HQ$History - United States Special Operations Command

as well. The SOF CD effort remained a large
part of our national effort. In 1997, SOF began
to provide CD training to the Mexican Army and
Navy. Another important initiative of the late
1990s, USSOCOM began deploying patrol coast
ships to the SOUTHCOM area in order to interdict
drug smuggling.
SOF Support to Plan Colombia
At the request of the Colombian government,
SOUTHCOM in December 1998 agreed to assist
in the formation of a Colombian Army (COLAR)
CD battalion (later expanded to a brigade). In
1999, USSOCOM supported a major training
program in Colombia, whose goal was to develop
units capable of deploying rapidly and conducting
independent CD operations in all types of
terrain, weather, and visibility. SOF completed
training for all three COLAR battalions by May
2001. SOF was scheduled to provide sustainment
training to the COLAR CD Brigade on a
continuing basis.
Maritime Interdiction Operations
in the Persian Gulf
Special Operations Forces (SOF) were key
participants in anti-smuggling Maritime
Interdiction Operations (MIOs) in the Persian
Gulf. On 25 August 1990, the UN Security
Council (UNSC) passed UNSC Resolution 665
authorizing “those member states co-operating
with the government of Kuwait which are
deploying maritime forces to
the area to use such measures
. . . to halt all inward and
outward maritime shipping in
order to inspect and verify
their cargoes . . . .” The purpose
of MIOs was to halt vessels
smuggling illegal gas and
oil from Iraq and to divert
them to a port for auction of
both the smuggled goods and
the vessel.
To date, SOF have participated
in hundreds of successful
MIOs, significantly curtailing
Saddam Hussein’s
efforts to fund the rebuilding
of Iraq’s military capabilities.
79
Maritime Interdiction of Russian tanker Volgoneft-147 on
2 February 2000.
Funds derived from auctions were used to pay
for continued MIO missions.
CT-43A Recovery Operation
On several occasions during JOINT
ENDEAVOR, SOCEUR had to discharge both its
normal theater-wide responsibilities and
respond to small-scale contingencies. On 3 April
1996, a CT-43A crashed on a mountainside
above Dubrovnik, Croatia, killing all 35 aboard.
Included as passengers were Secretary of
Commerce Ron Brown, a number of corporate
executives, as well as the Air Force crew.
Special operations helicopters flew to the crash
site in some of the worst flying conditions in the
Balkans. SOCEUR completed the recovery operation
in four days, despite the extreme cold and
wet conditions and rugged mountainside terrain.
Croatia, April 1996. A Pave Low hovers near Secretary Brown’s crashed
CT-43A.