The Ghosts are some of the most feared and lethal special forces you’ll come across. Their ability
to strike anywhere, anytime stokes fear in the hearts of even the most battle-hardened enemies.
The Ghosts’ preferred method of attacking at night in small groups and vanishing away like they
were never there is a hallmark of their trade. Because of their incredibly top-secret missions,
little is known about them. It’s rumored that only the President and a few top
generals even know of the group's existence. Any publication of the group's activities
could compromise the Ghosts' operational security. Still, despite all the secrecy,
the group’s reputation has a shred of truth. The Ghosts, made famous by the series of Tom
Clancy novels, are actually based on an actual US special forces group. While this tiny group
of special operators does not exist, the myths, as portrayed in novels or movies like Rambo and
Apocalypse Now, are not too far from the truth. Though the unit “The Ghosts” never
actually existed and is a figment of Tom Clancy's imagination, the actual group he based these
special operators on is still just as remarkable. The real unit that all these books and movies
based their characters on was the 5th Special Forces Group. This unit is a Green Beret unit
in the US Army. Their mission was to infiltrate behind enemy lines and lead groups of indigenous
soldiers to bring the fight to the enemy. With the unit tracing its roots to World War Two,
the Army officially stood it up in 1961 and was among the first
American units sent to South Vietnam in 1962. Though the group received no additional special
training than other Green Berets, it appears that the stars aligned to place the group’s personnel
among some of the most difficult circumstances with some of the Army’s most brilliant and
innovative thinkers. As a result of its Vietnam service, it became the most heavily decorated unit
in the Army for its size, with its members earning an astonishing 19 of its personnel being awarded
the Medal of Honor and hundreds more earning Distinguished Service Crosses and Silver Stars.
When the 5th Special Forces Group deployed to Vietnam, the situation was a mess. South
Vietnamese forces had been pushed out of most of the countryside and only controlled small swathes
of territory around major cities. Viet Cong guerillas openly moved without fear of attack and
subjected the country’s population to their rule. Though the Green Berets of the 5th Special Forces
Group had their work cut out for them, such a situation was exactly what they had trained to do.
The 5th Special Forces Group and other Green Berets in the country started implementing what
would become their tried and true strategy. Instead of having large groups of special
operators conduct missions all by themselves, the units split up companies of Green Berets
into small teams. These teams would then fan out into hostile territory to contact local leaders,
recruit soldiers, and train them to take the fight to the enemy.
The 5th Special Forces Group would eventually perfect the model of the fortified camp. These
camps were designed and built by group members that wanted an easily defendable camp. Too often,
isolated outposts got overrun, so by building these camps to withstand attack;
unit members could not only defend a location for longer but use these bases as stepping
stones to push deeper into Viet Cong territory. For the first several years the 5th Special
Forces Group was there; they mainly spent their time building relationships with local
elders and building up their forces. Though smaller-scale raids and attacks often occurred,
building the forces necessary to take back territory held by the Viet Cong would take years.
Starting around 1964, the 5th Special Forces Group finally had enough manpower
in place to truly begin its counteroffensives. Because the Viet Cong preferred to move around
during the cover of darkness, it was here that the men decided to strike. In fact,
night attacks became so common that by 1967, over 90% of the unit's operations
took place at night. Perhaps this liking of the dark inspired the mythos of the Ghosts.
During these raids, the Ghosts sought to inflict the most damage they could. They often sought
out enemy command and control, logistics, and large troop formations in the open. Through the
training of the local Vietnamese, the group was able to retake over 50% of the territory openly
controlled by the enemy by the end of 1967. The men had to develop many innovative tactics
to accomplish such an amazing feat. One of these was attacking from watercraft. Because
much of the country is covered in water, especially during the monsoon seasons,
the men had to figure out how to bring the fight to the Viet Cong even when water was
blocking their way. To this end, the men requested several commercial airboats to make the rainy
season a tactical advantage for the operators. After requesting a trial run of 4 boats in 1964,
they quickly became so effective that a further 80 were ordered by the unit. During their time in
Vietnam, the 5th Special Forces Group became the only Green Beret unit to operate such a craft,
and their battlefield effectiveness became very impressive. The boats allowed operators to serve
as the eyes and ears for Vietnamese units that allowed them to go through any dike,
rice fields, or flooded streams. Its shallow draft, high speed, and heavy weaponry made
it possible to bring the fight to the enemy even when he thought he was safe.
Eventually, the 5th Special Group gained so much notoriety that it was personally
selected by General Westmoreland to open the in-country reconnaissance school known
as the Recondo School. The infamous Recondo school was a three-week course that could teach
120 students all the basics of being a special operator. From long-range patrolling and evasion
tactics to scuba diving and parachuting, the Recondo School hoped to be a force multiplier
that provided practical combat training from some of the finest operators in US military service.
The school was no joke and has been remarked as the most dangerous school the US Army has ever
run. This is because the final event culminated in an actual combat patrol through enemy-controlled
territory. Because of this, there are several known instances of students being killed before
graduation because of this final mission. While the mythos of the Recondo School
certainly added to the 5th Special Forces Group's legendary status, the individuals
that served in the unit did more than enough to create the myth around the invincibility of the
men who served in it. Such a sentiment is no better felt than in the stories of two of the
unit's most celebrated Medal of Honor awardees. The first man to gain international notoriety was
Bennie G. Adkins. After arriving in the country in 1965, he served as an intelligence analyst for the
group in Da Nang. When one of the men in a nearby team was wounded, he was sent to that camp to
take his spot. Little did he know that it would be the most influential decision in his life.
The camp Adkins was sent to was in a horrible spot in the middle of the A Shau Valley.
