The Man Who Helped Build Delta Force

On the night of April 24th, 1980, Mike Vining sat inside a C-130 transport plane on a remote airstrip in the Iranian desert when a RH-53 Delta helicopter drifted into the aircraft and tore open its side. Fire swept through the transport within seconds. Ammunition began cooking off inside the fuselage as the flames spread. Eight American servicemen died in the wreckage. Vining and the other survivors scrambled clear of the burning aircraft while the evacuation continued around them. Their collision destroyed both the helicopter and the EC-1-3rd. The rescue force, already short on flyable helicopters, now had no choice but to abandon the mission before Delta ever reached Tehran. What had been planned as the first major operation of the new unit ended in the desert with bodies still inside the burning wreckage. Operation Eagle Claw exposed deep problems in how the American military planned and conducted complex special operations. Different services had been forced to combine aircraft, crews, and command structure for a mission that left almost no margin for error. The investigation that followed helped create the Joint Special Operations Command. For Vining, the night in the desert was one more chapter in a career that had already taken him from the tunnels of Vietnam to the founding of Delta Force. So how did one 19-year-old EOD technician from Michigan become one of Delta Force's original operators? What role did Mike Vining play in the early years of this elite unit and the missions that followed? How did the failures at Desert One and Grenada help him reshape American special operations? Hi, I'm Mike Joberg. Today we'll discuss the legendary career of Sergeant Major Mike Vining and forgot history. The beginning of the toughest 26 days in Marine Corps history with 36th President of the United States died this afternoon. Mike Vining was born in Greenville, Michigan in August 1950 and grew up in the small town of Howard City. His interest in explosives began early. As a boy, he became fascinated with science and chemistry and started building homemade rockets and small explosive devices. The hobby was unusual, but it pointed to the work he would later pursue in the Army. Vining enlisted in 1968 while the Vietnam War continued to draw large numbers of American troops. During his initial training, he learned about explosive ordnance disposal known as EOD. The work went beyond EOD technicians were trained to identify dangerous military munitions and make them safe. Whether that meant dealing with unexploded ordnance or destroying captured enemy ammunition so it could not be used again. The job appealed to him. After finishing his basic Army training, he entered the military's EOD program, graduated in May of 1969 and volunteered for Vietnam. He was assigned to the 99th Ordnance Detachment. He arrived in the war saturated with explosives from both sides. American troops regularly encountered unexploded ordnance and enemy ammunition that could not simply be left in place. For an EOD technician, each discovery presented a different problem and the single mistake could kill the technician as easily as the soldiers nearby. One assignment took him to a captured North Vietnamese storage area called Warehouse Hill. Enemy forces had used underground tunnels to store ammunition and other supplies, but the tunnels were dangerous. An infantry lieutenant had already triggered a grenade booby trap inside one of them and survived the blast. Vining entered the tunnels anyway, working his way through the confined spaces with a flashlight, searching for additional traps while carrying the explosives needed to destroy the supplies. Bats and large centipedes occupied the tunnels around it. Once the routes were safe enough, the EOD team placed C4 among the captured material and prepared the site for demolition. Experiences like Warehouse Hill gave Vining practical training that no classroom could match. Within a year of arriving in Vietnam, that experience would be required for a demolition job on a far larger scale. What Vining encountered at Rock Island East was a far larger than typical captured ammunition dump. American troops had uncovered a major North Vietnamese supply complex that held 932 individual weapons and another 85 crew-served weapons. The site also contained more than 7 million rounds for small arms and machine guns, along with nearly 1,085mm artillery shells that could be fired from D-44 howitzers and T-34 tanks. The cachet had been built to support North Vietnamese forces operating in the region, and much of it had to be destroyed before those forces could recover it. Vining joined six other Army EOD technicians supporting the 1st Cavalry Division as American troops secured the area. The fighting to seize the site had already cost 10 American soldiers killed and 20 wounded. Destroying the cachet required the EOD team to work while enemy forces remained close enough to fire on the area. Technicians prepared the captured munitions for demolition and placed smaller charters around the perimeter to discourage North Vietnamese troops from approaching while the work continued, and the environment itself added problems. Vining later recalled dealing with biting red ants as the team moved to the site preparing the explosives. By the time the demolition was ready, the seven technicians had used 300 cases of C-4 to destroy 327 tons of enemy munitions. Vining boarded a helicopter before the charges detonated and watched the explosion from the air. The blast produced a mushroom cloud that could be seen from 50 miles away. Vining returned from Vietnam after 11 months with the 99th Ordnance Detachment. He was also ready to try something outside of military life. Vining traded explosives for factory work producing automotive body parts for Ford. He eventually became the lead employee on the third shift running the plant's largest machine, a 500-ton press. The money was good, but when he looked at the men who had spent