The 7th Special Forces Group (Airborne) (7th SFG) (A) is an operational unit of the United States Army Special Forces activated on 20 May 1960. It was reorganized from the 77th Special Forces Group, which was also stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. 7th Group—as it is sometimes called—is designed to deploy and execute nine doctrinal missions: unconventional warfare, foreign internal defense, direct action, counter-insurgency, special reconnaissance, counter-terrorism, information operations, counterproliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and security force assistance. The 7th SFG(A) spends much of its time conducting foreign internal defense, counter-drug, and training missions of friendly governments' armed forces in South, Central, and North America as well as the Caribbean. 7th SFG(A) participated in Operation Urgent Fury in Grenada in 1983, and in Operation Just Cause in Panama in 1989. The 7th SFG(A) has, like all the SFGs, been heavily deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan in the War on Terror. History World War II The 7th SFG(A) traces its lineage to the 1st Company, 1st Regiment, 1st Special Service Force (FSSF), which was established on 9 July 1942 at Fort William Henry Harrison, Montana. The unit was a combined Canadian-American commando unit, designed to conduct raids against Germany's fledgling nuclear capability in northern Europe. However, it was relocated to the Aleutian Islands to fight the Japanese. Upon the successful completion of the Aleutian campaign, the FSSF was transferred to the Mediterranean theater of operations. The unit earned the nickname "The Devil's Brigade" for fighting with distinction at the Anzio beachhead in Italy. It was the first Allied unit to enter Rome in June 1944. The commander of the 1st Regiment, Colonel Alfred C. Marshall, was killed in action leading that assault. The Force next served as an amphibious spearhead for the Allied landings in southern France in August 1944. The high rate of casualties from these campaigns made it necessary to disband the First Special Service Force at Menton, France on 5 December 1944. 77th Special Forces Group The 77th Special Forces Group (Airborne) was activated at Fort Bragg, NC on 10 November 1953 under command of Lieutenant Colonel Jack T. Shannon. Its motto was "Any Thing, Any Time, Any Place, Any How." The group built rapidly from an initial strength of only 200 soldiers. The 77th Group wore their famous Green Beret headgear for the first time in a retirement parade for XVIII Airborne Corps commander MG