The Down Range Forum
Member Section => Down Range Cafe => Topic started by: PegLeg45 on November 27, 2010, 11:49:37 PM
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Saw the below photo on http://www.thebredafallacy.com/2010/11/i-have-feeling.html and some of the posters on her site stated that they thought it was Sgt. 1st Class John (Mike) Fairfax, Special Forces Intelligence NCO, Headquarters Support Company, 3rd Special Forces Group (Airborne).
(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_fm2bGP9Hjb0/TOvoGPE21MI/AAAAAAAAA78/eTq3KUtVLfo/s1600/Payback.jpg)
Hard to tell from the pics at the below link to the story because of shadows and the beard but many said it was Fairfax posing for the photo.
Either way, it is a great story, even if the above poster with the M4 isn't him.
http://news.soc.mil/releases/News%20Archive/2009/February/090206-05.html
(http://news.soc.mil/releases/News%20Archive/2009/February/fairfax1.jpg)
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Another unstoppable hero is Billy Waugh deployed to Afghanistan Oct. 2001 to assist in the removal of the Taliban regime,
at age 71 ;D
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Waugh
Waugh enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1948, completing basic training at Fort Ord, California in August of that year. He was accepted into the United States Army Airborne School and became airborne qualified in December 1948. In April 1951, Waugh was assigned to the 187th Airborne Regimental Combat Team (RCT) in Korea.
Shortly after the end of the Korean War, Waugh began training for the Special Forces. He earned the Green Beret in 1954, joining the 10th Special Forces Group (SFG) in Bad Tolz, Germany.
As U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War increased, the United States began deploying Special Forces "A-teams" (Operational Detachment Alpha, or ODA, teams) to Southeast Asia in support of counterinsurgency operations against the Viet Cong, North Vietnamese and other Communist forces. Waugh arrived in South Vietnam with his ODA in 1961, and began working alongside Civilian Irregular Defense Groups (CIDGs) there, as well as in Laos.
In 1965, while participating in a commando raid with his CIDG unit on a North Vietnamese Army encampment near Bong Son, Binh Dinh province, Waugh's unit found itself engaged with much larger enemy force then anticipated. Expecting only a few hundred NVA, it was discovered that a force of Chinese regulars had joined the NVA Elite; combining for almost 4,000 soldiers. While he and his men attempted to retreat from the battle, Waugh received numerous severe wounds to his head and legs. Unconscious, he was taken for dead by NVA soldiers and left alone. Despite his injuries, with the assistance of his teammates Waugh was safely evacuated from the combat zone. He spent much of 1965 and 1966 recuperating at Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, D.C., eventually returning to duty with 5th SFG in 1966. He received a Silver Star and a Purple Heart (His 6th) for the battle of Bong Son.
At this time Waugh joined the Military Assistance Command-Vietnam Studies and Observations Group (MACV-SOG). While working for SOG, Waugh helped train Vietnamese and Cambodian forces in unconventional warfare tactics primarily directed against the North Vietnamese Army operating along the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
Prior to retirement from U.S. Army Special Forces service, Waugh was senior NCO (non-commissioned officer) of MACV-SOG's Command & Control North (CCN) based at Marble Mountain on the South China Sea shore a few miles south of Da Nang, Vietnam. Waugh held this Command Sergeant Major role during the covert unit's transition and name change to Task Force One Advisory Element (TF1AE). SGM Waugh conducted the first combat HALO jump, "In October 1970, my team made a practice Combat Infiltration into the NVA owned War Zone D, in South Vietnam, for reassembly training, etc. This was the first one in a combat zone." [2] Waugh also led the last combat Special reconnaissance parachute insertion by American Army Special Forces High Altitude, Low Opening (HALO) parachutists into denied territory which was occupied by communist North Vietnamese Army (NVA) troops on June 22, 1971.
Waugh retired from active military duty at the rank of Sergeant Major (E-9) on February 1, 1972.
Prior to retirement, Waugh worked for the CIA's elite Special Activities Division, starting in 1961. After Waugh retired from the military, he worked for the United States Postal Service until he accepted an offer in 1977 from ex-CIA officer Edwin P. Wilson to work in Libya on a contract to train that country's special forces. This was not an Agency-endorsed assignment and Waugh might have found himself in trouble with U.S. authorities if it weren't for the fact that he was also approached by the CIA to work for the Agency while in Libya. The CIA tasked him with surveiling Libyan military installations and capabilities – this was of great interest to U.S. intelligence as Libya was receiving substantial military assistance from the Soviet Union at the time. This additional assignment quite possibly protected Waugh from prosecution after Wilson was later indicted and convicted in 1979 for illegally selling weapons to Libya.[3]
In the 1980s he was assigned to the Kwajalein Missile Range in the Marshall Islands to track Soviet small boat teams operating in the area and prevent them from stealing U.S. missile technology. Some of his more critical assignments took place in Khartoum, Sudan during the early 1990s, where he performed surveillance and intelligence gathering on terrorist leaders Carlos the Jackal and Osama bin Laden with Cofer Black.
At the age of 71, Waugh participated in Operation Enduring Freedom as a member of the CIA team led by Gary Schroen that went into Afghanistan to work with the Northern Alliance to topple the Taliban regime and Al Qaeda at the Battle of Tora Bora. Waugh was in-country from October to December 2001. Waugh spent many years being both a "Blue Badger" (employee) and a "Green Badger" (contractor). He continues to work as a "Green Badger". It is unknown how many missions Waugh was involved in during his career.
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Cool story, Tom.
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Cool story, Tom.
Be a lot cooler if his handler, Edwin Wilson wasn't set up to do 27 years for CIA sponsored activities dealing with Libiya and weapons. Its good to praise a hero, but remember, its a hard business, and the "thanks of a grateful nation" often incliudes getting rid of loose ends. >:( Not saying he was a saint, but......
FQ13
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FQ, As usual you are talking out your pelosi ::)
First, while the agency knew what Wilson was up to they were not involved, he was freelancing, in fact, he was not even employed by the Agency at that time, I forget the title but Peter Maas wrote a book about it about 20 years ago.
This is just a short blurb from Wiki. You do not know the whole story that (more or less) is covered in Billy's book "Hunting the Jackal" but you should be able to draw some obvious conclusions from the fact that while Wilson and several associates went to prison Billy was still employed.
He did his "due diligence" and had other things going on besides what Wilson hired him for.
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FQ, As usual you are talking out your pelosi ::)
First, while the agency knew what Wilson was up to they were not involved, he was freelancing, in fact, he was not even employed by the Agency at that time, I forget the title but Peter Maas wrote a book about it about 20 years ago.
This is just a short blurb from Wiki. You do not know the whole story that (more or less) is covered in Billy's book "Hunting the Jackal" but you should be able to draw some obvious conclusions from the fact that while Wilson and several associates went to prison Billy was still employed.
He did his "due diligence" and had other things going on besides what Wilson hired him for.
Sounds like a worthwhile read. My understanding was that Wilson got a wink and a nod, and then got hung out to dry.
FQ13
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Wow on both of them