stacksmasher

Billy Waugh, the "Godfather of the Green Berets," served on secret missions for decades, even into his 70s. He enlisted as a teenager, fought in Korea and multiple Vietnam tours with MACV-SOG, survived being shot in the head and left for dead during the 1965 Battle of Bong Son, and later conducted the first combat HALO jump in US military history. After a brief detour as a mailman, he spent nearly three decades with the CIA tracking high-value targets including Carlos the Jackal and Osama bin Laden in Sudan, then at age 71 was among the first Americans on the ground in Afghanistan after 9/11. He died in 2023 at 93 having spent more than 50 years on the front lines in dozens of countries. "De Oppresso Liber" Never forgotten