THE RAID

Up until this point in time, if you said'The Raid' within the SF community, you were referring to the Son Tay Raid. As of last Sunday evening, that has been changed forever. And as secretive and shrouded in mystery as Son Tay was, this latest thing generates more questions and quizzical aspects with each and every pronouncement of Team Obama.

OK now that the dust has settled lets go over some of the details that the Left-Leaning Mainstream Media (LLMM) invariably get wrong due to their wholesale lack of military experience - while posturing themselves as Subject Matter Experts on everything Spec Ops - combined with their slobbering love affair with the current occupier of the Whitehouse.


o Did the Presidents' team actually watch the operation unfold in real-time on the screen in the situation room?






This photo suggests they did, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's comment that it was "the most intense 38 minutes of her life" contributes to this aspect of The Raid. But on Wednesday CIA Director Leon Panetta stated that the screen went black for 25 minutes right in the middle of the operation.






o Was Hillary reacting in shock and awe at the killing of Osama bin Laden, or is she covering a cough - as she claimed - or is she overwhelmed by the beauty of it all when they switched over to a Royal Wedding rerun during those 25 minutes of blackness? You decide.


o Is Osama bin Laden REALLY dead? Where's the photo? "No body, no crime." The death of Adolf Hitler was also announced on 1 May, and yet everyone knows Hitler is still alive in Argentina - for you non-Truthyers here's video proof:






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WANNABE WARLORD

A popular feature here on STORMBRINGER is busting out the phony wannabes - this site even helped track this guy to ground - but this latest freak was so bold he takes phony-ism to a whole 'nother level . . . not good enough to be a phony wannabe poser - he stood up a whole PRIVATE ARMY:

CHINESE MAN ACCUSED OF CREATING FAKE ARMY SF UNIT

April 13, 2011 Associated Press

POMONA, Calif - A Chinese national who said he was the "Supreme Commander" of a made-up Army unit orchestrated an elaborate scheme that attracted recruits and their money with the promise that it was a path to U.S. citizenship, authorities allege.



I think I like this guy's style:

"Uh, excuse me there, Your Majesty, but exactly what rank are you?"

"Supleeme Commandah. I a Supleeme Commandah Special Foss. You can car me Supah."



Yupeng Deng, who is accused of raking in hundreds of dollars from his recruits, is set to be arraigned Wednesday on more than a dozen charges.

Los Angeles County prosecutors said Deng, also known as David Deng, recruited 100 other Chinese nationals, primarily in Asian enclaves in the San Gabriel Valley, to join the "U.S. Army / Military Special Forces Reserve unit," then gave them phony U.S. Army uniforms and military ID cards.

The 51-year-old El Monte man is accused of charging the recruits initiation fees ranging from $300 to $450, with renewal fees set at $120 a year.

The recruits were instructed to report to Deng's office in Temple City, which was decorated to look like an official military recruiting center, to undergo military training and indoctrination, the Los Angeles County district attorney's office said. They marched in a parade in Monterey Park and took a tour of the U.S. Midway Museum in San Diego, all in uniform.


San Diego's a HUGE military town - somebody HAD to have seen these clowns and wondered What the Hell is going on?"


Deng was charged with 13 counts of theft by false pretenses, manufacturing deceptive government documents and counterfeit of an official government seal. He faces more than eight years in state prison if convicted.

Deng was arrested by agents with the FBI and U.S. Department of Defense on a felony complaint filed Monday.

Federal investigators began looking into Deng more than two years ago when they received reports from police who recovered counterfeit military IDs from some of Deng's recruits during traffic stops, FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller said.

When Deng sent his recruits renewal forms for their bogus military IDs, some showed up at real Army facilities to pay them, she said.


Oh I would have LOVED to have been a fly on the wall when THAT madness went down!












"Whaddya mean -


WE DON'T GET NO SCUBA PAY ? ? ?"











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ON WRITING

OK this is where my head is at right now:

I've been writing for years, but I really got serious about ten years ago; the year I lived alone, all by myself in a marble palace on the outskirts of a dusty, sand baked Nowheres-ville, on the edge of the great Sahara. I have the better part of two novels (based on my adventures, exploring the deepest recesses of the human psyche, all alone on the Road to Infinity, etcetera, etcetera . . .) already written down, and ten thousand times more than that bouncing around inside my skull.

What I want to do is save them as pdf's and post them online - a form of e-publishing - release them a chapter a week. For people to read them they click an icon, a dollar per chapter.

How to set this up? I know Pay pal is involved somehow; I put the question out there and true to form the Heroes of Team STORMBRINGER came back with all kinds of detailed instructions . . . give me a week or two to crack the code on this thing and we'll see how it goes from there.

All I know this thing is long overdue - the stories going around in my head have been screaming for an outlet for years now . . . decades even. I know my stuff is good - everybody I've shown it to cries out, "Sean! You've GOT to get your work out there! In the name of all that is Good and Holy, man, you've GOT TO GET PUBLISHED ! ! !" Now we're talking editors, writers - some pretty respectable figures in the literary world here - THE WOMEN even like what I write so I KNOW it's not just macho bravo sierra . . . and then sometime last week suddenly it dawned on me: This is what STORMBRINGER is FOR!




