Bob Wirt and some of his most excellent adventures as a serial volunteer in the US Army Special Forces 1964-1968

Bob WIRT

United States Army
Serial Volunteer

October 1964 - August 1968

"... THE GREEN BERET ...
a symbol of excellence,
a badge of courage,
a mark of distinction
in the fight for freedom."

President John F Kennedy
The White House - April 11, 1962

De Oppresso Liber

Click here to read Bob's Blog

John F Kennedy
Center For Special Warfare
( JFKCENSPWAR )
March 1965 - November 1966

8th Special Forces Group ( Abn )
1st Special Forces
Fort Gulick, Panama Canal Zone
November 1966 - August 1968
8th Special
Forces Group

( Airborne )
1st Special Forces

AIRBORNE ... All The Way
... and SCUBA Duba Too

Bob Wirt ( RA ... Sergeant E-5 )

Three Qualified:
Medics - Weapons - Demolitions
Shoot`Em-Up; Blow`Em-Up; Sew`Em-Up

Liberation
Of The
Oppressed

Keeping Our Hand In The Game And Our Chutes Open Whenever Possible
While On Separate Duty From Fort Bragg NC To Fort Sam Houston TX - 1965

BACK: Dave Wilshire, Daryl Chaney, Francis Murray, George Pekar
Robert Johnson, FRONT: Art Peters, Bob Wirt, Fred Thompson
Kelly Field (SAACC Annex) Lackland AFB, June 1965
Bob Wirt at Kelly Field
Drop-Zone Bound for
Hondo (DZ) Texas 1965

Special Forces Aidman ( Airborne ) - #300 - F1 - Class #1
Medical Field Service School - Brooke Army Medical Center
Fort Sam Houston, Texas - October 1965

Top: Mierle, Unger, Johanson, Gaede, Jones, Blumenthal, Kettlewell, Wirt, Thompson, Batchelder, Caulfield
4th Row: Vidrine, Kyle, Rose, Perkins, Brewer, Smith, Lyon, Stevens, Pekar, Chaney, Caldwell
3rd Row: Brandon, Peters, Boaz, Brossard, Helm, Scannell, Holmberg, Bishop, Johnson, Howser, Malacznik
2nd Row: Sammons, Fiedler, Gasbarra
1st: Willingham, Maggio, Champoux, Bernard, Strickler, Grayson, Ables, Neely, Crow, Henrickson, Pompey

OJT @ Fort Benning GA; Surgical Lab @ Fort Bragg NC then graduation and orders to the 5th SFG
Nha Trang Viet Nam. Ten days before leaving, my Uncle Sam changes his mind and sends me to
Spanish Language School at Berlitz In DC Instead, then on to the 8th Special Forces Group ( Abn )
Fort Gulick, Panama Canal Zone for the next two years of what turned into a four year hitch...

Private Slicksleeve Wirt Hasn't Yet Learned How To Wear His Hat - 1965	Boat Drills With The Somoza Guardia Puerto Cabezas Nicaragua 1967	Engineering Excellence - The Rio Coco At Capo Gracias A Dios Nicaragua 1968
Major Firepower Expended For A Couple Of Parrotfish - Panama 1967	Bob Story and Snorkle The Airborne Scuba Dog - San Blas Islands 1967	Remains Of The Bay Of Pigs Air Support Puerto Cabezas International - 1967
Scuba Team Invites Lobster To Lunch Outside Colon Harbor, Panama - 1967	Preparing For Yet Another Shark Hunt 150 Foot Deep-Dive Colon Panama 1967	Team Deep-Dive Exercises Off The LCM Outside Colon Harbor Panama - 1967

8th Special Forces Group ( Abn ) Panama CZ
Para-Scuba & Tree Jump School, 1968

The 8th Group Scuba School was run throughout the mid-1960s and on into the `70s by MSG Bob Mulcahy and his cadre of dedicated instructors. The task was clandestine nighttime infiltration in support of Special Forces operations in troublespots throughout the world. We swam with sharks and parachuted into the ocean in the dead of night, not for the physical challenge that it truly was, but to be certain the men on the A-Team truly were ready - Anytime, Anywhere - to accomplish the mission without hesitation and with the skills required for both entering and exiting any area of operation undetected.

