Chosen Soldier Read online

  CONTENTS

  TITLE PAGE

  DEDICATION

  EPIGRAPH

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  FOREWORD BY ROBERT D. KAPLAN

  INTRODUCTION

  CHAPTER 1

  SPECIAL FORCES 101—HISTORY, TRAINING, AND ORGANIZATION

  CHAPTER 2

  RECRUITING THE UNCONVENTIONAL

  CHAPTER 3

  THE PREPARATION

  CHAPTER 4

  THE SELECTION

  CHAPTER 5

  SPECIAL FORCES TACTICS

  CHAPTER 6

  THE 18 SERIES

  PHOTO INSERT

  CHAPTER 7

  THE DETACHMENT COMMANDER

  CHAPTER 8

  ROBIN SAGE

  EPILOGUE: AFTER-ACTION REVIEW

  GLOSSARY OF ACRONYMS AND MILITARY NOMENCLATURE

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  ALSO BY DICK COUCH

  COPYRIGHT

  This book is dedicated to the volunteers—the young men who join up to become special operations warriors. They are talented, capable, motivated, and intelligent, and all that America has to offer lies before them. Yet these patriots choose to enlist. They turn away from civilian opportunity and fortune for a life of sacrifice, struggle, danger, and service. And because they choose to serve, the rest of us are free to enjoy the bounty of this great nation. God bless and protect these gallant volunteers.

  “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?”

  Then I said, “Here am I. Send me.”

  —ISAIAH 6:8

  INSCRIPTION ON THE DOG TAG RESTING ON THE FLAG-DRAPED, HOMEWARD-BOUND CASKET OF AN AMERICAN SPECIAL OPERATIONS WARRIOR KILLED IN ACTION IN AFGHANISTAN, JULY 2005

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  I’d like to thank those in the Army and Army special operations chain of command who allowed me such full and complete access to Special Forces training. A special thanks is due to two commanding generals of the JFK Special Warfare Center and School—Major General Geoffrey Lambert (ret.), who approved the project, and Major General James Parker, who supported my work while he was in command. And start to finish, Colonel Manny Diemer, Commander, 1st Special Warfare Training Group, was always there to help. I especially want to acknowledge and thank the many cadre team sergeants and officers who made time for me while they went about the deadly serious business of training tomorrow’s Special Forces chosen soldiers.

  FOREWORD

  ROBERT D. KAPLAN

  In the days and weeks after 9/11, the Pentagon scrambled for options to take down the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. The most practical and available method turned out to be deploying the A-Teams of United States Army Special Forces, popularly known as the Green Berets. It wasn’t that these twelve-man detachments were necessarily the greatest commandos the armed forces could muster: rather, it was that they were the most adaptable. Whereas Navy SEALs and Army Rangers—to cite two examples—might kick in doors faster, the Green Berets could do that very well, too, as well as deal more effectively with indigenous forces of a very different culture: something that took patience, maturity, and a knack for diplomacy. The twelve-man team, which could divide into two six-man teams because of its duplication of occupational specialties, was also a perfect bureaucratic instrument that had survived throughout the decades.

  Afghanistan brought Army Special Forces, or SF as it’s known within the special operations community, full circle from the Vietnam days, involving SF in both training and fighting with indigenous forces for the first time since the 1960s and early 1970s. Since the Afghanistan campaign, Green Berets have not only fought some of the most difficult battles in Iraq, but haven’t let up around the world with their training missions, which are the bread and butter of SF.

  In Chosen Soldier, Dick Couch takes us to the heart of the Special Forces world, focusing on how an Army Special Forces soldier is created. You can’t understand SF unless you delve into the training behind it, which, in turn, reveals the cultural mentality of this branch of the Special Operations community. Thus, this is an essential book.

