A Living Legend; AND it is my privilege to call him, Friend and adopted Brother.
Command Sergeant Major William E. Edge
Retired
United States Army Special Forces
"What is so Special About Special Forces"
By: Command Sergeant Major William E. Edge
Whats so special about Special Forces?
I've been asked that question for twenty
years and answering it for thirteen. To
me, this is whats so special about
Special Forces:
It's the only combat unit in the Army where enlisted
men can and do command troops, in schools as
teachers, in guerrilla bands as organizers and
leaders, in foreign armies as advisors and leaders.
Where else can staff sergeants be assigned as platoon leaders,
sergeants first class as company
commanders and master sergeants as batallion commanders?
You dont think three companies of 150 men each and a 40 man
scout platoon is a battalion? Why,
because they were "Yards, or Cambodians, or Nungs"?
Hogwash. Did you ever hear of the Mike Force? Delta? Sigma?
Omega? CCN? Did you ever hear
of the Snake teams or the States teams? All of these were led
by US Special Forces men and NOT
by the bare-chested, snake-eating, guitar-playing, media-induced
image of the Green Berets,
God-how I hate that term applied to men.
Damn it, a green beret is a hat and nothing but a hat! Special
Forces are SOLDIERS! The Special
Forces I refer to are the men who worked from Khe San, Ashau,
Phu Bai, Kontum, Dak To, Lang
Vie and a thousand other places that were denied to the enemy
because 12 or 6 US soldiers lived
there and dared "Charlie " to come and take it.
And He did, and other Special Forces soldiers and their "Yards,
Cambodes, and Nungs" in the
Mike force went and fell on him and waged a gut-twisting war
on him, no quarter asked, none
given. War waged at the bottom of the line--No big 175s, no
8 inchers for cover, Air when you
could get it, and we got plenty, usually called in by Sergeants,
those lovely big HOBOS and the
sleek fast movers all bringing death from the sky to our common
enemy.
Special Forces NCOs played such roles. Sixteen Medals Of Honor,
more than 50 DSCs. 50% of
them posthumously awarded were a partial reward.
The heart of the SF group is the A detachment. 10 Sergeants
and two officers. a self contained, do
anything group of men. And yet they are the first to tell you
it cannot be done with out the
support of those unsung heros who man the supply, commo, personnel,
psy war, civic action and
flight organizations farther back.
You see it really is a team, and the A team is only a part,
the blade of the ax. But it takes the
whole ax to cut the tree, and thats the real SF, the whole ax.
Officers, good men with blisters and
cuts from stringing wire, sunburn and bug bites from filling
sandbags, bruised shoulders from
firing BARs and M1919A6s [oldies but goodies] right there in
the mud and blood with their
troops.
These officers wore oak leaves and bars, but you could not tell
because their shirts were hanging
on a tree limb while they sweated with the troops. BlueMax,
Splash, Iron Mike, the Greek, Roger
P, Bucky, and a blue-eyed black captain with steel nerves were
leaders you could respect and never
forget.
Hard-eyed Majors who personally led a relief party to rescue
a wounded sergeant first class, cut
off, lost and pursued by the remnants of an NVA company, and
brought him out alive, shot but
alive. Lean and mean "slick" pilots who stood that groaning
"HUEY" on it's tail to load wounded
"Yards" or yanked you out on a McQuire rig for a ride you would
not forget. And soft voiced
chaplains giving comfort to the dying in a bloody mortar pit
in the drenching rain, to a man
whose God was probably a spirit.
And the Medics, Ah, those Medics, the eighth wonder of the world.
Their routine feats read too
much like fiction, but they were more than that, they were also
superb riflemen, scouts, killers as
well as healers.
That was Special Forces; it wasn't all Sporting Bar and Saigon.
Rather it was hard-eyed reality and
too much death. We had our crooks and drunks and quitters all
to our shame. We also had our
GIANTS, and by God, most were enlisted men, there because they
wanted to be there.
Profesionals, now semi-dormant, training as force multipliers,
honing their skills. They are few in
number but strong in mind and spitit. They await the next call.
Oh, how I will miss them, their freindship, respect, their scorn
and hate. Its all part of being
special. Mr. Webster defines Special as "distinguished by some
uncommon quality, designed or
selected for some particular purpose, having an individual character,
noteworthy, unique."
And remember, go to any division in the US Army and count the
right shoulder patches, you will
see that Special Forces cadred out a lot of top notch talent
to the rest of the Army. I'm sure you
get the point.
Anyway thats how I answer the question.
Command Sergeant Major
William E. Edge
USAJFKCSW
(United States Army John F. Kennedy Center for Special Warfare)
Command Sergeant Major Edge's military career spanned more than
28 years, from recruit on September 1, 1948 to December 31, 1976; when
he retired from the U.S. Army as the Command Sergeant Major of the United
States Army John F. Kennedy Center for Special Warfare. The top enlisted
man in all of Special Forces.
He saw Combat in two Wars, Korea and Vietnam. Few
men attain their dreams, but Command Sergeant Major William E. Edge attained
what all of the enlisted men in the U.S. Army dream for, the top slot as
the top Non-Commissioned Officer (NCO) of Special Forces. I heard
one man remark about CSM Edge; "He has become what I have wanted to be,
and did what I always wanted to do."
He earned and was awarded the following Medals:
Silver Star with Oak Leaf Cluster
Legion of Merit
Bronze Star with "V", with Three Oak Leaf Cluster�s
Purple Heart with Four Oak Leaf Cluster�s
Army Commendation Medal with "V", with Seven Oak Leaf Cluster�s
Air Medal
Korean Service Medal
Vietnam Service Medal
Vietnam Cross of Gallantry with Gold Star
Vietnam Cross of Gallantry with Silver Star
United Nations Service Medal
American Defense Medal
Occupation Medal
Meritorious Service Medal
Good Conduct Medal-eight awards.
Vietnam Honor Medal
Combat Infantryman Badge with Star for Korea and Vietnam
Master Jump Wings
HALO Wings (High Altitude, Low Opening)
Scuba Badge
He also earned and was awarded numerous American Unit and Foreign
awards,
and made over 7,000 jumps from Aircraft.
("V" means for Valor)
(Oak Leaf Cluster means another award of the same Medal.)
If you want to see more Writings of CSM Edge, and other Men and Women, click the button above.
