I’m helping a friend write an obituary for her father and I want to get it right. He was an officer in the Green Berets. Her verbiage states “ He was in the Army Infantry, Special Forces, as a Green Beret.”

This doesn’t look right. What’s the proper way to identify his service?



P

They are known as Quiet Professionals.

US Army Special Forces.

This.

Please use the correct term in sentence form and I’ll send it to her.

Thanks.



P

Could specify 5th if so.

You say 5th Group, that needs no further explanation. Well it doesn’t in Clarksville Tn. But...

Dunno.

“Was an Infantry officer in the US Army Special Forces”

No mention of the Green Beret?

Or 1st group or 10th group.

Special forces pretty much says it all

Snake Eaters

My condolences. My Dad was in the 3rd and 5th Group. We chose to have a closed casket draped with his flag. We displayed his uniform and beret next to the casket. The tough part is getting the beret perfect.

Copy. ATM machine = Automatic teller machine machine.

You can also say if he was in ROTC you can say “once graduated from college was commissioned as an infantry officers, went through special forces selection. Then earned his long tab (special forces tab)and green beret”.

If one is in the Army you know the deal when special forces is used. Understand majority who will read the obituary won’t understand, the terminology.

This

Went with the above.



P

Might be a struggle for someone in Salmon Idaho

Lol

This ^^^^^^^

Operators no longer in service alive or dead are referred to as “Former Special Forces” not “Ex Special Forces”

😎

??? probably as many Vets in Salmon as in bumfuck Tennessee...

Really

With 5th Group 12 miles up the road here

If you say so.

While US Army Special Forces are known popularly as "Green Berets" they are more correctly known as a Special Forces Officer, Noncommisioned Officer (NCO) or Warrant Officer. You'd probably want to say along the lines of

"He served in the US Army as an Infantry officer where he was a Platoon Leader, Company Commander etc. After his Infantry time he joined the US Special Force where he served as a Operational Detachment Commander and Special Forces Company Commander etc."

Include any wartime service or special duties he did. If you can get hold of his OER it would help you put together a list of his awards and schools.

Pharmseller if you don’t have all you think you need. You can PM me and I can send you some links to some 5th Group guys’ local obits here in our local paper.

Maybe things like his battalion, obvious dates of enlisting, promotions, tours, awards, etc.

See a lot of tributes spelled out. And even if it over some, it’s still an important tribute to write all you can include about the soldier.

Good for you for taking on the task.

Previous pastor of my church was ex green beret with 5th.

Evidently he was in for a short period of time, early 60’s pre-Vietnam. Stationed in Germany.



P

Impossible.

Pre 1980 ish Special Forces were an additional skill identifier added to an Infantry MOS, i.e. 11B3? I don't remember if it was S or G, i.e. 11B3G. He would have been an Infantry Officer Special Forces qualified and serving in a Special Forces Unit. For the obituary, I would probably put Infantry Officer in the US Army Special Forces (Green Berets).

Somewhere around 1980 Special Forces became their own MOS, 18 instead of 11. That is the Enlisted MOS number, I don't recall the Officer's Specialty Number but it is the same principle.

Those early guys(pre Viet Nam) had some tales of their training, French Foreign Legionnaires training them out at Camp Irwin or Fort Ord. I met one of the first ones one time and he told me that President Kennedy came to Camp Irwin or Ord (my memory) shortly after they were formed and told them there would never be another Bay of Pigs! I buried one of those guys last year or the year before.

former

Officer identifier is 18A and Warrants are 180A.

right
right

< punches self in balls >

Semantics nazis

Not to diminish the man's memory nor his service but I would suggest that you be absolutely certain that the deceased was in fact a fully qualified U.S. Army Special Forces officer first before stating such in his obituary.

Slumlord how many times you had your ass whipped slinging that "snake eater" crap around?