Tip of the Spear June 2013 - Arooji Edit

7/28/2019 Tip of the Spear June 2013 - Arooji Edit

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T i p o f t h e S p e a r

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Air Force Tech. Sgt. Heather Kelly

Staff Writer/Photographer

Air Force Tech. Sgt. Angelita Lawrence


This is a U.S. Special Operations Command publication. Contents are not

necessarily the official views of, or endorsed by, the U.S. Government,

Department of Defense or USSOCOM. The content is edited, prepared and

provided by the USSOCOM Public Affairs Office, 7701 Tampa Point Blvd.,

MacDill AFB, Fla., 33621, phone (813) 826-4600, DSN 299-4600. An

electronic copy can be found at www.socom.mil. E-mail the editor via

unclassified network at [email protected]. The editor of the Tip of

the Spear reserves the right to edit all copy presented for publication.

Army Col. Tim Nye

Public Affairs Director

Mike Bottoms

Managing Editor

Tip of the SpearTip of the Spear

(Cover) Retired Army Chief Warrant Officer 5 Fred Aroojis stands sihlouetted in front of an MH-47. Arooji received U.S.

Special Operations Commands highest honor when he was awarded the 2012 Bull Simons Award in Tampa, Fla., May 15.

This lifetime achievement award, named for Army Col. Arthur Bull Simons, honors the spirit, values, and skills of the

unconventional warrior. Courtesy photo.

Adm. William H. McRaven

Commander, USSOCOM

CSM Chris Faris

Command Sergeant Major

Marine Corps Master Sgt. F. B. Zimmerman

Staff NCOIC, Command Information

Air Force Master Sgt. Larry W. Carpenter, Jr.


Arooji receives Bull

Simons Award ... 16

Arooji receives Bull

Simons Award ... 16


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By Mike Bottoms

USSOCOM Public Affairs

Special Ops guys come in all shapes and sizes.

When you look at Fred Arooji, you think you are

looking at a kindly grandfather. Standing about 5 feet 6

inches, weighing maybe 160 pounds and sporting gray

hair that has long resided on his scalp.

Arooji is all that, but he is also a guy who entered

Iran ahead of an American hostage rescue attempt in

April 1980, survived on his own for two weeks after the

mission was aborted, escaping only by his wits. A guy,

Retired Chief Warrant Officer 5 Fred Arooji

(center) sits with his teammates in Iraq. Arooji

was selected as this years Bull Simons Award

recipient for his more than 30 years of

contributions to Special Operations. The Bull

Simons Award is USSOCOMs lifetime

achievement award, named for Army Col.

Arthur Bull Simons, honoring the spirit ,

values, and skills of the unconventional

warrior. Courtesy photo.


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who would become a Special Ops pilot, help pioneer

night vision goggle technology, and fly hundreds of

Special Operations missions during his more than 30years in Special Operations.

The hostage rescue mission in Iran became known

as Operation Eagle Claw and the mission planners

would have to bring in unique talent from throughout

the Department of Defense. One skill they were looking

for was Farsi language speakers.

Shortly after the embassy in Iran had been overrun

by so-called students, and at that point some 60

Americans were being held hostage, we quickly found

the need to have some Farsi speakers or Iranian

Americans, retired Army Lt. Col. Bucky Burruss, anEagle Claw participant, said. We searched DoD and

one of the ones we interviewed was a young Airman

named Fred Arooji and pretty quickly we recognized

that he was someone special.

Born in Iran, Arooji immigrated to America as a

child and enlisted in the Air Force in 1971. He served as

an avionics mechanic for RF 4 Phantom jets when the

call came out for Farsi language speakers. Intrigued,


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Arooji went through the interview process not knowing

the reason DoD was looking for Farsi speakers. Making

it through the interview process, Arooji was selected for

Eagle Claw.

I went through all kinds of training, and months

later General James Vaught (overall Eagle Claw mission

commander) called me in his office and asked me Areyou ready to travel? Arooji said. I said yes and he

said OK son, go and get your tickets to Tehran.

