Category Archives: DET-A Recognition

Detachment(A) Jeff Raker Honor

CSM Jeffrey H. Raker Heritage Room

What: The 6th Battalion/2nd SWTG is creating a heritage room dedicated to those who served in Berlin which will be named after our own former Detachment(A) CSM Jeff Raker tentatively to be named:

The 6th Battalion “CSM Jeffery H. Raker” Heritage Room

When: The preliminary schedule for the dedication of the “CSM Jeff Raker Heritage Room” is set for May 22, 2024 which is a Wednesday on Fort Liberty/Bragg.

The Heritage Room to be named after Detachment(A) member Jeff Raker; is a well-deserved honor to one of the most respected Sergeant Majors to have ever existed in Special Forces.

For those of us serving in Detachment(A) in the late-70s, we remember well the dark time in Detachment(A) when the Deputy Brigade Commander relieved our commander in front of our morning formation inside of the Detachment(A) building.  He then proceeded to order us to wear uniforms, get haircuts, and placed a big Detachment(A) airborne sign outside of building.  He replaced the CO and XO with individuals that had no Special Forces experience, but novice airborne qualified who were available within the Berlin Brigade. 

During this dark period in Detachment(A) history we lost all our Safe Houses and everything we all did to achieve our mission.  Instead, we became the training cadre for the 6th Infantry – EIB training, Scout Swimming etc.  Detachment(A) had no real Seargeant Major to fight for us at the time.

Then along came SGM Jef Raker.  Bottom line:  he immediately assessed the situation, saw the problems, and took over working with the Berlin Command SGM himself and Terry Swafford, gave briefings to the new Berlin Brigade Commander, and overnight we were back in civilian clothes doing our real mission.  He restored our unit.

After this ordeal, SGM Jeff Raker’s efforts made Detachment(A) history up to Eagle Claw along with Colonel Stanley Olchovik.

The 6th Battalion/2nd SWTG have requested attendance by former unit members (i.e. those who served in Berlin) in order to break the site in correctly.

Detachment “A” Colors

Originally, Detachment “A” was not permitted have their own colors due to the classified nature of the unit.  However, some Detachment ”A” members persisted and eventually were granted the authority to issue colors.

CSM Terry Swofford was the last CSM of Detachment”A”, when it closed its doors 1984.  He packed the flag and it remained with him ever since and no one saw it for a long time.  He informed Bob Charest that he took possession of the flag.  After CSM Swofford passed away, it was missing in action.  We knew it was passed along informally but did not where it ended up.

During the course of the Detachment ”A” Memorial Stone project and dedication ceremony General Shachnow stated to Bob Charest who was a member of the project that he wanted to retire the colors at the ceremony.  Bob knew this was an essential artifact for the ceremony and immediately initiated a search request to all the Detachment”A” members to locate and secure the missing flag.

SGM Thomas Twomey and LTC Eugene Piasecki simultaneously found the flag at the SFA Chapter 1-18 Team House.  Bob Charest contacted MG Sidney Shachnow and informed him where the flag was located and requested that he personally secure the flag.  MG Shachnow retrieved the flag and secured it until the day of the Detachment ”A” Memorial Stone Dedication Ceremony that took place on 30 January 2014.

During the ceremony, MG Sidney Shachnow and Bob Charest presented the Detachment ”A” flag to LTG Charles Cleveland at the Detachment”A” Memorial Stone dedication.  LTG Cleveland announced that the Detachment”A” flag would have a permanent home at USASOC HQ where it now resides.

The week after the ceremony, the flag was officially cased by Eugene Piasecki and SGM George Bequer.

WHO’S WHO IN DETACHMENT”A”/SOG

Who’s Who in Detachment “A” who also served in the top-secret Special Operations SOG units in Vietnam

This section recognizes and pays tribute to all those Detachment “A” members who also served in the prestigious unit SOG – another unit unrecognized for decades. This list shows the caliber of Special Forces troops that served in Detachment ”A” and SOG yet were unrecognized for decades. This is not an exhaustive list.

Hermann Adler Herman David Halterman Bob Picknell
Howard “Zipper” Allen John Heintel Bill Queen
Ron Braughton Project 404 Laos Rick Hendricks Jimmy Reeves
Nick Brokhausen Lou Herman Harvey Saal
Phillip M. Brown Ralph Keith Joel Schelkelberger
Bob Charest Kim Kendle John Silk
Stu Cranson Tadeusz M. Kepczyk  Gil Turcotte
Ron Davidson Manfred Kropp Paul Whitmore
Gentry Deck Bob Kuenstle James Wilde
Emmett “Jessie” Dover Bob Lees Sid Williams
Bill Durant Georg Moskaluk Robert Willis
Warner “Rocky” Farr Charlie Monson Robert G. Willis
Julius Farrago James “Dusty” Moore Don Wolken
Jerry “Paco” Fontana John  O’Keefe Ivan Woronchuk
Paul Foster Ralph Ormes Ed Yarbrough
Claude L. Greeney Roderick Patterson John “Rowdy” Yeats
Richard Gross    

The Man Who Brought Detachment “A” In From The Cold

Detachment “A” member Tom Twomey had the only website information back in the 1980s.  He was an original organizer of the Detachment “A” functions which coincided with the Fayetteville NC Special Forces reunions.

Tom was no longer able to maintain his web site, it was to be inactivated.  He asked Bob Charest if he would take over and create a website for Detachment “A”.   It was a weekend, when Tom’s website was deactivated.

Bob realized that this spark was about to be extinguished forever, so he decided to take on this responsibility and created a new website, that very weekend in order to keep the history of Detachment(A) exposed.  It was basic, but it was a start.

It was also at a time when Bob realized that Detachment (A)’s history was fading away into the historical dust bin, that he started an effort to bring Detachment(A) in from the cold.  With this most important goal at stake, and with the knowledge of how important this unit and its members were to the Special Forces history he began an endeavor that took years of hard work and dedication to accomplish the one goal in his mind:  to bring Detachment(A) in from the cold; to finally bring about the recognition that was so richly deserved to the Detachment(A) unit and its members.  He could not let this unit fade away.

Bob Charest, an eight-year veteran of Detachment(A) 1969-1972 and 1973-1978, launched this endeavor as an independent look into the Military History of Detachment(A), 39th Special Forces, Berlin 1956-1984.

He began by organizing Detachment(A) functions – Detachment”A” members were scattered all over the world.  They started out very small but grew each year and have become very successful.

He then created a new Detachment(A) web site and domain, dedicated exclusively to Detachment(A).  In conjunction with this, he wrote and published the article “A Thumbnail Look at Detachment(A) Berlin Brigade in January 2012.  Then things just took off.  He continued organizing and hosting Detachment(A) functions with increased numbers and success.

The Thumbnail Look at Detachment(A) Berlin Brigade was circulating for some time, and the Special Forces Association(SFA) got hold of it and published the article on their website  Home – Special Forces Association in the 2013 Winter edition of the Drop Magazine.

Bob also worked with the SFA and was able to obtain a section  dedicated to Detachment(A) in the Drop Magazine.

