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A 1903 MODEL SPRINGFIELD that has been sporterized in caliber 30-06

1903 MODEL SPRINGFIELD
1903 MODEL SPRINGFIELD
1903 MODEL SPRINGFIELD
1903 MODEL SPRINGFIELD
1903 MODEL SPRINGFIELD
1903 MODEL SPRINGFIELD
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Some Standardized Hand Signals for Close Range Engagement Operations

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ARMY BUDDIES GOOD BOOTS WILL NEVER LET YOU DOWN WRITTEN BY WILL DABBS, MD

Tools of the (old-school) trade: Kiwi shoe polish, an old T-shirt, a boot brush, panty
hose and a lot of elbow grease were all required to keep footwear up to scratch.

 

We’ve been everywhere together. We’ve trudged through fetid jungles, shivered in snow caves, crouched within powerful war machines, and even flung ourselves into the dark abyss underneath a parachute canopy. Through it all, we got over and around some of the roughest terrain on earth together.

It’s been said an army marches on its stomach. I disagree — an army marches on its boots. Of all the many-splendored cool-guy toys soldiers tote, pack, shoot, fly or drive, none are quite so important as boots. You may have the most lethal tricked-out rifle mankind can contrive, but if you’re scurrying about the Hindu Kush in dime store flip-flops, you aren’t going to be doing much with it.

 

Will’s new favorite, the Clash LT from Blauer. Lightweight, comfortable and rugged,
these high-tech wonders are light-years ahead of what they had “back in the day.”

Brogan History

 

My first set of LPCs (Leather Personnel Carriers) were the nondescript leather sort. Lacing was an arduous chore, they were hot in the summer and cold in the winter. However, the soles were grippy and they offered adequate protection against rocks, razor wire and similar pokey bits.

Jungle boots with speed laces represented a quantum improvement. They went on and off in a jiffy and the canvas uppers wore like sneakers. Vent holes in the bottom let air and water both in and out with comparable aplomb.

Holdovers from a previous age, jump boots were as heavy as Aunt Edna’s fruitcake. The slick leather soles didn’t offer much purchase and they took a lifetime to lace up, but I’m living proof you can use them to leap out of a perfectly good airplane and emerge with your ankles intact. The WWII versions were brown. Ours were black.

I have logged countless hours laboriously polishing with Kiwi and an old t-shirt. Squeeze the greasy stuff into all the crevices and then buff it out with a boot brush. The wooden-backed brush also makes a serviceable close-quarters weapon. One of my drunken soldiers earned an Article 15 for attacking some poor schmuck with his.

M-Nu paint blackened out the steel eyelets when they got shiny. A First Sergeant once told me it was so Soviet satellites couldn’t pick us out on the parade field. Sigh. When you’re all done, buff everything out with some of granny’s panty hose to really conjure a shine.

It’s tough to admit, but today’s versions are better. The uppers are rot-resistant nylon rather than canvas. The bodies are rough suede and won’t take polish if you rubbed them for a month. Today’s boys and girls in uniform don’t have to polish boots at all. I cannot imagine what they do with their time. Play video games, I suppose.

I’ve burned through a single pair of the new sorts, and they hold up nicely. The suede ages well and the soles grip like politicians grab other people’s money. The laces slide smoothly and let you get into them faster than you might a pair of cross trainers.

 

Why boots? These rancid feet actually belong to a friend of Will’s named Beth who
snapped this picture right after she finished a 100-mile road race.

This old jungle boot gave its life for Will when he wandered into some concertina
wire while answering nature’s call late one night in a moonless desert.

Top Of The Heap

I recently saw a scruffy-looking guy in my medical clinic and could not help but notice his high-mileage but well-maintained hard-use footwear. The kid was a former Marine who now worked an outside civilian job. Despite the grime his boots were meticulously maintained. It was my first hint he wasn’t your garden-variety thug.

I was so impressed with his boots I bought a pair myself. I’ve worn out at least half-a-dozen sets over the decades, and these are hands-down my favorites. They’re titled the “Clash LT” from Blauer, and they set me back a C-note.

These are tall ankle-supporting combat boots a full 6″ high. They wear like your favorite pair of running shoes and weigh a paltry 18 oz. The body of the boot is mixed suede and breathable mesh. There is also an integrated shank for stabilization should you need to fast rope into some evil despot’s lair. The psychedelic soles will have you climbing like a monkey on Adderall.

