HQ$History - United States Special Operations Command

war endangered Americans and other foreign
nationals. The U.S. had to deploy forces quickly
to save lives, protect the American Embassy,
and initiate a NEO. The only integrated force
with its own airlift and strike force ready and
available was SOCEUR. In fact, within hours of
redeploying from Dubrovnik to Stuttgart on 7
April, SOF aboard an MC-130H had launched
for Sierra Leone, the intermediate staging base
for Operation ASSURED RESPONSE. Using its
Air Force MH-53J helicopters (augmented later
by Army MH-47D helicopters), SOCEUR first
sent SEALs, on 9 April, and then Special Forces
to provide security for the U.S. Embassy and
implement an orderly evacuation of Americans
and third country nationals. On 13 April, the
PSYOP Task Force arrived and was ready to
conduct force protection loudspeaker operations
for ASSURED RESPONSE. SOF had the situation
well in hand and had evacuated 436
Americans and 1,677 foreign nationals when the
Marines relieved SOCEUR on 20 April 1996.
Operation SHADOW EXPRESS
SOF returned to Liberia in the fall of 1998
after violent civic unrest in Monrovia again
threatened the U.S. Embassy. On 18
September, government forces fired on Krahn
leader Roosevelt Johnson and his entourage as
they were talking to U.S. officials at the embassy
entrance. The attack wounded two U.S. personnel
and killed four Krahn. The Americans
returned fire, killing two policemen. The
Americans and the Johnson party retreated into
the embassy compound, setting the stage for an
extended siege.
The next day, Liberian President Charles
Taylor demanded Johnson’s surrender, and an
attack on the embassy appeared imminent.
EUCOM responded by directing SOCEUR to dispatch
a 12-man ESAT, which was led by Maj Joe
Becker, an Air Force SOF helicopter pilot, and
Senior Chief Petty Officer Pat Ellis, a SEAL, and
included several SOF intelligence specialists.
The ESAT team arrived at the embassy on 21
September and, within a few hours, ascertained
that an armed force was massing to attack the
compound. SCPO Ellis and Maj Becker alerted
ECOMOG, a Nigerian-led African peacekeeping
force then in Monrovia. The ESAT team and the
Marine embassy guards devised a defense plan,
with the ESAT on the chancery roof and the
Marines defending from within the building.
Shortly thereafter, an ECOMOG checkpoint
stopped two truckloads of men armed with RPG
launchers from approaching the embassy. The
State Department subsequently arranged for
the Johnson entourage to relocate to a third
country. The ESAT team planned the move,
coordinated logistical support, and provided
security for the Johnson group’s departure.
On 26 September, the Defense Department
ordered additional U.S. forces into the region. In
anticipation of this mission, SOCEUR dispatched
USS Chinook, a SOF patrol coastal ship
from Naval Special Warfare Unit 10 (NSWU-
10), toward Liberia from Rota, Spain, with an
11-meter RIB and four special boat operators
aboard. Within 12 hours of notification on the
26th, SOCEUR deployed a SOF C2 element from
NSWU-2, accompanied by about 20 SEALs, two
Air Force CCTs, and an Air Force flight surgeon,
on an MC-130 to a forward operating location in
Freetown, Sierra Leone. The force landed in
Freetown on the 27th. Chinook came into
Freetown’s port 30 minutes after the aircraft
landed, took 17 SEALs on board, and embarked
for Liberia, with the remaining SOF staying in
Freetown to maintain a tactical operations center.
By the 28th, Chinook was positioned 2,000
yards offshore from the embassy, ready to provide
an in-extremis response force.
From 29 September to 7 October, SOF maintained
a highly visible maritime presence off the
embassy’s coastline. First Chinook, and later a
Operation SHADOW EXPRESS, ESAT, ECOMOG, and
U.S. Embassy personnel patrolling in Monrovia, Liberia.
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