Monday Sept 21st, 1970

…exactly 50 years ago this week

Our training began with us walking through our positions over and over again in daylight. During the first month, there were several changes to how we performed our mission. Each person had specific tasks to perform. Not only did we have to know our own role, but we had to know the role of the man to our left and right and where they would be when the firing started.

Capt Dan Turner and I were a two-man team. As the RTO for Redwine Security Group my job was (as Capt Dan put it): “I want you an arm’s length from me or I will be the one who’ll shoot you!” And if you knew Capt Dan, he would have, so you can bet I stayed damn close to him.

Read Sgt Terry Buckler’s full story in Who Will Go.

Click Here:  The book.

Friday September 18th, 1970

…exactly 50 years ago today.

What the Bull told me yesterday came true. Things did change.

The first cut was made on Friday, September 18th. They selected 51 men (see the Log below), and an additional 10 men were identified as backup that could be used in any of the different elements. I was selected to be a part of the Redwine Security Group. I would be the RTO for Captain Dan Turner. No more guard duty for me! The three Groups were each placed in their own areas in the barracks building to help build the team concept.

Life Lesson 4: Have Patience and Aggressiveness and Contentment. Guarding the TOC, we were not allowed to know the “Why.” As I saw my opportunity slipping away, I was aggressive, hungry to be in the middle of the action. That’s OK—it’s not a fault to be aggressive. It’s a virtue—if you can choose in your heart and in your mind to be at peace and to be thankful, trusting God with the outcome.

Read Sgt Terry Buckler’s full story in Who Will Go.

Click Here:  The book.

Thursday September 17th, 1970

…exactly 50 years ago today.

As one of the six guys assigned to guard the Tactical Operations Center (TOC), I started to see that I might miss out on some key training. If I wanted to have a chance of getting selected for one of the Assault Force teams, I had to train when I was not pulling guard duty. Security was so tight that we didn’t know who we would be rescuing or in which part of the world it would be. There was a lot of speculation that it might be an attempt to free prisoners in Cuba based on the three-hour flying time of the mission.

I had been training and pulling guard duty for weeks when I got my chance to speak up. I was checking Colonel Bull Simons for access to the TOC building. While we were waiting for an escort to take the Bull in, he asked how things were going for me. I knew that he was only going to pick some of us for the actual mission, so I said, “Sir I didn’t volunteer to come here and pull guard duty. If I wanted to pull guard duty, I could have stayed at Fort Bragg.” Now the Bull always had a two-inch cigar that he chewed on. He looked me right in the eyes and said, “Young man, hang in there. Things are going to change pretty soon.”

After he went in the building, I thought to myself, “What in the hell did I just do? First I chewed out two Sergeant Majors back at Ft Bragg, trying to get on this mission. Now I just told a Colonel—and not just any Colonel, but Bull Simons—that I was tired of pulling guard duty. I just bitched to the Bull about pulling guard duty!?”

I thought, “Well I’ll probably end up pulling guard duty the rest of my time in the Army.”

Read Sgt Terry Buckler’s full story in Who Will Go.

Click Here:  The book.