 That's where the story of any Special Forces advisor really starts, for North Iran, a jump's a jump. The same tension as you shuffle toward the plain door, the same big lift in your chest as you see that silk billowing out above you, and the same hard meeting with Mother Earth, for that's the same for any Army man who comes down in a parachute, even at a tactics class. One part of our course at Port Bragg Special Warfare School, it may be the safe ending to a flight, but his job is just beginning. You five students know your part in this exercise. You've been dropped presumably into enemy-held territory where guerrillas friendly to us are operating. You're to link up with the guerrilla force in your area, train them in the tactics which we've been teaching you, and follow through on a bridge destruction mission with them. All right, let's synchronize our watches. Time is now 0821, Lieutenant Weinman, yes, sir, you will be met by guides from your guerrilla band, move to your mission support site where you have the balance of today and tonight to organize your guerrillas, make your reconnaissance, and prepare for the attack. Your guerrillas will hit the bridge tomorrow morning prior to daylight. North Carolina, not the real thing, of course. The guerrillas are actually members of the staff of the Special Warfare School, but they play it to the hill. We were really operating as though in fact I was on a river bank in a remote country, teaching the guerrillas the best way to knock off an enemy-held bridge. It's all part of a class in tactics at Special Warfare School where the emphasis is placed on work in the field, not theorizing in a classroom. For the next two days and nights, I organized and rehearsed my guerrillas in the tactics of a raid. With the leader of the guerrillas, I reconointed the target, noted the key details. A two-man guard, one man at each end of the bridge. Two more men are sacked out below in sleeping bags. The men on guard are relieved every two hours. Acting on this information, we worked out final plans for the assault, and with a pale moon to help us, at 0-200 we made our move. In this exercise, my job was to instruct the guerrillas. The Special Forces man trains, assists, advises. He fights in the action only as a matter of self-defense. This one appeared to be going well. My instructions on the approach, on posting security, seemed to have paid off. Silently, the sleeping guards are taken care of. Had mistakes. Any idea what they were? Well, for one thing, we made way too much noise moving up to the bridge. Right, too much racket. You sound like a herd of elephants. And another thing, your guerrillas spent too much time in the target area to blow the bridge effectively. Then you can eliminate this problem by preparing more thoroughly. Remember, in this business of Special Forces, there's no room for mistakes. What's so special about this business of Special Forces? I had found out very soon after my arrival at Fort Bragg. It takes over where commando, ranger, and airborne leave off. Special Forces is, above all else, a challenge to a man's will, his talents, his physical attributes. And the mental standards are exacting too. Gentlemen, in the assigned text, the author has described his impressions of a famous wartime guerrilla leader. Now, why are these impressions important to the area assessment that you will make? Captain Clark. Sir, the discussions with the resistance leader are friendly. Nevertheless, the Special Forces commander may be pitted against the guerrilla leader he's working with. In what sense? While the guerrilla leader may be anxious to fight the enemy, he's still an adversary in the sense that, well, to get more supplies or money, he may attempt to deceive as to the size of his force. Thank you, Captain Clark. Lieutenant Weinman. Sir, there is also this point that complicates the relationship between the Special Forces commander and the guerrilla leader. The guerrilla leader may be jealous of his position as number one man. And what if there's friction among the guerrillas? Well, in that case, if the recognized leader is in a weak position, the detachment commander may be forced to support a rival in his bid for leadership. The lectures, the discussion groups, all are over for the day now. But for every hour of class, there are several hours of studying. It's a mental as well as a physical obstacle course. It calls for thoroughness and concentration. The same way our Communist opposite numbers apply themselves to this line of work. They too devote great attention to the art of propaganda. And to cope with this weapon, we must first understand it ourselves. Offers many examples where special warfare operations have failed because they did not have the psychological operations support and preparation needed. Now, gentlemen, that is why... Psychological operations is one of three related activities carried out by specially trained men in the waging of special warfare. The others, with psychological operations support, are counterinsurgency operations and unconventional warfare. Name two prerequisites for successful guerrilla