by Dick Couch
The drill is to put eyes on the targets for two days, noting the security arrangements, guard-force activity, and operational activity. All this is relayed back to the forward operating base—in this exercise, a cadre sergeant manning a base-station radio. These are long days and uncomfortable days, but this is the essence of strategic reconnaissance—observe without being seen. On the third day, Captain Shaw receives a radio message that calls for the targets be taken out at exactly 2345 the following day—fifteen minutes before midnight. The tasking calls for the radar site and the communications facility to be inoperative for four hours. Per the Pineland scenario, Navy fighter jets flying from carriers offshore are scheduled to conduct strikes at strategic targets inland, and a gap in the radar coverage must be opened to give them access to their targets. That evening, Captain Shaw calls each of his recon teams in and tasks them with their respective direct-action missions. Based on their observations of the targets, each team plans and executes their assigned strike. One team finds the power supply unit for the mobile radar site and places a dummy block of C-4 explosive on the unit at 2340, with a five-minute delay. The other team creeps to within forty yards of the communications facility and simulates a strike with an AT4 rocket. Nine-one-two reconstitutes itself at a prearranged rally point and patrols from the area. The men are holding a loose security perimeter at a roadside clearing in a sleeting rain when the six-by-six helo comes to collect them.
The mission after-action review at the A. P. Hill barracks facility is quick, as snow is beginning to stick and the forecast calls for more. The tired, wet captains quickly pack out their personal gear and the exercise support equipment, and climb into the bus for the ride back to Fort Bragg.
“It was good to do a mission like that start to finish,” Matt Anderson says of the experience. “Major James made us move through the planning process in excruciating detail. Just when you think you have it right, he comes along and wants it done better. Once we were in the field, we got a real feel for a true reconnaissance mission. It’s been a while since I set up housekeeping in a hide site. Once in position, we were able to move about at night to get eyes-on the targets from various angles. The actual hit on the target was pretty anticlimactic, which is as it should be. The preparation is everything.”
With the exception of the fieldwork that was part of the adaptive thinking and leadership training and the A. P. Hill exercise, most of the 18 Alpha training is focused on operational analysis and mission planning. In addition to the pure planning drills or command post exercises, there are scheduled classes on the political and interservice aspects of Special Forces operations. These blocks of training are sandwiched around the planning exercises. On occasion, training and instructional opportunities present themselves that may trump scheduled training, or are conducted after hours or on a free weekend.
Among the scheduled training is a half day of tracking. More specifically, it’s a class on countertracking, or what a team in the field might do if they suspect they have a tracker after them. The men learn how a tracker works, what he looks for, and what they as a tactical unit or an individual on the run behind the lines can do to delay a tracker. The cadre instructor is a crusty master sergeant who has built his own spore pit out behind Aaron Bank Hall. Most Americans, he tells the captains, can be tracked by the trash they leave behind and their tobacco products. There is also a half day at the close-air-support simulator, a facility not unlike the call-for-fire simulator on which the weapons sergeants trained. Calling in close air support and calling in artillery are similar. Among the unscheduled briefings is that of an AC-130 gunship pilot. The AC-130 Spectre is a modified version of the venerable C-130 turbo-prop medium transport. The AC-130 Spectre has been armed with 40mm and 105mm guns. It is a very stable platform that can deliver an accurate and sustained rate of fire. An AC-130 can take out a building and leave the one next to it undamaged. It is particularly lethal against lightly armored vehicles and troops caught in the open. The AC-130U model also has an impressive suite of IR, thermal, and low-light-level sensors, as well as a substantial communications capability. The pilot, an Air Force captain, is the wife of one of the 18 Alpha candidate captains.
One of the more interesting unscheduled training opportunities comes with a visit by CBS News correspondent Lara Logan. She is no stranger to speaking to the military, and her presentation draws equal numbers of 18 Alpha candidates and Special Forces cadre. She outlines the duties of the press in general and her job as an investigative reporter in some detail. “I saw her more than I saw some of the guys on my ODA during my last trip to Kandahar,” one of the cadre sergeants observes quietly. While it is a cordial exchange and Ms. Logan takes all questions from the floor, I can tell that the veteran cadre who had recent tours in the combat zone are very skeptical of the press. “They have a job to do, and so do we,” another of the cadre says to me. “She’s pretty competent and she’s a hard worker, but we have to be very careful in dealing with the press. As a rule, unless I’m directed by higher, I simply just avoid talking to them.”
“It’s good for these guys to see and hear a reporter,” Major Brooks says of Logan’s visit, “and someone they’ve seen on TV. It’s one less variable for them going on deployment.”
Whenever there’s a free minute of training time, Major James gives 912 some insight on life as a detachment leader and some of the things they need to be aware of. One of these is his personal equipment briefing.