It was decided that we needed to send in an

advance party to do last minute reconnaissance and

Fred, as a native Iranian, had the tongue, had the eyes,

the ears, and had the sense of things happening in Iran,

so we asked him to be part of the advanced party,

retired Army Capt. Wade Ishimoto and Eagle Claw

planner said.

Vaught would be the overall commander, but the

commander on the ground would be Special Operations

legend Army Col. Charles Beckwith. Aroojis first

meeting with Beckwith was testy.

I was with Captain Bucky Burruss one day and

Colonel Beckwith walks in the room, big guy, huge, he

had a real raspy voice, Arooji said. He looked at me

and said That beard, that looks good, dont shave that

beard.

Colonel Beckwith turned to walk away, stopped

and looked at me and said Ill tell you what son, while

youre here, you keep your mouth shut, you

understand? I said yes I do. He looked at me again and

said No, you dont understand, this is my country, I

love my country, and I am not going to let any son-of-a-

bitch destroy it, so you keep your damn mouth shutwhile you are here and if I ever find out you are talking

too much Ill put you in a jail, or you will never see the

sun again.

Arooji continued, I stepped two or three feet

toward Colonel Beckwith, I looked him straight in the

eye and told him, sir, you know what the difference is

between you and me? He said What is it? I said, thedifference is you were lucky, you were born in this

country as an American, I earned mine and I love it just

as much as you do. He looked at me and said, Well

see, and turned and walked away. I thought I was going

to faint. Bucky turns to me and says Hey Freddy, he

really likes you.

Later that day, according to Arooji, Beckwith would

approach him in the chow hall and give him a big hug

and tell him You know what, you are a true American.

Arooji joined another Special Operations legend,

Army Maj. Dick Meadows, for the reconnaissance

mission in Iran ahead of Eagle Claw and where theyencountered significant challenges for which Aroojis

ingenuity would prove to be invaluable.

The mission was supposed to occur on the night of

April 24th and 25th, 1980. That particular day, the 24th

of April, Dick Meadows and Fred went by the

warehouse where the vehicles were stored and Fred

detected that a ditch had been dug across the driveway.

That was significant and there was no way those

Fred Arooji holding a stick of dynamite early in his career.

Courtesy photo.

Fred Arooji finishing a parachute jump. Courtesy photo.


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vehicles could be driven out, Ishimoto said.

I said, man what are we going to do? and about

10 or 15 feet away there were kids playing soccer, so I

said to Dick we need to give these kids a basket of

oranges and I then asked them to help me move some

concrete chunks into the ditch and they did, Arooji

said.

The ditch repaired, Meadows and Arooji waited for

the rescue mission to unfold. Unfortunately, the hostage

rescue mission was aborted when a helicopter collided

with a C-130 killing eight servicemen at the Iranian

staging area known as Desert One.

After it was detected, that in fact an attempt was

made, the media splashed that there were Americans of

Iranian descent involved with the mission this put

Fred under great danger, Ishimoto said.

We had no idea what took place. I dropped Dick

off at his hotel and I got back to my hotel and I turned

the TV on and I see they are carrying the bodies of the

individuals that got burned and the crash site burning,so I am in deep trouble at this point, Arooji said.

Arooji then went back to Meadows hotel and

took him to the airport.

We had a Mercedes someone had bought us,

so Dick told me, Take the Mercedes and head

to the Turkish border and well contact you

there, Arooji said. Well as it turned out, the

keys to the Mercedes were in the pocket of

another gentleman and he was on his flight

home. The only way in and out of Iran now was

through Tehran.

We had no contact with him after the mission wasaborted, Ishimoto said. I frankly thought I would

never see Fred Arooji alive again.

Arooji would spend a harrowing two weeks under

the constant pressure of being caught before he safely

made his way back to the United States.

