 In 1941, Lieutenant-Colonel D. W. Clarke of the British Imperial General Staff, suggested the name "commando" for specialized raiding units of the British Army Special Service in evocation of the effectiveness and tactics of the Boer commandos.During World War II, American and British publications, confused over the use of the plural "commandos" for that type of British military units, gave rise to the modern common habit of using "a commando" to mean one member of such a unit, or one man engaged on a raiding-type operation.Since the 20th century and World War II in particular, commandos have been set apart from other military units by virtue of their extreme training regimes; these are usually associated with the awarding of green berets which originated with British Commandos.