The History of the Green Berets
By Sandy Morris on Mar 18, 2010 in Veterans-N-Military
- Image by mashleymorgan via Flickr
The History Of The Green Berets
Special Forces Major Herbert Brucker was behind the beginning of the green beret designation in the year 1953. Brucker began the designation which would later be realized by First Lieutenant Roger Pezelle who adopted it for his highly operative A-Team called the Operational Detachment FA-32. Rapidly, this little green beret would be seen on the members of the special forces units whenever these soldiers went out into the field. However, the US Army was not keen on making the green beret an authorized entity at that time.
Fort Bragg and President Kennedy changed all of that when in 1961; The President of the United States encouraged the General at the time, General Yarborough to inform all of the special forces to wear their green berets to the event. At the event, President Kennedy delivered a speech whereby he made the green beret a mark of distinction in the trying times ahead. The Green Berets became a very real distinction of excellence among special forces at that very moment.
Every November 22nd, the date of the assassination of Kennedy, several of the green berets travel to his graveside and pay tribute to the man, the President that enabled this group of very special forces to earn the green beret distinction. The men honor President Kennedy by placing a wreath and a green beret on his tomb. If Kennedy were alive today, they would still honor him for making such a profound difference in the way the special forces are perceived by people all around the world.
Green Berets today are considered to be in a very elite group of special soldiers. They are highly skilled and trained in areas some soldiers would never be interested in pursuing. They are the cut above the rest in a group of like young soldiers who can endure the toughest of conditions and succeed. These soldiers are self-reliant in the most difficult of situations and they are highly regarded in the field.
President Kennedy enabled this group of soldiers the ability to stand out in a crowd of soldiers. And while doing so, the irony was ever-present. Kennedy allowed a group of young men to excel in doing what they were born to do which was lead in combat. And of course, President Kennedy was born to lead the United States. The history of the green berets holds a lot of irony in their historic beginning.
Organized into small 12 man teams with specialists in weapons, engineering, demolitions, medicine, communications, operations and intelligence, the Special Forces Operational Detachment Alpha, SFODA, or A Team, was, and is, a compact, highly trained small unit capable of building, healing and destroying.
The Special Forces Operational Detachment Bravo, SFODB, or B Team, provided command and control for 6 A Teams and operated as the Company Headquarters. B Detachments in Vietnam would additionally run special projects or missions, often involving intelligence collection and reporting. SF soldiers were capable of operating independently behind enemy lines with little outside support and could train, organize and lead resistance forces against occupying powers. Unconventional warfare (UW), as a mission, would be the “bread and butter” for SF.
Defined as a broad spectrum of military and paramilitary operations, unconventional warfare are normally of long duration, predominately conducted through, with, or by indigenous or surrogate forces that are organized, trained, equipped, supported and directed by an external source. UW includes guerrilla warfare, subversion, sabotage, intelligence activities and unconventional assisted recovery.
The troops adopted the Trojan horse from classical history as their distinctive unit insignia and the Latin phrase De Oppresso Liber, “To Liberate from Oppression,” as their SF motto. President John F. Kennedy would visit the Special Warfare Center at Fort Bragg for an orientation on Special Forces by then Brigadier General William P. Yarborough, wearing an unauthorized headgear, the Green Beret.
Much to the chagrin of the Army and Department of Defense, JFK would come away so impressed with Special Forces that he would shortly authorize the wear of the controversial beret and call it “a symbol of excellence, a badge of courage, a mark of distinction in the fight for freedom.”
Army Special Forces would forever be linked to JFK; members of SF served in the honor guard at his funeral in November of 1963, with one of the soldiers spontaneously placing his beret on the grave at the end of the ceremony as a mark of respect.
President Kennedy’s legacy would be further remembered when the Special Warfare Center and School at Fort Bragg, NC would be named the U.S. Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School.
The Special Forces in the Sixties would go through a period where they captured the public’s imagination, beginning with the best selling book The Green Berets by Robin Moore in 1966. The paperback book became a best seller, followed by the surprise hit song Ballad of the Green Berets, by Staff Sergeant Barry Sadler, an SF soldier who had served in Vietnam and received the Purple Heart for wounds, which would ultimately become the number 1 single record in the US for 1966.
GI Joes, bubble gum cards, comic books, and Mattel toys would all celebrate Army Special Forces during the craze. Finally, the ultimate honor would be accorded the force in 1968 when John Wayne would produce and star in the action film The Green Berets, with David Janssen and Jim Hutton. The strongly anti-communist, and pro-South Vietnam film, was a labor of love by Mr. Wayne, a stanch supporter of the war, who was openly disgusted by the anti-war protest movement in the United States at the time. All of this would have a profound effect on many American youths coming of age, to include the author, who can remember receiving a miniature Green Beret one year as a Christmas present during that timeframe, a foretaste of things to come years later.
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and Special Forces were joined at the hip in Vietnam, both working and relying upon each other for better or worse. Both institutions were probably more similar than each wanted to admit as they represented the beau ideal of a Kennedy inspired muscular response to the Communist led challenge of the “Wars of National Liberation.” Roles and missions for the CIA and SF would overlap and conflict at times, causing friction inherent in war. Both were involved in various counterinsurgency programs to include collecting intelligence on the communist enemy and training and advising our South Vietnamese allies. For SF the war in Vietnam would include various highly classified programs to include cross border operations into Laos and Cambodia; in addition to gathering intelligence and running agent networks in support of operations.