The Detachment(A) functions continued to grow with members getting together to share stories about serving in Detachment(A). These functions were gatherings of the Detachment”A” folks, and the format and motto was simple: come as you are, pay as you go, BYOB and no agendas, no frills,  and no politics. Jeff Raker told him never change this format.

Bob organized several projects to continue to bring Detachment(A) in from the cold which were all team efforts including representation of Det-A in the JFK Museum, collecting Det-A artifacts, and managing the project that brought Jimmy Spoo’s Memorial Stone idea to fruition.

Bob made the Memorial Stone project a team effort which allowed all Detachment(A) members to contribute to the Memorial Stone, which they generously did.  He coordinated with SFA to manage the contributions.  The project was fast and furious, collecting all the money that was needed and then some.  All monies over the necessary funds were donated to the Green Beret Foundation.

He also worked with USASOC and General Shachnow on ceremony activities including speakers, guests, press and  many other ceremony details.  He also ensured that special recognition was attributed to Major Hermann Adler who was unable to attend.

The Detachment (A) Memorial Stone Dedication Ceremony was hosted by LTG Charles Cleveland, Commanding General for the U.S. Army Special Operations Command (USASOC) on 30 January 2014.

The Memorial Stone ceremony was covered by the local copy press and was also televised.  It was a major success and a real team effort.

Bob then continued his efforts and wrote another article for the  VFW Magazine entitled: In the Eye of the Cold War Hurricane, Detachment  A Berlin Brigade  which was published in the November/December 2014 issue.

It was at one of the Detachment(A) functions that James “Styk” Stejskal indicated that he would like to write a book about Berlin Special Forces.

In the meantime, to keep the momentum going with the goal to bring Detachment(A) in from the cold, Bob worked with WeAreTheMighty.com and published the article:  This top secret Green Beret unit quietly won the Cold WarThe article was published on 1 February 2015. 

Another article was then published by WeAreTheMighty.com which featured Detachment(A):  The 6 most-secret units in military history which was published on 14 June 2015 followed up with a video The 6 most-secret units in military history

Bob also worked with two highly established authors and writers who wanted to write books about Detachment(A).  These two projects were put on hold because fellow Detachment(A) member James Stejskal’s book was still in progress and Bob did not want to interfere with his efforts until his book was published.

Bob continued his efforts and worked with SOFREP’s reporter Jack Murphy from SOFREP.com who published a short article about Detachment(A) entitled: Detachment A: the Cold War Sabotage Experts of Special Forces published on 27 April 2016.

Jack was a guest at the  September 2016 Det-A function.  He  interviewed Detachment(A) members for a follow-up article which was published on SOFREP.com in a 4-part series dated from 07 February 2017 – 10 February 2017:

Detachment A: Clandestine Special Forces Missions from Berlin to Iran

Part 1:  Detachment A: Clandestine Special Forces missions in post Hitler’s Berlin published 6 Feb 2017

Parr 2: Detachment A: Green Berets play cat and mouse with communist agents published 7 February 2017

Part 3:  Detachment A: counter-terrorism and Operation Eagle Claw published 8 February 2017

Part 4:  Detachment A: Final missions, the wall comes down, and the end of an era published 10 February 2017

Jack conducted in depth interviews with Det(A) members and the  articles he published were outstanding.  Jack has been instrumental in bringing to light Det(A)’s legacy to the public with his professional writings.

The full article is entitled: Detachment A: Clandestine Special Forces Missions from Berlin to Iran

All of these articles are posted on the Detachment(A) website.

Jim’s book entitled Special Forces Berlin: Clandestine Cold War Operations of the US Army’s Elite, 1956–1990 was published 17 February 2017.

Our function in Fayetteville NC in memory of Jeffrey Raker in June of 2017 featured a Detachment(A) formation at the Memorial Stone.  This was probably the last formal formation of Detachment(A).

There was work performed for a project towards a biography of Detachment(A).  Barry Duplantis and Chase Millsap collaborated on this project.  There were interviews conducted at the function. The  two teams of biographers as well as the military professionals worked together on this project.  These efforts resulted in videos of some of our Detachment”A” members which are published on the Detachment(A) website.  Barry Duplantis conducted video interviews with Detachment”A” members and Barry Duplantis along with Chase Millsap generated the Detachment”A” Intro video 1956-1984.

Next, Bob unexpectedly found out that many Detachment”A” members also served in the SOG unit so he published the Who’s Who in Detachment”A”/SOG on 7 Feb 2018.

WeAreTheMighty.com published another  series of articles about Detachment”A”:

The top-secret plan to cripple Berlin during a Soviet invasion authored by Logan Nye and published on 14 August 2018.

“Top-tier special operators of the Cold War worry about modern ‘soft skills’ “ authored by  Logan Nye and published an article on 29 August 2018.

A secret Cold War unit was the basis for today’s special operations”  authored by  Blake Stilwell and  published an article dated 23 August 2018.

On  19 May 2019 after much work and review, Jack finalized his Detachment”A” publication entitled: Unredacted: Special Forces Detachment A—Cold War espionage and counterterrorism from Berlin to Iran.

The Who’s Who In Detachment”A”/SOG list was followed up with an article Bob Charest wrote on 5 Apr 2021 entitled Det-A and SOG which was published by SOA in their 1 May 2021 Newsletter.

Many of the articles have been updated over the years as well.  Thanks to all the gifted contributors who worked with Bob to provide exceptional articles and other media-related information about Detachment”A”.

For many years, and at many functions, Jeff Raker has spoken about Bob Charest bringing Detachment-A  in from the cold.  At the September 2016 function, he honored Bob Charest by recognizing all the projects and efforts  Bob has done for Detachment-A.   He presented a thank you card signed by the Detachment(A) members and here is what he said:

“I am not modest in what I’m going to say right now.  One reason we are all here; one reason Det-A, after all those years Detachment-A got put on the map.  One reason there’s a marker at headquarters, with Detachment-A on it, is because one individual, he did have some help, but one individual went all out and made sure we didn’t die.  That individual is here, and because of that individual, we are all here.  And Bob if you will be so kind and stand up – with this card that we all signed thanking you for keeping us together, thanks Bob.”

For Bob, this was the ultimate honor, one he will never forget, from Detachment(A) members and from one of the best Special Forces soldiers he has ever served with, and a very special friend.

Another Special Forces legend Major General James Guest also recognized Bob’s efforts with this message when recognizing a new chapter being formed in the Upstate South Carolina.

 It is great that Upstate South Carolina will have a Special Forces Chapter to preserve the legacy of the Special Forces and the Special Forces Soldiers. They prove the truth of the old adage that out of a 100 soldiers, 80 are just there, 10 insure the mission is done, 1 leads the 10 in doing it. I believe that the SF are all in the ranks of the 10 who will get the job done regardless of what it takes. Bob Charest represents the 1.  He rescued the Legacy of the Berlin Detachment from the dustbin of forgotten history and added it to a place in the Legacy of Special Forces to its rightful place of Honor in the Special Forces Regiment.  

