<\/p>\n
The origins of the US Army Special Forces, the green berets, came from the First Special Service Force<\/a> – A WW II combined United States – Canadian unit and the Office of Strategic Services<\/a> (OSS).\u00a0 The latter was the responsibility of William J. Donovan\u00a0<\/a> (He is regarded as the founding father of the CIA, and a statue of him stands in the lobby of the\u00a0CIA headquarters building<\/a>\u00a0in\u00a0Langley, Virginia<\/a>.)<\/p>\n It was the initial efforts of Major General Robert A. McClure<\/a> that brought about special warfare within the US Army and the Special Forces in the early 1950s. Brigadier General Russell W. Volckmann<\/a> (then a colonel) had developed a new plan and in 1951, FM 31-21\u00a0Organization and Conduct of Guerrilla Warfare<\/i>\u00a0was released. Brigadier General\u00a0Robert A. McClure<\/a>, director of the Office of the Chief of Psychological Warfare (OCPW), asked Volckmann to become OCPW’s Chief of Plans\u2014Special Operations Division.\u00a0 \u00a0 Colonel Aaron Bank<\/a> then organized and executed the founding of the Special Forces. Colonel Bank is considered as ”the father of Special Forces” for his role in creating the Army’s unconventional-warfare units that became known as the Green Berets.<\/p>\n Those early SF troops surreptitiously wore the green beret as a way of distinguishing themselves from the rest of the Army.<\/p>\n