User:NeoFreak/sandbox/1st Special Forces Group

The 1st Special Forces Group (1stSFG) is a United States Army Special Forces unit formed on June 24th, 1957, at Camp Drake, Japan. The unit was activated with the majority of its personnel still in tranist to its new base. The Group was formed to provide mobile training teams in the Pacific and took on an increasing role in Vietnam through the late 50's and early 60's before the beginning of the Vietnam War. It was redesignated the 1st Special Forces Group (Airborne) on October 30, 1960 as part of the reorganization of Special Forces under the Kennedy Administration.

The 1stSFG saw extensive use during the Vietnam War before being deactivated on the 28th of June, 1974. The Group was reactivated on the 15th of March, 1984, at Fort Bragg North Carolina before rebasing to Fort Lewis Washington while the 1st Battlion, 1st Special Forces Group remained on Okinawa in its new facilty at Torii Station. During the 80's and 90's the Group participated in training and combat missions around the world including operations in Bosina, Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm. Since 2001 they have participated in both Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Early Years
The Headquaters and Headquaters Company was activated and combined with the newly raised 248th Quatermaster Detachment (Special Forces Parachute Rigging) on the 24th of June 1957 to form the core of the 1st Special Forces Group. On the 1st of July the US Army's Pacific Command assumed control over all Special Forces detachments in the Pacific theater and consolidated the 12th, 13th, 14th, and 16th Special Forces Detachments under the command of the new 1st Special Forces Group on Okinawa. On the 24th of June, 1958, the 15th Special Forces Detachment was activated from within the 1st Special Forces group; this brought the Group up to its full alloted stength of five Detachments or, 16 officers and 99 enlisted operators.

Vietnam
Special Forces soldiers from the 1stSFG began to deploy into Vietnam in 1957 as training cadres for Vietnamese commando groups. By 1959 the Special Forces mission in Indo-China had expanded to Laos where they trained local fighters and the soldiers of the Laotian goverment in counter-insurgency tactics so as to more effectivly combat the communist Pathet Lao fighters that were threatening the pro-Western goverment of King Savang Vatthana.

The CIA Years
From 1957 until July of 1962 Special Forces operations in Indo-China were under the authority of the Central Intelligence Agency. Following a protocol signed in Geneva in 1962 all US military forces were withdrawn from Laos and with the exception of actual CIA assets. Despite, or even because of, this agreement these events were the opening stages for what became known as The Secret War.

Working within the parameters of the Oil Spot strategy put forth by Sir Robert Thompson during the British Malayan Emergency, and under the command of the CIA, the Special Forces in Vietnam established ten A-Teams from 1stSFG in villages spread throughout Vietnam. This operation became known as the Strategic Hamlet Program. The 1stSFG soldiers trained local residents to become self-sufficient in their own defense and aided domestic projects. This had the double effect of both denying the Viet Cong a place of rest and recruitment but also drawing the rural populace into a closer relationship with the South Vietnamese government of Ngo Dinh Diem in Saigon. After only two years this program led several hundred villages, hundreds of thousands of civilians, hundreds of square miles of territory and 38,000 local militia members the ability to defend themselves and their land from Viet Cong influence.

Build Up and War
By 1963 the US military was expanding its presense in Vietnam and the command and control of all Special Forces soldiers in Vietnam came back under the authority of the United States Army. Under the command of the US Army Staff the employment of the Special Forces began to shift toward military confrontation with Communist forces in Vietnam and the now failing and corrupted Stategic Hamlet Program was abandoned in 1964.

Subordinate Units

 * Headquarters and Headquarters Company, Fort Lewis, Washington.
 * 1st Battalion, Torii Station, Okinawa, Japan.
 * 2nd Battalion, Fort Lewis, Washington.
 * 3rd Battalion, Fort Lewis, Washington.

URLS
http://archives.cnn.com/2002/US/01/07/ret.soldier.killed/index.html