HQ$History - United States Special Operations Command

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sanitation, and were instrumental in dramatically reducing the death rate. SEALs and Special Boat Unit personnel provided medical support and security in camps. Psychological Operations forces supported efforts to end chaotic conditions by producing millions of leaflets and by loudspeaker presentations. The efforts also helped to convince the Kurds to return to their homes. SOF were credited with saving thousands of lives by providing skilled personnel to rebuild the civil infrastructure, establish supply networks, and furnish medical assistance and training. Humanitarian Mine Action Landmines have proven to be one of the most dangerous and lasting problems created by recent conflicts. USSOCOM was a leader in the effort to cope with the humanitarian disaster caused by the 100,000,000 mines buried around the world. SOF conducted humanitarian demining operations first in Operation SAFE PAS- SAGE in 1988. At that time, over 10,000,000 landmines remained from the Soviet invasion, preventing millions of refugees from returning to Afghanistan. Troops from 5th SFG (A) deployed to Pakistan to work with the Afghan refugees and the UN. SAFE PASSAGE became the test-bed and prototype for subsequent humanitarian demining operations by both the UN and SOF. Special Forces soldiers faced enormous challenges. There was no effective Afghan government, and work with the refugees had to be coor- Operation SAFE PASSAGE (1989-1991) In a camp in Pakistan, a Special Forces NCO and an Afghan instructor teach mine clearing techniques to Afghan refugees. 75 dinated with the UN, Pakistan, and a vast array of private organizations. In this amorphous situation, Special Forces troops had to invent humanitarian demining doctrine and sell it to the other agencies. The mutually suspicious Afghan tribes and factions required the Special Forces to use their political skills as well as their technical knowledge. SOF developed training programs and employed the “train the trainer” concept so the Afghans could run the demining program themselves and continue the program without outside assistance. This technique enabled millions of Afghans to know how to identify, avoid, mark and report mines, and thousands of Afghans learned how to destroy mines. By the time the Special Forces troops left in 1991, the Afghans were conducting effective mine clearing operations. SOF and the UN next conducted demining operations in Cambodia in 1993. Since then, the U.S. humanitarian demining program has expanded dramatically. In 2001, SOF conducted humanitarian demining activities in 19 countries: Argentina, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, Costa Rica, Djibouti, Ecuador, Egypt, Estonia, Georgia, Guatemala, Honduras, Mauritania, Nicaragua, Oman, Peru, Thailand, Vietnam, and Zambia. Each situation was very different because of various types of mines—40 different types of mines were found in Afghanistan alone—the multitude of organizations, and the wide ranging terrain and environmental conditions—from the Sahara Desert to mountainous jungles. Time and again, the knowledge, flexibility, and resourcefulness of SOF enabled them to adjust the program to suit local political, geographic, and technical circumstances. The humanitarian demining program had three critical elements: mine awareness, mine survey and clearance, and national C2. Mine awareness reduced civilian casualties by teaching people how to spot mines, how to get out of a mined area safely, and how to mark and report mined areas. The 4th
In conjunction with the UN, the Organization of American States, and DC Comics, PSYOP soldiers distributed mine awareness comic books to Central American children. POG took the lead in mine awareness and developed effective programs tailored to the specific needs of each country. These programs used every sort of media from radio and television to T-shirts, caps, book bags, and comic books. The Special Forces Groups developed and taught the mine survey and clearance portions of the program. SOF mine survey teams determined the actual size of the mined area. Mine clearing, the centerpiece of the program, was slow and potentially very dangerous work, so proper training was critical. Special Forces soldiers employed the “train-the-trainer” approach that trained mineclearers as well as indigenous 76 mineclearing instructors, and eventually led to the establishment of national demining schools. Civil Affairs troops worked with the host nation to establish a national demining headquarters. In most nations, civilian agencies ran the mine awareness programs. Coordinating the efforts of several different ministries and determining the sequence of demining operations were politically sensitive and critical to the success of the demining operations. Civil Affairs troops, therefore, were ideally suited for helping developing nations solve these thorny problems and integrating humanitarian demining into national recovery and development plans. In 1997, President Clinton committed the U.S. to eliminating the threat of landmines to civilians by 2010. To achieve this ambitious goal, USSOCOM’s humanitarian demining effort expanded substantially in 1998 and 1999. Whereas in 1997 SOF had deployed to 14 countries to support humanitarian demining operations, by 1999 that figure had doubled to 28. One of the more complex operations occurred in Bosnia-Herzegovina, where SOF worked with the UN, the U.S. State Department, NATO’s SFOR, and the armies representing each of Bosnia’s ethnic groups to establish three demining training centers in the country. In 1998, SOF trained and equipped instructor cadres for the Bosnian Serbs, Croats, and Muslims and guided them through their first demining classes. SOF also helped the local forces transform ruined buildings into professional training facilities and taught them how to sustain their training operations. By the end of 1999, the three training centers had graduated more than 500 deminers, who helped to revitalize the Bosnia-Herzegovina economy by restor-
