Billy Waugh | |
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| Birth name | William Dawson Waugh |
| Nicknames |
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| Born | (1929-12-01)December 1, 1929 Bastrop, Texas, U.S. |
| Died | April 4, 2023(2023-04-04) (aged 93) Tampa, Florida, U.S. |
| Allegiance | United States |
| Branch | United States Army |
| Service years | 1948–1972 |
| Rank | Command sergeant major |
| Unit | |
| Conflicts | Korean War Vietnam War War in Afghanistan Iraq War |
| Awards | Silver Star Legion of Merit Bronze Star Medal (4) Purple Heart (8) |
| Alma mater | |
| Other work | U.S. Postal Service (1972–1977) CIA (1977–2005) |
William Dawson Waugh (December 1, 1929 – April 4, 2023) was an American soldier andparamilitary operations officer whose career in clandestine operations with both theU.S. Army'sSpecial Forces and theCentral Intelligence Agency'sSpecial Activities Division spanned more than 50 years.
Waugh initially joined the U.S. Army during theKorean War, but following the war he quickly moved into Special Forces, first with10th Group, and later5th Group. In theVietnam War he served with variousdetachments conducting night raids and training irregular Vietnamese and Cambodian forces for attacks along theHo Chi Minh Trail. By the end of theVietnam War, he was serving as thecommand sergeant major ofMACV-SOG, an elite covert operations unit, where he conducted the first combathigh altitude-low opening (HALO) parachute jump in military history. He left the Army in 1972 with eightPurple Heart medals and aSilver Star. He spent the next five years as aletter carrier for theU.S. Postal Service.
In 1977 he joined the CIA's Special Activities Division. By the 1990s, he was serving inSudan tracking terrorist leadersCarlos the Jackal andOsama bin Laden. Following theSeptember 11 attacks, Waugh, by then aged 71, joinedODA 594 as one of the first on the ground during theU.S. invasion. He fought both Taliban andal-Qaeda fighters at theBattle of Tora Bora.
Waugh retired from the CIA in 2005 and died in 2023; his cremated remains were scattered in a HALO jump overRaeford Drop Zone, North Carolina. Much of his career remains classified.
Waugh was born inBastrop, Texas, on December 1, 1929. In 1945, upon meeting two localUnited States Marines who returned from the fighting inWorld War II, the then 15-year-old Waugh was inspired to enlist in theMarine Corps. Knowing that it was unlikely that he would be admitted in Texas because of his young age, Waugh devised a plan to hitchhike toLos Angeles, where he believed a person had to only be 16 to enlist. He got as far asLas Cruces,New Mexico, before he was arrested for having no identification and refusing to give his name to a local police officer. He was later released after securing enough money for a bus ticket back to Bastrop. Now committed to serving in the military once he finished school, Waugh became an excellent student atBastrop High School, graduating in 1947 with a 4.0 grade point average.[1]
Waugh enlisted in the United States Army in 1948, completingbasic training atFort Ord,California, in August of that year. He was accepted into theUnited States Army Airborne School and becameairborne qualified in December 1948. In April 1951, Waugh was assigned to the187th AirborneRegimental Combat Team (RCT) inKorea.[2]
Shortly after the end of theKorean War, Waugh met twoU.S. Army Special Forces members on a train in Germany. They informed him of openings for platoon sergeants; shortly after he requested a transfer.[3] He began training for the Special Forces, and earned the Green Beret in 1954, joining the10th Special Forces Group (SFG) inBad Tölz,West Germany.[2]
As U.S. involvement in theVietnam War increased, the United States began deploying Special Forces "A-teams" (Operational Detachment Alpha, or ODA, teams) toSoutheast Asia in support ofcounterinsurgency operations against theViet Cong (VC),North Vietnamese and otherCommunist forces. Waugh arrived inSouth Vietnam with his ODA in 1961 and began working alongsideCivilian Irregular Defense Groups there and inLaos.
In July 1965, he was serving with5th Special Forces Group A-team A-321 at Camp Bồng Sơn,Bình Định Province, commanded by CaptainParis Davis. Following a night raid with aRegional Forces unit on a VC encampment near Bong Son, the unit was engaged by a superior VC force. Many of the Regional Forces soldiers refused to fight and most of the A team were injured by VC fire, including Waugh, who was shot multiple times and left between the VC and U.S./South Vietnamese forces. Waugh was later rescued by Davis under fire.[4] He spent much of 1965 and 1966 recuperating atWalter Reed Hospital inWashington, D.C., eventually returning to duty with5th Special Forces Group in 1966. He received aSilver Star and aPurple Heart (his 6th) for the battle at Bong Son.
At this time Waugh joined theMilitary Assistance Command-Vietnam Studies and Observations Group (MACV-SOG). While working for SOG, Waugh helped train Vietnamese andCambodian forces inunconventional warfare tactics primarily directed against the North Vietnamese Army operating along theHo Chi Minh Trail.
