Blue Light

For other uses, see Blue Light (disambiguation).

Blue Light was a unit of the 5th Special Forces Group that existed into the early 1980s.

According to Col. Charles Beckwith's memoirs, this counter-terrorist group was formed by U.S. Army Special Forces leadership who disagreed with or felt politically threatened by Beckwith's Delta Force, which existed outside of the Special Forces hierarchy. He stated that the unit was disbanded when Delta Force went operational.

Charlie Beckwith's memoir, Delta Force, reports that commanders of the 5th Special Forces Group were asked by top brass of the Pentagon to quickly organize a Green Beret counter-terrorist unit to fill-in until Delta was fully operational; Beckwith estimated it would take two years. Blue Light and Delta had a somewhat adversarial relationship for those two years. The traditional SF leadership felt that they could handle counter-terrorist duties within the Special Forces community (with Blue Light). Delta existed outside of that bureaucracy, with a direct line to top DOD brass and the President. Delta therefore represented a political threat in the minds of some Special Forces commanders. Nevertheless, Delta went on to complete its initial certification exercise in July 1978, and Blue Light was deactivated shortly thereafter. Allegedly, no Blue Light member applied to Delta nor was asked by Delta to do so. Incidentally though, Blue Light S-2, Capt. Tim Casey, was later one of the intelligence officers assigned to JTF 1–79 which commanded the ill-fated Eagle Claw.

Origin of name

Blue Light may have been a randomly generated code name, or may be a reference to American radar officer's slang, in which "to bluelight" can reportedly be used as a verb, meaning "to detect a contact with radar," thus metaphorically suggesting the ability to discover the enemy's hiding place. It may also have been a reference to Confederate General Stonewall Jackson, whose military reputation for battlefield aggressiveness, rapid movement and surprise would have suited such a unit. Jackson's nicknames included "Old Blue Light" for his fiery blue eyes.

References in popular culture

In the film Die Hard 2, the counter-terrorist team that is called in to deal with the terrorists is also called Blue Light. The terrorists are former members of Blue Light, all except their leader (Colonel Stuart) are now supposed to be dead, using their non-existence as an advantage to escape from the authorities of nations where they conduct operations. This is supposedly based on rumours in the special forces communities that Blue Light still exists, operating outside the laws of The United States. A similar unit appears in the film Extreme Prejudice although the unit's name is never revealed.