Colonel Charles H. ‘Chuck’ Fry.

COL Charles H. Fry

SCUBA/MFF pioneer, Latin American Specialist, Special Operations Command-South Commander
(1933–2022)

Bio

Enlisting in 1951, Charles H. ‘Chuck’ Fry graduated from the Infantry Training Center in Hawaii, before combat assignments in Korea. Sergeant First Class Fry joined Special Forces in 1954, and was assigned to 77th Special Forces Group (SFG), Fort Bragg, NC. Parachute training preceded the SF Light Weapons Sergeant and mountain and cold weather training at Camp Hale, Colorado.

By 1957, SFC Fry was in Germany with 10th SFG. The early SCUBA and Military Free Fall (MFF) pioneer was promoted after being named honor graduate of the 7th U.S. Army NCO Academy. He was commissioned an Infantry Second Lieutenant from Officer Candidate School in April 1961 and assigned to the Airborne Department. First Lieutenant Fry joined 8th SFG in Panama in July 1963, convincing Colonel Arthur D. ‘Bull’ Simons that MFF was needed in the U.S. Southern Command.

Fry and Master Sergeant Richard J. ‘Dick’ Meadows became two of the Army’s first MFF Instructor-Jumpmasters. In Vietnam, Captain Fry was an SF MIKE Force company commander and a 1st Cavalry Division infantry company commander. A year at U.S. Army Command and General Staff College in 1971, was followed by a year at the Uruguayan Institute for Superior Studies.

A proposed counter-insurgency plan led to a successful campaign against Tupamaro urban guerrillas. Fry commanded 3rd Battalion, 7th SFG in Panama from 1978 to 1980. A spectrum analysis of insurgencies throughout Latin America ‘saved’ 7th SFG and set the standard.

Military Group assignments in Honduras and Paraguay paved the way for Fry’s selection as the Special Operations Command-South Commander, 1987-1989. After retirement, Fry acted as a security consultant and hostage negotiator. In 2009, COL Fry was selected for the U.S. Special Operations Command Bull Simons Award.

