Episode 12 of the Late Night History podcast welcomes a true living legend: Bob Charest. Bob Charest is a distinguished member of the US Army Special Forces Regiment aka the Green Beret Hall of Fame. Charest served in the US Army between 1956 and 1981 and completed two tours during the Vietnam War; the first with Army Special Forces and the second with MACV-SOG.
He ran Recon and Hatchet Teams. Recon Teams typically had two Americans and four indigenous troops, while Hatchet Teams were much larger assault forces consisting of about 19 people. On one of these missions, Charest was nominated for the Silver Star. Although the nomination was downgraded to the Bronze Star with Valor, Bob recently received news that his "missing Silver Star" was approved and his service record corrected.
In his hall of fame career, Charest also notably served two stints with a previously classified Cold War stay-behind unit in Berlin called Detachment-A. We briefly discussed this, but will do a more in-depth dive covering this unit's history in a stand-alone episode.
Please visit Bob's website to learn more about Detachment-A: https://detachment-a.org
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