  Never before has SF been so prominent, and, therefore, never before has it faced so many critical decisions, which makes an understanding of Green Beret training doubly important. Think of SF as like the technology company Apple in the early days of the computer revolution, threatened by its own success, vulnerable to being copied and overshadowed by those with bigger budgets. The training missions that SF has thrived on are in the process of being imitated by the Marine Corps and others. The regular Army, for example, is experimenting with new and elite units that partially depend on the SF model. SF simply cannot go on as before. Like a corporation, it has to continually innovate and improve or risk being overtaken by copycats.

  In this context, a book about SF training serves two purposes. First, it educates a public that, while closer to its military than are the citizenry of Canada and Europe, is still too distant given the need for healthy civil-military relations. Second, it provides a basis for discussion as military leaders seek to answer thorny questions about how SF must change in the coming years. Ultimately, change and adaptation rest on a knowledge of training.

  There isn’t one military future confronting the United States, but several contradictory ones. Just as Afghanistan saw a merger of nineteenth-century warfare and twenty-first-century close air support, the next few decades will see a blending of the most basic, rudimentary techniques of counterinsurgency and unconventional warfare (in which language skills could trump technology) with the use of heavy bombers and other conventional assets. Amid this use of varied tactics one thing is clear—business will be booming for SF. And to rise to the challenge, the Green Beret training will have to constantly evolve and be tweaked. Here’s a book that can help start the process.

  Robert D. Kaplan is a national correspondent for the Atlantic Monthly and the author of eleven books, including Imperial Grunts: The American Military on the Ground. He is currently the holder of the Class of 1960 National Security Chair at the United States Naval Academy, Annapolis. The views expressed above are his own, and not those of the Academy.

  COMBAT TEAMWORK. Sergeant Aaron Dunn and Specialist Antonio Costa enter a bunker during a room-clearing tactical drill.

  INTRODUCTION

  I am an American Special Forces soldier!

  I will do all that my nation requires of me.

  I am a volunteer, knowing well the hazards of my profession.

  I serve with the memory of those who have gone before me.

  I pledge to uphold the honor and integrity of their legacy in all I am—in all I do.

  I am a warrior.

  I will teach and fight whenever and wherever my nation requires.

  I will strive always to excel in every art and artifice of war.

  I know that I will be called upon to perform tasks in isolation, far from familiar faces and voices.

  With the help and guidance of my faith, I will conquer my fears and succeed.

  I will keep my mind and body clean, alert, and strong.

  I will maintain my arms and equipment in an immaculate state befitting a Special Forces soldier, for this is my debt to those who depend on me.

  I will not fail those with whom I serve.

  I will not bring shame upon myself or the Special Forces.

  I will never leave a fallen comrade.

  I will never surrender though I am the last.

  If I am taken, I pray that I have the strength to defy my enemy.

  I am a member of my Nation’s Chosen Soldiery.

  I serve quietly, not seeking recognition or accolades.

  My goal is to succeed in my mission—and live to succeed again.

  De Oppresso Liber

  This is the creed of the Specia
l Forces soldier—the Green Beret. There’s a lot in these few lines that defines this special breed of warrior, but one stands out that defines these chosen soldiers: “I will teach and fight…” Special Forces are teachers. Like all good teachers, they have to know their trade, and their trade is the art of war. And like all good teachers, to be effective they have to gain the respect and trust of those they teach. This is not an easy task, since those they teach come from diverse ethnic and religious backgrounds. Quite often they don’t speak English. Many can neither read nor write. Yet gaining respect and trust of foreign fighters, on their home ground and within the constraints of their culture, is the stock in trade of the Special Forces soldier. These Green Berets can also fight. They’ve been engaged in every conflict of military action, declared or otherwise, since their formal inception in 1952. Along the way, twenty Special Forces soldiers have received the Medal of Honor.

