Bars and booze have, since the dawn of time and warfare, been a staple of the warrior’s lifestyle. That remains true to this day. Some select bars provide not only frosty ales, but also a familiar and safe (depending) environment where one can relax, see old friends and comrades, pass and share information about other friends and comrades, and blow off steam.

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Photo: What your mom was afraid of at the recruiters office. 

No matter how hard or long governments try to control the moralities of warriors—soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines, of every flag—they will always gravitate toward and require bars and booze. For anyone who does not understand this, it cannot be explained. Warriors and monks will never be fused.

I have compiled this list from various sources of SF brothers and from my own experience, and have tried to limit my comments. To be certain, there are probably many bars, taverns, and clubs missing from this list. Some of these listed are famous, and some I have personal knowledge of, but others listed below I can only speak to the word of my SF brothers. Also, I have edited my research for this list so as to not violate any OpSec or otherwise piss anyone off (which will probably happen anyway), and to be as accurate as possible.

Special Forces bars in the U.S.

Ft. Bragg and Fayetteville: 

Ft. Bragg is the home of Special Forces and the SF Course, SFQC, and, thus, all SF soldiers spend time and pass through there.

  • Green Beret Parachute Club
  • CiCi’s Shangri-La on Old Bragg Blvd.
  • Rick’s, the kind of place where you had to have your wits about you. There’s always trouble to be had, always a knife- or a gunfight going on.
  • Annex 1, on Bragg, part of the post club system.
  • The Old Blue Marble on Bragg Boulevard
  • The Shady Lady, above Rick’s. Less dangerous and with better-looking dancers, where many SFAS cadres went to avoid the chaos and students downstairs, and to focus on the ladies.
  • Bottoms Up, for a while famous for the ANCOC Sunday Library runs.
  • The Green Beret Club, which last year was converted to the Smoke Bomb Grille.
  • Charlie Mikes, open years ago by a retired SF NCO, run by his daughter after his death.
  • Pink Elephant outside Camp MacKall, a popular hangout for CMK cadres. No longer there.
  • Seven Dwarfs
  • Brass Rail
  • Sugar Shack
  • The “Pig Farm” NCO Annex at Fort Bragg
  • Legends Pub on Bragg Blvd, a big SF biker hangout in the ’90s
  • The Apex, Fayetteville
  • The Flaming Mug, Fayetteville, another good place to go for fights and fucks.
  • The Menopause Manor, so called because any given night a young troop, older troops too, could find a willing older woman. (Funny how many of us who fished in that pond would now see many of those women as sweet young things.)
  • The Red Beret Club on the corner of Arden and Yadkin
  • The Why Not, a little dive bar in Fayettenam, owned by a retired SF team guy. The club took a few rounds every once in a while, fired due to race tensions, or by the many 82nd guys who were tossed out. (An SF guy who had been in the 82nd once told me that, after he graduated from the SF Course, he went to the Why Not and said, “So, will you fuckin’ let me in now, Goddamnit?!” and that all his drinks that night were bought for him.)
  • The Stadium, Fayetteville was a very popular SF hangout during the ’90s.

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