Special forces do special work here

Montana members call themselves the Devil’s Brigade Chapter of the Special Forces Association, but Staff Sgt. Elain Colon sees a heavenly connection.

Colon, a father of three, put in 27 months of combat duty in a support capacity with the 5th Special Forces Group. He and his children arrived in the Flathead Valley on July 31 along with three other soldiers and their families for five days of nonstop fun organized by the Special Forces organization.

“I don’t know the right words to say thank you,” Colon said in a voice filled with emotion. “My kids are having so much fun.”

Like the other soldiers, he was selected to receive the trip as a reward for his distinguished service. But Colon also needed to recover from the sudden and unexpected death in June of his 33-year-old wife, the mother of his three children.

Colon, who enlisted just weeks after 9/11, said his unit chaplain recommended him and his sons Isia, 14, Noe, 12, and daughter Alanis, 9, for the trip to help with the healing process.

 “They picked the best thing to help the kids,” he said. “I wish my wife was here but I think she’s still with us.”

Flown in courtesy of American Airlines, his family and the others went swimming, kayaking, hiking, sailing and horseback riding at Flathead Lake Lodge. He sat down for the interview at a barbecue at the lodge for the soldiers, their families and host families.

A native of Puerto Rico stationed at Fort Campbell in Kentucky, Colon said he has been most impressed by the people of Montana including those who met them at the airport and his host family Buz and Carol Meyer of Bigfork. He said they have treated him with respect and kindness as have the resorts serving them.

“I’m telling you the owner of this ranch [Doug Averill] and the chapter members have been wonderful,” he said. “Here at the ranch, the people who work here are like a big family.”

The other soldiers echoed his sentiments.

Master Sgt. Adam Thomas and his wife, Alicia, from Fort Bragg, N.C., said the people were gracious and they called Montana the prettiest place that they have ever seen. Richard and Kay Hoffmaster volunteered to host the couple in their Somers home.

 A Green Beret medic, Thomas, 32, has put in six combat tours in the Middle East — two in Iraq and four in Afghanistan. Fluent in French and Poshtun, he started his career as a 2nd Airborne soldier at Fort Bragg.

“Fort Bragg is the home of Special Forces and you see their day-to-day operations,” he said. “I figured that was something I really wanted to do.”

After an extensive selection process, Thomas began training to become an elite Green Beret including six months of eight-hours-a-day intense language training. Students then test one on one with the professor.

“It’s like four years of language in college,” he said.

Staff Sgt. Tod Sacket, 26, who came on the trip with wife, Shelly, and one-year-old son Caiden, began his rigorous Green Beret training after three years of college. He said he wanted to challenge himself to qualify for the highly respected Army Special Forces.

Like Thomas, he works as a medic but serves out of Fort Lewis. He outlined the difference between Green Beret medics and general Army medics as having to sustain a patient for up to 72 hours in the field.

Sacket returned from Afghanistan four months ago where he worked in a village clinic.

“We treated 300 patients a week,” he said. “We saw burns to backaches and infections. Not too many gunshot wounds.”

A guest of Don and Janet Loranger of Bigfork, Sacket next deploys to Thailand on a training mission.

The fourth family on the trip, Sgt. Jamie Mercill, 26, and her 1-year-old girl Makayla, came to Montana from Fort Bragg. She works in human resources for the JFK Special Warfare Center and School, a qualifying course for Green Berets.

A veteran of tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, Mercill said she feels completely comfortable in Montana where she is staying with host family Jim and Sue Mitchell of Woods Bay. She said she would love to move somewhere like this when she retires.

“I’ve been horseback riding two times,” she said with a laugh. “I’m really sore.”

Other activities for the military visitors included a Glacier National Park tour provided by Glacier Park Inc. from Lake McDonald Lodge to Logan Pass and a steak fry in the mountains hosted by Flathead Lake Lodge .

 The crew also was scheduled for hiking, mountain biking and a barn dance before they returned home on Friday.

Huson resident Bob Brugh, treasurer of the Special Forces chapter, had nothing but praise for the local business people who contributed, such as Gerrid Ganrud of Kalispell Toyota (who provided cars for the families) and Averill, who threw open the doors of Flathead Lake Lodge during high tourist season. 

“He integrated the soldiers and their families seamlessly with his guests,” Brugh said.

Brugh, along with Loranger and Ret. Col. Ike Slaughter (the chapter president), provided the chapter staff support for this trip. They attended the evening barbecue where they described their group as a fraternal organization of Green Berets with 111 members and eight honorary members such as Loranger.

Organized in 2002, the chapter has members who mainly served in action from the Vietnam War to present-day Middle East operations. They named their chapter after the famous World War II Devil’s Brigade, the first special forces unit that organized in 1942 and trained at Fort Harrison in Helena.

Their group raises money for scholarships as well as these trips for soldiers recommended for a reward.

“All have extensive overseas tours in Afghanistan and Iraq,” Slaughter said. “We’ve done this several times.”

Other trips took active-duty Special Forces soldiers to the Bob Marshall Wilderness and to the Bitterroot Valley for fishing, skiing and snowmobiling. For this trip, Slaughter said they received tremendous cooperation from people in Kalispell and Bigfork for their special mission helping soldiers.

“These young men and women are willing to sacrifice for their country,” Slaughter said.

He pointed out that this war has gone on for 10 years — longer than the Vietnam War or World War II — with Special Forces soldiers completing multiple tours. Slaughter said these separations have been very difficult for the families.

To help, the association got behind the idea of offering family recreational opportunities mainly in Montana.

“We like to say we’re honoring warriors,” he said.

People who would like to donate may go to www.sfachapterxxviii.org and click on donation button.

Reporter Candace Chase may be reached at 758-4436 or by e-mail at cchase@dailyinterlake.com