"To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women!"


BTW another journalist/writer has been querying me for technical advice for his sci-fi novels (involving a Special Forces desperado) and I have been feeding him institutional knowledge of the profession. I hardly told him anything about Special Forces . . . little drips and drabs . . . and what little I told him seemed mind-expanding:


Journalist/Writer Guy: I did read that there is some specialization among the SF companies, so that many specialize in some aspect. In addition to specializing in language, maybe one company is more highly-trained in underwater infiltration methods, another in mountain warfare, another in who knows what, and the one best suited (if available) is used in any given mission. So it's not as if all companies and A detachments need to know everything to the same degree. Just as there are focus roles in an A detachment with some cross-training (weapons, engineer, medical, communications, operations, commanders), so individual A detachments have areas of specialty.

Is this correct, or are they all basically interchangeable except with regards to language? I did read that all the 5 active groups are spending significant time in Afghanistan and Iraq despite their geographic responsibility. Maybe the two reserve groups are there as well.

As far as SF compared to Rangers, it appears that the Rangers, while I assume they could be used for any of the 9 SOF missions or 7 collateral activities, engage in more DA, CT, and SR than anything else. Well, I guess some FID. They're light infantry that goes in usually with bigger numbers than SF would. As far as the culture goes, and I know all individuals are different, but from what I understand, Ranger culture is more hooah gung-ho warrior macho than SF. Kind of "give me the target and I'll eliminate it." In, bam-bam, out.




"THIS . . . IS . . . STORMBRINGER ! ! !"


SF is more relationship focused with its UW and FID missions. They still perform DA, SR, and CT missions. They’re deadly snipers (isn't it SF and Marines that have the top sniper training?) But there's also a lot of training friendlies—insurgents, military, and law enforcement. And they're not mainstream soldiers, but more independent-minded. I think someone will shoot me if I say they're the hippies of the military, but that's what I'm getting. They're wearing beards and riding horseback into battle. You probably want to shoot me yourself (grin). Maybe "unconventional" is a better term.

So what of the above is not right? Also, I guess it depends on the current needs, but is my assessment that Ranger’s = DA while SF = UW, FID, SR accurate?


StormBringer: This is going to take me WEEKS to answer - especially since it's tax time of the year and I'm a freelancer, a privateer; my accountant has a love/hate relationship with me.

“Great Patriotic War on Towelhead-ism” - yes, cynicism; sarcasm, black humor - we're allowed to engage in it; we pay the price.

Special Reconnaissance (SR) - it used to be called "Strategic Reconnaissance" to differentiate from "Tactical Reconnaissance" which occurs within a mile or two of the front - "STRATRECON" became "Special Reconnaissance" when it enveloped the various disciplines of reconnaissance - think living in a sniper hide for a week, keeping a recon log, shitting in plastic bags then humping them out - electronic surveillance, photo reconnaissance, clandestine urban operations - teams patrolling the cities of Western Europe for Red Brigades, Red Army Faction cells; later doing the same thing tracking al Qaeda cells - this genre crosses over into "Special Activities" when you involve running cell organizations, collecting HUMINT from assets, etc.


Journalist-Writer Guy: This stuff is gold. Plastic bags of crap? Never in a million years would I think of that. As well as the “spy” crossover. A book I have on my list is Hunting the Jackal and I thought it interesting that it was CIA and SF. But now I see why. And I really like that business about spy versus scout. Take the time you need. I can’t wait to get the rest.


StormBringer: Of course this is the most important mission - "Time spent in Reconnaissance is never wasted." - George Washington said that.

This is the discipline where I made my most money. I was in the Atlanta airport, in the international transit lounge and some old guy was telling me, "I was a spy, I was in Austria after the war," and his wife was nodding her head up and down. I was just nodding and smiling and not saying a word. It was 1995, I was enroute to Sarajevo, and I was in civvies.

For what it's worth, very few intelligence professionals actually meet the dictionary definition of a "spy"; to be a spy, one must betray. I was a scout, a reconnaissance soldier.


Journalist-Writer Guy: “This is the discipline where I made my most money.” Is that a turn of phrase, or do SF actually get paid by the job?


StormBringer: That was turn of phrase but military pay works three ways: you get your base pay, then you get your special pay & allowances (jump pay, special duty pay, language pay, scuba pay, demo pay, housing allowance, cost-of-living-allowance, etc) then there's mission-related pay (TDY pay, per diem, hazardous duty pay, imminent danger pay, combat zone tax-free exclusion, etc).

You end up trying to connect the dots. Twenty-plus years ago I saw a brass plaque hanging over a team sergeant's desk, in one of the team rooms over in Torii Station, Okinawa. It said it all:


"WE'RE LOOKING FOR A LOW-INTENSITY WAR IN A HIGH PER DIEM AREA."





"The man's enlarged my mind. He's a poet-warrior . . . I'm a little man, he's a great man."



