Down Range Part 5 (not final post)

Sorry for the confusion followers, or just Mr. Kramer, I thought I was finished with my blogs but I had to do one more before my final post so this is my last blog and my previous post is my final post. In the seventh chapter of Down Range it talks about the stories of downed pilots and forces stuck behind enemy lines. The portrayal, unlike other Hollywood portrayals of SEALs, that Special Ops personnel always leave no man behind is absolutely true. The SEALs feel that "the recovery of a brother warrior or a fellow citizen has a unique priority in our military culture."(197) The SEALs would drop what they are doing and go balls to the wall in order to rescue an American citizen in harms way. This is because of the fact that they value the lives of their country men and also because today they know all too well that the enemy will stop at nothing to torture these poor souls. For example, "we first saw this with the dragging of bodies through the streets of Mogadishu, Somalia. Now we see videotaped beheadings of contractors, civilians and Iraqi security forces taken hostage."(198) To be caught by the enemy is the worst possible scenario, for some cases worse than dying. This is why the SEALs would spare their own lives just to save one life from being captured. Imagine your own brother or sister being surrounded by kidnappers that their only goal is to torture them in the worst way possible. This is exactly how each and every SEAL feels because when a group goes through that hard core training together they come out as brothers. However, this makes the commander wonder, "how many men do I put at how much risk to recover the remains for a fellow brother?"(198) This is the hardest question a commander can answer. For example, in Vietnam one airman went down deep behind enemy lines. There were multiple helicopters launched to drop in a group of Special Forces to find the pilot. However, just when the helo's crossed the DMZ they were berated with enemy Anti Aircraft Artillery fire. The AAA shot down and killed the troops in all of the Helicopters killing over 25 men. So the question is do you send more troops for this brother waiting for help behind enemy lines. In the end they sent out two SEALs to go up stream on a suicide mission posing as Vietnam fisherman. They ended up saving Tim Norris and created the plot for the famous movie BAT 21 starring Danny Glover and Gene Hackman. This story is similar but not as happy as the story of Neil Robert in Afghanistan. He was flung from a helicopter as it was shot down by an RPG and was surrounded by enemy insurgents. His fellow SEALs did all they could to get to him through the massive enemy forces, but they were simply too outnumbered. A few SEALs attempted a last ditch effort to "recover his remains, seven special operators died on that mountain in Afghanistan. The loss of these men sent a shock wave through the special operations community."(204) Total number 7 does not seem like a lot, but when you take into consideration that there are only 50 SEALs in an entire division and that the average number of SEALs that go out on a mission is 4 then you start to realize how big of a loss those 7 lives are. The 6 men could have ran down the mountain and called in an air strike to take out the enemy forces but they had to at least try to save a fellow brother. Death is one of the things that all military personnel have to deal with especially the SEALs. To die for one's country has always been the most honorable death a man can have. That is why so many SEALs feel that the danger of their life is worth every second they are on the ground in the Middle East. One SEAL wrote, "My time in the teams was special...I loved being a SEAL. I died doing what made me happy. Very few people have the luxury of that."(204) This to me is a perfect ending to the chapter and even the book. Life is worth nothing unless you live it doing something you are truly proud of.

Down Range pt. 5

The conclusion of this novel was a humbling one. Throughout the book Dick Couch demonstrated the amazing capabilities of the United States Navy SEALs and the American military. However, I am left with one question, what are the affects of taking the lives of these people? Maybe it is not so bad because the SEALs feel that they are the enemy and deserve what they get, but then wouldn't they think that it is okay to kill the SEALs because they are enemies of them? That reminds me of something I read earlier in the book that keeps coming up, the SEALs have a saying "he got what he deserved." If a man attacks a SEAL with a knife then he will probably be put into submission and taken prisoner. However, if a man raises their gun at a Navy SEAL then he is asking to get killed. A man never feels that taking a life is a good thing. Contrary to what the movies portray almost all of the SEALs are well educated men who graduate from Yale, Annapolis, and other ivy league schools. They all do not want to have to have someones blood on their hands. They will do anything they can to take away the threat that the enemy portrays, but if that threat is lethal then it is absolutely necessary for the SEALs to use lethal force. In the later part of this book the author talks about how the SEAL teams were used in Iraq for sniper support. This is one of the most morally draining roles someone can play in a war. Staring through the scope at an enemies torso with your finger squeezing the trigger that will end this mans life and orphan his family, and widow his wife. It is so personal that it has caused so many soldiers to come home with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. So what is the solution? Is peace the solution? HELL NO. In my opinion the pursuit of world peace is for the naive hippies that are safe behind the forces that protect this country. Where ever there are drugs, guns, money, and power there will be violence. In my opinion the world will no longer see the heroic World Wars, but will be fought with small numbers of specialized forces only. The Special Forces of the American military will be the the ones fighting the wars instead of the large infantry divisions. For example, there are more and more threats of drug cartels taking over countries and terrorist activities and nuclear weapons. All of these threats can be limited if not taken out by the intelligence the SEALs can obtain from being behind the enemy lines with their stealthy tactics. Then this intel can be used to take out the threats with the least amount of damage done. Soon wars will have casualty numbers in the hundreds rather than the 100,000's. This is also because of the SEALs ability to capture high value personnel and targets like in Afghanistan and Iraq. Overall the mass killings of trench warfare, and the terrible collateral damage of Hiroshima are things of the past. Today and tomorrow are for the Special Ops Forces who can take down governmental leaders like they did in Panama, or cease control of ships that smuggled oil like in the Gulf to support terrorism, or simply arrest personnel involved with drug cartels that help support regimes to overtake their governments. This unconventional warfare that was founded in the Vietnam war is the future of warfare.

