5 Most Elite Special Forces Units of The United States

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Special forces soldiers are the absolute epitome of strength, toughness, danger, and cool. Every boy and probably at some point every man has seen pictures watched movies, or heard stories of the amazing, daring, and dangerous feats of heroism these elite military members accomplished and wished to be them.

Apart from what we see and learn in the movies though, what do we really know about these units? Who are they? What units are considered tier 1 or tier 2? What are their main roles? and the question we all want to know…which one is the best?

Just a little heads up beforehand, there are certain units that I deliberately won’t touch on. These units are still elite in their own right but are not necessarily considered tier 1 or tier 2 units. Also, some of these other units don’t actually fall under SOCOM (Special Operations Command).

It is the Tier 1 and Tier 2 operators or assaulters, the secret squirrels of the forest, the men that come in the dark of the night to un-alive you that we will be focused on in this article. The Operators all boys pretend to be and all men wish they were.

If that interests you then sit back, relax, and keep on reading as I take you through a quick overview of the 5 most elite special forces units of the United States.

SPECIAL FORCES UNITS

75TH RANGER REGIMENT

CREATED: JUNE 1942
MOTTO: SUA SPONTE “OF THEIR OWN ACCORD”, RANGERS LEAD THE WAY
MAIN ROLE: PLAN AND CONDUCT DIRECT ACTION MISSIONS IN SUPPORT OF U.S. POLICY AND OBJECTIVES
UNIT SIZE: APPROX. 3500
TIER: 2
INSIGNIA:

Shortly after the United States entered WW2 General George C. Marshall had a vision in his mind of one of the most elite units ever created. A unit made up of only the best volunteer men from the army’s infantry units. On June 8, 1942, the 1st Ranger Battalion was created and by 19 August 1942, they were fighting alongside other elite commandos from Canada and Britain.

The Rangers have led the way in more than a few very hairy operations. Most notably at Normandy in 1944, Grenada in 1983, Panama in 1989, and most recently the initial ground invasion of Afghanistan when the global war on terror began after the September 11th attacks in the U.S.

Today, the 75th Ranger Regiment is a lethal, agile and flexible fighting force, capable of conducting many complex, joint special operations missions. The 75th is the Army’s premier direct-action raid force and falls directly under SOCOM.

The 75th specializes in conducting raids and assault missions deep inside enemy territory. Three pillars make up the Ranger mission that encompass a wide variety of enemy combat operations. These three pillars are Special Operation Raids, Forcible Entry Operations, and Special Reconnaissance.

Whatever the mission given to the Rangers, they complete it with speed, precision, and overwhelmingly heavy firepower.

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MARINE RAIDERS

CREATED: 16 FEBRUARY 1942
MOTTO: ALWAYS FAITHFUL, ALWAYS FORWARD
MAIN ROLE: PROVIDE SMALL LETHAL EXPEDITIONARY TEAMS FOR GLOBAL SPECIAL OPERATIONS
UNIT SIZE: 1,475
TIER: 2
INSIGNIA:

Once known as MARSOC (Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command) the Marine Raiders are the premier fighting force of the Marines and they are the only marine unit that falls under the USSOCOM umbrella.

The Marine Raiders date back to WW2 when a special unit of Marines was put together to accomplish the most dangerous of missions. They proved essential in the Pacific theatre and although they had great success, come 1944 they were reintegrated back into the 4th and 6th Marine divisions.

After 9/11, when the global war on terror began a directive was issued to once again establish a Marine component in SOCOM. On 24 February 2006, MARSOC was created, which then expanded and in 2014 was redesignated Marine Raiders in honor of its WW2 heritage.

Today the Marine Raiders build on two centuries of Marine Corps tradition. They epitomize agility, lethality and the amphibious expeditionary nature at the heart of the Corps’ mission.

The Marine Raiders specialize in direct action, special reconnaissance, counterterrorism, foreign internal defence, security force assistance, counterinsurgency, support to combating weapons of mass destruction, and support to unconventional warfare.

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GREEN BERET

CREATED: 1952
MOTTO: DE OPPRESSO LIBER “TO FREE THE OPPRESSED”
MAIN ROLE: TRAIN AND LEAD FOREIGN MILITARIES IN COUNTERINSURGENCY
UNIT SIZE: 5500
TIER: 2
INSIGNIA:

The Term “Green Beret” is nothing more than a nickname for specifically Army Special Forces due to the adoption of a green beret back in 1954. Although widely used by Hollywood and society as a whole, the term “Special Forces” with a capital S and a capital F is a coined and trademarked name by the U.S. Army for their elite soldiers.

So whereas all the units on this list are “special forces” they are not all “Special Forces”. The first iteration refers to all elite units in the military but the latter only refers to the Army’s tier 2 elite soldiers or Green Berets.

Now, the Special Forces or Green Berets were originally created back in 1952 under Colonel Aaron Bank who was the operations branch chief of the Special Operations Division of the Psychological Warfare Staff in the Pentagon. Come June 1952, the 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne) was formed under Colonel Bank and soon after the establishment of the Psychological Warfare School.

Of all the units on this list, the Green Berets stand out from the rest in the way of their main role. Whereas most of the units on the list are direct action units (which the Green Berets are too), the Green Berets’ specialty, their bread and butter are infiltrating the local population of their enemy.

They then turn the hearts of the local population against their adversary and teach them how to fight and kill. Whereas most units on this list are meant to act like guillotines, fast and final. The Green Berets are meant to act like cancer, slowly but inevitably killing from the inside out.

