12.18.24

I’m going to be talking about Canada for a bit today…..you may wonder why and

I’m here to tell you….because Canada is in many ways like us, they are a nation of

the western hemisphere, a democracy, and a believer in free trade…..they are the

only nation I can think of with whom we share sports leagues, in our case

professional baseball and hockey…..Canada by itself accounts for over 14% of our

international trade accounting for almost $1 Trillion in goods shipped back and

forth in an almost even amount every year…..But Canada is also just like us in that

they have politics….politics that right now is in the hands of an uber liberal group

of progressives who want to socialize everything and believe that government

spending is the only way to resolve the ills of the world…..as a result Canada is

facing economic and political crisis…..our biggest trade partner, one of our longest

running alliances, our neighbor with whom we share one of the longest borders in

the world, is showing signs of cracking……civil unrest, economic instability, and

a feckless leader named Justin Trudeau who embarrasses them on the world

stage…..but just like the US, Canadians are pushing back…..Canadians have had

enough of record inflation, curtailing of civil liberties, and illegal

immigration…..the Canadian border doesn’t get the same attention as the Mexican

border but it’s still a huge problem…..illegal immigration, and drug trafficking into

the US from Canada has reached massive new levels…..some reports indicate that

illegal border crossings from our north in the past ten months have been higher

than all of the previous 13 years combined…..it has gotten so bad that incoming

President Donald Trump has threatened to put a massive tariff on imports from

Canada…..and that has not gone unnoticed…..all of a sudden Justin Trudeaus

socialist political governance is on its heels and I’m glad….I for one want the old

Canada back….like, now…..

But as I was thinking about all of this I couldn’t help but think of an incredible

story about a joint venture between the US and Canada that most Americans don’t

know……about a time when we were more than just allies…..we actually formed

one of the most legendary special operations fighting units from men from both

sides of the border…..it was called the 1 st Special Service Force, and it was

legendary in WWII…..a unit whose nickname became “the Devils Brigade”….a

unit who wore the only patch of its kind in the form of a red arrowhead that had

“USA Canada” in white letters…..if you look at the modern patch for the US Army

Special Forces, the Green Berets, you will notice that it is in the shape of an

arrowhead…..that modern design was directly taken from the 1 st Special Service

Force patch and is considered part of the Special Forces lineage……to my

knowledge there has never been another time in US history where two nations

formed one unit to fight together…..their story is worth telling…..

Some years ago I was a Captain in the 20 th Special Forces Group…..we planned for

some training in Montana at a small installation called Fort Harrison on the

outskirts of Helena…..Montana is a beautiful place, rugged, and the nickname “big

sky country” fits because you feel like the view of the sky and the expansive vistas

just go on and on…..but aside from the training, which was really solid, I was also

excited to get there because I already knew as a history buff that Fort Harrison was

where the 1 st Special Service Force was originally formed up…..they mustered in

and trained right there at Fort Harrison and a small museum is still there next to the

barracks dedicated to their memory…..but what I didn’t know is that several

members of the original unit had moved back to Helena after the war….and there

were still several of these old warriors living when I was there…..one of the

highlights of my time in Helena was hosting a unit BBQ with members of the

original 1 st Special Service Force coming in to spend time with us…..

1n 1942 the US was fully at war….LTC Robert Frederick was assigned to the

Operations Division of the General Staff but he had notions of a commando unit

that could strike deep into enemy territory…..He had actually argued against an

original plan to strike into Nazi held Norway but the General staff wanted it done

and Frederick was given the job of creating an all volunteer unit of commandos for

missions deep behind enemy lines…..the odd thing was that the decision was made

to share the unit’s roster with Canada…..1800 men total….900 each from the US

and Canada…..the Canadian Army paid its men but the uniforms and ultimate

command of the new force were from America…..so the recruiting began…..the

Canadians took the matter seriously….they recruited and hand selected their best

members of their Airborne battalions…..900 Canadians showed up with pride and

esprit de corps…..the US….not so much….the US put out recruitment posters at

all units across the Army…..

