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| Country | United States |
| Active | 19 June 1952 – present |
| Motto | De oppresso liber (U.S. Army's translation: "To Liberate the Oppressed") |
| Branch | U.S. Army |
| Type | Special Operations Forces |
U.S.
Army Special Forces:
The Story Behind the Green Beret
5th Special Forces Group (United States)
The 5th Special Forces Group is a United States Army Special Forces unit that was activated on 21 September 1961 during the Cold War.
01 Unit history
Constituted 5 July 1942 in the Army of the United States as Headquarters and
Headquarters Detachment, 1st Battalion, Third Regiment, 1st Special Service
Force, a combined Canadian-American organization. It was activated four days
later on 9 July at Fort William Henry Harrison, Montana. During World War
II, the 1st Special Service Force was disbanded on 5 December 1944 in Villeneuve-Loubet,
France.
5th Group was constituted on 15 April 1960, concurrently consolidated with
Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 5th Ranger Infantry Battalion (activated
1 September 1943). The consolidated unit was redesignated as Headquarters
and Headquarters Company, 5th Special Forces Group, 1st Special Forces. Organic
elements were constituted on 8 September 1961. 5th Group was reactivated 21
September 1961 at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
On 1 October 2005, the unit was redesignated as the 5th Special Forces Group,
1st Special Forces Regiment.
02 Vietnam
Fearing the growing threat of the Viet Cong insurgency to the Vietnamese government, President John F. Kennedy begin activating special forces units in anticipation of their insurgency combat expertise in 1961. The 5th Special Forces Group was amongst those units activated in 1961, and while attending training at the Special Warfare Center, Kennedy visited the units and personally approved the distinctive Special Force's Green Beret. The 5th SFG was first deployed as a battlefield advisory group for the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN). By February 1965, it was deployed as a mainstay battle force once the war was in full swing. The group mostly operated behind enemy lines with either other Special Forces groups or South Vietnamese special forces. They were specialized in combating both regular and irregular units of the Vietnam People's Army, and other communist bloc insurgents. They used unconventional and conventional warfare, and were some of the last soldiers the United States pulled out of Vietnam.
In June 1969, an incident developed which led to the arrest in July of seven officers and one non-commissioned officer of the 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne) including the new commander, Colonel Robert B. Rheault. The incident, which may have had Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) involvement, was the murder of a suspected double agent, Thai Khac Chuyen working on Project GAMMA and an attempt to cover it up. Mr. Chuyen would undergo some ten days of rigorous interrogation and solitary confinement. Ultimately, he would be shot and dumped into the sea. National newspapers and television picked up the story, most likely due to the involvement of the Special Forces, and the “Green Beret Affair” became another lightning rod for anti-war feeling. Finally in September 1969 Secretary of the Army Stanley Resor announced that all charges would be dropped since the CIA, in the interests of national security, had refused to make its personnel available as witnesses.
In April 1970, 5th SFG began reducing its number of personnel in Vietnam. Later in November and December, further reductions in personnel and extraction of companies ensued, ending in a complete withdrawal of the group by March. On 5 March 1971, 5th SFG returned to Fort Bragg. During their time in Vietnam, members of the unit earned 19 Medals of Honor, making it the most prominently decorated unit for its size in that conflict. Members of the unit continued to conduct intelligence operations in Southeast Asia until the collapse of the South Vietnamese government on 29 April 1975.
03 Late Cold War
In 1989, through ‘Operation Salam’, demining training camps for Afghans were established at Risalpur and Quetta in Pakistan under UN auspices. From 1989–1995 a total of 17,055 mine clearance personnel were trained at these camps. Part of Operation Salam’s agenda was also to impart mine awareness to Afghan refugees to identify mines and undertake due precautions.
The UNSSM for service with the United Nations Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Assistance to Afghanistan (UNOCHA) was awarded to 5th Group soldiers who participated in this operation.
04 Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm
The 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne) added to its combat history during Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. In August 1990 the Group was called upon to conduct operations in Southwest Asia in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. During this crisis the Army's First Special Operations Task Force, (ARSOTF), consisting of elements of the 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne) comprising 106 special operations teams performing a myriad of[quantify] missions that spanned the scope of operations: support to coalition warfare; conducting foreign internal defense missions with the Saudi Arabian Army, performing special reconnaissance, border surveillance, direct action, combat search and rescue missions; and advising and assisting a pan-Arab equivalent force larger than six U.S. divisions, as well as conducting civil-military operations training and liaison with the Kuwaitis. The border surveillance mission assigned the 5th Special Forces was among the most vital[weasel words] in providing "ground truth" to the US and Pan-Arab Forces. New military relationships were forged between the US and the Arab dictatorships which continue their importance today.
General Norman Schwarzkopf described the Special Forces as "the eyes and ears" of the conventional forces and the "glue that held the coalition together."
During the period of 2 August 1990 – 30 November 1995, selected members were awarded the Southwest Asia Service Medal, Saudi Arabia Kuwait Liberation Medal, Kuwaiti Kuwait Liberation Medal, National Defense Service Medal and the Valorous Unit Award reference General Orders 14.
