Green Berets in Laos

Special Forces Colonel (retired) Joseph Celeski served for thirty years in the U.S. Army, twenty-three of them in Special Forces. He retired in 2004 after commanding the 3rd Special Forces Group (Airborne). He served as commander of the Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force for two tours in Operation Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan). He has published several works on special forces and counterinsurgency. His newest work "The Green Berets in the Land of a Million Elephants: U.S. Army Special Warfare and the Secret War in Laos 1959-74" was recently published and is available on Amazon.

The Secret War in Laos was one of the first “Long Wars” for special operations, spanning a period of about thirteen years. It was one of the largest CIA-paramilitary operations of the time, kept out of the view of the American public until now.

Between 1959 and 1974, Green Berets were covertly deployed to Laos to prevent a communist take-over or at least preserve the kingdom's neutrality. Operators dressed in civilian clothes, armed with cover stories and answering only to "Mister," were delivered to the country by Air America, where they answered to the U.S. Ambassador. There they were faced with the complexities of the three factions in Laos, as well as operating with limited resources – maps of the country often had large blank areas and essential supplies often didn't arrive at all. In challenging tropical conditions they trained and undertook combat advisory duties with native and tribal forces. Veterans remember Hmong guerrillas and Lao soldiers who were often shorter than the M1 rifles they carried.

The Green Berets' service in Laos was the first strategic challenge since its formation in 1952, and proved one of the first major applications of special warfare doctrine. Clouded in secrey until the 1990s, this story is comprehensively told for the first time using official archival documents and interviews with veterans.

A little known fact about Joe Celeski is that he was an Armor Captain in Germany who was recruited by then 5th SFG(A) Commander COL Jim Guest to attend Special Forces Training (with other selected Armor Officers who did not pass SF Training). COL Guest wanted experienced Armor officers to provide 5th SFG(A) with the mounted warfare knowledge as the Group was developing a mobility capability in order to work traditional SF missions in the inhospitable Middle Eastern and North African deserts. After serving as an ODA Commander where he was instrumental in developing the HMMWV gun trucks for Special Forces use, he attended Arabic language school in Monterrey, California then served for two years in a military advisory capacity in Jordan. There are alot of NCO's and SF Officers who count Joe Celeski as the primary mentor in their development as leaders.