History of Robin Sage
 

The History of Robin Sage
U.S. Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School

For more than 50 years the Robin Sage exercise has been the litmus test for Soldiers hoping to earn the coveted Green Beret of the Special Forces. It is during Robin Sage, held in the rural counties of North Carolina, that Soldiers must put all the skills they have learned throughout the Special Forces Qualification course to the test in an unconventional-warfare training exercise.

In 1952 Colonel Aaron Bank, the man known as the father of Special Forces, created Robin Sage which was designed to put Soldiers in “real world” scenarios that would test their training and adaptability. The first exercise was played out in the Chattahoochee National Forest in Georgia and later in the Pisgah and the Uwharrie National Forests in North Carolina.

In its earlier days, the exercise was known as Cherokee Trail and Gobbler’s Woods; however, the current operation derives its name from the town of Robbins, N.C., a central area of operations for the exercise, and former Army Colonel Jerry Sage, a World War II veteran and an Office of Strategic Services, or OSS, officer who taught unconventional-warfare tactics.

Robin Sage Facts

• The exercise is conducted over 8,500 square miles.
  
• Conducted in 15-county area: Alamance, Anson, Cabarrus, Chatham, Davidson, Guilford, Hoke, Montgomery, Moore, Randolph, Richmond, Rowan, Scotland, Stanly and Union.
  
• Approximately 1,000 people participate in the exercise including students, cadre, civilian auxiliary and military role players.
  
• Approximately 400 North Carolina residents volunteer support for each iteration of Robin Sage.
  
• Robin Sage is conducted 8 times per year and is part of the Special Forces Training Pipeline.

Big Teddy :munchin

History of Robin Sage
 

Branch FTX Jan '65.
We had a CI "B" and a UW "B" Team plus X number of CI and UW "A" Teams.
Pisgah National Forest was our AO and the DZ was off the North end of Lake James.

BMT

"current operation derives its name from the town of Robbins, N.C., a central area of operations for the exercise, and former Army Colonel Jerry Sage, a World War II veteran and an Office of Strategic Services,. . . "

Teddy, that is pretty cool. I never knew that. Thanks.

I like how the towns people take part. That is pretty damn cool, that and the fact that The Reaper is in free Pineland.;)

Funny thing you brought up TR,rummer has it(although this has never been proven or verified)that he's actually the Bearded One..........:( That's all I dare to say at this time......:( Even insinuating this rummer is(:()so if you don't see any more posts from me you'll know why.........:(

Big Teddy

Oh really! As in the one from... Oh, never mind. It didn't hurt that much...

I dont know about Gobbler Woods, but when I went through SFTG Cherokee Trail was only for enlisted candidates, officers did there own thing.

It was the same for me in Gobblers' Woods in '71. No officers. One of our O&I NCOs acted as Det Cdr, and other roles were distributed accordingly. I got to be Intel NCO! (We had plenty of Weapons NCOs).

While I was in holdover status after graduation from Phase III, awaiting my orders to be changed from 10th to 8th, I (along with some others) got to "assist" the current crop of officers in their SF training. They were rigging door bundles... although their part was watching US rig the door bundles. (I guess they were really learning how to supervise the rigging of door bundles.:D)

Somebody brought a gorilla mask out there one iteration, and before the ODA's infiled, I briefed the support troops about the "skunk ape" danger in the area.

I laughed my ass off periodically over the entire 11 days every time one of the G's would run wide-eyed up to my hooch to report a "skunk ape" sighting. :D

My swic time went by fast in Third Phase.

You can find a more detailed history of Robin Sage in the 2012 summer edition of "The Drop"

It startes out with the one of the first FTX named SNOWDROP in 1952.

Very cool read! :)

Thanks for that.....I just found that resource...although the one you mentioned is still "coming soon". I'll read the other back issues until Summer 12 issue becomes available.

I've been looking for early US Army SF training pipeline content and have been put onto a few good nuggets recently, I'm looking forward to reading this one.

Cheers!

Moved---