The Operations Centre allows you to:
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A SPECIAL MESSAGE FROM JOHN HART AND THE FSSF ASSOCIATION.
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May-June 1951: OCPW proposes that the Lodge Act recruits be used to form a Special Operations element to be used in Europe. They would conduct guerrilla operations and other sabotage and subversion activities once hostilities with the Soviet Union had begun.
June 25, 1950: North Korea invades South Korea. The US rushes to its defense. Because of the near wholesale disbanding of its special operations forces after WWII, with the exception of a small Civil Affairs and Psychological Operations elements, the US Army has to completely rebuild its SOF capabilities.
June 30, 1950: The Lodge-Philbin Act is passed in Congress. Sponsored by Henry Cabot Lodge Jr., it allows for the recruitment of foreign nationals into US led military units and provides for American citizenship after a term of service.
January 15, 1951: A small group of officers within the Army, like the Canadians, wants to recreate the special operations capabilities created during WWII. Led by Brigadier General Robert McClure, the Office of the Chief of Psychological Warfare (OCPW) is created to foster these abilities.
March 1951: Lt. Col. Russell Volckmann joins General McClure at OCPW bringing his expertise on guerrilla operations to the PSYWAR group. Having conducted unconventional warfare against the Japanese in the Philippines during the war and having authored the technical manual, Operations Against Guerrilla Forces in 1950, Lt. Russell is the resident expert in the field.
March 1951: WWII OSS veteran Colonel Aaron Bank joins the OCPW as head of the Special Operations Division. Col Bank helps develop the basic doctrine and structure of Army Special Forces. They had to differentiate themselves from the Rangers and other direct action/raider units of the near past, including the FSSF. This was to be a new capability and to sell it they had to propose missions that were not part of the Ranger-style commando operations and were more like that of the OSS Operational Groups of World War II (just like the Canadians had done).
May 2, 1951: First Psychological Warfare Officers Course begins at the Army General School, Fort Riley, Kansas. Thirty-nine officers graduate from the six-week course
Oct 1, 1951: All Ranger Infantry Companies Disbanded. The Ranger Training Center becomes the Ranger Training Command; training individuals, vice units, in small unit leadership and Ranger skills. This is the origin of the Army Ranger School.
Oct 24, 1951: First Psychological Warfare Non-Commissioned Officers’ Course begins. On November 21 , 1951, forty-five students graduate from PSYWAR NCO Class No. 1 at the Army General School, Fort Riley, Kansas
10 April, 1952: The Psychological Warfare Center is established at Fort Bragg, NC, to conduct individual and group training in psychological warfare and unconventional warfare.
June 19, 1952: Colonel Aaron Bank activates the 10th Special Forces Group at Fort Bragg, NC. This is the first of the Special Forces Groups.
February 27, 1953: The first of ninety-nine Special Forces trained soldiers arrive to serve in the Korean War. They fall in on the guerrilla warfare campaign already in progress.
December 1953: The 10th Special Forces Group forward deploys roughly half its number to Bad Tolz, Germany. Those remaining behind form the 77th Special Forces Group.
June 12, 1955: The Green Beret is first worn on parade at Fort Bragg, NC. In 1953 a beret whose design was based on that of the Canadian Army pattern, and which was rifle-green in colour, was chosen by Special Forces units. Their new headgear was first worn at a retirement parade at Fort Bragg on 12 June, 1955 at a retirement parade at Fort Bragg for Lt. Gen. Joseph P. Cleland, the now-former commander of the XVIII Airborne Corps. Onlookers thought that the commandos were a foreign delegation from NATO.
1956: Major General Paul D. Adams, commanding officer, XVIII Airborne Corps, Fort Bragg, NC, banned the use of the Green Beret by the men of the Special Forces. It was worn anyway for unit identity and esprit. The decision would be reversed September 28, 1961.
June 24, 1957: The 1st Special Forces Group (Airborne) is activated at Fort Buckner, Okinawa, Japan. This is the first Special Forces unit focused on the Asian theatre. For the next seventeen years, the Group carries out a variety of missions in the Asian and Pacific region, including civic action, foreign internal defence, counterinsurgency, reconnaissance, and disaster relief.