The coolest aspect of these uber-cool stompers is the integrated BOA lacing system. This inspired rig employs a braided stainless steel cable and a handy tightening wheel with a clutch of sorts making donning and doffing quick, easy and painless. With my nifty high-tech boots I’m through airport security faster than the nearby hippie in his Birkenstocks. If the unthinkable happens and my world is suddenly dark, jagged, upside down and on fire, I’m much better positioned to get out alive than my unwashed pal in sandals.

These boots felt broken-in out of the box and should last me the rest of my days. They’ll take me anywhere. Like my Army buddies, there’s really nothing we can’t do together.

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A Beretta MODEL 21A BOBCAT SEMI-AUTO PISTOL with a 2.4 INCH POP UP BARREL 7+1 MAG in caliber .22 LR

Beretta MODEL 21A BOBCAT SEMI-AUTO PISTOL 2.4 INCH POP UP BARREL 7+1 MAG NICE .22 LR - Picture 2
Beretta MODEL 21A BOBCAT SEMI-AUTO PISTOL 2.4 INCH POP UP BARREL 7+1 MAG NICE .22 LR - Picture 3
Beretta MODEL 21A BOBCAT SEMI-AUTO PISTOL 2.4 INCH POP UP BARREL 7+1 MAG NICE .22 LR - Picture 4
Beretta MODEL 21A BOBCAT SEMI-AUTO PISTOL 2.4 INCH POP UP BARREL 7+1 MAG NICE .22 LR - Picture 5
Beretta MODEL 21A BOBCAT SEMI-AUTO PISTOL 2.4 INCH POP UP BARREL 7+1 MAG NICE .22 LR - Picture 6
Beretta MODEL 21A BOBCAT SEMI-AUTO PISTOL 2.4 INCH POP UP BARREL 7+1 MAG NICE .22 LR - Picture 7
Beretta MODEL 21A BOBCAT SEMI-AUTO PISTOL 2.4 INCH POP UP BARREL 7+1 MAG NICE .22 LR - Picture 8
Beretta MODEL 21A BOBCAT SEMI-AUTO PISTOL 2.4 INCH POP UP BARREL 7+1 MAG NICE .22 LR - Picture 9
Beretta MODEL 21A BOBCAT SEMI-AUTO PISTOL 2.4 INCH POP UP BARREL 7+1 MAG NICE .22 LR - Picture 10

 

 

 

 

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A Colt Nickel Diamondback with a 6″ Barrel in caliber 22LR

Colt 6

Colt 6
Colt 6
Colt 6
Colt 6
Colt 6
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ROADKILL RODEO WINTER WEIRDNESS IN THE LAST FRONTIER WRITTEN BY WILL DABBS, MD

Alaska in the winter is a foreboding, unforgiving place. It is also the
sort of place where folks throw down over roadkill. Public domain.

The Alaskan interior isn’t like the rest of the planet. The following conflict played out over the course of a couple of weeks on the front page of the Daily News Miner — the Fairbanks, Alaska newspaper. Of all the weird stuff I saw while there, this curious little drama centered around a dead moose was among the weirdest.

Moose are roughly the same size as horses. Their legs are long, so most of their body mass is carried up high. That’s bad. When you hit a moose with a car, which happens roughly 500 times a year in Alaska, the animal is notorious for riding up over the hood and coming through the cockpit with predictable results.

However, moose are nonetheless great to eat. Half a moose kept my family in meat for nearly two years while we were there. As it is just stupid cold in the wintertime, roadkill does not deteriorate as it might in warmer climes.

 

An Alaskan moose is a simply gigantic animal. Transforming one of these creatures into something edible, particularly in the wintertime, takes an enormous amount of work. Public domain.

When life gives you lemons, help feed the needy

When we lived there, roadkill moose officially became the property of the state. The state police maintained a rotating list of service organizations. When they heard of a dead moose on the road, these altruistic guys would then retrieve the beast, butcher it, and distribute the meat gratis to those less fortunate. It seemed a pretty solid plan.

Some hapless Alaskan hit a moose. His car was drivable, and he was not hurt, but the moose was demised. The unfortunate motorist limped back into town and called the Bureau of Land Management to report the moose. The rub, however, was that the bureau was not the action agency for dead moose in Alaska. That would be the state police. However, the bureau person dutifully made a note and thanked the man for his civic-mindedness.

