William Waugh; aka the Godfather of Special Forces
This week we are suggesting you dedicate your WOD's to William Waugh; aka the Godfather of Special Forces.
William “Billy” Waugh is the Forest Gump of CIA and Special Forces with a larger than life personality and an uncanny knack for adventure. At the conclusion of WWII he attempted to enlist in the United States Marine Corps at age 15. His age got in the way, but three years later, in ‘48, he successfully enlisted in the United States Army, launching a career that would become nothing short of legendary in the Special Operations community.
In the very year Waugh enlisted, North Korea, along with Israel, became recognized nations. The US-led Berlin Airlift was underway in response to a Soviet blockade, and Czechoslovakia had fallen to communism. By the time Waugh retired in 2005 at age 75 from the CIA, the entire geopolitical landscape had been dramatically reshaped–and Waugh’s half a century of service had played a part in that change. He deployed to the Korean, Vietnam, and Afghanistan wars as well as numerous covert operations throughout the globe.
In 1954, after serving in Korea, Waugh earned his Green Beret and joined the 10th Special Forces Group in Bad Tölz, in what was West Germany at the time. The same year the Vietnam war kicked off, and Waugh found himself right at the center of the conflict for a number of years. Eventually Waugh joined Special Forces A-team A-321, an “Operational Detachment Alpha” serving with 5th Special Forces Group. The ODA conducted a night raid on a Viet Cong compound in Bong Son, in Binh Dinh Province. The area was littered with Viet Cong, North Vietnamese and other Communist forces including the Chinese and that left Waugh and his teammates thoroughly outnumbered. A fire fight broke out and the ODA was hit hard. Most of Waugh’s teammates were injured in the fight, including Waugh. He described the situation in his book, Hunting the Jackal.
I took another bullet, this time across the right side of my forehead. I don’t know for sure, but I believe the bullet ricocheted off the bamboo before striking me. It sliced in and out of a two-inch section of my forehead, and it immediately started to bleed like an open faucet. It sounds like the punch line to a bad joke, but you know it’s a bad day when the best thing about it is getting shot in the head.
Miraculously Waugh was still alive, but in bad shape.
All that mud had baked on me like a crust. The leeches were everywhere. The bones on my leg were sun-baked. The dried blood on my forehead made it tough to see, but I didn’t need my eyes to understand I was naked. They’d (the North Vietnamese Army) come across that paddy and stripped me of my clothes, my Rolex watch, my gear–everything.
Eventually Waugh's teammates found him and brought him to safety. The road to recovery was long, but for his valiant efforts, he was awarded a Silver Star and a Purple Heart. While we can’t say for sure, this Rolex was likely a Submariner ref. 5513 or GMT ref. 1675, both popular in the SF community and could then be purchased for “a month's salary.”
After recovering, Waugh got back in the fight and joined the shadowy Military Assistance Command-Vietnam Studies and Observations Group (MACV-SOG). Plenty of his work in this capacity is still classified, but it’s known that he helped train up Cambodian and Vietnamese forces in unconventional warThe subject of much of Waugh’s book, Hunting the Jackal, is Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, known as “Carlos the Jackal.” Waugh was assigned to track him down after Sanchez had evaded a number of intelligence agencies around the world after committing murder in a number of countries and playing a role in terror attacks.
Waugh set up a surveillance site, tracked and photographed The Jackal for some time before turning over the intelligence to the French, who conducted the capture mission. fare tactics that would help disrupt the Ho Chi Minh trail supply route and stymy the efforts of the VieIt was here that he reportedly purchased a gem-set gold Rolex Day-Date. According to a member of the W.O.E. community, Waugh told students of a recent Special Forces 18A course that he “purchased it in the late seventies in Libya for 13-14k.” But Waugh was well aware of the rise in value of Rolex watches. “Ya better believe that goddamn thing is worth about $25k or more now!” Waugh exclaimed when discussing the watch. t Cong. Additionally, Waugh became highly skilled in High Altitude Low Opening parachute jumps, known as HALO. This insertion platform allowed operators to enter hostile territory virtually undetected. Waugh led the last special reconnaissance mission in ‘71; Waugh and his teammates used the HALO platform to enter a denied territory held by the NVA.
Waugh briefly retired from military service when the Vietnam War wound down and took a job with the United States Postal Service. But Waugh wasn’t meant for the USPS. He had more to give to the world of Special Operations. Before he knew it, he was back in the fold.
In the mid-1970’s Edwin Wilson, formerly CIA, recruited Waugh and a few of his former teammates to train up Libyan sAfter the September 11 attacks, Waugh, then 71, deployed to Afghanistan as a member of the CIA’s Northern Alliance Liaison Team –codenamed JAWBREAKER. The Rolex was left at home and Waugh can be seen wearing a digital Suunto watch, similar to that worn by CIA team leader J.R. Seeger, as documented in “Digital Watches Of Espionage.” As previously discussed, the digital tool-watch was a far more effective tool for the modern day fighter, even a SOG veteran like Waugh.
Despite his age, Waugh was well suited for the initial mission into Afghanistan, given his time tracking Usama bin Laden in Sudan in the ‘90s and his decades of combat and intelligence experience. He would celebrate his 72nd birthday in Afghanistan.pecial forces. Waugh thought this was a CIA-backed operation, but it turned out Wilson was acting outside an official capacity. Waugh's saving grace is that he was indeed recruited by CIA prior to his transition to Libya for Wilson’s project. The CIA tasked him with photographing and reporting on any interesting activity that he noticed while he was there. The USSR was heavily invested in Libya and was of interest to US security. He photographed and observed the soldiers he was training and various Surface-to-Air missile sites.
After his Libya stint Waugh was assigned to the Kwajalein Missile Range in the Marshall Islands to survey and report on Soviet maritime activity in the area.
In 1991 he returned to Africa, this time to Khartoum, Sudan to survey and track Usama Bin Laden, who was relatively unknown to the public but of interest to the US intelligence. Waugh’s assignment was to survey the activities and patterns of life of Bin Laden. According to a contact that discussed the assignment with Waugh, he would “conduct his surveillance under the guise of going for a jog around the living area of bin Laden and his guards, frequently ‘flipping those bastards the bird or pretending to shoot them by pointing finger guns and imitating pulling the trigger’ while they watched him conduct his run. Waugh mentioned pushing up the request to kill bin Laden as it didn’t make sense to him to burn more time watching him. That request was denied and he wrapped up his surveillance shortly thereafter.”
In total, Waugh would be awarded one Silver Star, four Bronze Stars for Valor, four Commendation Ribbons for Valor, fourteen Air Medals for Valor, two Combat Infantryman badges and eight Purple Hearts. We can also assume Waugh was awarded numerous classified commendations from CIA.
As previously discussed, this reflection is less about Waugh’s watches and more about the man who wore them. Billy Waugh served the nation with the most difficult assignments for both the US Army Special Forces and the Central Intelligence Agency. This is our way to memorialize that service and honor his sacrifice.
We suggest you play this video for your communities. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qILb2jiIRjo or search YouTube for "Billy Waugh, a true legend in our special operations community"