warfare, Lieutenant Weinem. An inaccessible area of operations and communications. Thank you. Captain Wilford. Captain, I was in Malaya for six years and rarely saw a guerrilla radio. Guerrilla communications was normally done by messenger. Thank you, Captain Wilford. This is not to say that communications are not desirable for successful guerrilla warfare. It's just that as a special warfare man, you must know how to make do without. As you well know, gentlemen, here at the school, we do stress communications. Okay, gentlemen, now assembled by the numbers, transmitter cable into power supply. Yes, they stress communications at the school all right. Not only the use and maintenance of equipment, both American and foreign, everything from shortwave radio to stringing wire in the jungle. There are all sorts of field expedients, like putting up a jungle antenna, made simply of field telephone wire on a 30-foot bamboo pole in place of the regular antenna. It doesn't require a requisition to supply, but it can extend the range of a radio set by four times. Because an infinite variety of daily challenges and tasks may lie ahead, the man who wears the green beret must master what seems like an infinite variety of skills. From a hovering helicopter, he repels fireman style, a 100-foot descent down a windswirld rope. He is trained to cope with medical emergencies in the field. He becomes proficient in the use of traps to snare wild game that can keep a man alive in distant reaches of the jungle, or an arctic wasteland. Above all, he knows the ultimate alternative faced by the special forces man in action. Adjust or die. So, he has learned to adjust, to live off the land, and on and off the water. For he may someday have to infiltrate into an area from the water, or a target. A hydroelectric plant, say, may be on a waterway. That's why amphibious training is essential. As a sport, scuba diving is catching on throughout the United States. But for us, scuba is not a sport, but a possible need of a military operation. It's not a matter of learning from a lecture, from charts, from books. We learn by doing, so we can teach foreign nationals. Help them to help themselves in the common struggle against communist aggression. Such handy things to know is the firing of a 3.5 rocket, electrically against supplies or equipment. A drum of fuel stands for supplies in the open. A turn of the blasting machine does the trick. The weeks fly by. Each day, each hour, a fountain of information, both in class and out. Many allied officers attend the school. Some of them have had first-hand contact with the guerilla type forces. And they have much to offer in the way of techniques and adaptations. Just as we have much to tell them, we get one big chance to put these techniques into practice. In the field training exercise, the climax of our course at the Special Warfare School. Over a desolate area near Fort Stewart, Georgia, we make a jump. I am one of a 12-man team. The basic Special Forces A detachment. Members from the school observe us every step of the way, watching how we react to situations thrown at us, how we handle ourselves and our contacts and work with the simulated guerilla force. Special Forces work calls for patience and working with people of other countries. For an American Special Forces advisor, maturity and calmness under pressure are required traits of character. After a hard week of training guerillas in the field, they are ready for the make or break event of the field exercise. My assignment, to instruct the guerillas on how to ambush a convoy. We have received information the convoy will be passing through the area at 1,100 hours of the next day. After the simulated ambush was started, it was over. Swiftly, the guerillas stripped the enemy aggressors and their vehicles of guns, ammo, food, and gasoline, a country that is our protection. A simulated attack, yes, but realistic practice for the real thing if it ever comes. With the end of the field exercise and the return to Fort Bragg, my course at the school is over. I had been trained, as all Special Forces men are, to instruct foreign nationals in Special Forces techniques. Some of the graduating officers will be assigned directly to Special Forces. They will have the right to wear the beret, which President Kennedy has called a symbol of excellence, a badge of courage, a mark of distinction in the fight for freedom. But for me, the privilege of wearing the beret will have to be postponed for another year of special study, in preparation for a tour of duty in Iran. There, I will be assigned as a Special Forces advisor. But how will I communicate to the Iranian officers and soldiers I'll be instructing? The army is very much aware of this problem. And that's the reason I will not go directly overseas. Next stop, an intensive one-year course in Farsi, the language of Iran, at the Army Language School in Monterey, California. Khoshamadid, welcome to the Persian Department. You are beginning a year of intensive study of Farsi, Persian, a language spoken by 35 million people. Salam means hello, our first achievement in