Who Founded Delta Force -
In the quiet corridors of the Pentagon in 1977, a one-star general sat down at his typewriter. He was about to write a memo that would infuriate almost every four-star general in the building.
In 1977, the Army finally gave Beckwith a mandate: Build a secretive, tier-one counter-terrorism unit from scratch. He was given 90 days and a blank check. Beckwith copied the SAS selection process but turned the dial to eleven. It became known as "The Long Walk." who founded delta force
But the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre changed the math. Terrorists had become a global weapon, and the U.S. had no dedicated tool to stop them. In the quiet corridors of the Pentagon in
He retired a year later, broken and furious at the Pentagon's bureaucratic failures. He was given 90 days and a blank check
But Colonel Charlie Beckwith—known to his friends as "Chargin' Charlie"—was out of patience.
He didn't just found a unit. He founded a mindset.
Most failed. Beckwith wanted it that way. "I'm not looking for Rambo," he once said. "I'm looking for a PhD in violence who can fix a truck, speak Arabic, and doesn't need a hug when things go wrong." He designed Delta to be "triple volunteer." You had to volunteer for the Army. Volunteer for Airborne. And then volunteer to try out for a unit you weren't even sure existed. On November 19, 1977, President Jimmy Carter signed the finding that officially activated the 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta (1st SFOD-D).