US Troops wore IDF uniforms in Israel (old controversy)

Former Delta Force chief shunned for relating experiences in book

By Sean D. Naylor
snaylor@militarytimes.com

Delta Force and its higher head­quarters have declared retired Lt. Gen. William "Jerry" Boykin -- the controversial former senior Pentagon intelligence official and ex-commander of the secretive unit -- "persona non grata" for writing about the force in his memoir, according to sources in the special operations community. Being "PNG'd" has no legal sig­nificance but requires members of the organizations involved to shun the person.

Boykin is in hot water for break­ing the unwritten rule that Delta operators should not publicize their experiences in the unit and including in the book a photo­graph of him and a future Army chief of staff wearing Israeli uni­forms while working in Israel for Delta, according to the sources.

In a telephone interview, Boykin said the only action he was aware of was the withdrawal of an invi­tation to speak at a Joint Special Operations University event, "Combating Terrorism Executive Interagency Seminar," held July 29-30 in northern Virginia for se­nior intelligence and Defense De­partment personnel. That was when his book was published.

But Boykin said that being PNG'd from Delta would have a significant emotional impact.

"It's not superficial," he said. "Obviously it bothers me. ... I don't have any intention of spending a lot of time in the compound, but to be isolated from an organization that I spent so much of my life in would be a very painful thing." U.S. Special Operations Com­mand spokesman Ken McGraw de­clined to say whether Delta or its higher headquarters, Joint Special Operations Command, had PNG'd Boykin.

McGraw said "USSOCOM does not provide information con­cerning special mission units." However, McGraw issued a statement about what he de­scribed as "the unauthorized pub­lication of classified information."

The statement said: "It is surpris­ing and disappointing when former service members who held posi­tions of special trust and responsi­bility elect to release information that is sensitive, classified or other­wise protected. The release of such information may put people, rela­tionships and operations at risk and is contrary to the values and ideals of special operations forces." Boykin is not the first former Delta member to be PNG'd for going public, but he is by far the highest-profile alumnus of the special mission unit to be treated in such a manner. An original member of Delta, Boykin was the first person to complete the ardu­ous 40-mile march in Delta's as­sessment and selection process. He rose to become the deputy un­dersecretary of defense for intelli­gence from 2003 until his retire­ment in November 2007.

Boykin became the focus of con­troversy in October 2003 when NBC News and The Los Angeles Times reported -- falsely, he claims -- on speeches he had given to Christian groups. The controversy dogged the remaining years of his career.

Boykin's side

To present his side of the story, Boykin wrote (with Lynn Vincent) a book called "Never Surrender" that was published July 29. While the book rebuts many of the criti­cisms, (he denies accusations that he made negative comments about Islam or cast the war on terrorism as a religious war), much of "Never Surrender" is a recounting of his career in the special opera­tions community, with a particular emphasis on the time he spent in Delta, which is based at Fort Bragg, N.C. The unit's full name is 1st Special Forces Operational De­tachment-Delta.

While Boykin and other sources in the special operations commu­nity acknowledge that the book contains little in the way of new information on Delta and its oper­ations (Boykin turned over com­mand of the unit in 1994), the re­sponse from Delta and its higher headquarters was swift.

During a video teleconference, JSOC commander Vice Adm. William McRaven told his subor­dinate commanders to avoid con­tact with Boykin, on account of Boykin allegedly violating the trust placed in him, said a source who served with Boykin in Delta and who has known him for al­most his entire military career.

Delta's commander, a colonel who Marine Corps Times agreed not to name in this story at the re­quest of U.S. Army Special Opera­tions Command, issued a memo "basically saying [Boykin's] no longer welcome on the [Delta] com­pound," said a Fort Bragg source. The Delta commander acknowl­edged in the memo that he had not read Boykin's book, but he noted with concern the book's inclusion of a photograph of Boykin and then­Delta officer and future Army chief of staff Peter Schoomaker in Israel wearing Israeli uniforms, the Fort Bragg source said.

In the Marine Corps Times in­terview, Boykin said he had heard that McRaven had discussed his book in a video teleconference. However, he said he'd spoken with USSOCom commander Adm. Eric Olson and U.S. Army Special Op­erations Command chief Lt. Gen. Robert Wagner, and neither they nor any JSOC or Delta official had told him about being PNG'd.

The book has left a lot of Delta per­sonnel "pretty disappointed," said a former member. "It's kind of an un­derstanding that if you go to work there, you don't talk about it."


COURTESY HACHETTE BOOK GROUP
William "Jerry" Boykin, right, is shown with Pete Schoomaker, a former Delta officer and later Army chief of staff, in Israel in a photo that sources say raised concerns about Boykin's book "Never Surrender."