Meanwhile …

Meanwhile, a 50-something-year-old Alaskan woman was out riding her snow machine and happened upon the dead moose on the side of the road. She lived alone in a little cabin out in the middle of no place and was just over the moon at her serendipitous discovery. This unexpected bounty would feed her for many months. She and a lady friend, who also lived alone in a different cabin in the middle of no place, then dragged the enormous stiff creature to the nearest domicile for processing. At the time, it was maybe -35 degrees Fahrenheit.

Now imagine the kind of women who might voluntarily live alone in the middle of no place in Alaska and also skin their own moose. These are not the sorts of ladies I’d want chasing me with sticks. These chicks were of undeniably hearty stock.

In short order, they had the big animal field stripped, and the meat put away. However, as you might imagine, given the ghastly temperatures, this was no mean project.

While all this was going on, the Bureau of Land Management representative finally got around to notifying the state police. A state trooper dutifully investigated and found where the dead moose had been dragged off. He followed the trail to the first woman’s cabin and inquired about the moose. The lady explained that the moose was in her freezer and that he needed to leave. The state trooper wisely complied.

Once back at headquarters, this poor guy’s boss said, nope, that moose belonged to the state and directed him to retrieve it. The cop dutifully went back out to the cabin and engaged in a spirited discourse with the industrious lass. She explained what it had taken to process that 1,100-pound animal at 35 below and voiced her displeasure with his job, his mission, his boss, and likely his parentage.

Alaskan cops are all psychotherapists at heart, so the officer suggested a compromise. The lawman posited that he take half the moose and wrote her a receipt attesting that the other half was a gift from the state of Alaska to the scary woman. The lady was not happy about it, but she acquiesced with reluctance. The man then packed half of the frozen moose in the trunk of his squad car and returned to base rightly pleased with himself.

His boss, however, was apparently a real stickler about moose. He directed the poor man to go fetch the rest of the creature as well. The cop dutifully did so. According to the newspaper narrative, there was at least a passing period wherein the angry Alaskan woman threatened to kill the unfortunate peace officer while waving her duly-signed receipt in his face.

We all couldn’t wait each day to get our newspapers and find out the latest installment in the dead moose saga.

Alaska is indeed a magical place brimming with peerless natural beauty. It is also the only place I know of wherein a female hermit might threaten to murder a law enforcement officer over ownership of roadkill and find that 90% of the state’s residents would take her side in the matter.

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The Pearl Harbor Ni’ihau Incident: And Origins Of Ruger’s .22 Pistol by WILL DABBS

On December 7, 1941, a Japanese Zero crash-landed on a remote island in the Hawaiian chain. The resulting conflict brought out both the best and worst in the islanders.

Elizabeth McHutcheson was a hearty woman of Scottish descent cursed with a terminal case of wanderlust. She married a ship’s captain named Francis Sinclair and eventually produced six children. Elizabeth moved her family to New Zealand and established a farm. However, her husband and eldest son were later lost at sea along with most of the family’s possessions.

Elizabeth Sinclair was a legendarily tough woman.

Down but not out, Elizabeth relocated to Canada and then Hawaii with the remains of her family. Once settled in she bought the Hawaiian island of Ni’ihau for $10,000. Ten grand was an astronomical sum in 1864, but it turned out to be a fairly prescient investment.

Ni’ihau is the 7th largest of the Hawaiian islands. Elizabeth Sinclair bought the island in 1864 for $10,000. I’d give at least twice that for the place today.

Ni’ihau is the furthest West and second smallest of the primary Hawaiian Islands. Ownership of the island passed down through the family until 1941 when Elizabeth’s great-grandson Aylmer Robinson maintained possession. Aylmer was a Harvard graduate who spoke fluent Hawaiian. He was a benevolent landlord who lived on nearby Kaua’i. His island was accessible by permission only which was seldom granted. Robinson made weekly visits by boat to check on the native islanders who held him in high esteem.

This photo was taken on Ni’ihau in the late 19th century. The modest population of the island remains a repository of traditional Hawaiian language and culture even today.

In 1941 one hundred thirty-six native islanders called Ni’ihau home. Among them were three individuals with Japanese ancestry. Aylmer Robinson administered his idyllic little kingdom free from government interference.