Invasion of Iraq

This portion of the text was all about the invasion of Iraq and the reasons for invading. On the night of the invasion Special Ops teams were assigned to capture a 9 Iraqi crude oil export facilities. 5 of these facilities were oil terminals that were responsible for $25 billion in oil revenue per year for each facility.(138) The theory is that these high revenue oil terminals would be essential for the post war recovery and needed to be overtaken intact. "The future revenues and the cost of replacement aside, the military planners were well aware of the immense environmental disaster the sabotage of these installations could bring to the area."(144) Yes there is a big possibility that the military planners did actually believe that by saving the oil terminals they could more easily rebuild the government. However, there is always the motivation to control the export of oil in Iraq because it would benefit the US. There have been rumors that the United States only went into Iraq to control the large portion of oil coming from the middle east. The facts of the mission also point to this possibility. The SEALs, the most dynamic and elite squad in the military, were assigned not to take over terrorist hideouts or even possible WMD sights, but they were assigned to protect what America wants to protect and that was the oil. The idea that America invaded Iraq in order to stop possible production of WMD's was proven insignificant from the fact that SEAL teams were already searching Iraq thoroughly for WMD's and have yet to find them. "Long before the SEALs attacked the oil targets, Special Forces were out in the vast Iraqi western desert to ensure that no Scud missile launchers were there to threaten Israel."(146) As a nation, America had the power and ability to sneak into Iraq and search for weapons of mass destruction before the actual invasion. So why was it necessary to invade Iraq if they could just have easily searched for these weapons of mass destruction without a full scale invasion? Along with this fact that their morals for going into Iraq proved to be insufficient, the invasion was also only supported by Americans. In Afghanistan there were dozens of countries supporting each other in trying to take down al-Qaeda, but now when America wants to also invade Iraq no other nations want to join in. That seems extremely fishy to me. Why were all these countries not wanting to invade Iraq? They probably knew that there was no weapons of mass destruction. There were no other supporting countries in this political choice to invade, "this was an American plan with American Command and control, and the major forces in play would be American."(145) The fact that only America is willing to invade Iraq creates a spark to wonder why we are actually invading Iraq. There is a very big possibility that all the other countries know that Iraq does not have weapons of mass destruction, even America probably knew. However, from the invasion plans of securing the high revenue oil targets, it is clear that the main focus was not on weapons of mass destruction but was on the control of the oil export. This makes total sense considering America is one of the highest importers of oil in the world. Weapons of mass destruction my ass.