STORMRINGER SENDS



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PHONY SF COLONEL PLEADS GUILTY

Another one bites the dust . . .




Bill Hillar: "Money talks, bullshit walks."


William G. Hillar, 66, passed himself off to university employers as a former Green Beret and expert in international sex-trafficking and counterterrorism pleaded guilty March 30 to wire fraud.

Hillar was arrested at his Maryland home on Jan. 25. The Justice Department says that the former Coast Guard enlisted man pretended for about 12 years to be a retired Army colonel with a Special Forces background. Part of his faux biography included a claim that his daughter was kidnapped by human traffickers in Asia and that he spent six months in a futile effort to rescue her.

Hillar's story reportedly was the basis of a 2008 movie, "Taken," starring Liam Neeson.

Hillar could get up to 20 years in prison when he's sentenced on July 20, the FBI said in a statement. Under the terms of the plea agreement he will pay restitution of $171,415 and perform at least 500 hours of community service at the Maryland State Veterans Cemeteries.

The amount of restitution equals the money that he earned from the teaching jobs and speaking engagements he made based on his fraudulent bio.


This story is fascinating on many different levels; a fraud is busted, there is no daughter sold into sex slavery, honor is restored, and best of all it was Green Berets who busted out this phony wannabe. Details here.


Monday Mystery Bird HERE



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ORIGINS OF THE GREEN BERET

I was recently asked:  

Which is "proper" or preferred by these men when referring to them, "Green Beret" or "Special Forces"?

It is a very insightful question, and the answer is long & complex. Each one of the following paragraphs is the subject of at least a chapter-long essay; but it is my tribe, and I am the teller of the tale, so here goes:

As I recall, the "Green Berets" label became popular during the sixties, with the song, the book and the movie:






The green beret itself, as a piece of headgear for elite forces, dates to WWII and the French Underground. The Royal Marine Commandos were already wearing it, and it was picked up by the OSS Jedburghs (direct predecessors of modern day US Army Special Forces).




45 Royal Marine Commando, WWII


I don’t know exactly when French Foreign Legion paratroopers started wearing green berets - sometime after WWII when they acquired Airborne capability within the French forces, and before Dien Bien Phu - where they wore the green beret in combat.




Foreign Legion Soldiers in Algiers, 1957




Beret of the 2° Regt Etrangere Parachutiste (French Foreign Legion)


Early U.S. Army Special Forces in Europe adopted the beret as an unofficial headgear, worn only in the field. By the time of General William Yarborough’s famous First Formation in front of John F. Kennedy the beret was being worn openly (and unofficially) on post at Fort Bragg by Special Forces personnel.




President Kennedy granted official recognition & Presidential award of the headgear.


Then came the song, the book, and the movie, and from that point we were designated “Green Berets” in the popular lexicon.





Then something happened in the late 70s / early 80s. Everyone knows the Army can ruin a wet dream. The beret was officially sanctioned by no less than Presidential Executive Order, and so the Army, in it’s wisdom, determined that EVERYONE assigned to a Special Forces unit should wear the uniform (to include distinctive headgear) of that unit. Hence the phenomenon of pregnant female office clerks seen walking around Fort Bragg wearing green berets.

This sacrilege was finally put to rest when Special Forces became it’s own branch, MOS; 18-series Career Management Field. Nowadays only Special Forces qualified personnel wear the green beret; non-SF qual’d personnel assigned to Special Forces wear maroon berets (indicating airborne unit status).

For the longest time during the 70s and 80s it was almost taboo amongst Special Forces soldiers to refer to ourselves as “Green Berets”. This was how Hollywood described us, and of course there was that whole thing about the pregnant personnel clerk walking around the PX at Bragg wearing a green beret. We were and ARE Special Forces soldiers. Likewise, there is no such thing as “Navy Special Forces” or “Air Force Special Forces”. These units are designated “Special Operations Forces” (SEALs are Navy SOF, Para-Rescue are AF SOF, etc) to differentiate from the “Special Forces” designation, which has belonged to the Army since World War II.




World War II-era jump wings of the OSS (Office of Special Services)
"Special Forces"


Nowadays however a certain pride and ownership has come of the label “Green Beret” and we once again refer to ourselves as “The Green Berets”. You will see it on web sites, chatrooms, certain YouTube clips, etc. We are still not quite yet comfortable with the monicker, given the Hollywood over-usage in the past, but I have heard the term used even in Tactical Operations Centers (TOCs) and Joint Operations Centers (JOCs) by Special Forces soldiers, when discussing order of battle, to differentiate between Special Forces soldiers out there on the battlefield and other Special Operations Soldiers (Rangers are Army SOF, Marine Force Recon are MARSOF, etc).






Of course, I am (semi) retired now – I refer to myself as EX-Special Forces (“ex;” being Latin for “out of”) but NEVER “former” Special Forces; on the grounds that there is no such thing as a “former” Special Forces soldier (with the possible exception of the guys drummed out in disgrace – I’ve seen a few of those). I work and hang out with a number of colleagues from my former life, and recently a retired Sergeant Major said to me (in front of everyone), “You’re a Green Beret, Linnane – get yerself out there and KICK SOME ASS ! ! !”