the adventure that is the learning of a new language. From the beginning, all communication is conducted in Farsi. Salam. Salam. Salam. Salam. Salam. Salam. Enchist. Enchist. Enchist. Enchist. Enchist. At first, as those early days go by, the repetition seemed endless. A language like Farsi, where you don't have the build-in boost of a romance language, like French or Spanish, it comes hard. Enquitabast. Enquitabast. Enquitabast. Enquitabast. Enquitabast. Enquitabast. Enquitabast. Enquitabast. Enquitabast. Enquitabast. Enquitabast. Enquitabast. Learning a new language makes you feel like a child, small and insecure, drifting in a world of strange baffling sounds that always seemed just beyond your comprehension. Baleh maham darsaman rayaad migirein. Baleh maham darsaman rayaad migirein. Baleh maham darsaman rayaad migirein. Baleh maham darsaman rayaad migirein. Baleh maham darsaman rayaad migirein. Baleh maham darsaman rayaad migirein. There are times when you feel it's too much. You'll never get it. Never achieve the point of being able to communicate with fluency, accuracy, and speed. The goal seems unreachable. Baleh maham darsaman rayaad migirein. But you plug away, not only in the formal classes, but in the language laboratory as well, every day for at least an hour. To be manzil rafti. Khakheritan be madriseraft. Khakheritan be madriseraft. Baleh khakherim be madriseraft. And then in your room too, often far into the night. You listen, then you repeat. Baleh zor be manzil miravim. You listen, then you repeat. You listen, then you repeat. Listen, repeat. Khakheritan be madriseraft. Never, even in the few hours a week available for recreation, could I forget the main problem at hand. At poolside, over lunch, driving in a car. All of us classmates had a rule. Farsi only. And Farsi it was. I had the good fortune to meet and become friends with a young Iranian student studying in a nearby university. Saturday afternoons might find us taking a walk through one of the more picturesque sections in and around Monterey. But sightseeing wasn't my object. Khakheritan be madriseraft. Baleh khakherim be madriseraft. Never, even in the few hours a week available for recreation, Khakheritan be madriseraft. It was starting to come a little easier. But I knew in my heart I still hadn't broken through to the level of language skill I wanted and needed for my next assignment. Then, one day, it happened. The turning point in the mastery of a foreign language. In my case, it happened on a judo mat to work out with my friend Iraj now and then. He was a beginner and I was teaching him a few simple holds. On one of them, he had the bad luck not to fall right. And for a second, I thought his arm was hurt. I was relieved that Iraj was not hurt but something else crossed my mind, too. In the excitement of the moment, wanting to communicate immediately to my Iranian friend, I'd called out to him, not in English, but in Farsi. That meant I'd reached the point of thinking in Farsi. I had the feeling that I'd come over a big hurdle that afternoon. And from then on, it seemed that progress came by leaps and bounds. Hesitations were fewer. I didn't have to strain for words. And more and more, I could express a complicated thought with less and less strain. All at once, we were approaching graduation time. We left behind the classroom situations, and we did a lot of work in Riala City, using Farsi in real situations, the kind I might be involved in overseas. My promotion came through very close to graduation day. Understandably, it was the first day of my graduation. I was very happy. My promotion came through very close to graduation day. Understandably then, a happy day for me. After the graduation ceremony, the faculty gave us a little celebration party. A toast was proposed. I had been chosen to answer for the group. I said, I am amazed that after one year of listening to our Farsi, you still remember your Farsi. I and the rest of the students thank you. Because of your understanding and patience, we have achieved our goal. We hope to get acquainted with the Iranian people and culture so that we can repay you for some of your hard work. Again, we thank you. And so, this story ends where it began. Iran, as a newly assigned Special Forces Advisor. On arrival, the officer I was to replace, and I, toured some of the installations of the Iranian military forces. A worthy and important ally in the free world defense structure. In up for me was a big challenge. But I felt I was ready for it. Certainly the army hadn't stinted in my training, training which, with my language skills, I would pass along to Iranian Special Forces units. For above all else, we of Special Forces want to help our brothers and arms in other countries to help themselves. From that moment, I knew it was up to me to live up to the meaning of the Green Beret. What President Kennedy calls a badge of courage, a mark of distinction in the fight for freedom. And for me, in the months and years that loomed ahead, the Green Beret was to be something else as well. A mark to aim for, strive for, or as a Special Forces advisor in Iran.