"Only 10 Out of 160 Made It" - Inside the 1977 Delta Force Selection

About this video

Ritland interviews a former Delta Force operator who was part of the unit’s original selection classes in the late 1970s. The guest recounts his experience going through Delta selection when only 10 of approximately 140-160 candidates finished, describes the grueling land navigation and terrain challenges, and shares his impressions of Colonel Charlie Beckwith, Delta’s founder. He also discusses Delta’s early unclassified mission of prisoner rescue and reveals details about the 1970 Son Tay raid from a Vietnamese perspective he learned through a personal contact.

Key takeaways

• The guest reports that early Delta Force selection had an extremely low pass rate, with his class seeing only 10 finishers from 140-160 starting candidates, and some selections finishing with as few as two people
• According to the guest, Delta Force was initially created with prisoner rescue as its unclassified mission, inspired by the 1970 Son Tay raid, with early operations including Richmond Hill prison in Grenada and rescuing Kurt Muse in Panama
• The guest shares that Colonel Beckwith, Delta’s founder, was described as gruff but the right leader for the job, and the guest believes the failed Iran hostage rescue mission haunted Beckwith throughout his life

Episode details: published March 15, 2026 · 41.9K views · 19:58 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. Stories told by Mike Ritland’s podcast guests are the guests’ own accounts, attributed to them — not independently verified. Commentary is Ritland’s, presented as his analysis.

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