Hope this answers your question for now . . . SEAN LINNANE SENDS



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TANGO MIKE MIKE

I once had the honor of meeting Roy Benavidez. What they don't tell you on this montage is that this was Roy's second tour in Vietnam when he earned the Medal of Honor. He stepped on a landmine during his first tour and was medically released from the Army. Roy built his body back up, proved to the docs he was fit for service and then went on to try out and complete Green Beret training.

The scuttlebutt amongst the old Sergeant Majors I used to work with at the Special Warfare Center was that when Roy was put in for the MOH it was turned down by the powers that be in the conventional Army, on the grounds that a disproportionate number of Medals had already gone to Special Forces. It wasn't until after the war wound down and we'd endured the shame and discontent of the Carter years that the case for Roy's Medal could be pushed up to the highest level.




President Ronald Reagan awarded the Medal of Honor to Roy P. Benavidez on February 24, 1981.

Reagan reportedly turned to the press and said: "If the story of his heroism were a movie script, you would not believe it". He then read the official award citation:


Medal of Honor
BENAVIDEZ, ROY P.
Master Sergeant. Detachment B-56, 5th Special Forces Group, Republic of Vietnam
West of Loc Ninh on May 2, 1968

Master Sergeant (then Staff Sergeant) Roy P. Benavidez United States Army, who distinguished himself by a series of daring and extremely valorous actions on 2 May 1968 while assigned to Detachment B56, 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne), 1st Special Forces, Republic of Vietnam. On the morning of 2 May 1968, a 12-man Special Forces Reconnaissance Team was inserted by helicopters in a dense jungle area west of Loc Ninh, Vietnam to gather intelligence information about confirmed large-scale enemy activity. This area was controlled and routinely patrolled by the North Vietnamese Army. After a short period of time on the ground, the team met heavy enemy resistance, and requested emergency extraction. Three helicopters attempted extraction, but were unable to land due to intense enemy small arms and anti-aircraft fire. Sergeant Benavidez was at the Forward Operating Base in Loc Ninh monitoring the operation by radio when these helicopters returned to off-load wounded crewmembers and to assess aircraft damage. Sergeant Benavidez voluntarily boarded a returning aircraft to assist in another extraction attempt. Realizing that all the team members were either dead or wounded and unable to move to the pickup zone, he directed the aircraft to a nearby clearing where he jumped from the hovering helicopter, and ran approximately 75 meters under withering small arms fire to the crippled team. Prior to reaching the team's position he was wounded in his right leg, face, and head. Despite these painful injuries, he took charge, repositioning the team members and directing their fire to facilitate the landing of an extraction aircraft, and the loading of wounded and dead team members. He then threw smoke canisters to direct the aircraft to the team's position. Despite his severe wounds and under intense enemy fire, he carried and dragged half of the wounded team members to the awaiting aircraft. He then provided protective fire by running alongside the aircraft as it moved to pick up the remaining team members. As the enemy's fire intensified, he hurried to recover the body and classified documents on the dead team leader. When he reached the leader's body, Sergeant Benavidez was severely wounded by small arms fire in the abdomen and grenade fragments in his back. At nearly the same moment, the aircraft pilot was mortally wounded, and his helicopter crashed. Although in extremely critical condition due to his multiple wounds, Sergeant Benavidez secured the classified documents and made his way back to the wreckage, where he aided the wounded out of the overturned aircraft, and gathered the stunned survivors into a defensive perimeter. Under increasing enemy automatic weapons and grenade fire, he moved around the perimeter distributing water and ammunition to his weary men, reinstilling in them a will to live and fight. Facing a buildup of enemy opposition with a beleaguered team, Sergeant Benavidez mustered his strength, began calling in tactical air strikes and directed the fire from supporting gunships to suppress the enemy's fire and so permit another extraction attempt. He was wounded again in his thigh by small arms fire while administering first aid to a wounded team member just before another extraction helicopter was able to land. His indomitable spirit kept him going as he began to ferry his comrades to the craft. On his second trip with the wounded, he was clubbed with additional wounds to his head and arms before killing his adversary. He then continued under devastating fire to carry the wounded to the helicopter. Upon reaching the aircraft, he spotted and killed two enemy soldiers who were rushing the craft from an angle that prevented the aircraft door gunner from firing upon them. With little strength remaining, he made one last trip to the perimeter to ensure that all classified material had been collected or destroyed, and to bring in the remaining wounded. Only then, in extremely serious condition from numerous wounds and loss of blood, did he allow himself to be pulled into the extraction aircraft. Sergeant Benavidez' gallant choice to join voluntarily his comrades who were in critical straits, to expose himself constantly to withering enemy fire, and his refusal to be stopped despite numerous severe wounds, saved the lives of at least eight men. His fearless personal leadership, tenacious devotion to duty, and extremely valorous actions in the face of overwhelming odds were in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service, and reflect the utmost credit on him and the United States Army.








