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Gerry Boykin was a CPT during Desert One, I think the GO was GEN Moore but I am having trouble remembering what I had for breakfast this morning. Desert One, while a tactical failure, was a strategic success in that it resulted in Goldwater-Nichols and started the ball rolling for SF.
As far as successes, there are a lot of things that will probably never see the light of day. I know that there are folks here that know of successes and have participated in individual and team actions that have played roles that have had and are still producing results of national significance. SF folks have swayed governments, changed the courses of history, and have established liasions with foreign nationals that have allowed actions by our own country that would have not otherwise been possible without great expenditures of national treasure and lives. I have always thought that the one item of equipment that was missing from SF MTOEs/MTDAs were the wheel barrows that would have been helpful in carrying their balls around. Their impact has been profound, for instance, during the time of the USSR, the soviet's doctrine called for committing up to a division of folks to try and locate and destroy a single SFODA if they felt one had been deployed into their AO. The history of SF is as diverse as the individuals and the assignments that they have held. Again, for instance, I really do not think that you could write a representative story of an A Camp in SVN because each was so different than the other. Or an A-Team because each group has different orientations and environments. The history of SF is really about people and teams and it goes to the core of what makes up the SF soldier. I may be biased here, but I really do not think that SF has ever failed but I do think that there have been many instances where SF has been failed to be supported, properly committed and , unfortunately, poorly lead. Even during those instances they have been able to make chicken salad out of chicken.... well you know the rest.
Jack Moroney-standing in the shadow of great soldiers and good friends.
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