James Gordon "Bo" Gritz (; born January 18, 1939) is an American former United States Army Special Forces officer and presidential candidate. After serving in the Vietnam War and retiring from the military, Gritz has worked on attempted POW rescues in conjunction with the Vietnam War POW/MIA issue. Gritz ran for United States president under the Populist Party in 1992 under the slogan: "God, Guns and Gritz," and published an isolationist political manifesto titled "The Bill of Gritz". Gritz lives in Sandy Valley, Nevada and has four children. Early life Gritz was born on January 18, 1939, in Enid, Oklahoma. His father served in the Army Air Force in World War II and was killed in action. He was raised by his maternal grandparents. After being expelled from his local high school, Gritz attended and graduated from Fork Union Military Academy in Virginia. Military service Gritz enlisted in the Army on August 20, 1957, and shortly thereafter attended Officer Candidate School (OCS). He was promoted to the rank of captain in 1963, and to major in 1967. In Vietnam, he commanded detachment "B-36", 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne) for a time. B-36 was a mixed American and Cambodian-Vietnamese MIKE Force, an eventually battalion-size unit composed mostly of local indigenous people serving as mercenaries that operated in the III Corps area of southern South Vietnam near the Cambodian border. His successful missions included finding and retrieving the black box of a Lockheed U-2 spy plane downed inside enemy territory in Cambodia in December 1966. After six years in Vietnam, Gritz served in a variety of assignments, including commanding Special Forces in Latin America 1975–1977, as a Desk Officer for the Middle East, and Chief of Congressional Relations for the Defense Security Agency (International Security Affairs) in the Office of the Secretary of Defense (1977–1979) until his retirement in 1979 at the rank of lieutenant colonel. According to Gritz, backed by video evidence, following his formal retirement he also trained the Afghan mujahideen in America on behalf of the government. General William Westmoreland in his memoir, A Soldier Reports, cites Gritz as "The" American Soldier. Gritz received an array of military awards, and some of these have been called into question. A memo regarding his awards and award recommendations during his time in Vietnam seems to indicate that Gritz was personally involved with the recommendation of some of his medals, including the