The SF Soldiers will keep the Legacy always.  MG Jim Guest

This goes without saying that coming from MG Jim Guest, a very special honor.

There are now countless articles and videos about Detachment”A”.  Detachment”A”, its rich legacy within the Special Forces community, is now in the history books and it all started with one man, Bob Charest who saw the legacy of Detachment”A” fading away; its history forgotten; Bob set in motion the recording of the Detachment”A” history and legacy.   He has worked  tirelessly:  organizing and hosting Detachment”A” gatherings, establishing a history related Detachment”A” website, the inaugural overview article entitled A Thumbnail Look at Detachment(A) Berlin Brigade in January 2012  and engaging and coordination with numerous organizations, individuals and projects to get the Detachment”A” history and legacy recorded.

 

Secrets of a Special Forces unit operating in Cold War-Berlin

This article was published in the Fayetteville Observer authored by Drew Brooks.

Dressed in civilian clothes with long hair, the men looked like any other on the streets of East Berlin.

Their German accents didn’t give away their true identities as American Special Forces soldiers, part of a clandestine military unit operating during the Cold War.

Berlin, a divided city located 100 miles behind the Iron Curtain, was a focal point in the tensions that developed between NATO forces and the Soviet Union after World War II.

With a literal line drawn between the forces – American troops and their allies in West Berlin and Soviet troops and their supporters in East Berlin – the city became the “Grand Central Station of East-West espionage” and a “playground for all sorts of secret agents,” according to Bob Charest, a retired Army master sergeant and former Green Beret.

Continue reading

Gil Turcotte Detachment “A” Plaque Donation

Background

Earlier this year, Gil called Bob Charest and discussed a concept and idea he had for making of a Detachment “A” plaque.  Bob said ‘go for it’.  Gil came up with the concept and design, hired a woodcarver to construct the plaque, and funded it. Gil put a lot of thought, time and effort into this plaque.

Gil wanted an ‘eagle’ cane for Detachment ”A”.  Eagle Canes are a tradition in many states.  Woodcarvers/artists hand craft each custom cane and donate it to the veteran; in support of our veterans.  Maine shares in this tradition and Gil hired George and Donna Gunning, of Windsor ME.  They carve each eagle cane individually to specifications and donate it to any veteran who has honorably served, no matter how long they served.

Gil wanted the eagle cane to be focal point feature of the plaque.

The woodcarvers did their research about Detachment “A”.  They read the articles posted on our web site and as they learned more about Detachment “A” they became very enthusiastic about the unit and the project.

The overall plaque design consisted of:  the eagle cane mounted on the plaque, Detachment A” items, US Army items and a large area for Detachment “A” members to sign their name and dates they served in Detachment ”A”.

Gil collected all the items he wanted on the plaque then created a mock-up where each item would appear on the plaque.  The entire project took about 4 months.  There was a lot of collaboration and iterations – Gil was very particular on what he wanted.

Gil’s Detachment “A” Plaque Description

The actual wooden plaque is 4 feet long and 2 feet high.  It weighs 40 pounds.  It will be positioned at a 20 degree angle for proper viewing.  Gil described each component of the plaque as follows:

The most distinguishing feature of this artifact is the Eagle Cane.  The cane has an intricate Bald Eagle’s Head carved and painted into the handle representing the national symbol of freedom and independence.  The shaft of the cane consists of the American Flag, the Army Branch of Service emblem, a burned etching of “Detachment ”A” with dates of existence 1956-1984, and the Berlin Occupation Medal.

On the left side there is a burned-in wooden block etched with MG Sidney Shachnow’s name, as he is the best known Commander of Detachment “A”.  In the center there is another larger burned-in wooden block containing the Special Forces Crest, SF Shoulder Patch, American and German Wings, and two Detachment “A” coins one coin for the Head and one for the Tails which were Gil’s own coins.  The head consisting of a parachute, represents the infiltration into Berlin by Detachment “A” members led by MG Sidney Shachnow(Ret).  The tail consisting of a broken wall represents the exfiltration of Detachment “A” out of Berlin as LTC Piasecki(Ret) was the officer in charge of the final 10 days to clear out, sanitize and clean the station.  On the right side of plaque there is another burned -in wooden block etched with LTC Eugene Piasecki’s name.

The far right side of the plaque contains the Taps List with those departed members of Detachment “A”.  It is positioned under base of the cane.  Gil expressed its significance to be that whenever the base of a cane touches the ground it serves as a reminder of our honored comrades and brothers who are no longer with us, and to honor them and never forget them.

The original taps list was sent out for reformatting and printing.  It was originally printed on plain white paper.  The owner wanted to know about the ‘Taps List’.  When Gil explained it to her she ordered it to be re-printed on parchment and refused to accept any payment.

On the back of the plaque Gil wrote:  “Donated by Gil Turcotte, SGM(Ret) 2017”.

The rest of the plaque is reserved for Detachment “A” member signatures and certain dignitaries.  Each member signs their name along with time served in Detachment “A”.

Detachment “A” Plaque Signing

Gil arrived on Wednesday to the 2017 Detachment “A” function in honor of Jeff Raker with the plaque.

Gil Turcott’s plaque

Gil designated that the first signature and the location of the signature at the top of the bald eagle’s head be reserved for Bob Charest.  Gil wanted Bob to have this distinction of being the first to sign because he ‘brought Detachment “A” in from the cold” and “made it prominent by bringing long due recognition for the unit”.  Bob was honored as the first Detachment “A” member to sign the plaque at the head of the eagle.

Members present on Wednesday also signed the plaque including John Lee, Chris Feudo, Rick Westbrook, Steve Bright, Lee Fondas, and Eugene Piasecki who signed under the block containing his name.

On Thursday after MG Jim Guest’s speech, Gil had CSM Jeff Raker’s son Jeff to sign the plaque on his father’s behalf and in his honor.

Gill then caught up with our distinguished guest speaker MG James Guest’s(Ret) former Commanding General, United States Army Special Forces Command and obtained his signature.

Gil continued collecting signatures from all Detachment “A” members present at our function.  He also signed for some members with their permission, who were unable to attend, including Daryl Katz, Peter Gould and Doug Curry.

On Friday, right before our ceremony, Gil got MG Sidney Shachnow(Ret) to sign the plaque under the block containing his name.

Our June 2017 function in honor of Jeff Raker, included the presentation of the plaque.  At the conclusion of our ceremony after MG Shachnow’s speech, Bob Charest called on Gil Turcotte who then presented the plaque to MG Sidney Shachnow(Ret) who then donated it to the JFK Museum on behalf of Detachment “A”.

About the Cane Woodcarvers

At the far right bottom corner of the plaque contains the woodcarver’s names George and Donna Gunning, Windsor ME, 2017.  They did not want to put their logo because they thought it might detract from the plaque but Gil convinced them to place it on the plaque.  They have produced 3,800 canes for Maine veterans at no cost to the veterans.  Donations are accepted to keep the tradition going.  Gil presented them with an autographed copy of Styk’s book Special Forces Berlin: Clandestine Cold War Operations of the US Army’s Elite, 1956–1990 as a gift, along with a donation for their work.

