U.S. Army

Special Forces

From OSS Jedburgh teams in occupied France to SOG recon teams across the fence in Laos to Horse Soldiers on horseback calling in B-52s in Afghanistan, the Green Berets have been America's unconventional warriors for seven decades. Twelve-man teams. Indigenous forces. Languages, cultures, and wars the conventional Army doesn't fight. De Oppresso Liber — To Free the Oppressed.

"De Oppresso Liber" Est. 1952

EST. JUNE 19, 1952

U.S. Army Special Forces

The Green Berets

Beret · JFK Authorized

ACTIVE SF GROUPS

President Kennedy called the Green Beret "a symbol of excellence, a badge of courage, a mark of distinction in the fight for freedom." Special Forces soldiers are trained to operate in twelve-man Operational Detachment Alpha teams the most versatile small unit in the military. They speak the language, understand the culture, train indigenous forces, and fight alongside them. Unconventional warfare, foreign internal defense, direct action, special reconnaissance - the Green Berets do what no conventional force can. De Oppresso Liber - To Free the Oppressed. Read more

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WWII — The First Unconventional Warriors 1942 – 1945

"WILD BILL" DONOVAN

Office of Strategic Services

OSS — Donovan's Outfit

MG William Donovan

Personnel at Peak

Before there were Green Berets, there was the OSS. Major General William "Wild Bill" Donovan built America's first unconventional warfare organization from scratch — recruiting professors, athletes, safe crackers, and anyone else who could think creatively and fight dirty. The OSS conducted sabotage, espionage, guerrilla warfare, and resistance support behind enemy lines in every theater. When the OSS was disbanded in 1945, its unconventional warfare DNA went dormant — until Special Forces was born from it seven years later. Read more

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Three-Man Teams Behind the Lines

Teams · Multi-National

Belgium · Holland

TRAINED RESISTANCE

The Jedburgh teams were the direct ancestors of the Special Forces ODA. Three-man teams — one American, one British, one French — parachuted into occupied France before and after D-Day to arm, train, and lead the French Resistance. Ninety-three Jed teams organized tens of thousands of FFI fighters who cut German supply lines, blew bridges, and fought a guerrilla war that pinned down divisions the Wehrmacht needed at Normandy. The template for everything Special Forces would become. Read more

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BURMA · 1942–1945

OSS Detachment 101

Burma — The First Special Forces

Behind Japanese Lines

Rangers Trained & Led

ENEMY KIA CONFIRMED

OSS Detachment 101 operated behind Japanese lines in Burma for three years — small teams of Americans living in the jungle, training and leading Kachin tribesmen in guerrilla warfare against the Japanese. Det 101 accounted for 5,428 confirmed enemy killed against only 22 American KIA. They rescued downed Allied aircrews, provided intelligence for Merrill's Marauders and the Chindits, and proved that a handful of unconventional warriors leading indigenous forces could achieve strategic results. The Green Beret model before Green Berets existed. Read more

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Korea — Behind the Lines 1950 – 1953

UNPIK · 8240th AU

UNPIK & Partisan Operations

UN Partisan Infantry Korea

Korean Partisans

NORTH KOREAN LINES

While the 10th Special Forces Group was being activated at Fort Bragg, unconventional warfare was already happening in Korea. The 8240th Army Unit ran partisan operations behind North Korean lines — American advisors leading 22,000 Korean partisans from offshore island bases. They raided coastal targets, gathered intelligence, rescued downed pilots, and tied down North Korean security forces. The lessons learned in Korea directly shaped the Special Forces doctrine that was being written simultaneously at Fort Bragg. Read more

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Vietnam — MACV-SOG 1964 – 1972

TOP SECRET · 1964–1972

Military Assistance Command Vietnam — Studies & Observations Group

Studies & Observations

Classified Until 1990s

Cambodia · N. Vietnam

The most classified, most decorated, and most dangerous special operations unit of the Vietnam War. MACV-SOG ran cross-border operations into Laos, Cambodia, and North Vietnam that the United States government denied existed. Over eight years, SOG suffered a 100% casualty rate — every American who served was either killed or wounded. The unit's existence was classified until the 1990s. Twelve Medals of Honor. More valor decorations per capita than any unit in American military history. Read more

