Named in-country made US 5th Special Forces Group Underwater Operations Tracksuit belonging to Rickey Thompson, one of the founding members of “Blue Light” the predecessor of today’s Delta Force. The US Army's highly secretive counterterrorist unit, 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment Delta, is without a doubt among the best counterterrorism units in the world. While Delta is extremely well known, if only by its name, it wasn't actually the first American counterterrorist force in existence. That honor goes to a different unit — now long lost to history — known as "Blue Light." Blue Light was a nickname for the classified project name no one ever actually used. This followed the non-classified naming convention used at the time. This was similar to the non-classified names used for Special Forces projects in Vietnam, which used letters of the Greek alphabet such as sigma, omega, and delta. Around 75 men had been recruited for Blue Light, which was now organized into three assault teams still structured as 12-man ODAs—with one exception. One team was led by Mark Boyatt, another by McGoey, one by “Dutch Herman,” and the final team was a plussed-up 24-man element led by Roger, which also had an intelligence-collection mission. Two of these ODAs came from 3rd Battalion, 5th Special Forces Group. The other two teams were drawn from 1st and 2nd Battalions, also in 5th Group. They also had a sniper/observer team led by Master Sergeant England. The new unit was staffed with commandos brought in directly from 5th Special Forces Group's 2nd Battalion into a subordinate unit. There, they would be trained in an array of skills necessary for counterterrorist mission and be readied for real-world operations. Colonel Bob "Black Gloves" Mountel would be responsible for helming the new unit in its infancy. Blue Light would only be equivalent to a company-sized element of troops, but would still draw its funding from Special Forces, and would push its members through further airborne and dive training, weapons courses and more. When Delta was declared fully operational, Blue Light faded into the shadows, eventually being disbanded.
