Beckwith, Charles Alvin, COL

Why is a Distinguished Service Cross medal not listed?  Colonel Beckwith was not awarded a Distinguished Service Cross.  Wikipedia and other sources erroneously list him as having received the award.  This fact has been verified by his family.

His awards and decorations included the Defense Distinguished Service Medal, Army Distinguished Service Medal, Silver Star with one Oak Leaf Cluster, Legion of Merit with two Oak Leafs Clusters, Distinguished Flying Cross, Bronze Star with V device (with two Oak Leaf Clusters), Purple Heart Medal, Army Meritorious Service Medal, Air Medal with Numeral 4, Army Commendation Medal with one Oak Leaf Cluster, National Defense Service Medal with one Bronze Star, Korea Service Medal with one Bronze Star, Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal with three Bronze Stars, Vietnam Service Medal with six Campaign Stars, Humanitarian Service Medal, Army Service Ribbon, Vietnam Gallantry Cross with Silver Star Individual Citation, , United Nations Service Medal, Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal, Republic of Korea War Service Medal, Vietnam Gallantry Cross with Palm Individual Citation, Army Presidential Unit Citation, Joint Meritorious Unit Award, Valorous Unit Award, Army Meritorious Award, Korean Presidential Unit Citation, Vietnam Presidential Unit Citation, Vietnam Gallantry Cross Unit Citation, Vietnam Civil Actions Unit Citation, Combat Infantry Badge 2nd Award, Master Parachutist Badge, and British SAS Parachute Wings.

Col Beckwith has been inducted into the USSOCOM Bull Simons Award 2001, Commando Hall of Honor 2010, Distinguished Member of the Special Forces Regiment 2012, Ranger Hall of Fame 2001,

Colonel Charlie A. “Chargin’ Charlie” Beckwith was a career United States Army Infantry and Special Forces officer best remembered for creating Delta Force, the premier counterterrorism and asymmetrical warfare unit of the United States Army, based on his experience serving with the British Special Air Service. He served in the Indonesian Confrontation and the Vietnam War and attained the rank of colonel before his retirement.
 
During the Korean War, Second Lieutenant Beckwith served as a platoon leader with Charlie Company, 17th Infantry Regiment, 7th Infantry Division in South Korea. In 1955, COL Beckwith was assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division as the commander of the combat support company of the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment.
 
In 1958, after completing Ranger School, COL Beckwith joined the Special Forces and was assigned to the 7th Special Forces Group. In 1960, then-Captain Beckwith was an advisor to operations conducted in Laos called Operation Hotfoot.

In 1962, COL Beckwith was sent as an exchange officer to the British 22 Special Air Service Regiment (SAS) where he commanded 3 Troop, A Squadron. He conducted wartime guerrilla operations with the SAS during the Indonesian Confrontation in Malaya. In the jungle, he contracted a case of leptospirosis so severe that doctors did not expect him to survive. However, he made a full recovery within months.
 
The lessons he learned there about organization, selection and assessment of personnel, and tough, realistic training would become the model he would later use to activate Delta Force, the U. S. Army’s counter-terrorist unit on 19 November 1977.
 
Other Special Operations assignments such as Commander, Detachment B-52 “Project Delta”, 5th SFG in South Vietnam, and Commandant of the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare School provided COL Beckwith the additional background and experience to be selected as Delta Force’s first Commander, and the man who would land the ground force to execute Operation EAGLE CLAW, the mission to rescue American hostages in Tehran, Iran in 1980.

He was the epitome of a Ranger while assigned to the Florida Ranger Camp.  His outstanding abilities were widely recognized throughout the Ranger and Special Operations communities.  In 1965, he led a 250-man force that reinforced a besieged Green Beret compound at Plei Me. After that, he went on to solidify his place in history as the "founder" of Delta Force.  His initiative and tenacity resulted in the creation, implementation, and utilization of the finest anti-terrorist unit in the world. Colonel Beckwith's insight and firsthand experiences at Desert One were instrumental in the creation of the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC).  Colonel Beckwith is the classic example of a warrior and the epitome of a United States Army Ranger. 

