Special Forces

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SPECIAL FORCES

SPECIAL FORCES. As elite, specialized military units, Special Operations Forces (SOF) of each military service have participated in most U.S. conflicts since World War II. Exploiting their unique operational capabilities, SOF units can execute a variety of missions, many entailing the clandestine insertion of SOF by land, air, or sea. SOF most frequently conduct activities such as direct action (raids, ambushes, hostage rescues, and "surgical" strikes); strategic reconnaissance, usually in hostile territory; unconventional warfare, including advising and supporting indigenous insurgent and resistance groups; foreign internal defense (assisting a host nation to defeat insurgency); civil affairs and psychological operations; counter terrorism; humanitarian assistance; and search and rescue operations. The strength of SOF in the active and reserve components of the Army, Navy, and Air Force as of October 2001 was about 43,000, or nearly 2 percent of total U.S. military strength. In recognition of the growing importance of special operations, Congress established a new unified command, the U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM), in 1986 to oversee the doctrine, training, and equipping of all U.S. SOF. Each armed service also has established its own special operations command, which serve as component commands of USSOCOM.

With a strength of about 26,000 in 2001, U.S. Army SOF consist of Special Forces, Rangers, special operations aviation units, civil affairs and psychological operations units, and special operations support units allocated among the Active Army, the Army Reserve, and the Army National Guard. The U.S. Special Forces (USSF) was organized 20 June 1952 at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, as the first permanent unconventional warfare unit in the Army since World War II. Signifying its elite status, USSF was authorized in September 1961 to wear a distinctive green beret, the term "Green Beret" henceforth being synonymous with the USSF.

Under President John F. Kennedy, the USSF's role in counterinsurgency operations, particularly in Southeast Asia, expanded—initially under the auspices of the Central Intelligence Agency and later under U.S. military control. The USSF mobilized Montagnard tribesmen in support of South Vietnam's struggle against the Viet Cong as part of the Civilian Irregular Defense Group program, organizing village defenses and mobile strike forces. Other USSF teams conducted covert cross-border operations as part of the highly secret U.S. Studies and Observation Group. At their peak strength in 1968, more than 3,500 Green Berets were in Vietnam. Green Berets also served in Latin America during the 1960s and, for example, helped Bolivian forces to track down and execute Che Guevara, the Cuban revolutionary, in 1967.

Since the Vietnam War, USSF teams have carried out foreign internal defense training, counter drug, and humanitarian missions mainly in Latin America and Africa. Together with Rangers and other Army SOF, Special Forces have participated in U.S. operations in Grenada, Panama, Kuwait and Iraq, Somalia, Haiti, and the Balkans. From October 2001 through 2002, Army SOF, joined by Navy and Air Force SOF, have played a significant role in counter terrorist operations in Afghanistan, conducting clandestine reconnaissance missions, advising and assisting anti-Taliban forces, and executing raids and "snatch-and-grab" operations. The First Special Forces Operational Detachment–Delta, or Delta Force, has traditionally conducted highly secret and dangerous counter terrorist, hostage rescue, and other classified operations, often assisted by Rangers and other SOF. The Delta Force took part in the aborted U.S. hostage rescue attempt in Iran in 1980 and in the failed attempt to capture a Somali warlord in Mogadishu in 1993. Civil affairs and psychological operations units are among the most often deployed Army SOF components.

Numbering about 10,000 active and reserve Air Force personnel in 2001, Air Force SOF consist of fixed and rotary wing aircraft units and supporting units whose missions include insertion and extraction, resupply, aerial fire support, air interdiction, force protection, aerial refueling, combat search and rescue, psychological operations, operation and defense of expeditionary airfields, and other specialized missions. Air Force SOF missions often are carried out at night and in adverse weather conditions. During the Cold War, Air Force special operations were conducted in Korea, Tibet, Libya, Cuba, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Iran, Grenada and elsewhere. During the Korean War, Air Force SOF dropped agents behind enemy lines, performed search and rescue missions for downed pilots, conducted psychological warfare and intelligence collection operations, supported partisan warfare, and flew resupply over flights to agents in China and Siberia. Later Air Force SOF were prominent in support of operations in Panama, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait, in U.S. efforts following the Persian Gulf War to contain Iraq, and in support of U.S. interventions in Somalia, the Balkans, and Afghanistan.

Naval SOF include about 5,000 active and 1,200 reserve personnel organized into SEAL (Sea, Air, Land) Teams, Special Boat Units, and SEAL Delivery Vehicle teams. The SEALs evolved from the Navy's World War II Combat Swimmer Reconnaissance Units, which reconnoitered and cleared beach obstacles to assist amphibious landings, and Navy Underwater Demolition Teams (UDT), or "frogmen," which were organized in 1947 as underwater strike units. In response to President Kennedy's mandate to strengthen American counterinsurgency forces, the Navy formed its first SEAL teams in January 1962, using members of the UDTs. Two SEAL teams, each with a strength of about 200 were activated, one team each assigned to the Atlantic and Pacific Fleets. Approximately 20 SEAL units participated in the Vietnam War, serving as advisers, conducting counter guerrilla operations in the Mekong Delta, and executing covert maritime incursions in North Vietnam to gather intelligence and rescue American prisoners of war. SEALs have taken part in nearly all major Cold War and post–Cold War U.S. military operations through 2002, including the invasion of Grenada, the intervention in Panama (in which four SEALS were killed in action), and the Persian Gulf War, in which SEALs conducted pilot rescue operations, located and disabled mines, carried out sea patrols and deception operations, and executed small raids. Their versatility was again demonstrated in Afghanistan where SEALS, inserted by ship-launched helicopters, were among the first American units to enter that landlocked country in the initial stages of counter terrorist operations.

The Marine Corps has no dedicated SOF units, although a Marine Expeditionary Unit of an infantry battalion and a small air detachment can be trained for special operations as required by circumstances.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Haas, Michael E. Apollo's Warriors: United States Air Force Special Operations during the Cold War. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1997.

Hoyt, Edwin P. Seals at War. New York: Dell, 1993.

Marquis, Susan L. Unconventional Warfare: Rebuilding U.S. Special Operations Forces. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institute, 1997.

Paddock, Alfred H., Jr. U.S. Army Special Warfare: Its Origins, Psychological and Unconventional Warfare 1941–1952. Washington, D.C.: National Defense University Press, 1982.

Stanton, Shelby L. Green Berets at War: U.S. Army Special Forces in Southeast Asia, 1956–1975. Novato, Calif.: Presidio Press, 1985.

Vincent H.Demma

Dictionary of American History