The 5th SFG (A) saw extensive action in the Vietnam War and played a pivotal role in the early months of Operation Enduring Freedom.

5th Group 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 weapon of mass destruction, and security force assistance.

The 5th SFG (A) and two of its battalions spend roughly six months out of every 12 deployed to Iraq as Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force – Arabian Peninsula.

In 1964, the Group hired Vietnamese and other Southeast Asian producers to make fatigues, boonie hats, and other items of Tigerstripe fabric.

The group's personnel in Vietnam adopted a variant flash, which added diagonal yellow stripe with three narrow red over-stripes to the existing black background and white border.

[10] The 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne) was unique in the Vietnam War for its heavy usage of watercraft, particularly Hurricane Aircat airboats.

[11] The extensive naval operations required an overhaul in tactics to allow the 5th Special Forces Group to best employ the speed and firepower of the Aircat airboats.

[12] The use of watercraft, increases in troop strength, and introduction of other tactics—deploying more soldiers to Civilian Irregular Defense Group (CIDG) bases, distributing improved handbooks to commissioned and non-commissioned officers, etc.— allowed the 5th Special Warfare Group to take the fight to the enemy, capturing large swaths of territory in the Delta, making the 50 percent of the territory and CIDG bases that were previously too overrun with Viet Cong to enter safe enough to operate in, and mounting operations and establishing CIDG bases deep in Viet Cong territory.

Finally, in September 1969, Secretary of the Army Stanley Resor announced that all charges would be dropped since the CIA, which may have had some involvement, refused to make its personnel available as witnesses.

Members of the unit continued to conduct intelligence operations in Southeast Asia until the collapse of the South Vietnamese government on 29 April 1975.

These spanned a wide scope of operations, including support to coalition warfare; conducting foreign internal defense missions with the Saudi Arabian Army; performing special reconnaissance, border surveillance, direct action, combat search and rescue missions; and advising and assisting a pan-Arab equivalent force larger than six U.S. divisions; as well as conducting civil-military operations training and liaison with the Kuwaitis.

Their mission was wide-open: to assist General Abdul Rashid Dostum in conducting unconventional warfare to make key Taliban-controlled areas unsafe for terrorists and Taliban activities.

[24] The first group of Task Force Dagger included seven members of the CIA's Special Activities Division and Counter Terrorist Center (CTC) led by Gary Schroen, who formed the Northern Afghanistan Liaison Team.

[28] Known by the callsign Jawbreaker, the team linked up with Northern Alliance commanders and prepared for the introduction of Army Special Forces into the region.

[31] Two days later, on 19 October, the two teams were flown from the former Soviet Karshi-Khanabad Air Base in Uzbekistan more than 300 kilometers (190 mi) across the 4,900 metres (16,100 ft) Hindu Kush mountains.

[27] They flew in two 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment MH-47E Chinook helicopters, escorted by two "DAP" (Direct Action Penetrator) MH-60L Black Hawks.

ODA 555 was dropped off in the Panjshir River Valley just 20 miles north of Kabul, where they linked up with warlord Fahim Khan and his Northern Alliance forces.

During one especially harrowing ride off of a high mountain pass, zig-zagging down multiple switch-backs, his horse took his own lead and leaped straight down the mountainside.

When sculptor Douwe Blumberg saw it, he was struck by the image and later created what became the only public sculpture to commemorate special forces, America's Response Monument.

[36] On 2 November, a third Special Forces team, ODA 534, was inserted by SOAR to assist Northern Alliance General Atta Mohammad.

On about 6 November, the Northern Alliance broke through the Taliban defense in the valley of Darah Sof District, 200 kilometres (120 mi) from Mazar-i-Sharif.

They guided hundreds of GPS-guided 2,000-pound JDAM precision-guided munitions dropped by USAF B-1B Lancer and B-52 Stratofortress heavy bombers onto Taliban and Al-Qaeda positions near Mazar-i-Sharif.

[44] ODA 574 ("Texas One-Two") from Alpha Company, 3rd Btn, 5th SFG,[46] commanded by Captain Jason Amerine, deployed from K2 just outside of Tarin Kowt on 14 November, along with Pashtun militia leader, Hamid Karzai.

The 583 set up observation posts overlooking Kandahar International Airport and over the next few days, called in ongoing air strikes on the Taliban positions.

[44] ODA 585 from Bravo Company, 3rd Btn, 5th SFG[46] inserted by helo on 23 October into Kunduz to support General Burilla Kahn.

ODA 586 eventually joined 585 and General Burillah's men for the final assault on the provincial city of Konduz, seizing it on 11 November.

[44] ODA 586 from Bravo Company, 3rd Btn, 5th SFG[46] was in Farkhar supporting General Daud Khan in the Takhar province, who took the capital city of Taloqan on 11 November.

It could have happened more quickly, but the Bush administration was fearful that without a provisional government to take over Kabul, the Northern Alliance would commit atrocities as they had when they had previously occupied the capital.

[28] The ground forces who eventually entered Afghanistan were left to pursue high-value targets, including Osama bin Laden, among the Al-Qaeda near the Pakistani border.

[44] Major Mark E. Mitchell of the 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne) was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for gallantry in November 2001 at Qala-i-Jangi Fortress, Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan.