Talk:Project DELTA

History

I removed that extraneous nonsense about the roots of Detachment B-52 being in the WW2 1st Special Service Force. That lineage applies even today to the entire Special Forces Regiment. However, The "Black Devils" never operated as the DELTA Recon Teams did. I also removed the misinformation about the 5th SFG(A) "Blue Light" being a precursor to the current SFOD-D. Even a cursory look at the history would reveal nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, they co-existed for a time before Col Beckwith, the DELTA Commander, got them shut down. BTW, the references in the footnotes to the official SF History in Vietnam by COL Kelley doesn't mention either of those two things. At all. John Simpson54 (talk) 03:20, 9 November 2025 (UTC)

And I reinserted it; the content was sourced, and you haven't provided a countervailing source that says otherwise. You're also flat incorrect about Blue Light -- it is well described by numerous reliable sources, including interviews by prior Blue Light commanders and by Charlie Beckwith himself, as the interim predecessor unit to Delta. This is all well documented at the Blue Light (unit) article. ⇒SWATJester ^{Shoot Blues, Tell VileRat!} 03:23, 9 November 2025 (UTC)

Relevant quote from We Defy: The Lost Chapters of Special Forces History: about the founding of Blue Light The remaining 90% were men who had served in Special Forces assignments in Vietnam including Project Omega, Project Delta (which Charlie Beckwith had commanded in 1965), Project Sigma, and Mike Force. and With Beckwith needing two years to select and train Delta Force, an interim unit was needed to be created, a stop-gap to respond to acts of terrorism until Delta would be activated a few years later, as well as Blue Light had been stood up at Mott Lake and had begun their training as an interim counter-terrorist unit while Charlie Beckwith took his eighteen to twenty-four months to stand up Delta Force. Further, you're incorrect that Beckwith got them shut down. It is.... a military myth that Blue Light and Delta were placed in competition with one another, with the winner becoming the Army's permanent counter-terrorism force, because Blue Light was never designed to be more than an interim unit from the beginning. According to Lenahan Blue light seemed now, after our evaluation, to be redundant...Blue Light was deactivated the same month as Beckwith's recruitment pitch to Blue Light in August of 1978. This is why we rely on what reliable sources say, rather than people's mistaken assumptions. ⇒SWATJester ^{Shoot Blues, Tell VileRat!} 03:32, 9 November 2025 (UTC)

Actually Kelly on p.4 says Special Forces had their roots in the "Black Devils," not Project DELTA. Intothatdarkness 16:50, 9 November 2025 (UTC)