Special Operations Forces

Jordanians, US Kick Off “Eager Lion” Joint Exercise

The government of Jordan with the cooperation of the United States is hosting the annual joint training exercise “Eager Lion” which will take place over the next 11 days.

During a press conference at the Joint Special Operations Command, Director of Joint Military Training at the Jordan Armed Forces-Arab Army (JAF) Brig. Gen. Khaled Shraah said that the drills are being conducted with the participation of ground, naval and air forces, amounting to around 7,400 participants representing JAF and US forces.

US and Jordanian officials said the manoeuvres would include border security, cyber-defence, and “command and control” exercises to bolster coordination in response to threats including “terrorism”.
“Joint efforts and coordination and the exchange of expertise … are needed at the time when the region is facing the threat of terrorism,” Jordanian Brigadier-General Khalid al-Sharaa, who will head the exercise, told reporters.
US Major-General Bill Hickman, deputy commanding officer for the American army in the region, said this year’s Eager Lion exercise – the seventh so far – is “the largest and most complex to date”.
The highlight of this year’s war games, he said, will be that “for the first time ever a global strike mission” will be conducted by “two US Air Force B-1B bomber aircraft” – a long-range multi-mission bomber.

The military exercise will see the participation of Jordan, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Iraq, the UAE, Lebanon, the UK, France, Kenya, Italy, Pakistan, the US, Belgium, Poland, Holland, Australia, Greece, Japan, as well as representatives of NATO.

Last year, about 6000 troops took part in the exercise which has been on-going since 2011. Jordan is a key ally of the United States in the region and has received upwards of $1 billion dollars of aid in the years 2015-2017.

To read the entire article from Al-Jazeera, click here:

Photo courtesy Reuters

Pineland Role Players Show Importance of Popular Support in Unconventional Warfare

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Photo courtesy of Randolph County History

SOF Selection PT Preparation 5.9.2017

Tuesday is Leg Day but we’ll begin with pull-ups and towel pullups for those who don’t have access to ropes for climbing. Then we’ll do some shuttle runs and sprints to work on our cardio to break things up a bit this week.

Training:

Continue to prep for the UBRR

3 x Pullups 10 reps

3 x Towel pullups 10 reps

3 x Front Squat 20-15-12 reps (lighter weight)

3 x Goblet Squats 20-15-12 reps (lighter weight)

4 x Sled push heavier weight

3 x 10 reps Dumbbell lunges

3 x 20 Side planks

4 x 25 Meter Shuttle

5 x 50 Meter Sprints

Stretch well after completion

US Raising the Stakes in Somalia, Despite Losing Navy SEAL Last Week

The US is going to raise the pressure on the al-Shabab terrorist group despite the loss of a Navy SEAL operator and two other wounded in an operation last week.

U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) said that the battle took place in Barii, a small town 40 miles west of Mogadishu. It was reportedly a Somali-led operation, U.S. forces reportedly came under fire when American aircraft were used to help deploy Somali commandos. Navy SEALs have been advising the Somali units.

There was also an international conference occurring in London at the same time. This is intended to increase the security and government reform in Somalia. The aim is to create a new international partnership agreement to stabilize Somalia. The aim is to stabilize the country and turn things over to Somali forces with an exit strategy for the allied countries by 2020.

In early March, the Pentagon requested new rules of engagement for its operations in Somalia to remove constraints on airstrikes and raids targeting people suspected of being al-Shabab militants. On March 24, General Waldhauser reiterated the call for more flexibility in decision-making to fight al-Shabab, saying that “it’s very important and very helpful for us to have [a] little more flexibility, a little bit more timeliness, in terms of decision-making process. . . . It allows to prosecute targets in a more rapid fashion. . . . [I]f we were given . . . those permissions and authorities, [it] will be very helpful to us.”
On March 29, President Trump granted wider scope to launch U.S. military operations by designating Somalia an “area of active hostilities” where war-zone targeting rules will apply for at least 180 days. Subsequently, General Waldhauser appeared ambiguous about the new authorities, stating “we have not been given loosened rules for authority to strike. What we have been given is we’ve been given authority to assist AMISOM forces that are on missions where, if they cannot take care of the situation on their own, then we are authorized to assist them there. We are also authorized to develop targets on our own and take appropriate action if required.”
Just a few days later, on April 24, a letter written by USAID’s Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance requested the geographic coordinates of aid groups working in Somalia. “Due to the need for increased operational security in Somalia, and based on best practices in other complex emergencies, humanitarian and development organizations may want to provide information about their fixed locations in Somalia for deconfliction,” it stated.

