Why US Enemies are Scared of Ghosts (Elite Special Forces)

The Ghosts are some of the most feared and lethal special forces you'll come across. Their ability to strike anywhere, anytime stokes fear in the hearts of even the most battle-hardened enemies. The Ghosts' preferred method of attacking at night in small groups and vanishing away like they were never there is a hallmark of their trade. Because of their incredibly top-secret missions, little is known about them. It's rumored that only the President and a few top generals even know of the group's existence. Any publication of the group's activities could compromise the Ghosts' operational security.

Still, despite all the secrecy, the group's reputation has a shred of truth. The Ghosts, made famous by the series of Tom Clancy novels, are actually based on an actual US special forces group. While this tiny troop of special operators does not exist, the myths, as portrayed in novels or movies like Rambo and Apocalypse Now, are not too far from the truth. Though the unit "The Ghosts" never actually existed and is a figment of Tom Clancy's imagination, the actual group he based these special operators on is still just as remarkable. The real unit that all these books and movies based their characters on was the 5th Special Forces Group. This unit is a Green Beret unit in the US Army. Their mission was to infiltrate behind enemy lines and lead groups of indigenous soldiers to bring the fight to the enemy. With the unit tracing its roots to World War Two, the Army officially stood it up in 1961 and was among the first American units sent to South Vietnam in 1962. Though the group received no additional special training than other Green Berets, it appears that the stars aligned to place the group's personnel among some of the most difficult circumstances with some of the Army's most brilliant and innovative thinkers.

As a result of its Vietnam service, it became the most heavily decorated unit in the Army for its size, with its members earning an astonishing nineteen of its personnel being awarded the Medal of Honor and hundreds more earning Distinguished Service Crosses and Silver Stars. When the 5th Special Forces Group deployed to Vietnam, the situation was a mess. South Vietnamese forces had been pushed out of most of the countryside and only controlled small swathes of territory around major cities. Viet Cong guerillas openly moved without fear of attack and subjected the country's population to their rule. Though the Green Berets of the 5th Special Forces Group had their work cut out for them, such a situation was exactly what they had trained to do. The 5th Special Forces Group and other Green Berets in the country started implementing what would become their tried and true strategy.

Instead of having large groups of special operators conduct missions all by themselves, the units split up companies of Green Berets into small teams. These teams would then fan out into hostile territory to contact local leaders, recruit soldiers, and train them to take the fight to the enemy. The 5th Special Forces Group would eventually perfect the model of the fortified camp. These camps were designed and built by group members that wanted an easily defendable camp. Too often, isolated outposts got overrun, so by building these camps to withstand attack; unit members could not only defend a location for longer but use these bases as stepping stones to push deeper into Viet Cong territory.

For the first several years, the 5th Special Forces group was there; they mainly spent their time building relationships with local elders and building up their forces. Though smaller-scale raids and attacks often occurred, building the forces necessary to take back territory held by the Viet Cong would take years. Starting around 1964, the 5th Special Forces Group finally had enough manpower in place to truly begin its counter-offensives. Because the Viet Cong preferred to move around during the cover of darkness, it was here that the men decided to strike. In fact, night attacks became so common that by 1967, over 90% of the unit's operations took place at night. Perhaps this liking of the dark inspired the mythos of the Ghosts. During these raids, the Ghosts sought to inflict the most damage they could.

They often sought out enemy command and control, logistics, and large troop formations in the open. Through the training of the local Vietnamese, the group was able to retake over 50% of the territory openly controlled by the enemy by the end of 1967. The men had to develop many innovative tactics to accomplish such an amazing feat. One of these was attacking from watercraft. Because much of the country is covered in water, especially during the monsoon seasons, the men had to figure out how to bring the fight to the Viet Cong even when water was blocking their way.

To this end, the men requested several commercial airboats to make the rainy season a tactical advantage for the operators. After requesting a trial run of four boats in 1964, they quickly became so effective that a further eighty were ordered by the unit. During their time in Vietnam, the 5th Special Forces Group became the only Green Beret unit to operate such a craft, and their battlefield effectiveness became very impressive. The boats allowed operators to serve as the eyes and ears for Vietnamese units that allowed them to go through any dike, rice fields, or flooded streams. Its shallow draft, high speed, and heavy weaponry made it possible to bring the fight to the enemy even when he thought he was safe.

Eventually, the 5th Special Group gained so much notoriety that it was personally selected by General Westmoreland to open the in-country reconnaissance school known as the Recondo School. The infamous Recondo school was a three-week course that could teach 120 students all the basics of being a special operator. From long-range patrolling and evasion tactics to scuba diving and parachuting, the Recondo School hoped to be a force multiplier that provided practical combat training from some of the finest operators in US military service. The school was no joke and has been remarked as the most dangerous school the US Army has ever run. This is because the final event culminated in an actual combat patrol through enemy-controlled territory. Because of this, there are several known instances of students being killed before graduation because of this final mission.

While the mythos of the Recondo School certainly added to the 5th Special Forces Group's legendary status, the individuals that served in the unit did more than enough to create the myth around the invincibility of the men who served in it. Such a sentiment is no better felt than in the stories of two of the unit's most celebrated Medal of Honor awardees. The first man to gain international notoriety was Bennie G. Adkins. After arriving in the country in 1965, he served as an intelligence analyst for the group in Da Nang. When one of the men in a nearby team was wounded, he was sent to that camp to take his spot. Little did he know that it would be the most influential decision in his life. The camp Adkins was sent to was in a horrible spot in the middle of the A Shau Valley. Surrounded by mountains and in an area that constantly flooded, the 17-man team, along with several companies of local troops, knew their position was untenable.

