View source

From Citizendium, the Citizens' Compendium

You do not have permission to edit pages, for the following reasons:

• The action you have requested is limited to users in one of the groups Users, Sysops, editors.
• You must confirm your e-mail address before editing pages. Please set and validate your e-mail address through your user preferences.

You can view and copy the source of this page:

{{subpages}} '''Delta Force''', or formally '''1st Special Operations Detachment Delta (Airborne)''', is a U.S. military counterterrorist unit assigned to the [[Joint Special Operations Command]] of the [[United States Special Operations Command]]. While an Army unit, it will often have special operators from other services attached to it, especially [[Air Force Special Operations Command#Special Tactics|Air Force Special Tactics]] and [[Navy SEAL]]s. While many Delta Force operators come from a background in the [[United States Army Special Forces]] or [[Army Special Operations Command#75th Ranger Regiment|Rangers]], Delta missions differ from both. While Special Forces do have [[direct action (military)|direct action]] and [[special reconnaissance]] capabilities, they are especially well qualified for long-term assignments working with foreign military personnel in [[unconventional warfare (United States doctrine)|unconventional warfare]] and [[foreign internal defense]]. Rangers are direct action specialists, but usually operate in uniform. Delta Force is more apt to conduct its missions covertly. ==Creation== In 1977, President [[Jimmy Carter]] sent a letter to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, asking if the U.S. had an antiterrorist capability such as the German [[GSG-9]] unit that had conducted a hostage rescue in [[Mogadishu]], [[Somalia]]. [[Edward Meyer|Edward "Shy" Meyer]], then Army Vice Chief of Staff, convinced GEN [[Bernard Rogers]], then [[Chief of Staff of the Army]], to create such a unit; it was an Army, not joint, initiative. Meyer tasked COL [[Charles Beckwith|Charlie Beckwith]] to create a "ranger/shooter" type of unit that would be formally called First Special Operations Detachment Delta (Airborne), or commonly Delta Force, the unit was consciously patterned after British [[Special Air Service]], with whom had served an exchange tour. It also reflected Beckwith's experience with [[MACV-SOG]]. Beckwith, in a 1973 tour with the [[Joint Casualty Resolution Center]], had proposed such a unit to his commander, BG Robert Kingston. <ref name=Beckwith>{{citation | title = Delta Force: The Army's Elite Counterterrorist Unit | author = Charlie A. Beckwith, Donald Knox | publisher = HarperCollins | year = 1983 |ISBN=0380809397 | url =http://books.google.com/books?id=Qwf1udr7lTMC&pg=PA115&vq=Meyer&source=gbs_search_r&cad=0_1#PPA102,M1 }}, pp. 99-102</ref> In 1975, Kingston had been promoted to commander of the Special Warfare Center, while Beckwith, now a colonel, commanded the Special Warfare School. Kingston responded to inquiries from Meyer with a proposal from Beckwith, which was briefed to various senior officers, including GEN [[Frederick Kroesen]], head of [[United States Army Forces Command]]. Some of these saw the proposed force as competition to the Rangers. He was, however, given the go-ahead in September 1977. <ref>Beckwith, pp. 126-127</ref> While SAS has an advisory and guerilla leadership capability, it is not their primary emphasis.<ref>Adams, pp. 161-163</ref> Mountel, however, had developed a more general-purpose, clandestine operations and special reconnaissance subunit, called BLUE LIGHT, within his command, 5th Special Forces Group. Beckwith saw this as competing, and, when Beckwith made Rogers and Carter aware of it, BLUE LIGHT was cancelled. Mountel wrote, <blockquote>It [Delta] was more a pastiche of techniques and backgrounds &mdash; some borrowed from SAS and some borrowed from the Vietnam across-the-border operations &mdash; and all blundered into a macho whole that did not square with what I thought I knew about counter-terror operations in the twentieth century.<ref>quoted in Adams, p. 162</ref></blockquote> ==Operations== {{r|Operation ACID GAMBIT}} {{r|Operation DESERT STORM}} {{r|Operation GOTHIC SERPENT}}<ref name=Blackhawk>{{citation | author = Mark Bowden| title = Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War | publisher = Signet | year = 2001 |isbn = 0451203933}}</ref> {{r|Battle of Tora Bora}}<ref name=Fury>{{citation | author = Dalton Fury (pseud.) | title = Kill Bin Laden: a Delta Force Commander's Account of the Hunt for the World's Most Wanted Man | publisher = St. Martin's Press | year = 2008 |isbn=0312384394 }}>/ref> {{r|Iraq War}} ==References== {{reflist|2}}

• Battle of Tora Bora/Definition
• Operation ACID GAMBIT/Definition
• Operation DESERT STORM/Definition
• Operation GOTHIC SERPENT/Definition
• Template:!
• Template:Article Specific
• Template:Article Specific In
• Template:Article not approved
• Template:Article not approved IN
• Template:Battle of Tora Bora/Metadata
• Template:Button off2
• Template:Button on2
• Template:Click
• Template:Clickurl
• Template:Default3
• Template:Delta Force/Metadata
• Template:Editintro
• Template:Editor error catch
• Template:Every page
• Template:Every page below
• Template:H:title
• Template:Move
• Template:Not Approved Article
• Template:Not Approved Article In
• Template:Operation ACID GAMBIT/Metadata
• Template:Operation DESERT STORM/Metadata
• Template:Operation GOTHIC SERPENT/Metadata
• Template:Optional3
• Template:Plainlink
• Template:R
• Template:R style2
• Template:Rpl def1
• Template:Rpl style3
• Template:Statusmessage
• Template:Subpage list
• Template:Subpage style
• Template:Subpages (protected)
• Template:Tl
• Template:Tln
• Template:To Approve Info
• Template:To Approve Inner
• Template:X0

Return to Delta Force.