The Green Berets are as adept at psychological warfare as they are at physical combat. They seek to destroy both the body and mind of their enemy.

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NAVY SEALS

CREATED: January 1962
MOTTO: THE ONLY EASY DAY WAS YESTERDAY
MAIN ROLE: MARITIME INTERDICTION
UNIT SIZE: 2450
TIER: 2
INSIGNIA:

All though formally created in 1962 the Navy SEALs trace their lineage back to multiple specialized units active during WW2. These units were:

Scouts and Raiders: beach reconnaissance.
Naval Combat Demolitions Unit (NCDU): demolitions, explosive cable cutting, and commando raiding techniques.
OSS Maritime Unit: infiltrating agents behind enemy lines, supplying resistance groups by sea, conducting maritime sabotage, and developing specialized maritime surface and subsurface equipment and devices.
Underwater Demolitions Teams (UDTs): Gain intelligence on underwater obstacles, and clear underwater obstacles.

Each of these units played a vital role in the United States’ involvement in WW2. The NCDU was even the group that deployed to England ahead of time in preparation for Operation Overlord the infamous amphibious landing at Normandy. It was the NCDU that blew multiple gaps in the German defences at both Omaha Beach and Utah Beach.

Later on, the UDTs were deployed during the Korean War to conduct demolition raids up and down the Korean coast on vital points and routes. As time went on they conducted more and more maritime operations, but even more importantly they started to be inserted behind the enemy line to conduct guerrilla operations.

The UDTs were chosen to do these tasks as they were ready to do what nobody else could do, and what nobody else wanted to do.

This conflict finally convinced the bigwigs back home of the need for guerrilla and counter-guerrilla warfare units that could fight from sea, air, and land. Come January 1962 the first two SEAL teams were created.

Since their inception, the SEALs have become one of the premier special forces units worldwide. Conducting among other things direct action raids with surgical accuracy in the world’s most hostile environments, and against America’s most deadly enemies.

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DEVGRU

CREATED: NOVEMBER 1980
MOTTO: THE ONLY EASY DAY WAS YESTERDAY
MAIN ROLE: COUNTERTERRORISM
UNIT SIZE: 200
TIER: 1
INSIGNIA:

DEVGRU is one of only three special forces groups in the U.S. which are considered to be Tier 1 among the SOF community. They were initially modelled after DELTA Force, the Army’s premier Tier 1 counter-terrorist organization.

DEVGRU also known by its original moniker SEAL Team 6 was created in the aftermath of the failed U.S. operation “Operation Eagle Claw” in 1979. Given the name SEAL Team 6 to over-inflate their number and deceive Soviet intelligence, SEAL Team 6 was officially commissioned in November 1980 and just as quickly was dissolved in 1987.

It was succeeded shortly after however by the “Naval Special Warfare Development Group“…DEVGRU. DEVGRU is divided into 6 squadrons, 4 being assault, 1 for recconnosiance, and 1 for intelligence and support.

All though upon its disbanding ST6 handed off a few of its many assigned tasks. DEVGRU held onto its main missions of counterterrorism and hostage rescue.

Following DEVGRU’s creation and with the future of warfare heading more and more towards these extremely precise, tip-of-the-spear, and pinpoint accuracy missions they have been increasingly called upon to respond to the most delicate and the most extreme terrorist threats the world has seen to this day.

Two of these missions best known to the public are the rescue of Captain Phillips and the killing of Osama Bin Laden.

LEARN MORE HERE

Check out this interview with DEVGRU member Eddie Penny on the Shawn Ryan show,

1st SFOD-D (DELTA)

CREATED: 21 NOVEMBER 1977
MOTTO: SINE PARI “WITHOUT EQUAL”
MAIN ROLE: COUNTERTERRORISM
UNIT SIZE: 250 – 300
TIER: 1
INSIGNIA:

1st Special Operations Detachment – Delta, more commonly known as Delta Force or just “The Unit” is the U.S. military’s premier special forces unit. Mandated to hunt down terrorists, rescue hostages, and crack skulls these boys are the elite of the elite.

Created in 1977 by Col. Charlie A. Beckwith the U.S. government decided to make a full-time counterterrorism unit after several high-profile terrorist incidents were heavily publicized. Since its inception, Delta has been called by a few different names: Combat Applications Group (CAG), Army Compartmented Elements (ACE), Task Force Green, and as I stated above The Unit.

Although it is not required by Delta that their members come from special forces backgrounds, the vast majority of soldiers (about 70%) that become Delta come from either the Green Berets or the 75th Army Rangers.

They are often tasked with carrying out high-risk operations that are often classified and directed by the highest levels of the U.S. government. The majority of these missions we will never know about. All though Delta falls under the army, they are controlled and operated by JSOC (Joint Special Operations Command).

Delta Force is primarily devoted to counterterrorism operations specifically, capturing or killing high-value targets and breaking up terrorist cells. However, the unit is exceptionally versatile and therefore is utilized in missions as diverse as direct action (raids, sabotage, and so on), hostage rescue, and special reconnaissance.

LEARN MORE HERE

FINAL THOUGHTS

Let’s be real, special forces are downright cool. They do the things every little boy dreams of standing up against the bad guys and more often than not coming out victorious.

Yet even among special forces units, there are those that stand out from the rest. These five units are lions among mice, violent protectors of our freedoms against those who want nothing more than to take them away.

There are those men in the world who will stop at nothing to advance their evil ideologies, you can not reason with them, you can not negotiate with them, you can only put an end to them.