by Dick Couch
• How do they train? Get a feeling for a day in their life—do they sleep late? Do they take siestas? Do they live in garrison or will you be training men who live with their families?
“This is a short list,” Major James tells them, “but you get the idea. You can’t plan enough, and you can’t think about these things enough. Look two or three moves ahead. An action on your part to solve the immediate problem may create multiple problems down the road.”
Prior to the deployment of an ODA, a delegation from the team, usually two men, will visit the host nation to conduct a predeployment site survey. Within the context of the JCET training exercise for this FID problem, this becomes a series of role-playing events. Captain Toohey and Miguel Santos “arrive” in the host nation and go to the embassy. Their first meeting is with the embassy liaison officer, who is played by Major Brooks. Brooks’s character is a lieutenant colonel who is a logistics specialist, new to the job, and knows little about the work of Special Forces. Brooks, seated behind the desk in his office, is dressed in a white shirt and tie as he would be in an embassy setting; the captains are dressed in slacks and open-collared shirts—they’re smooth. The venue, as with most role-play training that has limited student participants, has Captains Toohey and Santos conducting the interview with the rest of the team standing behind them along the wall to listen and learn. “Lieutenant Colonel” Brooks tries to ensnare Toohey with a Special Forces demonstration at the airport and to assist him with some embassy staff work. Captain Toohey neatly sidesteps these requests. Following the interview and critique, the site-survey team and their observers climb into vans and head out to the host-nation training area—in this case, the 82nd Airborne pre-Ranger training camp.
A civilian role player in the guise of an Ecuadoran corporal takes them around the camp where the ODA will train the Ecuadoran unit—a counterinsurgency battalion. Toohey and Santos ask questions, make notes, and take pictures. Then they are led to a building where they conduct a meeting with the host-nation battalion commander. The two ODA advance men know from his bio that this commander is wealthy by birth, well educated, may have higher political aspirations, and has earned a reputation as a good commander in the field. The commander wants to talk about politics and America. Toohey and Santos have to work hard to keep him on the subject of their training mission. Following the interview, there’s a critique. What did they learn? What could they have done better to establish rapport? How could they have better handled the meeting to keep the conversations on point?
On their way back to the notional embassy and before they conclude their site survey in the host nation, Toohey, Santos, and company negotiate several more role-play encounters that challenge their ability to think on their feet and their interpersonal skills. Those encounters are omitted here to preserve their training value for future 18 Alpha officer candidates. The site-survey team and the other members of 912 head back to their team room to begin working on the JCET backbrief for their battalion commander.
Nine-one-two works all afternoon and most of the night to prepare their JCET predeployment briefing, or briefback. A battalion commander from the 7th Special Forces Group is seated at the table in the briefing room at 0800 the following morning to receive their briefing. Captain Toohey and 912 push through their formatted briefing, with the battalion commander stopping them on occasion to ask a question. And as with most briefings, much of the learning comes from the post-briefback critique. The commander compliments the team on their planning, then flips through his notes and ticks off a number of items the team should consider or consider in more detail when planning a training mission to another country:
“Don’t forget that the host-nation commander has been fighting for a while. Listen to him. What does he say about his capability? What do battalion-size operations mean to him?”
“As you rehearse for the deployment, don’t forget teaching rehearsals; they’re very important. If you’re going to train at altitude, rehearse at altitude.”
“Verify ammo requirements on the ground—ensure you have what you need, who is providing it, and what are the arrangements for storing weapons and ammunition.”
“Alcohol. Know customs and have a plan. Some cultures are hard drinkers, like eastern Europeans, and some cultures don’t drink at all.”
“Be prepared to deal with the press. War-game out the hardball questions. They’re there to get the goods on you and to embarrass you. You have to protect yourself and the host-nation force.”
“Security; this is big issue. There are people out there who want to kill you and kidnap you. Game out your security plan. Is there a history of vehicular kidnapping of Americans? Can you carry a gun while you’re out in civilian clothes?”
“One of the main jobs of your predeployment site survey is to gauge embassy support and commitment for your mission. The same for the host nation.”
“You as a team leader have to understand the range and depth of their problems. Gear and procedures are different in Macedonia than in Africa or Afghanistan.”
“Every move you make has an effect on the local economy. Think about this as you contract for services.”
“You have to war-game the training and decide if you are going to conduct the training for the host-nation force or if you’re going to train the trainers—their senior training sergeants. The latter is usually better, as we can get them to do the job so we can go home. At all times, do what’s best for the men you have to train.”
“And always, always, always see to the safety of your men. Good luck to all of you.”
Following the foreign-internal-defense planning exercise and briefback, the men of 912 secure their FID training materials and prepare for a trip to Washington. Well before dawn the following day, the officers of Class 1-05 are on a bus bound for D.C. There they will receive classified briefings from the deputy director for special operations at the Pentagon, and representatives at the State Department, the Defense Intelligence Agency, and the Central Intelligence Agency.
