Chosen Soldier - Dick Couch [79]
“He’s one of the better soldiers in this group, and he’s already breaking out as a leader. He’s also a quick study in picking up the mechanics of small-unit tactics.” Sergeant Tell knows about Kendall’s martial-arts background, just as he knows the first name and background of everyone in his student ODA.
That afternoon Kendall puts out a formatted warning order, a short briefing that alerts his team of the mission, itemizes what equipment they need to prepare, and makes team assignments for the mission. The team plans for the mission most of the afternoon and evening and, at 2200, Kendall gives his team their operations order, a premission briefing that walks the men through the mission, start to finish. Various team members step before the group to give their portion of the briefing—weather, communications, routes to and from the objective, enemy forces in the area, and so on. All of them are in battle dress and their faces are camouflaged. Kendall gives the all-important actions-on-target portion of the briefing, using the sand tables on which scale models of the target area have been created. Sandbox 101 is a required course in Special Forces training. There are toy trucks, toy soldiers, and vegetation scrounged from the nearby woods. The mission is an ambush of a squad of enemy soldiers. Kendall covers setting the ambush, executing the ambush, searching the bodies, and the exfiltration plan. He also covers a dizzying array of details, contingencies, and procedural issues. The briefing concludes just before midnight. After a quick critique from Sergeant Tell, the squad saddles up for inspection and a brief rehearsal at nearby Pike Field. The team then boards a truck waiting for them outside the barracks. Other trucks are waiting or loading student ODA teams for other missions.
It is a half-hour ride to the infiltration point. The team piles from the bed of the big four-by-four Army truck called an LMTV—light medium tactical vehicle. These are the beefy trucks like the ones on convoy duty in Iraq. The team expands into a security perimeter, just as they would if they were being inserted by helo. Then Kendall signals them to move out, and the team files into the bush. It’s 0300. For most of the night and through dawn, the team moves through ravines and wooded areas in a section of Fort Bragg known simply as Area K—one of the many training areas on the huge Army post. Shortly after dawn, Kendall has his team 250 meters from its ambush site. Specialist Kendall and his subordinate team leaders move cautiously to the roadside ambush site and position each man and weapon. Primary considerations are security, firepower, and command and control. Then they wait.
Walking along the road, I can see nothing of the men in hiding. “Not bad, but they were pretty sloppy patrolling in, and it took too long for them to get set up. But each time out, they do it a little better.” My companion is a staff sergeant named Carlos.
Carlos had been selected for Special Forces training well over a year ago, but was requested by his company in the 82nd Airborne to make a deployment with them. After close to a year in Iraq, he is back and waiting for the next Phase II class to begin. He’s also spent time in the 75th Ranger Regiment. Detached from the 82nd and waiting for Phase II, he’s assigned as an assistant SFPC instructor. Carlos usually shadows the student ODA when it’s in the field. I’ve watched him work with the X-Rays over the past two weeks, and he’s been a wealth of knowledge in fieldcraft. Carlos has been in the Army for seven years and has two combat deployments behind him.
“You think they’re ready for Phase II?”
Carlos gives me shrug and a grin. “They’re smart and they learn quickly, but we won’t know until we get to Phase II. I won’t know myself until I get to Phase II. These soldiers will be my classmates there. We’ll all find out together.”
Shortly before 0930, four men file up the road toward the ambush site. They carry AK-47 rifles and their heads are swathed