The Rotary Club of The Woodlands held their annual Veteran’s Day Program last week. 
 
The Goldenaires from The Woodlands United Methodist Church entertained the crowd with a selections of very patriotic tunes as well as an ensemble of songs from all the services. 
 
Bill Leigh, USMC, then introduced our guest speaker, Colonel Bernard McCabe the former commander of the Army’s famed Delta Force.  Bill’s introduction recounted the final graduation exercise in which classmates took turns securing a room where one of their fellow classmates was a hostage using live ammunition and a very short window in which to execute the rescue. 
 
Col McCabe walked us through the history of Delta Force – starting with the initial idea being brought to the top-brass after seeing the model work well in Israel and Great Britain.  After a failed rescue attempt in Iran in 1980, the process was revamped.  With attrition rates in the high 90% this is one of the most selective groups in the military and in addition to having time in service there is an extensive physical, mental and psychological selection process that they go through. 
 
When Col McCabe took command he had 700 people under his command with 278 of them being trained “operators” that could be used in the field.  Average rank was E6 and O4 with many of them having advanced educational degrees as well.