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Maybe someone should ask Mr William Mattingly if he would like to joins us??

How Col. Beckwith Developed the Concept of Delta Force and Special Forces
April 14, 2008 by William Mattingly William Mattingly Published Content: 96 Total Views: 24,030 Favorited By: 11 CPs Full Profile | Subscribe | Add to Favorites Recommend (4)Single page Font SizeRead comments (2)


Colonel Charles Beckwith is one of the United States' most recognized colonels. He fought diligently in various wars and missions the United States has participated in, legally, and most likely, illegally. He is one of the founding officers of the elite unit inside the Army known as Delta Force, which for the longest time was a secret to the civilian population. Delta Force only came to popularity from its heroic work in Somalia, made famous by the movie Black Hawk Down. But Delta Force, unlike most civilians understand, is not the work of Colonel Beckwith. This article will describe how Colonel Beckwith gained the concepts to form Delta Force, based on his book, Delta Force: The Army's Elite Counterterrorist Unite.

Colonel Beckwith in 1960 went to England, with his wife and daughters, to participate in observing the British Special Air Services (S.A.S.), the equivilant in title to Untied States Army Green Berets, or Special Forces, except on a scale far above these units. The United States Special Forces units were not developed until 1958, far later than the British S.A.S.

During Colonel Beckwith's time with the S.A.S. he held the rank of Captain, earning their respect after several cultural barriers were broken. For example, in Britain the special forces hold very little care for their appearance or organization. Unlike the uptight Captain Beckwith, later to be Colonel, they were in his opinion, very undisciplined. But, Colonel Beckwith soon learned of their unusual ways and realized they were in fact the best soldiers in the world, beating him in nearly every competition until later in his training with them.

Once adapted to the British S.A.S. customs, Colonel Beckwith learned strategies to break men in special forces. He learned to place them in physically impossible conditions and see how they acted; testing to see if they had what it took to never give up. They would also ask S.A.S. impossible questions to answer, defining the person's morality in the situation. Finally, Colonel Beckwith observed the ability of the S.A.S. to accomplish long marches with 50 lbs. in amazing time, usually running.

These aspects that Colonel Beckwith learned during his time with the British S.A.S. have clearly filtered into our current Special Forces training and assessment, also known as SFAS. Another form of this is Ranger School, though its toughness is arguable when compared to SFAS and Navy Seal's Hell Week. It is without a doubt, Colonel Beckwith's determination that shaped American Special Forces.

Source: Delta Force: The Army's Elite Counterterrorist Unite. Charlie A. Beckwith and Donald Knox. Avon Publishing