  After 9/11, Army Special Forces were quickly deployed to Afghanistan. There they executed a classic unconventional-warfare campaign, an astonishing feat of arms in which the Green Berets taught and fought with distinction. The Northern Alliance, with their Army Special Forces mentors and backed by American precision airpower, swept through that feudal nation in only a few months—something the Soviet army couldn’t do in more than a decade of fighting. The invasion of Iraq was a classic exercise in conventional maneuver warfare. The 3rd Infantry Division and the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, under the superb direction of General Tommy Franks, made short work of Saddam’s army. In both these campaigns, our conventional military and special operations forces were magnificent. Technically and professionally, our forces were overwhelming. In both cases, and unlike previous wars, we took the ground and were able to leave the infrastructure largely intact. But while we won the physical terrain, we didn’t entirely win the human terrain. That’s still being contested. In Afghanistan and Iraq, our enemies learned a great deal about how to fight us. It’s unlikely that they will ever again expose themselves to our conventional military might or our airpower. They’ve gone to ground—deep in the mountains and deep into the local populations.

  The enemy has taken up the tools of the insurgent. In doing so, they’ve largely denied us the use of our technology and our conventional military superiority. And now, we must go into the mountains and the cities—among the tribes, the clans, and the urban populations—and find this elusive and deadly foe. To do this, we need the help of the locals. Simply stated, if we lose or fail to gain the popular support of the people, we lose it all. Our initial victories in Afghanistan and Iraq will have been for nothing.

  We are currently locked in an insurgent war, one that’s likely to go on for a very long while. Our enemies—al-Qaeda, the Baathists, the Islamists, the Taliban, the Wahhabis, or whatever they may be calling themselves or however they are allied—have perfected the art of insurgency warfare. Their battlefield tactics now include suicide bombers, roadside bombs (called improvised explosive devises, or IEDs), kidnapping, random murder, ritual beheadings, chaos, and terror—all in the name of religious ideology. The insurgency is alive and festering in Baghdad, Kabul, and in the mountains of the Hindu Kush. The enemy of this insurgency is not America, although we are a useful and visible target for these insurgents. Their enemy is democracy, the electoral victory of Hamas by the Palestinians notwithstanding. If the people choose—if there is government by consent of the governed—then the insurgents lose. The fact that Hamas rules by virtue of an election is against Islamic law. Should elections in Beirut or Damascus bring about a secular government, an insurgency will surely follow. Sharia, a strict and fundamentalist interpretation of Islamic law, simply cannot allow political freedom. Neither can it allow economic freedom. One reason Islamic nations are so poor is that economic freedom generates wealth, and wealth will lead to political freedom—something these insurgents cannot allow to happen.

  Since our enemies have taken up the tools of the insurgent, how do we react? How do we defeat this insurgency? Unfortunately, we’re a lot better at fighting battles against national, conventional armies than insurgent armies. And unless we want the Middle East and Southwest Asia to go the way of Vietnam, we had best perfect the tools of counterinsurgency warfare. There’s a lot at stake here. Our efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq will affect the political landscape of the entire region. How long can the House of Saud last if the Islamists (a term I apply to the radical Muslim extremists) prevail in Iraq? How long can Israel last if the followers of bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri control the vast oil wealth of the Middle East? Do we want to leave our grandchildren a world where these radicals control 70 percent of the world’s oil—wealth that will most certainly put nuclear weapons in their hands and finance a host of young zealots schooled in hate? This insurgent war must be won in Iraq and Afghanistan. Right now, our single most effective tool in this war is American Special Forces. I know my SEAL brothers may be surprised at this assertion, but Special Forces are the most valuable asset on this battlefield. The Special Forces soldier is the most important man in uniform—our most essential warrior.

  Chosen Soldier is not a book about counterinsurgency warfare per se, but I want to be clear on what is at stake in this fight, and what our nation and the world stand to lose if we flinch. If the Islamists win in Iraq and Afghanistan, they’re sure to win in many other places as well. If they can force us out of Iraq and Afghanistan and unhinge the modest democratic reforms our troops are so desperately fighting to safeguard, then I fear the dark cloud of fanaticism will claim most of the world’s billion (and growing) Muslims, and we’ll recall with some nostalgia the comparative civility of the Cold War.

