U.S. Veteran leaders transforming the Army’s special operations units

• Many floor leaders have called on the U.S. The special operations of the army have helped shape and refine the forces.
• The following are among the three most decorated and skilled people, and their thoughts and actions have had a lasting effect on the units under their leadership.
• Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

An Unconventional Dreamer: Colonel Charles “Chargin ‘Charlie” Beckwith

Charlie Beckwith enlisted in the Army in 1952, volunteering for the Special Forces a few years later.

In 1960, he deployed to Laos as part of an undisclosed special operation to harass North Vietnamese. After that trip, Beckwith was an exchange officer with the British Special Air Service (SAS).

He was commanded by an SAS detachment (about 15 operators) and stationed in Malay, where the British were fighting a communist insurgency. That deployment had an effect on “Charlie Follo”, as the British call him.

US Army

At the time, British commandos were at the forefront of special operations, unconventional warfare and counter-terrorism theory. They recently adopted a “subjective” approach to selection and assessment, which tested a soldier’s ability to execute himself and achieve excellence.

When Beckwith returned to Vietnam in the late 1960s, S.A.S. No lessons for good use, but international terrorism by the 1970s Became prevalent. Beckwith saw the need for an anti-terrorism and hostage-defense unit.

Years after the cajoling of senior officers and the exploration of the military bureaucracy, Beckwith created the first Special Forces Operation Professional Detachment-Delta, better known as the Delta Force.

The unit was part of an effort to rescue American hostages in Tehran in the 1980s. Failed operations, and Beckwith’s recommendations later formed the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC).

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Beckwith’s greatest achievement was the Delta Force. His vision, influenced by his humming by Raja, achieved what other people could not do.

“He dug the foundation but paved the way for the future,” the former Delta Force operator told Insider. “He knew he wouldn’t be there forever, so he had to recruit the best guys – the best non-commissioned officers and officers – who would protect his child. And they did. See where the unit is today.”

During his career, Beckwith received the second highest award for firefighting, and two Silver Stars, Distinguished Service Cross. He retired in 1981 and died in 1994, but in 2001 he received the Bull Simmons Lifetime Achievement Award, the highest honor given by the Special Operations Command (SOCOM).

A Hell of a Soldier: Major General Alden Bargewell

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Barzwell enlisted in the Army in 1967 and went directly to the Special Forces, aiming to serve in Vietnam.

He was assigned the Military Assistance Command – Vietnam Studies and Group Operation Group (MACV-SOG), a secret special operations operation unit, operating highly classified operations in Laos, Cambodia and North Vietnam.

Barzwell led a cross-border mission that acquired valuable intelligence and kept it in close contact with the enemy. During one such operation, a North Vietnamese soldier shot Barzwell in the chest while clearing an NVA camp, but the bullet stuck to his chest rope.

On another mission a few years later, he was shot in the face, but his team allowed him to perform, and he was the last man before the NVA stripped the perimeter. His actions earned him a Distinguished Service Cross.

“Alden always strives to learn,” John Striker “Tilt” Meyer, the Green Barrett legend who served with Barzwell at SOG and wrote about the unit’s daring performance, told Insider.

The mayor said, “He always wanted to be better at the job, and he was ruthless in that way. His desire to learn never left him, not even when he normalized. It never changed in all his years. He was a hell of a soldier.” , ”The mayor said. .

John Striker Mayor

Barzwell took over as an officer after Vietnam, and in 1981, he went through Delta’s difficult selection process and became an operator at the new unit. Bargewell went to command at all levels in the Delta.

The mayor added, “He was always forcing his men to study the basics.” “If there was an operational lull, Alden would have filled him with training. He knew he would come to work in the future.”

And he did. In 1989, Bargewell ordered Operation Acid Gambit, a courageous rescue of Kurt Music, a CIA operative who was held hostage by Panamanian forces in a heavily defended prison.

During the extraction, the MH-6 carries the Little Bird Muse and some of the operators crashed near the prison, many of them with injuries. The lieutenant colonel, Barzwell, then opened fire on the enemy to provide cover with a machine gun as his troops pulled out of the damaged helicopter.

The operation was one of Delta Force’s first successful hostage rescue operations and was launched in the U.S. Firmly established as the Army’s top hostage-taking organization.

Barzwell went on to command Special rations Operations Command Europe (SECUR) and take key positions in JSOC and SOCom. When he retired in 2006, after nearly 40 years in uniform, he was one of the Army’s most decorated soldiers.

Barzwell spent almost his entire career in the Army’s Special Operations Operations Unit, including the Special Forces and Rangers, but he left his mark with the Delta Force. In 2010, he received the Bull Simmons Award. Barzwell died in 2019.

Networker: General Stanley McChrystal

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Stanley McChrystal was commissioned into the Army in 1976 and served in Airborne, Ranger and Special Forces units during his 34-year career.

When the U.S. invaded Iraq in 2003, McChrystal was a rising star. He took over the reins of the JSOC, which includes Delta Force and Seal Team 6, and has followed Iraq’s growing Islamist insurgency.

With the goal of “it takes the network to defeat the network”, McChrystal placed licenses everywhere, from the CIA to conventional military units, placing the JSOC at the center of a web of units and agencies that did not share intelligence and never acted swiftly.

For example, a Delta Force detachment would attack a target early one night, gather information, and immediately launch another raid, sometimes hitting three targets throughout Iraq that same night.

“We really turned it on with him,” a Delta Force operator told Insider. “The tempo was crazy, but we pulled it off. We’ll do two [or] One night for three weeks.

As a result, the JSOC eliminated the rebels and assassinated Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, al Qaeda’s top figure in Iraq.

Paula Bronstein / Getty Images

Intelligent and skilled enough to explore bureaucracy, McChrystal was still a warrior of the heart.

The head of the CIA station, who was present at the anti-terrorism meeting in the East African country, took an aggressive stance towards McChrystal, who ended it by saying, “Look, if you talk to me that way again, I’ll be around.” , Beat this desk and out of you —.

In 2009, McChrystal took command in Afghanistan, where he devised a counterinsurgency strategy. Following the example of General David Petraeus in Iraq, McChrystal argued for increasing the number of troops to defeat the Taliban. In the end, he persuaded President Barack Obama and the Pentagon that despite the political cost of sending thousands of additional troops, many see it as a forgotten war.

But that order, and McChrystal’s career, ended with a guilt after the Rolling Stone article rejected the Obama administration and cited his aides.

According to former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, McChrystal retired with the defeat of Al Qaeda (AQI) in Iraq and the renewal of the JSOC, and according to former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, “his place is as secure as America’s great warriors.”

Stavros Atlamazoglo is a defense journalist specializing in special operations, a P Hellenic Army P te (National Service with 575th Marine Battalion and Army Headquarters), and a graduate of Johns Hopkins University.