soldiers at
Thailand in 1998. 1st Special Forces Group's history began at
Fort Bragg, NC, in 1955. Four Special Forces Operational Detachments - the 12th, 13th, 14th, and 16th - were selected from the 77th Special Forces Group and transferred to the Pacific theater over the next year. 1st Special Forces Group was officially activated at
Fort Buckner, Okinawa, on 24 June 1957, with LTC A. Scott Madding as commander and MSG Robert L. Voss as the sergeant major. The 1st Special Forces Group holds the distinction of having the first and last Special Forces soldiers killed in Vietnam: Captain
Harry Cramer killed 21 October 1957, and Captain Richard M. Rees killed 15 December 1973. Decades later, another 1st Special Forces Group soldier became the first American to die by hostile fire in Afghanistan: Sergeant First Class
Nathan Chapman killed 2 January 2002. The 1st Special Forces Group on Okinawa was one of two Special Action Forces/Security Assistance Forces (SAF) built around Special Forces Groups. The other was built around the 8th Special Forces Group in Panama. SAF Asia was flexible and 1st Group could task organize a detachment for any time of mission in the Pacific rim. During the Vietnam War, it sent teams to Vietnam for six-month temporary duty. It also ran Camp Hardy Combat Training Center in the Northern Training Area of Okinawa to train SF,
Navy SEALs, and US
Marines deploying to Vietnam. It also earned the
Meritorious Unit Commendation for its work during the year 1973. Following the war in
South Vietnam, and the withdrawal of American military forces from
Southeast Asia, the emphasis on military actions shifted away from the Asia-Pacific region and focused more on Europe and
NATO. Special Forces, which had grown to a total of seven groups in 1963, faced severe cuts in the peacetime army; as a result, 1st Group was inactivated 28 June 1974 at
Ft. Bragg,
NC. After a 10-year hiatus, the need for an Asian unconventional warfare force was recognized, and
Alpha Company, 1st Battalion was reactivated at Fort Bragg on 15 March 1984. This company and the remainder of the 1st Battalion were assembled and deployed to
Torii Station,
Okinawa during the spring and summer of 1984. The 2nd and 3rd Battalions, along with Headquarters and Service Company were officially reactivated 4 September 1984 at
Fort Lewis,
Washington. Brought back to life as part of overall growth in the support to U.S. strategic efforts in Asia, the unit focused on the
Pacific Command area of operations but were routinely deployed out of Asia to support unified commanders throughout the world. Unit members supported theater security engagement within the
PACOM area of operations, contingency operations in
Haiti, Central Asia, and
Bosnia. Operational Detachments "Alpha" deployed to
Haiti to conduct Coalition Support Team missions in 1993–94 in support of
U.S. Joint Task Force 190 and Multi-National Force operations supporting
Operation Uphold Democracy. Additional
ODAs conducted
Humanitarian Demining Operations in
Laos,
Thailand,
Cambodia, and
Vietnam earning
Humanitarian Service Medals for their efforts in both Laos and Thailand. Elements from the 1st SFG (A) conducted training with military units from newly created states from the former
Soviet Union that supported the development of the Central Asian Battalion (CENTRASBAT), a regional peace-keeping force in the mid-1990s. By the end of the millennium, 1st SFG (A) soldiers had deployed for the
Stabilization Force in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Following the
11 September attacks, members of the 1st SFG (A) deployed to support
Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan and sustained back-to-back battalion rotations to the
Philippines. Starting in February 2002, elements of the 1st SFG (A) deployed to conduct unconventional warfare in the Southern Philippines by and with the
Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) in order to assist the
Government of the Philippines (GOP). Over the next three years, 1st SFG (A) members built an admirable record in the Philippines training six
light infantry battalions, three light reaction companies from the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), treating over 31,000 Filipinos in
MEDCAP events, helping to professionalize the AFP, and providing operations and intelligence fusion teams to actively assist the AFP in targeting terrorist cells. Throughout 2003–2004, the 1st SFG (A) deployed many soldiers in support of
Operation Iraqi Freedom and
Operation Enduring Freedom in
Iraq and
Afghanistan respectively. By November 2004 the unit deployed an entire battalion to Afghanistan as part of the Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force- Afghanistan (
CJSOTF-A). Today, 1st SFG (A) supported the
global war on terrorism with operations in the Philippines, Iraq and Afghanistan as well as maintaining US security relationships with partner nations throughout the Pacific until 2021. ==Lineage==