We also talked to retired Sgt. Kyle Lamb about his career and experiences during the Battle of Mogadishu. And then for the 27th anniversary of that battle, we spoke to former Army Ranger Brad Thomas to gain a perspective through his eyes of the events that occurred before and after the famous battle.
Thomas went on to serve a career in the Unit and now is a guitarist for the rock band Silence and Light. Here are four other operators that you should know more about. Charles Beckwith was the man to lead the charge. In , Beckwith conducted counterinsurgency operations in Malaya while attached to the British 22nd Special Air Service.
This led to an epiphany, and Beckwith conceptualized an equivalent unit in the United States. Beckwith led a man element in to rescue a Green Beret base in Plei Me.
The next year he was struck through the abdomen with a. Beckwith later participated in Operation Eagle Claw, the infamous rescue mission during the Iranian hostage crisis , and retired afterward. Mike Vining served 31 years in the US Army before retiring as a sergeant major. For a one-year tour of duty to Vietnam between and , Vining served with the 99th Ordnance Detachment as an explosive ordnance disposal EOD technician.
His team was responsible for destroying Rock Island East, the largest enemy ammunition cache in the war. Thomas Greer, better known by his pen name, Dalton Fury, was among the very first operators to write a book about the initial invasion of Afghanistan. Prior to joining the Unit, Greer served as an enlisted soldier in the 75th Ranger Regiment for eight years. Throughout his year career in special operations units, he hunted war criminals in the Balkans , served as an assault force commander on direct action raids against al Qaeda and the Taliban, and tracked Abu Musab Zarqawi in Iraq.
Delta operators will even be awarded medals of their respective branch of service while serving with the Army unit. Generally speaking, both units are equally capable of executing all specialized missions that JSOC is tasked with. Again, because of DEVGRU's extensive training for specialized maritime operations, they are more likely to receive missions like the rescue of Captain Phillips at sea.
Members of both units are known as "quiet professionals" and are notorious for being massively secretive. Unfortunately, with today's social media, hour news coverage and leaks within the government, it can be difficult to keep out of the media no matter what steps are taken to ensure secrecy.
While both units carry out high profile missions, SEAL Team 6 has gained much more notoriety and largely unwanted exposure in the media in recent years thanks to government leaks and Hollywood blockbuster films such as Zero Dark Thirty photo above.
If someone talks, you will probably be blacklisted," says our former Delta operator. The Chiefs' star quarterback spends his free time building houses for veterans. The 5 countries that are most impossible to conquer. WATM is made in Hollywood by veterans. It's military life presented like never before. Check it out at We Are the Mighty. Army Sniper Course at Fort How can a group -- trained as professional assassins and approaching the status of mercenaries -- be reeled in if the U.
Does such a force make the United States safer or more vulnerable? It's questions like these that swirl around the United States' most elite tactical combat group, the Delta Force. Delta Force is a unit unto itself, composed of members from all branches of the military. They're not called soldiers, but operators and are said to shun the traditional philosophies of military life.
They wear civilian clothes. Mark Bowden, author of the book "Blackhawk Down" -- for which he interviewed several Delta Force members -- famously said of the operators, "They are professional soldiers who hate the Army" [source: Military. It must be said that neither the United States government nor the military officially acknowledges the existence of Delta Force. To this end, almost all of the information contained in this article is unsupported by any official reports from the United States.
It's only in recent years that vague references by the government to the group's existence have been allowed to go uncensored. These references have turned up in transcripts from Congressional hearings and biographies of high-ranking military leaders.
But it's nearly impossible to keep a force so deadly and made up of the stuff of legends entirely under wraps. Since its inception in , stories of the Delta Force's exploits and missions have leaked out, little by little, eventually forming a brief sketch of the unit.
In , Delta Force came under the microscope when its operators were among those who fought and died in a failed operation to remove a Somali warlord.
