While covering a story recently, I had the opportunity to tour some facilities with a number of current and former elite operators hailing from various military branches and government agencies. Although these men may have different abbreviations on their identification cards, the community of people with their unique skill set and level of expertise is small, and it isn’t uncommon to find that most of them know each other. Even within this community, Delta Force is held in an extremely high regard, as I came to find when I mentioned my friend George Hand in conversation.
“You know George Hand?” One of them asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Yeah, he’s a great guy, have you worked with him?” I responded.
“No… I just know of him… reputation only.” He answered. I knew our beloved Geo was a badass, but even I didn’t know he was held in such high regard among other badasses.
But then, there’s a lot we don’t know about America’s most elite fighting units, and that’s by design. Even SEAL Team 6 got the numeral portion of its moniker as a part of a disinformation effort intended to convince the Russians that there were at least five more groups of elite SEALS to contend with (of course, there actually weren’t).
Among the world’s elite war fighting units, few can compare to America’s Delta Force. Like SEAL Team 6 (DEVGRU), Delta operators are recognized as the best of the best, many of whom serve in special operations units like the Rangers or Green Berets before ever heading to the selection process to even try out to become a part of CAG, or the Combat Applications Group, which Delta traditionally goes by.
It seemed like a good time to share this video because George Hand’s Delta Force selection series is about go live right here on the Loadout Room. In fact, part one goes up tomorrow at 1400 eastern standard time. Make sure to check it out! Until then, here’s a video to hold you over.
Image courtesy of YouTube