decades doing the same job, he knew he did not want that life. In October of 1973, a little more than two years after leaving active duty, he walked back into the Army Recruiting Office and asked to re-enlist. The Army was willing to take him back on the condition that he returned to the same specialty he had left. That suited him. Some assignments involved supporting the Secret Service during major events. One of those missions brought Vining and his team to Quincy, Illinois during the 1976 presidential campaign. In September of 1976, Vining was serving with the 63rd Ordnance Detachment at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri under Sergeant Major Kenneth Ray Foster, the team's senior EOD supervisor. Foster was an experienced bomb technician and had become an important mentor to Vining. The team was sent to Quincy, Illinois where Senator Bob Dole, Gerald Ford's running mate in the 1976 presidential election, was campaigning in the city and was scheduled to speak at Quincy College on the evening of September 27th. Vining, Foster, and two other Army EOD technicians were there to provide explosive support for Dole's security detail. Dole spoke at the college that evening. Later that night, while Foster and Vining were eating dinner, reports began coming in of a series of explosions around the city. The first bomb detonated at approximately 8 20 p.m. on a small bridge near Parker Heights Park. Then, between approximately 8 50 and 10 p.m., three more bombs exploded at the Quincy Compressor Division plant. The plant was a large industrial facility owned by Colt Industries that manufactured air compressors. Approximately 100 employees were reportedly inside when the explosions occurred. The bombs damaged multiple equipment and portions of the factory wall, although no one was seriously injured. Even more troubling, the plant had received three separate bomb threats earlier that day. The timing naturally raised concerns about Dole's presence in Quincy. However, the bridge was not on his motorcade route. The compressor plant was across town from his campaign activities, and the investigators initially found no evidence that the explosions were connected to Dole. The following morning, however, another threat complicated the Vining and the EOD team went to Baldwin Airfield to support Dole's departure from Quincy. Because of the explosions the previous night, they carefully searched the airport terminal. Dole's chartered aircraft and his baggage. Then, at approximately 7 50 a.m., shortly before Dole was scheduled to leave, a bomb threat was called into the airport. The EOD team conducted another search but found nothing. Dole departed safely. Despite the suspicious timing, authorities again found no evidence connecting the threat to the bombings or to an attempt against Dole. With their secret service assignment completed, the EOD team was preparing to leave Quincy when Adams County Sheriff Robert Null asked them to examine the compressor plant and help determine what had happened there. When they arrived at approximately 10 in the morning, firefighters searching the facility discovered something the investigators had missed the night before. Another bomb that had failed to explode. The device had been placed on the bed of a trailer containing a large industrial compressor. The EOD technicians could see several sticks of dynamite connected to an alarm clock and a six-volt battery. Foster decided to approach the device and conduct a closer reconnaissance before determining how the team would render it safe. Illinois State Arson Inspector Ernest Arntz accompanied him. Vining remained farther back preparing the equipment Foster needed once he had examined the bomb. At approximately 10 40 a.m., Foster disappeared between two closely parked trailers to approach the device. Seconds later, it exploded. Foster was killed instantly. Arntz was seriously wounded. Vining ran toward the blast. There, he found his mentor and friend, Sergeant Major Ken Foster, lying on the ground, his body mangled by the explosion. Foster had taken the full force of the blast to his upper body and head. The day after Foster was killed, 39-year-old Quincy resident Robert Eugene Motley surrendered to police. Investigators learned that Motley and several younger accomplices had obtained dynamite and blasting caps and constructed a series of homemade time bombs using alarm clocks and six-volt batteries. According to the testimony, the men first tested one of the bombs on the bridge north of Quincy. It then drove to the Quincy compressor plant. Motley instructed his two accomplices to place bombs on the factory roof, intending to Unable to reach the roof, they instead placed the devices around industrial compressors outside the plant. Motley pleaded guilty to murder for his role in the bombing that killed Foster and was sentenced 15 to 45 years in prison. The two 18-year-old defendants charged in connection with the attack were later acquitted. The apparent motive was personal rather than political. Motley's estranged wife worked at the Quincy compressor plant. Motley wanted to shut down the factory so that she would lose her job and become financially dependent upon him. For Vining, however, the consequences were permanent. Foster's death deeply affected Vining and contributed to his decision to reconsider the direction of his military career. He completed emergency medical technician training and decided to pursue special forces as a medic, a path that would have taken him away from bomb disposal after years in the field. Before he could make the change, his control sergeant major told him about a new special forces organization being assembled at Fort Prague, North Carolina. The unit was looking specifically for experienced EOD technicians. Vining traveled to Fort Prague for an interview with Colonel Charlie Beckwith. Beckwith was building a specialized counterterrorism force unlike anything the army had fielded before. He wanted EOD technicians that could