For the most part, these programs are designed to give these future detachment leaders some feel for the organization of these agencies and departments, how they communicate with the Defense Department, and how their overseas representatives and programs may interact or support the work of Special Forces. At State, they spend time with a former ambassador who speaks about his relations with ODAs that worked within his country. At the CIA, they meet with senior officers of the Special Activities Division. Most of these briefings have a Middle East/Afghanistan/Iraq bias.
Nine-one-two musters in the team room at 0700 following their return from the nation’s capital. “I know you guys didn’t get back until late last night,” Major Eric James tells his captains, “and you may find yourselves a little short on sack time from here on out. There’s a lot of ground to cover and not much time left. Now we begin unconventional warfare. The UW planning exercise will be intense and take you deeply into the Pineland order of battle and the Robin Sage exercise scenario that is a big part of Phase IV.
“You all saw the detail that goes into planning a mission to help an allied force defend itself against insurgents. Now we’re going to plan an insurgency. We are the ones who’re now going to help the insurgents to oust the government in power. Although we don’t call them insurgents anymore; they are now guerrillas or freedom fighters. Guys, let me tell you, this is hard stuff. Most of you have worked with battle staffs with a full complement of operational planners, logisticians, communications specialists, combat support elements—the whole enchilada. As a team leader taking an ODA into a UW environment, the whole thing falls to you. You are not planning a single mission; you are planning a whole campaign. You have the formatted MDMP to guide you, but it’s only a guide. You’ll have to ask a lot of questions and get very detailed in your planning. In a UW scenario, every move you make has to be gamed for its impact down the line—how it impacts your guerrilla force, how it affects the local population, and how it supports the commander’s intent and you
r mission.”
Major James passes out an exercise message that tasks student ODA 912 with preparing to enter the nation of Pineland ahead of conventional coalition forces. Their mission is to train and organize the irregular forces that now oppose the government of Pineland, and to conduct an unconventional-warfare campaign. They are also to provide intelligence and condition the battle space for an invasion by coalition forces. He gives them a few minutes to read the tasking.
“Your planning has to take into account the capability of the guerrilla force in place and the capability of the enemy. How can you target the enemy’s command-and-control infrastructure with your force? Think of the reaction of the enemy; what do you want to show on the battlefield—what’s your signature? You can think way out of the box; your only constraints are a reasonable measure of support and the moral and legal constraints that’re always part of what we do. I want to see some good thinking on how to get the job done with minimum risk to you and the local assets you have available to you. In the Robin Sage exercise, there will be both physical and exercise constraints that are artificial. In this planning exercise, you can turn yourself loose—be creative within reason. This is downrange important. You will do this for real.
“As you build your potential courses of action, keep in mind that you are preparing your sector for a follow-on conventional allied operation. What intelligence can you send back to help with that operation? What’s the suitability for the primary and secondary roads to support division-sized movement? How effective are the Pineland internal security forces? How do you identify spies among the guerrillas you are going to train and take into battle? What are the potential targets that you can begin to identify that will degrade or disrupt the enemy’s mobility? What are your plans for the demobilization of your guerrilla force after D-day? See what I’m getting at? You’ve a lot of planning to do and a lot of questions that need answers. And every move you make has to be thoroughly war-gamed. What does that decision mean now and how does that decision affect events in the campaign that will take place tomorrow and the next day?
“You’ll have only a single day to work up your courses of action and present them to the commander tomorrow morning. Give these options a lot of thought, and which one you will recommend and why. Captain Santos, you will be the team leader for this one. The rest of the assignments are posted on the board. Good luck, gentlemen.”
Miguel Santos smiles slowly and shakes his head. He seems to have known he would be tapped for the final problem. It’ll be 912’s most difficult challenge in Phase III, but Captain Santos is perhaps the best planner in the student ODA.
“OK,” Santos says to his team after James leaves, “who’s my intelligence sergeant?”
“Right here,” answers the captain from the 75th Ranger Regiment.
“Get started on building an intel file and see that everyone is read into the problem. Also start listing additional information requirements we’ll ask for as we move into the problem. Who’s my assistant detachment commander?”
“Right here, Miguel.”
“You and the team sergeant start building a timeline and milestones leading to the courses of action briefing at 0800 tomorrow morning.” Santos checks his watch. “For the next few hours, it’s a mission-analysis drill. What you don’t find in the scenario file and message traffic, get it on the information requirement list. OK, guys, let’s get it done.” ODA 912 breaks into a flurry of activity.
The officers work through lunch and send out for pizza for the evening meal. About 2100, Major James drops by to see how they’re coming on their courses of action. He studies each one carefully. The one they have selected and directed much of their extended planning effort on is not what he had in mind.
“That’s why you have to war-game each of these approaches; look weeks down the line at where each course of action will take you. Think about how long you’ll be in the field under this scenario. What happens if there’s no aerial resupply? What if the guerrillas fail to provide the mobility you need? If this is your initial target list, how’re you going to move about to hit them all? And think about these targets. Your job is to do what a smart bomb cannot do, like snatching a Pineland leader from a moving vehicle or hitting an armory to get arms for your guerrillas.”
