The colors are presented during the USASOC Regimental First Formation; the first event reunion-goers were invited to attend on Day 1. The Formation event served as a sort of “capping” ceremony for USASOC trainees who were allowed to don the Green Beret for the first time. Their formal graduation was the next day.

Chairs were lined up beneath an overhang and reserved for members of the OSS 101 Association to view the USASOC Regimental First Formation.

A portion of the Special Forces exhibit at Fort Bragg’s John F. Kennedy Special Warfare and School Museum reflects the foundation that the World War II-era Office of Strategic Services provided. This is the first of two panels dedicated to Detachment 101 of the OSS.

A second panel dedicated to OSS Detachment 101 includes weapons, a map, and a captured flag of the Empire of Japan.

A sculpted bust and wood-painted portrait of Saddam Hussein, confiscated by USASOC Special Forces during Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Members of the Special Forces also confiscated these gold-plated weapons in one of the Iraqi palaces of Uday Hussein during Operation Iraqi Freedom.

A sculpture of Colonel Arthur D. “Bull” Simons points to Ardennes Street outside the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare and School Museum.

Veterans of Detachment 101 and special reunion guest British Lord Sir John Slim (second from right) gather to pose beneath the statue of Colonel Arthur D. “Bull” Simons. The Association held a reunion at Fort Bragg in 1991 that included about 100 veterans of the tiny fighting unit. Only eight veterans healthy enough to participate in the reunion made their way to Fort Bragg in 2007.

The statue of Colonel Arthur D. “Bull” Simons is accented by the setting sun.

Veterans and their families are shown the Detachment 101 memorial stone located at the Meadows Parade Field outside USASOC Headquarters.

Mr. Aman (right), “The Voice of USASOC,” guides Detachment 101 veterans and guests through the Meadows Parade Field memorial plaza. Earlier, Aman narrated a presentation inside the USASOC Headquarters building and Association members were greeted by USASOC Commander, Lieutenant General Robert W. Wagner.

101ers John Dempsey (left) and Sam Spector are interviewed by a journalist from NBC’s Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill affiliate.

The leader of the USASOC “Black Dagger” Demonstration Parachute Team leaves a trail of red smoke over the Meadows Parade Field during his freefall demonstration.

The Black Dagger’s leader makes his controlled landing just feet from the 101 reunion-goers on the Meadows Parade Field memorial plaza.

Four additional members of the Black Dagger team make their decent to the crowd awaiting at USASOC Headquarters.

The Black Daggers make public appearances at a multitude of venues, including regional air shows. Two members of the team made a freefall appearance at Notre Dame Stadium, in South Bend, IN, to deliver the game ball for the team’s game against the University of Southern California on October 25.

Veterans of Detachment 101 and Viscount John Slim pose for photos in front of the Special Warfare Memorial Statue “Bronze Bruce” outside USASOC Headquarters.

A Special Forces sniper kicks up dust and causes the ground to shake while giving a demonstration with his M82 Barrett .50-caliber sniper rifle. Firing at a car several hundred yards away, he hits the vehicle’s gas tank with several consecutive incendiary-tipped .50 caliber rounds, causing the automobile to become engulfed in a rolling fire.

A Special Forces sniper ejects a shell from his SR-25 semi-automatic sniper rifle that’s been outfitted with a silencer.

Reunion attendees were given a birds-eye view of a Special Forces team demonstration of Close-Quarters Battle (CQB) training, where “friendlies” and “enemies” both fire super lightweight rounds at each other to closely mimic battle situations.

After a demonstration of indoor virtual training, I’m given the opportunity to fire live rounds from an M4 semi-automatic rifle, the Army’s current replacement of the M16. Indoor live-fire exercises are made possible because of black insulation bricks that line the walls and ceiling of the room. Made from recycled tires, they can take hundreds of direct hits before needing to be replaced.

Sergeant First Class Watson instructs my father, Patrick, on the loading, unloading, and safety measures of the German-made MP5, one of four weapons the Special Forces allowed their guests to test fire at one of their target ranges.

The table at the firing range displays two sets of the four weapons we were allowed to “play” with – from left to right, the MP5, Glock, Beretta, and M4.

Sergeant First Class Watson gives tips to my father as he aims the MP5 at his target down range ...

… meanwhile, I take aim with the Beretta at my target.

After the range came the MREs (Meals Ready to Eat) for lunch. Here, Sergeant First Class Carlson helps me heat up my cheese and vegetable omelet. Mine came from a manufacturer in Brooklyn.

MREs are more than just food in a bag. The typical plastic MRE container has a “main course,” in my case an omelet, along with sides (crackers and strawberry jelly, an apple cinnamon pastry – basically a Pop Tart, cinnamon candies) and a smaller package with hand sanitizing wipes, water-resistant matches, gum, instant coffee, and more.

Mmm. Looks good, right? It actually was. MREs are specially engineered to have optimal caloric value for soldiers who are carrying heavy packs in hot areas such as Iraq, not so much for tourists carrying cameras in North Carolina.

