Only the Best Play Part 2

The morning of 7 December 1941 changed the world. Pearl Harbor, this is the place where the United States of America becomes what it is today, the most powerful military force in the world. After the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the fall of Japan, the new communist enemy and its expansion gave the final push to the creation of the modern army that we know today.

There is a fundamental change in the Army, which is the need to have bases and be able to move troops quickly anywhere in the world. This gives rise to what will be the larval stage of one of the most impressive armies in history, the U.S. Army of the 80s and 90s. 

The naval capacity for long-distance transport, the creation of airmobile units… But above all, the most noticeable difference with other countries is its high number of troops of outstanding quality, who are well trained, particular, fast and professional. Created to make life easier for “conventional” warfare.

But we must differentiate between elite and special forces. Elite forces are units which over time, because of their history and their military actions, have become troops who are very well trained and equipped, and are used as a spearhead in any campaign.

The special forces are units that answer directly to the high command or the president’s cabinet. They are formed for use as individual units at a detachment or group level, or for assignment as a one-off reinforcement for larger units that need “something special”. These include:

In the 17th century, a force made up of hunters and civilians living on the Indian borders were captured for their knowledge of the land and for their skills as explorers by the British army in order to fight as independent forces against the French, the Iroquois and other “scalp-takers”. 

That’s how the Rangers were formed, and they were the first “Americans” to use camouflage by dyeing their Indian-style deerskin suits with tones of green. But it was WWII that made the current Rangers famous as in 1942, authorisation was given to create a corps as similar as possible to the British commandos. And that’s how the 1st Ranger btn. was formed. They were reactivated in the Vietnam War, and there are currently 3 battalions that make up this shock force.

The most well-known action was the attempt to capture the warlord Aidid in Somalia in 1993, although perhaps the most interesting one is the H1 operation in the Second Gulf War.

This involved the capture of an essential military airport on the Syrian border on the night of 25 to 26 March 2003. That night a thousand paratroopers, including Rangers from the 75th, made a silent night jump and seized it, eliminating the lookout in so much silence that when the head of the camp woke up the next day, several intelligence officials from the regiment were waiting for him with breakfast ready at the side of his bed.

It was founded in 1977 by Colonel Charles Beckwith by express order of the US president at the time, Jimmy Carter, as an exclusively counter-terrorism unit. Its great baptism of fire was in the failed rescue attempt of the hostages in the U.S. embassy in Tehran, Iran.

There are currently three or four groups with no more than 350-400 members. They are directly answerable to the president’s security cabinet or the USASOC (U.S. Army Operations Command).

Like with Navy SEALs in the navy, recruits are selected from army special forces, in other words from the Rangers, Green Berets etc. And they have participated in all recent North American campaigns.

The Green Berets of the U.S. Army is the biggest and most comprehensive special forces unit in the world. There are currently around 8,500 soldiers and it has its own sea, air and land means. 

The basic work of the Green Berets is “parallel” warfare, which means placing troops on hostile land.  In addition to intelligence, espionage and demolition of targets. But above all, training of indigenous or rebel forces for border protection or to enter enemy territory, not only in relation to military and arms, but also psychologically, while giving support in everyday matters.

One example of this is the Green Beret advisors in Vietnam. They managed to get in and make themselves popular among the “montagnards” or mountain tribes on the border between Laos and Cambodia, because they took part in their rituals, hunted with them, provided them with doctors, aid, food, lived with them and even spoke their language. They never left them until De-Americanization happened and it is even rumoured that some deserted and stayed “with their new family”. Does the name Colonel Kurtz ring a bell? Have you seen Apocalypse Now? Well it’s based on true cases of the Green Berets.

The base of its force is the “A-team” (not that of M.A. Barracus in the U.S. series), which is made up of twelve members who know each other like the back of their hand. In these groups, members must speak three different languages and have at least two skills or specialisations. They all have basic knowledge of medicine, know how to fix their own arms and how to use those of the enemy, especially the collection of former Soviet arms, and all are Airborne qualified.

The central base is at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, where there are seven groups of around 1200-1300 men each.