Welcome back folks! It's Monday, and over the weekend we discussed Mike Vining & Pat McNamara's time at Delta. But, as anyone in the firearms community knows, you can't discuss The Unit without Larry Vicker's name coming up.
Strap in. It's going to get ugly.
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Many of you are familiar with his prolific firearms development work - the HK 416, the HK 45, the TangoDown Glock accessories. But to truly understand Larry, you have to look at the events that forged him.
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Delta's origin has been covered in depth, but here's a TL:DR; Beckwith did an exchange with SAS, came back, and fought for a direct action US version. It took years but the evolving threat of 70s era terrorism & worse, disco, convinced leaders that the capacity was needed.
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Unfortunately it would take years for Delta to be stood up, and until then a stopgap measure was needed. Enter the 5th Special Forces Group & Blue Light.
Not much is written about Blue Light but the gist was that experienced Vietnam vets were chosen & trained to respond
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Post Vietnam was a dark era. We mock Fortunate Son being played today, but those guys lived it.
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Add 70s music in like Rupert Holmes - 'Escape (The Pina Colada Song)' and Starland Vocal Band - Afternoon Delight to go along with the post war drawdown & other problems, and you can start to grasp the situation
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Meanwhile, Delta's first training classes were wrapping up, and Blue Light's time was drawing to a close
You ever have blue balls? Imagine being a SF guy, being stood up as a CT unit, knowing your time is limited, then watching your replacements come in.
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In 1978 Blue Light was closed down, but the guys behind it were still there. Waiting. Lurking. Pissed off.
This article has some book titles you can read to learn more backstory
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businessinsider.com/this-long-forg…
Enter Larry Vickers. Born in 1964, his father a WWII vet, he watched Vietnam end and grew up hating communists & hippies. He decided he was going to do something about it, so he signed up for the Delayed Entry Program and joined the Army after high school
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1982. Larry enlists as a SF baby and completes Infantry basic, Airborne & the Q course. His hatred of disco helps him power through. But there's a new enemy entering the battlefield: 80s music.
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Special Forces Cadre during this time used every trick in the book to fail students, seeing themselves as "tab protectors" - Larry's class in particular was subjected to A Flock of Seagulls. To this day, "I Ran (So Far Away)" gives him nightmares
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Larry, of course, prevailed, and was assigned to 5th Group from which Blue Light had been staffed. Larry saw the aftermath of their deactivation. At the same time, the KGB was escalating their subversion tactics with After the Fire's "Der Kommisar"
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Army leadership continued to be concerned about the culture war, and for Larry Nina's "99 Luftballons" 1983 release was a line in the sand. He decided he would take action.
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1985. Larry trains himself for European infiltration by buying adidas tracksuits and admiring euro style hunting rifles at a NRA show. He's preparing himself mentally and physically to try out for Delta.
Unfortunately, his inability to grow a moustache was a handicap.
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Larry doesn't talk about the next 3 years, but in 1988 he completes Delta selection, including the infamous "Day of the Star"
Cadre whispered that he was humming Pet Shop Boys "Always on My Mind" during this event to stay angry.
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Larry goes on to OTC Class 23 and graduates. He's ready to kill communists & end their evil disgusting Euro music like Samantha Fox's Naughty Girls Need Love Too:
Unfortunately the Soviet Union falls shortly after he arrives at The Unit
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Now Larry knows how the Blue Light guys felt. Still, he continues the mission.
1989. Operation Acid Gambit. Delta is hitting Panama. He's pictured here getting ready to rescue Kurt Muse from Modelo Prison, where he was being held after being arrested.
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Kurt was a CIA operative who had been arrested for setting up anti Noriega radio transmissions and Delta pulled him out. Unfortunately his little Bird crashed and Larry was one of the pax.
Noriega hated American music.
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Operation Just Cause was the first publicly documented use of music to demoralize America's enemies. Psyops spent days attacking the Vatican embassy sheltering Noriega - Here's a Youtube playlist of the actual songs that helped destroy his resolve:
youtube.com/playlist?list=…
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Larry receives his Bronze Star for his role in Acid Gambit and for loaning his music to Psyops to help defeat Noriega.
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In 1993 Vickers deploys to Somalia in Operation Gothic Serpent. Delta pays a heavy price, heroes one & all.
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Early 90s. Larry is deployed to Bosnia. Delta's mission was officially to help hunt down war criminals.
You can tell from the smile here that Larry has conducted a successful raid to eliminate a FSB funded terrorist music cell.
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95-97, Larry is again in Bosnia. No longer given a free hand to hunt down music offenders, you can see how his "easy listening dad rock" cover is wearing on him.
Shortly after these pictures, after 20 years of service & a litany of injuries, Larry decides to retire.
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During his time in Delta, Larry served a variety of roles including as a marksmanship training instructor. As they were all boomers, they were each issued a pair of finely tuned 1911s rumored to have $5000 of work done to them to make them function correctly.
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Larry took these lessons learned & thousands of hours spent fixing these pistols and offered his own versions through Wilson Combat for rich LARPers to purchase.
TBQF, dude deserves a fat paycheck so no begrudging him this. But while Larry is a Boomer, he's no Fudd
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Larry experienced first hand the train wreck of trying to keep 1911's running in real world situations and Delta had their choice of any weapon they wanted. The Unit had a long history with HK firearms, starting with the MP5 in various configurations
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They all can't be winners though, and HK's 90s entry into the SF pistol world, the Mark 23, died a horrible death. Nobody wanted to carry a boat anchor, so Delta stuck with their 1911s. Germany chose to issue the smaller USP as the P8.
Larry was a forward thinker though.
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The Army was tired of money being wasted tuning, then fixing 1911s so they came up with the Joint Combat Pistol Program. HK hired Larry to consult, and the result was the HK 45 - an improved USP with a 1913 rail and other changes
Delta passed and to add insult to injury,
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SEALs adopted the HK 45 as the Mk 24 Mod 0
Ugh.
Poor Larry.
But at the same time, HK also used Larry's advice to develop the 416 which found acceptance worldwide, being issued to dozens of countries and even the US Marine Corps.
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Interlude: my man Derrick got fuccccccccccked
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Larry branched out into Glocks, partnering with TangoDown to provide a litany of accessories as well as Lipseys & Wilson to offer Vickers branded special editions.
I like to think his influence helped Delta switch over from 1911s to Glocks as well.
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I wish I could say this story has a happy ending, but recently Larry announced he's battling follicular lymphoma.
He says it may be due to the chemicals he was exposed to during his service. But...
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I think a compelling case can be made that his exposure to European music probably caused it.
God bless you Larry, and keep fighting.
/end.
Post Script: Don't listen to haters saying that Larry's purchase of black market moustache treatments caused this. Though Delta was famous for fabulous moustaches and hazing those who couldn't grow them, like what happened to George Hand here, it was definitely the music.
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