But the group has been criticized for undertaking missions that are on the fringe of regular laws governing the military. This causes some to worry that Delta Force has more power and less accountability than any military organization in a free democracy should. Delta Force is funded out of secret government accounts, away from the public eye, and is believed to answer only to the president.
But others claim that its purpose -- maintaining the United States' role as a leading power and as the world's police force -- necessitates the lack of restrictions and accountability surrounding its activities. The Delta Force is one of two military outfits in the United States charged with counterterrorist operations. In the s, the world began to see an outbreak of extremism.
Groups like Germany's Red Army Faction and the Palestinian Liberation Organization introduced new words into the global vocabulary -- words like terrorism and hijacking. As a response to the sudden and widespread emergence of terrorist ideologies, United States Army Colonel Charles Beckwith proposed that the government create a small, skilled tactical team capable of responding with quick and deadly force to terrorist activities [source: SOC].
In , Beckwith assembled the force and recruited from the Green Berets, the Army Rangers and the Airborne divisions. Beckwith created a grueling training course based on that of the British Special Air Service SAS -- an elite commando unit capable of carrying out highly specialized missions.
He used the group as a model, and today Delta Force and SAS still serve side-by-side and exchange members in their cross-training programs.
Delta Force recruits are selected based on the special skills they possess, like exceptional marksmanship. It's reputed that Delta Force recruits must show percent accuracy in shooting from yards, and 90 percent accuracy at 1, yards [source: VFW Magazine]. Beckwith also created a mile hike as an endurance test to separate the truly capable from those who had simply managed to remain in training to that point.
This method is taken directly from the SAS. Delta Force holds nationwide recruitment drives several months out of the year, culminating in two selection processes, one in the spring and one in the fall. Following the monthlong selection process, recruits who make it through move on to the training process, which is believed to last six months. Delta Force is separated into three combat squadrons -- A, B and C -- along with a support squadron, signal squadron, aviation platoon and a "funny platoon" -- the intelligence-gathering outfit of the Delta Force, rumored to be the only special operations platoon to include women.
The combat squadrons are composed of smaller units called troops, which specialize in airborne, ground or water insertion much like the Green Berets. Ultimately, troops can be split into small mission teams of up to 12 men and as few as one. Coming from military backgrounds, recruits are already trained to kill, but as Delta Force operators, they become trained killers.
As counterterrorist operatives, Delta Force members are trained in the art of hostage rescue in closed spaces. When they rescue hostages, the hostage-takers are rarely left alive.
It was Beckwith who mandated the simple two-tap method of dealing with terrorists -- two shots go into each terrorist [source: VFW Magazine]. In stark contrast to movie or TV representations, Delta Force operators don't spare those who may come back to fight them again. At its training facility, known in some circles as the "House of Horrors," Delta Force is believed to work tirelessly, honing its skills.
Its facility is believed to include buses, trains and even a passenger airliner for staging hostage-rescue scenarios. The group refines its training in close-quarters combat, and since its members are also required to be excellent marksmen, they also practice shooting regularly. The arsenal available to the Delta Force is said to be limitless.
The very best weaponry the world has to offer is at its fingertips, and much of its arms are heavily customized. The force is believed to favor submachine guns made by Heckler and Koch, the German arms manufacturer. They've also been known to use American manufacturer Browning's M82A1. Delta Force is believed to have worked directly with Heckler and Koch to develop the new model, a carbine that fires 5. High-performance submachine guns and high-powered sniper rifles alone do not make a successful Delta Force mission.
In addition to its weaponry and extensive training, Delta Force also requires a lift. In many cases, operators rely on their squadron's aviation platoon. These platoons are composed of aircraft that are painted and outfitted to look like civilian helicopters. These aircraft are even said to have made-up civilian-class registration numbers on them.
In missions where it must appear that the United States government , military or federal agencies have no official involvement, the Delta Force aviation platoon serves the battle squadrons well.
Operators invading in civilian clothes, in what looks to be civilian aircraft, create a tremendous amount of plausible deniability.
0コメント