Detachment(A) Display at JFK Museum

JFK Museum

Det-A JFK Museim

At the 2004 SFA Convention in Las Vegas, Bob Charest developed an awareness that  Detachment ”A” seemed to be fading into the shadows of history.

After previously visiting the JFK museum, he noticed that there was no Detachment “A” representation there and thought it would be a great first step into bringing Detachment ”A” back from its disintegrating and forgotten history. Bob had a conversation with Roxanne Merritt the Director of the FJK Special Warfare Museum about creating a Detachment “A” exhibit at the JFK museum.  He did not want Detachment ”A” to completely fade away, and since this seemed to be a place to start, he asked Roxanne if this would be feasible and she agreed informing him that artifacts needed to be collected for the exhibit, and she would design  and plan the exhibit display.

During the intervening years, Bob started hosting small DET-A Get together’ s,  and Detachment ”A” interest reemerged and started to grow and grow.

In 2010, Bob initiated a project with the mission statement:  Detachment (A) JFK Museum Representation.  With the help of all Detachment “A” members, and Roxanne Merrit, he believed it could happen. He called upon Detachment”A” members to donate artifacts to the museum for the exhibit, and he got an exceptional response. Detachment”A” artifacts started arriving the JFK Museum.

In May 2011, at the Detachment “A” Asheville NC Get Together, Bob invited Roxanne Merritt to the function to provide an update on the exhibit.  Many DET-A Members brought their artifacts with them to hand over to Roxanne.  The mission statement prepared by Hilmar Kullek would be used as our focal point.  Harvey Cox produced an 18×18 professional replica of the condensed Mission Statement.  Some of the Det(A) Artifacts pledged:

  • MG Sid Shachnow (Ret): Telephone from Check Point Charlie
  • Kevin Monahan: Three plaques from the DET(A) trophy case
  • Bob Charest: DET(A) Gold Coin
  • Wayne Searcy: RS4 radio
  • Jack Fulp: Trophy from the 1st Para Red Devils Airborne, and a Det A Beer Mug
  • Harvey Cox: Donated his art business services and materials to produce an 18×18 professional replica of the condensed Mission Statement by Hilmar Kullek seen on the DET(A) web site
  • Frank Gallardo: 13” Cloak & Dagger wood statue
  • Bruno von Haas: East German Flag that flew over the Brandenburger Tor in Berlin given to Bruno by friend and Berlin Chief of Police in 1989 when the wall went down
  • Mike Linnane: Special Forces DET(A) patch.
  • Larry Coleman: DVD with pictures of DET(A)
  • Hilmar H. Kullek: Wooden Maneuver Display – Flintlock 1972, Beer Mug – Kampfschwimmerkompanie Eckernfoerde, Beer Mug – 1956 – 1984 CKB
  • Doug Snow: Berlin Perimeter sign

Along with many other donated items.

Roxanne Merritt was instrumental in the establishment of the Detachment “A” exhibit as were all Detachment “A” members.
Detachment “A” now has a small Detachment “A” Berlin exhibit within the SF Historical displays.

 

 

Detachment A: Clandestine Special Forces Missions from Berlin to Iran

Written by Jack Murphy at SOFREP published 6 February 2017.

Detachment A: Clandestine Special Forces missions in post Hitler’s Berlin


It was the early 1970’s, at Andrews Barracks in Berlin, where a stern looking Special Forces Sergeant Major paced down the hallway for roll call. Daily army accountability formations are normally held outside, but due to the extremely classified nature of the mission carried out by the Special Forces soldiers standing in the hall that day, roll call had to be done indoors where they would not be spied on or photographed by enemy agents.

“It is the anniversary of the D-day landing,” the Sergeant Major told the Green Berets. “Who here participated in D-Day and would like to go to the reunion in France?”

A surprising number of men in the hallway had served in Special Forces units in Vietnam such as MACV-SOG and Project Sigma, but a handful of men there that day had in fact participated in D-Day. There were some Johns, Dicks, or Harrys, that raised their hands. The Sergeant Major doing roll call then got to the last soldier raising his hand and began to write down the name Gerhard Kunert. His pencil suddenly stopped scrawling across the clipboard.

“Wait a minute, Kunert? You were not even in the American Army in 1944!”

Kunert, a member of team six, clicked his heels and replied, “I was in the 7th Panzer, I was in Normandy, and I want to go to the reunion!” Kunert was not alone, also on his team was a German who served on U-boats during the war.

The unit was commanded by Sid Shachnow at one point, a Jewish holocaust survivor who immigrated to America and eventually became a Green Beret, but in the unit’s ranks were a number of former Nazis. The Lodge Act, named after Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, allowed displaced persons from World War II, hailing from countries like Ukraine, Hungary, Germany, and Czechoslovakia to join the United States Army, many of them joining Special Forces and bringing with them much sought after foreign language skills needed as the Cold War escalated. Some had served in the Warsaw rebellion against the Nazis, others had fought in the 1956 Hungarian revolution, and some had even been a part of the Finnish underground during the war.

“It was a fast track to [American] citizenship,” Warner Farr said and Bob Charest added that, “you felt like you were in a foreign Army.” The Lodge Act Green Berets could be identified by looking at their US Army serial numbers which all carried the same prefix at the beginning: 10812. “I bet at that time [1971] there were no more than 15 Americans in the unit,” Farr said, referring to native-born Americans as opposed to Lodge Act soldiers and naturalized citizens. Gradually, the unit did become more Americanized as the Cold War progressed and World War Two veterans began to age.

The unit was called Detachment A, with the then classified name of 39th Special Forces Operational Detachment (SFOD), a clandestine Special Forces unit. Technically illegal under the Four Powers Agreement, Det A was on twenty-four hour standby in Berlin in the event that the USSR pushed over the wall from East Germany and invaded Western Europe. Secreting themselves in safe houses, the Det A members would activate once the forward line of Soviet troops passed over their positions and then carry out acts of sabotage and guerrilla warfare.

The Berlin Wall

Formed in 1956, Detachment A originally consisted of four A-teams which were each assigned an area of responsibility in Berlin, on the north, south, east, and west sides of the city. Later two more teams were added. “The big mission was the stay behind mission for World War Three,” Colonel Warner “Rocky” Farr said. Teams consisted of eleven men, with a B-team above them making the entire unit no larger than eighty or ninety people at any given time.

While most are familiar with the three main methods of infiltrating behind enemy lines by crossing overland, by parachute, or by sea (including sub-surface with dive gear), fewer are familiar with the concept of stay behind teams. Forward deployed to Berlin, the Green Berets assigned to Det A were already in their area of operations, infiltrated before the outbreak of projected future hostilities.

During the cold war, Berlin was a place of uncertainty, intrigue, and subterfuge. “East Germany looked like the war had just stopped about a month ago. There was rubble everywhere,” Sergeant John Blevins described, “deserted buildings, stuff falling down, empty lots where the rubble had been cleared off. Back in Western Germany you could hardly tell that a war had been fought except for quite a few buildings that had a lot of holes in them from machine gun bullets.”

