The1st Special Forces Operational Detachment–Delta (1st SFOD-D), also known asDelta Force,Combat Applications Group (CAG), or withinJoint Special Operations Command (JSOC) asTask Force Green,[2] is aspecial operations force of theUnited States Army under the operational control of JSOC. The unit's missions primarily involvecounterterrorism,hostage rescue,direct action, andspecial reconnaissance, often againsthigh-value targets.
Delta Force, along with theIntelligence Support Activity, and itsNavy andAir Force counterparts,DEVGRU (SEAL Team 6) and the24th Special Tactics Squadron, are the U.S. military's tier onespecial mission units that are tasked with performing the most complex, covert, and dangerous missions directed by thepresident of the United States and thesecretary of defense.[8][9]
Most Delta Force operators and combat support members are selected from theArmy Special Operations Command's75th Ranger Regiment andU.S. Army Special Forces, though selection is open to other special operations and conventional units across the Army and other military branches.[10][11]
Delta Force was created in 1977 after numerous well-publicized terrorist incidents led the U.S. government to develop a full-time counter-terrorism unit.
Key military and government figures were briefed on this type of unit in the early 1960s.Charlie Beckwith, aSpecial Forces (Green Berets) officer andVietnam War veteran, served as anexchange officer with theBritish Army's 22Special Air Service Regiment during theMalayan Emergency. On his return, Beckwith presented a detailed report highlighting the U.S. Army's vulnerability in not having an SAS-type unit. U.S. Army Special Forces in that period focused onunconventional warfare providing training and medical care to indigenous resistance fighters, but Beckwith recognized the need for "not only a force of teachers, but a force of doers".[12]
He envisioned highly adaptable and completely autonomous small teams with a broad array of special skills fordirect action andcounter-terrorism missions. He briefed military and government figures, who were resistant to creating a new unit outside of Special Forces, or changing existing methods.[13]
In the mid-1970s, as the threat of terrorism grew,Pentagon and Army senior leaders appointed Beckwith to form the unit.[14] Beckwith estimated that it would take 24 months to get his new unit mission ready. Beckwith's estimate came from a conversation he had had earlier with BrigadierJohn Watts while in England in 1976. Watts made it clear to Beckwith that it would take eighteen months to build asquadron, but advised him to tell Army leaders that it would take two years, and not to "let anyone talk (him) out of this." To justify why it would take two years to build Delta, Beckwith and his staff drafted what they dubbed the "Robert Redford Paper," which outlined its necessities and historical precedents for a four-phase selection/assessment process.[15]
Delta Force was established on 19 November 1977, by Beckwith and Colonel Thomas Henry.[16] In the meantime, Colonel Bob "Black Gloves" Mountel of the5th Special Forces Group created a unit to bridge the short-term gap that existed until Delta was ready, dubbedBlue Light.[17]
In early 1978, the initial members of the unit were screened from volunteers and put through a specialized selection process, involving a series ofland navigation problems in mountainous terrain while carrying increasing weight. The purpose was to test candidates' endurance, stamina, willingness to endure, and mental resolve. The first training course lasted from April to September 1978. In fall 1979, Delta Force was certified as fully mission capable, right before theIran hostage crisis.[18]
On 4 November 1979, 63 American diplomats and citizens were taken captive in the U.S. embassy inTehran, Iran. In the following days a further 3 American hostages were seized at the Iranian Foreign Ministry. Delta Force was tasked to plan and executeOperation Eagle Claw, the effort to recover the remaining 53 hostages that were not released by the Iranians from the embassy by force on the nights of 24 and 25 April in 1980. The operation was aborted due to helicopter failures.[19][20]
The review commission that examined the failure found 23 problems with the operation, among them unexpected weather encountered by the aircraft,command-and-control problems between the multi-service component commanders, a collision between a helicopter and a ground-refuelingtanker aircraft, and mechanical problems that reduced the number of available helicopters from eight to five (one fewer than the minimum desired) before the mission contingent could leave the trans-loading/refueling site.[21][20]
After the failed operation, the U.S. government realized more changes were needed. The160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne), also known as the "Night Stalkers", was created for special operations requiring air support. The Navy'sSEAL Team Six, an earlier incarnation of the currentNaval Special Warfare Development Group, was created for maritime counter-terrorism operations. TheJoint Special Operations Command was created for command and control of the military's various counter-terrorism units.
