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<v Speaker 1>Well we're going to be talking about today is where

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<v Speaker 1>the green Beret came from. So picture Fort Bragg in

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<v Speaker 1>North Carolina, sometime in nineteen fifty three. A young lieutenant

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<v Speaker 1>named Roger Pazzell is standing in a field with his

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<v Speaker 1>eighteen Operational Detachment FA thirty two, about to head out

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<v Speaker 1>for a prolonged training exercise on his head as a

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<v Speaker 1>Green Beret. It's not army issued, it isn't authorized. It

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<v Speaker 1>is even technically legal for him to be wearing it,

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<v Speaker 1>but he doesn't care. That small act of quiet defiance

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<v Speaker 1>is where our story starts today. The origin of the

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<v Speaker 1>Green Beret. Its lineage actually traces to World War Two

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<v Speaker 1>American Special Forces predecessors teams under the Office of Strategic Services,

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<v Speaker 1>but it used to be called before the CIA parachute

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<v Speaker 1>into occupied France and Holland and three man teams to

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<v Speaker 1>link up with resistance fighters and coordinate shabotage behind Nazi lines.

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<v Speaker 1>These men lived in with partisans, spoke the language, ate

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<v Speaker 1>the food, and fought to fight from the inside. That's

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<v Speaker 1>the DNA of unconventional warfare, and it's the DNA of

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<v Speaker 1>Special Forces. That's even an older thread too, one that

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<v Speaker 1>doesn't get talked about nearly enough special Forces lineage. It

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<v Speaker 1>runs back to the Black Seminole scouts, Black and Native

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<v Speaker 1>American frontier fighters, many of them escaped slaves, who served

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<v Speaker 1>the US Army in the nineteenth century as trackers and

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<v Speaker 1>guerrilla specialists. They're crossed arrows insignias, the same crossed areos,

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<v Speaker 1>crossed arrows and signia special Forces soldiers were on their

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<v Speaker 1>branch insignia today. It's a strange and important lineage. Men

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<v Speaker 1>who fought first for their own freedom then went on

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<v Speaker 1>to fight for the freedom of others, and that thread

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<v Speaker 1>runs directly into the modern Special Forces motto they were

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<v Speaker 1>Oppresso liber to free the oppressed. Now back to the beret.

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<v Speaker 1>When American troops served alongside European allies during and after

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<v Speaker 1>World War Two, they got a good lie look of

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<v Speaker 1>what French and Belgian soldiers wore into the field. Berets practical, packable,

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<v Speaker 1>easy to wear into a helmet, but the green coloring specifically,

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<v Speaker 1>while that's borrowed from the British commandos, who adopted a

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<v Speaker 1>green beret as their official head gear back in nineteen

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<v Speaker 1>forty two. So when the tenth Special Forces Group was

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<v Speaker 1>activated in nineteen fifty two under Colonel Aaron Bank, a

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<v Speaker 1>former OSS officer himself. Soldiers who spent time around European

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<v Speaker 1>airborne and commando units brought their beret tradition home with them.

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<v Speaker 1>They're nineteen fifty three Major Bruckner or Brucker an other

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<v Speaker 1>OS that's better as credit was formerly designating it as

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<v Speaker 1>the Special Forces own. That's when Lieutenant Pezzel's team started

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<v Speaker 1>wearing it in the field, where it spread. Other eight

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<v Speaker 1>teams picked it up. Within a couple of years, it

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<v Speaker 1>was everywhere across Special Forces, worn with pride and worn

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<v Speaker 1>like a secret handshake. There was one small problem. The

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<v Speaker 1>Army hated it officially. The bereat had zero authorization. Commanders

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<v Speaker 1>saw it as an unnecessary flourish, a distraction from Army

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<v Speaker 1>uniform standards, maybe even a little arrogant. For a year,

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<v Speaker 1>Special Forces soldiers wore it anyway, and got scolded for it,

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<v Speaker 1>and kept wearing it anyway. That's a pattern worth sitting

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<v Speaker 1>with for a second, and elite culture defining itself before

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<v Speaker 1>the institution around that was ready to admit that culture existed.

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<v Speaker 1>Then October nineteen sixty one, John F. Kennedy scheduled to

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<v Speaker 1>visit for Bragg. Kennedy had a personal fascination with unconventional

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<v Speaker 1>warfare and irregular forces. He saw special forces as uniquely

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<v Speaker 1>suited to the kind of Cold War conflicts. He thought

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<v Speaker 1>the country was actually going to be fighting insurgencies, proxy wars,

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<v Speaker 1>gorilla campaigns, not mass tank battles in Europe. Before his visit,

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<v Speaker 1>he sent instructions to the Special Warfare Center. He said,

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<v Speaker 1>have every Special Forces soldier wear the beret for the visit,

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<v Speaker 1>and they did. Jfk was struck by it. He later

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<v Speaker 1>put his feelings in writing to the Army Chief of Staff,

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<v Speaker 1>calling the green beret a symbol of excellence and a

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<v Speaker 1>badge of courage, a mark of distinction in the fight

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<v Speaker 1>for freedom. That was the turning point. An institution that

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<v Speaker 1>spent nearly a decade treating the beret as an active

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<v Speaker 1>insubordination suddenly had a commander in chief calling it exactly

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<v Speaker 1>the opposite. The Army fell in line, the beret was authorized,

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<v Speaker 1>and Special Forces soldiers had almost by accident, gotten their

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<v Speaker 1>most powerful advocate possible. Now, why did other militaries eventually

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<v Speaker 1>adopt something similar? Because a beret, it turns out, does

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<v Speaker 1>something A patch or a badge can't do. You can

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<v Speaker 1>hide a patch under a jacket, you can't hide a beret.

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<v Speaker 1>It sits right there on your head, visible from across

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<v Speaker 1>a parade ground. Belgian pair of Commanders inherited a green

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<v Speaker 1>beret directly from the World War II service alongside British Commando.

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<v Speaker 1>The Dutch Corps Commando Tropen built their own beret traditions

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<v Speaker 1>from the same wartime lineage. The French Foreign Legion wears

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<v Speaker 1>a green independent of the British connection entirely, and plenty

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<v Speaker 1>of nations that literally don't wear greens still borrow the

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<v Speaker 1>concept wholesale a distinct beray color, reserved exclusively for whichever

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<v Speaker 1>unit sits at the top of the country's military hierarchy.

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<v Speaker 1>That's really the deeper lesson buried in a piece of

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<v Speaker 1>woolf fabric. The uniform tells you what army someone belongs to.

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<v Speaker 1>Every ray worn by the right soldier tells something about

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<v Speaker 1>what that person survived to get there. Roger Pisell didn't

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<v Speaker 1>know it in nineteen fifty three, standing in a brag field,

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<v Speaker 1>defying regulation, but he was building a legend, one unauthorized

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<v Speaker 1>beret at a time.