Eldon Bargewell

Major General Eldon A. Bargewell was a general in the United States Army and commander of Delta Force.

Bargewell was born in Hoquiam, Washington and graduated from Hoquiam High School in 1965. During the Vietnam War Bargewell completed Special Forces training and was accepted into MACV-SOG where he served at the "Command And Control North" launch site at Da Nang and served as team leader for Reconnaissance Team "Viper" (all CCN teams were named for states or snakes). While serving with CCN, Bargewell earned the Distinguished Service Cross for his actions in combat. He is currently the last recipient of a DSC awarded for actions in Vietnam remaining on active duty. He then received his officer's commission in 1973. Bargewell also served as a member of the 75th Ranger Regiment, a former commander of Delta Force at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, commander of US Special Operations Command Europe, assistant chief of staff for SFOR military operations in Sarajevo, and the director of the center operations, plans, and policies of US Special Operations Command. While in Delta Force Bargewell participated in Operation Acid Gambit in Panama.

While serving as the Operations Officer for Multinational Force Iraq Bargewell pursued an outside administrative investigation as to how knowledge of the Haditha incident in Iraq passed up the Marine chain of command and whether or not any commanders lied in their reports. The informal investigation, pursuant to Army regulation AR 15-6, began on March 19, 2006 and was expected to examine how servicemembers and their commanders were trained in the rules of engagement. The completed report was sent to Army Lt. Gen. Peter W. Chiarelli, the second-ranked US commander in Iraq, on the morning of June 15, 2006. This was separate from a criminal investigation being conducted by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service.