Many Special Operations units are publicly visible. They have Public Affairs Officers, Instagram accounts, and even television series. However, there is another side of Special Operations that tries its best to stay out of the limelight. These are the Special Mission Units that makeup Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), namely the Army's Delta Force and the Navy's SEAL Team Six. Delta Force operators are known for being especially tight-lipped. They consider themselves quiet professionals and do not seek recognition for their actions or their operations. But every once and a while it becomes possible to have a recently retired operator say what he feels the public ought to understand.
Connecting Vets was able to interview a retired Sergeant Major from the unit that conducted the operation to kill Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in Syria this month. Although he had no personal involvement in the mission, he was able to offer a few thoughts.
What do you think about the White House releasing the photo of Conan, the military working dog on the mission?
It could have been any dog really, so what's the point? Takes the unit out of the spotlight. Whatever.
What did you make of President Trump's speech after the raid?
A lot of I's in his speech. Not a good public speaker, have someone else write that shit for you. I don't like that.
Next one that someone needs to talk about is the other side of the aisle saying they were not informed. People need to understand this is just another night in the last twenty years. We never got a break when the first war ended, and this is just another. These decisions are left up to O-6s [Colonels], and they have done so many more dangerous much more complex operations but we're not going to talk about that. There is no requirement for him to notify anyone. When you try to inform people, by the third night they say 'stop calling me.'
God damn man that's been going on forever. I got it if you are starting something new or crossing international borders but this has been going on for what three years? It's just another day at the office. There were times in Mosul and in Baghdad in 2006 where we were running out of ammunition. If congress has a problem get rid of AUMF [Authorization for the Use of Military Force] or let the man do his job and let the boys do their job so that they can kill these guys faster and get inside their decision making process.
How did you feel about the Pentagon releasing footage of the raid, like the gun run that was done by helicopters on militants during the mission?
We need to put more of that out there. That needs to be on the news every night. I got no problem with that. I got a problem with people in the JOC [Joint Operations Center] cheering over it when none of them go out and do that stuff. But they need to be shown the error of their ways. DAPs [Direct Action Penetrator] just fucked them up. That's what you get. The z-team firing at helicopters on a no illum night and then eat that 30mm and cry when they are picking up pieces of their buddies.
What is the big takeaway from the Baghdadi raid?
We killed AMZ [Abu Musab al-Zarqawi], Usama [Bin Laden]...whatever some moron will take his place. Symbolically it is good and maybe we took some intel off target.
The takeaway is that in a time that this guy is getting impeached, this guy is taking a knee, at this time the US military can still put guys anywhere we want during a cycle of darkness. And if we don't want people to know about it they won't. Maybe the Israelis can do that as far as they can see. Maybe the Brits a bit but no one can do it like that. People say the military is tired and broken but this group of guys is not broken. This is happening because they are the right guys with the right stuff be it helicopter pilots, cooks, mechanics and everybody involved. No one needs a cheerleader they just need to be told what the target. It takes an incredible amount of work to get that machine to function properly. It is kind of hard to articulate that because they make it look easy. There are so many things that can go wrong.
Reach Jack Murphy: jack@connectingvets.com or @JackMurphyRGR.