Surrounded by mountains and in an area that constantly flooded, the 17-man team,
along with several companies of local troops, knew their position was untenable. It became even worse
when several prisoners started warning of a major assault in the coming days when the weather was
bad so that US aircraft could not operate. In the early morning hours of March 9, 1966, it happened.
An estimated force of 2000 North Vietnamese regulars attacked the camp. As soon as it started,
one of the locally recruited companies switched sides and joined in on the attack. For the next 38
hours, Adkins led the defense of the camp. Using rifles, machine guns, mortars, and his knife,
he killed between 135 to 175 NVA troops. After Marine helicopters were finally able to land
to evacuate the wounded, when he returned to the landing zone to exfiltrate, he found that he and
several other Green Berets had been left behind. Making their escape on foot, they evaded NVA
patrols for two full days. According to Adkins, they got help in their evasion
from an unlikely source. A very rare Vietnamese tiger was stalking the group on the second day,
and NVA soldiers apparently pulled back in the pursuit so as not to get attacked
by the tiger. He then used his shotgun as a makeshift antenna on his radio because the
original antenna had been shot off and used it to call in for a helicopter extraction. When he
returned to friendly lines, he was treated for 18 different gunshot, shrapnel, and stab wounds.
Sgt. Roy Benavidez faced a similar scenario on May 2, 1968. Helicopters had inserted a 5th
Special Forces Group team of 12 men and a nine-man Vietnamese team into hostile territory. However,
soon after insertion, the group became surrounded by a 1,000-man-strong Viet Cong
battalion. Monitoring the situation by radio back at base, Benavidez volunteered to help extract
the wounded when they radioed that every man was a casualty and no one could get to the landing zone.
Armed with only a knife, Benavidez jumped from the moving helicopter into the kill zone. Shot
three times before he even made it to the team, he quickly started helping the wounded to escape.
During this time, Viet Cong troops came in to finish the group off. At one point,
an enemy soldier stabbed him in the back only for him to turn around and kill the soldier with his
knife. He then made multiple trips to the landing zone to get all the casualties out of the area.
Once the battle was done, on the helo ride back to base, Army medics thought Benavidez was dead
due to the 37 separate bullet, shrapnel, and bayonet wounds he had suffered. It was not
until an Army doctor opened the body bag he was in and spit in his face in anger that medical staff
realized this bloodied man was still alive. The 5th Special Forces Group would continue
its storied Vietnam service by providing the bulk of the Army representation to the
MACV-SOG unit. This super secret unit comprised of the nation's best special forces operators and
CIA operatives led the most covert missions in the war. Unfortunately for the public, most of
their missions to this day remain classified and this is a common theme throughout the 5th Special
Forces Group's history from Vietnam until now. Though the group has been known to have served
in several conflicts and operations since Vietnam, very little of this information
has been declassified. The unit's involvement in the First Gulf War was a prime example of this.
The unit received numerous honors and praise from American generals for its work in reconnaissance
and direct action during this conflict. The men were the first allied ground troops to
enter Iraq and did so weeks before the official ground invasion kicked off. Though their official
unit history lists the group conducting countless direct action raids on Iraqi command and control
targets, all these missions remain classified. Though a large portion of the unit's missions
is still classified, one interesting mission worth noting known to the public was its role
in helping General Schwarzkopf plan his epic left hook. Because General Schwarzkopf wanted
the Iraqi Army to think his main thrust would come through Kuwait and not through the open
deserts of southern Iraq, he needed to figure out if this was indeed possible.
Most of his staff actually said that terrain was not suitable for the heavy main battle tanks he
wanted to drive across the desert. To ensure his plan could work, a 5th Special Forces Group team
inserted over 200 miles into Iraqi territory and trekked back to the Saudi Arabian border to
collect soil samples the whole way of the planned invasion. The soil samples these special operators
collected proved to General Schwarzkopf that the terrain was suitable for heavy tanks, and because
of this, the invasion kicked off as planned. Though the unit was tasked with highly
sensitive operations during the 2003 invasion of Iraq, namely being part
of the task force to capture Saddam Hussein, the unit’s exploits during the War on Terror
remain classified with one notable exception. Within two days of the September 11 attacks,
helicopters inserted a 12-man team alongside several CIA officers into
Northern Afghanistan. With the CIA officers carrying millions in cash to buy local support,
the Green Berets from the 5th Special Forces group started to work with the only viable
local force in Afghanistan capable of taking on the Taliban: General Dostum’s Northern Alliance.
After a harrowing 18-hour helicopter insertion in near blackout conditions
that set a world record for the longest heliborne insertion in military history,
the group quickly set about setting another Army record. Because the terrain of northern
Afghanistan was incredibly mountainous, dropping in vehicles was not an option. Walking was simply
out of the question due to the speed needed, so the group opted for the next best option: horses.
General Dostum and his men frequently traveled on horseback to get around quickly. Though
only one of the soldiers had even ridden a horse before, they all quickly became proficient. Soon,
the men were even better than their Afghan allies and set to work calling in airstrikes and advising
General Dostum on how to retake Afghanistan. After retaking the northern city of Kunduz,
the Army moved south to the major city of Mazar-i-Sharif. The city was one of the Taliban’s
main strongholds outside Kabul, and taking it out would break the back of the Taliban. After weeks
of leading Afghan troops on horseback and calling in airstrikes that decimated Taliban formations,
the Northern Alliance was victorious. Though several other Green Beret teams
were inserted within weeks of the first and also traveled on horseback with some of the
world's finest saddles airdropped into the country, the first team is what directors
made the famous movie 12 Strong about this first group. Because they were the first,
the team had the distinction of being the first Army unit to ride horses into combat
since the battle for the Philippines in 1942. Even though the unit's early Afghan exploits
propelled it into international fame, its day-in and day-out activities that never make it to
the big screen are what really solidified its reputation among pop culture as The Ghosts.