Prior to his retirement from U.S. Army Special Forces service, Waugh was senior NCO (non-commissioned officer) of MACV-SOG's Command & Control North (CCN) based atMarble Mountain on the South China Sea shore a few miles south of Da Nang, Vietnam. Waugh held thisCommand Sergeant Major role during the covert unit's transition and name change to Task Force One Advisory Element (TF1AE). Waugh conducted the first combat High Altitude, Low Opening (HALO) jump,[5] a parachuting maneuver designed for rapid, undetected insertion into hostile territory. In October 1970, his team made a practice Combat Infiltration into the NVA-owned War Zone D, in South Vietnam, for reassembly training, etc.[5] Waugh also led the last combat special reconnaissance parachute insertion by American ArmySpecial Forces HALO parachutists into denied territory which was occupied by communist North Vietnamese Army troops on June 22, 1971.[2]
Waugh retired from active military duty at the rank ofsergeant major (E-9) on February 1, 1972.[2]
After Waugh retired from the military, he worked for theUnited States Postal Service until he accepted an offer in 1977 from ex-CIA officerEdwin P. Wilson to work in Libya on a contract to train that country's special forces. This was not an Agency-endorsed assignment and Waugh might have found himself in trouble with U.S. authorities if it were not for the fact that he was also approached by the CIA to work for the Agency while in Libya. The CIA tasked him with surveilling Libyan military installations and capabilities – this was of great interest to U.S. intelligence as Libya was receiving substantial military assistance from theSoviet Union at the time. Wilson was later indicted and convicted in 1979 of illegally selling weapons to Libya.[6][7] It was later found that theDepartment of Justice had relied on a false affidavit when prosecuting Wilson; as a result, Wilson's convictions were overturned in 2003 and he was freed the following year.[8]
CIA leadership under the Carter administration sought to distance itself from Waugh, so he took a job as the deputy chief of police at the U.S. ArmyKwajalein Missile Range in theMarshall Islands where he was tasked with trackingSovietsmall boat teams operating in the area to prevent them from stealing U.S. missile technology.[9]
By the late 1980s, Waugh had returned to the CIA. He took part in several important assignments inKhartoum,Sudan during the early 1990s, where he performed surveillance and intelligence gathering on terrorist leadersCarlos the Jackal andOsama bin Laden alongsideCofer Black.[7][10]
At the age of 71, Waugh participated inOperation Enduring Freedom from October to December 2001 as a member of the CIA's Northern Alliance Liaison Team led byGary Schroen which went intoAfghanistan to work with theNorthern Alliance to topple theTaliban regime andAl Qaeda at theBattle of Tora Bora.[11]
It is unknown how many missions Waugh was involved in during his career.[7]
In 1985, Waugh was again requested by the CIA forclandestine work. Before he took the offer, he decided to further his education, earningbachelor's degrees inBusiness andPolice Science fromWayland Baptist University in 1987. He also earned amaster's degree inInterdisciplinary Studies with a specialization incriminal justice administration (MSCJA) in 1988 fromTexas State University (formerly Southwest Texas State), inSan Marcos, Texas.[11]
Waugh died on April 4, 2023, at the age of 93.[12] A memorial service was held atU.S. Special Operations Command headquarters atMacDill Air Force Base, Florida, presided over by the Commander of USSOCOM, GeneralBryan Fenton.[12]
Waugh wascremated. A portion of his ashes were returned to his birthplace ofBastrop, Texas, while in accordance with his wishes, the remainder was scattered by a HALO jump team in a parachute jump over Raeford Drop Zone inRaeford,North Carolina.[13]
 | Combat Infantryman Badge (two awards) |
.svg) | Special Forces Tab |
.svg){kind=icon} | Master Parachutist Badge |
  | Military Freefall Jumpmaster Badge with gold combat jump star (5+ combat jumps) |
 | Vietnam Parachutist Badge |
 | 7Service stripes |
 | ?Overseas Service Bars |
 | Silver Star[16] |
 | Legion of Merit |
 | Bronze Star Medal with three bronzeoak leaf clusters |
   | Purple Heart with seven oak leaf clusters |
   | Air Medal |
  | Army Commendation Medal withValor device and three oak leaf clusters |
 | Army Presidential Unit Citation with oak leaf cluster (one award in 2001,SOG) |
  | Good Conduct Medal (7 awards) |
 | Army of Occupation Medal |
 | National Defense Service Medal with one bronzeservice star |
  | Korean Service Medal with three campaign stars |
 | Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal |
   | Vietnam Service Medal withArrowhead device and six service stars |
 | Republic of Korea Presidential Unit Citation |
.png) | Vietnam Presidential Unit Citation |
 | Republic of Vietnam Gallantry Cross Unit Citation |
 | Republic of Vietnam Civil Actions Medal Unit Citation |
 | United Nations Korea Medal |
 | Vietnam Campaign Medal |
 | Republic of Korea War Service Medal |
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in thepublic domain.| International | |
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