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Old 07-19-2013, 07:25   #1
Richard
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"Hunting Che"

"Pappy" Shelton's 8th SFGA team's mission to train the Bolivian Rangers who ran Che to ground.

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U.S. Special Forces Mission Contributed To Che Guevara’s Demise
KCStar, 18 Jul 2013

By 1967, Ernesto “Che” Guevara, hero of the Cuban revolution, glamorous spirit of anti-imperial, anti-capitalist populism, had gone underground. Was he in hiding or dead? The U.S. had no idea.

When rumors emerged that Che might be operating in the mountainous forests of southeast Bolivia, red flags and fear rose in the halls of that U.S.-backed nation’s leadership.

Why Bolivia? It was the poorest of the poor countries of South America, and its landlocked terrain was surrounded by equally vulnerable regions of Peru, Argentina, Chile, Paraguay and Brazil.

Twice that spring, Bolivian soldiers were ambushed by guerrillas while on patrol in wooded ravines. News and rumors of the casualties and of the pitiful performance of the Bolivian army was dispiriting to Bolivia’s president, René Barrientos Ortuno, a former general and coup leader who soon declared a state of siege.

And, of course, he needed help.

The U.S. military was already mired in Vietnam and wanted nothing more than a limited, advisory role in Bolivia. Cue Special Forces Maj. Ralph “Pappy” Shelton, who recruited a small team of soldiers and created a training mission in the Bolivian countryside.

In a remote village, Shelton found an abandoned sugar mill, which adequately served as a base of operations, and he proceeded to develop a program to transform hundreds of Bolivian campesinos into an elite force capable of addressing the new type of guerrilla warfare Che had so successfully engaged in 10 years earlier in the hills of Cuba.

In “Hunting Che,” two seasoned journalists, Mitch Weiss and Kevin Maurer, deliver a swift-reading narrative of Shelton’s high-pressure mission (he had a deadline of barely three months), of Che’s incipient rebellion and of the climactic collision that led to Che’s martyrdom and his legacy of pop-culture, souvenir-shelf superstardom.

Weiss and Maurer (author of a book on the Special Forces mission that killed Osama Bin Laden) note that few prior accounts of Che’s ill-fated last months spend more than a few paragraphs on the role of U.S. Special Forces. Their documentary research and interviews with numerous principals and witnesses gave them an enormous amount of detailed material with which to turn a slice of hidden history into a vivid, page-turning true tale.

Their portraits of Shelton, a 37-year-old guitar-toting Mississipian whose marriage was teetering in the face of his ongoing commitment to his military service; of Félix Rodríguez, a Cuban exile working for the CIA with a Che chip on his shoulder; and of Bolivians, such as an eager and bright young officer named Gary Prado Salmon, are convincing, emotionally complex and inspiring.

Shelton’s mission reverberates today as U.S. foreign policy is buffeted by popular and politically complex uprisings in the Middle East and as American troops are transitioning from combat to training roles in Afghanistan, a point affirmed in an afterword by an Army major.

The book’s portrait of Che undercuts his image as a brilliant guerrilla tactician. Near the end, his two squads of rebels had lost each other, and he emerged from the woods ragged and hungry.

On the other hand, he faced his end with unwavering principle and courage. The U.S. wanted him captured alive; the Bolivians demanded his death. The book’s tension-filled focus on CIA agent Rodríguez during the last few hours of Che’s life is riveting.

http://www.kansascity.com/2013/07/18...#storylink=cpy
Attached Images
File Type: jpg Hunting Che.jpg (40.8 KB, 125 views)
File Type: jpg Pappy Shelton.jpg (37.0 KB, 155 views)
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Old 07-19-2013, 08:13   #2
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One of my favorite chapters of Special Forces history...

Last edited by mark46th; 08-08-2013 at 08:48.
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Old 07-19-2013, 08:45   #3
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I met a SF guy that was from south Texas that was part of that operation. His story was a little different than the story line in this book.
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Old 07-19-2013, 09:11   #4
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Green Beret's sent to capture Che

I don't agree with the books title, it should read:

"How the Green Berets planned and led the hunt for Che (and gave the credit to the Bolivian Army)."
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Old 07-19-2013, 10:00   #5
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Angry THE TRUTH ABOUT CHE

What the low-information voters should see - the truth about Che. (It just frosts my a$$ to see idiots lionize a murdering COWARD.)

http://townhall.com/columnists/humbe...ying/page/full

http://townhall.com/columnists/humbe...us_anniversary

http://townhall.com/columnists/humbe...to_nuke_the_us

http://townhall.com/columnists/humbe...ghter-n1630120
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Last edited by Stobey; 07-19-2013 at 10:18. Reason: added another article
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Old 07-19-2013, 11:26   #6
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THIS is the photo of Che that should adorn tee-shirts:

http://imageshack.us/a/img706/6273/cj4.gif
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Old 07-19-2013, 12:19   #7
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I remember a pic of the team standing behind the body (in the sheet metal class room at Mackall.)
I also remember a pic of team members on JFK's boat off of the east coast.
Won't forget the original crossed arrows from the hat of an original cav scout (indian).
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Old 07-19-2013, 16:40   #8
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Still my favorite picture of Che...
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Old 07-19-2013, 17:12   #9
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Raising a glass of Colorado ale to the 8th!
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Old 07-19-2013, 17:32   #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Go Devil View Post
Won't forget the original crossed arrows from the hat of an original cav scout (indian).
If they were plain crossed arrows, they were FSSF insignia. The crossed arrows insignia of the United States Scouts (Native Americans serving as scouts for US Army cavalry units) had a USS atop the notch where the arrows crossed.

Richard
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“Almost any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so.” - Robert Heinlein
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Old 07-19-2013, 22:22   #11
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Originally Posted by twistedsquid View Post
Raising a glass of Colorado ale to the 8th!
I'll drink to that!

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Old 07-20-2013, 03:36   #12
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Quote:
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If they were plain crossed arrows, they were FSSF insignia. The crossed arrows insignia of the United States Scouts (Native Americans serving as scouts for US Army cavalry units) had a USS atop the notch where the arrows crossed.

Richard
Yes Richard, they had the USS above the notch.
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Old 07-20-2013, 06:48   #13
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Yes Richard, they had the USS above the notch.
Nice.
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“Sometimes the Bible in the hand of one man is worse than a whisky bottle in the hand of (another)… There are just some kind of men who – who’re so busy worrying about the next world they’ve never learned to live in this one, and you can look down the street and see the results.” - To Kill A Mockingbird (Atticus Finch)

“Almost any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so.” - Robert Heinlein
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Old 07-20-2013, 06:51   #14
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Raising a glass of Colorado ale to the 8th!
Ditto! To the 8th SFG(A) !!!
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Old 07-20-2013, 07:04   #15
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Thanks for posting, Richard. I just downloaded it onto my Kindle. I've always been interested in this operation. I got to briefly meet Shelton 20 odd years ago in Memphis.
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