters who have been attempting to take back their homeland.

Peck, an eight-year veteran and a member of the 5th SFG from Ft. Campbell,KY was in Raqqa during November 2017 and was on an operation where he and a Navy NCO, Chief Petty Officer Kenton Stacey were part of a coalition team that for several days were clearing IEDs from buildings and areas that had been controlled by ISIS. They had already found and deactivated seven IEDs and were beginning to clear the second story of a hospital building.

During the clearing of the secondary story, an IED exploded, whether it was tripped or was command detonated isn’t known but Stacey was severely injured and in danger of dying without immediate medical attention.

Peck didn’t hesitate. From his outside position with the security element, he rushed to Stacey’s side, fully aware that he too could be entering a kill zone where another IED could be waiting for the rescue element to come to Stacey’s aid.

Peck responded quickly and expertly. He placed a tourniquet on Stacy’s wounds, and then emplaced an endotracheal tube, and gave him artificial respirations and administered CPR saving Stacy’s life.

Trump’s praise for Peck brought the crowd together for a brief moment and Peck was given a standing ovation. “Kenton Stacy would have died if not for Justin’s selfless love for a fellow warrior,” Trump said. “Tonight, Kenton is recovering in Texas. Raqqa is liberated. And Justin is wearing his new Bronze Star, with a ‘V’ for ‘Valor,’ Trump added to Peck. “All of America salutes you.”

Peck’s actions were among the first that has been brought to light involving our troops that have been sent to Syria.

Congress should take note. Most of them have forgotten why they were sent there in the first place and that is to represent the American people instead of trying to build empires and become filthy rich. Sadly, as soon as the ovation was over, Congress members on both sides probably forgot who both Peck and Stacey were, consumed by the never-ending power struggle between the right and left. American people deserve better and should demand more from their elected representatives… for the sake of men and women who serve and sacrifice for them every day. And not just the Pecks and Staceys of the USA but the ordinary citizens who have to scratch out a living every day.

Photo: AP

Drew Dix, Green Beret, Medal of Honor January 31, 1968

Fifty years ago today, Drew Dix, a Green Beret from the 5th SFG risked his life, time and again with an indigenous force to rescue Vietnamese and American civilians during the Tet Offensive. For these actions, he was awarded the Medal of Honor.

Dix was the first enlisted man to be awarded the Medal of Honor, but immediately after, was given a direct commission to 1LT. He would remain in the Army for 20 years retiring as a Major in 1982. Most of those years he served in Unconventional Warfare assignments.

Dix was born in West Point, NY but was raised in Pueblo, Colorado. He always wanted to be a Green Beret and as a young man, read everything he could find on the subject (we can relate, a 1965 National Geographic article got read about 1000 x) and after he turned 18 in 1962, went to the Army recruiter and asked to join Special Forces. But SF didn’t accept first-term enlistees back then and so Dix joined the 82nd Airborne Division.

Dix spent three years with the 82nd, including a stint in the Dominican Republic during Operation Power Pack. After his hitch in the division was up, he finally got his chance to go to Special Forces and it wasn’t long before he earned the coveted Green Beret. He soon was on his way to Vietnam but not on a traditional A-Team. Dix had been loaned out to the CIA.

As a Staff Sergeant in 1968, the still 23-year old was already a cool customer and was mature beyond his years. He was assigned as a special military advisor to the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN). He was based in Chau Phu near the Cambodian Border.

There was supposed to be a three-day truce during the Vietnamese Lunar New Year, Tet but Dix knew something was brewing. He was right. The North Vietnamese and Viet Cong planned massive attacks during Tet and they hoped that the people of South Vietnam would rise up and join the “war of liberation” and oust the South’s government and the Americans.

In Chau Phu, on January 31st, the Viet Cong hit the city with two battalions of well-trained and experienced troops. They overran large parts of the city, and in many places overwhelmed the city’s defenses. Dix was in his element and went right into the action. He gathered a small force of indigenous troops and two Navy SEALs that he’d been working with and began a systematic approach to the issues plaguing the city.

He learned of an American nurse, who was working for the Vietnamese was trapped behind the Viet Cong lines. When they first reached her house, he expected the worst, her Land Rover was shot up and the house heavily damaged. But they called to her and unhurt, she ran out to her rescuers. One of the SEALs was killed by mortar fire, the other returned to his unit. This left Dix with his ad-hoc group of indigenous soldiers.

They moved from house to house rescuing civilians and consistently picking up more troops on the way. He learned of two Filipino men trapped in a house with several Viet Cong. Dix rushed the house under heavy machine gun fire and killed six of the VC while rescuing the two Filipinos. At each location with his growing band of fighters, Dix would leave two or three men so that they wouldn’t be attacked while returning.

His group swelled to more than twenty and by February 2, he’d been in combat non-stop for 56 hours. They attacked and freed a hotel, cinema, and other buildings that the Viet Cong had used as strong points. They freed the city and during the process had killed over 200 of the enemy. Dix himself had accounted for about 24. They’d taken several prisoners including a high ranking Viet Cong officer that was assigned to take and then administer the taken city of Chau Phu.