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SPECIAL FORCES SWOOP ON LIBYA . . .

A daring rescue operation by Special Forces flew scores of British citizens out of Libya last night as the net closed in on Col Muammar Gaddafi.


A more descriptive headline might read:


"Special Operations Forces Swoop on Libya . . ."






This was a daring operation that no doubt involved a LOT of risk taking on behalf of British Special Air Service soldiers, but a thing like this is actually a combined arms operations involving all services, most especially logistical personnel.

Phases of an operation like this include issuing warning orders to the ground operators (SAS) as well as the air arm involved (RAF and RN); planning; reconnaissance; infiltration of the main body; actions on the objective; consolidation and preparation for exfil; exfiltration. Intelligence gathering and operational security (OPSEC) would be involved throughout each phase of the operation.

An advanced recon element would be launched - given present circumstances they may have inserted by air - either civilian air transport, helicopter or High-Altitude-Low-Opening parachute (HALO); personally I would prefer MH-47 Chinook because I can get a fully-loaded vehicle on board - you can't get very far in the desert without a truck. Presumably they had some stay-behind personnel from the embassy who could coordinate a lot of the above.

Of course all of the above is contingent upon a forward staging area and launch site - this has to be selected and coordinated with host country - in this case (presumably) the former British colony of Malta. At the same time the forward element is being launched, the main body is being assembled; equipment, aircraft and vehicles prepared; medical and life support supplies collected, and phases of movement coordinated - home station to forward operating base (Malta) to Libya and return. Fuel has to be coordinated and paid for to cover each leg of the operation.

Preparations have to be made for reception of the British refugees once they arrive in Malta; temporary accommodations (aircraft hangers, large tents, cots, toilets, showers, medical facilities, etc.). Feeding will probably be accomplished via takeout from local restaurants or airport caterers.






Meanwhile tasks for the advance (recon) party would include locating all potential evacuees and informing them where and when to assemble; locating and surveying suitable landing zone for the C-130 Hercules aircraft (primary, alternate & contingent); possibly acquiring ground transport for the evacuees; reconnaissance and security tasks while awaiting the arrival of the main body to include a steady stream of situation reports (SITREPS) from the ground, via encrypted satcom.

Last but not least all of the above involves an incredible amount of headquarters staff personnel to plan and coordinate, cut movement orders, and communicate, communicate, communicate . . .

There are very few militaries in the world capable of pulling off such a contingency operation - this time the UK shows us how it's done.


"Amateurs study strategy, professionals study logistics" - General of the Army Omar Bradley



SEAN LINNANE SENDS


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R.I.P. LOWELL WESLEY STEVENS

I got the word over the weekend . . .

Lowell W. Stevens Sr.

FAYETTEVILLE - Retired Master Sgt. Lowell Wesley Stevens Sr., 69, of Fayetteville, died Wednesday, Jan. 26, 2011. Services: Memorial, 12:30 p.m. Monday in Rogers and Breece Funeral Home chapel in Fayetteville. Burial in Sandhills State Veterans Cemetery in Spring Lake. Survived by: Wife, Emiko; son, Lowell Jr.; daughters, Natalie and Cheryl; sister, Frances James; and four grandchildren.
- Published in Fayetteville Observer on January 29, 2011




Sgt. Lowell Stevens, top right, poses with other 1st Special Forces Group Soldiers and the indigeneous Montagnard soldiers in Vietnam before a mission into Laos in 1967. - photo courtesy of Lowell Stevens


Lowell Stevens served with SOG - the secretive "Studies and Observations Group" in Vietnam; he completed six tours in Vietnam and went on to become Sergeant Major of Blue Light, the classified counter-terrorist unit that preceded Delta.

After retiring from active duty, Lowell ran Range Control for Camp MacKall, where Special Forces conducts a major portion of their training.






I knew Lowell from the years I spent at SERE; he always got a lot of respect from everyone - the old war dogs and the younger generations alike. He is in that Big Drop Zone in the Sky now.









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WAR OF WORDS

From Milblogging.com:

A war of words has broken out between Michael Yon and Jim Hanson (who blogs over at Blackfive under nom-de-plume Uncle Jimbo) and Michael Yon earlier this week over on Blackfive.net. A number of bloggers and readers quickly defending the side of Uncle Jimbo after seeing some of the Michael Yon rants.




"Uncle Jimbo" Hanson and Michael Yon


This isn`t the first time; back in April 2010 a battle between Michael Yon and several milbloggers took place after negative comments Michael made about General McChrystal on his Facebook page.

The current war of words doesn`t look like it`s going to end anytime soon; over 100 comments have already been posted on a story that was published Friday. The post has become a verbal battleground for Uncle Jimbo, Michael Yon, and a number of other prominent bloggers and readers.

More details HERE



Comment: Uncle Jimbo and I know each other from Okinawa; we re-established contact around the time I retired from active duty and into what I do now, and just about the same time STORMBRINGER kicked off. He is what he says he is . . . S. L.