Down Range Pt. 3

This section of the book described an actual SEAL mission just a month into the Afghan war. This is such a treat because so rarely does the public get to know about what the SEALs and the SOF forces are doing overseas. Their protection and safety is directly affected by their secrecy. From this mission I have learned so much information on how the Navy SEALs and Special Ops operate. There are three major attributes that make a successful counter terrorist team, teamwork, intel, and speed. Speed is only relevant for the beginning of the mission between the time they get the tip that there is an enemy somewhere until the time they get onto the insertion vehicles. The Task Force K-bar was comprised of Special Ops Forces from Germany, France, and Great Britain, and conventional elements from the Army, Navy, and Air Force, as well as Marines and SEALs. This was the name of the SOF group that would take the missions in central and southern Afghanistan. Di spite the large variety of forces the SEALs were always the first to respond to the call and therefore took most of the missions. The Special Ops teams needed to be quick because, "Special operations taskings are often driven by perishable intelligence, which means victory belongs to the swift."(96) The target of interest will not stay still forever. The intelligence that they gather can change within minutes. One minute a high value target would be in a building the next he is across town. Therefore, the key to success is speed and the SEALs were the best at it. They would often plan their missions on the run to the helipad and finish them in the chopper. This saved so much time and was the reason why they were so successful in Afghanistan and Iraq. However, the SEALs are nothing without proper intel.
All of their missions are based on intelligence gathered from all different types of sources. they received intel from, local sources, CIA, radio intercepts, cell phone conversations, images from satellites, Predator drones, P-3 manned aircraft, and the most common which is human intelligence from captured soldiers and detainees.(94) Not all missions were successful because of their intelligence. There were a lot of "dry holes" which are operations that are unsuccessful because of the intelligence or the enemy knew that they were coming. However, this mission that they described was not a dry hole; they hit the jackpot and needed support from the entire Task Force K-bar. Zhawar Kili Valley was a possible important al-Qaeda stronghold just next to the Pakistani border. This would allow the escape of terrorists in and out of Afghanistan. there was intelligence that there was activity at this sight so the SEALs went in along with the standard team of SEALs, interpreter, Air Force Combat controllers, and EOD's. The Air Force Combat Controllers were two soldiers who were specialized in making smart bombs even more precise. The EOD's were just engineers who specialized in demolition. The AFCC's were so important during this mission because whenever a hostile force was seen they could give the coordinates to overflying fighters that would bomb the heck out of the insurgents within 400 yards of friendly forces. The actual teamwork involved is amazing and in detail it is very lengthy. First predator drone and other reconnaissance aircraft had the compound under constant surveillance while the SEAls were on the ground. A Predator had spotted about twenty armed men heading toward the cluster of huts where the SEALs spent the night. A P-3 manned surveillance aircraft was sent in to do more specific surveillance and called in an AC-130 Spectre gunship. Then the P-3 called in the position of both the friendlies and the hostile forces so that they do not accidental kill the SEALs. The gunship fires 105mm cannon shells, that are 10 times as powerful as a grenade, at the hostile forces from eighteen thousand feet. The enemy forces had no idea what hit them and had no idea that they were being watched by the Air Force above them. Overall this teamwork between the Air Force, Navy, and Marines is priceless because without one the rest struggles. The marines were able to use snipers and infantry to cover the SEALs as they search the caves of the Zhawar Kili Valey. Without one another the mission would fail. This chapter really showed me the importance of speed, intelligence, and teamwork.

Down Range Post 2(Chapter 3)

As it has been a while since I last posted on this book I read my last post and would like to update some ideas and conclusions that I came to that were not necessarily correct. At first the Navy SEALS were portrayed as a bunch of no holds Rambo warriors that would shoot to kill and ask questions later. However, this was completely wrong. They like to see themselves as global police officers of war. When given the chance to recon a potential hostile building or paint it for the air force to bomb the SEALs would chose to recon because that’s what they do. After several long days of surveillance on the house of the doctor of bin Laden a car pulls up and flashes its lights and what appear to be armed men get out of the car. The SEALs relay this information and are given the choice to destroy the building with a smart bomb or search the house first. The SEALs did not want to just take the easy way out and bomb the heck out of the building killing everyone. "We didnt feel right about it. We knew there were people inside, but only a few vehicles came and went. We could ill them all with a few JDAMs, but who were we killing?"(84) The SEALs are not cold hearted killers that want to take kill every terrorist insight. It turned out in this situation that the building was just full of old people and kids. Thanks to the strategy of the SEALs not a shot was fired and no civilian was hurt. However, the idea that the SEALs can drop out of the sky unannounced and create havoc is what they want the terrorists to think. Just 5 weeks after September 11th 100 Special Forces personnel were air dropped into a compound thought to be frequently used by a Taliban leader Muhammad Omar. There they took over the compound and discovered several large weapon caches ad valuable documents. However, the most important aspect is that “it told the Taliban and those under their protection that anytime, anywhere, American airborne infantry can drop from the sky. It sent the message that American SOF forces can go where they want and when they want.”(71) This sense of power is what made the SEALs so well known to be able to go in do their job and get out before anyone even knew that they were there. It changes the states of minds of the enemy; they feel unsafe anywhere. Secrecy is key to the SEALs, “it is best for the enemy to wonder what happened to an al-Qaeda fighter or insurgent leader. Why did he disappear? Was he killed or did he abandon the cause? Or did he defect?”(87) This sense of sneakyness and ability to be where they want when they want is what defines the SEALs and their tactics.