Each branch of the United States Military has its own Special Operations Force. The U.S. Army has the Special Forces nicknamed the Green Berets. The cap

Medal of Honor awarded to Drew D. Dix, Staff Sergeant, Reconnaissance team leader (mixed LLDB/US Navy SEAL) MACV Combined Studies Division (Central Intelligence Agency). Born 14 December 1944 at West Point, New York. Entered service at Denver, Colorado. Helped lead repulse of Viet Cong from Chau Phu, Chau Duc Province, Vietnam, with jeep mounted machine gun from 31 January to 1 February 1968, single-handedly assaulted building and rescued personnel inside.

Despite drawbacks or dislike from other branches of the service the Special Forces are necessary and deemed invaluable by the Pentagon because of their ability to operate outside the conventional military bureaucracy. For many reasons senior Pentagon leadership helped to suppress Special Forces in the 1970s. The attitudes began to change as new commanders came to the top. Terrorism began to play an important roll in forcing a change in priorities. A growing number of officers and Pentagon planners felt that the battles of the future would involve terrorism and the irregular kinds of fighting referred to by a new military buzzword: low-intensity warfare (Emerson 32).

Another special fact about the Green Berets is the commando’s prayer, which was first used in 1942 by special air service officer Corporal Zimheld. The prayer goes like this “Give me my God, what you still have; give me what no one else asks for. I do not ask for wealth, nor success, nor even health. People ask you so often, God, for all that, that you cannot have any left. Give me my God what you still have. Give me what people refuse to accept from you. I want insecurity and disquietude; I want turmoil and brawl. And if you should give them to me, my God once and for all, let me be sure to have them always, for I will not always have the courage to ask for them.”

The Offensive Handgun Weapon System (OHWS) contract was awarded to Heckler & Koch, Inc. and Colt’s Manufacturing Company in August of 1991. The “OHWS” consists of three components: a .45 caliber pistol, a sound and flash suppressor and a laser aiming module (LAM). The final phase and production of the handgun was scheduled for July 1995. The Special Operations Forces (SOF) Offensive Handgun (as it is now termed) will meet some of the most stringent operational requirements ever demanded of a combat handgun. This gun grades accuracy in all operational environments and endurance and reliability providing a service of life of over 30,000 rounds of +P ammunition.

At the peak of fighting in Vietnam 3700 Green Berets were involved in various combat missions. The CIA Civil Irregular Defense Group trained and lead 63,000 fighters in combat and mounted cross broader raids into Cambodia and Vietnam (Emerson 29).

The soldiers of the Special Forces are specially selected and trained for unconventional warfare. Very often they are the only American military presence in a nation. The are qualified to make tough decisions everyday in the most uncommon and precarious situations. They face overwhelming odds with every mission and are set apart from the rest by their courage and tradition of carrying out their mission.

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