Command
Sergeant Major Eric L. Haney
Wikipedia Article
Command Sergeant
Major Eric L. Haney (U.S. Army, Ret.) is a former member of the United
States Army's counter-terrorist unit, the 1st Special Forces Operational
Detachment-Delta (1SFOD-D), more commonly known as Delta Force. In recent years
he has been writing on terrorism, guerrilla warfare, and special operations.
Haney is the author of Inside Delta Force, a memoir of his time in the
elite unit, in which he also writes about his participation in the aborted 1980
Operation Eagle Claw mission to 
Spartan, starring Val Kilmer.
Background
Haney was born August
22, 1952 and raised in rural
Military career
Haney joined the Army
just out of high school in 1970 and became a platoon sergeant by the time he
was 22. He served for several years in the 75th Ranger Regiment as an
infantryman and was slated to become an instructor. In 1977 he volunteered for
and was selected to train with a new elite counter-terrorism unit that the Army
was creating. Of the 163 soldiers that tried out, Haney was one of only 12 to
succeed. This unit became operational in 1978 as the 1st SFOD-D, or Delta
Force, with Haney joining the unit at least 13 months later and after training
and operational acceptance nearly six months after that he became a full member
of the unit. [1] The unit had been formed and organized by
Col Beckwith approximately 19 months before Haney became an asset and operator
with the unit.[2][3] Haney served in the unit until 1986,
participating in a number of special operations in Latin America and the Middle
East.
After his promotion
to Command Sergeant Major, the rank he held until his retirement in 1990, Haney
left Delta and joined the 193rd Infantry Brigade (
Operation Eagle Claw
In 1980, when the
United States launched Operation Eagle Claw, an attempt to end the Iran Hostage
Crisis with a commando raid, Haney was one of the Delta operators to take part.[3] He was inside the
parked C-130 tanker/transport aircraft that caught fire and exploded when a
Navy RH-53D helicopter piloted by Marine aircrews collided into it after the
mission had been aborted and the unit was preparing to exfiltrate.
After the debacle he and other Delta operators were told to "take a
vacation" in order to avoid any media scrutiny.[3]
Honduras
In 1981, Haney and
two Delta Force operators were deployed to
Haney states that his
team, composed of the Delta operators and Honduran special
forces soldiers, tracked the guerrillas to a mountain sanctuary in the
Honduran jungle. During an assault on the hilltop, Haney spotted a guerrilla
using a radio set and taking him for the leader, shot and killed him. Haney
soon discovered that this commander turned out to be David Arturo Báez, a Nicaraguan-born US citizen and former U.S. Army
Special Forces soldier whom Haney had met during his Delta selection.[4]
In his memoir, Haney
questioned whether Báez had actually joined the
Sandinistas or whether Báez was still working for the
Several former Delta
members who were also with Delta at the time of this alleged incident, to
include his Squadron Commander, have disputed this entire incident and have
stated it is a complete fabrication.[1]
An interview published in the Miami Herald relates that Baez's family had heard
accounts of his death which resemble the version that Haney describes in his
book.[4]
Beirut
During the 1982 US
Marines operation in
Grenada
In 1983, the
Post-military career
Upon retiring from
the Army in 1990, Haney was employed as a freelance security consultant and
trainer. He worked within the
Some of Haney's
assignments in the private sector include conducting the ransom negotiation and
ransom hand-over for a kidnapped oil executive in
During the 1990s,
Haney performed security consulting work in Algeria on a gas pipeline project,
and started a contract aviation company in Liberia.[7]
Some time after that, Haney was approached about organizing and leading a coup
attempt in another African nation.[7] He was able to completely
thwart the parties who wanted that coup, several of the conspirators were
arrested a short while later.[dubious ]
Recently
After the September
11, 2001 terrorist attacks, Haney became a regular television commentator on
military affairs and terrorism, appearing on CNN, Fox News, CBS News and The
O'Reilly Factor. Recently he has expressed opinions strongly critical of
the planning and implementation of Operation Iraqi Freedom[9]
Haney was the host of
a television series entitled "Spymaster
Haney has been
involved as a writer, producer, and technical advisor for the CBS television
series The Unit, loosely based on his book