| A Detailed History of Special Forces
Special Forces:
The Early Years
Special Forces: The Early
Years
The new organization was
dubbed Special Forces, a
designation derived from the OSS, whose operational teams in the
field were given the same name in 1944. The Army allocated 2,300
personnel slots for the unit and assigned it to Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
In the spring of 1952, Bank went to Fort Bragg to choose a
suitable location for a Psychological Warfare/Special Forces
center. He chose a remote area of the post known as Smoke
Bomb Hill, not knowing that within ten years it would become one
of the busiest places in the Army.
He then went about assembling a
cadre of officers and NCOs who would serve as the hard-core
foundation of the new unit, and who would act as a training
staff to perpetuate and flesh out the fledgling organization.
Bank didn't want raw recruits. He wanted the best troops in
the Army, and he got them: former OSS officers, airborne
troops, ex-Ranger troops and combat veterans of World War II and
Korea. They were an unusual lot, a motivated bunch, men who were
looking for new challenges to conquer - the more arduous the
better. Virtually all spoke at least two languages, had at least
a sergeant's rank, and were trained in infantry and parachute
skills. They were all volunteers willing to work behind enemy
lines, in civilian clothes if necessary.
That last item was no small
matter. If caught operating in civilian clothes, a soldier was
no longer protected by the Geneva Convention and would
more than likely be shot on sight if captured. But these first
volunteers didn't worry about the risks: they were long
accustomed to living with anger. Many of them had come from
Eastern Europe where they had fled the tyranny of communist rule
at the end of World War II.
After months of intense
preparation, Bank's unit was finally activated June 19, 1952, at
Fort Bragg. It was designated the 10th Special Forces
Group, with Bank as commander. On the day of activation, the
total strength of the group was ten soldiers - Bank, one warrant
officer, and eight enlisted men. That was soon to change.
Within months, the first
volunteers reported to the 10th Group by the hundreds as they
completed the initial phase of their Special Forces training. As
soon as the 10th Group became large enough, Bank began training
his troops in the most advanced techniques of unconventional
warfare. As defined by the Army, the main mission of
Bank's unit was "to infiltrate by land, sea or air, deep
into enemy-occupied territory and organize the
resistance/guerrilla potential to conduct Special Forces
operations, with emphasis on guerrilla warfare." But
there were secondary missions as well.
They included deep-penetration
raids, intelligence missions and counterinsurgency operations.
It was a tall order, one which demanded a commitment to
professionalism and excellence perhaps unparalleled in American
military history. But Bank's men were up to the challenge.
They had been through tough
training before; their airborne and Ranger tabs were proof of
that. But working for Special Forces was not going to be
simply a rehash of Ranger techniques. If the volunteers
didn't appreciate the difference between Rangers and Special
Forces when they first signed up, they did when they went
through Bank's training. As Bank put it, "Our training
included many more complex subjects and was geared to entirely
different, more difficult, comprehensive missions and complex
operations."
The Rangers of World War II and
Korea had been designed as light-infantry shock troops;
their mission was to hit hard, hit fast, then get out so larger
and more heavily armed units could follow through, much the same
as the modern Ranger force. Special Forces, however, were
designed to spend months, even years, deep within hostile
territory. They would have to be self-sustaining. They would
have to speak the language of their target area. They would have
to know how to survive on their own without extensive resupply
from the outside.
After less than a year and a half
together as a full Special Forces group, Bank's men proved to
the Army's satisfaction that they had mastered the skills of
their new trade. So on November 11, 1953, in the aftermath of an
aborted uprising in East Germany, half of the 10th Special
Forces Group was permanently deployed to Bad Tolz, West Germany.
The other half remained at Fort Bragg, where they were
redesignated as the 77th Special Forces
Group.
The split of the 10th and the
77th was the first sign that Special Forces had established
themselves as an essential part of the Army's basic structure.