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HISTORY 6th Edition
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1968 - The future home of U.S. Stri
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General James J. Lindsay accepting
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Senator Sam Nunn (D-GA) Senator Wil
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USSOCOM Commanders There have been
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the impact on its people, the comma
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Mission and Organization USSOCOM’
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Logistics (SOAL). Finally, the Chie
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During the review process for the 2
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HQ USSOCOM Organization Chart 2006
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greatly improved the command’s ab
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(7) JMISC continued to provide PSYO
Page 25 and 26: USSOCOM’s MFP-11. By FY 2006, the
Page 27 and 28: forming its acquisition functions a
Page 29 and 30: nature were key goals in addition t
Page 31 and 32: COMMANDER’S TOP PRIORITIES FOR FY
Page 33 and 34: President George W. Bush signed the
Page 35 and 36: Iran Ajr, caught laying mines, was
Page 37 and 38: The invasion of Panama, known as Op
Page 39 and 40: Capturing Torrijos/Tocumen was cruc
Page 41 and 42: ful seizure of the Torrijos/Tocumen
Page 43 and 44: second pass, one pilot saw movement
Page 45 and 46: Harbor by having SEALs place demoli
Page 47 and 48: BLACK elements returned to Albrook
Page 49 and 50: Noriega’s Surrender: After his ap
Page 51 and 52: joint training with NSWTG small boa
Page 53 and 54: Special Tactics Teams train during
Page 55 and 56: Schwarzkopf that he and AFSOCCENT w
Page 57 and 58: SCUD hunting patrol in western Iraq
Page 59 and 60: In January 1981, the FMLN (Farabund
Page 61 and 62: HOPE. On 12 January 1993, a Special
Page 63 and 64: missions into Mogadishu, all of whi
Page 65 and 66: Haiti had endured unremitting polit
Page 67 and 68: of Haiti. These themes stressed nat
Page 69 and 70: In the early 1990s, rival ethnic st
Page 71 and 72: what they had done for JOINT ENDEAV
Page 73 and 74: Kosovo Operation ALLIED FORCE NATO
Page 75: Peace Operations and Crisis Respons
Page 79 and 80: Special Forces soldiers train Niger
Page 81 and 82: Operation SILVER ANVIL Noncombatant
Page 83 and 84: second patrol coastal vessel, USS F
Page 85 and 86: Operation FIRM RESPONSE, ESAT vehic
Page 87 and 88: In Phase II, the relief phase, CA s
Page 89 and 90: No other international donor has ma
Page 91 and 92: flooded and damaged areas, signific
Page 93 and 94: government, so the “lead agency
Page 95 and 96: Objective Rhino, a desert landing s
Page 97 and 98: ather than target coordinates into
Page 99 and 100: would prove adequate to both assaul
Page 101 and 102: 100 Despite what, in retrospect, ma
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Page 105 and 106: the valley. Takur Ghar was a perfec
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Page 109 and 110: not designed to form a JSOTF. DAGGE
Page 111 and 112: Special Forces began training the A
Page 113 and 114: During 2003, however, Afghanistan s
Page 115 and 116: east of the city of Khowst. While b
Page 117 and 118: Operation RED WINGS LT Michael P. M
Page 119 and 120: their combat operations in southern
Page 121 and 122: Force (SOTF) 71 was CJSOTF’s batt
Page 123 and 124: Civil Affairs (CA) augmentation. Th
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TEXACO) and metering and manifold s
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accordance with his importance, Sad
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Saddam’s regime, terrorists, and
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with Iraqi police units. SOF have c
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increasing security in Iraq. The ER
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“extra-judicial killings” condu
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Operation ENDURING FREEDOM Trans-Sa
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Training in Yemen In December 2005,
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esulting operation known as Balikat
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that template, SOCPAC deployed one
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CTJTF..Counterterrorist Joint Task
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Command, Central SOCEUR....Special
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AQIZ: 134, 135 Al Qaim: 127, 136 Al
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Guatemala: 75 H Haditha: 127, 129 H
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47, 48 Northern Alliance: 91, 92, 9
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United Arab Emirates: 73, 118, 119,
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HQ$History - United States Special Operations Command

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