Continuing with 'Surprise,Kill, Vanish' By Annie Jacobson

... On June 19, 1952, the army activated its first unconventional-warfare unit at Fort Bragg, in North Carolina, consisting of one officer, one warrant officer, and seven enlisted men. The group’s first commander was O.S.S. Jed-burgh, Colonel Aaron Bank. By the end of the month, 122 soldiers of all ranks were present for duty. In November of the following year, the 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne) received overseas orders and sailed for Europe. They arrived at Bremerhaven and then traveled by train to Bad Tölz. Their facility was a former Nazi training facility for the Waffen-SS.

The group’s original mission was to conduct unconventional warfare behind enemy lines in the event of a Soviet invasion of Europe, modeled after what the O.S.S. Jed-burghs had accomplished in France. These small twelve-man units were called A-Detachments or A-Teams. Each was made up of two officers and ten non-commissioned officers, or N.C.O's. Every individual on the team had to pass months of training and a series of grueling tests to become Special Forces– qualified and wear the green beret. Each A-Team would be capable of infiltrating a target by air, land, or sea and ex-filtrating stealthily. Each team, led by a captain, had members trained in weapons, demolition and engineering, medical, communications, and operations and intelligence. They would build their own bases, conduct their own perimeter defense, and be able to operate in hostile territory for an indefinite period of time. Everyone on the team was schooled in at least one foreign language.

The members of this new group called Special Forces prided themselves on being a certain breed of soldier with distinct temperaments and special abilities. “Hard-bitten troopers who were willing to take calculated risks and face challenges that conventional units need never be concerned with,” said Bank. Men born of an “almost inhuman ability” to absorb any stressful situation and carry on into battle without letting mental concerns or emotions get in the way. Operators needed to be extremely competitive, self-reliant, stress-resistant, and stoic to the point of arrogant.
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