It was only after Dix returned to the United States when he was told by his commanding officer that he’d been recommended and approved for the Medal of Honor to be issued by President Lyndon Johnson. He had to ask his commander for which action was he being singled out, there’d been so many.

After the ceremony in the White House, Dix was promoted to 1LT and finished the final years of his career as an officer, retiring as a Major. His other assignments included being sent back to Vietnam as a Company Commander of A co, 2/502,101st Airborne Division. In addition to the 82nd, and the 101st, Dix was also assigned to the 5th & 6th Special Forces Groups, Aide to the CG of the JFK Special Warfare Center, aide to the CG XVIII Airborne Corps, the Joint Special Operations Support Element (JSOSE) at MacDill AFB in Tampa, FL, and the 4th BN, 9th Infantry at Ft Wainwright, Alaska.

After leaving the Army, he worked as a security consultant, ran an air service in Alaska, and served as Alaska’s Deputy Commissioner for homeland security. In 2010, Dix co-founded the Center for American Values in Pueblo, Colorado.

In 2000, he wrote a memoir about the fight for Chau Phu entitled The Rescue of River City.

Medal of Honor Citation:

The President of the United States in the name of the Congress takes pride in presenting the Medal of Honor to Staff Sergeant Drew Dennis Dix United States Army for service as set forth in the following citation:

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. SSG. Dix distinguished himself by exceptional heroism while serving as a unit adviser. Two heavily armed Viet Cong battalions attacked the Province capital city of Chau Phu resulting in the complete breakdown and fragmentation of the defenses of the city. SSG. Dix, with a patrol of Vietnamese soldiers, was recalled to assist in the defense of Chau Phu. Learning that a nurse was trapped in a house near the center of the city, SSG. Dix organized a relief force, successfully rescued the nurse, and returned her to the safety of the Tactical Operations Center.

Being informed of other trapped civilians within the city, SSG. Dix voluntarily led another force to rescue eight civilian employees located in a building which was under heavy mortar and small-arms fire. SSG. Dix then returned to the center of the city. Upon approaching a building, he was subjected to intense automatic rifle and machine gun fire from an unknown number of Viet Cong. He personally assaulted the building, killing six Viet Cong, and rescuing two Filipinos.

The following day SSG. Dix, still on his own volition, assembled a 20-man force and though under intense enemy fire cleared the Viet Cong out of the hotel, theater, and other adjacent buildings within the city. During this portion of the attack, Army Republic of Vietnam soldiers inspired by the heroism and success of SSG. Dix, rallied and commenced firing upon the Viet Cong.

SSG. Dix captured 20 prisoners, including a high ranking Viet Cong official. He then attacked enemy troops who had entered the residence of the Deputy Province Chief and was successful in rescuing the official’s wife and children. SSG Dix’s personal heroic actions resulted in 14 confirmed Viet Cong killed in action and possibly 25 more, the capture of 20 prisoners, 15 weapons, and the rescue of the 14 United States and free world civilians.

The heroism of SSG. Dix was in the highest tradition and reflects great credit upon the U.S. Army.

Photos: US Archives

Robin Sage Is About Making Rapport or Failing

“Free Pineland!” This refrain will echo through the mountains of North Carolina in the next few weeks. Yes, Robin Sage is set to begin this weekend on the 27th, but in reality it has begun long ago for the prospective Special Forces candidates who are in the final phase in their training that frequently takes more than a year before they parachute into the fictional country of Pineland for the premiere Unconventional Warfare (UW) exercise in the military, Robin Sage.

The 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 unique unconventional-warfare or UW, training environment allows instructors to stress the candidates’ student A-Teams, assessing their ability to think on their feet and accomplish their team’s assigned missions. The political instability of the area, coupled with working alongside guerrillas who may act (and frequently do) outside of the rules of warfare while engaged in open warfare will put the teams into frequently faced “real-world” situations.

Robin Sage, derives its name from the town of Robbins, N.C., a central area of operations for the exercise, and former Army Colonel Jerry Sage, a World War II veteran and an Office of Strategic Services, or OSS officer who taught unconventional-warfare tactics. Steve McQueen’s character Hilts in the film “The Great Escape” was based off Sage. Sage was an OSS operative, the forerunner of today’s Green Berets.

Normally the team will work with not only the guerrillas, the armed band of the resistance but the auxiliary and the underground, which are key components to the resistance and are both very valuable tools for the prospective SF soldiers.

Special Forces’ bread and butter is the working with and building rapport with indigenous forces. Nearly every other mission that SF is tasked with will have that as a key component. Therefore, language and cross-cultural communications are very important. Robin Sage is the culmination of the entire Special Forces Qualification Course as it prepares the prospective Special Forces operator for a variety of missions and most importantly how to work with indigenous forces.

But herein lies the rub, if you can’t make rapport with guerrillas in Robin Sage, you will not pass go, you will not collect $200, and you will fail this station. It isn’t easy. The soldiers acting as guerrillas are briefed to avoid interaction with the SF students at first and to act distrustful until they prove themselves.

