THE SCOUT-TRACKER HISTORically

WHY CHOOSE FROM THE TRIBES?

The whole life of tribes was to train to varying casts within the tribe. Boys became warriors through following their Elder’s. The footprints of a warrior were laid out for all boys to see. They played games in camp emulating the warriors they saw. This was the very reason the US Government went to them as scouts. They knew whom they tracked and hunted intimately. They had the skills in detail.

My wife’s cousin, Major Frederick Russell Burnham, writes: “Every commanding officer in the Apache Wars suffered from lack of information as to where the Indians were and from the difficulty of getting in touch with them. It was for this reason that Crook, Miles, Chaffee, and Lawton made frequent use of fast-running Indian scouts” (Burnham, 52-53).

There were many who served with distinction in the Apache Wars but here is the medal of honor recipients as Indian and Civilian Scouts:

Sgt. William Alchesay, Indian Scout, White Mountain Apache. Brother-in-law to my Cousin, Chief of Scouts, Corydon Cooley.
Chiquito, Indian Scout
Elsatsoosu, Indian Scout
Pompey Factor, Indian Scout
Jim, Indian Scout
Kelsay, Indian Scout
Kosoha, Indian Scout
Machol, Indian Scout
Nannasaddie, Indian Scout
Nantaje (Nanatahe), Indian Scout
Adam Paine, Indian Scout
Isaac Payne, Indian Scout
Y.B. Rowdy, Indian Scouts, Company A
John Ward, Indian Scouts, attached to US 24th Infantry
William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody, Civilian Scout. Cousin.
William Dixon, Civilian Scout

Historical note: Indian Scouts served all the way through WW II. The last 4 Indian Scouts were officially retired in 1947 at Ft. Huachuca, AZ.

The Alaskan Scouts were stood up in 1942 as the Alaskan Territorial Guard. There were over 6000 from Barrow to Metlakatla. Both native and non-native. They were disbanded in 1947, but the “Scouts” of this upbringing is still used in the Alaska Army National Guard today. I served, for instance, in the 207th LRS (Ranger) Detachment (Scouts) as a Senior Scout and Team Sergeant from 1988-1996.

Valor and legacy also come from men like all of these from the colonial/revolutionary times up to and including the Apache Wars:

Col. Benjamin Church
- (1st Ranger in America/use of Indian Scouts). He is my cousin and I carry a Ranger tab in my medicine bag in honor of him.
Capt. Robert Rogers
- (Rogers Rangers/Rogers Rules of Ranging/use of Indian Scouts and their tactics)
Col. Francis Marion
- (Swamp Fox/unconventional tactics/Rangers/SF lineages)
Col. John Mosby
(Gray Ghost/unconventional tactics/Partisan Rangers/Mosby Rangers)
William Quantrell
- (Quantrell’s Raiders/Unconventional tactics). Learned tactics from Joel B. Mayes Tsa-wa Gak-ski (war chief of the Cherokee Nations in Texas) how to conduct guerrilla warfare tactics. He would learn the ambush fighting tactics used by the Native Americans as well as sneak attacks and camouflage.
Tsa-wa Gak-ski, husband to my wife’s cousin, Martha S. McNair (Kituah Clan)
Kit Carson
- (Colonel/Scout/Frontiersman)
Holmes, whom Burnham mentions as one who served under John C. Fremont, Kit Carson, and other great scouts, page 12 of Scouting on Two Continents.
Lee, Indian Scout under General Crook.
Al Seiber
- (Chief of Indian Scouts)
Archie McIntosh
- (Indian Scout)
Fred Sterling
- (Indian Scout)
Corydon Cooley, Cousin, brother-in-law to Sergeant William Alchesay
- (Chief of Indian Scouts)
Maj. Frederick Russell Burnham
- (Civilian Scout/Indian Fighter/British Army). My wife’s cousin. DSD and I are Charter Members of the Frederick Russell Burnham Society of Tucson.

Other Notable Scouts of History:

Davy Crockett, Civilian Scout.
Daniel Boone, Frontiersman/Indian Fighter.

AFRICA

Maj. Frederick Russell Burnham, DSO
- (Civilian Scout/Indian Fighter/British Army).
Cecil Rhoades
- (Africa/Boer Wars)
Lord Robert Baden-Powell
- (Africa/Boy Scouts)
Frederick Selous
- (Africa/Hunter/Explorer)
Capt. Allan Savory
- (Africa/America). Commanding the Tracker Combat Unit that later became the Selous Scouts. Trained Capt. Scott-Donelan.
Capt. David Scott-Donelan
- (Africa/America). His military service spans two-and-a-half decades and several countries. From 1961 until 1980. when the government was turned over to Marxist insurgents, he served in Rhodesia’s most outstanding military units, including the Special Air Service, the Rhodesian Light Infantry, the Selous Scouts and the Tracker Combat Unit. Among other duties, the British citizen has served as an SAS troop commander, intelligence advisor, manager of counter-insurgency operations, commandant of the Rhodesian Army Bushcraft and Tracking School and as a training officer and group commander for the Selous Scouts.