operate as members of the assault force rather than remain outside as support personnel. Vining had already decided to leave EOD, but the new unit gave him a way to keep using the experience he had gained in Vietnam while moving his career in a completely different direction. He volunteered and joined a small group of candidates preparing to enter the unit's first operator training course. The organization Beckwith was building would soon become known as Delta Force. When Vining arrived at Fort Prague in 1978, the unit was still being built. Colonel Beckwith had spent years arguing that the United States needed a military force dedicated to counterterrorism and hostage rescue. Beckwith's ideas were shaped in part by an exchange assignment with Britain's 22 Special Air Service Regiment, better known as the SAS. The British unit used the demanding selection process and trained small teams to operate with considerable independence. Beckwith believed the army needed a comparable capability, especially as international terrorism became a growing concern during the 1970s. The new organization was officially designated the First Special Forces Operational Detachment Delta. Beckwith needed experienced soldiers who could handle specialized problems inside an assault force, which is why Vining's background proved valuable. Delta wanted EOD technicians who could operate alongside the rest of the team and deal with explosives when the mission required. Vining arrived after the first selection course had already taken place, so his route into the unit was unusual. He and the other EOD candidates entered the first operator training course before completing selection with the understanding that they would still have to pass it to remain. Five EOD technicians entered that first training course. Only two completed it, Vining and Dennis Wolfe. Delta originally wanted six trained EOD technicians, but finding enough men who could meet both sets of requirements proved difficult. According to Vining, the unit eventually took experienced Special Forces demolition specialists and sent them through EOD school to fill the remaining positions. Vining and the other experienced technicians then helped train them for their new role. He became the unit's first EOD specialist and spent the next several years helping develop a capability that was still new to the army. Delta had little time to mature before events overseas gave the unit the kind of mission Beckwith had spent years preparing for. On November 4th, 1979, Iranian militants seized the United States Embassy in Tehran and took dozens of Americans hostage. The crisis quickly became one of the most serious foreign policy problems facing the United States. President Jimmy Carter eventually authorized a military rescue attempt. Delta Force would be at the center of it and Mike Vining would be going with them. The rescue plan was ambitious. Delta would have to enter Iran undetected, travel to Tehran, assault the embassy, free the hostages, and get everyone safely out of the country. The plan required several branches of the military to work together deep inside Iran. Delta operators would fly into the country aboard C-130 aircraft and meet a group of RH-53 Delta helicopters at an isolated desert landing site about 200 miles southeast of Tehran. The helicopters would refuel there and carry the assault force closer to the capital. Delta would then move to Tehran, rescue the hostages from the embassy, and escape with them by air. Vining was assigned to the assault force and flew into Iran aboard one of the C-130 aircraft carrying fuel for the helicopters. Problems began before the rescue force could leave the desert. Eight helicopters had launched from the USS Nimitz but mechanical trouble and severe dust conditions reduced the available number for the mission. By the time the force assembled at the landing site known as Desert One, only five helicopters were capable of continuing, one fewer than Beckwith thought he needed. The mission was called off before Delta reached Tehran. The danger increased as the force prepared to leave. One of the RH-53 helicopters maneuvered the C-130 carrying Vining and members of his team. The helicopter struck the transport and its rotor tore into the fuel laden aircraft. Fire swept through the C-130 as ammunition began cooking off inside. Vining escaped with the other survivors and moved away from the burning wreckage while the evacuation continued. The collision destroyed both aircraft and killed eight American servicemen. Vining and his teammates boarded another aircraft but their problems were not over. The C-130 had faulty landing gear and was running dangerously low on fuel. They managed to get across the water and reach safety leaving behind the wreckage of Desert One and the rescue mission that had ended before the assault on the embassy could begin. Vining would later describe the collision as one of the worst experiences from his career that remained with him decades afterward. The failure exposed serious weaknesses in the way American military planned and conducted complex special operations. Different services had been forced to combine assets for a mission that left little room for error. The investigation that followed contributed to the creation of Joint Special Operations Command giving the military a permanent organization capable of coordinating units like Delta Force for future missions. Vining remained with Delta as the United States began applying the lessons learned at Desert One. Three years later he would deploy with the unit again this time to the Caribbean island of Grenada. In October of 1983 a violent power struggle in Grenada ended with Prime Minister Maurice Bishop being deposed and executed. With hundreds of American medical students potentially trapped by the crisis, President Ronald Reagan ordered U.S. forces into Grenada on October 25th beginning Operation Urgent Fury. While Rangers and other American forces moved to secure the medical students, Delta