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Retired Army 1st Sgt. Stanley Dahl, of Fayetteville, passed away Saturday, Aug. 4, 2012, surrounded by his beloved family. Stanley was a distinguished Army serviceman who spent most of his 20-year military career with Special Forces as a weapons expert, medic and intelligence sergeant. 1st Sgt. Dahl served with the 77th, 7th, 5th and 1st Special Forces groups, and participated in Operation White Star in Laos. He served on the weapons committee and 1st SFTG, and he was SCUBA qualified. He was a veteran of the Korean and Vietnam wars. He later worked for civil service as a housing inspector for Hardy Hall for 20 years after his active duty retirement. Funeral services will be held at 10 a.m. Thursday, Aug. 9, 2012, at Adock Funeral Home & Crematory chapel in Spring Lake. A graveside service will be held at 11 a.m. Thursday in Fort Bragg Main Post Cemetery. The family will receive friends from 7 to 9 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 8, 2012, at a visitation at the funeral home. Stanley was preceded in death by his darling wife, Janet Lee Barte Dahl; and two sons, Garry Owen Dahl and Steven Joseph Dahl. Left to cherish his memory are his loving children, Jimbo Dahl, Michael Dahl, Kathleen Dahl, Marianne Dahl Kerschen and Shannon Marie Dahl. He is also survived by 18 grandchildren and 25 great-grandchildren. Services entrusted to Adcock Funeral Home & Crematory of Spring Lake.
Operation White Star
From Month/Year
April / 1959
To Month/Year
April / 1962
Description Operation White Star (also known as Project White Star) was the code name for a United States military advisory mission to Laos during the first years of the Second Indochina War, which would eventually become known in the United States as the Vietnam War. The purpose was to train the Royal Laotian Army as well as indigenous Hmong, and Yao tribesmen to fight the Pathet Lao communist insurgency. This was later extended to include combat against the North Vietnamese Army, which was increasingly using Laos as a staging, transit and resupply area for its operations in South Vietnam.
White Star began in 1959 as "Operation Hotfoot" with the deployment of 107 United States Army Special Forces soldiers (Green Berets) of the 77th Special Forces Group —later named the 7th SFG in May 1960—under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Arthur D. "Bull" Simons. Because Laos was ostensibly a neutral party to the conflict between the United States and North Vietnam, the soldiers did not wear United States Army uniforms.
In 1961, however, the United States lent full and open support to the Vientiane government and the program was renamed "Operation White Star" with U.S. soldiers openly wearing their uniforms. Operation White Star formally ended in July 1962 when Laotian neutrality was officially established. Counterinsurgency efforts were then managed covertly by the Central Intelligence Agency.