“You’re going to be very busy when you get to your detachment, so you’ll want to have all your personal operational gear set up and ready to go. You’ll get a standard issue, but if you’re like me, you’re going to want to customize some of your own gear. And that comes out of your pocket, something my wife still wonders about. But if you’re going to be a professional warrior, you may want gear that’s tailored for you.” In the front of the room, an array of operational gear is laid out. “I bought a custom rucksack that suits my needs and some of the loads we carry in cold-weather operations with 10th Group. It holds my chow, sleeping bag, mission-specific equipment, ammo, clothing, that kind of thing. This is my load-bearing equipment vest; you can see that it is nonstandard. If you want one thing custom made, it’s your LBE vest. This is what you will fight with when you dump your ruck or if you’re out on quick-strike, direct-action mission. Your LBE should hold your ready ammo, a radio, compass, GPS, a trauma pouch, maybe some PowerBars, and whatever you might need to keep you alive for a day and keep you in the fight. As far as your standard BDUs, get some additional pockets sewed into them so you can stash a ready magazine, your survival maps, a day/night signaling device, a secure Iridium phone, an extra tourniquet, or whatever else you might need if you’re away from your LBE and an emergency arises.
“You’ll be issued body armor, but I recommend that you look to a custom vest—a body-armor plate carrier that’ll allow you to operate with a full set of armor or perhaps with only the front and back plates. Sometimes you may want to remove the side plates for mobility. You’ll wear this body armor under your LBE and under any number of standard and nonstandard uniforms and hadji dress, so you want it to be comfortable. Your group will issue you the plates, but I highly recommend you buy your own vest.
“On a standard deployment, you have to be prepared to move around in civilian clothes and in different settings. So you need to be able to dress casual, semicasual, and business casual. We call it rough, smooth, and slick. Rough is a T-shirt, jacket, and jeans; smooth is slacks and an open-collared shirt; and slick is coat and tie. As an ODA team leader, you have to be able to walk into an embassy, a tribal leader’s home, or a downtown bazaar. You’re probably never going to pass for anything but an American, but try to avoid the cowboy boots, ball caps, and big belt buckles. If you’re lucky, you can pass for a Canadian or a German in an airport. The objective is to blend in and keep a low profile. Try to find a jacket that is reversible with good pockets and with one side a dark green or brown. You want it to be loose in
case you have to wear body armor under it or carry a weapon. In this business, you have to be prepared to be operational or go operational at a moment’s notice. We’re not spies, but a team leader’s work may require him to go about in civilian clothes.”
Also scheduled for the 18 Alphas are four days of advanced special operations training, a classified block of instruction that trains the officer candidates in special intelligence collection techniques.
Midway through the phase, the officers of 912 are scheduled for their midcourse review. Major James and Master Sergeant Rameres spend an hour or more with each of them discussing their performance—where they are strong, and where they are weak. I sit in on a few of these sessions, and they are candid, honest assessments of each individual. The individual evaluation covers professional disciplines such as mission planning, briefing, and fieldcraft, but the focus is on demonstrated interpersonal skills and the candidate’s decision-making abilities. At the beginning of Phase III, all of the officers took The Attentional and Interpersonal Style (TAIS) inventory. Most of the midcourse review focuses on the individual performance during the Volkmann Exercise and how that performance correlates to the TAIS results. Typically, Major James begins these interviews with open-ended questions.
“How would you rate your performance so far?”
“Tell me, because you’ve never stated it in so many words and I didn’t pick it up in your autobiography: Why do you want to be in Special Forces?”
“Where do you think you’re weak?”
“During the Volkmann encounters, you came across a little harsh and strident. Even during your debriefings, you were a little defensive. Do you think this is accurate?”
After challenging the candidate in areas where his performance may have been lacking and weak, Major James and Master Sergeant Rameres move on to positive areas and what the individual candidate might do to work on his deficiencies.
“From what I’ve seen, your performance in the Volkmann Exercise and field exercises is consistent with the comments from your TAIS. You are quiet, and that’s OK, but that often makes you seem arrogant and above others. You need to be aware of how you come across to others.”
“Your TAIS suggests that you have a high opinion of yourself and that you hold yourself to a very high standard. This tendency to be the best and to achieve excellence often prevents you from taking advantage of the opinions of others or of changes in the environment.”
“You’re doing well, but you need to work to improve your situational awareness and your negotiating skills—your interpersonal skills. Intellectually, you like the challenge and have a do-it-myself attitude. This can limit you. Learn to ask questions and take advice from others—to weigh others’ opinions.”
“You seem to attach your identity to your achievement. People like you are prone to put the job ahead of their families—way ahead—and that’s a trap all of us have to work on and try to avoid.”
“Your TAIS rated you as overanalytical and perhaps slow to come to a decision because you thought too much about it—made it too complicated. I saw that a little bit during the field training at A. P. Hill. Then when you make a decision, you defend it, even if new data questions that decision.”
Most of these counseling sessions end with some recommendations to work on weaknesses.
“Since you seem to overanalyze, try to be brief and concise and go quickly to the bottom line. Find a peer buddy in the class, someone you trust. Tell your peer buddy this is an area you’re trying to work on, and seek his feedback.”