And who is the key component in deciding how and when the team wins over the guerrillas? The “G-Chief” or guerrilla chief. The guerrillas will take their cues from the G-Chief, a retired SF operator who will be a difficult guy to win over, as one would be in the real world. He’s usually a retired and in some cases an active duty SF team sergeant. So, don’t think for a second, you’re going to snow him with some double-talk. If the G-Chief asks you a question, rest assured, he already knows the answer. So choose your words carefully.

This scenario isn’t here for harassment or just to make things harder. The real world is much harder and as an SF soldier, you will find yourself in many of these same types of situations. And there won’t be anyone there to help. If you can’t do it, your mission is done. Of course, the events are sequenced faster than they would be in the real world because of time constraints in the course. But this is a very challenging part of the exercise and it can be a deal breaker for some.

The scenario remains basically the same as it always has, however, the SWC (Special Warfare Center) cadre will tailor to closer fit current events and scenarios that the troops will face in the real world.

The former government of Pineland was a friendly one to the United States. Following a coup that deposed the legitimate government, the SF students work with an eclectic mix of role players and soft skill MOS soldiers to raise and train a guerrilla force that will fight the enemy government troops and attempt to restore the true Pineland government. They’ll teach them the basics of patrolling, raids and ambushes, communications, and medical training.

The enemy soldiers or OPFOR (Opposing Forces) for the exercise are generally members of the 82nd Airborne Division from Ft. Bragg. They provide a good test for the SF candidates to take on. They’re well trained and motivated to make things as interesting as possible. They love to make things tough on SF students..

Other units from Bragg supply the soldiers for the guerrilla force or “G-Force” that the teams will work with. They are frequently what I referred to earlier as soft-skill MOS’ or non-tactical soldiers. Finance clerks, typists, truck drivers, mechanics etc.

They know their own jobs extremely well but as for sleeping on the ground under a poncho hooch, going on an ambush or a raid, doing a recon of a target and moving as a unit tactically thru the Uwharrie Forest, especially at night…not so much. That’s the built-in factor that makes it more difficult. SWC isn’t going to give the student A-Teams a platoon plus of hard-charging airborne infantry types from the Ranger Bn. as a G-Force.

The students are formed into ODAs (Operations Detachment Alpha, popularly known as A-Teams) – along with similar lines with weapons, engineers, medics and communications sergeants as well as a Team sergeant and an Operations and Intelligence Sergeant to real Special Forces A-Teams. Depending on the number of students in the class, the candidate’s detachments may have 3-4 rather than two officers and up to 15 enlisted men.

During their final instruction in Unconventional Warfare prior to infiltration of Pineland, the SF candidates will study guerrilla warfare, sabotage, intelligence, and subversion. The detachment enters “isolation” which is a planning and preparation phase. They conduct mission analysis and plan their infiltration, linkup plan, and subsequent activities.

The isolation facility is locked up tight. No one is allowed in or out without being mission cleared during isolation. The team may be allowed some brief training time out of the facility but it will be strictly controlled. At the end of isolation, the team presents a brief back to the command element to show that they’re ready to complete the mission. It is in no way like the Operations Orders given by conventional units prior to an operation as each team member will take part.

The teams will infiltrate the denied area of Pineland usually by an airborne operation, but sometimes by helicopter or truck movement if the weather does not cooperate. After infiltration, there is always a long foot movement over rough terrain to test navigational skills and moving under a heavy load. The team will have to move hard and fast to make the time arranged to contact the guerrilla band.

Using their contact plan developed while in isolation, the students must affect linkup with the G-Force. Once that has been accomplished, they proceed to establish rapport with the guerrilla band leaders that we referenced above, which was referenced above.

The student A-Teams must assess the overall security of the operational area and the guerilla basecamp, assess the training and support requirements of the resistance, and then… usually, after a brief and awkward ceremony welcoming them to the resistance, proceed with training and employment of the resistance group.

The training requirements are often challenging. In a real-world resistance movement, the guerrillas would no doubt be hardened and used to living on the ground. The guerrillas assigned to the exercise usually have to be taught much of the basics that field soldiers take for granted. Many have never carried a rucksack other than a time or two in basic training. This is a great time to build real rapport with the G-Force. Foot stomp here…. For you aspiring candidates, are you getting the picture here?

In my experience, most of our 45-man G-Force came from one unit, and all were clerk typists, finance clerks and similar MOS’. But their leaders bought in right away, and although were as green and as completely out of their element as their young soldiers, became very willing and motivated participants. It made our job much easier and more enjoyable. One of the young men, had his eyes opened, he eventually re-enlisted to get reclassified and go thru SF. Some of the other student detachments won’t be so fortunate.

As the training progresses with the guerrillas, they’ll be tasked with a few soft DA (Direct Action) targets. Raids, ambushes, and some reconnaissance. The missions get harder as the timing gets accelerated. There will frequently be a couple of missions on-going at any given time. Each of the students will rotate through a leadership position of the team and will be evaluated under the stress of leading a half-trained guerrilla band.