It became even worse when several prisoners started warning of a major assault in the coming days when the weather was bad so that US aircraft could not operate. In the early morning hours of March 9, 1966, it happened. An estimated force of 2000 North Vietnamese regulars attacked the camp. As soon as it started, one of the locally recruited companies switched sides and joined in on the attack. For the next 38 hours, Adkins led the defense of the camp. Using rifles, machine guns, mortars, and his knife, he killed between 135 to 175 NVA troops. After Marine helicopters were finally able to land to evacuate the wounded, when he returned to the landing zone to exfiltrate, he found that he and several other Green Berets had been left behind. Making their escape on foot, they evaded NVA patrols for two full days.

According to Adkins, they got help in their evasion from an unlikely source. A very rare Vietnamese tiger was stalking the group on the second day, and NVA soldiers apparently pulled back in the pursuit so as not to get attacked by the tiger. He then used his shotgun as a makeshift antenna on his radio because the original antenna had been shot off and used it to call in for a helicopter extraction. When he returned to friendly lines, he was treated for 18 different gunshot, shrapnel, and stab wounds. Sgt. Roy Benavidez faced a similar scenario on May 2, 1968. Helicopters had inserted a 5th Special Forces Group team of 12 men and a nine-man Vietnamese team into hostile territory.

However, soon after insertion, the group became surrounded by a 1,000-man-strong Viet Cong battalion. Monitoring the situation by radio back at base, Benavidez volunteered to help extract the wounded when they radioed that every man was a casualty and no one could get to the landing zone. Armed with only a knife, Benavidez jumped from the moving helicopter into the kill zone. Shot three times before he even made it to the team, he quickly started helping the wounded to escape.

During this time, Viet Cong troops came in to finish the group off. At one point, an enemy soldier stabbed him in the back only for him to turn around and kill the soldier with his knife. He then made multiple trips to the landing zone to get all the casualties out of the area. Once the battle was done, on the helo ride back to base, Army medics thought Benavidez was dead due to the 37 separate bullet, shrapnel, and bayonet wounds he had suffered. It was not until an Army doctor opened the body bag he was in and spit in his face in anger that medical staff realized this bloodied man was still alive.

The 5th Special Forces Group would continue its storied Vietnam service by providing the bulk of the Army representation to the MACV-SOG unit. This super secret unit comprised of the nation's best special forces operators and CIA operatives led the most covert missions in the war. Unfortunately for the public, most of their missions to this day remain classified and this is a common theme throughout the 5th Special Forces Group's history from Vietnam until now. Though the group has been known to have served in several conflicts and operations since Vietnam, very little of this information has been declassified.

The unit's involvement in the First Gulf War was a prime example of this. The unit received numerous honors and praise from American generals for its work in reconnaissance and direct action during this conflict. The men were the first allied ground troops to enter Iraq and did so weeks before the official ground invasion kicked off. Though their official unit history lists the group conducting countless direct action raids on Iraqi command and control targets, all these missions remain classified. Though a large portion of the unit's missions is still classified, one interesting mission worth noting known to the public was its role in helping General Schwarzkopf plan his epic left hook. Because General Schwarzkopf wanted the Iraqi Army to think his main thrust would come through Kuwait and not through the open deserts of southern Iraq, he needed to figure out if this was indeed possible. Most of his staff actually said that terrain was not suitable for the heavy main battle tanks he wanted to drive across the desert.

To ensure his plan could work, a 5th Special Forces Group team inserted over 200 miles into Iraqi territory and trekked back to the Saudi Arabian border to collect soil samples the whole way of the planned invasion. The soil samples these special operators collected proved to General Schwarzkopf that the terrain was suitable for heavy tanks, and because of this, the invasion kicked off as planned. Though the unit was tasked with highly sensitive operations during the 2003 invasion of Iraq, namely being part of the task force to capture Saddam Hussein, the unit’s exploits during the War on Terror remain classified with one notable exception.

Within two days of the September 11 attacks, helicopters inserted a 12-man team alongside several CIA officers into Northern Afghanistan. With the CIA officers carrying millions in cash to buy local support, the Green Berets from the 5th Special Forces group started to work with the only viable local force in Afghanistan capable of taking on the Taliban: General Dostum’s Northern Alliance. After a harrowing 18-hour helicopter insertion in near blackout conditions that set a world record for the longest heliborne insertion in military history, the group quickly set about setting another Army record. Because the terrain of northern Afghanistan was incredibly mountainous, dropping in vehicles was not an option. Walking was simply out of the question due to the speed needed, so the group opted for the next best option: horses. General Dostum and his men frequently traveled on horseback to get around quickly.

Though only one of the soldiers had even ridden a horse before, they all quickly became proficient. Soon, the men were even better than their Afghan allies and set to work calling in airstrikes and advising General Dostum on how to retake Afghanistan. After retaking the northern city of Kunduz, the Army moved south to the major city of Mazar-i-Sharif. The city was one of the Taliban’s main strongholds outside Kabul, and taking it out would break the back of the Taliban. After weeks of leading Afghan troops on horseback and calling in airstrikes that decimated Taliban formations, the Northern Alliance was victorious.

Though several other Green Beret teams were inserted within weeks of the first and also traveled on horseback with some of the world's finest saddles airdropped into the country, the first team is what directors made the famous movie 12 Strong about this first group. Because they were the first, the team had the distinction of being the first Army unit to ride horses into combat since the battle for the Philippines in 1942. Even though the unit's early Afghan exploits propelled it into international fame, its day-in and day-out activities that never make it to the big screen are what really solidified its reputation among pop culture as The Ghosts.

By: Tannor Cannon | Dec 15, 2022

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