The recruiting posters called for single men, aged 21–35 with three or more years

of grammar school…..the occupations that were preferred: Rangers, lumberjacks,

north woodsmen, hunters, prospectors, explorers, and game wardens….. Married

men were not accepted for the Force….. recruiting teams scoured the Army for

ideal candidates…..but US Army leaders didn’t want to give up their best

men….units were still being formed everywhere…..no one wanted to lose the best

so the US largely sent the worst…..roughnecks, discipline issues, disorderly

conduct, basically the US units off loaded their problem children to the new First

Special Service Force…..it was not a good start….. Those chosen, due to the

secrecy of the mission, were often told that they had been selected to undergo

training for a parachute unit……the unit was so secretive, that many soldiers did

not know where they were when they arrived in Helena for training, as the

windows of the trains carrying the troops were painted black……they trained in

parachute operations, they conducted 60 mile ruck marches, they developed new

techniques for winter warfare and mountaineering, they learned small unit tactics

like raids and ambushes, they learned the use of all kinds of weapons, they were

taught hand-to-hand combat and knife fighting…..and a special knife was made

just for members of the unit…..a replica of that same knife is part of the modern

US Army Ranger Memorial at Fort Benning……the Officers wore branch insignia

of crossed arrows which is still worn by Officers of the modern US Special Forces

today…..and the men of the Force were also taught to fight dirty….and they also

fought each other….a lot….the US and Canadian’s didn’t merge well at

first….international borders can create rivalries and the mess hall saw more than

one blood letting as the men fought each other time and again….but eventually

they settled…..relationships formed…..it is said that by the end of their time in

combat most of the men didn’t know if the guy next to them in the foxhole was

from the north or south of the border and they didn’t care….they became a lethal

force…..

Legend has it that while carrying out operations against the Germans a member of

the FSSF found the journal of a German lieutenant ….. The journal contained the

following entry: "The Black Devils are all around us every time we come into the

line. We never hear them come." ……they became known then as the Devil's

Brigade and they had cards printed up with the FSSF insignia and the words Das

dicke Ende kommt noch! or "The worst is yet to come" printed in red ink and left

the cards on the bodies of dead Germans as a form of psychological warfare….they

fought in Italy and in 1943 seized a mountain fortress called Monte la

Difensa….the US command had estimated it would take the men of the Devils

Brigade 4-5 days to seize the high ground…..the US Canadian force took it in 2

hours….marching up the mountain with artillery pounding the enemy to their

direct front so hard that they said they felt like they were marching into

Hell…..they fought at Anzio and into France….the Germans put a bounty on their

heads….and in France in 1944 the First Special Service Force attacked and killed

an entire German battalion of 1000 men ….the unit was disbanded in December

1944….but by then the 1800 men of the US and Canadian commando unit had

accounted for over 12,000 German casualties, captured 7000 enemy soldiers, and

sustained massive injuries and losses themselves….The day the unit was

disbanded, the American commander held a parade honoring the unit. To end the

ceremony, the Canadian elements were dismissed by being honored by the

American troops with a Pass in Review, eyes right, officers salute…..to this day,

on December 5 th US and Canadian paratroopers celebrate Menton Day by jumping

together in honor of the First Special Service Force…..modern Special operations

units from both the US and Canada today trace their lineage to the Devils

Brigade…..Movies and books have been made about them….in 1983 when the US

Army Special Forces first began wearing the Special Forces tab on their uniforms

it was retroactively awarded to any member of the WWII First Special Service

Force from 50 years before…..and in 2015 the US Congress awarded the First

Special Service Force, made up of men from two countries, the Congressional

Gold Medal, the highest honor Congress can award……

Yeah, I’m ready to have our old Canada back….our neighbors who we go to war

with…..with whom we share so much history…..get ‘er done Canada…..

And that’s a wrap on the Rightside Way