Читать книгу Weapon of Choice: The Operations of U.S. Army Special Forces in Afghanistan - Combat Studies Institute - Страница 15

In the wake of 9/11, COL Mark Phelan, commander, 3rd SFG, Fort Bragg, flew to Special Operations Command Central (SOCCENT) headquarters in Tampa to receive planning guidance for future operations. He anticipated that the coming war would eventually expand to attack terrorist bases outside of Afghanistan, and his 3rd SFG would be assigned to SOCCENT to deal with those in eastern Africa. U.S. Navy Capt Randy Goodman, the SOCCENT J3 operations officer, told Phelan that intelligence reports indicated that some of the al-Qaeda were leaving Afghanistan for Somalia and some of the neighboring countries. Since there were no war plans on the shelf for counterterrorist action in that region, Goodman granted Phelan “mission planning authority” to support deployment to the Horn of Africa. Phelan briefed his initial concept for this mission to the principal staff officers at U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) and received their approval. He intended to rotate his 1st and 2nd battalions in the theater every 30 days. CENTCOM directed the 3rd Battalion to complete Exercise FOCUS RELIEF in Nigeria. When that battalion returned in December to Fort Bragg, it would recover and then backfill shortages in the other two battalions moving in and out of the Horn of Africa.

Figure 27. The Central Command’s Horn of Africa region.

While the 3rd SFG staff refined this plan to carry Operation ENDURING FREEDOM (OEF) to eastern Africa in fall 2001, COL Phelan alternated his 1st and 2nd battalions to Camp Pickett, Virginia, where they rehearsed the daily tasks they would need to perform as forward perating bases (FOBs) once they arrived in the war zone. In particular, they practiced roundthe- clock communications with isolated units dispersed over a wide area. The 3rd Battalion in Nigeria was already operating as an FOB and would have two months’ experience when it returned in December.