HQ$History - United States Special Operations Command

Special Tactics Teams train during DESERT STORM.
the Corps’ planned invasion route into Iraq.
Special operations helicopters inserted teams
from the 3rd and 5th SFG (A)s into two sites.
The teams included engineers who performed
penetrometer tests on the soil, as well as combat
camera crews, who used low-level light lenses to
take still and video shots of the terrain—which
later proved to be the most valuable data collected.
The teams executed the missions without
incident.
The campaign plan for the ground war called
for the XVIII Airborne Corps and VII Corps
forces to drive deep into Iraq, flanking and then
enveloping the strong Iraqi defenses in Kuwait
and southern Iraq. This movement would leave
the flanks of both corps vulnerable to counterattack.
The corps’ commanders requested SOC-
CENT provide SR teams to go deep inside Iraq,
watch important lines of communication, and
look for enemy movement toward the
exposed flanks. G-Day was set for 24
February 1991.
Three missions provided ground
reconnaissance of the main routes that
Iraqi units could use to move into VII
Corps’ AO. Two of the missions successfully
infiltrated on 23 February; they
reported regularly on enemy activity until
advance elements of the 1st Cavalry
Division arrived on 27 February. The
third team, inserted among Iraqi forces,
had to be exfiltrated.
Special Forces launched three other SR missions
on 23 February, these in support of the
XVIII Airborne Corps. One team landed in the
middle of a Bedouin encampment and called for
an emergency exfiltration. After being picked
up, they scouted the area for an alternate site
and saw enemy activity everywhere. Coming
under anti-aircraft artillery (AAA) and surfaceto-air
missile (SAM) attack, they aborted the
mission. Another team went into the Euphrates
River Valley to report on Iraqi military traffic
moving along a major highway. During the
insertion, one of the aircraft flew so low to avoid
Iraqi radar that it tore loose its rear wheel on a
sand dune.
By daylight, the team was in place, having
dug “hide” holes in a drainage canal about 300
meters northwest of Highway 7. To the horror of
the hidden Americans, the surrounding fields
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