I don't know about 'first public' wearing...might be a better way to describe it as first appearance before a POTUS as I think it was being worn ' publicly' but ' unofficially' long before 1961... 
Attchd pics: - COL Edson Raff, 77th SFGA CDR 1953-1954
- 77TH SFGA EM 1955
- 10TH SFGA Officer 1955
LTG Yarborough, in a 12 May 1971 letter to then JFKCENMA CDR BG Emerson, credited COL Raff as being the proponent for pushing the wearing the green beret based on his experiences with allied airborne forces and commandos during WW2.
http://www.groups.sfahq.com/sf_heral...bg_emerson.htm
Richard 
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