About this ‘beret business’..., from Phill Coleman
Some serving in Special Forces units today are not happy with General
Shinseki’s decision to “Go Beret, Go Army”. However, those of you who
are new to Army Special Forces need to look at this evolution... this
is not a ‘change’... from a historical point of view...
Once upon a time the beret signified something special, something
elite, something unique. The beret was worn by the French underground
when performing their silent and deadly mission against the Nazi’s. In
later years virtually every nation with a serious military adopted a
beret for its special operations/forces personnel. We Americans came
late to the beret business. It wasn’t until 1961, when realizing that
most, if not all future, wars/missions would be fought by politically
encumbered Expeditionary Forces rather than by Grand Armies, President
John F. Kennedy gave the green light for the establishment of a highly
specialized military unit to assist Central Intelligence while at the
same time providing a vanguard operational service for our Regular
Army. JFK’s creation was the United States Army Special Forces,
vernacularly to be known as the ‘Green Berets’.
To make a long story short, those who enlisted in the Army during the
latter-Pentatomic years of the Cold War to earn a Green Beret... or
those who transferred over from airborne units, knew as early as 1954
after Dien Bien Phu that in order for the United States to be
victorious in Vietnam slash “bush wars” slash “concrete jungles”, an
enormous Special Forces contingent was desperately needed. But then
came the femalic problem... jealousy. Every major Army commander
tit-fed on fighting conventional, Napoleonic-type wars, as armies had
done for more than 4,000 years, opposed the establishment of an
organizational that could succeed without the tremendous human cost
historically associated with ‘Guts and Glory’ and wastefully
sacrificial frontal assaults.
Looking at this from our American perspective, between 1850 and 1991
few army commanders would concede that the conventional war was dead
and that special warfare would be the nature of human conflict of the
future. It would not be until 1991 during the Gulf War Campaign that
the heroism of Army Special Forces, operating isolated and vulnerable
in the hostile and perilous deserts of Iraq where massacres are a
daily occurrence... or the ‘drive-by’ suburbs of Baghdad... in some
areas barely kilometers outside of Baghdad itself, achieved the much
deserved respect and recognition deliberately subdued by antagonistic,
jealous and competitive Army generals commanding conventional Infantry
and Armored Divisions in previous missions.
During the Vietnam War all conventional Army commands fought against
the growth of Special Forces. Airborne units, at first angry because
some of their best and brightest were trading in their ‘steel pots’
for a Green Beret, ridiculed and harassed trainees headed for the John
F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center at Ft. Bragg, and abused those
coming out of the Center. The chief harasser of Special Forces was
General Maxwell Taylor.
Maxwell Taylor cut his combat teeth during the conventional war fought
in Europe against Hitler’s Germany. Although Vietnam was America’s
first ‘TV War’, World War II was America’s first ‘visual war’...
albeit theatrical newsreels were atrociously edited and broadcast
weeks, and sometimes months, after actual activity. Taylor was one of
the Army’s youngest generals... and a very smart man who went strictly
by the pre-Lincolnian book. Two of Taylor’s personal drawbacks were
racism and elitism. While Commandant of West Point Taylor refused to
accept President Truman’s 1947 desegregation order. Upon his
appointment as West Point Commandant General Taylor’s first order was
that all “Negro” cadets recently billeted with white cadets under
Truman’s desegregation order with white cadets be immediately
re-segregated. Taylor exploited Truman’s ‘weasel worded’ order that
allowed an “under the discretion of...” clause giving “local
commanders” the option of desegregating their units only if and when
they felt it was appropriated to do so.
One African American cadet recently appointed to West Point, David
Kay Carlisle (currently living in Los Angeles, CA), was removed from
the ‘white section’ of West Point and billeted with a newly appointed
Hispanic cadet surnamed Ramos (cadets at that time were permitted to
recognize each other by surname or nickname only.) Carlisle spent his
next four years teaching young Ramos English. Carlisle and Ramos
graduated despite the racism permitted and encouraged by Taylor.