Charles Alvin Beckwith (January 22, 1929 - June 13, 1994), known as "Chargin' Charlie", was a career United States Army soldier and Vietnam veteran, credited with the creation of Delta Force, a branch of the U.S. Army. Although he is held in high regard by various members of the military special Operations Forces, the public know him best due to the ill-fated Operation EAGLE CLAW in Iran, 1980.

 Early life

Beckwith was born in Atlanta, Georgia in 1929, and was an all-state football player for his high school team. Charlie Beckwith attended Tech High in the 1940s. He was a great lineman at Tech High. Coach "Shorty" Doyle at Boy's High "rival school" convinced Charlie to transfer to Boy's High. The move created ill will between the two football teams. The first game between the two schools found Charlie being held out on the bench. The Tech High fans began chanting  "We want Beckwith" until Coach Doyle put Charlie in. On his first play, Charlie stood straight up from his stance and punched the defensive lineman in the face. He had broken and bloodied the defensive lineman's nose and knocked him out cold on the field. In only four seconds, Charlie had managed to be ejected from the game to the delight of his teammates, who went on to win the game.

He later enrolled at the University of Georgia, where he played football for the Dawgs. He joined the university's Army ROTC program and was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in 1952. He was drafted by the Green Bay Packers in 1952 as well, but turned it down to stay in the army.

Military career

In 1955, Beckwith joined the 82nd Airborne Division as commander of Support Company, 504tj Infantry Regiment. Two years later, Beckwith transferred to the Green Berets and in 1960 was deployed to South Vietnam and Laos as a military advisor.

Beckwith served as an exchange officer with the British Special Air Service (22 SAS Regiment) in the early 1960s, and came away very impressed with the unit. US Army Special Forces in that period focused on unconventional warfare, but Beckwith was highly impressed with the SAS direct-action and counter-terrorism capabilities.

Beckwith commanded a Special Forces unit code-named Project Delta in Vietnam. He was critically wounded in early 1966 (he took a .50 caliber bullet through his abdomen), so badly that medical personnel initially triaged him as beyond help. In triage, after surgeons had pushed him to one side, a hopeless case. Beckwith survived mainly due to his superb conditioning and iron determination.  After recovery, he took over the Florida Phase of the US Army's Ranger School, transforming it from a scripted exercise based upon the Army's World War II experience, into a Vietnam-oriented training regimen. He was known as an extremely tough trainer, even by military standards.

In the late 1960s, Beckwith returned to Vietnam, where he commanded a battalion. In the 1970s he was stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, (today called Fort Liberty) where he commanded training operations.

Delta Force

Beckwith was the driving force for the founding of Delta Force in November 1977 as an overseas counter-terrorist unit whose main mission is hostage rescue, barricade operations and specialized reconnaissance. He was the Unit's first commander, serving in that position from 1977 to 1980.  The Unit's first public recognized mission (the aforementioned Operation EAGLE CLAW) ended in spectacular failure, not because of any unit shortcomings but due to a malfunction in several of the helicopters and lack of pilots trained in such operations. After the "debacle in the desert," the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne) was formed specifically to provide transport for Delta Force, and eventually other Special Operations Forces, worldwide. Delta Force has since grown to become one of many counter-terrorist units recognized worldwide (such as the British SAS Regiment, Canada's Joint Task Force 2 (JTF2), Australian SAS, France's GIGN, Germany's Grenzschutzgruppe 9 (GSG9) and the Kommando Speziakrafle (KSK), and the Israeli Sayeret Matkal.  After the failed Iran Hostage Rescue Mission (Operation EAGLE CLAW), Beckwith recommended the forming of the Joint Special Operation Command (JSOC), at Pope Field, Fort Bragg, North Carolina, with was formed in 1980.

