This auction is for the following RARE Billy Waugh autographed cut that has been mated with an unsigned 5x7 inch photograph. Please read his remarkable biography. He served with the Green Berets, CIA, Korea, Vietnam at the age of 71, Waugh participated in Operation Enduring Freedom from October to December 2001 as a member of the CIA's Northern Alliance Liaison Team led by Gary Schroen which went into Afghanistan to work with the Northern Alliance to topple the Taliban regime and Al Qaeda at the Battle of Tora Bora.

BIO: Sergeant Major William “Billy” Waugh CIA Paramilitary Operations Officer who served more than 50 years between the United States Army's Green Berets and the CIA's Special Activities Division, Korea, Vietnam, Special Forces Green Beret, Silver Star (3^rd highest military decoration), 4 Bronze Stars, 6 Purple Hearts, Air Medal, CIA Intelligence Star. In the 1980s he was assigned to the Kwajalein Missile Range in the Marshall Islands to track Soviet small boat teams operating in the area and prevent them from stealing U.S. missile technology. It is unknown how many missions Waugh was involved in during his career.

Shortly after the end of the Korean War, Waugh met two U.S. Army Special Forces members on a train in Germany. They informed him of openings for platoon sergeants; shortly after he requested a transfer. He began training for the Special Forces, and earned the Green Beret in 1954, joining the 10th Special Forces Group (SFG) in Bad Tölz, West Germany.

As U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War increased, the United States began deploying Special Forces "A-teams" (Operational Detachment Alpha, or ODA, teams) to Southeast Asia in support of counterinsurgency operations against the Viet Cong (VC), North Vietnamese and other Communist forces. Waugh arrived in South Vietnam with his ODA in 1961, and began working alongside Civilian Irregular Defense Groups (CIDGs) there, as well as in Laos.

In July 1965, he was serving with 5th Special Forces Group A-team A-321 at Camp Bồng Sơn, Bình Định Province, commanded by Captain Paris Davis. Following a night raid with a Regional Forces unit on a VC encampment near Bong Son, the unit was engaged by a superior VC force. Many of the Regional Forces soldiers refused to fight and most of the A team were injured by VC fire, including Waugh, who was shot multiple times and left between the VC and U.S./South Vietnamese forces. Waugh was later rescued by Davis under fire. He spent much of 1965 and 1966 recuperating at Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, D.C., eventually returning to duty with 5th Special Forces Group in 1966. He received a Silver Star and a Purple Heart (his 6th) for the Battle at Bong Son.

At this time Waugh joined the Military Assistance Command-Vietnam Studies and Observations Group (MACV-SOG). While working for SOG, Waugh helped train Vietnamese and Cambodian forces in unconventional warfare tactics primarily directed against the North Vietnamese Army operating along the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Prior to his retirement from U.S. Army Special Forces service, Waugh was senior NCO (non-commissioned officer) of MACV-SOG's Command & Control North (CCN) based at Marble Mountain on the South China Sea shore a few miles south of Da Nang, Vietnam. Waugh held this Command Sergeant Major role during the covert unit's transition and name change to Task Force One Advisory Element (TF1AE). Waugh conducted the first combat High Altitude, Low Opening (HALO) jump,[5] a parachuting maneuver designed for rapid, undetected insertion into hostile territory. In October 1970, his team made a practice Combat Infiltration into the NVA-owned War Zone D, in South Vietnam, for reassembly training, etc. Waugh also led the last combat special reconnaissance parachute insertion by American Army Special Forces HALO parachutists into denied territory which was occupied by communist North Vietnamese Army troops on June 22, 1971.

CIA Career:

 he accepted an offer in 1977 from ex-CIA officer Edwin P. Wilson to work in Libya on a contract to train that country's special forces. This was not an Agency-endorsed assignment and Waugh might have found himself in trouble with U.S. authorities if it were not for the fact that he was also approached by the CIA to work for the Agency while in Libya. The CIA tasked him with surveilling Libyan military installations and capabilities – this was of great interest to U.S. intelligence as Libya was receiving substantial military assistance from the Soviet Union at the time. Wilson was later indicted and convicted in 1979 of illegally selling weapons to Libya.[6][7] It was later found that the United States Department of Justice had relied on a false affidavit when prosecuting Wilson; as a result, Wilson's convictions were overturned in 2003 and he was freed the following year. In the 1980s Waugh was assigned to the Kwajalein Missile Range in the Marshall Islands to track Soviet small boat teams operating in the area and prevent them from stealing U.S. missile technology. Some of his more critical assignments took place in Khartoum, Sudan during the early 1990s, where he performed surveillance and intelligence gathering on terrorist leaders Carlos the Jackal and Osama bin Laden along with Cofer Black.

At the age of 71, Waugh participated in Operation Enduring Freedom from October to December 2001 as a member of the CIA's Northern Alliance Liaison Team led by Gary Schroen which went into Afghanistan to work with the Northern Alliance to topple the Taliban regime and Al Qaeda at the Battle of Tora Bora.

THIS IS AN AUTHENTIC HAND AUTOGRAPHED CUT that was been mated with an unsigned in uniform postwar printed 5x7 inch photograph perfect for framing. The black mat measures 8x10 inches. This is one of the last remaining autographs that I have available of him. I am close to being permanently sold out do not miss out on your chance to add this remarkable collectable to your collection. PLEASE NOTE this photograph was printed posted war. I ONLY SELL AUTHENTIC HAND AUTOGRAPHED MEMORABILIA. I do not sell reprints or facsimile autographs. When you bid on my items you get the real deal authentic hand autographed items. You will receive the same item that is pictured in the scan. If you have any questions feel free to e-mail me. I combine S&H when multiple items are purchased. I ship items internationally. I currently have other rare autographed military and historical signed items available. Please take a look at my other auctions of rare military and historical autographed items.