There were “special” units in WW2? Well, Duh! Guys like the 1st Special Service Force weren’t organizing natives to fight (knives indeed) but rather that was done by members of the Office of Strategic Services NOT the Office of Special Services. http://www.history.army.mil/bo.....70-42c.htm Special Services who by the way entertained the troops. http://select.nytimes.com/gst/.....5F468485F9

Here is a Life magazine article on Special Forces from 1956 http://books.google.com/books?.....mp;f=false the same year that then-Senator Kennedy unsuccessfully bid for Vice-President. Check out the guys on page 44 wearing their unauthorized green berets while in front of Flint Kaserne (where I used to be stationed).

And I don’t understand this need that you have to beat up on Barry Sadler based on rumors without hard evidence. It’s alleged that he was training contras. He was more current with being a novelist than anything else. In fact the only reason we’re talking about Barry Sadler is because a previous poster thought that he as a Staff Sergeant in the Army had somehow “created” Army Special Forces. Enough!

So, to quote the Firesign Theater, “Everything you know is wrong”.

And if you want to count things prior to Kennedy, there were all manner of “Special” named units in WWII. Some even wore green berets. What we NOW consider to be the “Special Forces” were established by Kennedy: “Special” used to refer to singular assignments, like organizing the local primitives to fight the Japanese with knifes while the U.S. military was still unable to get there. (Some actually were quite successful.) Kennedy made it developmentally elite.

The thing I’d like to know more about is the original 1952 Green Beret mission of “Psychological Warfare.” This CAN’T have been like ‘Men who Stare at goats.’ (Can it?) That would mean quite a change in mission.

Anyway, Dave, assumming you read the site again, try to find out for sure about your Uncle’s metals, and let us know. Mr. Sterner is a recognized figure for documenting this, so help him out. If the local newspaper got hold of the full story, they’d have published quite an obituary.

doug@homeofheroes.com

http://www.homeofheroes.com/

He also was badly injured in Feb 1945 while aboard the USS Gamble was hit by two 250lb bombs in the middle of the night while off the coast of Iwo Jima, in support of the invasion, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Gamble_(DD-123).

Since he was bunking in a room next to one of the boiler rooms, the explosions fractured the bulkhead that separated him from the boiler room and the escaping steam burned him badly over about 40% of his body and he was picked up unconscious from the water shortly afterward. This put him in a hospital for quite a long time. He suffered pain from the scars for many years.

My Uncle was a great man and I’m very proud to have known him. Also it’s interesting that a quick search on Yahoo turned this article up in less than 5 minutes.

And getting shot in the head in a taxi in Guatemala in 1989 really wasn’t all that embarrassing to anyone I knew at the time.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/.....index.html

Which brings up another possiblity for the enigmatic Mr. Cook; he might have been a travelling mendacite, speaking publicly and granting interviews. I remember some years back one of the network news shows went to a Memorial Day event to interview the Medal of Honor winner that was a sort of Grand Marshall—and then they did their homework. The guy carried a counterfeit medal to show people and as in the story at the link, ‘Put on a production.’

I’m surprised a political campaign didn’t vette this Strandlof. But not all news outlets do any fact checking, especially not Fox, who said in court they didn’t think it mattered if it was true or not just because they call it “News.” As Mr. Sterner points out, the real point is credibility. Just as it’s tough for the Green Berets to have their big spokesman turn mercenary, and get killed in an embarassing manner because of it.

Meanwhile, the mystery of Earl Cook deepens.

(Hopefully the system will work this time.)

And yeah, I keep thinking about that $1.95 arc welder. “Plugs into a light socket.” Whatever happened to that? Did it put welding in the hands of maybe a few people it’s best kept OUT of the hands of? I’ll take one of the $9.95 engines, too. To think BOTH will be made in America by more or less skilled individuals out of the PROPER materials. Oh, the things they could once run out and buy. You could even get books on making furniture out of composites as a ‘Home Industry Opportunity.’

http://www.thesealteams.com/history/

http://www.navysealmuseum.com/heritage/history.php

By the way, Army Special Forces were “created” back in 1952 and NOT by Kennedy. JFK just backed an expansion and formally authorized wear of the Green Beret.