Background: G.D. "Mad Dog" Sabo was born in upstate Maine in January 1959. His father was a fisherman on a commercial boat and his mother a seamstress for a small textile company. He had 2 older siblings 2 sisters, 7 and 4 years older than he and lived with his Albanian maternal grandmother Ilga. They lived an upper lower income life. Had a normal childhood and worked on a small private fishing boat during teen years. In 1977 he entered the U.S. Army in hopes to get some money for college. He joined the Airborne because his Grandfather served in the airborne in WWII.

He hated the airborne life because it was nothing but spit and polish all the time. He took night courses to improve his education and have a better chance to get into college. In 1982 he had the chance to transfer to 75 Infantry Regiment. He served with E/2 Battalion as a radio operator for the Company scout platoon. He jumped into Grenada where he suffered 2 sprained ankles and a bruised rib. In 1983 he married his ex-wife and a year later had a son named Michael. In 1984 after the birth of his son he passed the SF Q course and was transferred to 10th Group in West Germany. Two years later he divorced his wife which took everything he had and in 1988 he switched to the 12th Special Forces Group (A) Reserve stationed in Northern New Your State.

In 1988 he entered a no-thrills college and in 1992 received his B.A. in Journalism. A few months later his reserve unit was shipped out to Bosnia for 6 months. He wrote 2 articles, one was published in Soldier of Fortune magazine. From 1992 to 1996 he worked at first part time as a special contributor for SOF and then in 1995 he was awarded a full time position. June 1996 he was called back to active duty when the 12th SFG(A)R was activated to active duty. His unit was sent to Norway and fought raid-type actions in Northern Norway, Sweden, and Finland. He had a no-quarter attitude and was part of some very productive raids. One raid in late 1997 was tremendously vicious. Team 1006, RT Washington (Force Recon), Team 4 SEAL Team 3, and a team from the 22nd SAS Regiment made a fast raid against a port in Northern Norway. The port was for helicopters that patrolled the North Sea. When his captain was severely wounded he continued the raid and with a group of only 23 men managed to destroy 9 helicopters and inflict an estimated 52 dead at the cost of only 1 dead and 3 wounded. He received his nickname when he took his wounded SAW gunner's 249 and started to lay down an incredible amount of fire then managed to get hit in the upper left arm and charge a bunker position, laying a satchel charge to take it out.

In late 1998 the unit was transferred to Southern Germany. G.D. was put in command of a 10 man SF A-Team and was instructed to assemble a hand picked team to drop into Western Ukraine and assist partisan activity in that area. The team was dropped in early 1999 and operated with some success until late 1999 when operating in the Lvov area his A-team was heavily engaged by the 70th Motorized Rifles Division (Russian). His team made a long, arduous trek west through the Carpathian Mountains into Poland, only to be captured shortly after their crossing. Of the 10 men, his team sergeant (his best friend) First Sergeant Brad McReanolds was lost on one of the many mountain peaks while in a firefight and snowstorm. His XO CWO-1 Fred Kurtz was killed by gunfire. Commo Sergeant Jimenez, CBE Sergeant Martin, Weapon Staff Sergeant Wolf, and Specialist Flynn were lost to the elements. Of the 4 remaining team members 2 were lost when they split up upon reaching Poland, Staff Sergeant Wills was lost to disease and Master Sergeant Aldo "Doc" Maldoon was lost to gangrene. Mad Dog was sent to the camp in early 2000.