At the conclusion of World War Two, Berlin was occupied by the countries who had liberated Germany from the Nazis, including the British, French, Americans, and Russians. Already envisioning a future conflict between the red menace and the West, the Russians controlled East Germany and West Germany was split up amongst the other three nations. This arrangement was formally codified by the Four Powers Agreement years later.

Bob Charest sporting relaxed grooming standards and common fashion at the time to blend in with Berliners.

The Russians erected the Berlin Wall in 1961, after having already imposed draconian travel restrictions on the citizens of East Germany since the mid-1950’s. The public reason for the wall was to prevent the infiltration of Western agents, but the reality is that it was a way for the Soviets to control citizens of Berlin, many of whom were desperate to escape communist-occupied East Germany. “When the wall went up we were going home at night with our radio and our weapon,” James Wild said, due to the escalating tensions with the Soviets at that time.

Det A was known as a hidden gem, being the best assignment in Special Forces, however those who knew about the unit were few and far between. More often than not, Special Forces soldiers volunteered for Det A because an assignment in Germany sounded appealing or because their senior Sergeants highly recommended they take the job. Many had no idea what Det A’s mission was until they arrived in their team room in Berlin and began receiving classified briefings on the stay behind operations.

Assigned to 10th Special Forces Group in 1958, radio repairman Private James Wild was selected to go to Berlin, despite his objections as he wanted to stay with an A-Team. Trucked over to Munich, and then taking a train to Berlin, he was picked up by several Det A members. He was only read on to the mission several years later when he became Special Forces qualified and was promoted to sergeant. “It just scared the crap out of me,” Wild said as he got the impression that their job was a one-way trip.

Det A preparing for a parachute training jump in the 1960s

When 2nd Lieutenant John Lee arrived at the airport in Berlin in 1968 wearing his class A uniform, two Det A soldiers in civilian clothes met him and asked why in the world he was in a uniform. “Because I am American soldier!” Lee replied. “Not today you’re not,” they said before bundling him up in an overcoat and rushing him off to their base where he was to take charge of team two. Until receiving his in-brief, Lee knew absolutely nothing about Det A.

Farr took a Defense Language Institute (DLI) assignment to learn German with a follow-on rotation to Berlin and wound up assigned to team three within Det A in 1971. “Herman Adler was my team leader who was a great guy,” Farr recalled. “He had been in the SS during World War Two. He was an SS officer…he fought his way out of Russia through the snow. We used the call him the Schwarzer Adler: the black eagle.” Adler later went on to run some selection courses for Special Mission Units and was retained by the US Army as a Captain due to his expertise.

Arriving at Andrew’s barracks, the men of Det A found fairly typical team rooms, but the building they worked out of was actually a former base of the Waffen SS. The facilities included an olympic size swimming pool, which was great for morning physical training and scuba training. There was also an old firing range in the basement, where the SS had reputedly executed a few people during the war. Next door was a building belonging to the Army Security Agency, who widely believed Det A to be an assassination unit, which simply was not true.


Detachment A: Green Berets play cat and mouse with communist agents

John Lee, Det A team leader from 1969-1970)

Det A was the Army’s clandestine Special Forces unit stationed in Berlin during the Cold War.  Charged with the “stay behind” mission, these Green Berets would prepare to conduct acts of sabotage in Berlin in the event that the Soviets ever invaded.  When new members arrived at Det A, they would be trained and mentored other members.

Formal school training was done by completing the Special Forces Operations and Intelligence (O&I) course and some Det A members were also allowed to attend the CIA’s demolitions course where they learned all sorts of sneaky stuff. There were also numerous opportunities for Det A members to attend foreign special operations courses ranging from the Danish scout-swimmer course to the GSG-9 German counter-terrorism course, the first two American graduates being pinned by Colonel Wegener who led the Mogadishu aircraft take down in 1977.

Other members attended German Ranger School. Being airborne qualified, the Det A soldiers would also travel to 10th Special Forces Group at Bad Tölz to complete their monthly jump in order to stay current as well as conducting yearly ski training in the Alps. The men of 1st Battalion, 10th Special Forces Group stationed at Bad Tölz (separate from Det A) were prepared to carry out Operation “Falling Rain” which would have seen them inserted by parachute into Eastern Europe to conduct unconventional warfare.

 

Det A members also became combat diver qualified by attending a course in Crete run by SEAL Team Two. Since their dive gear also had to be indigenous, they acquired Dräger LAR III rebreathers, that were so state of the art that not even the SEALs had them yet. These skills were later refined by German military divers. “The Kampfschwimmer Kompanie gave us the rebreather training as well as passing on their refined expertise in harbor and inland waterway operations,” Lieutenant Grayal Farr said. Before that they had Dräger dual stage oxygen tanks which some Det A members used when they swam up into canals in Berlin, looking for ways to penetrate the border in 1973.

Sergeant First Class Ron Braughton initially served as a medic on team five, and as a practitioner of several martial arts, led hand-to-hand combat training for his fellow unit members. “it was mission oriented, not a bunch of fluff,” Braughton said. “I am a senior black belt so I took the real combative aspects of that. Stick, knife, improvised weaponry, hands, knees…there were days set aside where I would train the whole unit for PT.” Of course, Det A members also conducted close quarter battle training, including conceal carry and drawing and shooting their Walther P38 pistols from the holster.

Detachment A members worked in a decentralized manner. “Det A never had any robust support from the Special Forces community during that time,” Mike Mulieri said.

COL Rocky Doc Farr Berlin Subway Pass

Some Det A soldiers posed as Turkish or Greek guest workers, called gastarbeiter. “Only a handful of men [in the unit] could have stood up to an interrogation by a East German officer,” Mulieri explained. “I started playing basketball with German basketball teams and played with them for a couple years,” Wild said. “I figured out they were much younger than me and I had a hard time staying with them, but I realized that they lacked leadership so I volunteered with them to be their coach and we went on to win the Berlin championship.” By mingling with the locals, he was able to develop his own support network. “All the Germans I was acquainted with knew me as a coach.”

In order to complete the appearance of being normal civilians, Det A members were also on relaxed grooming standards and wore local clothes, down to the underwear. The dress code also evolved over the course of the unit’s history, starting with a suit and tie but later becoming slacks and an open shirt, adjusting to contemporary styles. Just as important was understanding the cultural nuances.

Simple things like holding up your pointer and middle finger to order two beers instead of your pointer finger and thumb could give you away as American. Which hands you held your fork and knife in could betray you as a foreigner. Looking the wrong way to check for cars at an intersection could tip off a surveillance agent that the person was British. No matter how good their German language capabilities were, if the Det A soldiers were not fully immersed in the local culture, then they could risk compromise.

Due to how easy it was to be exposed, and the extremely politically sensitive situation in Berlin during the Cold War, there was no room for error by the men of Detachment A. Those who screwed up had to be sent packing home. One incident occurred when two Det A members were caught smuggling East Germans into West Germany for profit. They made a pretty penny at it too, at least until US Army intelligence caught on to their act.

