In the movies, Billy Jack was the first such character I can think of.
Eventually comic books got in the act. Marvel was “inspired” by The Executioner to create The Punisher. (Anyone who’s read both probably suspects that Frank Castle is really just Mack Bolan with a jones for skintight costumes.)
But the trend didn’t stop there. It seems like every Vietnam veteran character in a film or novel up to the early 1990s was also ex-Special Forces. To judge by popular culture, you’d think the entire conflict in Vietnam was fought exclusively by “Green Berets.”
It got so ridiculous that in Frank Miller’s Batman: Year One Lieutenant James Gordon (Before he becomes Commissioner Gordon), observing a crooked cop on the Gotham PD decides, “He moves like he’s had Green Beret training. It’s been a long time since I had to take down a Green Beret…”
I probably need to emphasize that I’m not just talking about action heroes (or villains) here, or characters in other genre work who might need the skills they picked up in SOF in a given storyline. I’m talking about characters (sometimes secondary, sometimes who the readers/viewers never even “meet”) who could just as easily have been a clerk/jerk in Saigon, a supply sergeant in DaNang or a motor pool mechanic at Fort Ord. Nope–SF soldiers were the only ones writers had heard anything about, so by Barry Saddler’s Ghost, everybody gets a green beret.
Finally this trend has changed. Now, it seems, (judging by novels and movies) every swinging richard deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan was a Navy SEAL. Or fought with the Recon Marines.
True, I stacked my military thrillers with Special Operations Force vets, but I had good reason to. Some missions require such men.
Most don’t.
I could probably dissect this subject at length, but in a nutshell I chalk it up to writers’ laziness.
What makes elite forces elite is that not every combatant is asked to do what they do, and not every combatant could, if asked. Having spent most of my active duty at Fort Bragg, NC (the Special Forces Mecca), I’ve probably seen more green beenies than 99% of writers out there, but I’ve decided to make a conscious effort to represent regular soldiers (and sailors, marines, etc.) more in my fiction from now on, unless special missions are necessary. Special Operations play a crucial role, but it’s regular GIs who win wars and I’m gonna try to remember that, despite what everyone else is doing.
BTW, I can’t help wondering if this pop culture conditioning played a part in the US Army’s decision to let every swinging richard (and split-tail) wear bloused jump boots with their Class As and the black beret of a Ranger.
The younger guys probably aren’t even bothered by the Everyone-Is-Elite image because it’s been this way for a while now, but to me this is like letting every athlete in every league call themselves an All-Star, every recording artist have a platinum album and (closer to home) every author claim to be a best-seller.