The US has furnished training and equipment to the Somalis, has helped pay for the security forces and has been conducting raids on located al-Shabab forces. The US is planning on stepping up the tempo despite the loss of the Navy’s special operator to weaken the terror group and to further bolster Somalia’s forces.

To read the Washington Post entire article click here:

Photo courtesy of AP

Robin Sage, Prospective SF Students Should Study Up on Pineland

“Free Pineland!” This is the cry many a prospective Special Forces student will hear during their final phase of the Special Forces Qualification Course (SFQC) that culminates in the premiere Unconventional Warfare (UW) exercise in the military, Robin Sage.

After many months of training, in some cases over a year, prospective Green Berets put all that training to the test by parachuting into the fictional country of Pineland. The former government of Pineland was a friendly one to the United States.

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

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

This unique training and unconventional warfare, or UW, training environment allow instructors to stress the candidates, 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 place the teams in 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.

The enemy soldiers or OPFOR (Opposing Forces) for the exercise are generally members of the 82^nd 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. We’ll delve more deeply into the civilian role players in a follow-on post.

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…never. That’s the built-in factor that makes it more difficult. The SWC (Special Warfare Center) isn’t going to give the student A-teams a platoon plus of hard-charging airborne infantry types from the 82^nd as a G-Force.

SF student medics treat one of the members of the guerrilla force during Robin Sage. (US Army photo)

The guerrillas will take their cues from the G-Force commander, a retired SF operator who will be a difficult guy to win over, as one would be in the real world. 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 a deal breaker for some.

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.

No one is allowed in or out without being mission cleared during isolation. 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 link up 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 guerillas would no doubt be hardened and used to living on the ground. The guerrillas assigned for 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 a real rapport with the G-Force.

In my experience, most of our 45-man G-Force came from one unit, all were clerk typists, finance clerks and similar MOS’. But their leaders bought in right away, and the young soldiers, although completely out of their element 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 weren’t so fortunate.

As the training progresses with the guerrillas, they’ll be tasked with a few softer 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.

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 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.

Everything they will 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. Upon completion, it is back to Ft. Bragg where they’ll join the regiment and don the Green Beret for the first time.

Free Pineland.

Photo courtesy US Army

SOF Selection PT Preparation 5.8.2017

Some good work for the Upper Body Round Robin (UBRR) with many of the exercises that will be tested. Always go for perfect form when doing the pushups, it will be an area that is always looked at hard during the PT tests in Selection. After the exercises a three-mile run as fast as you can. Mark the time in your workout logbook

Training:

More preparation for the UBRR

2 x 1-minute Pushups

2 x 1-minute Sit-ups

2 x 1-minute, Crunches

2 x 1-minute, V-ups

2 x Dips as many as possible to muscle failure

2 x Pullups as many as possible or to muscle failure

3-mile run

Stretch well after completion

SOF Selection PT Preparation 5.7.2017

Sunday morning ruck march on the agenda for today after a quick warm up of pushups and sit-ups. Stretch well both before and after the ruck march. Remember to drink plenty of water and stay hydrated out there. And ensure that you have at least two pairs of boots broken in for the course.

Training:

Warm up

2 x 20 Pushups

2 x 20 Sit ups

Rucksack march over varied terrain. Go as hard and fast as you can in one direction alongside a road for one hour. Mark your distance. Then head back to the start point. This will be good practice for the selection course where you won’t know the route or the distance. And mark your times in your workout log book.

Stretch well after completion

SOF Selection PT Preparation 5.6.2017

Saturday morning work in the gym hitting your shoulders and back. Followed by a 4-mile run. Log your numbers down in the workout notebook.

Training:

More Preparation for the UBRR:

3 x 10 Lat Pulldowns, rear

3 x 10 Barbell Dead Lift

3 x 10 Wide Grip Pullups

3 x 10 Dumbbell Side Raises

3 x 10 Seated Bent-Over Delt Raise

3 x 10 Dumbbell Shoulder Press

3 x 10 Arnold Dumbbell Press

4-mile run

Stretch well after completion

Special Operations Bushcraft, Lighter Knot is an Easy Fire Starter

It is a well-known fact among experienced Special Operators that when it comes to starting a fire, the use of pitch and pine resin is an easy way to get a fire lit. This pitch and resin are readily prevalent in the Southeast’s pine forests. But for the younger troops who’ve never spent much time in the field, it may be a good thing to learn.