Another precarious situation unfolded when three Det A members were rolled up in the British sector of Berlin. In 1974, a training mission was devised for Det A to test local infrastructure security.

“But just as we pulled our little red Fiat out of its hiding place in the woods – two VW busses full of the Berlin Polizei came up upon us and began to chase us,” Staff Sergeant Bob Mitchell said. The three Det A soldiers got trapped in a cul-de-sac next to the British Officers Housing complex, and engaged in mock firefight with blanks against the Germans, but the Americans were overwhelmed and captured. The British Provost Martial witnessed the entire episode and believed that the Americans were British officers and that the black-clad German policemen were members of the IRA. Heavily armed British Military Police showed up but by some miracle did not kill anyone, soon realizing that it was just a training mission.

“The Provost Marshall was so pissed that he had us all arrested and taken to the Olympic Stadium to be put in jail,” Mitchell said. “Eventually, the Commanding Officer who was a 3-Star General, of Berlin had to officially apologize to the Brits so that we could be released.” The incident also hit the local media, describing the sabotage training and subsequent simulated firefight. One newspaper joked, “for the first time in war history the British have ended a battle between Germans and Americans.”

Team 5

At times Det A was also tasked by the CIA to dig up old caches in Germany left over from World War II. They discovered weapons, food, and ammunition, as well as medical supplies that needed to be replaced since they were well over their expiration date. Some caches could not be accessed because the Germans had built gas stations or other buildings over them, where they remain to this day. In other instances, Det A would bury caches at the direction of other parties. “It was a ruse,” Wild said describing one technique used. “We would erect tents, usually a GP medium, put up barbwire and telephone lines making it look like it was a company headquarters. We would stay there for a few days making it look like it was a exercise but we were digging a hole under the tent to bury the cache and after we were done it would look just the same as when we got there.”

Under the Four Powers Agreement, there were not be any elite troops stationed in Berlin, but of course the British SAS, US Special Forces, the Soviet Spetsnaz were all present. “It was known within our circles but officially we were not there,” Charest commented. Ironically, the Spetsnaz element in East Germany probably had the same mission as Det A, to act as a stay behind unit to conduct sabotage operations if NATO ever decided to charge across the steppes towards Moscow.

The Four Powers Agreement also stipulated that Russian and American troops could cross into each other’s territory, under supervision and in uniform. Det A members did this regularly, wearing class A uniforms with conventional Army shoulder sleeve insignia. Wild said that during the late 1950’s, “almost everyday someone from the detachment went to East Germany from Checkpoint Charlie in a staff car driven by a MP and accompanied by a staff officer,” with a very specific route to drive from which they could not deviate from.

By the 1970’s, Det A members could get out in East Germany and walk around while in uniform. Since the dollar had such a great exchange rate in East Germany, the Special Forces soldiers would take the opportunity to eat a gourmet meal for just a couple bucks.

When asked about the infamous East German Stasi police, Warner Farr laughed and said, “we used to have lunch with them. There was a restaurant in East Berlin called Ganymed which was next to a canal…it was renowned for being the Stasi place.” On one visit the Stasi sat at a table next to the Special Forces men, loudly complaining that the Americans would come to East Berlin and consume all of the good food and wine. One of the Det A team leaders named Wolfgang Gartner stood up, turned around, clicked his heels and said, “gentlemen, let me introduce myself. My name is Wolfgang Gartner, I was born three blocks from here and I will eat here any time I damn well please.”

While in East Berlin, the Green Berets cased their targets, knowing that they were being watched by the Stasi and Russian KGB. A few Det A members even infiltrated into East Berlin wearing civilian clothes using the public transportation system, seeing how far they could push their limitations but this activity was never sanctioned by their command. In East Germany they were usually followed and under surveillance, the soldiers having to act as if everything was normal and behave like they were just GI’s making a run over to East Berlin to take advantage of the low exchange rate to buy goods that would be expensive on the other side of the wall. Back in West Germany, there were enemy agents watching them parachute onto drop zones for training, keeping watch over Andrews barracks, and occasionally tailing them around the city.

The men of Det A were highly trained professionals, ready to carry out what would most likely be a suicide mission in the opening hours of World War Three.

Sergeant Major Jeff Raker

However, Det A was not always so highly motivated, as the unit also faced some dark times due to conventional Army officers who did not understand the Special Forces mission of unconventional warfare. A Colonel in the Berlin Brigade ordered Det A to train his men on basic Infantry skills, taking them away from their unconventional warfare mission.

Now the Det A team members were walking around the base in uniform with fresh haircuts. The reindeer games continued until the Det A’s Sergeant Major, Jeff Raker, went and talked to his counterpart in the conventional Army. He built rapport and explained that by having Det A train Infantry privates, that they were undermining their own NCO’s who are the ones responsible for training their own soldiers.  With that in mind, the Army let Det A get back to their urban unconventional warfare mission.


Detachment A: counter-terrorism and Operation Eagle Claw

As the Cold War matured, the mission of Det A evolved, shifting gears to face a new threat that the Western World was unprepared for. In the early 1970’s there had been a rash of aircraft hijackings, many perpetrated by the Palestinian nationalists belonging to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PLFP). The slowly escalating threat turned into a crucible for German authorities in 1972 when Palestinian terrorists belonging to a group calling themselves Black September took Israeli athletes hostage during the summer olympics in Munich. The German police attempted to bait the terrorists into an ambush, where they could be taken out by sniper fire without hurting the hostages, but the crisis ended in a massacre, with both terrorists and hostages slain.

The specter of international terrorism had reared its ugly head. The German federal police, wholly unprepared to deal with the threat, were tasked to create a counter-terrorism unit called GSG-9, commanded by Colonel Ulrich Wegener.

The Americans took a while longer to catch up but a few years later Detachment A was tasked with a new mission under OPLAN 0300: counter-terrorism. In addition to their stay behind mission, the Det A members now had to be prepared to carry out counter-terrorism operations. The main concern for the unit, was the hijacking of American Pan Am flights into and out of Berlin but Det A was also charged with protecting and capturing any other hijacked American aircraft in Europe. The Baader Meinhof gang also posed a threat in Det A’s area of operations, and one team from the unit was assigned the task of countering the communist terrorist organization, especially after they kidnapped the mayor of Berlin.

Det A members graduate the GSG-9 counter-terrorism course and are pinned by the unit commander.

Det A began cross training with GSG-9 in case they had to conduct joint operations, and had a friendly relationship that allowed them to share tactics, techniques, and procedures. Six members were sent to Quantico to attend the FBI’s air crimes course. The Special Forces soldiers also received additional weapons for their new mission such as scoped Model 70 Winchesters to use as sniper rifles and Walther MPK sub-machine guns. A military transport plane was placed on standby to ferry the Det A members within striking distance of targets they may be called upon to assault in the future.

Since the main concern was a Pan Am aircraft being hijacked, the airliner allowed the Det A teams to practice taking down their aircraft but at various times they also trained to assault buses, trains, and buildings. Det A, “practiced techniques on entry into the airplane from any angle you can imagine,” Charest said. “We practiced on that plane day and night.” The unit’s newfound counter-terrorism capability would be put to the test years later, not in Europe, but in Iran during Operation Eagle Claw.