Help In Defying Gravity Offered By Compassionate Scuba School Instructor

Snorkle The Airborne Scuba Dog Reviews The Troops Prior To Jungle Canopy Deployment

Suiting Up For A Tree Jump - 1967 Fort Gulick - Panama Canal Zone

Water Drop In Gatun Lake Panama - 8th SFG Scuba School Training 1967

Sgt Bob Wirt Prepared For Tree-Top Deployment 1967

Nylon Tree-Jump Suits With 100' Rappel Rope In Pouch To Allow For Escape and Evasion From Treetops

Preparing For Water Jump From C-46 In Atlantic Off Colon Panama 1967

Target Sighted, Course Held And Mission Accomplished

It Doesn't Make Much Sense To Take The Time & Effort To Get The Training If You Don't Actually Land On ( Or In ) Your Target ( Large Menacing Tree )

Applying Just A Touch Of C-4 To The Target's Anchorline - Panama CZ 1967

It Seemed As Good Idea At First To Keep This Green Guy On As A Mascot

But He Made A Better Meal, With A Taste More Like Boa Constrictor Than Chicken

MSG Mulcahy leads the endless morning run - Open Road Running, Open Ocean Swimming, Flat On Your Back With Most Excellent Flutter-Kicks and Hello-Darlins' Earn A Little Extra Jump-Time.

OJT At Major Hirsch's Special Forces (Abn) Dental Clinic, Fort Gulick, Panama CZ 1967

Same Fine Individualized Service Offered In The Jungle At No Extra Cost - Or Pain.

Civic Action Medical Mission In Conjunction With Counter-Insurgency Guardia Training
On The Mosquito Coast Just Below The Rio Coco, Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua - 1968

Sgt Bob Wirt Administers A Novocaine Mandibular Block Before Extracting Nicaraguan Farmer's Abcessed Tooth. Like Major Hirsch always said: You can teach a monkey to pull teeth, but it takes four years of dental school to learn how to save them.

Nicaraguan Patients Of Deployed A-Team's Sick Call Clinic Line Up For Some Free Bar-Soap And Vitamins. Amazing what multi-vitamins did for the kids and what a simple aspirin tablet did for the parents. The common, everyday medical advances of the 20th Century can't be taken for granted in the jungle.

On the Mosquito Coast near Puerto Cabezas Nicaragua. It didn't look anywhere near this organized during the midnight infiltration exercises, but fortunately no one drowned. Small boat training fit in well with our A-Team's SCUBA qualifications.

Boat drills for Somoza's Guardia Nacional In training to interdict Ernesto Che Guevara's Cuban Special Forces backed Sandinista rebel insurgencies in the neighborhood... Post-Carter (1977) our guys, the Somocistas became the Contras.

~ The Sea ~

I really don't know why it is that all of us are so committed to the sea, except I think it is because in addition to the fact that the sea changes and the light changes, and ships change, it is because we all came from the sea. And it is an interesting biological fact that all of us have, in our veins the exact same percentage of salt in our blood that exists in the ocean, and, therefore, we have salt in our blood, in our sweat, in our tears. We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea, whether it is to sail or to watch it, we are going back from whence we came.

President John F Kennedy ~ 1962
September 14th remarks in Newport, RI at a dinner for America's Cup Crews

YouTube Video
A short film of a tour of the Aircraft Carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt
while on deployment during Operation Iraqi Freedom - President Kennedy narrates...
Sorry, but the post has been removed from YouTube and can't be found any longer...

personal e-mail contact bob@BobWirt.com

business e-mail contact bob.wirt@HeadStartVitamins.com

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Check out the 82nd Airborne South Florida Chapter http://www.82Airborne.org

Bob's Blog by:
Robert Eliot Wirt Jr ( alias ) Bob WIRT Post Office Box 5559, Sun City Center FL 33571-5559 © 2012

