Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1959-07-04

trap and skin small game, and
to butcher animals from goats
to bears.
No man is accepted into spe-
cial forces unless he has had
at least a year in the Army.
He must be a regular. Before
he is considered qualified as
the least trained of a gutrrilla
/ team, he must have undergone
80 months of rigorous training
from Pisgah to the Panama
Canal.
The end product is a smart,
tough and ruthless fighter.
Guerrillas cannot afford mis-
takes and squeamishneSS.
Before a man really is ac-
cepted for guerrilla work he
must have demonstrated to the
satisfaction of psychiatristS
and officers that he is mature
and emotionally stable. One
result is that the guerrilla
forces are made up of quietly
confident men.
A basic, nine-man team con-
sists of an officer, a medic, a
master sergeant, two weapons
sergeantS, two demolition ex-
perts, a radio operator and a
radio repairman.
Every man is constrained
in one or more jobs, thus the
weapons experts can perform
as demolitions men and vice
versa.
No man on a team is more
highly trained than the medic.
He undergoes TOO hours of
medical instruction at Fort
Sam Houston, Tex, and then
continues his studies at the
Womack General Hospital
here.
BY the time he is through,
he is as close to being a physi-
clan as a man can get without
actually having a degree. He is
even qualified to perform oper-
atoms such as appendectomies.
Stems From OSS
The Special Warfare Center
stems directly from the old
World War II Office of Stra-
tegic Services. In fact, a num-
Der of the officers in special
forces are ex-OSS agents, ex-
perts in spying and sabotage.
One criticism of OSS activi-
ties was that they lacked ade-
quate coordination with and
control by conventional forces.
The establishment of the Spe-
cial Warfare Center in 1851 was
designed as a remedy.
For tactics and technioues.
special forces have frankly
borrowed heavily from Com
munist military doctrine. The
Communists raised guerrilla
fighting to a high art in China,
Southeast Asia and in the
Ukraine during World War IL.
Special forces have also
drawn from the operations of
the great Apache leaders.
Cochise and Geronimo; from
Ranger Mosby of Civil War
fame; from British experiences
in Malaga, and even the Span
iSh operations against Napoleon
in the Peninsula War of 1903
ID.
The Army also has its own
experts, men such as Col. Dom
aid Blackburn, commander of
the 77th, who organized Black
burns Head Hunters" after
the fall of Luzon in the Phil
ippines in 1941.
From 1851 to late 1855 the
existence of the special forces
was hidden behind the peaceful
facade of the Psychological
Warfare School. Then the
wraps came off, though the
Army has been slow to pub
licize the missions.
A couple of sharp guerrilla
team lea ders Capts. Bob
Pavey and Curtis Terry - tell
hilarious stories of the exploits
of special forces teams.
| Once a handful of men, after
carefully organizing co-opera-
tive local citizens, disrupted
7th Army maneuverS in Ger
many so badly that a four-day
halt had to be called in the
entire operation to restore
order.
One team, acting as COM
mandoS, seized and disabled
one of the Army's prime battle
weapons, the 280-millimeter
atomic cannon.
During the 1857 joint Army
Air Force maneuvers in LouiSi-
ana, a special forces team
wound up capturing the COM
mander of the opposing forces
as he slept in his trailer. He
i, J,,f4 lilo -