When Fred got back he was still an Airman in the

United States Air Force, said retired Gen. Richard

Cody, former vice

chief of staff of the

U.S. Army and

commander of the

160th SpecialOperations Aviation

Regiment. When he

got back to the United

States President

Carter wanted to meet

him, and at that meeting President Carter said, Young

man, I believe I have just met one of the bravest of

young men in uniform.

After

I had received my awardfor the mission, President Carter asked me

what my wishes were and I said I wanted to be a

military pilot, Arooji said.

Vaught would work to ask the Air Force to grant

Arooji an inter-service transfer to the Army where he

would become a Special Operations helicopter and

fixed-winged pilot. Time would prove he was a natural

and born to fly.

Fred is the only

one in the world to go

from flight school to a

special mission unit,stay 24 years and

serve with

distinction said

retired Chief Warrant

Officer 5 Ned Hubard, fellow Special Operations

aviator. Hes a legend, shoes that will never be filled

again, a perfect safety record, never aborted a mission,

he is to be admired.

We had no contact with him after the mission was

aborted. I frankly thought I would never see Fred

Arooji alive again.

Retired Army Capt. Wade Ishimoto


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Arooji and his colleagues in the special mission unit

were assigned to test and teach the use of night vision

goggles to the big Army.

If you think about the 1980s and the type of the

night vision devices we had back then, you were pretty

much going from

20/20 vision to

about 20/200, saidCody. He was one

of the pioneers

working out

approaches to

buildings at night,

flying low-level

missions for hours

at a time under

these conditions.

Cody pointed

out one particular

mission during theIraqi war where night vision goggle technology and

Aroojis mastery of it saved a special mission unit.

During the height of the Iraq war, there was a unit

getting overrun, they couldnt get anyone there to pick

them up, there was no real landing zone, but there was

a small dirt road. Fred heard the call, turned around and

said, Ill take the mission and actually landed a rather

large fixed-wing aircraft on the road, picked these guys

up and got them out of there - all under night vision

systems, Cody said.

Fred helped develop tactics, techniques and

procedures for the entire Army and that is part of his

legacy he can be very proud of, said retired Army Maj.

Gen. Eldon Bargewell, a 2010 Bull Simons Award

recipient. Fred is

not this 6-foot-5,

250 pound guy thateverybody looks at

and thinks that is

a bad guy, but he

is in the sense the

way I say it he is

a bad guy, he can

do a lot of things

with a helicopter

and with a fixed-

wing aircraft that I

have never seen

anyone do beforeand that to me epitomizes a Special Operator.

Reflecting on his career and what makes a Special

Operator, Arooji summed it up.

The strongest part of your body has to be your

heart. It puts my heart in a different dimension to know

all the years of my military service I served with the

best, Arooji said. We dont look for pats on the back,

we dont live for what we did 15 or 20 years ago; we

live for how well we accomplish the mission today.

Fred is not this 6-foot-5, 250 pound guy thateverybody looks at and thinks that is a bad guy, but

he is in the sense the way I say it he is a bad guy,

he can do a lot of things with a helicopter and with a

fixed-wing aircraft that I have never seen anyone do

before and that to me epitomizes a Special

Operator.

Retired Army Maj. Gen. Eldon Bargewell

Retired Chief Warrant Officer 5 Fred Arooji (5th from left) poses with his family after receiving the Bull Simons Award May 15.

Photo by Tech. Sgt. Angelita Lawrence.


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By Mike Bottoms

USSOCOM Public Affairs

USSOCOM presented its highest honor, the BullSimons Award, to retired Chief Warrant Officer 5 Fred

Arooji on May 15. The Bull Simons Award was first

awarded in 1990 and has since become an annual tradition.

The award recognizes recipients who embody the true

spirit, values, and skills of a Special Operations warrior.

Col. Arthur Bull Simons, whom the award is named

after, is the epitome of these attributes.