	John F Kennedy Center For Special Warfare ( JFKCENSPWAR ) March 1965 - November 1966 8th Special Forces Group ( Abn ) 1st Special Forces Fort Gulick, Panama Canal Zone November 1966 - August 1968	8th Special Forces Group ( Airborne ) 1st Special Forces
	AIRBORNE ... All The Way ... and SCUBA Duba Too Bob Wirt ( RA ... Sergeant E-5 ) Three Qualified: Medics - Weapons - Demolitions Shoot`Em-Up; Blow`Em-Up; Sew`Em-Up	Liberation Of The Oppressed


BACK: Dave Wilshire, Daryl Chaney, Francis Murray, George Pekar Robert Johnson, FRONT: Art Peters, Bob Wirt, Fred Thompson Kelly Field (SAACC Annex) Lackland AFB, June 1965	Bob Wirt at Kelly Field Drop-Zone Bound for Hondo (DZ) Texas 1965

8th Special Forces Group ( Abn ) Panama CZ Para-Scuba & Tree Jump School, 1968 The 8th Group Scuba School was run throughout the mid-1960s and on into the `70s by MSG Bob Mulcahy and his cadre of dedicated instructors. The task was clandestine nighttime infiltration in support of Special Forces operations in troublespots throughout the world. We swam with sharks and parachuted into the ocean in the dead of night, not for the physical challenge that it truly was, but to be certain the men on the A-Team truly were ready - Anytime, Anywhere - to accomplish the mission without hesitation and with the skills required for both entering and exiting any area of operation undetected.
Help In Defying Gravity Offered By Compassionate Scuba School Instructor	Snorkle The Airborne Scuba Dog Reviews The Troops Prior To Jungle Canopy Deployment Suiting Up For A Tree Jump - 1967 Fort Gulick - Panama Canal Zone
Water Drop In Gatun Lake Panama - 8th SFG Scuba School Training 1967	Sgt Bob Wirt Prepared For Tree-Top Deployment 1967 Nylon Tree-Jump Suits With 100' Rappel Rope In Pouch To Allow For Escape and Evasion From Treetops
Preparing For Water Jump From C-46 In Atlantic Off Colon Panama 1967	Target Sighted, Course Held And Mission Accomplished It Doesn't Make Much Sense To Take The Time & Effort To Get The Training If You Don't Actually Land On ( Or In ) Your Target ( Large Menacing Tree )
Applying Just A Touch Of C-4 To The Target's Anchorline - Panama CZ 1967	It Seemed As Good Idea At First To Keep This Green Guy On As A Mascot
	But He Made A Better Meal, With A Taste More Like Boa Constrictor Than Chicken
MSG Mulcahy leads the endless morning run - Open Road Running, Open Ocean Swimming, Flat On Your Back With Most Excellent Flutter-Kicks and Hello-Darlins' Earn A Little Extra Jump-Time.	OJT At Major Hirsch's Special Forces (Abn) Dental Clinic, Fort Gulick, Panama CZ 1967 Same Fine Individualized Service Offered In The Jungle At No Extra Cost - Or Pain.

Sgt Bob Wirt Administers A Novocaine Mandibular Block Before Extracting Nicaraguan Farmer's Abcessed Tooth. Like Major Hirsch always said: You can teach a monkey to pull teeth, but it takes four years of dental school to learn how to save them.	Nicaraguan Patients Of Deployed A-Team's Sick Call Clinic Line Up For Some Free Bar-Soap And Vitamins. Amazing what multi-vitamins did for the kids and what a simple aspirin tablet did for the parents. The common, everyday medical advances of the 20th Century can't be taken for granted in the jungle.
On the Mosquito Coast near Puerto Cabezas Nicaragua. It didn't look anywhere near this organized during the midnight infiltration exercises, but fortunately no one drowned. Small boat training fit in well with our A-Team's SCUBA qualifications.	Boat drills for Somoza's Guardia Nacional In training to interdict Ernesto Che Guevara's Cuban Special Forces backed Sandinista rebel insurgencies in the neighborhood... Post-Carter (1977) our guys, the Somocistas became the Contras.