At 10:30AM on November 4th 1979, nearly 3,000 armed “university students” stormed the American embassy in Tehran, taking over 90 American hostages at the behest of the Ayatollah Khomeini. The students demanded that Iran’s disposed Shah be returned to Iran from the United States to face trial. Some hostages were released, leaving 66 remaining, with six Americans who had escaped to the Swedish and Canadian embassies evacuated under Canadian passports in a well orchestrated CIA operation.

While most of the hostages were held on the embassy grounds, three were kept at the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) building located 16 blocks away from the embassy grounds, including the acting ambassador and two embassy staff who had been there on official business when the embassy was taken over.

The US Army counter-terrorism unit, Delta Force, had just recently been validated following a training mission at Camp Mackall and the unit’s commander, Colonel Charlie Beckwith, immediately went into mission planning in case a political solution could not be found and President Carter authorized a hostage rescue. With two Delta Squadrons, Beckwith simply did not have enough operators to cover the 27 acre embassy compound while simultaneously assaulting the Ministry of Foreign Affairs building. Beckwith, “did not want another ground force brought into play. He resisted the need for a long time but eventually had to accept the reality of two rescue locations” (Lenahan, 34).

Delta Force preparing for Operation Eagle Claw.

The commander of Det A, Lieutenant Colonel Stan Oleshevic, was tasked with assembling an eight-man assault element that could infiltrate into Iran with Delta Force and rescue the hostages held in the MFA. Their portion of the mission would be dubbed, “Storm Cloud.” They then developed a tactical plan and initiated mission rehearsals. A two-man element from Det A was identified who could infiltrate Iran undercover and get eyes on the MFA building, gathering critical intelligence for the assault.

The two recon men would then exfiltrate out of Iran, and join up with five team mates from their unit at the Delta Force staging ground, making for eight man assault element. The initial recce mission was a success, one of the Det A members having himself photographed alongside a Iranian soldier, with the MFA building prominently displayed in the background. Colonel Ulrich Wegener of GSG-9 was prepared to send a German TV crew into Tehran and offered to take some Delta operators with them so they could recce the embassy grounds, but the idea died in the Pentagon (Beckwith, 223).

One of the two Det A members in Tehran had even, “gained access to the interior of the MFA building where the three American diplomats were detained” and discovered that there was a much larger security presence than they expected.  For this reason, the Det A assault force had to be increased to 10-14 men.  Under the leadership of Colonel Oleshevic, this was accomplished and a new Concept of the Operation was drafted (Lenahan, 98).

Det A members conducting counter-terrorism cross training with GSG-9 in Germany.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon has identified a suitable staging area for the rescue mission inside Iran, which became known as Desert One.  However, planners needed someone to walk the terrain, needing someone, “knowledgeable, experienced, and competent” in the skills of “taking soil core samples, calibrating penetrometer readings, navigating, and taking measurements at night” as well as “installing landing instrumentation devices” (Lenahan, 72).

On March 30th, “the field survey team of Desert One was conducted by Major John Carney, a USAF Special Operations Combat Controller Team (CCT) leader.  He was delivered to the site in a small civilian STOL-type aircraft operated by the CIA” (Lenahan, 95).

With the air reconnaissance and soil sample missions complete, Delta Force wrapped up their mission rehearsals in the United States was flown to Wadi Kena and then to Masirah on April 20th in conjunction with the eight man team from Detachment A that would take down the Ministry of Foreign Affairs building. Before departing to Desert One, Major Lewis “Bucky” Burruss, Delta’s B-Squadron commander, led the men as they sung “God Bless America” just before boarding their aircraft.

Delta Force and Det A landed at Desert One, located in the Dasht-e-Kavir salt desert of central Iran, on the night of April 24th with the last of six aircraft setting down at midnight. Now they had to wait for their helicopters to arrive from the USS Nimitz on station in the Gulf of Oman to take them on the next leg of their journey en route to the US embassy and MFA. Rangers tasked to pull security at Desert One came from Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment and rode dirt bikes to help them get around the large staging area, where one soon shot a tanker truck driving down a nearby road with a LAW rocket launcher.

The helicopters were delayed several hours because of a sandstorm and a few of them were seriously damaged during the flight. Due to time delays and mechanical malfunctions, Colonel Beckwith made the difficult decision to scrub the mission. Around 2:40AM the men were preparing to abort and pull out of desert one when Major Schaefer’s helicopter crashed into one of the EC-130 airplanes. “A blue fireball ballooned into the night,” the ground force commander wrote (Beckwith, 279).

Crash Site at Desert One

One of the Det A sergeants was out pulling security on the outer perimeter with Delta’s intelligence officer, approximately a mile away from where the airplanes were parked when he witnessed the explosion off in the distance. Jumping on the back of a dirt bike with a Ranger driving, the Det A member linked up with one of his team mates from Berlin back at the crash site. He then told the Ranger to take the dirt bike back to get Delta intel officer, but for some reason that didn’t happen. Using IV bags that the Det A men took with them on the mission for medical emergencies, they began treating members of the air crew who had been critically injured.

Looking up, one of the Green Beret’s assigned to Det A suddenly realized that one of the C-130’s was turning around and about to take off without any passengers onboard. He jumped out in front of the nose of the aircraft, holding his Walther MPK sub-machine gun, and waving to get the pilot’s attention. “I was ready to shoot those motherfuckers,” he said, not relishing the idea of being left behind. The plane ended up having 70 or 80 soldiers on board when it finally took off.

After the failure of Operation Eagle Claw and Storm Cloud, the task force went right into planning a follow up mission to rescue the hostages. It was widely believed that President Ronald Reagan would authorize the mission as soon as he was inaugurated and President Carter stepped down. The second attempt would be called Operation Snow Bird.

Detachment A soldiers were still tasked with taking down the MFA building in Tehran. This time mission rehearsals were carried out by Det A at Camp Rudder where the Florida Phase of Ranger School takes place. With new helicopters assigned to the mission, there could only be one pilot. The co-pilot would be too heavy a load for the helicopter to bear along with the assaulters due to fuel consumption issues. Just in case the pilot ended up getting shot, the Det A members were trained to fly the helicopter safely to the ground. “We all got some stick time,” Sergeant Major Jeff Raker recalled with a smile.

Just hours after Reagan was inaugurated, Iran released the remaining American hostages held in Iran, ending the standoff. Back in Berlin, Detachment A continued to conduct their unconventional warfare and counter-terrorism missions, however the later was beginning to have a detrimental effect on the unit’s operational security. The disaster at Desert One had put a spotlight on America’s counter-terrorism units and an article appearing in Newsweek exposed Detachment A’s existence. For this reason, Intelligence and Security Command (INSCOM) made the decision to disband the unit and start fresh with a new one.

This was the dire impact of the counter-terrorism mission, particularly when mixed with clandestine espionage activities.  The kinetic aspects of counter-terrorism raised the profile of Det A, leading to its exposure in the press.  For a unit like Delta Force this wasn’t as big a deal since they were a Direct Action focused unit at Fort Bragg but for a clandestine unit in Berlin, the press exposure was a disaster.