The small island of Ni’ihau was an integral part of the Pearl Harbor attack plan.

In the buildup to the attack on Pearl Harbor, Japanese naval planners mistakenly assessed Ni’ihau as uninhabited. As a result, they briefed their aviators to divert to Ni’ihau in the event of battle damage preventing return to the carriers. The plan was for downed aircrew to survive on the island until they could be retrieved via submarine.

The Plot Thickens

Petty Officer Shigenori Nishikaichi was an elite Japanese Navy fighter pilot and an ideological zealot.

On the morning of December 7, 1941, Airman First Class Shigenori Nishikaichi launched his A6M2 Zero fighter B11-120 from the carrier Hiryu as part of the second wave. Unlike the first attack that achieved complete tactical and strategic surprise, the second element flew into a hornet’s nest. American fighter resistance was negligible, but the warships anchored at Pearl bristled with antiaircraft guns. .50-caliber, 20mm, 40mm, and 5-inch antiaircraft weapons filled the sky with steel.

Nishikaichi launched that morning from the Japanese aircraft carrier Hiryu. The Hiryu was later lost at the Battle of Midway.

Nishikaichi’s Zero was badly damaged during a strafing run on Wheeler Field and limped away trailing smoke. Realizing that there was no way his nimble Zero was going to make it home, Nishikaichi diverted for Ni’ihau. Crash-landing his crippled fighter in a field near a local named Hawila Kaleohano, Nishikaichi was briefly dazed but otherwise unhurt.

The Chemical Formula for Awkward

Nishikaichi’s Zero crash-landed relatively intact and became an immediate spectacle.

The arrival of Nishikaichi’s Zero was the biggest event on Ni’ihau in collective memory, and the islanders all came out to gawk. They knew that the relationship between the United States and the Empire of Japan was strained. However, the Hawaiians are a naturally friendly people. Hawila Kaleohano relieved the young aviator of his handgun and personal documents, and the rest of the islanders threw the lad a party.

The maps and mission documents that Petty Officer Nishikaichi had in his plane were considered classified and extremely sensitive.

Only the three islanders with a Japanese nexus spoke Japanese, and the rest of the Ni’ihau inhabitants were unable to communicate with their new guest. For ease of explanation we will refer to these three individuals by their first names—Ishimatsu, Yoshio, and Irene. However, the Japanese pilot was becoming ever more agitated about the loss of his maps, weapon, and mission directives.

The unannounced arrival of a Japanese military pilot transformed the pastoral island of Ni’ihau into a war zone.

The island’s residents caught a report of the attack on a battery-powered radio and confronted the Japanese pilot. Their intent was to send him back with Mr. Robinson when he arrived on his next scheduled visit. Their guest now effectively became their prisoner.

Not unlike the ban on aviation after 911, the military placed a moratorium on boat travel in the immediate aftermath of the Pearl Harbor attack.

Aylmer Robinson failed to arrive on his appointed day, and this unsettled the islanders. Robinson was typically quite punctual. However, the military had banned boat traffic, so Ni’ihau was effectively isolated.

The now captive Japanese airman was held in the home of two of the only three people on the island who spoke his language.

Petty Officer Nishikaichi was remanded to the home of Yoshio and Irene, two of the islanders with Japanese connections, to be overseen by four volunteer guards. Unbeknownst to the rest of the island’s inhabitants, Yoshio and his wife were re-evaluating their loyalties. All the while the pilot’s classified documents remained in the possession of Hawila Kaleohano, the man who had originally encountered the pilot.

A Cold War Goes Hot

Irene Harada covered the sounds of the fight by cranking up her phonograph.

These people were not soldiers, and three of the four guards eventually wandered off. Seeing their opportunity Irene turned her phonograph up to cover the sounds of the ensuing struggle, while her husband and the pilot attacked the remaining guard. In short order the two had the man secured in a warehouse and had retrieved Nishikaichi’s pistol as well as a shotgun.

Hawila Kaleohano was fortuitously in the midst of his morning constitutional when the Japanese pilot and his co-conspirator approached.

The two men then proceeded to Kaleohano’s home in search of the attack plans. They arrived during the man’s quality time, so he was serendipitously hidden unseen in his outhouse. When the moment was right Kaleohano fled the privy and ran for his life, shotgun blasts chasing him down the trail. Thusly alerted the islanders retreated to caves, thickets, and distant beaches, unable to believe that these people with whom they had shared the island were now actively firing upon their friend and neighbor.

