15 Facts About Delta Force

Delta Force operators are selected primarily from the United States Army Special Operations Command's elite 75th Ranger Regiment and Special Forces, though members can be selected from other special operations units and conventional forces across the Army and sometimes other military branches.

Delta Force was created in 1977 after numerous well-publicized terrorist incidents led the US government to develop a full-time counter-terrorism unit.

Delta Force envisioned highly adaptable and completely autonomous small teams with a broad array of special skills for direct action and counter-terrorism missions.

Delta Force briefed military and government figures, who were resistant to creating a new unit outside of Special Forces or changing existing methods.

Delta Force was established on 19 November 1977, by Beckwith and Colonel Thomas Henry.

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Delta Force was certified as fully mission capable in fall 1979, right before the Iran hostage crisis.

Delta Force was tasked to plan and execute Operation Eagle Claw, the effort to recover the hostages from the embassy by force on the nights of 24 and 25 April in 1980.

Delta Force's structure is similar to the British 22 SAS Regiment, which inspired Delta's formation.

In Not a Good Day to Die: The Untold Story of Operation Anaconda, Army Times staff writer Sean Naylor describes Delta Force as having, at the time, nearly 1,000 soldiers, of whom about 250 to 300 are trained to conduct direct action and hostage rescue operations.

Delta Force describes a few formations in Delta, primarily the following operational squadrons:.

On 29 June 2006 during a session of the Committee on Armed Services, General Wayne Downing testified before the US House of Representatives that "[t]he Delta Force is probably 70 percent Rangers who have come out of either a Ranger [to] Special Forces track or directly from [the] Ranger Regiment to Delta".

Eric Haney's book Inside Delta Force described the selection course and its inception in detail.

Delta Force said that out of his two classes of 120 applicants each, 12 to 14 completed the selection.

Delta Force operators are granted an enormous amount of flexibility and autonomy during military operations overseas.

On 26 October 2019, Delta Force operators accompanied by members of the 75th Ranger Regiment conducted a raid on the compound of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, leading to his death.