If you find yourself in a situation where you must dry out your uniforms and equipment in a wet environment, this is a quick and easy method to get a fire going. If you’re in a tactical type situation, I’d go very lightly with this method as it does tend to smoke.

If you know where to look, it is usually easy to find enough of this flammable material to get a good fire started quickly, even in rainy weather, as we’ll soon demonstrate.

But before you begin to search for it, what is this pitch/resin? The pitch wood is commonly referred to under a myriad of names such as “Fatwood” or “fat lighter,” “lighter wood,” “rich lighter,” “pine knot,” “lighter knot,” “heart pine” etc. In North Carolina, going thru the SF survival courses and SERE School, they referred to it as lighter knot, so for our purposes, we’ll do the same. But it is all the same.

So where do you find this? Pine trees produce pitch/resin as a defense mechanism for wounds or insect attack. The easiest place to search is in the trunk of dead or dying pine trees.

When the pine’s bark is penetrated by insects or birds, the tree pumps out resin to protect the inner trunk from fungus, rot, or to deter insects. As the trees age, the pine pitch or resin will collect in the heartwood of the tree.

Up here in the northeast, there aren’t as many pines so it actually took a bit of looking. The best area to find it is in a stump of a dead tree, but as luck would have it, there wasn’t one in our search. But we found plenty of dead limbs on a tree and cutting it off close to the trunk, we used our survival Bowie knife to chop off a chunk about 3-5 inches from the limb-trunk connection. Then it is just a case of cutting or chopping small chips of the pitch soaked wood.

It can be chopped into chips or shaved down into tinder. You’ll know when you have the right stuff, it has a strong piney odor to it. I equate it with a turpentine smell. If you find enough of the chips and they’re soaked with the resin, it is easy to put some in a small plastic bag and include it with your survival gear.

Then it just a question of getting it lit which is really easy. The more soaked it is with resin, the easier it is to light. The lighter knot found in some stumps is so soaked with resin it can be lit with a lighter while soaking wet.

In our attached videos, we were supposed to have rain that day, which would have been perfect for our purposes. Of course, it stopped raining and the sun came out while searching for the resin and pines. We waited for a couple of hours in vain for the rain to come back which was forecasted but didn’t happen.

So, we ended up getting the resin and chips and some strips of pine bark, putting them in a bag and leaving. The next day alas we got the rain forecasted and started the fire in a backyard fire pit. But at least we can show the wet conditions that it will light in.

After attending the SF survival portion of the SFQC and SERE this useful bit of information was tucked away. But as we were about to find out, the inexperienced soldiers didn’t have the knowledge of it.

Attending the Warrant Officer Candidate Course at Ft. Rucker, our class consisted of five SF NCOs, a handful of CID NCOs and about 60 young soldiers who were trying to become chopper pilots. Part of our training consisted of busing up to Ft. Benning to do the Land Nav course. The land nav course, according to the TAC Officers who hated SF guys (Story for another time) told the class of the tremendous failure rate because so many of the candidates ran out of the five-hour window given to complete the course.

The Hoffman Triangle it was not. We finished in less than an hour in a downpour that was the aftermath of a hurricane off the coast. The students were soaking wet and cold. We asked the TACs if we could start a fire to dry out. Standing under cover, they said, “Go ahead MacGuyver, start a fire in this monsoon.” SF guys love a challenge.

Myself and two other guys went out in the woods and found a huge rotted stump literally dripping with resin. Putting that in the bottom of a hasty fire pit, we covered it with small tinder and twigs. It lit immediately and with 20 minutes despite a continuing downpour, we had a huge, very un-tactical bonfire.

It kept getting bigger as more students rolled in and we had them keep bringing wood to feed it. By ones and twos, the TACs rolled over as well. Even the smart-ass one. One of the TACs was a non-field MOS and asked us to show us how to do it. Brian B. and I walked him into the woods and went to the stump. It wasn’t magic. But you’d have thought so. It lasted for a few hours until the final navigationally challenged students rolled in. By then we were as dry as one could hope for.

Again, this isn’t rocket science here, just a nice to know little tip that can get you a fire going quickly, even in the rain. Drying out your clothes and equipment is always a plus and will do wonders for your frame of mind.

Photo-YouTube

National Special Forces Green Beret Memorial Planned for Ft. Bragg

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

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

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

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

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

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

Photo courtesy SFGBMemorial