William “Billy” Waugh relaxing at home. Behind him are photos and other memorabilla from his years of military and CIA service. Waugh, a Green Beret and CIA legend who served in wars in Korea, Vietnam and Afghanistan, died Tuesday at 93 years old, U.S. military officials said. (Nick Stubbs/U.S. Air Force)
William “Billy” Waugh, a Green Beret and CIA legend who served in wars in Korea, Vietnam and Afghanistan, died Tuesday at 93 years old, U.S. military officials said.
A Texas native, Waugh enlisted in the Army as an 18-year-old in 1948 after an unsuccessful attempt to join the Marines at 15, according to the Army and his obituary. He earned his Green Beret in 1954 after serving a combat tour in Korea, remaining in the Army’s Special Forces through his retirement as a sergeant major in 1972. He joined the CIA in 1977 as a paramilitary officer after a brief time working for the U.S. Postal Service.
In a statement Tuesday announcing Waugh’s death, 1st Special Forces Command said Waugh had “inspired a generation of special operations.”
“He was a true warrior and highly decorated,” the statement reads. “Our condolences go out to Billy's family, friends, and loved ones. He will be missed. We will always honor and remember him.”
The lure of combat drove most of Waugh’s career decisions, he wrote in his 2004 memoir “Hunting the Jackal,” which he penned with journalist Tim Keown. In all, he spent some five decades serving the United States in military and CIA jobs that took him to 64 countries, he wrote.
“I didn’t like the Army at all until I got a taste of combat in Korea,” Waugh wrote. “I learned what made men tick and what combat was all about. For the first time in my military life, I felt completely at home.”
A Texas native, William “Billy” Waugh enlisted in the Army as an 18-year-old in 1948 after an unsuccessful attempt to join the Marines at 15, according to the Army and his obituary. He earned his Green Beret in 1954 after serving a combat tour in Korea, remaining in the Army’s Special Forces through his retirement as a sergeant major in 1972. (1st Special Forces Command/Twitter)
Waugh was assigned to Germany after returning from Korea and learned of the fledgling Special Forces unit there. He wrote he was impressed with the unit’s Green Berets, whom he described as the “fittest and most committed group” that he had ever been around. He immediately sought to enter Special Forces.
Waugh would first deploy as part of the Special Forces in 1961 to Vietnam. He spent years training indigenous forces in South Vietnam and Laos and fighting the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces. In July 1965, while leading his unit and South Vietnamese soldiers on a nighttime raid, Waugh was severely wounded — shot through his legs, an arm, a foot and wounded in the head — during a skirmish with a larger North Vietnamese force that would become known as the Battle of Bong Son. His commander, then-Capt. Paris Davis, would be awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions in that fight. Waugh was awarded the Silver Star and a Purple Heart — one of eight Purple Hearts that he was awarded in his career, according to the Army.
After spending almost a year recovering from his wounds at Bong Son, Waugh returned to Vietnam in 1966 and served as the senior enlisted leader for the covert Military Assistance Command-Vietnam Studies and Observations Group, known as the MACV-SOG, according to the Army. In 1971, Waugh participated in the U.S. military’s first ever combat High Altitude, Low Opening, or HALO, jump, according to 1st Special Forces Command.
After joining the CIA as a contractor, Waugh initially served in Libya, he wrote in his book. He later spent decades hunting terrorists across the globe. He worked on tracking down Venezuelan terrorist Carlos the Jackal, who was captured in Sudan in 1994 in part to Waugh’s efforts. Carlos the Jackal, the world’s most wanted criminal at that time, was later convicted of multiple crimes including murder in France.
While in Sudan, Waugh also worked to track Osama bin Laden, long before the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington. Waugh said in a 2011 interview with an Air Force public affairs specialist that he came within mere feet of bin Laden a number of times in Sudan.
"I could have killed him with a rock,” he said. Despite pitching plans to capture bin Laden in Sudan, Waugh said his recommendations went largely ignored.
After the 9/11 attacks, the 71-year-old was one of the first Americans sent into Afghanistan as part of a Special Forces-CIA team to hunt down bin Laden and other al-Qaida operatives.
In his book, Waugh wrote that serving in the initial stages of Operation Enduring Freedom was “a natural extension of the work I’d been conducting for close to 50 years.”
Waugh spent his final years near Tampa, Fla. On Tuesday, the Florida Senate recognized his contributions to the United States with a moment of silence.
“We will never know all the stories of Billy Waugh, frankly the majority of them are still classified,” said Florida State Sen. Jay Collins, a Republican and a retired Green Beret and Afghanistan War veteran. “But the few [unclassified stories] provide great insight into a life of service, a life dedicated to a cause greater than self, a life of sacrifice, and a life well-lived.”
