ORIGINS OF THE GREEN BERET

I was recently asked:  

Which is "proper" or preferred by these men when referring to them, "Green Beret" or "Special Forces"?

It is a very insightful question, and the answer is long & complex. Each one of the following paragraphs is the subject of at least a chapter-long essay; but it is my tribe, and I am the teller of the tale, so here goes:

As I recall, the "Green Berets" label became popular during the sixties, with the song, the book and the movie:

The green beret itself, as a piece of headgear for elite forces, dates to WWII and the French Underground. The Royal Marine Commandos were already wearing it, and it was picked up by the OSS Jedburghs (direct predecessors of modern day US Army Special Forces).

45 Royal Marine Commando, WWII

I don’t know exactly when French Foreign Legion paratroopers started wearing green berets - sometime after WWII when they acquired Airborne capability within the French forces, and before Dien Bien Phu - where they wore the green beret in combat.

Foreign Legion Soldiers in Algiers, 1957

Beret of the 2° Regt Etrangere Parachutiste (French Foreign Legion)

Early U.S. Army Special Forces in Europe adopted the beret as an unofficial headgear, worn only in the field. By the time of General William Yarborough’s famous First Formation in front of John F. Kennedy the beret was being worn openly (and unofficially) on post at Fort Bragg by Special Forces personnel.

President Kennedy granted official recognition & Presidential award of the headgear.

Then came the song, the book, and the movie, and from that point we were designated “Green Berets” in the popular lexicon.





Then something happened in the late 70s / early 80s. Everyone knows the Army can ruin a wet dream. The beret was officially sanctioned by no less than Presidential Executive Order, and so the Army, in it’s wisdom, determined that EVERYONE assigned to a Special Forces unit should wear the uniform (to include distinctive headgear) of that unit. Hence the phenomenon of pregnant female office clerks seen walking around Fort Bragg wearing green berets.

This sacrilege was finally put to rest when Special Forces became it’s own branch, MOS; 18-series Career Management Field. Nowadays only Special Forces qualified personnel wear the green beret; non-SF qual’d personnel assigned to Special Forces wear maroon berets (indicating airborne unit status).

For the longest time during the 70s and 80s it was almost taboo amongst Special Forces soldiers to refer to ourselves as “Green Berets”. This was how Hollywood described us, and of course there was that whole thing about the pregnant personnel clerk walking around the PX at Bragg wearing a green beret. We were and ARE Special Forces soldiers. Likewise, there is no such thing as “Navy Special Forces” or “Air Force Special Forces”. These units are designated “Special Operations Forces” (SEALs are Navy SOF, Para-Rescue are AF SOF, etc) to differentiate from the “Special Forces” designation, which has belonged to the Army since World War II.

World War II-era jump wings of the OSS (Office of Special Services)
"Special Forces"

Nowadays however a certain pride and ownership has come of the label “Green Beret” and we once again refer to ourselves as “The Green Berets”. You will see it on web sites, chatrooms, certain YouTube clips, etc. We are still not quite yet comfortable with the monicker, given the Hollywood over-usage in the past, but I have heard the term used even in Tactical Operations Centers (TOCs) and Joint Operations Centers (JOCs) by Special Forces soldiers, when discussing order of battle, to differentiate between Special Forces soldiers out there on the battlefield and other Special Operations Soldiers (Rangers are Army SOF, Marine Force Recon are MARSOF, etc).

Of course, I am (semi) retired now – I refer to myself as EX-Special Forces (“ex;” being Latin for “out of”) but NEVER “former” Special Forces; on the grounds that there is no such thing as a “former” Special Forces soldier (with the possible exception of the guys drummed out in disgrace – I’ve seen a few of those). I work and hang out with a number of colleagues from my former life, and recently a retired Sergeant Major said to me (in front of everyone), “You’re a Green Beret, Linnane – get yerself out there and KICK SOME ASS ! ! !”


Hope this answers your question for now . . . SEAN LINNANE SENDS



Today's Bird HERE


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THE ETERNAL MERCENARY - Part II

Barry Sadler (November 1, 1940 – November 5, 1989) was a Green Beret medic in Vietnam, and of course his main claim to fame was as singer songwriter of the immortal BALLAD OF THE GREEN BERETS.

There's another side to the great balladeer of Special Forces, however: Barry Sadler was also the author of the notorious CASCA THE ETERNAL MERCENARY series of novels.

In an earlier era they would have been labelled "pulp fiction."