After some discussion, a new “recommended” course of action is chosen, and 912 goes back to work. They work through the night, and at 0800, a weary group of captains briefs Major Brooks on the range of options considered for the mission and the course of action they think will best serve the mission and the commander’s intent.
With a course of action chosen, the heavy lifting of planning an unconventional-warfare mission shifts into high gear. Information is fed to ODA 912 by the training cadre as they respond to intelligence data requested by the student ODA. There are briefings from the scenario command-staff intelligence officer on current events in Pineland and from the command-staff operations officer to refine the commander’s intent, key tasks, and the desired end state of their mission. Other briefings, with cadre sergeants serving as support staff personnel, cover communications, medical support, and logistics. Nine-one-two also speaks to the pilot who will be supporting the mission and interviews a refugee from Pineland. There’s also a briefing by a legal officer from the 7th Group. Part of what he tells 912 is exercise related and a great deal of it is real world.
“You’re always going to have rules of engagement—ROEs will be a fact of your deployed life. And, you’re always going to be concerned with the safety of your men. That said, the basis of ROEs is ‘proportional response.’ ROEs are rooted in political, military, and legal parameters. Civilians are protected persons, and you are accountable for any harm that comes to them through your actions. You have a right to self-defense, but if civilians get hurt or killed, you’ll have to be able to articulate your position in the action. Know and understand the standard ROEs and how those ROEs apply to your area of operation. Rules of engagement have to be part of your planning, here in the Q-Course and down range. And the Robin Sage exercise in Phase IV is the last time you’ll see an enemy in uniform. Remember, we have ROEs; they do not.”
Captain Santos and one of his men conduct these interviews or receive the briefings with the rest of the ODA in close attendance. Master Sergeant Rameres sits in on all of them and conducts a short critique after each.
“Always remember that no matter whether it’s a local civilian or the battalion communicator or a pilot, every one of these people can help you with your mission. Take a moment or more as necessary to build rapport and elicit every scrap of information you can. You need what these people know and can do for you, and if you’re not sure of what they’re telling you, ask the question a different way. And be careful what information you give. With the pilot, tell him only what he has to know to support your mission. He may become a POW, and you don’t want him to have the details of your movements on the ground.”
Three days after the course of action briefing, Captain Santos stands before Lieutenant Colonel Jim Jackson, the 1st Battalion commander, to deliver his briefback. He begins with an overview of the mission, a restatement of the commander’s intent, and the desired end state. Then he plunges into the mechanics of the operation. All of the team members contribute, but Santos does most of the talking. The briefback details ODA 912’s mission, the team leader’s intent, task organization, threat analysis, concept of operations, logistics, command and signal, and personnel issues. Two hours and seventy-six PowerPoint slides later, Santos asks if there are any questions. There is close to an hour of critique and discussion of 912’s planning effort. Lieutenant Colonel Jackson’s comments are a balance of the exercise briefback critique and considerations for real-world operational planning.
“You have to plan carefully and you have to plan methodically,” Jackson says in closing. “Don’t forget the administrative issues. It’s easy to go past the admin stuff and into the meat of the mission. Get into the details that protect your
people. When you deploy for real, make sure your men have a will made out. Make sure it’s in writing how and where they want to be buried and who gets the insurance money. Keep track of your funds; helos crash, and money gets burned up. These are real-world issues. Build these details into your training scenarios—you’ll soon be doing this down range, where it counts. Looking ahead to Robin Sage in Phase IV, you’ll have one more time to do this in training before it’s real—real lives and real bullets. If you can manage an unconventional-warfare campaign within the political, military, and cultural boundaries of the Pineland scenario, you can handle any unconventional-warfare or foreign-internal-defense situation in the world. That’s where we are going with this. We’ll see you gentlemen out at Camp Mackall in a week or so.”
The last item before the student captains from 912 leave Phase III is their final counseling sessions. These sessions are much like the mid-course counseling, but more in depth. The 18 Alpha candidates’ Special Forces training folders are getting pretty fat by this stage of the Q-Course. Each one is a detailed chronology of the officer’s performance, along with specific comments and evaluations since the beginning of Phase II. There are summations of counseling sessions, TAIS coaching points, Volkmann Exercise performance reports, role-playing contact reports, debriefing reports, self-assessment reports, leadership assessment reports, peer evaluations, spot reports—both positive and negative—and their physical training scores. This is not the first special operations training venue I’ve been around, and I can say I have never seen this much attention to so much detail—such focus on individual performance and analysis. Each man’s jacket has eight to ten pages of typewritten assessment and critique information.
The End of Phase Counseling Evaluation usually begins with an overall recommendation for continuation in the Q-Course. As the senior small-group instructor, Major James rates every member of 912 regarding his technical, physical, and mental performance. This evaluation goes into specifics about the candidate’s strengths and weaknesses, as well as the progress he has made during the phase. Where credit was due, he gave it.