Chosen Soldier - Dick Couch [101]
“I don’t have to tell you that you had poor coordination with your fire-support element,” the cadre sergeant tells them as we stand around a large fire at the target site. “That’s why you have to have an alternate method of communication if, as it happened here, your squad radio fails. Now, two of the bad guys ran off when you made your assault. This can happen. So what do you do? Let them go? Chase them down? Chasing after them can be very dangerous—they know the lay of the land and you don’t. Shoot them? Very soon, you’re going to be operating in a reality-based world, not a school-solution world. Every shoot/ no-shoot decision is driven by tactical imperatives and the area situation. Is the guy who runs just a scared dude? Does he represent a future tactical threat? Is he an al-Qaeda leader? Will killing this guy serve the mission or simply make insurgents of his extended family? These are life-and-death decisions, and you guys are going to be making them for real. Are you with me here?”
Eight-one-one’s patrol to the target area, the target recon, the setup, the attack, the chasing down of enemy soldiers, and the after-action critique are all made in a December downpour. The ODA, the cadre sergeants, the role players, and the writer are all soaked to the skin. “OK, guys,” the cadre sergeant tells 811, “you’re on your own time. When you’re sufficiently dry and warm, let’s get back at it.” Then the exercise continues.
Specialist Costa is the patrol leader for the fourth target, the recovery of an injured NGO (nongovernmental organization) worker. The worker, an International Red Cross employee, is in the hands of mountain tribesmen who are camped near the edge of a pine forest. They’re bandits, so the environment is semipermissive, which means not totally hostile. Costa sets out two sniper elements to cover the camp while he and PFC Baker approach the tribesmen to negotiate for the release of the NGO worker. It takes a show of force and a promise of future payment to gain the release of the worker.
The fifth target finds them. Private First Class Pantella is leading 811 to the next set of coordinates when his point man spots a vehicle and a file of enemy soldiers heading their way. The team quickly sets a hasty ambush and engages them. After the firefight, the exercise becomes a drill in searching the EPWs and the vehicle for sensitive information. As on all the other missions on this final field exercise, the target cadre sergeant holds an after-action critique. Eight-one-one is doing a lot of things right, but there’s always some aspect of the mission or the engagement that could have been better. The learning never stops.
From my perspective, I’m very impressed with the time and attention given to these training scenarios. Some role players are soldiers from Fort Bragg awaiting the start of their SF training, or former SF candidates recovering from injuries acquired in a previous class who will return to training when they are healed. Others are volunteers from various SOF and non-SOF units based at Bragg. They work hard; it’s not easy being a target, nor is it all that pleasant getting roughed up in an EPW personnel search. I’m able to get out to see a few other student ODAs working in this training area. I try to be objective, but they don’t seem quite as proficient or as professional as 811. But then, 811 is my team. It could be I’m just a little biased.
The sixth target is another raid, but with a twist. The target tasking is again radioed to them. It is a small enemy base camp that is reported to hold an American POW. Sergeant Dunn, the former radar technician, is the patrol leader. Dunn puts his team in security perimeter and sends out two recon