Posted on 10/14/2001 12:32:54 PM PDT by Pokey78
As the guerrilla forces moved through the deep valleys into the attack, small teams of U.S. Army Special Forces troops called in earth-shaking air strikes from mountaintop perches over looking the battlefield.
Meanwhile, other commandos advised and consulted with local military and guerrilla leaders, gathering key targeting information and forwarding it to U.S. leaders over portable, encrypted satellite radios as the bloody offensive pressed forward.
At night, leaflets — using words and pictures to describe the inevitable defeat that was coming — fluttered down from the sky among the enemy positions.
These are just some of the secret events that unfolded two years ago as part of the classifed ground and air missions run by U.S. and allied special operations forces during the 1999 NATO campaign against Yugoslavia.
Many of these same tactics are now being employed in the United States’ war on terrorism. Special Forces teams have begun working in northern Afghanistan and have been scouting targets for the airstrikes that began on Sunday, say top officials.
There are plenty of new — or at least largely unseen — tricks up the sleeves of special operations commanders, say current and former commando leaders; deadly tactics that, even without the new bombing campaign, should give plenty of reasons for fitful nights’ sleep among terrorist groups in the weeks ahead.
Indeed, it is the shadowy, secrecy-shrouded methods used by the United States’ most elite forces that are one of its greatest strengths. It also is one of the most important reasons why special operations units already are on the ground and in the thick of it.
"Unconventional approaches are much more likely and more appropriate than the typical conventional approach of armies and navies and air forces," Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told reporters last week.
Ultimate fighters
"These guys are selected because they are independent thinkers who can problem-solve on the run," said Brian Jenkins, a senior adviser at the Rand Corp., a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, of the average special operations trooper.
"They know different languages," he said. "They are cross-trained in different skills. They are the ultimate fighters."
Officially, the military has some 46,000 troops among the ranks of its elite units, most of them falling under the umbrella of the U.S. Special Operations Command at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida, according to the Pentagon’s Special Operations Forces Posture Statement released to Congress last year.
Scattered across the country, and the world, those units include the Special Forces, commonly known as the Green Berets, and the Navy’s SEALs and Special Boat Units. Air Force search and rescue commandos — as well as fliers aboard heavily armed airborne howitzers, such as the AC-130 Specter gunship — also are among the mix.
Not included under the Special Operations Command are thousands of heavily trained troops aboard the Marine Amphibious Ready Groups, three of which are always at sea and must be certified as "special operations capable" before shipping out on their six-deployments across the globe.
Not officially tallied in publicly released documents are also the secret units, such as the anti-terrorist and hostage rescue unit, 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment Delta, known as Delta Force.
Another much less-known group is a unit used for many of the nation’s most sensitive missions. Originally dubbed the "Intelligence Support Activity" — a name long since discarded in exchange for a new classified cover name, officials privately say — the unit merges the surgical combat skills of units like Special Forces with some of the more bookish acumen of the intelligence community.
Storied history
Regardless of the unit, almost everyone in special operations is trained to carry out both covert and overt missions over land, sea and air.
Unknown are the scores of still-classified missions in war and peace that have put these units into action. In fact, it is that secrecy that keeps potential enemies guessing when it comes to the exact extent of their skills, capabilities and missions, said Mike Vickers, a former Special Forces officer and CIA special operations agent.
"They tend to be very experienced soldiers," said Vickers, now a senior analyst for the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessment in Washington, D.C. "They don’t talk about what they do much — and for good reason."
Special Forces soldiers, for example, tend to be older than the typical soldier in more conventional units, always with several years experience in the "regular Army" before they are even allowed to begin the rigorous screening program.
"They’re also used to operating far more autonomously than most units," Vickers said.
Typically, however, it is only with failures that special operations units’ most dangerous missions come to light, Vickers said.
It took the 1980 rescue debacle in Iran, that left dozens of elite service members killed and wounded because of a combination of bad luck and inter-service rivalry, before the existence of Delta Force surfaced in congressional hearings and later in a book by the unit’s founder.
Even now, however, the Army will neither confirm nor deny the existence of the unit. "A lot of success stories go untold," said one former Delta Force commander.
One reason little is known about special operations missions is that is the way the soldiers, airmen and SEALs want it, said Air Force Lt. Col. MJ Jadick, spokeswoman for the Special Operations Command Europe.
"We like to be known as the quiet professionals," she said, and to "remain in the shadows."
Special operations fighters, some who don’t have to abide by the military’s strict dress code, prefer to become part of the community rather than be identifiable as a highly-trained warrior, she added.
"It’s an issue of force protection for them," she said. "They need to be able to blend in."
The bombings in the United States on Sept. 11 re-emphasized how a nugget of detail can be turned into a horrible tragedy, a concern that permeates Special Operations members, she said.
"The incident … was an outstanding example how people can take a tidbit of information over time and piece it together to cause harm on a large scale," she said.
"As we always say the phrase, ‘the devil is in the details,’ SOF [special operations forces] personnel believe the more details that are made available about them, the greater the possibility to significantly impact their personal safety and mission accomplishment."
"We know they’re good and have had great successes, but we also may not know where they’ve struggled or what their weaknesses are," said Michael O’Hanlon, a military expert at the left-of-center Brookings Institution think-tank in Washington, D.C.
Intelligence
Only last week, for example, the London Times reported that U.S. special operations units launched a secret mission to capture Osama bin Laden two years ago. They went to Pakistan, where they formed a special unit of retired senior espionage agents. U.S. troops trained at the Parachinar military base, 90 miles west of Peshawar, but the plan was scuttled when the presence of the forces was leaked.
And even the best units in the world can be crushed like Boy Scouts if intelligence is bad or misleading.
"All the training in the world isn’t going to save you if you have bad information about the enemy," said James Phillips, research fellow and terrorism expert at the conservative Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C.
"If you’re told that a terrorist camp is filled with 10 soldiers with light weapons and then discover it has 50 soldiers with mortars, the best you can hope for is to just survive."
"The tempo of combat may be undaunting and fast and not end," said Taylor Seybolt, a conflict strategist at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. "This won’t be, ‘go in, get bin Laden, go home and be done.’"
If bin Laden is eliminated, then another focal point is sure to emerge, Seybolt said. "There isn’t a clear-cut end game," he said.
If the States wants a true war on terrorism, they will have to keep pursuing every new leader, he said. "This will be tiring and daunting — especially if there are casualties," Seybolt said.
While reluctant in recent years, top leaders say they are now prepared to take those risks. Since the Sept. 11 attack, U.S. forces have started deploying into the Central Asia and Persian Gulf regions.
Still, military leaders are hedging that success even for the nation’s most elite units may be difficult.
"Soon we are going to ask them to take on a tremendous responsibility as they embark on one of the most difficult missions that the military has ever been given," said Gen. Henry Shelton, the outgoing Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Shelton, who spent most of his career in special operations, retired last week.
Addressing reporters in his final press conference Thursday, Shelton said of the units who will are now being called into action: "It will require every bit of their courage, their intellect, and their warrior spirit to hunt down and destroy the groups that are the enemies of the civilized world. "I am confident that we will have the wherewithal, both in the intelligence as well as in all the other dimensions of the campaign, to root out and eliminate the organizations that we focus on."
By Jon R. Anderson and David Josar, Stars and Stripes
Part 3: Navy SEALs' intensive training is by no means limited to the water
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