  Chosen Soldier is a book about the training of Special Forces soldiers. It defines who they are, discusses where they come from, and explains what must take place before they ever don a Green Beret. The Army Special Forces soldier is a unique warrior, and the requirements of this special individual are like no other military professional. He must be tough and he must know how to fight, but there’s more than professional military skill and physical toughness involved. The Special Forces warrior requires a unique mind-set. We cannot win this insurgent war without the help of the villagers, tribes, and townspeople who represent potential sanctuary for insurgents. Warriors who understand other cultures, and who can live among them and gain their trust, have value beyond measure. These men are hard to find and, once found, must be rigorously trained and tested. Special Forces training is all about finding talented men who have adaptive, creative minds, and developing those abilities to create warriors who can succeed in hostile, ambiguous, unconventional environments. Physical toughness is a requisite; mental agility is essential. As Lieutenant Colonel Richard Carswell, a former company commander in charge of the Special Forces officer-training phase, put it, “We must find and train men who can enter an inhospitable, politically unstable situation and successfully navigate in a foreign culture. They must use all their intellect and cunning to accomplish the mission without compromising the ethical or moral standards of an American warrior.” First Sergeant Billy Sarno, who helps select and assess Special Forces trainees, said it this way: “We gotta find guys who are smart, physically fit, and who play well with others. Then we gotta train the hell out of them.”

  Not every soldier has the intelligence to learn the interpersonal and technical skills to live and work with another culture. Not every officer has the vision, maturity, and unconventional-warfare training to lead an elite force of professionals with this skill set. It’s not easy to assemble the kind of talent and experience found in a twelve-man Special Forces ODA (Operational Detachment Alpha) team. It takes time—years, actually. The average age of a Special Forces ODA team is close to thirty-two. Compare that to the average age of the entire U.S. Marine Corps—nineteen!

  Chosen Soldier is the story of how these special warriors are recruited, selected, and trained. Chosen Soldier is also the story of the making of heroes. It’s the story of unusual young men who have c
hosen a path of hardship, danger, sacrifice, and service—who they are and why they volunteer for this duty. For me personally, it was refreshing to find that a nation with an addiction for reality TV and fast food can still produce real heroes—patriots who embrace a hard and demanding life to serve their nation and to fight for the things in which they believe. Each year, some thirty-one hundred enlisted soldiers volunteer for Special Forces training. Each year, about six hundred of those soldiers are awarded the Green Beret and sew a Special Forces tab on their shoulder. Over five hundred Army officers apply for Special Forces training each year, mostly captains with five years’ experience. Most are infantry officers with combat experience, but they come from all branches of the Army. Two hundred are selected for training. Less than half of them make it through the course and go on to become Special Forces detachment leaders.

  Only one writer has ever been allowed the privilege to attend the modern version of this training start to finish. I’m honored to be that writer, albeit I only audited the course. The real thing is for the brave, the bold, and the young. And the talented. My special operations training took place almost forty years ago. In my day, I was a good special operations trainee and graduated first in my SEAL training class, so I believe that I’d have been up to the physical challenge of Special Forces training. But I have to ask myself, would I have been able to master the skill set of these cross-cultural warriors? I was good behind the gun, but would I have been good enough to work alongside and live with others, and teach them to be good behind the gun?

  In early January 2004, I received permission from the U.S. Army to do this book, subject to the approval of the U.S. Special Operations Command and U.S. Army Special Operations Command. These commands had the final say since they are, after all, engaged in fighting a war. I was then directed to the commanding general of the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, Major General Geoffrey Lambert. During our initial meeting, General Lambert made it clear to me, and to his subordinate component commanders, that he wanted me to tell the story of Special Forces training and that I was to have full access to all training venues, students, and training cadres.