Blue Light

Blue Light was a subunit of the 5th Special Forces Group that existed into the early 1980s.

According to Col. Charles Beckwith's memoirs, this counter-terrorist group was formed by U.S. Army Special Forces leadership who disagreed with or felt politically threatened by Beckwith's Delta Force, which existed outside the Special Forces hierarchy. He stated that the unit was disbanded when Delta Force went operational.

Beckwith's memoir, Delta Force, reports that commanders of the 5th Special Forces Group were asked by top brass of the Pentagon to quickly organize a Green Beret counter-terrorist unit to fill in until Delta Force was fully operational; Beckwith estimated it would take two years. Blue Light and Delta had a somewhat adversarial relationship for those two years. The traditional Special Forces leadership felt that they could handle counter-terrorist duties within the Special Forces community (with Blue Light). Delta existed outside of that bureaucracy, with a direct line to top US Department of Defense (DOD) brass and the President. Delta therefore represented a political threat in the minds of some Special Forces commanders. Nevertheless, Delta went on to complete its initial certification exercise in July 1978, and Blue Light was deactivated shortly thereafter. Allegedly, no Blue Light member applied to Delta nor was asked by Delta to do so. Blue Light S-2, Capt. Tim Casey, was later one of the intelligence officers assigned to JTF 1–79 which commanded the ill-fated Eagle Claw.

Blue Light (disambiguation)

Blue Light was part of the 5th Special Forces Group that existed into the early 1980s.

Blue Light may also refer to:

Police-related

Science and technology

Arts and entertainment

Blue light (pyrotechnic signal)

Blue light is an archaic signal, the progenitor of modern pyrotechnic flares. Blue light consists of a loose, chemical composition burned in an open, hand-held hemispherical wooden cup, and so is more akin to the flashpan signals of the Admiral Nelson era than the modern, encased signal flares, often launched by mortar or rifle and suspended by parachute. Widely used during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries for signaling by the world's military forces, and for general illumination in the civilian sector, blue light was remarkable for its use of poisonous arsenic compounds (realgar and orpiment), which contributed to its replacement by safer flares in the early twentieth century.

Blue light (nickname)

"Blue light" was a derisive nickname given to military officers of the 18th and 19th centuries, whose evangelical Christian zeal burned as brightly as its namesake signal, to the chagrin of those less ardent who were subject to the perceived ostentatious piety. Confederate Gen. Stonewall Jackson carried the nickname "Old Blue Lights" during the American Civil War because of his overt religiosity.