Upon completion of Robin Sage, the students give back to the communities in the area by doing a day of Civic Action work. It may be as simple as cutting and stacking firewood for some of the families, adding a porch or in our case, repairing a roof as well as a host of other activities. Those small gestures of goodwill make for the continuing work the SF community has in the area such a success.

Everything the SF candidates face in Robin Sage will be just the tip of the iceberg that they’ll face in the real world. Special Forces is the premiere UW fighting force in the world. The lessons the soldiers are learning go all the way back to the hard-earned and difficult days of WWII and the OSS. But the first most important step in the Robin Sage UW exercise is the ability to build rapport. Just this week, the film of the 5th SFG “Horse Soldiers” 12 Strong was released in theaters. Watch and get just a glimpse of what you’re facing when linking up with a dedicated guerrilla force. You can be the most badass dude in the world, but if you can’t build rapport, you’ll be a badass somewhere other than SF.

Upon successful completion of Robin Sage, it is back to Ft. Bragg where they’ll join the regiment and don the Green Beret for the first time. And then the real training begins.

Free Pineland. DOL

Photo courtesy US Army

“12 Strong”, A Visually Powerful, Important War Film

If there was ever a story from the endless war in Afghanistan that needed to be told, the story of the Horse Soldiers from the 5th Special Forces Group was it. Just weeks after the terrifying events of 9/11 played out, the Army inserted a Special Forces A-Team, ODA-595 into Afghanistan to link up with fighters from the Northern Alliance to fight the Taliban. It was a classic UW (Unconventional Warfare) mission, one that only Special Forces train for and is able to conduct.

The Northern Alliance fighters didn’t have vehicles, they traveled across the steep mountains of Afghanistan on horseback. The SF men embedded with Afghan fighters, and they too moved on horses, fought alongside them while calling in airstrikes that decimated a numerically superior enemy that had tanks, armored vehicles, and artillery.

The producers billed it as “the declassified true story of the horse soldiers.” So, did SF finally get its Hollywood film after the Navy SEALs had several made of their exploits during the Global War on Terror? Yes and no. Which we’ll explain later. And while the story is true and it really happened, Hollywood made it into a fictional representation.

The film was based off the book, The Horse Soldiers by Doug Stanton, and when turning the pages it reads like a novel or a bad B movie, but everything that appears in the book truly happened.

Chris Hemsworth is the star of the show and the story. He portrays a Special Forces Captain named Mitch Nelson, whose has served on an SF A-Team but has asked for a staff job because he’s trying to spend some time with his family. Soon after moving into a new home, Nelson and his family watch the events of 9/11 unfold on his television.

Nelson is based on the real-life Mark Nutsch and his XO Hal Spencer, portrayed by Michael Shannon, is the grizzled, old veteran. Shannon’s character is based on the real-life Bob Pennington, who was a CW4 on A-595.

Jerry Bruckheimer is known as a producer who likes his bang for the buck. And he didn’t disappoint here. But unlike some of his other films that go over the top, the action sequences were wonderfully presented. The director making his film debut, Nicholas Fuglsig, previously covered the war as a photojournalist and he captures the action perfectly.

The sweeping, jagged mountains with incredible vistas are offset in the valley where the Taliban, finding themselves in the same pickle that they forced on the Russians a decade plus earlier. They have heavy tanks and armor that are tied to the narrow roads that bisect the mountains. And they’re facing a tough, determined enemy that has the ability to outmaneuver them, despite their archaic mode of transportation. The cinematography has the gritty realism that shows what a dirty business war is. All the while showing a B-52 bomber soaring in the clear blue sky, 30,000 feet above, dropping 2000 pound bombs into the Taliban below.

Fuglsig didn’t get caught up in the BS political speak that often mars war films. The men know why they’re there, because of 9/11, but after that, there are no more sweeping speeches about God and country. The men are fighting to do their job and to protect one another.

Nelson’s mission is to link up with the Uzbek guerrilla warlord General Dostum, wonderfully portrayed by Navid Negahban, who many viewers will know from “Homeland”, gain their trust and take the Taliban stronghold of Mazar-i- Sharif. The interaction between Nelson and Dostum is very good as the former tries to influence the warlord while proving himself, time and again.

Dostum initially doesn’t trust Nelson as he doesn’t have “killer eyes” and prefers the older Spencer.

But other than Nelson, Spencer, and Dostrum, we really don’t get to know much about the other characters. Michael Pena, the excellent character actor seems to be the senior enlisted team member, the team sergeant but they never really acknowledge that. Pena’s wise-cracking SFC Sam Diller deserved more airplay but we only get short glimpses into what he’s about. Rob Riggle gets a serious role as Colonel Bowers. Riggle was a PAO officer in Central Command during the early part of the war in Afghanistan. William Fichtner plays the steely-eyed Colonel John Mulholland. Fichtner has been in many war films but with his shaved head here, is almost unrecognizable.

When the team learns their Northern Alliance guerrilla force doesn’t have vehicles (Toyota Hilux) as they thought but only horses it is a bit of a shock. Only Nelson who grew up on a ranch has riding experience. In reality, the shock was as great for the horses as the men. The guerrillas gave the SF troops their spare horses which were smaller and the animals were not used to carrying bigger American men loaded down with all their kit.