A career Soldier, Simons led Special Operations in

World War II and Vietnam. Born in New York City in

1918, Simons graduated from the University of Missouri in

1941 with a degree in journalism and served in the Pacific

theater in World War II. He rose to company commanderin the 6th Ranger Battalion and participated in several

amphibious landings in the Philippines. On one noteworthy

occasion, he and his men scaled a steep oceanside cliff

under cover of darkness and overwhelmed a garrison of

Japanese soldiers at the Suluan lighthouse.

Simons left the Army after World War II but returned

to duty in 1951. He completed the Special Forces Officers

Qualification Course in 1958

and took command of a

detachment in the 77th SF

Group (Airborne). From 1961

to 1962, as head of the White

Star Mobile Training Team, he

served as the senior military

advisor to the Royal Lao

Army. His familiarity with the

region would prove useful a

few years later.

In 1965, Simons returned

to Southeast Asia as a member

of Military Assistance

Command Vietnams Studies

and Observations Group.

Serving under then Col.

Donald Blackburn, Simons commanded OP-35, one ofthree operational directorates within SOG. For

approximately two years, he led OP-35 on an interdiction

campaign against the North Vietnamese Army along the

Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos and Cambodia. OP-35

interdicted the trail by inserting hatchet teams and

reconnaissance teams. The hatchet teams, composed of

Nung or Montagnard tribesmen led by a Special Forces

noncommissioned officer, conducted hit-and-run raids

against NVA units. The recon teams ran

long range patrols scouting the trail

but also snatched prisoners

when the opportunity arose.Simons left Vietnam in

1966, but he returned four

years later as the Deputy

Commander of Joint

Contingency Task Group

Ivory Coast the Son Tay

Raiders. The task force, commanded

by Air Force Brig. Gen. Leroy Manor, was formed in the

spring of 1970 after American intelligence had identified

Son Tay Prison, near Hanoi, as a prisoner of war detention

camp. After six months of planning and rehearsals, the task

force deployed to Thailand Nov. 18.

Two nights later, the task force flew into North

Vietnam. The assault group, led by Capt. Dick Meadows,

landed in the prison compound and killed approximately

50 NVA guards, but found the compound to be otherwise

abandoned. Meanwhile, Simons had landed with the

support group in an adjacent school compound, which was

teeming with Russian and Chinese soldiers. Simons and

his team killed or repelled

hundreds of these soldiers,

eliminating the principal

threat to the assault group.

The raiders executed theentire operation in 28

minutes, successfully faced an

enemy force of approximately

350 men, and left with only

two injuries. Although the

raid at Son Tay failed to

accomplish its principal

objective, it sent a clear

message to North Vietnam,

and the treatment of American

prisoners improved somewhat

thereafter. Simons retired from the Army in 1971, but hewas to conduct one more special mission. In 1979, Mr. H.

Ross Perot asked Simons to rescue two of his employees;

the Iranian revolutionary regime was holding them in a

Tehran prison and was demanding a $13 million ransom.

In April of that year, Simons led a civilian rescue party

into Iran and safely extracted the American hostages. Just

one month later, Simons suffered a massive heart attack

and died.

Previous Bull Simons Award recipients are: Mr.

H. Ross Perot, Army Gen. Edward Shy Meyer, The

Honorable John Marsh Jr., Army Col. Aaron Bank,

Army Lt. Gen. Samuel Wilson, Air Force Lt. Gen.

Leroy Manor, the Honorable Sam Nunn, theHonorable William Cohen, Army Gen. James

Lindsay, Air Force Maj. Gen. John Alison, Army

Col. Charlie Beckwith, Air Force Brig Gen. Harry

Heinie Aderholdt, Army Command Sgt. Maj.

Ernest Tabata, Army Maj. Gen. Richard Scholtes,

Army Maj. Richard Dick Meadows, Air Force Col.

John Carney, Army Maj. Caesar Civitella, Army Col.

Chuck Fry, Army Maj. Gen. Eldon Bargewell, Army

Maj. Gen. John Singlaub and Air Force Master Sgt.

Scott Fales.

Tip of the Spear June 2013 - Arooji Edit

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