1st Special Forces Group (Airborne)
The 1st Special Forces Group (Airborne) was officially activated at on 24 June 1957, at Camp Drake, Japan. The unit was activated even though all its elements were either en route to Okinawa or on temporary duty in South Vietnam on that date. The 1st SFG thereafter sent a number of mobile training teams to conduct missions in Thailand, Taiwan, the Philippines, Indonesia, and South Vietnam.
The 1st Special Forces Group was redesignated as the 1st Special Forces Group (Airborne) on October 30, 1960, as part of a reorganization and restructuring affecting all Special Forces groups.
With the United States playing an increasing role in the Republic of Vietnam, the 1st Special Forces Group began training deploying numerous detachment there to train and lead Vietnamese units.
The 1st Special Forces Froup (Airborne) was inactivated on 28 June 1974. It reactivated in 1984, with one of its battalion to be forward-stationed at Okinawa, while the remaining two battalions and the Group's headquarters and separate companies were organized at Fort Lewis, WA. The first element to be activated was Company A, 1st Battalion, which reactivated at Fort Bragg, NC, on 15 March 1984.
Special operations forces from the Army, Navy and Air Force conducted numerous missions supporting NATO's implementation force in Bosnia. Assistance ranged from air support and rescue operations to reconnaissance and liaison duties. Nearly 700 members of the Army's Special Operations Command deployed to Bosnia in mid-December 1995 and began numerous operations throughout the Balkan nation. Included are more than 100 reservists serving in Special Forces, civil affairs and psychological operations positions. Army special operations units in the area included the 1st Special Forces Group, Fort Lewis, Wash.; the 5th Group from Fort Campbell, Ky.; the 10th Group, Fort Carson, Colo.; and the Army National Guard 20th Special Forces Group, Birmingham, Ala. Portions of Fort Bragg's (N.C.) 4th Psychological Operations Battalion, 96th Civil Affairs Battalion, and 112th and 528th Special Operations Signal battalions are also in Bosnia. Special operations personnel served as liaisons between NATO forces and local nationals. Other tasks may included unconventional warfare, foreign internal defense, special reconnaissance, counterterrorism, and humanitarian or civic action.