For the rest of the 1950s, Special Forces would grow slowly but
consistently into a formidable organization. On April 1, 1956,
16 soldiers from the 77th were activated as the 14th Special
Forces Operational Detachment; in June they were sent to Hawaii,
and shortly thereafter to Thailand, Taiwan and Vietnam. Special
Forces were now casting their glance to the Far East, departing
from their previously heavy European orientation.
This was not the Special Forces'
first involvement in the Far East. By the end of 1952 the first
Special Forces troops to operate behind enemy lines had been
deployed to Korea on missions that remained classified for
nearly 30 years. Anti-communist guerrillas with homes in North
Korea and historical ties to Seoul had joined the United Nations
Partisan Forces-Korea.
Known in Korean as "fighters
of liberty," the UNPFK soon became known as
"donkeys" by Americans who derived the nickname from
the Korean word for liberty, dong-il. From tiny islands off the
Korean coast, the Donkeys conducted raids, rescued downed airmen
and maintained electronic facilities. Under the guidance of the
Special Forces and other U.S. cadre, they eventually numbered
22,000 and claimed 69,000 enemy casualties.)
The activation of the 14th SFOD
was shortly followed by three other operational detachments,
each designated for Asia and the Pacific - the 12th, 13th and
16th. These were soon combined into the 8231st Army Special
Operational Detachment. On June 17, 1957, the 14th and 823 1st
joined to form the 1st Special Forces Group, stationed in
Okinawa and responsible for the Far Eastern theater of
operation.
By 1958, the basic operational
unit of Special Forces had emerged as a 12-man team known as the
A-detachment or A-team. Each member of the A-detachment - two
officers, two operations and intelligence sergeants, two weapons
sergeants, two communications sergeants, two medics and two
engineers - were trained in unconventional warfare, were
cross-trained in each others' specialties, and spoke at least
one foreign language. This composition allowed each detachment
to operate if necessary in two six-man teams, or split-A teams.
By the time John F. Kennedy was
inaugurated as president in January 1961, the three Special
Forces groups - the 10th, the 7th (redesignated from the 77th on
June 6, 1960) and the 1st - had firmly entrenched themselves as
the Army's elite. With the ascension of President Kennedy, word
of their prowess spread worldwide. But even more importantly,
Special Forces grew at a speed unthinkable to Bank and other SF
proponents of the early 1950s.
In 1961, President Kennedy
visited Fort Bragg. He inspected the 82nd Airborne Division and
other conventional troops of the XVIII Airborne Corps and liked
what he saw. But what he liked even more were the Special
Forces. As a student of military affairs, President Kennedy had
developed an interest in counterinsurgency - the art and method
of defeating guerrilla movements. As he gazed at the ranks of
Special Forces troops, he realized he had the ideal vehicle for
carrying out such missions. With President Kennedy firmly behind
them, new Special Forces groups sprang up with rapidity. On
September 21, 1961, the 5th Group was activated followed in 1963
by the 8th Group on April 1, the 6th on May 1, and the 3rd on
December 5.
President Kennedy's interest in
the Special Forces also lead to the September 21, 1961, adoption of the green beret as the
official headgear of all Special Forces troops. Until then, the
beret had faced an uphill fight in its struggle to achieve
official Army recognition. After his visit to Fort Bragg, the
president told the Pentagon that he considered the green beret
to be "symbolic of one of the highest levels of courage and
achievement of the United States military." Soon, the green
beret became synonymous with Special Forces, so much so that the
two terms became interchangeable.
And, indeed, it was fitting that
the men of the Special Forces finally had the right to wear
their own headgear because they were now on the brink of proving
just how courageous and committed they were. Vietnam was
beckoning.
- Next: The 77th Special Forces Group
A Detailed History of Special
Forces
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| This page is an
unofficial document and does not represent information
endorsed by the United States Government, the United
States Special Operations Command or the United States
Army Special Operations Command. However, most
information is derived from those sources and has been
checked for accuracy. For comments, questions, and
suggestions, please go to the Communications
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Gunnery Network - SOF
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