“In every situation that calls for a decision, ask the opinion of someone else on the team. If you don’t understand how they came up with that decision or position, ask them to explain it. This will allow you to make a change or to validate your original position.”
After the midcourse review, and prior to the next block of instruction, 912 and the other 18 Alpha candidates take two days off for sustainment training. They have an equipment jump one day, and spend another on the firing ranges with combat shooting. A day of airborne operations and a day of shooting are scheduled for the Charlies, Deltas, and Echos during their Phase III as well. The Bravos, the weapons sergeants, need only to make the jump.
Nine-one-two moves on to the foreign-internal-defense planning exercise. FID is an important tasking of Special Forces, both historically and as it relates in the current operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. Foreign internal defense and counterinsurgency, or COIN, are closely related. It is the business of working with other nations and other cultures to defeat insurgency. In my opinion, it is the single most important skill set of Army Special Forces. This unique ability to work “by, with, and through” another culture in the conduct of counterinsurgency operations is what makes the Green Beret the most essential warrior in our military today. The U.S. Army is the service component tasked with counterinsurgency, but that capability is a function of big Army’s ability to find and kill insurgents—a near-impossible task if the insurgents find refuge in the local population. Patrolling neighborhoods in Humvees and cordon-and-search tactics are not effective in defeating an insurgency. Perhaps this sells our conventional military presence a little short, but one thing is clear: The difficult business of rooting out a well-organized and well-financed insurgency cannot be done without the help of the local population. Orchestrating this help is the stock in trade of Special Forces.
The foreign-internal-defense module begins with lectures on the mechanics and infrastructure of an insurgency, and the role of the adviser in working with the local military and police forces in a foreign country. As with most Phase III officer training, the scenario is built around a planning exercise. In FID training, the exercise is to plan a Special Forces ODA deployment called JCET—joint/combined exchange training. In this scenario, the country is Ecuador and the insurgents are the FARC, or Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. The same principles apply for a similar FID deployment to Afghanistan, Iraq, the Philippines, Indonesia, or just about anywhere else when a friendly government is threatened by insurgents.
The first several days of the FID exercise are classroom intensive and focus on the specifics of planning and coordinating a JCET deployment. It begins with tasking and funding—who wants the training done and who pays for it. If the training is requested by the host nation, then the request for U.S. assistance is handled by the Department of State and the money comes through State from Title 22 funding. If the JCET was initiated by Special Forces with the objective of training a Special Forces ODA team, and was approved by the U.S. Special Operations Command, then the funds are taken from the military budget in the form of Title 10 funds. No matter where the money comes from, the ODA will deploy with the idea of training the host nation’s military or constabulary in military skills they can use to defend themselves against the insurgents. In the school planning scenario, the opposition is the FARC, one of the few remaining insurgencies with a Communist ideology, which has a narco-terrorist history. They are still active, with tentacles reaching into several South American nations, including Hugo Chávez’s Venezuela.
“I was the assist detachment commander for the FID problem,” says Miguel Santos. “But we all work the problem as a team. The process is the same as for a strategic-reconnaissance or a direct-action mission. We get the tasking and begin to game out various courses of action. Each of these alternatives is examined for how it’ll work in practice and how it addresses the commander’s intent—his vision of the mission and the desired end state. We get pretty far down in the weeds of each one, building a task organization, analyzing the host nation’s requirements, planning logistics, building training plans, building timelines—that kind of thing. Once we work up several alternative plans, we decide as a team which course of action we think is best and run it by Major James, just like we would present it to our battalion commander.”
“OK, I’ll go with your course of action,” James tells OD 912 and the designated team leader, Captain Jim Toohey. Toohey is a t
all, intelligent officer who came to the Q-Course from the Army Corps of Engineers. He and the rest of 912 are assembled in their team room at Aaron Bank Hall.
“Now you have to get into the details. Think about every aspect of your mission: what you can do to make it succeed, and what might come up that’ll interfere with your mission. You have to think very hard about the unit you are going to train—get into that unit commander’s head. Remember that as advisers, you have to be able to conduct company- and battalion-size operations and assaults on a ‘by, with, and through’ basis, and you have to do this within their capability.” James clicks on the PowerPoint, and a series of items begins to slide onto the screen in the team room. “A couple of things for you to consider as you return to your planning sessions.”
• Match the training environment to the operational environment.
• Know as much as you can about the enemy they have to fight—in this case, the FARC.
• Be very careful how you train and offer to help. They may think they’re doing a pretty good job.
• You will be dealing closely with embassy personnel. Understand the attitude of the ambassador to your being there and the dynamics within the country team.
• How does the host-nation commander view the training you are bringing to him?
• Have previous ODAs been there? What did they do? How were they received?
• Your communications and medical planning have to be spot on.
• Think about what may happen if one of your men or the men you are training gets hurt. Game it out.
• Make a friend of the embassy liaison officer. Your rapport with him, or her, is very important.
• We plan using our military decision-making process—MDMP—but how do they do it?