But the visual of seeing an American Green Beret loaded down with modern weapons and gear riding on a horse was a wonderful anachronism just as they call down the rain of bombs from the B-52s. Later Nelson and A-Team lead an attack with the Northern Alliance on Taliban and Al-Qaeda positions, fortified with armored vehicles while on horseback.

Fuglsig blends an awesome visual here with a musical score that keeps you on the edge of your seat and brings the viewer right into the action. For the action film lovers out there, this will satisfy them, Bruckheimer is at his best when he’s showing explosions and non-stop gunfire and with the surround sound of the theater, you’ll feel it.

So back to the top, is this a “Special Forces” film? As I said above it is and it isn’t. Why? For the SF veterans we can see and recognize the patches and crossed arrow brass on the collars of the officers in what is the headquarters at Ft. Campbell, but not a Green Beret was seen. In fact, there isn’t one in the entire film except when Nelson’s family sees Donald Rumsfeld on television talking about the “Horse Soldiers.” Only then do we see a few SF troops standing far behind him. The terms “Green Beret” and Special Forces are mentioned very few times. As the team lifted off, they were singing a few bars of the Ballad of the Green Beret, but it was somewhat muted by the roar of the helicopter blades.

Except for the trained eye, the average viewer may come away with confusion as to who exactly these men were. Am I being nitpicky here? Perhaps. No mention was made either that the team was augmented by an Air Force Combat Controller who was instrumental in bringing down the rain on the Taliban.

There was as mentioned above, the lack of the Team Sergeant role in the film. As everyone in SF knows, the officers command the teams but the team sergeants are the men who drive the train. The interaction between the men and the team sergeant are what makes A-Teams go. There was a little of the banter of what SF team rooms unique, but not much. Pena’s character Diller is the closest thing we see to a true team sergeant but it was seeming like it was only Nelson and Spencer running the show here. Perhaps having an SF military advisor to the filmmakers would have made that clearer.

Horse Soldier statue sits in its final resting place at Liberty Park, adjacent to the 9/11 Memorial in New York City. (U.S. Army photo by Capt. Eric Hudson, 160th SOAR Public Affairs.)

Then there was the standard issue with nearly all war films, that are out there, where the actors have those M-4s with the never-ending magazines. The only magazine change I saw was at the end of the climactic battle when Nelson finally changes his out. But that has been an issue with nearly every war film ever made. Some of the kit the men are wearing looks closer to what the guys are wearing today than what they would have had in 2001. But again, we’re just picking here.

In the theater, I could hear some voices of probable conventional military veterans questioning why none of the SF men were wearing helmets or body armor. The simple answer is, they didn’t have any. Their Northern Alliance cohorts didn’t have any and the weight factor of the chopper ride in made the troops decide to forego them. Such is the way of life in a UW scenario where you have to make rapport with the host forces.

One excellent portrayal was the aircraft used. The Army cooperated with the film and actual members of the Army’s 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment flew the real deal helicopters for the filming. The mountains of Afghanistan were pretty nicely represented by the terrain of New Mexico which was a surprise. I thought the producers would have opted for the Atlas Mountains of Morocco.

Overall, the production was fine. Hemsworth was excellent as the steely-eyed (with eventual killer eyes), barrel-chested Special Forces captain. One interesting aspect which was nice was that the super action hero who played “Thor” is forced to prove himself again and again. There is your Special Forces Selection hook for the SFAS cadre. If Thor has to prove himself every day, you better come prepared and yes, you are always being evaluated. Shannon, Pena, and Negahban were all excellent in their own roles.

This was a good film, and will certainly please fans of the action genre. Does it play with the facts a bit as Hollywood is apt to do? Of course it does. But let’s not forget it is honoring what the real men of ODA-595 did. And that was one of the most classic UW operations ever conducted. A handful of Special Forces teams, inserted into Afghanistan with Northern Alliance fighters and supported by US Air Force air strikes, brought the Taliban and Al Qaeda to their knees. The fact the US screwed the pooch in the end game doesn’t come into the picture here. Nor that the US is still embroiled in the fighting. This isn’t the big picture here. It is simply these soldiers’ story. And it is a fantastic one.

Nutsch and Pennington, the real Nelson and Spencer have said the producers of the film do a good job of trying to capture the essence of the Special Forces men in the post 9/11 era. That is good enough.

Go see “12 Strong”. You’ll be glad you did. DOL

Photos: Warner Bros./US Army

Posers, Phony Special Forces, SEALs Are A Blight to the Services

I have never understood the mindset of some people that have such low self-esteem that they feel they have to invent an entire biography from thin air. You have seen them. They’re everywhere. Nary a week goes by where I’m not reading about a guy that was claiming to be a Green Beret/Ranger/Delta Operator/Navy SEAL whose exploits are so secret that they can never be told to the rest of the world.

You know the type, “I was recruited by CIA to be their lead man on a one-man operation to go assassinate senior leaders of al-Qaeda….but I can’t talk about it.” Ugh.