The unit is under the organization of theU.S. Army Special Operations Command (USASOC), and controlled by theJoint Special Operations Command (JSOC). Command of 1st SFOD-D is acolonel'sbillet. Virtually all information about the unit is highlyclassified. Details about specific missions or operations generally are not available publicly. The unit is headquartered atFort Bragg,North Carolina.
Delta Force's structure is similar to the British 22 SAS Regiment, which inspired Delta's formation. In 2001'sNot a Good Day to Die: The Untold Story of Operation Anaconda,Army Times staff writerSean Naylor describes Delta as having, at the time, nearly 1,000 soldiers, of whom about 250 to 300 are trained to conduct direct action and hostage rescue operations. The rest are combat support and service support personnel who are among the very best in their fields.[22]
Naylor further details Delta Force's structure in his bookRelentless Strike: The Secret History of Joint Special Operations Command. He describes a few formations in Delta, primarily the following operational elements:
A, B, C, and D Squadrons aresabre squadrons (assault). C Squadron was activated around 1990 and D Squadron in 2006. Combat Support Squadron was activated in 2005. E Squadron was activated in 1989 and is stationed separately inFort Eustis, Virginia, where it is known as theAviation Technology Office. An earlier forerunner of the unit was known asSeaSpray.
Within each saber squadron there are three troops: troops 1 and 2 (assault) and troop 3 (reconnaissance).[22] Each squadron is led by alieutenant colonel (O-5),[25] an executive officer, and acommand sergeant major (E-9). Troops are led bycaptains (O-3) ormajors (O-4) known as the troop commanders who are assisted bysergeants major (E-9), known as troop chiefs.[26]
Each assault troop has four teams, each one led by a team leader, amaster sergeant (E-8) orsergeant first class (E-7), and an assistant team leader who can have the same rank. Each team usually has five or six members.[27][28] The reconnaissance troops have two teams. It is believed that they must have at least two years of experience.
Since the 1990s, the Army has posted recruitment notices for the 1st SFOD-D.[29][30] The Army has never released an official fact sheet for the unit. The recruitment notices in Fort Bragg's newspaper,Paraglide, refer to Delta Force by name, and label it "...the U.S. Army's special operations unit organized for the conduct of missions requiring rapid response with surgical application of a wide variety of unique special operations skills...".[31]
The notice states that applicants must be in the grade ofE-4 to E-8, have at least two and a half years of service remaining in their enlistment, be 22 years or older, and have anArmed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery GT score of 110 or higher to attend a briefing to be considered for admission. Candidates must be airborne qualified or volunteer for airborne training.
Officer candidates need to be O-3 or O-4. All candidates must be eligible for a security clearance level of "secret" and have not been convicted bycourt-martial or havedisciplinary action noted in their official military personnel file under the provisions of Article 15 of theUniform Code of Military Justice.
In June 2006, during a session of theCommittee on Armed Services, GeneralWayne Downing testified before theU.S. House of Representatives that "[t]he Delta Force is probably 70 percent Rangers who have come out of either a Ranger [to]Special Forces track or directly from [the]Ranger Regiment to Delta".[32]
Selection is held twice a year atCamp Dawson, West Virginia, and lasts four weeks. Selections take place in late March to late April, and late September to late October.Eric Haney's 2002 bookInside Delta Force described the selection course and its inception in detail. Haney wrote that the course began with standard tests includingpush-ups,sit-ups, and a 2-mile (3.2 km) run, an inverted crawl and a 110-yard (330 ft; 100 m) swim fully dressed. The candidates were then put through a series ofland navigation courses, one of which required them to travel 18 miles (29 km) at night while carrying a 40-pound (18 kg) rucksack.[33]
With every successive challenge, the distance to cover and the weight of the rucksack are increased, while less time is allotted. The final challenge was a 40-mile (64 km) march with a 45-pound (20 kg) rucksack over rough terrain, that had to be completed in an unknown amount of time. This was colloquially known as "The Long Walk".[33] Haney wrote that only the senior officer and NCO in charge of selection were allowed to see the set time limits, but all assessment and selection tasks and conditions were set by Delta training cadre.[14][1]
The mental portion of the testing began with numerous psychological exams. Each candidate was then called to face a board of Delta instructors, unit psychologists, and the Delta commander, who asked the candidate a barrage of questions and then dissected every response and mannerism to exhaust the candidate mentally. The commander then approaches the candidate and informs him if he has been selected.[1]
