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MAJ Mark E Cooper
to remember
Rheault, Robert B., COL.
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Contact Info
Home Town Boston
Last Address Rockland, Maine
Date of Passing Oct 16, 2013
Official Badges
Unofficial Badges
Additional Information
Last Known Activity:
Breaking: Ave atque vale, COL Robert Rheault
COL Robert B. Rheault, who was one of the most respected, and most mistreated, commanders in Special Forces history, passed away today (16 Oct 13) at 1100. He was 87 years old and leaves a wife, two daughters and a son; his first wife passed away in 2006. This obituary is written primarily from memory and may be subject to revision.
COL Rheault was a member of the Class of 1946 at the United States Military Academy, where his friends and classmates included George S. Patton III, who would also serve in Vietnam and retire as a Major General. Like Patton, Rheault came from a well-to-do family; he, too, might have worn stars, even though he had committed to Special Forces, then an infantry officer’s career-killer. Rheault held the key commands for a Special Forces officer during the Vietnam war: he led the 1st Special Forces Group on Okinawa in the 1960s, and commanded the 5th Special Forces Group in Vietnam briefly in 1969. He had been the Group XO from October, 1964 to May of 1965.
Soon after his change of command around Memorial Day of 1969, he was relieved by GEN Creighton Abrams (20 Jul 69), arrested and confined to quarters. Abrams, who hated Special Forces (and all paratroopers, actually… and halfbacks. We are not making this up) had overreacted to the news that several counterintelligence / HUMINT officers who were covered as members of 5th Group had identified and disposed of a double agent. This was Abrams’s chance to “get” Special Forces, and he seized it with unseemly haste.
A series of show trials ensued, which have generated at least two books, but the evidence was far too flimsy to support a charge against Rheault (the prosecution of the other officers also crashed and burned). The vindictive Abrams had to settle for destroying the officers’ careers, and Rheault left the Army. In the years to come, he led the Outward Bound school in Maine and remained fit and youthful-appearing. He enjoyed the company of other Special Forces veterans, but would not listen to questions about his relief — or hear a word of criticism against General Abrams. He showed the sort of loyalty up the chain of command that too many Vietnam-era officers, Abrams certainly chief among them, never considered showing down the chain of command.
Rheault’s relief and confinement, and the kangaroo court-martial that Abrams convened, led to the above-mentioned books (A Murder in Wartime by Jeff Stein and Those Gallant Men by John Berry) and an incredible amount of Special Forces lore, including tales of a hostage rescue mission that was mounted by officers and men of the 5th, and made it as far as rehearsals, but stood down on the explicit command of the colonel himself, smuggled out of durance vile.
It’s an unfortunate thing that the history books will record the name of Creighton Abrams when they’re documenting Vietnam, and be silent on Robert B. Rheault.
But tonight he dines in Valhalla. Where Patton père et fils are probably making Abrams fetch him his mead.
Other Comments:
1968-1969, 1542, 1st Special Forces Group (Airborne)
Constituted 5 July 1942 in the Army of the United States as the 2d Company, 1st Battalion, First Regiment, 1st Special Service Force, a combined Canadian-American organization
Activated 9 July 1942 at Fort William Henry Harrison, Montana
Disbanded 6 January 1945 in France
Reconstituted 15 April 1960 in the Regular Army; concurrently consolidated with Company B, 1st Ranger Infantry Battalion (activated 19 June 1942), and consolidated unit redesignated as Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 1st Special Forces Group, 1st Special Forces
Consolidated 30 September 1960 with Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 1st Special Forces Group (constituted 14 June 1957 in the Regular Army and activated 24 June 1957 in Japan), and consolidated unit designated as Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 1st Special Forces Group, 1st Special Forces (organic units concurrently constituted and activated 4 October 1960)
Group inactivated 30 June 1974 at Fort Bragg, North Carolina
Activated 1 September 1984 at Fort Lewis, Washington
(Former Company B, 1st Ranger Infantry Battalion, withdrawn 3 February 1986, consolidated with Company N, 75th Infantry, and consolidated unit redesignated as Company N, 75th Ranger Regiment , hereafter separate lineage)
Redesignated 1 October 2005 as the 1st Special Forces Group, 1st Special Forces Regiment
CAMPAIGN PARTICIPATION CREDIT
World War II
*Aleutian Islands
*Naples-Foggia
*Anzio
*Rome-Arno
*Southern France (with arrowhead)
*Rhineland
1st Special Forces Battalion additionally entitled to:
War on Terrorism
Global War on Terrorism
2d Special Forces Battalion additionally entitled to:
War on Terrorism
Campaigns to be determined
DECORATIONS
*Meritorious Unit Commendation (Army), Streamer embroidered PACIFIC AREA 1972-1973
*Meritorious Unit Commendation (Army), Streamer embroidered ASIA 2002
*Philippine Presidential Unit Citation, Streamer embroidered JULY-AUGUST 1972
Company C, 1st Special Forces Battalion, additionally entitled to:
Valorous Unit Award, Streamer embroidered CENTRAL AND SOUTHERN IRAQ 2007
Valorous Unit Award, Streamer embroidered CENTRAL IRAQ 2008-2009
Company C, 2d Special Forces Battalion, additionally entitled to:
Valorous Unit Award, Streamer embroidered CENTRAL AND SOUTHERN IRAQ 2007
