, @O * SG-1 Rec-Å-Thon * O@ ,

Black Ops

Many writers, when referring to Jack's dark military past, say he was alternately "Black Ops," "Special Ops," or even "Black Beret." Some completely deny his more brutal "Black Ops" actions; some invent truly reprehensible histories for him. Partly because the whole idea of covert, illegal missions is shrouded in a fair degree of mystery, it can be difficult for even well-researched writers to ferret out just what Jack O'Neill did before the Stargate program.

From various episodes, we know that Jack does indeed have a rather sketchy past. In "The Gamekeeper," we find out that he took part in a 1982 mission, "Operation East Fly" to retrieve a Russian agent named Boris from a house in East Germany. Members of the team included Captain O'Neill and Captain Kawalsky, under the command of Colonel John Michaels who was killed in action by snipers. In "A Matter Of Time," we discover that Jack was left behind during a covert mission and as a result spent four months in an Iraqi prison. And in "Hathor," he claims to be Special-Forces-trained to fight mind-control techniques.

In both the movie and the series, it is mentioned that Jack is former "Special Forces." That itself is somewhat inaccurate, as the USAF doesn't call its Special Operations groups "Special Forces"; that's an Army term. USAF Special Ops groups include Combat Controllers (front-line infiltrators who provide air space info), PJ's (highly skilled medics dropped in for Search & Rescue), and Combat Weather Operators. We do not know what type of Special Ops group Jack was actually a part of.

Members of Special Ops do a wide variety of tough jobs: infiltration, exfiltration (an extraction, or a removal of someone from the area), teaching rebel forces how to fight dictators. They do other, less 'photo-op worthy' sorts of things, too. Teams work together for years; reassignments don't happen lightly. The average age in a Special Ops unit is in the mid-30's. There's a USAF Special Operations School (link may only work inside the US), which Jack no doubt attended.

Black Ops, by contrast, isn't a kind of unit, it's a kind of job. That is, if you have a Special Ops team going out to teach rebels to shoot a P90 at a dictator, that's a mission. If the same team goes out to shoot the dictator themselves, that's a Black Op. The definition is mostly a matter of whether the mission would be considered illegal according to our laws. For example, a preordered mission to 'take out' a minor political head would be a Black Op because it goes completely against the US's open military policy.

Some believe that proof of Jack's Black Ops past lies in the "Operation East Fly" mission in East Germany, seeing it as an assassination attempt. However, it's not an assassination attempt, it's an extraction (or exfiltration), which is entirely a Special Ops type of mission. In fact, we don't have any actual proof that Jack did perform any Black Ops missions, except for one thing: the original Abydos Mission.

Before he left on the mission to go through the Stargate for the first time, Jack was taken aside and given a specific and very Black Ops-style mission: go through the Stargate, and if there's anything that even resembles a threat, eliminate it. Kept even a secret from the rest of his team, Jack brought with him a powerful nuclear bomb, and were it not for Daniel and Ra interfering, he would have used it to destroy not only the true threat, Ra, but also all of the Abydans and the rest of his team. Suicidal grief over Charlie can't be the only reason why the USAF chose him for such a covert action, and a logical conclusion is that Jack did indeed have a history of participating in Black Ops missions to some extent. It's not proof, but it is highly suggestive.

Whether Jack took part in any Black Ops activities or not, in "Cor-ai" he directly states: "There are a lot of things we do that we wish we could change and we sure as hell can't forget, but the whole concept of chain of command undermines the idea of free will. So as soldiers, we have to do some pretty awful stuff. But we're following orders like we were trained to. It doesn't make it easier, it certainly doesn't make it right. [...] I have spent a lot of years in the service of my country. And I have been ordered to do some damn distasteful things." Take that as you will.

One last thing -- there's no such thing as a 'Black Beret' military unit. There are Green Berets, and the Airborne Rangers wear berets that are black, but no one calls them 'Black Berets'. That's one bit of fanon that is completely invented.

Thanks to Apocrypha, Arduinna, and Rowan for research help!

Oddities Index
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~