Detachment A: Final missions, the wall comes down, and the end of an era

In subsequent years, Det A was also developing a relationship with Germany’s Spezialeinsatzkommandos (SEK). Detachment A’s team six, “had its own unique mission. Most of ours dealt with close comradeship with the local SEK so we spent a lot of time with those guys,” Braughton said, which entailed working in the city and running surveillance operations.

In between their busy professional lives, the Det A members would find time for recreation as well, some of them becoming amateur treasure hunters. Combing the countryside with metal detectors, a couple of the guys located and dug up a small box. Taking it back to the unit’s lounge, a crowd gathered around expecting to find some Nazi loot inside worthy of a Indiana Jones movie. When the men opened it up all they found was a dead bird inside, someone’s pet that had been buried.

Det 2 in Garmisch

In 1981, General Dozier was kidnapped in Verona, Italy by the communist Red Brigades. Det A split into sniper and assaulter elements, packed up their weapons and gear, and were ready and waiting for a military aircraft to pick them up. After six weeks of captivity, Italian police stormed the apartment where Dozier was held, rescuing him and arresting a half dozen terrorists without firing a shot.

In December of 1984, Det A was in the process of being deactivated with only a handful of men remaining in the unit when they were called upon to perform one final mission. The German customs department and Berlin SEK were conducting a joint operation and needed a Russian linguist. Pranas Rimeikis from Det A was dispatched to assist in the investigation since he spoke Russian. Dubbed Operation Odessa, it was originally envisioned as an uncover operation, in which German authorities were targeting a criminal gang of Ukrainians, Lithuanians, and Russians who were smuggling guns, drugs, and passports. The ensuing surveillance operation involved pretty much every man left assigned to Det A and in the end the gang leader was arrested, to be later convicted in the German courts.

Team 6

Despite Det A’s successes, the end of an era was near. One day in 1984, Kevin Monahan and Ed Cox left the empty team rooms in Andrews barracks, all of the equipment and gear having been packed up and shipped out. Downstairs was the lounge and unit bar where the men used to meet for “chicken friday” once a week. They would clean the team rooms, latrines, and vehicles together and after the Sergeant Major inspected, would commence to have a party and drink all night. Multiple members of Det A fondly recalled that, “we worked hard and we played hard.”

Monahan and Cox were the last men out of the Detachment that day, and forever, locking the doors behind them. As they were shutting down the unit, the Green Berets joked that they felt like retreating Germans in World War Two, burning bag after bag of classified material. After decades of working in the shadows, Detachment A was inactivated.

German Dive School
Mitchell, Hebler & Picknell

Det A’s legacy was handed off to a new Special Forces unit in Berlin called Physical Security Support Element (PSSE), with several Det A members making up the core cadre of the new unit. Disguised as military policemen and working under a more effective official cover as 287th Military Police Company, the new unit developed security protocols and did site surveys, but also continued the clandestine mission to counter Soviet activities and conduct counter-terrorism operations. Additionally, PSSE also worked abroad in Africa and the Middle East preparing embassy security plans. PSSE existed right up to the end of the Cold War, shutting down in 1990 after the Berlin wall came down.

Afterwards, American military officers in Berlin had the opportunity to meet with their Russian counter-parts. As it turned out, the Russians believed that there were 800-900 US Special Forces soldiers in Berlin ready to carry out sabotage operations. In reality, the number was never more than 90. In a unique way, Special Forces had been successful in one of their core tasks as acting as a force multiplier, not just on the ground, but in the minds of Soviet military planners as well. With PSSE shut down, the US counter-terrorism mission in Europe was next handed off to another newly stood up Special Forces Commanders In-extremis Force (CIF).

DET A Ski Training

Most of the men who served in Detachment A remember it as their favorite assignment, including those who went on to serve more than twenty years in Special Forces, or moved on to Special Mission Units, or pursued a career in CIA. Det A was where they caught the bug, loving the camaraderie of the organization and the allure of the mission, serving in America’s only urban unconventional warfare unit.

Today, after fifteen years focused on direct action missions in the Middle East, Special Forces is seeking to reinvest in their core mission of Unconventional Warfare. Part of this includes re-learning lessons from the past, lessons that can be handed down from veterans such as those who served in Det A when it comes to blending in and completing low visibility missions in foreign countries.

When it comes to the legacy of the unit, “Paco” Fontana stated that, “there is a lot of people who didn’t know anything about Det A. They had a real war time mission that no one knew about and we were doing it for so long, so the legacy is that silence is golden.” Charest remembers Det A as a unit that was, “able to do the impossible. You were given a mission, we had many, and we did them all. We were so dedicated, it was like being in another world.”

For the Det A members, their time in the unit will never be forgotten, “the relationships, the mentorships, the experiences that we had there as young Special Forces guys, we were really pushed out to grow into that legend and do the things we were supposed to do and accomplish the mission we were given,” Braughton said. “It’s the job, it’s the lifestyle, it’s addictive.”

Bob Charest speaking at the stone laying ceremony for Det A at Fort Bragg

In recent years, the men of Det A have begun coming forward to tell their story lifting the cloak of secrecy which was so strong that even within the unit none of the six teams ever knew each other’s missions due to compartmentalization. In 2014, a ceremony was held as Special Operation Command on Fort Bragg to place a memorial stone for Detachment A. The unit’s colors were also permanently cased and retired, a moment that was symbolic for veterans of the unit who had never received any public recognition for their service up until that time.

Today, Detachment A serves not as a Cold War relic or historical curiosity, but rather an example of how Special Forces soldiers can live off the local economy, move around with fake travel documents, plan sabotage operations, and conduct urban unconventional warfare.  These are capabilities that US Special Operations is desperate to re-aquire.  For 15 years the war on terror has placed an emphasis on Direct Action missions, but in today’s quickly evolving environment, America will have to once more perfect the unconventional warfare mission.

Thanks to Detachment A, there is no need to start from scratch when developing these capabilities for today’s Green Berets.  SOCOM has a previous example to draw upon, and should know exactly who to go talk to for advice: the clandestine Special Forces soldiers who stood their ground against communism on the front lines of the Cold War.

*Note: all ranks mentioned in this article refer to the soldier’s rank during the timeframe being referenced as many went on to retire as senior NCOs, Officers, and Warrant Officers.

Source citations:

Beckwith, Charles. “Delta Force.”

Lenahan, Rod. “Crippled Eagle.”

This article originally appeared on SOFREP.com

 About the Author

is an eight year Army Special Operations veteran who served as a Sniper and Team Leader in 3rd Ranger Battalion and as a Senior Weapons Sergeant on a Military Free Fall team in 5th Special Forces Group. Having left the military in 2010, he graduated from Columbia with a BA in political science. Murphy is the author of Reflexive Fire, Target Deck, Direct Action, and numerous non-fiction articles about Weapons, Tactics, Special Operations, Terrorism, and Counter-Terrorism. He has appeared in documentaries, national television, and syndicated radio.