Charles Alvin Beckwith Charles Alvin " Charlie " Beckwith ( January 22 , 1929 – June 13 , 1994 ) , known as Chargin ' Charlie , was a career United States Army officer and Vietnam veteran who attained the rank of Colonel before his retirement . He is credited with the creation of Delta Force , the premier special operations unit of the U . S . Army . Early life . Beckwith was born in Atlanta , Georgia in 1929 , and was an all - state football player for his Boys High School team . He later enrolled in the University of Georgia , where he played football for the Bulldogs and was a member of the Delta Chapter of the Sigma Chi Fraternity . He joined the university ' s Army Reserve Officers ' Training Corps program and was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in 1952 . He was drafted by the Green Bay Packers that same year but turned down their offer to serve in the Army . Military career . After the Korean War ( 1950 – 1953 ) was over , then - 2nd Lieutenant Beckwith served as a Platoon Leader with Charlie Company , 17th Infantry Regiment , 7th Infantry Division in the Republic of Korea . In 1955 , Beckwith was assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division as the commander of the combat support company of the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment . Two years later , after also having completed Ranger School , Beckwith joined Special Forces , and in 1960 was deployed to South Vietnam and Laos as a military advisor . Beckwith served as an exchange officer with the British Special Air Service ( 22 SAS Regiment ) in 1962 where he picked up many of their capabilities . He conducted war - time guerilla operations with the SAS during the Malayan Emergency . In the jungle , he contracted leptospirosis so severe doctors expected him not to survive , but he made a full recovery within months . Upon his return from England , Beckwith presented a detailed report outlining the Army ' s vulnerability in not having an SAS - type unit . For several years , Beckwith ( who then was a Captain ) submitted and re - submitted the report to Army brass , only to be repeatedly thwarted in his efforts . SF leadership at the time thought that they had enough on their hands and didn ' t need the bother of creating a completely new unit . Meanwhile , as the 7th Special Forces Group ' s operations officer , Beckwith went to work revolutionizing Green Beret training . SF at the time focused on unconventional warfare , and especially foreign internal defense : i . e . training indigenous personnel in resistance activities . But Beckwith recognized that , " Before a Special Forces Green Beret soldier could become a good " un " conventional soldier , he ' d first have to be a good conventional one . . . Because I had commanded rifle and weapons companies , I was appalled on arriving in Special Forces to find officers who had never commanded conventional units . " Beckwith restructured 7th ' s training , basically rewriting the book on American special ops training from the real - world lessons he had learned with the SAS . Beckwith also had learned that a symbol of excellence like a beret had to be earned . Officers were being assigned to Special Forces straight out of war college with no prior special ops experience and were given their Green Beret on arrival . The hard - nosed and practical training standards that Beckwith instituted would lend themselves to the birth of the modern Q - Course . In Vietnam , Beckwith commanded a Special Forces unit code - named Project DELTA . He was critically wounded in early 1966 ( he took a . 50 caliber bullet through his abdomen ) . It was so bad that medical personnel triaged him as beyond help for the second time in his military career . This time , again , Beckwith made a full recovery and went on to overhaul the Florida Phase of the US Army ' s Ranger School . Beckwith transformed this phase from a scripted exercise based upon the Army ' s World War II experience , into a Vietnam - oriented jungle training regimen . In 1968 , following Tet , LTC Beckwith returned to Vietnam , taking command of the 2nd Battalion , 327th Infantry ( Airborne ) , 1st Brigade , 101st Airborne Division . For the nine months that he commanded the 2 / 327 ( “ No Slack ” ) , they saw many successes in combat operations , including : Huế , Operation Mingo , Operation Jeb Stuart , Operation Nevada Eagle ( clearing the Huế - Phu Bai area ) , and Somerset Plain ( sweeping the southern portion of the A Shau Valley ) . The toughest job the battalion had was clearing a seven kilometer stretch along Route 547 , running west of Huế ; eventually defeating the determined NVA defenders so that Fire Support Base Bastogne could be established . From 1973 to 1974 LTC Beckwith served as Commander , Control Team " B " with the Joint Casualty Resolution Center ( JCRC ) located at RTAFB Nakhon Phanom , Thailand . He was promoted to Colonel while there . Under the Command of BGEN Robert C . Kingston , USA , JCRC ' s sole mission was to assist the Secretaries of the Armed Services to resolve the fate of servicemen still missing and unaccounted for as a result of the hostilities throughout Indochina . JCRC had a predominantly operational role — the carrying out of field search , excavation , recovery , and repatriation activities . Afterward COL Beckwith was stationed at Fort Bragg , North Carolina where he commanded training operations . Delta Force . Although Beckwith had presented proposals throughout the ' 60s for a superbly elite , highly autonomous direct - action unit , the idea had sat on the shelf for a decade . Finally , in the mid - ' 70s , as the threat of international terrorism became imminent , Beckwith was tapped to form his unit . Delta Force was founded in November 1977 as a counter - terrorist unit whose main mission is in hostage rescue , covert operations , and specialized reconnaissance . Its first mission – Operation Eagle Claw – was aborted due to aviation failures which led to several deaths . After the ' debacle in the desert ' the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment was formed to provide transport for Delta Force and other special operations units . JSOC was also formed , directly based on Beckwith ' s recommendations during Senate investigations into the mission ' s failure . Later life . Following his disappointment at the failure of the Iranian operation , Beckwith retired from the Army . He started a consulting firm and wrote a book about Delta Force . He died at his home of natural causes . Charles Beckwith was married to Katherine Beckwith , and they had three daughters . Charles Beckwith ' s remains are interred in the Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery , San Antonio , Texas .