Or worse, the guy who can’t be more than 22-23 years old who claims to have been in the Ranger Bn. had multiple combat tours in SF and in now a Delta operator with numerous “missions I can’t talk about” under his belt. Really? Did you enlist at 13?

And when the pictures invariably come out, they wear the uniform so messed up that they couldn’t possibly have earned every conceivable combat decoration known to man in a fruit salad medley that would make Audie Murphy himself green with envy? Please. And more times than not, the uniform isn’t worn correctly.

These poor slobs have no idea how small our communities really are. It doesn’t matter if you and I served in different eras, we all have common ground and personalities that intersect with one another. And when we come across one another, it takes about 1.2 seconds to tell if we’re dealing with a fellow brother from the Regiment or a troll piece of trash that is looking to work an angle to make himself feel better about his existence or worse, line his own pockets by claiming to be something he isn’t.

These posers need to be called out every time and made to pay the price.

Which brings us to the events of yesterday. I was in Boston and in the waiting room at a hospital while my wife was undergoing surgery and was cruising thru Twitter when I got a message from Doctor Mike Simpson, and asking if I’d ever seen any posts about an individual who was claiming to be a Ranger/Special Forces guy who was associated with the Green Beret Foundation.

BTW, you won’t see this person’s name mentioned here anywhere. Why? It isn’t to protect the innocent. That is for sure. His name isn’t worthy of being posted here among us and those like us. But it is easily found.

Here’s where the rubber meets the road. I’ve never met Mike (to my knowledge) but we follow each other on Twitter. I had read some of his stuff on there and may have commented on a story or two that he either wrote or posted. My memory escapes there. But his bona fides were impeccable. Simpson was a Special Forces medic who became an Emergency Room doc. He’s served for the past few decades and works on with Sheepdog Response Crew with SFer Tim Kennedy and others. He’s also a member of a Facebook Group that is comprised of only Special Forces veterans. No wifes, girlfriends, significant others, or family members are allowed. To become a member, at least one other member has to vouch for you saying that he knows you to be Special Forces qualified. I’ve also seen Doc Simpson post there… So there isn’t any gray area there.

Anyway, I responded to his message that I hadn’t ever seen anything from this individual but after checking, there was already a message in the Special Forces FB group asking the same thing. I said that it was probably a matter for the “Guardians of the Green Beret” (GOTGB) to look into. The GOTGB are a group of overworked Special Forces veterans who, unfortunately, spend far too much time investigating frauds, phonies, and posers who are claiming to be Special Forces. They have the connections to check these people’s military records if they even have any, which sadly many do not even have. The SEALs, I’m told, have the same type of group where they have the names of every individual who’s ever passed their training program. So tread lightly posers.

As soon as I sent Doc Simpson that response, I got a message from the individual involved in he went on a rambling rage, using a slew of hashtags basically saying that everyone who was accusing him of being a phony was a racist. A racist? Judging from everyone’s profile pics, they were all Caucasians.

Simpson saw this guy’s profile and being a Ranger/SF guy (he’s a real one BTW) and asked which Ranger Bn. this guy had been in and what team he was on in SF. These are questions we all ask each other. Why? Because the Regiment is so small, like I mentioned above, it usually leads to knowing many of the same people that cross eras. And that’s how we create new brothers.

This guy claimed to have been in the 1st Ranger Bn. at Ft. Benning, and didn’t want to talk about his SF service since “his experiences made it uncomfortable”. Ouch. Any Ranger will tell you the 1st Bn. is in Savannah at Hunter Army Airfield. And Simpson didn’t ask for a detailed description of his most “hair-raising missions” and giving your team number shouldn’t send an SF guy into a bout of PTSD.

Maybe the posers want to be John Wayne? They are not.

It was strange to see this individual’s Linkedin account. No mention of Special Forces or Ranger service, in fact, no mention of military service at all. Hmm, for a guy that it blasted all over his Twitter bio, why would he omit it off Linkedin? Later another SF guy posted on Twitter that the grainy “team photo” that this poser posted was actually a 3rd SFG team that the real SF guy had been on and he could assure everyone else, that the poser had not been a part of.

Next, this individual shoots me another message and accuses me of being a “Trumper racist” whatever that is. Way to answer a simple question you troll. It didn’t take long for the GOTGB to answer what we already knew, the guy was a liar. Simpson then posted a message from the folks at the Green Beret Foundation (GBF) stating that not only was he not associated with them at all, but according to their records, had never donated anything to them at all. Not a single dollar.

I think that…more than anything pissed me off the most. The GBF is an organization, which if you’ve read these pages here, is one that I feel very strongly about. They do tremendous things for our Special Forces veterans and their record speaks for itself. I try to buy stuff or donate thru their events at every chance, and in fact feel bad for not doing more. To see this person trying to claim association with that was the final straw.

To date there have probably been hundreds of retweets on this individual’s lying, he’s been outed and the GOTGB now have a record of him. But it shouldn’t end there. It is time to hit these lying posers where they live. It is time to start contacting their places of employment. Their employers should know what kind of people they’ve hired especially if their supposed SF/Ranger/SEAL “service” was a factor in them being hired.

