- Billy Waugh
Infobox Military Person
name= William Waugh
born= Birth year and age|1929|12
died=
placeofbirth=Bastrop, Texas flagicon|Texas
placeofdeath=
caption= Billy Waugh, ca. 1968
nickname=Billy, "Mustang"
allegiance=United States of America flagicon|USA
serviceyears=1948–1972
rank=Sergeant Major
branch=United States Army Special Forces
commands=
unit=5th Special Forces Group ,Studies and Observations Group
battles=Korean War Vietnam War Operation Enduring Freedom - Afghanistan (OEF-A)
awards= (8) (partial list)
relations=
laterwork=Central Intelligence Agency SGM William "Billy" Waugh (US Army-Ret.) (born December, 1929), is a highly decorated American Special Forces soldier and
Central Intelligence Agency covert operative who served in theUnited States military andintelligence fields for more than fifty years.Early life
Waugh was born in
Bastrop, Texas on December 7, 1929. In 1945, upon meeting two localMarines who returned from the fighting inWorld War II , the then-15 year-old Waugh was inspired to enlist in theMarine Corps . Knowing that it was unlikely that he would be admitted in Texas because of his young age, Waugh devised a plan to hitchhike toLos Angeles , where he believed a person had to only be 16 to enlist. He got as far asLas Cruces ,New Mexico before he was arrested for having no identification and refusing to give his name to a local police officer. He was later released after securing enough money for a bus ticket back to Bastrop. Now committed to serving in the military once he finished school, Waugh became an excellent student at Bastrop High, graduating in 1947 with a 4.0 grade point average.cite book |last = Waugh|first = Billy|authorlink = |coauthors = Tim Keown|title =Hunting the Jackal |publisher = William Morrow|date = 2004|location = |pages = xix-xxii|url = |doi = |id =]Military career
Waugh enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1948, completing
basic training atFort Ord ,California in August of that year. He was accepted into theUnited States Army Airborne School and became airborne qualified in December 1948. In April 1951, Waugh was assigned to the 187th Airborne Regimental Combat Team (RCT) in Korea.U.S. Army Special Forces
Shortly after the end of the
Korean War , Waugh began training for the Special Forces. He earned the Green Beret in 1954, joining the10th Special Forces Group (SFG) inBad Tolz , Germany.As U.S. involvement in the
Vietnam War increased, the United States began deploying Special Forces "A-teams" (Operational Detachment Alpha, or ODA, teams) toSoutheast Asia in support ofcounterinsurgency operations against theViet Cong ,North Vietnam ese and otherCommunist forces. Waugh arrived inSouth Vietnam with his ODA in 1961, and began working alongside Civilian Irregular Defense Groups (CIDGs) there, as well as inLaos .In 1965, while participating in a
commando raid with his CIDG unit on aNorth Vietnamese Army encampment near Bong Son,Binh Dinh province, Waugh's unit found itself engaged with much larger enemy force. While he and his men attempted to retreat from the battle, Waugh received numerous severe wounds to his head and legs. Despite his injuries, and with the assistance of his teammates, Waugh was safely evacuated from the combat zone. He spent much of 1965 and 1966 recuperating atWalter Reed Hospital inWashington, D.C. , eventually returning to duty with 5th SFG in 1966.At this time Waugh joined the Military Assistance Command-Vietnam Studies and Observations Group (MACV-SOG). While working for SOG, Waugh helped train Vietnamese and
Cambodia n forces inunconventional warfare tactics primarily directed against theNorth Vietnamese Army operating along theHo Chi Minh Trail .Prior to retirement from U.S. Army Special Forces service, Waugh was senior NCO (non-commissioned officer) of MACV-SOG's Command & Control North (CCN) based at Marble Mountain on the South China Sea shore a few miles south of Da Nang, Vietnam. Waugh held this Command Sergeant Major role during the covert unit's transition and name change to Task Force One Advisory Element (TF1AE). Waugh also led the last combat
Special reconnaissance parachute insertion by American ArmySpecial Forces High Altitude, Low Opening (HALO) parachutists into denied territory which was occupied by communist North Vietnamese Army (NVA) troops on 22 June 1971.Waugh retired from active military duty at the rank of Sergeant Major (E-9) on February 1, 1972.
CIA career
Prior to Waugh's retirement, he worked on and off for the CIA starting in 1961. After Waugh retired from the military, he worked for the
United States Postal Service until he accepted an offer in 1977 from ex-CIA officerEdwin P. Wilson to work in Libya on a contract to train that country's special forces. This was not an Agency-endorsed assignment and Waugh might have found himself in trouble with U.S. authorities if it weren't for the fact that he was also approached by the CIA to work for the Agency while in Libya. The CIA tasked him with surveiling Libyan military installations and capabilities – this was of great interest to U.S. intelligence as Libya was receiving substantial military assistance from theSoviet Union at the time. This additional assignment quite possibly protected Waugh from prosecution after Wilson was later indicted and convicted in 1979 for illegally selling weapons to Libya.cite book |last =Waugh |first = |authorlink = |coauthors = |title =ibid. |publisher = |date = |location = |pages =133-154 |url = |doi = |id =]In the 1980s he was assigned to the
Kwajalein Missile Range in theMarshall Islands to trackSoviet small boat teams operating in the area and prevent them from stealing U.S. missile technology. Some of his more critical assignments took place inKhartoum ,Sudan during the early 1990s, where he performed surveillance and intelligence gathering on terrorist leadersCarlos the Jackal andOsama bin Laden withCofer Black .At the age of 71, Waugh participated in
Operation Enduring Freedom as a member of the CIA team led byGary Schroen that went intoAfghanistan to work with theNorthern Alliance to topple theTaliban regime andAl Qaeda at theBattle of Tora Bora . Waugh was in-country from October to December 2001. Waugh spent many years being both a "Blue Badger" (employee) and a "Green Badger" (contractor). He continues to work as a "Green Badger". It is unknown how many missions Waugh was involved in during his career.Education
In 1985, Waugh was again requested by the CIA for clandestine work. Before he took the offer, he decided to further his education, earning
Bachelors Degree s in Business andPolice Science fromWeyland Baptist University in 1987. He also earned aMasters Degree inInterdisciplinary Studies with a specialization incriminal justice administration (MSCJA) in 1988 fromTexas State University (formerly Southwest Texas State), in San Marcos, TX.Awards and decorations
*
Combat Infantryman Badge (2nd award)
*Silver Star cite book |last =Waugh |first = |authorlink = |coauthors = |title =ibid. |publisher = |date = |location = |pages = xvi |url = |doi = |id =]
*
* (4 awards)
* (8 awards)
* for Valor (4 awards)
* (14 awards)
*
* with Gold Star for Combat, free-fall parachute operation, Vietnam War [The image included here is of the basic HALO/HAHO Parachutist Badge.]External links
* [http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780307345455 Robert Young Pelton, "Licenced to Kill: Hired Guns in the War on Terror (Crown, September 2006)]
* [http://billywaugh.net/ Billy Waugh's website with information about his memoir "Hunting the Jackal"]
* [http://billywaugh.net/bio.htm Waugh's biography]
* [http://www.amazon.com/dp/0060564105 Hunting the Jackal: A Special Forces and CIA Soldier's Fifty Years on the Frontlines of the War Against Terrorism] 2004
* [http://www.usatoday.com/news/sept11/2002/01/07/usatcov-greenberets.htm Green Berets outfought, outthought the Taliban]USA Today January 6 2002 ee also
*
Studies and Observations Group
*Bruce Allen Berg References
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