The "Casca" saga centers on the title character, Casca Rufio Longinius, a Roman soldier who stabbed Christ during the crucifixion, and is cursed to remain a soldier eternally till the Second Coming. The series of novels takes Casca through to the 20th century. Sadler himself wrote only the first few, with the remainder of the original 22 books being farmed out by the publishers to other writers and issued under his name.

There's a STORMBRINGER tie-in, of course: a private in the barracks in the early eighties could not escape these sacred texts. So somewhere between pulling CQ runner duties or one of those stupid details where they'd have you guarding a building and if you got lucky there'd be a jeep or a truck you could sit in to keep out of the rain, bust out your L-shape and read a few chapters of CASCA or CONAN THE BARBARIAN or maybe even MACK BOLAN.

FAST FORWARD: Kuwait, 2001. We were doing this unGodly commute down the National Highway back and forth to this Kuwaiti camp where their guys were pulling their annual training and we were the lucky guys who drew the short straw, which meant we got to train these poor rich slobs who really didn't want to be there.

Anyway our team Warrant Officer was Eric Rojo - not his real name - the best damn Warrant in Special Forces and probably the oldest, and one of the most lethal men I ever had the pleasure of serving next to. A cowboy from Oklahoma who held advanced science degrees and had once worked as a chemist for Exxon; Chief Rojo always got a lot of respect. Anyway Rojo popped this CD into the dashboard; yep, you guessed it; CASCA THE ETERNAL MERCENARY.

Well this was good, and all of us poor slobs who had soldiered through and paid our dues in the early eighties happily listened to the adventures of Barry Sadler's alter-ego, nodding our heads approvingly, knowing that we were receiving Green Beret lore and wisdom straight from the source. We'd tapped into the mother lode, apparently, because Rojo had brought the entire 22-volume collectors edition disk set, and suddenly this deployment began to look a little more bearable.

Of course the Team Captain hadn't been there in the early eighties - the youngest NCO on the team probably had more time under canopy that he had in the Army - he had no idea what this tripe was we were listening to and he couldn't figure out for the life of him what the hell it was all about. Finally on the second day he goes, "What is this sh*t we're listening to?"

Suddenly the CASCA material doubled in value, because IT PISSED OFF THE OFFICER! Because I was the 18F - team intell sergeant and resident philosopher - I spoke up in this serious tone of voice; from the back of the van I started with, "You are ignorant of your Special Forces heritage, Sir . . ."

He came back with, "What? WHAT? What the hell are to talking about ? ? ?"

This was license to push it, and I started getting more and more disrespectful in an oblique way; the Captain hated me so it was glorious fun, of course, and everybody else was digging it. The Captain was going nuts - he had self-confidence issues to begin with - until finally Chief Rojo spoke up, "He's talking about Barry Sadler, Sir."

"Huh? Barry who?"

"You know, the guy who wrote BALLAD OF THE GREEN BERETS."

"Huh? Oh yeah, him. What's that got to do with this crap we're listening to, this Mickey Mouse sh*t that Linnane likes?"

"Barry Sadler wrote it, Sir."

"Huh? What, the song? I KNOW THAT . . ."

"No, the book, Sir."

"Book, what book?" I'm telling you, this Captain was a real specimen - the kind the Brits call a Rupert.

"CASCA THE ETERNAL MERCENARY, Sir - this stuff we're listening to . . ."

The Captain goes, "Huh? What?" a few more times, then starts studying the box the disk came in; like a hog staring at a wristwatch.

Anyway I couldn't do a post about Barry Sadler and not mention CASCA THE ETERNAL MERCENARY - a character that Sadler modeled after himself, apparently, and then set out to emulate.

The Kuwait deployment actually had a couple high points, but it ended bad - real bad - like everything else in that particular twelve-month period. And like every significant event in my life, what happened to my team in Kuwait was eclipsed six months later when the buildings came down in New York and everything changed for all of us, from now and forever more, into . . . eternity . . .
SEAN LINNANE SENDS




Thursday Bird HERE



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SPECIAL FORCES SERGEANTS MAJOR DON GREEN BERET ONE LAST TIME

By Master Sgt. Donald Sparks, Special Operations Command, Europe

Feb 8, 2010

Photo credit Master Sgt. Donald Sparks

Sergeants Major Brian Bushong (left), and Larry Reeb, 1st Battalion, 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne), listen to Barry Sadler’s ‘Ballad of the Green Beret’ during their retirement ceremony January 21.


