HQ$History - United States Special Operations Command

Operation SILVER ANVIL
Noncombatant Evacuation Operations
Special Operations Command,
Europe (SOCEUR) conducted
Operation SILVER ANVIL, a noncombatant
evacuation operation
(NEO) during a coup in Sierra
Leone in Spring 1992.
Commanded by Brigadier General
Richard W. Potter, SOCEUR and
its components planned the operation,
deployed, successfully conducted
an evacuation from a
remote location, sustained themselves,
and redeployed, without
any assistance from conventional
forces.
The NEO force consisted of Commander
Special Operations Command, Europe (COM-
SOCEUR), elements from Company C, 1st Bn,
10th SFG (A) [1-10th SFG (A)], and the 39th
SOW (since redesignated the 352nd Special
Operations Group). Also included were communications
specialists from the SOCEUR Signal
Detachment, along with other SOCEUR staff,
two MC-130 Combat Talons from the 7th Special
Operations Squadron (SOS), two HC-130
tankers from the 67th SOS, aircrews, CCTs, and
maintenance personnel.
On the night of 29 April 1992, Company C
was conducting an exercise at Stuttgart, when
BG Potter informed them of a coup in Freetown,
Sierra Leone, and directed them to begin work
on the “real-world” mission. Within 15 hours of
notification, SOF performed mission analysis,
configured the unit’s equipment, wrote orders,
issued war-stocks, loaded the aircraft,
and deployed. The coup in
Sierra Leone had created an unstable
security environment, but SOF quickly
developed a rapport with the local
military and arranged for a safe evacuation
with no incidents. They evacuated
over 400 American citizens,
third-country noncombatants, and
USAF MEDCAP team members in
the following two days.
Previously, EUCOM had concentrated
on Cold War operations, so
Engine Running Onload (ERO) of a group of U.S. citizens departing Lungi
Airport on 3 May.
80
SILVER ANVIL signaled a transition as
EUCOM focused more on crisis response operations.
Because of SOF’s success in Sierra Leone,
they became EUCOM’s force of choice for first
response in crises. Building on lessons learned
from SILVER ANVIL, SOCEUR developed a
capability to execute contingency operations
anywhere in the theater within hours of notification.
The embassy assessment that the JSOTF
conducted in Freetown became a model for the
EUCOM survey and assessment teams (ESAT)
that SOCEUR would deploy to other embassies
in later years.
Operation ASSURED RESPONSE
In the spring of 1996, while SOF were finishing
the CT-43A recovery effort, SOCEUR
responded to a crisis in Liberia, where a civil
Operation ASSURED RESPONSE (April 1996) SOF
evacuated over 2,100 noncombatants from the U.S. Embassy in Liberia.