The Develpoment of Delta Force
Delta Force
During the 1970’s the United States became the favorite whipping boy for any terrorist group that was worthy of bearing the name. They had realized that American interests throughout the world could be struck at with little or no retaliation. At this point in the century America had sickened of warfare in Vietnam and was both unwilling and unable to strike back at the pests of terrorism. Our government did little more than apply Band-Aids to wounds while ignoring the infection. All we really did was to keep terrorism away from our own shores. Little real work was accomplished because the political leadership lacked the will to tackle the problem, and their lack of willpower stemmed from the knowledge that the American people would not support any effort they made. For many years the Special Forces officer Colonel Charlie Beckwith (Chargin’ Charlie) had seen the need in the U.S army for a small, highly skilled, compact, and extremely versatile unit that was capable of undertaking the unusual “special” missions that were becoming more and more common around the globe. Such a unit would be a surgical instrument that could be deployed at a moments notice to execute those tasks that were outside of the realm of normal military capability. He had been trying to rally support for the formation of just such a unit for many years, but his ideas were falling on deaf ears. The reasoning for this is that, as a general rule, armies don’t like change. For most Generals there is no reason to support the organization of a new unit that may or may not work, could decrease his budget and sap the very best soldiers away from his command. Eventually, Colonel Beckwith’s loud and persistent calls for a national counterterrorism force found the ears of two innovative thinking Generals: General Bob Kingston and General Edwin “Shy” Meyer.
General Kingston was stationed at Fort Brag, North Carolina and saw the potential that the kind of force Colonel Beckwith
During the 1970’s the United States became the favorite whipping boy for any terrorist group that was worthy of bearing the name. They had realized that American interests throughout the world could be struck at with little or no retaliation. At this point in the century America had sickened of warfare in Vietnam and was both unwilling and unable to strike back at the pests of terrorism. Our government did little more than apply Band-Aids to wounds while ignoring the infection. All we really did was to keep terrorism away from our own shores. Little real work was accomplished because the political leadership lacked the will to tackle the problem, and their lack of willpower stemmed from the knowledge that the American people would not support any effort they made. For many years the Special Forces officer Colonel Charlie Beckwith (Chargin’ Charlie) had seen the need in the U.S army for a small, highly skilled, compact, and extremely versatile unit that was capable of undertaking the unusual “special” missions that were becoming more and more common around the globe. Such a unit would be a surgical instrument that could be deployed at a moments notice to execute those tasks that were outside of the realm of normal military capability. He had been trying to rally support for the formation of just such a unit for many years, but his ideas were falling on deaf ears. The reasoning for this is that, as a general rule, armies don’t like change. For most Generals there is no reason to support the organization of a new unit that may or may not work, could decrease his budget and sap the very best soldiers away from his command. Eventually, Colonel Beckwith’s loud and persistent calls for a national counterterrorism force found the ears of two innovative thinking Generals: General Bob Kingston and General Edwin “Shy” Meyer.
General Kingston was stationed at Fort Brag, North Carolina and saw the potential that the kind of force Colonel Beckwith