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CCN · CCC · CCS

Recon Teams — Across the Fence

RT Idaho · RT Python · RT Alabama

Americans per RT

Indigenous per RT

Fire · Daniel Boone

SOG recon teams were the tip of the spear — two or three Americans and four to nine indigenous team members inserted by helicopter into Laos (Prairie Fire), Cambodia (Daniel Boone), or North Vietnam (Nickel Steel). Each RT carried a state name — Idaho, Python, Alabama, Asp, Hawaii. They operated for days behind enemy lines, surrounded by divisions of NVA, calling in air strikes on the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Contact was almost guaranteed. Extraction under fire was routine. The average SOG recon man ran targets for six months before being killed, wounded, or pulled off the teams. Read more

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EXPLOITATION FORCE

Company-Sized Exploitation Platoons

Americans per Platoon

Indigenous per Platoon

Sized · 3 Platoons

EXPLOIT · RESCUE

When a recon team found a target too big for a dozen men, the Hatchet Forces went in. Company-sized exploitation elements — five Americans and thirty-plus Montagnard or Vietnamese fighters per platoon — inserted to exploit intelligence, destroy base camps, rescue recon teams in contact, or assault targets along the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Hatchet Force missions were the heaviest fighting in SOG. Some missions required Bright Light rescue of the Hatchet Force itself. Read more

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DA NANG · KONTUM · BAN ME THUOT

FOBs & Command and Control

CCN · CCC · CCS — The Launch Sites

Da Nang · North

Kontum · Central

Ban Me Thuot · South

FORWARD OPS BASES

SOG operated from three Command and Control sites along the Vietnamese border — each responsible for cross-border operations into its sector. CCN (Command and Control North) at Da Nang launched teams into Laos and North Vietnam. CCC (Central) at Kontum covered the tri-border area. CCS (South) at Ban Me Thuot ran operations into Cambodia. Each C&C controlled multiple FOBs — Forward Operating Bases — where recon teams staged, briefed, and launched. The FOB was home. The fence was the office. Read more

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Bright Light — POW Rescue

SOG's Rescue Mission

Light · Rescue Missions

Recovery Operations

Inserted for Rescue

RAID · NOV 1970

Bright Light was SOG's POW rescue mission — dedicated teams on standby to launch at any report of American prisoners. SOG recon teams gathered intelligence on POW locations and Bright Light forces staged to assault prison camps across Laos and North Vietnam. The Son Tay Raid in November 1970 — a joint SOG-Special Forces operation deep into North Vietnam to free American prisoners — was the most audacious rescue attempt of the war. The camp was empty. The execution was flawless. The prisoners were moved days before. Read more

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Active Special Forces Groups The Quiet Professionals

1st Special Forces Group

1st Special Forces Group

Indo-Pacific AOR

Forward Deployed

JOINT COMBINED EXCH

1st Special Forces Group covers the Indo-Pacific — the largest theater on earth. With a forward-deployed battalion on Okinawa, 1st Group maintains persistent relationships with partner forces across Southeast Asia, the Philippines, Korea, Japan, and the Pacific Islands. Their Joint Combined Exchange Training missions keep SF teams in partner nations year-round. When the Pacific pivot became policy, 1st Group was already there. Read more

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3rd Special Forces Group

FORT LIBERTY, NC

3rd Special Forces Group

Africa & the Sahel

Tongo Tongo · 2017

FOREIGN INTERNAL DEF

3rd Special Forces Group owns Africa — 54 countries, hundreds of languages, and every threat from ISIS affiliates to Boko Haram to Wagner Group mercenaries. In October 2017, ODA 3212 was ambushed near Tongo Tongo, Niger — four soldiers were killed in the deadliest combat incident in Africa since Mogadishu. The ambush exposed the scale of SF operations across the Sahel that most Americans didn't know existed. 3rd Group has been in Africa's wars for decades. Read more

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5th Special Forces Group

FORT CAMPBELL, KY

5th Special Forces Group

Vietnam's Own — CENTCOM

Middle East · C. Asia

CIDG · A-Camps

HORSE SOLDIERS · 2001

The Vietnam Group. 5th SFG ran the Civilian Irregular Defense Group program — A-Teams in remote camps training and leading Montagnard, Nung, and CIDG strikers across Vietnam. In October 2001, ODA 595 of the 5th Group rode horseback with Northern Alliance fighters and called in B-52 strikes on Taliban positions at Mazar-i-Sharif — the Horse Soldiers. The image of Green Berets on horseback calling in precision airstrikes became the defining moment of the early Afghan war. 5th Group owns CENTCOM. Read more

