The manila envelope in the Salisbury Post file with Sgt. Maj. Philip “Butch” Young’s name on it is thin.
No wonder. Only four relatively inconspicuous clips are there.
The first, dated April 27, 1972, is short but newsy. Army Pvt. Philip H. Young, 23, son of Mr. and Mrs. Philip H. Young of Route. 1, Cleveland, had been assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, as a cannoneer. He’d graduated from West Rowan High in ’68, attended Clemson University in South Carolina and entered the Army in November 1971.
He made news again in October. He’d been promoted to Army Specialist Four.
In 1976, another clipping told home folks he’d been assigned to the 3rd Armored Division Artillery in Hanau, Germany.
The last — dated April, 1978 — said he’d received a second commendation medal.
And that was all. The end of the story. Or was it?
That second commendation medal was surely a clue that whether or not the news made the Post, Butch Young was busy between 1978 when he got that medal and 2001 when the Army honored him with its highest peacetime award, the Legion of Merit, for his last 10 years of service with the U.S. Army Special Operations Command, better known as the Green Berets, that elite unit of the U.S. Army specializing in counterinsurgency.
The Green Berets (whose berets can be any color) were created in being in 1952, were active in Vietnam, and have been sent to areas of conflict around the world to help governments supported by the United States use guerrilla warfare tactics against insurgents. Their movements usually don’t make headlines.
Butch Young’s medal covers the years during which the U.S. Army Special Operations Command dealt with Mogodishu in Somalia, Panama, Grenada, Bosnia ...
“But not for heroism or bravery or anything like that, “ he says quickly to make sure he doesn’t get credit for battlefield bravery.
That doesn’t mean it’s less, and his commanding officer, Lt. Col. Jim Linder, who made the presentation, wants its value clear.
“It’s one of the highest service medals anyone can receive,” he says. “The recipient must be approved by a three-star general for 30 years of faithful service to his country.”
And since he retired, Young has continued to work as a civilian for the Green Berets, “training the guys who are going over there in the Uwharrie Mountains.”
He’s the leader of one of the teams participating in war games in the Uwharries, where last week two soldiers were shot by mistake by a deputy sheriff, and one killed.
As soon as the soldiers were shot, Young called his parents in Rowan County to assure them that his team was not involved.
The war games are “the last part of the special qualifications course before they become part of a Green Beret team.”
Not that he ever dreamed life would lead him there when he graduated from West Rowan with an outstanding record. He was president of his senior class, held Rowan County’s football record for rushing during his senior year and got a football scholarship to Clemson.
A shoulder injury during a game put him off the team, however, “and when I found out I couldn’t play any more, I quit.I had a low number for the draft — it was lottery time — and I got drafted.”
But he got into parachute and ranger training at Ft. Benning, Ga., “and then I was chosen for the 82nd Airborne Division — the paratroopers!”
That was what he wanted — and it was close to home since he trained at Fort Bragg and Fort Jackson, S.C.
Vietnam was winding down.
“It was coming back time,” he says, and he decided to stay in service.
“I really enjoyed what I was doing. I enjoyed the people I was around, the excitement of it. And then I went to the Third Army Division in Germany and spent three years there and returned to Fort Bragg and the 82nd. Once you’re a paratrooper, you just about continually rotate around Fort Bragg.”
And he liked being a paratrooper.
“To say you’re not scared, you’re lying,” he says, “but it’s definitely something for the adrenaline. It means you’re doing something not many other people do.
“But nothing was going on in the ’70s. I went to the Dominican Republic. No war. Strictly a peacekeeping mission. In Germany, there was no great build-up of the Cold War threat.
“I came back to Fort Bragg, and I applied for the Green Berets and got in in 1982.”
He talked to people who been there, “and I wanted to be one of them.” His time in Germany had made him much more aware of world situations, and he knew “there are places we need Americans that I would never get to go.”
People in Special Forces are teachers, “and teaching has been in my blood for a very long time. My mother and my grandmother were teachers. I thought this would be a good way, an exciting way for me to contribute.
“We absolutely, positively are not Rambos. We get an awful lot of very good training,and Green Berets,” he says, “are the lowest paid, most overlooked ambassadors we have.”
And they literally showed him the world.
He’s been to Granada, Mexico, Haiti, Chile, El Salvador, Panama, Bolivia, Okinawa, Korea, Thailand, the Philippines, Cambodia, Vietnam, Burma, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Afghanistan, Sierra Leone, Somalia. Twenty-four countries in all.
“We jumped in a majority of them. We do a lot of parachuting that’s strictly for training. I have never made a combat jump anywhere, and I don’t think we should. If I were going to infiltrate, I’d rather land my team and walk where we have to be than take my chances with a jump operation.
“It’s not what you see when they bomb a building and grab somebody out of it. That’s movie stuff. It’s conceivable we could get those missions, but that’s not the normal everyday life of a Green Beret.
“The real life of a Green Beret, the mission of Special Forces, is you get with host nation forces and develop those host nation forces into an organized fighting unit. You train them.
“What makes a Special Forces soldier special is his ability to work with people, to understand what those people need and influence them to go in the proper direction.”
Lt. Col. Linder knows what makes Butch Young special.
“Sgt. Maj. Young is very humble and doesn’t see himself as better than any man,” he says, “but I’m here to tell you he is. I cannot over emphasize what a phenomenal soldier he is. Every commander wishes for 100 Sgt. Maj. Youngs.
“He is what you would want your son to grow up to be — an honorable, professional, caring, and — I could go on and on. When Mr. Webster crafted the definition of character, he had Sgt. Maj. Young in mind.
“I honestly believe that your community would be proud to know that people like Sgt. Maj. Young not only serve our great nation but represent their community. Especially now, when our nation is at war, it can be comforting to know that there are men like him, prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice, without fame or glory, just so communities like yours can live free.”
And, he adds, be proud.
“He, like all of us,” Linder says, “is a product of the community he was raised in. I’ve never been to the Salisbury area, but I can only imagine it to be an environment rich in values and patriotism, where community service, selfless sacrifice and respect for others is the norm. Sgt. Maj. Young is that kind of man, the kind of man who holds his word as his bond, the kind of man whom you can trust with the lives of your family members, the kind of man who would breach every obstacle to come to your aid, the kind of man who would give his life for his country.
“That kind of man had a strong and loving family and powerfully influencing, value-oriented community.
“Sgt. Maj. Butch Young is a man Salisbury can be proud of.
“He has never asked for fanfare or favor but simply for the opportunity to serve. It’s men like him that put the ‘Special’ in Special Forces. Green Berets give their all, every day, not for financial reward, not for recognition, but for the simple pleasure of serving our great nation and upholding the values this country was built on. Sgt. Maj. Young’s selfless service epitomizes the Green Berets’ reputation as the quiet professionals.”
Contact Rose Post at 704-797-4251 or rpost@salisburypost.com
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