STUTTGART, Germany - Twenty-five years ago, two men joined the Army one week apart at different locations. Nineteen years ago, they both became Special Forces sergeants. Earlier this year, they finished their careers together as brothers-in-arms and leaders in the SF community.

Sgts. Maj. Brian Bushong and Larry Reeb bid farewell to their fellow Green Beret brethren of 1st Battalion, 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne) during a retirement ceremony held Jan. 21 in Panzer Hall.

Maj. Gen. Michael S. Repass, commander, U.S. Army Special Forces Command (Airborne), praised the two warriors for their distinguished service.

"When you joined the Army, you were given a check to serve, to go in harm's way and to do the nation's business," Repass said. "You've cashed in with your service and commitment to our nation."

Bushong, a former anti-tank gunner, decided to become a Special Forces Soldier because he wanted more of a challenge and also because he was inspired by members of his family who served honorably in World War II and the Korean War.

"My father shared his experiences of combat from his time in Korea," said Bushong. "The heroes who served as part of the 'Greatest Generation' were my uncles, and they inspired me."

Reeb, who described himself as, "nothing more than a poor son of a mountain man from Kentucky," originally joined the Army as a crew chief on a UH-60 helicopter. In 1987, during a support mission in Beirut, his bird hauled a Special Forces team to a location and he said, "I want to be one of them.

"I could tell they were a tight, focused, camaraderie team and that appealed to me," he added. He earned his green beret in 1991 as well, and became a Special Forces communications sergeant.

Both men recalled their many operational contributions to missions all over the world.

Bushong took part in Operation Assured Response in 1996, evacuating nearly 1,000 Americans and embassy personnel from Monrovia, Liberia.

"It was a very hostile environment," he said. "Normally, we don't get to do missions for our own people, but having the opportunity to protect our own citizens and protecting their lives meant a lot to me. I still have a sense of satisfaction from what we did."

Reeb mentioned that the personal highlight of his career was deploying with his company to Afghanistan and returning from deployment with all of his men. Ten of his Soldiers earned Purple Hearts during their tour of duty.

"I went out on every mission with those men," Reeb said. "As a company sergeant major, I can truly say those men motivated me."

At the end of the ceremony, both men faced the next generation of warriors who proudly wear the green beret, while listening to the Ballad of the Green Beret echoing throughout the center.

"We all have that certain kind of DNA," Bushong said of Special Forces Soldiers, with a grin. "It's no coincidence of who we are and what we do."



I served with both these men - they are both honorable and worthy, and I'm glad to see they made it to Sergeant Major. One thing I will tell you is that Reeb character scared me more than any bad guy I ever faced down - he's that crazy and I say that in a good way - and that's the God's Honest Truth.

SEAN LINNANE SENDS


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BARRY SADLER, THE ETERNAL MERCENARY

This is my tribe . . . S. L.

Barry Sadler, soldier / balladeer


Green Beret Staff Sergeant Barry Sadler composed the #1 song in 1966, "The Ballad of the Green Berets." John Wayne used it as a theme song in his 1968 film "The Green Berets."

"Out here, due process is a bullet." . . . John Wayne as Colonel Mike Kirby, "The Green Berets"

"The Ballad" sold 12 million copies, a million in Japan alone and "went into nine versions in Germany," even though it was banned in East Germany where the government labeled the Green Berets "perverts", liking them to the Nazi SS. The first royalty check was for a quarter of a million dollars. That day Sadler, dumped on the living room floor in front of his wife Levona, $50,000 in cash. He had never earned more than $5,000 a year.





"I like creating, but I don't like going on tour - I don't want to be an entertainer. I don't think I like the traveling that much. Seems like for about 15 years, my bedroom was over a juke box. My folks were professional gamblers and we traveled a lot, wherever there was a game. Once, I went to nine schools in one year."

The Army sent Sadler on tour to promote their enlistment programs. He made more than 800 public appearances in a year and a half. Then he was released from service even though Sadler wanted to re-enlist.

"And I'd been wounded anyway. They took a chunk of beef out of my leg. I was on a patrol and stepped on a damn punji stick. Some Viet Cong had spent a few minutes sharpening a piece of bamboo and dumped it in a dung heap and there I was - infected and out of action. Can you imagine $50,000 of trained soldier sent home because of a lousy two-cent bamboo stick and manure? It was a hell of a war." . . . Barry Sadler (1940-1989)

Barry Sadler during his subsequent career as an adventurer. He died under mysterious circumstances after sustaining a head wound in Guatemala, in 1989.




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