HQ$History - United States Special Operations Command

Combined Exchange Training (JCET). Their
mission was to train and promote a professional,
apolitical military, one supportive of the elected
government. On 25 May 1997, rebel forces and
military members toppled the government.
Once rebel shooting erupted at their training
site, Special Forces soldiers manned security
positions inside their compound, communicated
with SOCEUR and EUCOM, and established
intermittent contact with the embassy.
The next day, the detachment moved the 20
miles to Freetown. The Special Forces soldiers
had to pass through two rebel roadblocks and
near an army post, but the rapport with their
former trainees enabled the Americans to proceed
safely to the embassy.
In Freetown, the detachment commander
divided his team to secure the two embassy compounds,
and team members performed advance
force operations, including reconnoitering the
HLZ on the coast. They also defused a tense situation
during a meeting of the senior ambassadors
and rebel forces at the British High
Commission residence. All of these activities
required movement through a town torn apart
by looting and indiscriminate fire.
On 29 May, team members conducted an
early morning patrol through rebel-held areas to
secure the landing zone (LZ) for the Marines
from the 22nd MEU. They established sniper
positions, security, and coordinated with the
Nigerians before the Marine helicopters arrived.
The next day, the NEO began, and after escorting
official U.S. personnel to the LZ, Special
Forces soldiers served as a buffer by establishing
Operation NOBLE OBELISK (May 1997) Special Forces
soldiers were in doing PT when a rebel force began
shooting in their compound.
two blocking positions between the Marines and
the marauding rebels. They succeeded in turning
back rebel forces trying to reach the LZ. The
NEO evacuations ran from 30 May through 3
June, and a total of 2,509 people (including 454
U.S. citizens) were evacuated.
SOF played critical, but very different roles
in numerous NEOs in the late 1990s. General
Henry H. Shelton attributed ASSURED
RESPONSE’s success to SOCEUR having “the
right organization, the best equipment and,
most important, the finest men and women ever
fielded in special operations.” SOF operators
emphasized that “training as you are going to
fight” fully prepared them for this short notice
contingency. The NEO in Sierra Leone was
ostensibly a Marine operation, but SOF made a
critical difference by being in the right place at
the right time. A mere 13 soldiers saved the
embassy from further looting, protected crucial
talks between senior ambassadors and the rebel
leaders, and prevented firefights between the
Marines and the rebels. Special Forces soldiers’
so-called non-military skills—cultural sensitivity
and area familiarization—paid large dividends.
Likewise, the Special Forces sergeant in
the American embassy during SILVER WAKE
responded creatively in very fluid and ambiguous
circumstances. Also, SOF participated in
NEOs in the Congo and in Liberia for a second
time. These NEOs demonstrated that SOF were
the right force for situations that required independent
initiative and mature professionalism
to execute U.S. policy.
Operation FIRM RESPONSE
Civil unrest in Brazzaville, the Congo, led
EUCOM to direct SOCEUR to prepare to deploy
an ESAT and follow-on forces for an embassy
reinforcement and possible evacuation. Twentytwo
American and six Marine guards remained
in the embassy as the security situation deteriorated
quickly. The French had about 1,500
troops on the ground with armored vehicles and
commandeered private vehicles outfitted for
mounted patrols.
On 10 June, BG Geoffrey C. Lambert, COM-
SOCEUR, sent a 12-man ESAT with six support
personnel in a 7th SOS MC-130H to Brazzaville
to link-up with the defense attaché and French
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