Like we tell the candidates in the Special Forces Selection course, “you’re always being evaluated”, well now for the phony posers out there, you are always being watched. And sooner or later, social media being what it is, you WILL be found and caught. And the stigma of that won’t go away quickly nor quietly.

So the next time I’m in the bar and a guy starts to tell me, “I was a CIA/Delta Operator/SF Sniper in the “super secret” 28th Special Ranger Company… and you were really a screen door repairman on a diesel submarine…think again. DOL

Photo Courtesy: Guardians of the Green Beret/Warner Bros.

We Need to do a Better Job With the Invisible Injuries of War

Op-Ed: This weekend I had two very interesting conversations with two brothers who served with me in the Special Forces Regiment and specifically in the 7th Special Forces Group. Both suffered catastrophic injuries and now confined to wheelchairs.

And after speaking with both of them, it became clear, that although we in the Regiment and generally in Special Operations overall, we do a pretty good job of keeping up and reaching out to our brothers who are injured with the visible injuries but we’re all lacking at helping the brothers out there dealing with depression and PTSD.

Just this past year, two men I knew very well from 7th SFG, men from my era, committed suicide and it drove home the realization that while these men were some of the best soldiers and men that we had served with, it shows, no one is immune. More recently I read about a 5th SFG trooper who took his own life. Reading about his bio and speaking with some of the guys who knew him pretty well here at SOFREP, it is obvious the demons and guilt he carried with him, not only didn’t go away but got worse as time passed.

Everyone knows that the military community is struggling with veteran suicides, as many as 22 a day and that is 22 too many. The vast majority of those are within the first three years of a soldier separating from the service. That’s an awkward time even for those who aren’t suffering from the invisible injuries of combat. I’ve read that the suicide rate among women veterans is nearly 250 percent higher than with civilian women.

Losing the built-in support system of the unit, having a sounding board amongst the brothers and sisters of the services, and having a sense of normalcy of knowing that you have to get up and go to work with your unit every day is a difficult transition, especially the longer a soldier has served.

The number of the first three years being the definitive spike in veteran suicides struck home on Saturday evening. I had the fireplace roaring as the East Coast has been in the deep freeze since Christmas and was watching the Chiefs-Titans NFL playoff game when the phone rang right at halftime. It was my old team leader from A-712 Danny C.

He got injured in Central America a long time and has been a quadriplegic ever since. But a more upbeat guy, there has never been. Danny is uber-active, more so than myself which made me think about my own level of activity. Although confined to a wheelchair, he goes skiing in Aspen, plays in basketball and bocci ball tournaments and even went skydiving again when a former SF brother came up with a harness that allowed Danny to be strapped to him safely. He wants to continue to skydive, but his doctor is adamantly against it, stating that if he were to break a hip, he wouldn’t survive.

“Thirty-one years, I’ve been in the chair,” he said. “It doesn’t seem that long ago…I always think back to that last deployment with the team, those were the best days of my life.” That’s when he dropped the bombshell.

“You know, after 31 years, I’ve been heavily involved with the disabled veterans and the Wounded Warriors and I’ve met so many young kids who are coming home from Iraq or Afghanistan and I tell them, ‘your life isn’t over, it is just going to be different’, but the sad fact of the matter is, so many of them give up and are gone in just 3-4 years.”

He told me that he reaches out to many of the young guys to spend time with them, especially in that darkest time for them soon after their injuries. But many of them shut down and shut everyone out. It is a sad thing, Danny said. I’d concur.

On Sunday night, I got an email from what I thought was a ghost. Another SF (7th SFG), Timmy H. was injured in El Salvador and was confined to a wheelchair even before Danny had. I had heard thru the commo grapevine that he passed away at the Cleveland VA hospital years ago. So, needless to say, getting an email from a ghost was surprising. Obviously, Tim had heard the same rumors. “The reports of my demise, have been greatly exaggerated,” is how he started it off. He had read one of my NFL columns, from another media organization and reached out after too many years.

His message was similar, but the one thing that both of them had in common was a tremendously positive attitude and the fact that many of the brothers from the Regiment had been there for them. There’s no doubt that both probably went thru (and still do) some dark times. But that’s where us other veterans come in. Danny admitted as much when he said, “You and Luis Colon kept me alive when I wasn’t sure I’d be around, and I’ll be forever grateful for that.”

But it is the guys who have those invisible injuries, the PTSD sufferers who are afflicted and (at least in their own minds) alone. And it isn’t just to fellow veterans but to all our citizens I ask that we, as a country need to do more. We need to reach out and help the men and women who suffer the invisible scars of war. You are not alone and just as our credo says, we will leave no man behind.

If one of our veterans is still stuck somewhere in his own mind, we need to reach out. If you haven’t heard from a close friend in a while, don’t wait for him to call you, reach out and call them. And if a veteran is having suicidal thoughts, you aren’t alone. Call your friends, they’ll be there for you just as they were in the service.