Later life

Following his disappointment at the failure of the Iranian operation, Beckwith retired from the army. He started a consulting firm and wrote a book about Delta Force. He died at his home of natural causes.

Charles Beckwith was married to Katherine Beckwith, and they had three daughters.

Charles Beckwith's remains are interred in the Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery, San Antonio, Texas.

Quotes

"My men and I have decided that our boss, the President of the United States, is as tough as woodpecker lips. "

"I was not about to be party to half-assed loading on a bunch of aircraft and going up and murdering a bunch of the finest soldiers in the world."

"I learned that Murphy is alive and well. He's in every drawer, under every rock and on top of every hill."

Story about the Army Chief of Staff
In 1979, Charlie was in a meeting with GEN Bernie Rogers and several other generals. Charlie got mad and left the room. GEN Rogers told a young Sergeant to go get Charlie. He found Beckwith on the back of the loading dock at the original Delta compound pissing off the dock. He said, "Charlie, GEN Rogers wants you to come back in." Beckwith said, "You go tell Bernie that Charlie is takin a piss. And when I get through takin a piss, I MIGHT come back in there!" The SGT went back into the conference and said, "Sir, COL Beckwith said to tell you that he will be right with you."  Not many guys had the balls to tell the Chief of Staff of the Army what Charlie would have told him. Fortunately, the young E-5 didn't have the balls to pass the message on.

In 1981 COL Beckwith retired from the Army and formed a security consulting firm in Austin, Texas.
 

CHARLES BECKWITH DIES; LED MISSION FOR IRAN HOSTAGES

By Tom Bennett

Charles Beckwith, a retired Army colonel and Atlanta native who led the abortive 1980 mission to free American hostages in Iran, died Monday at his home in Austin, Texas. He was 65.

His wife, Katherine, called police after finding Beckwith dead in his bedroom. Police said he apparently died of natural causes.

Beckwith led Delta Force, a 130-man anti-terrorist unit that flew to Iran on April 24-25, 1980, and tried but failed to rescue 52 Americans held hostage.

Three of eight helicopters on the mission failed; six was a minimum needed, and Beckwith scrubbed the mission. During the retreat, tragedy struck when a helicopter moving to re-fuel from a C-130 cargo plane struck it and both burst into flames. Eight servicemen died.

Iran held the Americans for 444 days before Ayatollah Khomeini ordered them released in January 1981 as President Carter left office, and while Carter's successor, Ronald Reagan, stood on the inaugural stand.

"Chargin' Charlie," as Beckwith was known, was a 6-foot-3 Green Beret officer and decorated hero of the Vietnam War.

At Atlanta's Brown High, Beckwith was an all-state football player and went on to become a three-year starter at guard for the University of Georgia.

A student ROTC leader, he received an Army commission in 1952. He became a maverick officer who bucked the establishment at every turn. After a year's training with a British anti-terrorist unit, Beckwith campaigned for 14 years in the Army hierarchy to create a U.S.A. anti-terrorist unit. The result was "Delta Force."

The Iran mission effectively ended Beckwith's military career. Back in the United States, he was ordered to hold a press conference, at which he said he had canceled the mission because "I'm not going to be a party to a halfway loading of a bunch of aircraft and going up and murdering a bunch of fine soldiers. I'm not that kind of man." He retired from the Army in 1981 and formed an Austin consulting firm, Security Assistance Services.

He wrote a 1983 book, "Delta Force," with Donald Knox in which Beckwith blamed the helicopters and their Marine pilots for the failure of the rescue mission.

Charles Alvin Beckwith was born Jan. 22, 1929, in southwest Atlanta, one of three children of an independent oil dealer.

He grew up near Atlanta's Fort McPherson. He went there on Sundays to watch polo matches and dreamed of having an Army career, his mother recalled.

