Billy Waugh

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William Dawson Waugh (December 1, 1929 – April 4, 2023) was an American soldier and paramilitary operations officer whose career in clandestine operations with the U.S. Army's Special Forces and the Central Intelligence Agency's Special Activities Division spanned more than 50 years. Waugh joined the U.S. Army before the Korean War, and following the war he quickly moved into Special Forces, first with 10th Group, and later 5th Group. In the Vietnam War he served with various detachments conducting night raids and training irregular Vietnamese and Cambodian forces for attacks along the Ho Chi Minh Trail. By the end of the Vietnam War, he was serving as the command sergeant major of MACV-SOG, an elite covert operations unit, where he conducted the first combat high altitude-low opening (HALO) parachute jump in military history. He left the Army in 1972 with eight Purple Heart medals and a Silver Star. He spent the next five years as a letter carrier for the U.S. Postal Service. In 1977 he joined the CIA's Special Activities Division. By the 1990s, he was serving in Sudan tracking terrorist leaders Carlos the Jackal and Osama bin Laden. Following the September 11 attacks, Waugh, by then aged 71, joined ODA 594 as one of the first on the ground during the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan. He fought Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters at the Battle of Tora Bora. Waugh retired from the CIA in 2005 and died in 2023; his cremated remains were scattered in a HALO jump over Raeford Drop Zone, North Carolina. Much of his career remains classified.