After harvesting a machinegun from the downed fighter plane the pilot set it ablaze. This is a shot of the plane after the fire burned itself out.

The pilot and his compatriot then stripped a 7.7mm machinegun and ammo from the plane, unsuccessfully attempted to use the radio to contact the Japanese fleet, and set the Zero alight. They then went to Kaleohano’s home and burned it to the ground in a further effort to destroy Nishikaichi’s classified documents.

It Gets Worse…

Petty Officer Nishikaichi was still rabid to retrieve his tactical maps and notes. At this point, he was growing quite desperate.

Kaleohano, his home conflagrated, kept the Japanese military documents in his possession and took to a boat to row to the nearest nearby island. Not realizing he was gone, Nishikaichi and Toshio press-ganged a local couple named Ben Kanahale and his wife Ella into the hunt for Kaleohano. The pair took Ella hostage to motivate her husband to stay on task.

Japanese aviators typically carried a sidearm with them on combat missions. Nishikaichi now decided it was time to use his.

Ben wasted a little time pretended to search and returned to check on his wife. When Nishikaichi realized he was being deceived he pulled his pistol and threatened to kill everyone in the village. At this provocation Ben Kanahale went full Chuck Norris on the man.

The Gun

The Type 14 was a serviceable if underpowered combat handgun for its era.
The Type 94 was likely the worst combat pistol ever contrived by mankind. Pressure on the sear bar shown in the middle of the gun will cause it to fire independent of the trigger.
The Type 26 revolver was an exquisitely well-executed piece of crap. The cylinder spins freely, so you can never be completely sure there will be a live round underneath the hammer.

For reasons you will find out momentarily, the exact model of the handgun has been lost to history. However, the three most likely candidates are the 8mm Type 14 or Type 94 autoloaders or the Type 26 revolver. Balance of probability suggests that at the beginning of the war in the hands of an elite Japanese Naval Aviator his handgun was likely a Type 14 Nambu.

This Glisenti Model 1910 likely served as inspiration for the Type 14 Nambu.

The Type 14 is a recoil-operated, locked-breech, semiautomatic handgun whose original mechanism dates back to the late 19th century. LTG Kijiro Nambu designed the weapon along with an array of other Japanese military arms. The locked-breech mechanism favors and was likely inspired by that of the Glisenti Model 1910.

The bottlenecked 8mm Nambu round is a nifty looking thing, but it remains a bit underpowered for serious social work.

The Type 14 debuted in 1925 and fires the relatively anemic bottlenecked 8x22mm round common to all Japanese wartime autoloading handguns. Considerably less powerful than the 7.62x25mm, 9mm Parabellum, and .45ACP rounds used by other combatant nations, the 8mm Nambu was marginal at best. The Type 14 fed from an 8-round box magazine, sported a 4.6-inch barrel and weighed about 2 pounds. About 400,000 copies were produced.

Bill Ruger reverse-engineered the Type 14 Nambu to become the familiar Ruger Mk I .22 pistol.

Japanese officers were expected to buy their own handguns, and the Type 14 was a popular souvenir of combat in the Pacific. As the war progressed and B29 attacks strangled the home islands the quality of these weapons declined precipitously. Bill Ruger bought a Type 14 from a returning Marine in 1945 and used it as a basis for his Ruger Standard pistol that eventually morphed into the Mk I, II, III, and IV .22 handguns so common today.

The Climax

Always bring enough gun. It turned out Nishikaichi’s Type 14 Nambu wasn’t quite up to the task.

Seeing an opportunity, Ben Kanahele and his wife Ella jumped the distracted Japanese pilot and his turncoat buddy. Ella grabbed his gun arm, but Yoshio Hamada peeled her off. Nishikaichi then shot Ben three times, striking him in the upper leg, groin, and abdomen. This turned out to be a grave mistake.

Chuck Norris has got nothing on Ben and Ella Kanahele. When the moment was right they got absolutely medieval on Japanese Petty Officer Shigenori Nishikaichi.