PHOTOS

Colonel Retired Charles H. ‘Chuck’ Fry began his career at the Infantry Training Center, Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, in early 1951.
Private Fry in Hawaii with full pack, helmet, and M1 Garand rifle, prepares for training.
Corporal Fry in Korea, 1953, with Company F, 180th Infantry Regiment, 45th Infantry Division. He served two combat tours on the peninsula with three different divisions.
After combat in Korea, Sergeant First Class Fry joined the 77th Special Forces Group at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, in 1954, completing Airborne, Special Forces, and Mountaineering Schools.
Sergeant First Class Fry pioneered a SCUBA capability with the 77th Special Forces Group. He and twelve others from the Group attended the U.S. Navy SCUBA course at Naval Air Station, Key West, Florida.
Late in 1957, Fry was reassigned to 10th Special Forces Group, Flint Kaserne, Germany. While there, he graduated from the Seventh Army Noncommissioned Officer Academy as the Distinguished Honor Graduate.
Sergeant First Class Fry, Team Sergeant, ODA-3, Germany in 1958.
Sergeant First Class Fry, in 1958 with his 10th Special Forces Group team A-3, preparing for a night combat equipment “infiltration” jump. Fry is third from left.
After graduation from Infantry Officer Candidate School at Fort Benning, Georgia, in 1961, Second Lieutenant Fry served with the Airborne Department.
Fry pins U.S. Army Airborne wings on U.S. Air Force Lieutenant General Bruce K. Holloway, U.S. Strike Command, after his fifth qualifying parachute jump at Fort Benning, Georgia in 1962.
In late 1962, Lieutenant Fry commanded the Pathfinder Detachment in the Airborne Department. This photo shows the detachment cadre before a parachute jump.
In 1963, First Lieutenant Fry returned to Special Forces and was assigned to the 8th Special Forces Group in the Panama Canal Zone. Here, the Group Commander, Colonel Arthur D. ‘Bull’ Simons, presents the Army Commendation Medal to Fry for his previous service with the Airborne Department. Simons became a valued mentor during his career.
In 1963, Lieutenant Fry convinced Colonel Simons to hold an 8th Special Forces Group ‘Prop Blast’ ceremony, and made a Bull’s Horn as a ‘fitting’ Prop Blast Drinking Vessel.
Captain Fry, Commander of Operational Detachment A-10, 8th Special Forces Group in Panama. During this Field Training Exercise, his team used a ‘stay-behind’ technique to capture an entire Infantry Battalion Staff. Notice the M-14 rifles used by the team.
In 1963, Fry and a 8th Special Forces Group Search and Rescue team locate and help recover five Ecuadorean University students who failed to return from a Saturday excursion up Mount Pichincha, Ecuador.
While with 8th Special Forces Group in Panama, Fry organized a Free Fall Demonstration Team that was known as the ‘Jumping Ambassadors’ throughout Latin America. This photo is of a 4th of July demonstration jump in the Panama Canal Zone in 1963.
First Lieutenant Fry attends the Basic Military Free Fall and Free Fall Jumpmaster/Instructor Courses at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, with fellow icon Master Sergeant Richard J. ‘Dick’ Meadows in 1964. They were both assigned to the 8th Special Forces Group at the time.
Captain Fry in 1964, while with 8th Special Forces Group, leads a Mobile Training Team 90mm recoilless rifle mission to train Argentinian Army forces in the new weapon.
This Mobile Training Team mission was a milestone in Fry’s career in helping him understand how to work with partner forces in Latin America. His Spanish language skills also significantly improved during the process.
The 8th Special Forces Group demonstration team helped to inaugurate the Ilopongo Airport in El Salvador in 1965. The U.S. Ambassador told Fry, “You and your team are the real Ambassadors of good will,” becoming the ‘Jumping Ambassadors.’
In Vietnam, Captain Fry commands Company C, 2nd Battalion, 5th Cavalry, 1st Cavalry Division. In 1967, as he changed command, his troops presented him with the sign they had hung over his ‘hooch.’ Fry’s call sign was Coffeepot 6; the troops said, ‘No, he is the Percolator.’
In 1967, after arrival at the II Corps Mike Force, 5th Special Forces Group, Captain Fry was awarded four medals earned earlier while with the 1st Cavalry Division in Vietnam.
As a Mike Force Commander, Fry used the ‘stay-behind’ technique again to great effect during ‘Blackjack’ operations. Here, Captain Fry returns to base camp during Blackjack 24 from a cache recovery. Note the C-ration boxes at his feet.
Fort Benning, Georgia ceremony on 10 November 1967 during which President Lyndon B. Johnson presented the Silver Star to Fry.
During a second tour in Vietnam, Fry served as the Executive Officer, 2nd Battalion, 327th Infantry, 101st Airborne Division, in 1968. Major Fry organized and trained sniper teams in the battalion, which led to sniper teams organized and employed throughout the division.
In September 1971, at a church in Montevideo, Uruguay, Fry married Miss Marijane Knight, a decorated US Embassy Foreign Service Employee who had served in Vietnam and Colombia. She became the devoted mother of his five children, and their marriage was a happy one until her death.
From 1971-1975, Fry served in Uruguay, attending their Military Institute for Superior Studies, and working in the Office of Defense Cooperation there against the Tupamaro urban guerrillas. Here, the First Lady of Uruguay congratulates Fry after a ‘Jumping Ambassadors’ jump at her 1974 Festival of Nations charity event.
In 1974, Fry trained nine Uruguayan Army and Air Force Officers and Noncommissioned Officers as Military Freefall parachutists, leading to the formation of Uruguayan Army’s Basic Airborne School and their 14th Airborne Infantry Battalion. This photo hangs in that battalion.
In 1981, Lieutenant Colonel Fry, Army Section Chief, U.S. Military Group, presents a baton passed in freefall by the ‘Jumping Ambassadors’ to the Honduran President, General Policarpo Paz García, on Air Force Day. The demonstration helped get presidential approval for an Mobile Training Team mission to train up a Honduran Military Free-Fall Team.
In 1983 Fry, assigned to the Office of Defense Cooperation Paraguay, during his first meeting with President General Alfredo Stroessner. During this meeting, Fry said “Unfortunately, my general, I don’t see that there can be further [military support] for Paraguay unless your ‘Democracy without Communism’ policy is relaxed enough to allow more participation in your government by the legal opposition.” This began a frank but positive relationship with the President.
In 1984 Colonel Fry pins on his son Robert ‘Bob’s Airborne wings at Fort Benning, Georgia. His son Bob continued the tradition of service, graduating from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, where he was twice the National Collegiate Freefall Parachuting Champion. Bob went on to have a distinguished career in Special Forces also.
As the U.S. Army Attaché to Venezuela, Colonel Fry in 1986 briefed the Venezuelan General Staff on his report on the kidnapping of Venezuelan citizens by Colombian guerrillas on the Venezuela-Colombian border. He was congratulated by President Jamie R. Lusinchi of Venezuela.
In 1988, Fry as the Special Operations Command-South Commander, presents the Commands colors, as designed by Major Howard G. Anders Jr., to the U.S. Southern Command Commanding General, General Frederick F. Woerner, Jr.
In 2002, Fry, as a Security Consultant and Hostage Kidnap negotiator, helped arrange for the safe release of a Colombian businessman after 764 days of captivity. In this photo, the released hostage, center with red sweater, and his family celebrate at home with Fry and the Crisis Action Committee.
In February 2009, Colonel Retired Charles H. Fry was honored for his illustrious career in Special Operations with the U.S. Special Operations Command Bull Simons Award.
In 2013, Colonel Retired Fry was chosen as a Distinguished Member of the Special Forces Regiment. Major General Edward M. Reeder, Jr. presents the framed certificate.

VIDEOS

Interview by Charles H. Briscoe, PhD, video by Malcolm Payne.

QUESTION 1 What makes Special Forces special?
QUESTION 2 What was COL Arthur “Bull” Simons ink blot approach to building relationships?
QUESTION 3 Please explain your leadership philosophy, where you are looking, not only taking care of your soldiers, but also your leaders.
QUESTION 4 Would you describe reverse mentorship in Special Forces and also in the 1st Cav in Vietnam?
QUESTION 5 How about your experience in the 1st Cav in Vietnam with your battalion commander?
QUESTION 6 What can you tell us about the article that you wrote that was labeled “The Quiet Professionals”?
QUESTION 7 How about explaining Colonel Mike Paulick, 10th Special Forces Commander’s briefing technique that you adopted?
QUESTION 8 How about giving me a simplified rundown of the spectrum analysis that you used to classify the states of insurgency throughout Latin America?
QUESTION 9 Probably the most influential MTT that you go on is a 90-millimeter recoilless rifle MTT to Argentina. How does that help you become acculturated?