Weapon of Choice: The Operations of U.S. Army Special Forces in Afghanistan. Combat Studies Institute

the DAP crew chiefs manned miniguns on each side of the helicopter, a young Afghan boy filmed the whole activity with an 8-millimeter (mm) movie camera. The threat of being shot down had been greatest when the helicopters flared on short final approach to the LZ. It seemed unlikely that they would have been attacked on the ground in a group of people. Confident that the team had found its contacts, Charles gave the order for the DAPs to depart.

      Figure 57. Identifying the good guys from the bad guys.

      Figure 58. Preflight check included attaching glint tape to identify friendlies on the night battlefield.

      Tactics dictated that the DAPs return on a different route, but the sandstorm dominating the northern plains had not abated and visibility had deteriorated even more as the pilots flew to their 0400 refuel rendezvous point. A unique phenomena associated with flying in a sandstorm is the ability to see lights below clearly. Thus, DAP aircrew members reported seeing obvious lights going on near populated areas to mark their flight path as they flew over. It seemed that people on the ground were signaling or tracking their advance in the middle of the night. This primitive tactic was later discovered to have been developed by the mujahideen to track Soviet helicopters. Like clockwork, the DAP flight crossed the border and hit the 9th Special Operations Squadron (SOS) MC-130P tanker on schedule. Once refueled, the Chinook with emergency fuel joined the two Black Hawks for the return flight to K2 as the tanker sped away. The 9th SOS tanker crews quickly established a reputation with the 160th SOAR for always being at the right place at the right time to refuel the ARSOF helicopters.

      Unbeknown to many, this mission paved the way for the UW campaign in Afghanistan. It was a historic night. Army special operations aviation had achieved Night Stalker standards— time on target, plus or minus 30 seconds at night—under extreme weather conditions with aerial refuels and penetrated some of the highest and most rugged mountains in the world to deliver a team, on time and on target.

      COL Kisner, deputy JSOTF commander, asked CWO Charles to carry an American flag on this first combat mission into Afghanistan. Charles said that “he would be honored.” What he did not know was that Kisner planned to present the flag to the president. Afterward, Charles wrote a letter to accompany the flag, assuring the Commander in Chief that his orders had been executed with honor and dedicated to the nation. So it was with great pride that TF Dagger and the Night Stalkers sent President Bush the flag and letter as tokens of appreciation for his leadership.

      Organizing two joint special operations tactical headquarters—JSOTF-North or TF Dagger and the JSOAC—in the midst of establishing a joint FOB in Uzbekistan was a significant accomplishment. More important, these fledgling joint tactical staffs met the CENTCOM mission for CSAR in northern Afghanistan before the air campaign date was moved forward and conducted a successful long-range helicopter penetration deep into Afghanistan to insert a team responsible for coordinating the UW campaign with anti-Taliban war leaders. This was all done in less than two weeks.

      Success must be attributed to the junior special operations leaders and soldiers who accepted responsibility for the myriad tasks that needed to be accomplished. They often learned as they did and persevered in the face of obstacles. Another critical element was the maturity and flexibility of the SOF leaders who responded professionally to new command arrangements, who took mission changes in stride, and who had confidence in their subordinates’ ability to get the job done well and on time, regardless of the difficulty.

      The preceding stories describe some of the preparations for the war on terrorism by ARSOF stationed throughout the United States; the movement of troops overseas into combat; standing up Stronghold Freedom at K2, Uzbekistan; and initial combat missions. These should have conveyed the quality of the soldiers in ARSOF, the wide spectrum of ARSOF capabilities, the different components of ARSOF—Special Forces, PSYOP, CA, aviation, Rangers, signal, and support—the importance of USAR and ARNG units and individual augmentees to ARSOF, and what is involved in training Army soldiers for SOF assignments.

      Having set the stage for the UW campaign in Afghanistan with the final story about the DAP long-range penetration to General Dostum’s mountain redoubt near Mazar-e-Sharif, the soldier stories in the next chapter will chronologically cover the war that leads to the Taliban government’s collapse in late November 2001.