All Combat and Tactical Trackers since David started teaching in US trace their lineage to him and therefore to this legacy. Except for the one lane of Combat Tracker Teams of Vietnam War, which came by way of a nexus or linking to the following:

HISTORICAL POINTS

My research leads me to believe there is a nexus between the CTT and what Frederick Selous did in Africa within the British Empire.

All ethnicities worked within the CTT in Vietnam, native and non-native alike.

Patches photo provided by David Everhart, Certified Master Scout Tracker (GT6M)

CTT 1-8 were taught by British government, more precisely the NZ SAS at the BJWS in Malaysia. CTT 1-5 were the pioneers of the new program in early 1967. CTT 6-8 came out in May/June of 67. I will specifically mention CTT 8 and Neil Couch as the Senior NCOIC of that team. He is the tracker that wrote FM 7-52, taught at Ft. Gordan Combat Tracker School, and taught Instructor David Everhart Combat Tracking as a civilian tracking instructor. CTT 9-14 were taught the Americanized method of Combat Tracking as there were now cadre from US Army teaching.

The new specialty brought an MOS 11F, but the CTT were not officially recognized as existing because of the 1954 Geneva Conference signing of a neutrality agreement by the British government. To protect this, the US ARMY quashed their existence officially.

They could not wear any CTT insignia and their DD214s showed none of the training as Trackers.

General Westmoreland in response to a letter did acknowledge his appreciation for the CTT and acknowledged their valor in Vietnam. He also turned them on to Ft. Leavenworth’s CALL, Center for Army Lessons Learned where they found war progress reports from Gen. Westmoreland and Admiral Sharp on the accomplishments of the newly formed trackers teams (June 30, 1968).

Also, were found in the archives of the US Army Command and General Staff College, a Major Kelsh written document to the positive contribution of the Trackers in Vietnam. I am a graduate of this Army College and wrote my thesis we have today on the science of tracking (spoorology).

So, the British government assimilated the use of Burnham’s skills acquired among the Indian Wars to advance the skill leading back to our CTT development in Vietnam through a specially selected cadre of Trackers from NZ SAS (British government). These instructors earned their way as trackers in Africa with the various uprisings. Then in Oman, Cyprus, Malaya, and Borneo. They were seasoned combat trackers.

All FMs have chapters on tracking and tracker skill today all stemming from FM 7-42 and the Tracker School est. at Ft. Gordon in those Vietnam days.

LESSONS LEARNED

What did the CTTs learn in combat, like all wars that employ trackers?

No one could find the elusive enemy in their own house. Must deal with the enemy on the enemies terms. In their ways, whys, hows, whens!

They had to have use of the sixth sense, that intangible signal based on experience that warns that danger is near. This is known by the French word, Frisson, for a quiver or chill that you know to be a sign of something happening soon.

The visual tracker and team are slower than a team that has a tracker dog attached.

The CTT is very good at these end states:

1. Making contact or reestablishing contact with the enemy once lost.

2. Tell if there has been recent human activity in an area.

3. Finding captured personnel.

4. Teaching about their specialty to leadership who do not know how to use the CTT.

They found that anyone can be taught the skill but that most do not have the aptitude unless they have a complete immersion into the environment. Because if there is no complete immersion a person could not strip away the layers of “civilization.” The tracker must get back to the element of an ancient indigenous ability bringing the CTT closer to dealing with a non-conventional enemy.

35 to 75 percent attrition rate in the CTT classes at BJWS.

You had to be able to move like the wind with no sound to contact the enemy.

A tracker must see everything without seeming to look at everything.

To observe with the peripheral vision and see what wasn’t in place that should be, what leaves were moving that shouldn’t be, and to do it in fractions of a second.

They could take in the entire landscape around them as though they could see through everything in order to find what they were looking for as a point of reference. They said this was partial innate and partially taught behavior.

They trained as close to the reality as they could possibly go in training without actually being in combat. But it was the experiences in combat that heightened the skill to supernatural ability.

The tracker had to return to the most primitive genetic memories that had been forgotten due to civilization. Thus, the primal abilities where a shift in air pressure could signify an event.

They had to master bushcraft. Blending and living within the jungle as a part of it and not visiting it.

They observed that it did not matter where a tracker was trained. In their case: BJWS, Ft. Gordon, the dog training attachment, or on-the-job. A tracker is a tracker and part of the team!