Uncle Jimbo posted a story this past Saturday called The Last Spiderbender - a cautionary tale about the dark side of Public Affairs - well worth the read.


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SPECIAL FORCES FRAUD BUSTED

William G. "Bill" Hillar

Bill Hillar said he knew the subject all too well. His daughter Sale was abducted in Asia in 1988 and sold into the sex-slave trade, he said. He spent a futile six months trying to find and rescue her, but she died in captivity.

It was all a lie, and now Hillar is under investigation for his claims by the FBI.

"Colonel in Special Forces - only in his dreams," said Jeff "J.D." Hinton, a retired Army Special Forces Soldier who began investigating Hillar more than a year ago after hearing there were problems with his background. Hinton immediately began copying images of Hillar's website and other sites in which Hillar's expertise and background were featured. Using personal connections in the Army Special Forces community as well as official channels, Hinton began exposing the holes in Hillar's background on his own website, Professionalsoldiers.com, in October.

There is no record of a William G. Hillar in any Special Forces outfit - ever - says Hinton. In fact, a search of military personnel records turned up only one William G. Hillar, a radioman in the Coast Guard from 1962 to 1970, according to Hinton.

Military.com was not able to reach Hillar through the e-mail address and phone number previously listed on his website. Rich Wolf, a spokesman for the FBI's Maryland and Delaware division, confirmed the Bureau is investigating Hillar but would not offer details.

For more than five years, Hillar promoted himself as an expert in international trafficking and counterterrorism. He traveled the country to speak before charity groups, college students and even law enforcement organizations. He has been paid to teach classes, including at the prestigious Monterey Institute for International Studies.

On his now-defunct website, he claimed to be a retired Special Forces colonel who served in Asia, the Middle East and Central and South America. He boasted training and experience in tactical counterterrorism, service with allied forces' elite troops and advising foreign governments and militaries.

When Hillar was confronted about his military credentials by former students, he reportedly denied claiming to be a Green Beret, saying he was just an adviser to the service.

Professionalsoldier.com's Hinton -- who makes it his business to ferret out phony war heroes and spec ops wannabes on his website -- claims Hillar has "made some serious money" passing himself off as a larger-than-life hero. Some promotional material on Hillar states his claimed attempt to rescue his daughter from human traffickers was partly the basis of a 2008 Liam Neeson film called "Taken."






A report in the Monterey County Weekly last month quoted a State Department spokesman as saying there is no record of an American woman named Hillar having been kidnapped anywhere in the world in 1988. Monterey officials began looking into Hillar after the school was contacted by a reader of Hinton's website and some student veterans voiced suspicion of Hillar. When Hillar did not get back to the school with proof of his many claims, it ended its relationship with him.

Hillar's other venues began drying up, too.

The University of Oregon, where Hillar also taught his human trafficking course, quickly dropped him and reported his charade to police.

At George Mason University in Virginia, where he was booked to speak in November, the school canceled his appearance. A spokeswoman said: "If he had shown up, he would have been escorted off campus."



Bill Hillar was honored by Elon University as a hometown hero

Bill Hillar maintained a website (www.billhillartraining.com). Yet, around the time that people began questioning his status as either a hero or a liar, his website was taken down. Yet, once on the Internet . . . always on the Internet. This link is an archive of his biography from his website. Looking further, it appears that he had Elon University scammed into believing his story. On November 12th, he was honored by the university as a “Hometown Hero” by being a person that “makes a difference.” Here is a link to the Elon University story. It’s clear that Bill Hillar presented himself as someone other than who he actually is.

Hinton said fakers such as Hillar don't understand how small the Special Operations community is. It doesn't take long to establish whether someone is the real thing. He believes the Monterey Institute, which touted Hillar for five years as an adjunct professor, could have found him out and acted a lot sooner.

"They were showcasing this guy like a three-headed snake," he said. "Now, they're trying to say he was not an adjunct professor, but just a contractor. All they're trying to do is mitigate their liability."

To make amends to Hillar's former students, the Institute has offered to let them keep the credit they earned or remove it from their academic record and let them take a makeup course for no charge. Some students who socialized with Hillar out of the classroom don't think it's possible to make up for what happened.

"I bought this man a couple of beers at the Crown & Anchor after class," a student identified as Theresa W. wrote on a Monterey Institute website Nov. 22. "Will MIIS refund me this? I cried for his young daughter who was killed by human traffickers."



This kind of slimeball dwells in a special kind of Hell - the Coward's Hell - which is dying a thousand deaths every day in his own mind; especially once he's found out . . .


. . . S.L.


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AUSTRALIAN DOORKICKERS

These are my Brothers in Arms:







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THE SON TAY RAID

"We are going to rescue 70 American prisoners of war, maybe more, from a camp called Son Tay. This is something American prisoners have a right to expect from their fellow soldiers. The target is 23 miles west of Hanoi." - Colonel Arthur "Bull" Simons pre-mission brief, 20 November 1970.






Today is the fortieth anniversary of Operation IVORY COAST - the Son Tay Raid - the attempted prisoner of war (PW) rescue mission conducted by United States Special Operations Forces deep within North Vietnamese territory.

