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From 1952 until 2006, each Special Forces Group (SFG) developed its own internal standard operating procedures (SOP) based upon its mission, area orientation, and specific equipment requirements. While these same factors contributed to Special Forces’ reputation as a unique, independent, and highly individualistic society, they also created confusion among both the conventional U.S. Army and SF veterans about the way each SFG designated its subordinate maneuver echelons. The early SFG commanders personalized field and garrison policies and procedures for their respective units based on their experience and training. This was especially true when numbering the Special Forces basic maneuver element, the Operational Detachment A (ODA). Over the years, several attempts were made to establish a uniform designation system, but it was not until 2006 that U.S. Army Special Operations Command (USASOC) implemented a standardized ODA numbering system. This article explains the evolution of this ODA numbering system beginning with the 10th SFG.
In April 1952, the Psychological Warfare (Psywar) Center was established on Smoke Bomb Hill, Fort Bragg, North Carolina. The Center had a provisional Psychological Warfare School with Special Forces and Psywar Departments, a Psywar Board for research and development, and the 6th Radio Broadcast and Leaflet Group. When the Department of the Army was given responsibility for organizing guerrilla forces in early 1952, the Office of the Chief of Psychological Warfare directed by Brigadier General (BG) Robert A. McClure and the Psywar Center became the proponents for that initiative.1 Having been allocated 2,300 positions from the fourteen recently deactivated Airborne Ranger Infantry Companies in 1951, the Center built the original SFG Table of Organization and Equipment (TO&E) which was approved on 14 May 1952. On 20 June 1952, the 10th Special Forces Group, consisting of a Headquarters and Headquarters Company (HHC) and three Special Forces Companies, was activated.2 The HHC contained the Group staff and organic support elements. It provided limited command and control and service support to the three SF companies. Each SFG was also composed of FC, FB, and FA Teams. All three levels of SF teams were deployable command and control elements.
The FC Team was commanded by a Lieutenant Colonel in garrison and in the field and corresponded to a provisional Battalion Headquarters to provide command and control for its organic four to five FB Teams (commanded by Majors), and their subordinate four to ten or more FA Teams (commanded by Captains). In garrison, the FC Team was augmented by an administrative detachment and provided administration and training for the FB and FA Teams. FB Teams in garrison functioned as a headquarters for its assigned FA Teams. When deployed, FB Teams were responsible for a specifically assigned region in a particular country and provided command and control to all FA Teams operating in their area of operations. The original TO&E of 1952 also established the FA Team as the basic unit of SF with fifteen personnel assigned.3 FA Teams were capable of organizing, equipping, training and advising indigenous guerrilla companies, battalions, or regiments up to 1,500 men.
The original TO&E remained effective until 1960 and was the basis for activating the 77th SFG in 1953 (became 7th SFG in 1960) at Fort Bragg and the 1st SFG on Okinawa in 1957. By 1960, Special Forces had matured and organizational changes were needed to improve the SFG capabilities and reduce dependence on conventional Army service support. The June 1960 TO&E removed the “F” as part of the designator for all operational echelons and elements. The SF Provisional Battalion (FC Team) became simply the C Team or ODC in the field; the FB Team became the B Team or ODB; and the FA Team became the A Team or ODA. The echelons of Command and Control in descending order were C to A. The second and most dramatic change was the reduction of the fifteen-man FA Team to a twelve-man A-Team or ODA. Of all the operational changes made to Special Forces, this one has remained in effect the longest and has proven to be the most successful in all environments and for all SF missions from combat to humanitarian relief operations. The third expanded the Group HHC by adding a number of service support elements and an SF Signal Company for higher echelon communications support.4
The 1960 TO&E was used to activate the 5th SFG in 1961 and the 3rd, 6th, and 8th SFGs in 1963. While the SFG TO&E called for three SF companies, some groups operated with only two companies (8th SFG in Panama). The 3rd and the 6th structure remained unchanged during the short time they were active in the 1960s. The forward-deployed SFGs such as the 8th in Panama and the 5th in Vietnam, task organized to meet the requirements of combating “Wars of National Liberation.” By 1972, SF was no longer in South Vietnam and the U.S. Army was undergoing a post-war reduction. In an effort to reduce friction in the post-Vietnam Army, the SFG staffs were reconfigured more like conventional combat brigades. The lettered SF companies became numbered battalions (but ODCs in the field), and ODBs became lettered companies in their battalions. The only organization that remained unchanged, except for its numbering system, was the ODA. Although its strength was still twelve Special Forces qualified soldiers, each ODA was assigned to a lettered company and identified by a specific number from one to six that represented its affiliation to the numbered battalion and designated its SFG, ODB, and assignment within that ODB.
Even though this ODA identification system continued to cause confusion (each SFG had retained its own ODA numbering system) it enjoyed the greatest longevity, 1972 through 2006. Ever increasing roles predicated changes especially when SF was committed to fighting America’s Global War on Terrorism (GWOT). By 2006, the Department of Defense recognized that in order to maintain the required OPTEMPO, the Army needed more SF soldiers. In September 2006, the Department of the Army authorized a fourth SF Battalion with eighteen more ODAs for each active SFG. This “plus up” prompted USASOC to simplify and standardize the entire active SFG numbering system.
Understandably, this latest system is not perfect, but it is simple and helps identify each ODA/ODB/ODC according to the code. Even though the numbering system has changed over the years, the SF ODA, the backbone of Special Forces has remained the same.