We’ve been standing shoulder to shoulder since Lexington and Concord. And nothing will change that. Our veterans deserve that and all of us can do better. DOL

Photo: DOD

Building Rapport: The Difference Between Green Berets …and Everyone Else

We here at SpecialOperations.com gear most of our writing to the younger people of our subscribers who are looking to embark on one of the great careers that Special Ops has to offer. We get tons of questions about how to prepare for this particular training event or that one…but one email asked what, in my opinion, was the most important task you should learn in becoming a Special Forces soldier. Great question and the answer was easy, and it is MOS immaterial. Building rapport with the locals that you’ll train with, by and through is, among the most important tasks you will encounter.

The ability to build rapport both with their foreign partners and with their team members is essentially the difference between Special Forces and all of the others. Alone, an SF team is just 12 men, but working with their foreign partners, they become what we called back in the day, force multipliers.

The biggest misconception used to be that an SF Captain was commander of just 12 men. At home station that may be true, but in a UW situation, that captain may now command up to a brigade of fighters, guerrillas, underground and auxiliary. SF candidates learn in their training about working in a UW environment during Robin Sage. Once the prospective Special Forces troops arrive in the area and effect a link up with the resident guerrilla force, the underground and auxiliary members in the area report every move that the OPFOR troops (usually portrayed by members of the 82nd Airborne Division) make in the area.

The increased “eyes and ears” of the countryside isn’t just given away, it has to be earned. The French Underground of WWII was instrumental in tying down large amounts of German troop concentrations that kept them away from Normandy. The American OSS and British SOE men and women had to be exceptional rapport builders in the denied areas.

But back to the SF candidates, Troops will quickly learn that learning to communicate and respect the ways of the target audience, obeying their social graces, as it were, as it is imperative. There have been many SF candidates that made it through the physical parts of selection and the land navigation course as well as the MOS portions of the course only to be deemed unsuitable as SF soldiers for a few big reasons. One is not acting as a team player. While Johnny Rambo was a badass with nuclear-tipped arrows, if you are not a team player, you’ll be gone.

And acting like an arrogant asshat to their partner forces, which could jeopardize an entire SF A-Team is a quick ticket to the duffel bag drag out the door. The locals are your lifeline. If they like you and trust you, you’ll know everything that goes on in the operational area. And that 12-man A-Team now has eyes and ears over a wide swath of terrain that an enemy Brigade couldn’t cover. That’s where the force multiplier term comes in.

One guy asked us, what was the short-version (read easy way) of learning it. There isn’t. That is the difficult part. Learning to make rapport with the local forces isn’t easy to teach and it is even harder to learn. Some guys are naturals at it and should always be out front, especially during the early “feeling out” process. We had guys in the 7th SFG that could have run for office in some places and won.

For others, it takes more time and that is what makes Special Forces so different. The ability to build a solid base of trust is one of the key skills learned by Special Forces troops in complex, austere environments. It can’t be massed produced or pushed thru a shake and bake course. Others who are attempting to do so will learn how difficult that job is. One doesn’t just show up on the doorstep in the middle of a third world country and have them fall at your feet.

Rapport building begins with checking your ego at the door and operating instinctively. Many times there won’t be a right or wrong answer and frequently you’ll be forced to make difficult and complex decisions. The hallmarks of a successful Special Forces soldier is a mature, versatile and flexible operator in any environment. Being able to adapt to cultures other than our own isn’t “going native”, but the true mark of building trust and reliability that our by, with and through the local forces that will mark a successful operation.

The interaction with host nation troops, both soldiers and leaders requires a need for tact and diplomacy. Hammering home the message to Joe Snuffy will be vastly different than that to a Colonel or politician/tribal elder that you’ll encounter. A career diplomat once told me the art of diplomacy is the ability to tell someone to go to hell in a way that they’ll enjoy the trip.

Area Studies- SF troops do detailed studies of the areas that they’ll be working in and become intimately knowledgeable about everything that makes that area tick. The operational environment is more than just geography facts from an Atlas. Know not only the power players but how the small fry in the hinterland interact with the bigwigs and the people. The interaction between the big picture and the smaller players that the teams will deal with is especially true in many parts of the Middle East. There, weaving thru the complex minefield of different tribal alliances make the SF troops’ job extremely difficult.

The SF troops not only train and advise the host nation troops but develop relationships with many of the host nation soldiers. It builds strong bonds and makes for lasting friendships. In Latin America back in the day, Sunday afternoons were family days at the bases. The troops’ families would visit, spend the day relaxing with music and food. During this time, the SF guys would stay in the background to allow them their time off. But there would always be several troops, banging on the door wanting to introduce their parents and families to the SF guys. We’d frequently hear from the families how the troops would write home about the Americans and the impression we were making on them. (Remember that part about how you’re always being assessed? That goes for the host nation as well)

One of the best team sergeants I ever knew and a man I’ll consider a tremendous mentor said, the best way to make rapport sometimes is to just shut up and listen.

That is some of the best advice you can get. If you’re constantly flapping your gums to them, you’re not hearing anything they’re saying. And it can be dangerous. There’s a time for talking and a time for listening. And when it is time to listen, do so as if your life depends on it. Because it does.

So the next time someone asks you, “What’s the difference between Special Forces and …. Anyone else?” You know now the biggest one. DOL.

Photo: DOD