TWENTY-ONE

BLUE LIGHT, SUPPORTED by JFK Center, was competing against us. Delta’s training program had not been evaluated or blessed. But worst of all, our recruitment situation was not getting better. The next selection course—the third—was due to be kicked off any day. I wrote a letter. There was no other way I could go.

Dear General Meyer:

Our unit has made progress in the short period since activation on 19 November 1977. However, obstacles have arisen which become more critical with each passing day.

The most critical problems encountered thus far have been:

The recruitment of volunteer candidates, as specified by the Chief of Staff of the Army, has not been totally supported, and in one known case the instructions of the CSA have been disregarded….

The atmosphere of competition fostered between the 5th Special Forces Group—BLUE LIGHT and 1st SFOD—Delta for technical assistance, equipment, and other assets impacts adversely upon our plans and priorities. Additionally, the high priority assigned to Delta for equipment and training support has been misused in support of BLUE LIGHT.

The formation of U.S. Army Rangers, U.S. Army Special Forces (BLUE LIGHT), USN SEALS, Delta, among others overseas, has caused confusion within government agencies (CIA, FBI and Secret Service) as to who within the Department of Defense has responsibility for welding together a force to counter terrorists overseas.

The military intelligence community is not geared to support low visibility counterterror threat situations. There is an urgent need for access to the holdings of appropriate national level intelligence agencies in order to train and prepare Delta for its mission….

Recommendations:

1. That the existing chain of command for Delta be streamlined with the unit remaining at Fort Bragg as a tenant unit and receive base operational support from Commander, FORSCOM. Delta must be under the direct supervision of the Chief of Staff of the Army….

2. That the DOD or State Department, if it plans to employ Delta, be thoroughly cognizant of the unit’s low visibility capabilities and its external support requirements.

Who dares, wins.

I had one of my officers deliver it directly to General Meyer’s office. Paranoia? Yes, but I’ve got no business doing what I’m doing without a small case of it: “Call me when you see this letter delivered to General Meyer.” I knew lots of things went to Washington and sometimes they lost their way. A very clever action officer could “misplace” a letter. I didn’t just think this would happen. I knew it could happen.

The call came around 11:00 A.M., it was 8 March 1978, confirming the letter had been received. The day was dark and the weather had turned cold. Within an hour I took another call. Lt. Gen. Volney Warner said, “Charlie, General Rogers is coming here this afternoon and wants to see you. After I’ve shown him some training I’ll bring him back to my office and you can see him here. Meet us at Pope Air Force Base around 1330.” I said, “Whatever’s fair, sir.” It began raining like hell.

I immediately asked Majors Hurst and Buckshot to go through our files and pull out every memo we’d written painting our problems. If General Rogers wanted to come back to Delta’s headquarters, we’d be ready.

By midafternoon the hard rain had turned to a cold drizzle.

At Pope, General Warner spoke to me and to Colonel Norton, who was acting on behalf of Mackmull, then in Korea on a visit. “After I’ve shown him what I have to, we’ll come back to my office. Do y’all have any problems with this?” “No,” I said, “but I don’t think that’s what General Rogers is going to want to do.”

“And what’s that, Colonel?”

“He’s going to want to go over to the Stockade and I’m prepared to lead the way.”

General Warner didn’t see it that way. I knew he wanted to be perceived as a nice guy, but I knew he was making life very hard. Mackmull used to tell me, “Things are not real good, because General Warner breathes all over me, Charlie. You need to understand that. He thinks you’re trying to become a free agent and he wants me to keep you in line.” With Warner biting from the top and me pecking from the bottom, Mackmull was having a tough go of it.

Colonel Norton and I were about thirty feet from where Warner greeted General Rogers. They spoke for some time. It was cold and damp enough to see their breath. The Chief of Staff was dressed in his Class A Greens. Warner turned and waved me over. “Lead the way to the Stockade.”