At Brown high, Beckwith was a football teammate of Pepper Rodgers, later a college and pro coach, and at Georgia, Beckwith teamed with Marion Campbell and Zeke Bratkowski, later NFL players and coaches.

Three years into his Army career, in 1955, Beckwith joined the 82nd Airborne Division. (NOTE: Charlie started out in the 82d as commander of Support Company, 504th Airborne Infantry Regiment.) He was pissing people off even back then. I remember him telling a member of the Regimental Staff, "I'm a company commander, not a God Dam football player". In 1958, he moved to the Special Forces, or Green Berets, "because they needed officers," he recalled. In 1960, Beckwith was an American adviser in Vietnam and Laos, and 1962-63 he trained with the British 22nd Special Air Services Regiment.

Back in Vietnam in 1965, (NOTE: This was Charlie's assignment as commander of Special Forces Detachment B-52, Project Delta.) Beckwith led a 250-man force that rescued a Green Beret garrison at Plei Me. He and the other rescuers stayed and fought another eight days until the enemy departed. Beckwith later learned he had faced regular North Vietnamese troops and told the press: "Give me a battalion of them and I'll take over the whole darned country." The remark was taken as a slap at the Americans' South Vietnamese allies, and after that Beckwith avoided the press.

Click here to read related story by Joe Galloway on the Seige at Plei Mei

On a 1966 mission while flying in a helicopter, Beckwith was hit by a .50-caliber bullet. (NOTE: This was the operation that later became a best-selling book, and the movie, "We were soldiers once, and Young.") According to the Chicago Tribune, Beckwith at various times criticized the Special Forces command and air cavalrymen in charge of ferrying his Green Beret troops into action.

His superiors now heeded his suggestion for a U.S. anti-terrorist unit, and in 1974 Beckwith was told to implement his plan. "Delta Force" was officially born at a meeting of high-ranking officers at Fort Benning in 1976. Beckwith won promotion to colonel. He located his unit in an unlikely place - the stockade at Fort Bragg, N.C. Its high fence afforded the security they wanted for secret training. The post's prisoners were transferred to a jail in a nearby town.

(NOTE: This writer omits Charlie's return to Vietnam after his recovery from the GSW, and his assignment to a conventional unit. He also overlooks Charlie's tenure as Commandant of Special Forces Schools at Fort Bragg.)

Beckwith's unit scaled a significant hurdle in 1977, receiving the endorsement of Gen. Frederick "Fritz" Kroesen, then commander of FORSCOM at Fort McPherson and in charge of all ground troops in the continental United States. An aide to Kroesen had campaigned in the Army establishment to transfer Delta Force's anti-terrorism activities to other units. In June 1977, Beckwith won a bureaucratic struggle when Delta Force was placed under the direct operational control of the Department of the Army, bypassing other commands.

U.S.-Iranian relations worsened after Carter permitted the country's ailing shah to enter the United States. In October 1979, Delta Force went through a "validation exercise," a simulated anti-terrorist action watched by experts from NATO countries. Beckwith was returning home when he received a call that the embassy in Tehran had been seized and orders that he go on alert.

He stepped up training. Delta Force built a mockup of the embassy and practiced assaults. They rehearsed breaking down doors and storming into darkened rooms.

He took part in a White House briefing on the rescue mission, and was surprised when Carter gave a go-ahead.

"I didn't think he had the guts to do it," Beckwith wrote later. He had not voted for Carter and had been angered when Carter had given amnesty to U.S. draft dodgers in Canada.

After the mission, Beckwith returned to the White House. Carter thanked him for "going public" by holding a press conference. Beckwith asked if he could tell the president something.

"Of course, colonel," Carter replied.

"Mr. President, me and my boys think that you are tough as a woodpecker's lips."

Surviving besides his wife are his three daughters, Connie, Charlotte, and Pegg. 

This remembrance profile is maintained by Mike R. Vining, SGM USA (Retired).
Email: sgmmvining@gmail.com