On this day in 1970, a joint U.S. Air Force / Army operation commanded jointly by Air Force Brigadier General LeRoy J. Manor and Army Colonel Arthur D. "Bull" Simons landed 56 U.S. Army Special Forces soldiers by helicopter in the Son Tay prison compound 23 miles west of Hanoi, North Vietnam. The objective was recovery of 61 American prisoners of war believed to be held at the camp, situated within 5 miles of where at least 12,000 North Vietnamese troops were stationed. The mission failed in it's primary objective when it was found during the raid that all the prisoners had been previously moved to another camp.



Overhead imagery of the prison compound at Son Tay, North Vietnam

The concept of a rescue mission inside North Vietnam began as Operation POLAR CIRCLE, after analysis of overhead imagery by U.S. Air Force intelligence concluded that a compound near Son Tay - suspected of being a prisoner of war camp since late 1968 - contained at least 55 American PWs, and that at least six were in urgent need of rescue. By 1970, the US had identified the names of over 500 American POWs who were being held by the North Vietnamese. Sources reported that these prisoners were being held in atrocious conditions and were being cruelly treated by their captors.

In June of 1970, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Earle G. Wheeler, authorized the formation a fifteen-member planning group to address the issue. Operating under the codename POLAR CIRCLE, this group studied the possibility of conducting a night raid on a North Vietnamese POW camp and found that an attack on the camp at Son Tay was feasible and should be attempted.

Two months later, Operation IVORY COAST commenced to organize, plan, and train for the mission. Overall command was given to Air Force Brigadier General LeRoy J. Manor, with Special Forces Colonel Arthur "Bull" Simons as the ground force commander. While Manor assembled a planning staff, Simons recruited 103 volunteers from the 6th and 7th Special Forces Groups. Based at Eglin Air Force Base, FL, and working under the name "Joint Contingency Task Group," Simons' men began studying models of the camp and rehearsing the attack on a full-size replica.



Colonel Arthur D. "Bull" Simons

Colonel Simons interviewed 500 Special Forces soldiers of the 6th and 7th Special Forces Groups at Fort Bragg, North Carolina; 103 were selected without being told the nature of the mission. 116 Air Force personnel were selected for the project, including aircrewmen, support members, and planners. The 219-man task force planned, trained, and operated under the title of the "Joint Contingency Task Group" (JCTG).

The planning staff set up parameters for a night-time raid, the key points of which were clear weather and a quarter-moon at 35 degrees above the horizon for optimum visibility during low level flight. From these parameters two mission "windows" were identified, October 18-25 and November 18-25. Training proceeded at Eglin using a replica of the prison compound for rehearsals and a five foot-by-five foot $60,000 scale model (codenamed BARBARA) for familiarization.




"Barbara"

The hand-picked Special Forces soldiers trained and rehearsed extensively at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, while planning and intelligence gathering continued from May 25 to November 20, 1970.

While Simons' men were training, the planners identified two windows, October 21-25 and November 21-25, which possessed the ideal moonlight and weather conditions for the raid. Manor and Simons also met with Admiral Fred Bardshar to set up a diversionary mission to be flown by naval aircraft. After 170 rehearsals at Eglin, Manor informed the Secretary of Defense, Melvin Laird, that all was ready for the October attack window. Following a meeting at the White House with National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger, the raid was delayed until November, due to President Nixon's absence at that time.

After using the extra time for further training, JCTG moved to its forward bases in Thailand. For the raid, Simons selected 56 Green Berets from his pool of 103. These men were divided into three groups each with a different mission.





The first was the 14-man assault group, "BLUEBOY," which was to land inside the camp compound. This would be supported by the 22-man command group, "GREENLEAF," which would land outside, then blow a hole in the compound wall and support BLUEBOY. These were supported by the 20-man "REDWINE" which was to provide security against possible North Vietnamese reaction forces.




Final instructions, REDWINE Element.





The Son Tay Raiders move out to load the aircraft.








Capt. Dick Meadows, Leader Assault Element BLUEBOY




Master Sergeant Billy K. Moore, BLUEBOY Element




BLUEBOY Assault Element: Dick Meadows (lower left)




Pathfinder element for REDWINE


The raiders were to approach the camp by air aboard helicopters with fighter cover above to deal with any North Vietnamese MiGs. All told, 29 aircraft played a direct role in the mission. Due to the impending approach of Typhoon Patsy, the mission was moved up one day to November 20. Departing their base in Thailand at 11:25 PM on November 20, the raiders had an uneventful flight to the camp as the Navy's diversionary raid had achieved its purpose.






Keeping a tight formation between dissimilar aircraft of differing speeds & load configurations was a difficult & challenging task for the pilots and air crews.


At 2:18 AM, the helicopter carrying BLUEBOY successfully crash landed inside the compound at Son Tay. Racing from the helicopter, Captain Richard J. Meadows led the assault team in eliminating the guards and securing the compound.