Those who passed the screening process underwent an intense six-month Operator Training Course (OTC), to learncounter-terrorism andcounter-intelligence techniques, and training with firearms and other weapons. Participants were allowed very little contact with friends and family for the duration.[1]
In an interview, former Delta operatorPaul Howe mentioned the high attrition rate of the Delta selection course. He said that out of his two classes of 120 applicants each, 12 to 14 completed the selection.[34][35] FormerNavy SEAL, DEVGRU and Delta operator Kevin Holland stated that in his selection class, 120 candidates started, 16 passed and eight finished OTC.[36]
TheCentral Intelligence Agency's secretiveSpecial Activities Center (SAC) and more specifically itsSpecial Operations Group (SOG), often works with – and recruits – former operators from Delta Force.[37]
According toEric Haney, the unit's Operator Training Course is approximately six months long. While the course is constantly changing, the skills taught broadly include the following:
Delta Force trains with other foreignspecial operations units to improve tactics and increase relationships with them, including the AustralianSpecial Air Service Regiment, the BritishSpecial Air Service, and Canada'sJoint Task Force 2.[39][40][41]
In a 2010 article, Marc Ambinder reported thatArmy Compartmented Elements (ACE) was a new cover name for Delta Force.[42] However, Ambinder subsequently wrote an e-book about JSOC in which he reported that the Army Compartmented Elements is a different unit from Delta.[43][44]
In January 2022 it was reported that the name of the unit may have recently been changed to the 3rd Operational Support Group.[45]
TheDepartment of Defense tightly controls information about Delta Force and usually refuses to comment publicly on the highly secretive unit and its activities, unless the unit is part of a major operation or a unit member has been killed. Delta operators are granted an enormous amount of flexibility and autonomy during military operations overseas.[1] Relaxed grooming standards such as civilian hairstyles andfacial hair are allowed to enable the members to blend in and avoid recognition as military personnel.[35][1]
2023 Israel incident
DuringPresidentJoe Biden's visit toIsrael, theWhite House accidentally published a photo of Delta Force operators with unblurred faces and tattoos, drawing scrutiny.[46][47] The White House later issued an apology for the incident.[48]
Inside theUnited States special operations community, an operator is a Delta Force member who has completed selection and has finished OTC (Operator Training Course). "Operator" was used by Delta Force to distinguish between operators (assaulters and snipers) and combat support assigned to the unit.[1]
In 2018, Charles H. Briscoe, a former historian with Army Special Operations Command, wrote:
In the last fifteen to twenty years, the practice of calling a Special Forces (SF) soldier an ‘operator’ has caused considerable rancor within Army special mission units (SMU), the original of which adopted that appellation in the late 1970s. Today, all U.S. military service special operations forces and their higher headquarters apply that moniker to their sea, land, and air warfighters. Even staff personnel adopt that term for themselves.
Later, Briscoe continues:
SF did not misappropriate the appellation. Unbeknownst to most members of the ARSOF community, that moniker was adopted by Special Forces in the mid to late 1950s. SF-qualified officers and enlisted soldiers voluntarily subscribed to the provisions of the ‘Code of the Special Forces Operator’ and pledged themselves to its tenets by witnessed signature.[49]
Most operations assigned to Delta are classified, but some details have become public knowledge. For service duringOperation Urgent Fury (1983), the United States' invasion of Grenada, Delta was awarded theJoint Meritorious Unit Award. The unit was awarded theValorous Unit Award for extraordinary heroism during theModelo Prison hostage rescue mission and the capture ofManuel Noriega in December 1989 duringOperation Just Cause inPanama.[50]
In 1993, 1st SFOD-D operators from C Squadron were involved inOperation Gothic Serpent in Somalia. Two of those operators,MSGGary Gordon andSFCRandy Shughart, were posthumously awarded theMedal of Honor for their actions on 3 October 1993 during theBattle of Mogadishu.
DuringOperation Enduring Freedom andOperation Iraqi Freedom, 1st SFOD-D was awarded thePresidential Unit Citation for combat operations in Afghanistan from 4 October 2001 to 15 March 2002 and Iraq from 19 March 2003 to 13 December 2003.[51]
On 26 October 2019, Delta operators accompanied by members of the75th Ranger Regimentconducted a raid on the compound ofIslamic State leaderAbu Bakr al-Baghdadi, leading to his death.[52]
On 3 January 2026, Delta operators captured Venezuelan PresidentNicolás Maduro and his wifeCilia Flores during the2026 United States airstrikes in Venezuela.[53][54]
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