Maj General John Singlaub OSS, Ranger, JACK, CCRAK, MACV-SOG has Died

“The very presence of guerrilla units behind the lines, regardless of how long they lasted, disrupted their lines of communication and harassed the North Korean military.”

SOF and General Singlaub crossed many paths through the years. He attended several SOF Conventions, and was involved in training of the Contras at the time SOF was involved in El Salvador.

Soldier of Fortune Magazine provided General Singlaub with he personnel to train the Contras in Honduras in 1985.

Soldier of Fortune held a press conference in Washington in support Gen Singlaub during the Tailwind fiasco. CNN had accused the The General and military of using nerve gas on Vietnam War-era defectors. CNN was forced to retract its accusations and Gen Singlaub prevailed in the law suit. Reporter Peter Aren’t was given a shove out of the CNN door.

“Singlaub, now a captain, was instrumental in the liberation of hundreds of Allied POWs on Hainan Island following Japan’s surrender.”

John K. Singlaub was recruited by the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) in November 1943. As part of JEDBURGH Team JAMES, he jumped into France on 11 August 1944 to arm and direct the French resistance. Sent to China, as the commander of the PIGEON Mission, he jumped onto Hainan Island on 27 August 1945 to rescue Dutch and Australian Prisoners of War. As one of a handful of Special Operations Branch personnel retained the Strategic Services Unit (successor to the OSS), Singlaub stayed in China to report on the Civil War. Singlaub was again involved in special operations when he was an instructor at Fort Benning, Georgia and helped to establish the Ranger Training Center in 1950. He then had two tours in Korea, including one with the Central Intelligence Agency’s Joint Advisory Commission, Korea (JACK). Singlaub returned to special operations in from 1966-1968, when he commanded a joint unconventional warfare command, the Military Assistance Command, Vietnam, Studies and Observation Group (MACV-SOG). Retiring in 1978, Major General Singlaub has remained active in the Special Operations community and was recognized with the United States Special Operations Command’s (USSOCOM) Bull Simons award in 2011.

For his dedication and bravery, General Singlaub was awarded many military honors, including the Distinguished Service Medal, the Legion of Merit, the Air Medal, the Bronze Star and the Silver Star, with all of those except the last accompanied by at least one Oak Leaf Cluster. In 1991, General Singlaub published his autobiography, Hazardous Duty: An American Soldier in the Twentieth Century, which recounts his exploits during more than four decades of unconventional warfare, espionage, covert missions and front-line action. Best-selling novelist Tom Clancy praised the book as “the odyssey of an American patriot.” SaluteHeroes.org Reported.

“During the eight-year secret war, there were five OICs [officers-in-charge] for MACV-SOG, dubbed Chief SOG. Jack served as Chief SOG from 1966 until early August 1968, replaced by Col. Stephen Cavanaugh. As Chief SOG Jack fought the bureaucracy to get close air support for SOG teams. He fought with the State Dept. to have our teams better armed in Cambodia in the early days of the operation,” John Stryker Meyer, a legendary Green Beret, long time SOF friend told Sandboxx News.

“Jack will be remembered as a tough, fearless operator. Highly respected by all. His book documents how he combatted communism throughout his military career, where as a student at UCLA before the start of WW II he ran into and disliked/distrusted communists he met there. During WW II in France, behind enemy lines he had serious concerns about them, ditto Korea, as Chief SOG, and during his time fighting communism in Central and South America. He is a role model for all of us,” Meyer added.

NEXT SOF Wild Bunch and The Contras In Memory of Gen Singlaub.