Kanahele was a sheep farmer and a powerful man. Despite his grievous injuries he took hold of the Japanese pilot, lifted him bodily, and threw him headlong into a stone wall. Ben and Ella then fell upon the dazed Japanese aviator with a vengeance. Ella smashed his head with a rock, and Ben cut the man’s throat with his hunting knife. Overcome by events, Nishikaichi’s ally Yoshio shot himself in the head with the shotgun.

Petty Officer Nishikaichi’s Type 14 is still buried out on that island someplace.

Ella Kanahele snatched up the shotgun and pistol and ran for help. Along the way she inadvertently dropped the weapons. The pistol was never recovered, but the shotgun washed up in a flood some five years later.

This is all that remains of Nishikaichi’s Zero today. It is currently on display at the Pacific Aviation Museum at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.

Yoshio’s widow spent the next 31 months in prison and was released in June of 1944 despite never being formally charged with a crime. Ben Kanahele was evacuated to a nearby island with a hospital and ultimately recovered, being awarded the Medal for Merit and Purple Heart for killing the Japanese pilot in close combat. The remains of Nishikaichi’s Zero are on display at the Pacific Aviation Museum at Pearl Harbor today.

On the very first day of American involvement in World War 2, a tragic little conflict played out on an otherwise peaceful remote island in Hawaii.
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Some Nice Military Prints for your perusal

Med_1.png

Picture 1 of 1

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Happy ALAMO DAY !- N.S.F.W.

Remember the Alamo memes | quickmeme

texas and the alamo Memes & GIFs - Imgflip

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He fought in 3 major Wars, What a STUD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sandboxx

Billy Waugh.jpg

Waugh during his Army service
Birth name William D. Waugh
Nickname(s) “Billy”, “Mustang”
Born December 1, 1929 (age 93)
Bastrop, Texas, United States
Allegiance  United States
Branch/ agency  United States Army
 Central Intelligence Agency
Years of service 1948–1972 (Army)
1977–2005 (CIA)
Rank Army-U.S.-OR-09c.png Sergeant major
 Paramilitary Operations Officer
Unit 5th Special Forces Group
Studies and Observations Group
Special Activities Division
Battles/wars Korean War
Vietnam War
Operation Enduring Freedom – Afghanistan (OEF-A)
Operation Iraqi Freedom
Awards Silver Star
Legion of Merit
Bronze Star Medal (4)
Purple Heart (8)
Alma mater
Other work United States Postal Service (1972–1977)

William D. Waugh (born December 1, 1929) is a former United States Army Special Forces soldier and Central Intelligence Agency paramilitary operations officer who served more than 50 years between the U.S. Army‘s Green Berets and the CIA’s Special Activities Division.

Early life

Waugh was born in Bastrop, Texas, on December 1, 1929. In 1945, upon meeting two local Marines who returned from the fighting in World War II, the then 15-year-old Waugh was inspired to enlist in the Marine Corps.

Knowing that it was unlikely that he would be admitted in Texas because of his young age, Waugh devised a plan to hitchhike to Los Angeles, where he believed a person had to only be 16 to enlist. He got as far as Las CrucesNew Mexico, before he was arrested for having no identification and refusing to give his name to a local police officer.

He was later released after securing enough money for a bus ticket back to Bastrop. Now committed to serving in the military once he finished school, Waugh became an excellent student at Bastrop High School, graduating in 1947 with a 4.0 grade point average.[1]

Military career

Waugh enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1948, completing basic training at Fort OrdCalifornia, 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.[2]

Special Forces

Shortly after the end of the Korean War, Waugh met two U.S. Army Special Forces members on a train in Germany, they informed him of openings for Platoon sergeants, shortly after he requested a transfer.[3] He began training for the Special Forces, and earned the Green Beret in 1954, joining the 10th Special Forces Group (SFG) in Bad TölzWest Germany.[2]

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 (VC), 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.

Special Forces sleeve insignia, with “Airborne” tab

In July 1965, he was serving with 5th Special Forces Group A-team A-321 at Camp Bồng Sơn, Bình Định Province, commanded by Captain Paris Davis. Following a night raid with a Regional Forces unit on a VC encampment near Bong Son, the unit was engaged by a superior VC force.

