In September 1969, Bob Charest arrived in Cold War Berlin and reported to Detachment-A, a classified and clandestine US Army Special Forces unit that didn’t officially exist.
The senior communications sergeant would spend nearly all of the 1970s operating undercover and awaiting activation. Charest, a veteran of cross-border operations with MACV-SOG who spoke both German and Russian, understood the stakes at play. If Russia, one of the four divisional powers in Germany, launched an invasion to overtake all of Berlin, Charest and other Detachment-A members would activate and conduct “stay-behind” sabotage missions against strategic infrastructure and vital targets. Without an escape and evasion plan, the team hoped to stall Soviet advances long enough until NATO reinforcements arrived.
On 22 October 2014, Major(Ret) Hermann Adler was inducted into the Distinguished Member of the Special Forces Regiment at a small private ceremony held at his home. LTG Charles T. Cleveland, former Commanding General, US Army Special Operations and his staff performed the ceremony with LTG Cleveland performing the induction.
Major Retired Leslie “Les” Rutherford was a Warrant Officer ( later Officer Commanding) the Royal Engineers Diving Unit in Kiel Germany.
Les remembered well a visit by the guys from Det “A” Berlin to his unit at Kiel in the 80’s. They cross trained on each other’s Kit, worked and played hard.
The Royal Engineers worked on diving and U/W demolition training with Detachment”A” at Kiel in the 80’s . Detachment”A” members then went on to train with the German Navy ‘ Kampfschwimmer’ at Eckenförde.
The Royal Engineers Diving Unit were presented a plaque from Detachment”A” with a photo of the team which his old Boss Captain Tom Flower preserved.
This is Major Rutherford with Detachment”A”‘ a Dräger one-man decompression portable chamber.