While digesting lunch, Special Forces soldiers gave a presentation on individual specialized areas of study that reflect the unique areas that the OSS broke ground in during World War II. These areas of expertise include weapons, medical, and amphibious specialists. John Breen (left) and Sam Spector speak with a communications specialist. During the war, Spector served as a communications specialist with the Mars Task Force.

My father receives an award for being one of the two most accurate shooters on the target range earlier in the day.

After the awards, the Special Forces put together a SPIES and FRIES assault exercise that demonstrates all of the action we’ve seen over the course of the day, with sniper cover fire and squads from air and land converging on a building to sweep it clean of enemy combatants.

If time is short, or a location is too dangerous for a prolonged extraction, Blackhawk helicopters will transport soldiers away from the battlefield before hovering long enough to allow them back into the chopper.

Master Sergeant Michael Mora spends a little down time with the veterans of OSS Detachment 101.

D. Ah Hpung (center) and Dr. Hkyet Aung are two Burmese men who joined the Association for this year’s reunion. For each reunion, 101 invites members of the Burmese population come to America to keep the story of their combined effort in World War II alive. Pete Lutken (left) spent time in Burma and China during the war and is currently involved in the Association’s Project Old Soldier, a crop replacement program in today’s Myanmar that teaches and finances farmers to grow food products instead of poppy to be harvested into opium.

To further the experience of the “average soldier,” Association members are taken to the 3rd Brigade Combat Team Mess Hall for lunch for their final day on base.

My father Patrick, a former chef trained at the Culinary Institute of America, gets a behind-the-scenes tour of the 3rd BCT Mess kitchen.

USASOC Commander, Lieutenant General Robert W. Wagner, and current Detachment 101 Association President John Breen cut a red ribbon to dedicate a yearlong exhibit on Detachment 101 at the Army’s Airborne and Special Operations Museum (ASOM) in Fayetteville, NC. The exhibit was made possible largely through the efforts of OSS 101 and USASOC historian Troy Saquety.

John Breen poses with his wartime dress coat, which is on display with other 101 artifacts at the ASOM special exhibition.

Throughout the course of the reunion, USASOC members took the opportunity to listen to 101 veterans (pictured: Herb Auerbach) about their experiences and the ways they’re similar to what’s expected of today’s Special Forces soldier.

Sam Spector at the Detachment 101 special exhibition.

A wartime pamphlet issued to Allied soldiers instructs them on some of the customs and languages of Northern Burmese tribes. Tribespeople were taught the skills of guerrilla fighting and reconnaissance by Allied forces, such as Detachment 101, to help fight the Japanese who had occupied Burma since early in the war. There are more than 100 different ethnic groups in Myanmar today.

A display case in the Airborne and Special Operations Museum shows elements that were common to the European theater, including the American Army rocket launcher and the German MG34 machine gun.

The museum, which opened in 2000 and covers Special Operations from World War II through today’s War on Terror, was designed around a period C-47 Skytrain transport aircraft that hangs from the building’s ceiling.

The World War II portion of the museum’s interiors is designed to reflect the exhibit’s wartime locations, from a French village in Normandy to the sand and rock-strewn islands of the South Pacific.

The curatorial details in the exhibits, along with sounds of the battlefield piped in through the museum’s sound system, give ASOM visitors a truly unique experience.

Included in the World War II portion of the museum is a display depicting the bitter exchange between the 101st Airborne’s General Anthony McAuliffe and a German emissary at Bastogne, France. When asked if his troops would surrender after being surrounded by the Germans during what was later called the Battle of the Bulge, McAuliffe wrote a one-word reply to be delivered to the German command: NUTS!

The final night’s formal banquet dinner was held at the Pope Air Force Base Officer’s Club. Patrick Ferry (left) poses for a photo with British Lord Sir John Slim and his wife Buffy. Slim served in the China Burma India theater under the command of his father, Field Marshal 1st Viscount William Joseph Slim.

Christine Sajdyk (left) and her sister Penny Hicks propose a toast with Hollywood screenwriter Mikko Alanne at the banquet. Alanne was in attendance to meet 101 veterans and conduct research for the upcoming film adaptation of the book “Four Hours in My Lai”, the story of Christine and Penny’s father General William Peers’ investigation of the My Lai Massacre during the Vietnam War. Bruce Willis will star as Peers, who was also Detachment 101’s commander through the second half of World War II. The film, titled Pinkville, will be directed by Oliver Stone.

The 82nd Airborne Division “All American” Chorus provided entertainment in the early part of the evening.

British Lord Sir John Slim presents Pete Lutken with a British service medal on the final night of the reunion.

Lutken, now donning native Burmese garments, poses with the Association’s distinguished guests Dr. Hkyet Aung (left) and D. Ah Hpung at the end of the night.

The banquet was the first time that Association members were able to see their Special Forces guides without their fatigues and with their spouses or significant others.

Patrick Ferry poses with Staff Sergeant Jesse Davis, one of two soldiers who helped shuttle the Ferrys and other Association members around for the extended weekend.

Penny Hicks and her husband Joe closed out the night on the dance floor.

Three generations of the Wrenn family were on hand for the Detachment 101 Association banquet.