He’s not an “ex-Green Beret”, you morons
I’ve been fighting this battle for thirty years – Jefferey MacDonald was never a “Green Beret”, but the media likes to refer to him as such because it’s much more dramatic and anti-military to do so. In today’s USAToday, Maria Puente tries to perpetuate the myth.
Jeffery MacDonald, a Fort Bragg doctor who happened to be assigned the 5th Special Forces Group there as a surgeon, murdered his wife and daughters in their government quarters in 1970, then blamed it on drug-crazed hippies who chanted “acid is groovy, kill the pigs” while they murdered his family. He’s unsuccessfully fought the 1979 conviction. But, the media has been trying to pin it on his military training.
MacDonald never attended, let alone graduated from, the Army’s Special Forces Qualification Course. He was a doctor, the only training he got from the Army was the same training every other doctor on the planet gets. I don’t care about the case at all, certainly I feel sorry for his wife’s family, but someone needs to start editing these so-called journalists who continue to get MacDonald’s qualifications wrong.
So some dingus is writing a new book and all these years later, the media leans on it’s old stereotypes. Even the best selling 1983 book about the crime, Fatal Vision, the cover has merely a Green Beret on the cover;
The USAToday story begins;
The ex-Green Beret doctor convicted of killing his pregnant wife and two little daughters at Fort Bragg in 1970 is locked away in federal prison, and under usual circumstances would never be heard from again.
I am so sick of this media goofiness.
Category: Media
The story is just too good to give up. I posted an article about the Sikh Temple shooter on the same subject, & added a fairly sizable list of ‘famous shooters’ & their military affiliations — mostly, none — because I’m sick of the same knee-jerk reaction from the press.
This explains so much about the chaos and madness that’s been his appeals process. He really is innocent, but if the courts rule that, then the media would lose out on a key “Soldier’s are murdering sociopaths”.
Good info, I didn’t know that he WASN’T a Green Beret! The media put so much emphasis on it that everyone just assumed (ASS of U and ME) that he was. I was stationed a Bragg when they finally reopened his on base quarters. The soldiers wife had priests in and out of the house blessing it, along with a butt load (actual amount!) of crosses hanging on the walls. If I remember correctly, several news agencies were there when they moved in.
Someone from SOCOM or JSOC needs to come forth and set these asshats in the media straight, my dad served with the 5th SF as an 18D during this time. And this stories does nothing but slander his name and the name of all these great men both past and presnet, I am sick of all this media propaganda shit.
Yeah, just like with O.J. Simpson – the real killer is still on the loose.
Also SF soldiers hate being referred to as “Green Berets”, and when somebody does, they will shoot a dirty, nasty, annoyed look.
As I work for the Bureau of Prisons, I will keep this post as ‘anonymous’.
I have so many inmate MacDonald stories, it just ain’t funny. He’s a real piece of work and having worked the housing unit he was in, I firmly believe he is guilty of murdering his wife and kids(including their unborn child).
Whenever anyone called or calls him a “Green Beret” or Special Forces, I correct them right away.
For good or for ill, someone back in the early 60’s made the decision to define the SF by their headgear and it stuck. My guess is it all goes back to the John Wayne movie, although if I understand correctly, the term “Green Beret” to refer to an SF soldier was fairly common prior to the movie (I have to take that second hand as I was a kid then and wouldn’t have known.)
As the movie and the Vietnam generation fade into history, my guess is that the term “Green Beret” (when referring to anything but the actual hat) will, too, probably to be replaced by the nebulous term “Special Ops” or its oh-so-hip contraction “SpecOps.”
This is a typical example of the media drumming up a very sad story from years past to generate interest in self promotion in lieu of a journalistic skills.
A buddy of mine is in group and he absolutly hates that term. He always says “what am I a freaking hat”.
The media always spins it to make it seem like everyone is 18 series. Hell if a SF dude sneezed on you at one point in your career you are all of a sudden SF qualified.
@7. In 1966, SSG Barry Sadler’s tribute, “Ballad of the Green Beret,” was at the top of the charts and was one of the top sellers of the 1960s. You wouldn’t know it by the way hippiedom is glorified nowadays. John Wayne’s movie, “The Green Berets,” was released in ’68. The distinctive beret was unique for quite a number of years as headgear and the man wearing it, by virtue of his beret alone, commanded respect from among fellow military.
If you google his name there’s a bunch of photos of him wearing what appears to be a green beret. Were support personnel allowed to wear them back then?
