Only those personnel who were assigned to the 6th Special Forces Group (Airborne) are authorized to wear this flash, which is placed on the green beret so that it is positioned directly above the left eye when the beret is properly. Enlisted personnel wear the
Special Forces Regimental Distinctive Insignia centered on the flash, while Officers center their nonsubdued rank insignia on it.
The 6th Special Forces Group (Airborne) was activated in 1961 and was originally commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Charles L. Kasler. It was made up of personnel drawn from three existing Special Forces Groups, which the Group honored by incorporating each Group’s color into the design of its flash (red for the 7th, black for the 5th, and white for the Special Forces Training Group). The Group’s area of operations was the Middle East, and cold-weather and mountain training were a major part of the training regimen.
In addition to carrying out special missions in South America and the Dominican Republics, members of the 6th SFG also volunteered for and took part in Operation Ivory Coast, a mission to rescue American POWs from a North Vietnamese prison camp; unfortunately, flawed intelligence meant that the raid was doomed to fail because the prisoners had been moved to a new location.
The 6th Special Forces Group was inactivated in 1971.