Special Forces?
Are these guys Delta Force or Green Berets? The patches on their arms threw me off.
shareI think they were US Amry Special Forces, maybe Delta Force,
My uncle is in Special Forces and whenver you are takin about anything like Navy SEALs or Delta Force they are know as SOF Special Operation Forces, Special Forces are the Green Berets.
shareI pressumed they were Delta since Steven Segals rank is Colonel which is an army rank, if they were Seals then he would have been a Commander which is the Navy equivalent of Colonel isn't it?
shareThey're not the Delta Force. The Delta Force do not salute each other as far as I know and I'm pretty sure some of them did in this movie.
Meh!
Hmmm...wikipedia refers to hem as commandos so wouldn't that be Green Berets?
shareThe film refers to them as US Army Special Forces, depending on how much you know about Special Forces, you can come to the assumption that these are Delta Force soldiers. Delta Force is used more commonly in urban/residential/hijacking than the Green Berets who are used in more rural/enemy held terrain.
Green Berets soldiers would not be ordered to infiltrate and evac drugs/nerve agents from an urban building, such as the one featured in the beginning of this movie.
But then again, it's a movie.
The patch that was visible on Segal's left shoulder was clearly that of Special Forces, not Delta (*a.k.a. USSOCOM - 1SFOD-D/CAG)
The patch is an arrow-head, with a dagger and 3 lightning bolts. Above that was three rocker tabs for "Special Forces", "Airborne" and "Ranger". That is typical of the US Army's Special Forces, a.k.a. "The Green Berets"
The Patch for Delta is similar - an arrow-head with a dagger, but no lightning bolts. Delta will also typically only a single "Airborne" rocker tab above the patch.
In my opinion, this is an error, either by the writer's or perhaps the wardrobe dept., as the scenario depicted in the film would most likely be assigned to Delta in real life.
(*United States Special Operations Command - First Special Forces Operation Detachment - Delta, also known as the 'Combat Applications Group')
Wolf
"I Drank What?!" - Socrates
1. Delta ARE Army Special Forces aka "Green Berets". Formed to be the US's answer to counter terrorism following the Munich olympics debacle. Formed by and first commanded by Colonel "Charging Charlie" Beckwith in the mid-70s. First used in the aboted Operation Eagle Claw designed to rescue Americans held hostage in Iran. SF is employed in "perational detachments" or ODs. The basic group is known as OD A (16 men) and is often referred to in movies as an A Team. Having recently returned from duty in Afghanistan I can tell you that no one refers to OD As as "A Teams". They are ODAs - pure and simple. The next level up is OD B (approx 75 men). When Beckwith needed to name his new, counter terrorist unit, he chose to call it OD D, hence the name "Delta" which represents the letter D in the military phoenetic alphabet.
2. Delta are trained for counter terrorism while typical SF ODAs etc are supposed to be used to train indigenous forces in insurgencies. Since Vietnam, SF role has expanded beyond that. Anyway, given the terrorist nature of the baddies in this movie, Delta would be the choice to deal with them. Therefore, the good guys in this film are supposed to be Delta.
3. The term "SOF" as mentioned earlier is a general term to refer to all SOF assets: SF, SEALs, USMC Force Recon, Rangers, AF PJs and SF Aviation (SOAR).
4. As is pointed out in the Goofs section, Delta would not be wearing ANY patches on their uniforms when doing an assault. That said, Delta belongs to Army SF so it is plausible that a senior officer attending a meet would have an SF patch on his "non-sterilized" working uniform.
5. To answer the earlier question about navy vs army ranks: an army Colonel would be a navy Captain. An army Lieutenant Colonel would be a navy Commander.
Yes, here is a nice article on Operation Eagle Claw:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Eagle_Claw
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Sig Line:
Many cynics and skeptics mistake their hubris negativity for actual intelligence.
Delta Force is often referred to as Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta. It's also known as the Combat Applications Group (CAG). While it often draws its ranks from the Army Special Forces (the Army Green Berets) and shares Fort Bragg, N.C., headquarters with them, it isn't an Army Special Forces detachment. Delta Force is a unit unto itself, composed of members from all branches of the military.
They're not called soldiers, but operators and are said to shun the traditional philosophies of military life. They wear civilian clothes. They work for whomever needs them -- for the Army, the FBI and the CIA. Generally speaking anyone in Delta Force hates the traditional army way of life, it's politics.
Delta Force recruits are selected based on the special skills they possess, like exceptional marksmanship. It's reported (?) that Delta Force recruits must show 100 percent accuracy in shooting from 600 yards, and 90 percent accuracy at 1,000 yards.
Delta Force is separated into three combat squadrons -- A, B and C -- along with a support squadron, signal squadron, aviation platoon and a "funny platoon" -- the intelligence-gathering outfit of the Delta Force, rumored to be the only special operations platoon to include women.
Generally speaking no one within the armed services acknowledges the existence of Delta Force but with all of the recent exploits overseas with Navy Seals most people just assume they exist.
Ranks:
E-5 Sergeant SGT Be assigned to Squad Leader
E-6 Staff Sergeant SSG
E-7 Sergeant First Class SFC
E-8 First Sergeant (Master Sergeant)
E-9 Sergeant Major (Command Sergeant Major)
Not able to go higher...
I could tell you how I know but then I might have to kill you.