Many of the Regional Forces soldiers refused to fight and most of the A team were injured by VC fire, including Waugh who was shot multiple times and left between the VC and U.S./South Vietnamese forces. Waugh was later rescued by Davis under fire.[4] He spent much of 1965 and 1966 recuperating at Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, D.C., eventually returning to duty with 5th Special Forces Group in 1966. He received a Silver Star and a Purple Heart (his 6th) for the battle at Bong Son.

Special Forces Regimental Insignia

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 High Altitude, Low Opening (HALO) jump,[5] a parachuting maneuver designed for rapid, undetected insertion into hostile territory.

In October 1970, his team made a practice Combat Infiltration into the NVA owned War Zone D, in South Vietnam, for reassembly training, etc.[5] Waugh also led the last combat Special reconnaissance parachute insertion by American Army Special Forces HALO parachutists into denied territory which was occupied by communist North Vietnamese Army (NVA) troops on June 22, 1971.[2]

Waugh retired from active military duty at the rank of Sergeant Major (E-9) on February 1, 1972.[2]

CIA career

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 surveilling 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.[6][7]

In the 1980s he was assigned to the Kwajalein Missile Range in the Marshall Islands to track Soviet small boat teams (Naval Spetsnaz: Dolfin) operating in the area and prevent them from stealing U.S. missile technology. Some of his more critical assignments took place in KhartoumSudan during the early 1990s, where he performed surveillance and intelligence gathering on terrorist leaders Carlos the Jackal and Osama bin Laden with Cofer Black.[7][8]

At the age of 71, Waugh participated in Operation Enduring Freedom from October to December 2001 as a member of the CIA’s Northern Alliance Liaison Team led by Gary Schroen which went into Afghanistan to work with the Northern Alliance to topple the Taliban regime and Al Qaeda at the Battle of Tora Bora.[9]

It is unknown how many missions Waugh was involved in during his career.

Education

Waugh in 2011.

In 1985, Waugh was again requested by the CIA for clandestine work. Before he took the offer, he decided to further his education, earning bachelor’s degrees in Business and Police Science from Wayland Baptist University in 1987.

He also earned a master’s degree in Interdisciplinary Studies with a specialization in criminal justice administration (MSCJA) in 1988 from Texas State University (formerly Southwest Texas State), in San Marcos, Texas.[9]

Publications

Awards and decorations (partial list)

CIB2.svg Combat Infantryman Badge (two awards)
Einzelbild Special Forces (Special Forces Insignia).svg Special Forces Tab
Master Parachutist badge (United States).svg Master Parachutist Badge
US Military Master Free Fall Parachutist Badge.jpg1 golden star.svg Military Freefall Jumpmaster Badge with gold combat jump star (5 combat jumps)
ViPaBa.jpg Vietnam Parachutist Badge
Service stripe.jpg Service stripes
ArmyOSB.svg Overseas Service Bars
Silver Star[12]
Legion of Merit
Bronze oakleaf-3d.svgBronze oakleaf-3d.svgBronze oakleaf-3d.svg Bronze Star Medal with three bronze oak leaf clusters
Silver oakleaf-3d.svgBronze oakleaf-3d.svgBronze oakleaf-3d.svg Purple Heart with seven oak leaf clusters
Award numeral 1.pngAward numeral 4.png Air Medal
Bronze oakleaf-3d.svgBronze oakleaf-3d.svg"V" device, brass.svgBronze oakleaf-3d.svg Army Commendation Medal with Valor device and three oak leaf clusters
Bronze oak leaf cluster

Army Presidential Unit Citation with oak leaf cluster (one award in 2001, SOG)
Gcl-07.png Good Conduct Medal (7 awards)
Army of Occupation Medal
Bronze star

National Defense Service Medal with one bronze service star
Bronze-service-star-3d-vector.svgBronze-service-star-3d-vector.svgBronze-service-star-3d-vector.svg Korean Service Medal with three campaign stars
Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal
Arrowhead device.svgSilver-service-star-3d.svgBronze-service-star-3d-vector.svg Vietnam Service Medal with Arrowhead device and six service stars
Republic of Korea Presidential Unit Citation
Presidential Unit Citation Vietnam (Army sized).png Vietnam Presidential Unit Citation
Gallantry Cross Unit Citation.png Republic of Vietnam Gallantry Cross Unit Citation
Civil Action Unit Citation.png Republic of Vietnam Civil Actions Medal Unit Citation
United Nations Korea Medal
Vietnam Campaign Medal
Republic of Korea War Service Medal