Slurp Sends!

Richard “Dick” James — nicknamed “Slurp” by his teammates for his habit of slurping down his food — graduated from the Special Forces Training Group at Fort Bragg in April 1963 as an explosives expert, after 14 months of intensive Army training. He was among the first raw recruits ever accepted directly into U.S. Army Special Forces.

Dick served 7 months in Ethiopia in 1964 as a demolition specialist on a 12-man Special Forces A-team, where Emperor Haile Selassie had requested American Green Berets to train and advise Ethiopian soldiers during their border war with Somalia. He then deployed for 18 months to the Mekong Delta of South Vietnam, serving on the Cambodia border during 1965–67.

Over the course of his service, Dick earned multiple Special Forces Military Occupational Specialties: Radio Operator, Intelligence Sergeant, Heavy Weapons Leader, and Engineer/Demolition Sergeant. He was awarded the Bronze Star Medal for his service in Vietnam.

Dick’s memoirs draw from hundreds of personal letters home — carefully saved by his mother — more than 500 photographs from Ethiopia and Vietnam, and over one hundred binders of research materials accumulated over decades.

In 2019, Dick was invited to participate in the Special Forces Oral History Project at the University of South Carolina, where he recorded a 3½-hour videotaped presentation of his life as a Green Beret.