Both Delta Force and the Navy’s SEAL Team Six trace their origins to an outburst of political violence in the 1970s.
HorseHillary
Operation Delta formed around 1964 as "Delta Project" in VN. It was a SF B-team with the designation of B-52. I had a lot of friends in B-52 and used to drink in their NCO club when I was visiting Nha Trang.
Delta doesn't have Lt's or buck sergeants because people with those ranks are,by definition,lacking in experience. I have no idea what their selection process is these days,but originally you were assigned to Delta/B-52 because you were invited to volunteer after being recommended by someone with operational experience and respect already in Delta. The key requirement other than experience was the answer to the question "Would you accept this man on YOUR team to go into combat with?"
Also,NOBODY was just "assigned" to Delta/B-52. If the Delta CO or SGM didn't want you for whatever reason,you didn't get assigned there. Period. You had to volunteer and then be accepted.
One obvious exception to that "No E-5 or below rule" was a friend of mine who will only be named as "Lonesome Dave",who was a Sgt E-5 for both tours with Delta. Lonesome Dave had would would politely be called a "drinking problem". He also had a problem with his parents,who were BOTH fundie preachers who evidently started screaming at him that he was going to hell for touching himself when he was a toddler,and it got worse as he got older. Dave and I were friends on Okinawa,and came down on the same set of orders to go to VN. He had been TDY to Delta from Okie a couple of times,so he automatically went there when he was assigned to the 5th group in VN.
Dave hated his parents so bad he didn't even go home on leave before going to VN. He just stayed at Bragg until it was time to catch a plane. We flew to VN together on the same jet and reported in the same day. He was who I was visiting everytime I was on standdown in Nha Trang. I was a little worried about him. He would blackout while drinking in NV bars downtown,but all the "street kids" and bar girls in Nha Trang seemed to know him and look out for him. If he passed out in a bar,a couple of the bar girls would just sit there with him after the bar closed to make sure he made it back to B-52 alright. Everytime we were walking around in downtown Nha Trang,there would be at least 3 or 4 of the "street kids" following us around to watch out for him. One time they even warned us to get back to B-52 because there was going to be a bomb explosion. What money Dave didn't spend on drinking,he gave to the street kids so they could buy clothes and eat. Nobody EVER had a more effective bodyguard unit downtown than Lonesome Dave.
One night we were downtown drinking in a bar shortly before Christmas,and Dave had the "bar photographer" take a color photo of him to put in a Christmas Card to send to his parents in Kansas. There he was sitting in a booth with two bargirls with their tops down and smiling at the camera,with the table pulled away so you could see his pants were down around his knees,and both bar girls had a hand on his "business". He wrote "Merry Christmas Mom,Love Dave" on the card he glued the photo to when he mailed it.
The last time I visited Dave he wasn't there and I was told it wasn't likely he would ever come back. His recon team had been ambushed in Laos,and Dave got all shot up trying to save his teammates while fighting off the NVA. The word I got then was he was medievaced to Japan after being stabilized,and they had no idea if he would live or not,but there was no question about him never being able to remain on duty in the army. He was also supposed to have been put in for a DSC or a MoH,but there seemed to be some confusion over that,or even that he would get either because there was nobody alive who were actual witnesses to what happened.
I still wonder about him. Never saw his name listed as KIA in the Army Times,so I assume he survived and most likely drank himself to death.
If asked,you didn't have to agree and there were no "marks" real or imaginary against your record if you refused,but I am guessing damn few people refused,and any that did refused because they didn't want to leave their current team members in a lurch and having to depend on a replacement who was unknown or who hadn't proven himself.
It's not for everybody,even if you are asked. Lots of family guys don't want it because of so much time spend in isolation or on missions means even more time away from their families than on normal A-Teams.
