Shooting with Delta Force

Fred Fuller said:

The Greek letter projects were Vietnam era.

The Goldwater-Nichols DoD Reorganization Act (1986) took Special Forces in particular and special operations in general from being the red-headed stepchildren of the Big Green Army, to being -over time- the "popular kids." It didn't do SF any favors, as I could see it. Back in the early 80s it took some real sacrifice to be in a SF group. SF always got hand-me-downs, except where people were concerned. Where people were concerned they could afford to be picky.

Then it came to "filling the force" and qualifications started dropping... oh well. That was then.

Anyone who came out of the operational side of Range 19 is on top of their game. Shooting IPSC in central NC back when would let you know just how much that was the case.

some clown named Larry Vickers

Click to expand...

That was some of what I saw. The number of students going through JFK really increased. Very inexperienced soldiers were being accepted to the Q course. There was also the increase to three Ranger Battalions. In SF groups you saw not only non-SF qualified soldiers wearing the Green Beret they also got rid of the candy stripe. By the mid-80s I also saw an increase in the new toys available. Things like the issue of brown gore-tex boots that resembled jungle boots (only a trial), the new gortex parka and pants (adopted), and more new weapons. Their was realization of a need for a specialized SF sniper school (SOTIC) that taught more than the conventional sniping techniques of infantry units. Larry Freeman (R.I.P.), former Delta operative, was instrumental in getting SOTIC up and running before promotion to SGM and going to A.S.D. At SOTIC the M21 was being supplemented with modified Rem 700s with McMillan stocks, and .338 Lapua (at that time referred to as .338-.416) and .50 BMG rifles were being tested. It was a time of great transition.

Tom Clancy....

If you really, really want to know the in depth history or background of US military special operations & SF forces(18 series), read Tom Clancy's Special Forces and Special Operations. These non fiction books go into every speck of detail.
Beckwith's non fiction: Delta Force & Eric Haney(US Army, CSM/E9 retired) Inside The Delta Force are good too.

Rusty

Haven't read Clancy's nonfiction stuff, so can't comment there.

Beckwith and Haney's books are autobiographical. That's probably all I need to say there.

IMHO Al Paddock's US Army Special Warfare: Its Origins (http://www.amazon.com/U-S-Army-Special-Warfare-Origins/dp/0700611770) is the best starting point for a serious study. There are LOTS of books on special operations and the units involved in them, and I haven't read them all (though that was my job for 13 years, a good while back). There's no doubt some good stuff out there I haven't seen.

New breed....

There are many new special ops & military books out there now.
A new book I want to read soon is Level Zero Heroes it's an account of military operations in SW Asia by the new MARSOC or Marine Raiders.
This elite tier one unit is the USMC special ops command. They are fairly new compared to SWCC, ParaRescue & SEALs.

I also saw a non fiction book called Guardian Angel about real USAF ParaRescue & CSAR/CRO guys. They are serious hard chargers.
Like many SOF units they've expanded but the field is still one of the toughest to make all the way thru.
As a teen in the late 1980s, I read a article about how for nearly five years no airmen or NCOs could pass all the rigid standards of ParaRescue.