Press of Atlantic City November 11, 2006
Green Berets have long proud history of service
By Derek Harper
The U.S. Army’s Special Forces follow a tradition of irregular warfare that dates back centuries.
Instead of face-to-face combat with traditional infantry, some commanders have used Special Forces to gather intelligence, cause disruption behind enemy lines or otherwise nimbly perform missions better accomplished by small groups.
The Army’s Special Forces is one of a number of organizations under the U.S. Special Operations Command that include the Navy’s SEALs and Marines’ and Air Force’s Special Operations.
Special Forces was established in 1952 but traces its lineage from World War II’s joint Canadian-American 1st Special Service Force that served in the Mediterranean, Europe and Asia between 1942 and 1945, according to its Web site, www.soc.mil.
It also draws heritage from the Office of Strategic Services, a World War II intelligence agency that indirectly prefigured the Central Intelligence Agency.
At its basic level, a captain leads a 12-man Special Forces Operational Detachment-A, or A-team, according to GlobalSecurity.org. All members go through extensive training, are multilingual, are skilled in weapons, engineering, medical and communications, and are cross-trained in at least one other skill.
They are trained in combat diving and free-fall parachuting to infiltrate enemy territory.
In its main peacetime mission, foreign internal defense, GlobalSecurity.org said Special Forces helps developing nations’ military and police forces’ skills, human-rights understanding and aids humanitarian and civic action projects.
Known as Green Berets, they got their nickname from their distinctive headgear. While initially unauthorized, President Kennedy approved the berets in 1962, saying they had a distinct mission and should be set apart.
The group entered popular consciousness in the 1960s, when Staff Sgt. Barry Sadler’s “The Ballad of the Green Berets” was a No. 1 hit for five weeks in 1966. It later appeared in John Wayne’s 1968 “The Green Berets,” based on a book written by “Ballad” co-author Robin Moore.
In more recent years, Special Forces’ mission has remained useful. In both Kosovo and Afghanistan, Special Forces was used to coordinate activities between local guerrilla fighters and air power. In Afghanistan, both U.S. and British special forces are believed to have been in the country before Oct. 7, 2001, when the war began.
© Copyright 2006, Press of Atlantic City