Dick Meadows leads the BLUEBOY assault team inside the Son Tay prison compound, 21 Nov 1970

Three minutes later, Col. Simons landed with GREENLEAF approximately a quarter mile away from their intended LZ - due to an apparent navigational error. Disembarking, the GREENLEAF element took fire from what was believed to be a barracks for the North Vietnamese anti-aircraft artillery (AAA) training academy. Returning fire, the GREENLEAF element moved on the barracks. After killing between 100-200 NVA soldiers and some mysterious Caucasians believed to be foreign advisors, GREENLEAF re-embarked and flew to the compound. In GREENLEAF's absence, REDWINE, led by Lieutenant Colonel Elliott P. “Bud” Sydnor, landed outside Son Tay and executed GREENLEAF's mission as per the operation's contingency plans.





Photos of some of the cells in the compound at Son Tay; the objective was a "dry hole"




After conducting a thorough search of the camp, Meadows radioed "Negative Items" to the command group signaling that no PWs were present. At 2:36, the first group departed by helicopter, followed by the second nine minutes later. The raiders arrived back in Thailand at 4:28, approximately five hours after departing, having spent a total of twenty-seven minutes on the ground.


Aftermath

Brilliantly executed, American casualties for the raid were one wounded. This occurred when a helicopter crewman broke his ankle during the insertion of Blueboy. In addition, two aircraft were lost in the operation. North Vietnamese casualties were estimated at between 100-200 killed, including the unidentified foreign military advisors, described by some raiders as "six-foot tall, blond-haired and blue-eyed".

Intelligence later revealed that the PWs at Son Tay had been moved to a camp fifteen miles away in July. While some intelligence indicated this immediately prior to the raid, there was not time to change the target. Despite this intelligence failure, the raid was deemed a "tactical success" due to its near flawless execution. Only two minor casualties were incurred, and the loss of two aircraft, one of which was part of the operational plan.

For their actions during the raid, the members of the task force were awarded six Distinguished Service Crosses, five Air Force Crosses, and eighty-three Silver Stars.




Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird bestowing awards to the Son Tay Raiders.

Significantly, as a result of the raid the North Vietnamese consolidated their POW camps to central prison complexes. An area of the infamous "Hanoi Hilton" formerly housing civilian and South Vietnamese prisoners became "Camp Unity," a block of large communal areas housing 50 PWs each. After their repatriation, many PWs said that being in close contact with other Americans lifted their morale, as did knowledge of the rescue attempt.






To this day, the Son Tay Raid is studied by U.S. Army Special Forces soldiers. Bull Simon's masterful raid is the definitive Special Forces operation, embodying the principles of security, meticulous, detailed planning, reconnaissance and control and of course stealth, speed, surprise and violence of action.

When I signed into my first Special Forces unit - 1st Battalion, 1st Special Forces Group at Torii Station, Okinawa - there were three Son Tay Raiders in that outfit. Needless to say, those gentlemen received a LOT of respect and I always kept my ears open in their presence for whatever I could learn. I later met Brigadier General Blackburn, and have attended two professional development presentations given by Son Tay Raiders.

There is myth and legend surrounding the Raid; I have heard it suggested - from a high-ranking member of the Special Operations community at the time of the Raid - that Bull Simon's encounter at the NVA anti-aircraft gunner's barracks was no accident; that the AAA training academy was an intended Target of Opportunity. This is highly believable - during this timeframe Hanoi was the most heavily defended real estate on Earth, and the AAA was wreaking havoc on U.S. air crews. Such a nuanced plan was well within Bull Simon's modus operandi.

There are a couple of Son Tay Raiders who work at the Special Warfare Center, as instructors. A guy I know was with Bull Simon's GREENLEAF element; I once asked him what it was like that night, on the ground in North Vietnam. He told me "It was the hairiest 25 minutes of my life."




Son Tay is the Gold Standard by which Special Forces operations are measured.





Bull Simons is revered within the Special Operations community; a 15-foot bronze statue of the man overlooks the headquarters of the US Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School.

Not far from there, a similar statue of BLUEBOY element leader Dick Meadows stands by the headquarters of the US Army Special Operations Command.




Lt. Colonel Richard Meadows


Special Forces units then and now have the priority and funds to get what they need whether or not it is official issued equipment. To this day "team funds" or other means are regularly used to purchase non-standard equipment for specific needs.



M1944 Goggles with Polarized lenses worn by the Son Tay Raiders.




The M-16 variants used in the raid were GAU-5A/As, generically referred to as CAR-15s - NOT the standard M16 issued to troops in the field.

When Bull Simons was training his raiders, he was searching for a way to increase the hit probability in the dark. His mission had top priority for everything and anything they wanted, yet the military supply system was unable to come up with a suitable solution. Simons and his armorer came across an ad for the Armson OEG in a gun magazine. They ordered a couple to try and the team's hits went up dramatically. They then purchased enough for the entire ground force and they worked well.




Some Singlepoint sights used in the raid.




"Also I heard the voice of the Lord saying, who shall I send, and who shall go for us? Then said I, here am I, Send me." Isaiah 6:8








- SEAN LINNANE SENDS


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