Carlisle went on to sub-command a unit in Korea (1951-53) and become
one of our Nation’s most respected historians on the African American
military contribution to our national security. Ferdinand Ramos went
on to become President of the Philippine Islands.
General Maxwell Taylor went on to blackball Army special forces,
ordering that the highest rank a member of Special Forces could obtain
be Colonel. West Point didn’t fully integrate until General William C.
Westmoreland became commandant. And it was Westmoreland, who later
became USARV/MACV commander in Vietnam, demanded that Taylor inspired
racism against African American troops in Vietnam cease but also
lifted the ‘promotion lid’ of Colonel off the Green Beret. One of
General Westmoreland’s most notable anti-racism recognition’s occurred
when he reviewed a recently arrived contingent of troops to Vietnam.
The only soldier addressed by General Westmoreland during that review
was an African American soldier.
Today, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Hugh Shelton, is an
Army Green Beret. When I enlisted in 1968 six days after watching the
movie “The Green Berets” five times in as many days, the idea of a
Green Beret ever becoming Army Chief of Staff, let alone Chairman JCS,
would have been laughed at by everyone over the rank of E3. Also at
that time, any concession by any Army general that the US Army would
convert from a conventional force to a special warfare or individually
motivated/inspired force would also have received a hearty belly
laugh. Back in those days, thirty years ago, few agreed that the
efforts of one individual being all that he or she could hope to be,
could win a war in ‘Nam or anywhere else. In those days, and for four
thousand recorded years prior, everyone of senior rank believed only
an army of many commanded by a prima donna could obtain victory.
Today, thirty years after Vietnam the United States Army now
acknowledges what we who served in Vietnam knew back then: Special
Forces and Special Identity is what an army needs to do the job
required of it. Just as all politics is precinctly local, all warfare
is personally intimate. Conventional armies organized under Napoleonic
principles have always been failures... Napoleon ultimately lost,
didn’t he? Frontal assaults by huge, ‘ours is just to do or die’
armies are no more practical today than they ever were in Roman times,
or ever were in our living war memory... WW1, WW2. (We must not forget
that it was Hitler’s special forces who enabled his early successes
during the Battle of the Bulge.) In every war ever fought it was the
work of a Special Forces contingent that enabled initial victory and
the expanded work of Special Forces that enable ultimate victory. This
is an indisputable fact in the history of human warfare.
The United States Army’s conversion from ‘cunt’, ’baseball’ and
‘saucer’ headgear to beret signifies and acknowledges the fact that
only an Army of individual honor, prestige and elitism wins conflicts,
battles and wars.
Wearing of the beret, the symbol of elitism, transforms the American
army to the status it has always been since our special
operations/warfare victory over the “undefeatable” George The Second
army of Britain. From our earliest engagements during the
Revolutionary War where our loyal and highly motivated, but tragically
uneducated, ‘insurgents’ (who mis-identified themselves as
‘sturgeons’) to the present day where our loyal, highly motivated and
highly educated enlistees incorporate all that every generation of
American foot soldier embodies, the beret signifies a circle completed
and an army fully evolved.
To those of my generation who enlisted to ‘win a Green Beret’ and
serve in Vietnam, I say to you... you have won the greatest battle you
ever fought. It took our Army over thirty years to acknowledge what
you knew long ago. You’ve won!
To those of you who will wear a beret I say to you, many Americans
gave life and/or limb to create an efficient and effective fighting
force that made/make opponents afraid to challenge. Soon, you will
wear a beret. Wear it proudly. Wear it with honor. And remember always
that the beret you wear was won for you by men who performed with the
highest of bravery and the greatest of sacrifice. You are an Army of
One. It takes only One Soldier to turn defeat into Victory. It takes
only One Soldier to stimulate a unit to greatest. It takes One Soldier
to be awarded the Medal of Honor.
Duty, Honor, Country. Those words are the lifeblood of the individual
Soldier.
You can be that One Soldier by always remembering to wear your Beret
mindful of all those who wore it before you... it takes a lot of red
overlaid upon red to produce the color black. Never forget that much
blood has been proudly sacrificed for your Black Beret.
