Delta Force

The 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment–Delta , referred to variously as Delta Force, Combat Applications Group , Army Compartmented Elements , the Fort Bragg SMU, or within Joint Special Operations Command , Task Force Green, is a special operations force of the United States Army, under operational control of JSOC. The unit's missions primarily involve counterterrorism, hostage rescue, direct action, and special reconnaissance, often against high-value targets. Delta Force, along with its Navy and Air Force counterparts, DEVGRU and the 24th Special Tactics Squadron, are the U.S. military's tier one special mission units that are tasked with performing the most complex, covert, and dangerous missions directed by the President of the United States and the Secretary of Defense. Most Delta Force operators are selected from the Army Special Operations Command's elite 75th Ranger Regiment and Special Forces, though selection is open to other special operations units and conventional forces across the Army and sometimes other military branches. Delta Force was created in 1977 after numerous well-publicized terrorist incidents led the U.S. government to develop a full-time counter-terrorism unit. Key military and government figures had already been briefed on this type of unit in the early 1960s. Charlie Beckwith, a Special Forces officer and Vietnam War veteran, served as an exchange officer with the British Army's 22nd Special Air Service Regiment during the Malayan Emergency. Army Special Forces in that period focused on unconventional warfare, but Beckwith recognized the need for "not only a force of teachers, but a force of doers". He briefed military and government figures, who were resistant to creating a new unit outside of Special Forces or changing existing methods. Finally, in the mid-1970s, as the threat of terrorism grew, Pentagon and Army senior leaders appointed Beckwith to form the unit. Watts had made it clear to Beckwith that it would take eighteen months to build a squadron, but advised him to tell Army leaders that it would take two years, and not to "let anyone talk out of this." To justify why it would take two years to build Delta, Beckwith and his staff drafted what they dubbed the "Robert Redford Paper," which outlined its necessities and historical precedents for a four-phase selection/assessment process. Delta Force was established on 19 November 1977, by Beckwith and Colonel Thomas Henry. In the meantime, Colonel Bob "Black Gloves" Mountel of the 5th Special Forces Group created a unit "to breach the short-term gap" that existed until Delta was ready, dubbed Blue Light. The initial members of the unit were screened from volunteers and put through a specialized selection process in early 1978, involving a series of land navigation problems in mountainous terrain while carrying increasing weight. Delta Force was certified as fully mission capable in fall 1979, right before the Iran hostage crisis. On 4 November 1979, 52 American diplomats and citizens were taken captive and held in the U.S. embassy in Tehran, Iran. Delta Force was tasked to plan and execute Operation Eagle Claw, the effort to recover the hostages from the embassy by force on the nights of 24 and 25 April in 1980.