At the Stockade, General Rogers sat down at one end of our conference table. We were in Delta’s little conference room. Nothing fancy here. No battle paintings and no elaborate podium. Just a work space with a scruffy table and folding chairs. Some of my staff were present. I remained standing. I said, “General Rogers, the concept to establish a unit along SAS lines in the United States Army, which you approved for implementation, is off track. We have very serious problems. I’ve documented them and I want to share this material with you.” I thought he was going to say, “Yeah, that’s the reason I’m here…”

When he didn’t interrupt I continued. “Some of the problems I have recommendations for solving, others are too large for me. One of my major problems is in command and control. As you will recall, on 19 November 1977, Delta was activated under HQ, FORSCOM, passed to XVIII Airborne Corps, and down to the commander JFK Center. This is a serious mistake and could jeopardize the entire concept of Delta.” I was very calm and articulating my troubles carefully. “The German’s GSG-9 has a very clean chain of command. No in-between bureaucracy. SAS operates the same way. I would, therefore, request that Delta be a Field Operating Agency working directly under DCSOPS. I would like you to read some of this documentation.”

General Rogers began to work his way through the piles of paper. The rain, which had begun falling again, could be heard on the roof. Eventually, he stumbled on a memo outlining Mountel’s use of Delta’s ammunition. “What’s Blue Light?” he asked. “I didn’t authorize that. Why are they using your funds?” Norton didn’t say a thing. Then, General Rogers read the next memo, describing how the Rangers had been fenced off from me. Attached to the memo were the two messages from Mackmull and Meloy I had acquired. Very quickly General Rogers went through all the paper. “You know,” he said when he was finished, “there’s a four-letter word in Kansas for this kind of mess.” He became very upset, “We have to get this straightened out. Why haven’t you kept me informed, Charlie?”

I explained I didn’t have the authority to send a cable directly to him but had to go to my rating officer. Colonel Norton, for permission to send through the JFK Center. General Rogers turned to Norton, “Who in the hell are you? You’re not Colonel Beckwith’s rating officer, so why really are you even here? General Meyer is Colonel Beckwith’s rating officer and I’m his endorsing officer. Charlie, you don’t work for Colonel Norton!”

Norton didn’t say a word. He just froze in his seat and stared straight ahead. I understood then that General Rogers hadn’t any idea of the size of the bureaucracy that had been put over me. In fact, Colonel Norton was my rating officer and General Mackmull was my endorser. I knew if it stayed that way I was a dead man.

General Rogers said, “Charlie, you will keep me informed.” This meant I had the authority to release teletype messages directly. I no longer had to go through my commanding general or any other general at Bragg to send these hard-copy messages. Lots of people in the Army write messages, but getting them released and put on the teletype is a different story.

The shit truly hit the fan. You have no idea how it hit. People stood with their mouths open. My deputy, Dick Potter, was so excited he could hardly stand himself.

I asked General Rogers, “Would you like now to go back and visit some of the troops?” “No,” he said. “I want to talk to you in private.” General Warner was left sitting in my little conference room. Mouths dropped open wider. The Army Chief of Staff and I went outside and stood by the rose garden. The rain was falling hard again. General Rogers was not only angry, he was hurt, disappointed. There was some distant thunder.

“This is just a mess, Charlie.”

I said, “General Rogers, let me, if I can, sir, say one thing to you. If I fail in this job, then, goddamn it, you ought to fire me. I want to do this job, but I need some support. I’m not being supported out of the Special Forces community. I’m not being supported by the Rangers. I didn’t realize that there would be people who stood around the periphery and wished me to fail—but that is the case. There are people who really want to see Delta fail. I want this job more than anything in this world.”

General Rogers looked at me. There was a pause. The four silver stars on his new black rain coat gleamed in the rain. He said. “Let me make one thing clear to you, Charlie. If you fail you’re not the only one who’s going to be fired. Oh, yeah, I’ll fire you, but I’m going to get fired, too. The President, Charlie, wants this unit. Delta is important. We cannot afford to mess this up.”

We walked back inside. General Rogers said to everyone in the room. “What I’m going to do is get Shy down here and we’re going to get this problem turned around.” He turned to General Warner, “I’ve got to get back to Washington.” And he left.

I suddenly realized, General Rogers had not seen General Meyer that day, let alone read my letter. He’d been visiting Fort Stewart and quite by accident had decided on his way home to stop off at Bragg to see Delta. It had been an accident. The homework had been done and we were ready, but it had been an accident. Delta, finally, had had some luck.

The thunder was closer now.