Jeffery McDonald is a psychopath plain and simple – whether he was in the military or not. I would suspect that his army training had absolutely to do with his ability to so easily “dispose” of his family and blame others. Hopefully he will NEVER get out of jail.
@11: I was in a support capacity in 3 different SF battalions at 4 different times. In 1983 when I was assigned to the S1 section of 5/19th SFG (CO ARNG) there was no 18-series MOS. SF qualification was indicated by an “S” SQI (Skills Qualification Identifier.) In that unit, everybody who was airborne qualified wore the green beret. Personnel who were SF qualified wore the full flash behind the crest (and being so qualified were often called “full flash” qualified.) Personnel who were not SF qualified wore a colored bar underneath the crest that was nicknamed a ‘candy stripe’ and such personnel were often called “candy stripers.” Interestingly, anybody could go through the Q course at that time regardless of where they were assigned, so the NCOIC of the PAC section was a full flash-qualified E-7. Legs (which I was at the time) wore soft caps (for those who don’t know Army slang: “Leg” = non airborne qualified soldier.) After the 18 series MOS was created in the mid 80’s, they changed up the policy. My next tour in an SF unit was as an intel geek in 3/1st SFG at Fort Lewis, WA in 1990. The policy in 1st group at that time was if you wore the SF patch, you wore the beret with the full flash, period. This even applied to the 3 or 4 females assigned to Group HQ. The rule in 1st group then was that the SF Tab established SF qualification and that was the only distinguishing feature between SF and non-SF qualified personnel. In June of 1992 I PCS’d from Korea to Fort Bragg, and was assigned to 3/3rd Group, which was just being activated. At that time the rule was the same as in 1st group: Everyone wears the green beret, regardless of qualification. Later in 1992, rumors started circulating that there was a policy change in the works but as late as mid-December of 1992 I remember one of the support guys being chewed out in formation for not wearing his green beret. In late December the order came out… Read more »
Jeffery McDonald an airborne qualified doctor, assigned to group, was a psychopathic killer. This was in the day of the CDRs wanting dress-right-dress in formations. Also the guys who were playing James Bond assassins in the Phoenix Program were NOT SF qualified. They were MI guys ASSIGNED to SF.
To add to #13… one reason the SF Tab (know as the “long tab) was introduced because of the posers who would woof shit about being SF. Many a failure would end up in Division and knew enough about group to woof the shit and pull the wool over some eyes. Once a buddy of mine in the 504th (“504:No War!”) “axed” me to come over to the Maroon Club, but had me go to the head shed first… where he had a set of Division fatigues for me. I put them on, and he had a seat waiting for me at the club with a couple of his buddies. Well… it was like clockwork… in comes SPC Snuffy. Snuffy had a beer and a guy (a set-up) asked his about Mackall, training Group etc… Snuffy was good on Mackall but boloed the training group stuff. It was downhill from there after I piped in. The next thing I know, one of the guys at my table had Snuffy at parade rest and marched him out of the Club to the head shed. The beers flowed free for me, and I paid those Division guys back in spades when a pay hurt jump had some extra slots… they would get the call. We recruited some great guys from Division on those pay hurt jumps! TEAM EFFORT- we were an “Army of One” before there was one!
Typical. A Green Beret is a hat……..A Special Forces Soldier is a WARRIOR.
And so, does anybody care to hear from CID’s side of this here former CPT McDonald story or would you rather see pink, dancing pigs at 0400 hrs at the nearest air strip?
McDonald was in the 6th SFG(A)at Ft Bragg. The 5th SFG(A) was in the RVN in 1970. They have the wrong flash on the beret on the 1983 book cover.Other than that no complaints with the posting.
was the dr. airborne qualified?there way to much talk about
the sf doc. who murdered his wife.I pray his wife the unborn
child,and the doc.what if he is found innocent someday.
This is an excerpt from testimony given before a grand jury by a psychiatrist who had interviewed jeffrey macdonald:
The parts I can’t make sense of, I won’t try. Oh, he made the point about at Fort Bragg he didn’t have the three months special training that most of the Special Forces people go through — that he apparently was given the title of group surgeon and I’ve got here “earned his Green Beret.” He had had, as I said earlier, his jump training at Benning.
First, MDs assigned to an SF group are “Flash” qualified due to their medical qualifications only. They did not have to attend the Q course.
Secondly, if any of you were knowledgable about this case you would have come to the same conclusion I did, Jeffery MacDonald was innocent of all charges.