Blue Light

Blue Light was a unit of the 5th Special Forces Group that existed into the early 1980s.

According to Col. Charles Beckwith's memoirs, this counter-terrorist group was formed by U.S. Army Special Forces leadership who disagreed with or felt politically threatened by Beckwith's Delta Force. He stated that the unit was supposedly disbanded when the Delta Force went operational. It is rumored to still exist under the same name or covert black ops name.[1]

Rod Lenahan book's Crippled Eagle [2] reports that the creators of Blue Light were asked by top brass of the Pentagon when they had just given the order to found Delta because Beckwith estimated that it would take 24 months to set up its unit . The purpose of Blue Light was to provide a capable counter-terrorism unit until Delta became operational. Blue Light was deactivated shortly after Delta completed its initial certification exercise in July 1978. Allegedly, no Blue Light member applied to Delta nor was asked by Delta to do so. The Blue Light S-2, Capt. Tim Casey, was latter one of the intelligence officers assigned to JTF 1-79 which commanded the ill-fated Operation Ricebowl / Eagle Claw.