Force was given a separate objective. B Squadron including Mike Vining was ordered to assault Richmond Hill Prison above the capital of St. George and free Grenadian political prisoners held by the revolutionary government. The original plan called for the assault to take place before daylight so the operators can use darkness and surprise. According to Vining the schedule launch was changed from two in the morning to 5 45 which put the helicopters over the target after sunrise. The AC-130 gunship assigned to support them had not been informed of the change and arrived according to the original schedule. By the time Delta approached Richmond Hill the gunship had already left to refuel. Six Blackhawks carried the assault force towards the prison which sat in difficult terrain beneath Fort Frederick. As the helicopters approached they came under heavy fire from the fort and from troops around the prison itself. Vining recalled rounds passing through the aircraft from several directions as the crews tried to position the helicopters close enough for the operators to fast rope onto the objective. The Blackhawks absorbed considerable damage and the incoming fire made it impossible for Delta to get onto the ground. Vining was aboard the fifth helicopter in the formation. The aircraft immediately ahead of his was hit particularly hard and its pilot Captain Keith Lucas was mortally wounded. Delta made two attempts to reach the prison before the assault was abandoned. 17 Delta operators were wounded during the mission along with the members of the helicopter crews. The prisoners were eventually freed before Delta made another attempt but Richmond Hill exposed some of the same coordination problems that had troubled American special operations at Desert One. Vining later pointed to the difficulties communicating and operating across the different military services during Grenada. Those problems became a part of a broader push to improve the organization of American special operations which eventually led to the creation of U.S. Special Operations Command in 1987. Vining remained with Delta until 1985 completing seven years with the unit before accepting an assignment with the 176th Ordnance Detachment at Fort Richardson, Alaska. His time away from Delta would be brief. Vining's assignment in Alaska lasted less than a year. In 1986 he returned to Delta Force and entered a different stage of his career. His experience now extended well beyond traditional EOD work. During his second tour he served as the unit's chief EOD technician before moving into research and development and eventually becoming its breaching sergeant major. By 1990 Vining was still with Delta when Iraq invaded Kuwait and the United States began deploying forces to Saudi Arabia. He went to the region during Operation Desert Storm where his work included conventional EOD duties as well as support for specialized missions. Vining remained with Delta until 1992 completing a second tour that had moved him into increasingly senior positions within the unit. He had joined in 1978 as an EOD technician brought in for a capability the new organization needed. 14 years later he left with experience in weapons development and operational planning. After leaving Delta in 1992 Vining moved to the senior assignments with Joint Special Operations Command and U.S. Special Operations Command. He served as an exercise planner and later as the J-3 Special Planned Sergeant Major at JSOC before becoming the Special Planned Sergeant Major at U.S. Special Operations Command. Another assignment brought Vining back to explosives in 1996. On June 25th a truck bomb exploded outside the Khobar Towers in Dharan, Saudi Arabia where American military personnel were housed. 19 U.S. airmen were killed and hundreds of people were injured. Vining was selected as the explosives expert for the Downing Assignment Task Force which was sent to examine the attack and determine what could be done better to protect American forces from similar bombings. The team studied the size and the effects of the explosion along with the security measures that had been taking place at Khobar Towers. Its findings led to recommendations for improving security at American installations overseas including greater protection from vehicle bombs and increased distance between occupied buildings and surrounding roads. Vining's experience with explosives now gave him a role in determining how American forces could better defend against them. Vining retired from the Army in January of 1999 after more than 30 years of service. Along the way he earned the Bronze Star Legion of Merit Combat Infantry Badge and Master Explosive Ordnance Disposal Badge among other decorations and qualifications. In 2018 the U.S. Army Ordnance Corps inducted him into the Hall of Fame. The honor recognizes a career that began with homemade rockets in rural Michigan and ended more than 30 years later in the senior ranks of American Special Operations. Vining spent much of his career in organizations that operated outside public view and for years his name remained largely unknown beyond the military and EOD communities. That changed when photographs of him began circulating online. His glasses and unassuming appearance made him an unlikely internet celebrity. But the career behind those photographs was far more interesting than the memes they inspired. Mike Vining entered the Army as a during the Vietnam War and later found himself at the beginning of a major change in American Special Operations. He helped build Delta Force and survived some of its most difficult missions. What we know about Mike Vining's career pales in comparison to what remains classified. The photo may be what made Mike Vining famous but the 30 years behind it are what made him worth remembering. Let us know your thoughts on Sergeant Major Vining in the comments below. Thank you for watching Forgotten History. Please like, share, and subscribe. 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