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7th Special Forces Group

7th Special Forces Group

Latin America & SOUTHCOM

Latin America AOR

Primary Language

NARCOTICS · FID

7th Special Forces Group owns Latin America — from the Rio Grande to Tierra del Fuego. Spanish is the primary language. The mission is foreign internal defense, counternarcotics, and building partner capacity in some of the most violent regions on earth. 7th Group trained Bolivian rangers who hunted Che Guevara. They've been in Colombia for decades fighting FARC alongside Colombian special operations. El Salvador, Honduras, Panama, Peru — wherever the cartels and insurgents operate, 7th Group has teams on the ground. Read more

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10th Special Forces Group

FORT CARSON, CO

10th Special Forces Group

The Original — Europe

Activated · The First

Germany · Cold War

The original. 10th Special Forces Group was activated at Fort Bragg on June 19, 1952 — built from OSS veterans, Lodge Act foreign volunteers, and Rangers who wanted unconventional warfare. Deployed to Bad Tölz, Germany, the 10th spent the Cold War preparing stay-behind networks and guerrilla forces for the Soviet invasion of Europe. Their mission was to go to ground behind the Iron Curtain and make occupation impossible. 10th Group remains oriented on Europe — from the Balkans to Africa to Ukraine. Read more

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19th & 20th Special Forces Groups

Army National Guard SF

Guard · UT/WV Based

Guard · AL/MS Based

Q Course · Same Tab

OIF · OEF · WORLDWIDE

The National Guard has two Special Forces Groups — the 19th and 20th. Their soldiers attend the same Q Course, earn the same Green Beret, and deploy on the same missions as active-duty Groups. Guard SF soldiers bring civilian career skills — law enforcement, medicine, engineering, education — that enhance the foreign internal defense mission. Both Groups deployed extensively to Iraq and Afghanistan. Guard Green Berets are the definition of citizen soldiers with Tier 1 skills. Read more

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Special Mission Units Tier One

FORT LIBERTY, NC

COL Charlie Beckwith

Joint Special Ops Cmd

SPECIAL MISSION UNIT

Colonel Charlie Beckwith spent years trying to build an American SAS — a surgical counterterrorism and direct-action unit that could operate at the highest classification levels. In 1977, the Army activated 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta. Desert One in Iran was their first mission — it failed catastrophically. Everything after didn't. From Modelo Prison in Panama to Scud hunting in Iraq to the nightly raids that dismantled AQI's leadership in Baghdad — The Unit has been the point of the spear for nearly fifty years. Their operations remain classified. Their results don't. Read more

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FORT CAMPBELL, KY

160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment

Night Stalkers Don't Quit

MH-47 · MH-6 Little Bird

SECONDS · ON TIME

Born from the ashes of Desert One. Task Force 160 was created because the Iran hostage rescue failed partly due to aviation shortfalls. The Night Stalkers fly the most difficult missions in special operations — blacked out, nap-of-the-earth, in weather that grounds everyone else, and they arrive within plus or minus thirty seconds of the planned time. In Mogadishu, Night Stalker pilots flew into RPG fire for hours. The regiment has lost pilots and crew on operations that will never be declassified. "Night Stalkers Don't Quit" isn't a motto. It's a promise to the operators in the back. Read more

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USASFC & The Q Course The Pipeline

FORT LIBERTY, NC

USASFC (Airborne)

U.S. Army Special Forces Command

Active SF Groups

Guard SF Groups

USASFC (Airborne) commands all Army Special Forces — five active-duty Groups, two National Guard Groups, the JFK Special Warfare Center and School, and all supporting elements. Based at Fort Liberty, USASFC provides trained and ready Special Forces to every geographic combatant command. At any given moment, SF teams are deployed in 70+ countries. USASFC is the institutional home of the Green Beret — where doctrine is written, standards are set, and the force is generated. Read more

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FORT LIBERTY, NC

Special Forces Qualification Course

Months+ Pipeline

Selection & Assessment

The Special Forces Qualification Course is the longest individual training pipeline in the Army — eighteen months or more of language training, small unit tactics, unconventional warfare, specialty skills (weapons, engineering, medical, communications), and culminating in Robin Sage — a multi-week exercise where candidates must organize, train, and lead a guerrilla force in a realistic unconventional warfare scenario in rural North Carolina. The Q Course doesn't just teach skills. It identifies the kind of person who can operate alone, in hostile territory, with no support, and make the right decisions. The Green Beret is awarded at graduation. Everything before was just selection. Read more

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7

SF Groups

70+

Countries Deployed

72

Years SF

DOL

De Oppresso Liber