The Only Thing Worth Dying For (54 page)

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A long, loose shirt with pajama-like trousers.

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The official name for the joint U.S., U.K., and Afghan military action that began in Afghanistan on October 7, 2001, as part of the Global War on Terror.

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The post–Soviet occupation civil war lasted from 1989 to 1992.

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A lightweight assault rifle with a telescoping stock.

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NOD, night observation device, or NVD, night vision device; commonly referred to as night vision goggles.

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A laser pointer built into a gun’s target sighting system. It is invisible to the naked eye, so only those using NODs can see the beam or the “dot” that the beam casts on its target.

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The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan began in 1979. Over the next decade of Soviet occupation, some 15,000 Soviet troops were killed, over 1 million Afghans were killed, and another 5 million Afghans fled to Iran and Pakistan. In 1989, the Soviets withdrew. The war in Afghanistan is often considered the Soviet equivalent of the United States’ Vietnam War.

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Fort Campbell is located on the Kentucky-Tennessee state line.

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United States Special Operations Command Central is responsible for planning special operations throughout the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility, which includes, but is not limited to, the Middle East, Central Asia, and Africa.

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“Unconventional warfare, or UW, is a broad spectrum of military and paramilitary operations, predominantly conducted through, with, or by indigenous or surrogate forces organized, trained, equipped, supported, and directed in varying degrees by an external source. UW includes, but is not limited to, guerrilla warfare, subversion, sabotage, intelligence activities, and unconventional assisted recovery (UAR).” See Field Manual 3-05.20, Special Forces Operations, June 2001.

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In 2001, United States Central Command was responsible for planning and executing all U.S. military operations in the central area of the globe, located between the areas of the European and Pacific Commands. This included the Middle East, Central Asia, and Africa.

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On April 8, 1962, Specialist 5 James P. Gabriel was shot in the chest during a Vietcong attack upon his four-man advisory team and a group of Civilian Irregular Defense Group trainees near Danang, Vietnam. Critically wounded, the twenty-four-year-old Green Beret continued to defend their position and radio for reinforcements until his position was overrun. He was captured, then fatally shot, before reinforcements arrived. His sacrifice is considered the ultimate testament to the dedication of Special Forces soldiers.

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In the U.S. Army, commissioned officers wear the rank of second lieutenant or above. NCOs, always junior to commissioned officers, are enlisted soldiers who have earned the rank of corporal through sergeant major. They have managerial responsibility over enlisted soldiers, and usually act as advisers to seasoned officers and informal mentors to inexperienced officers. Special Forces is unique in that there are no junior enlisted men such as privates on the ODAs. All members of an A-team are senior.

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Proposed Courses of Action: 1) Start in the south. Advantages: Pashtun majority, can’t win the country or the war without winning in the south. Disadvantages: Extremely risky, no allies/rebels in the south, Taliban stronghold. 2) Start in the north. Advantages: The Northern Alliance is already fighting the Taliban, best chance for killing terrorists. Disadvantages: Politically risky, Northern Alliance is minority tribes, potential for civil war if it takes power. 3) Simultaneously begin operations in north and south. Advantages: Prosecute war as quickly as possible on multiple fronts. Disadvantages: Very risky in the south. 4) Never put U.S. boots on the ground; train and equip guerrillas in an adjacent country and provide air support to them. Advantages: Lowest risk. Disadvantages: Would take a long time, operations could not be directly overseen, lowest chance for success.

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An isolation facility where Special Forces are sequestered from the outside world to plan their missions in a secure environment. Inside the building, teams are isolated from each other in apartments; if a Green Beret is captured, he will thus have no knowledge of other teams’ locations or missions.

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The Air Force had two different types of forward air controllers, often called battlefield airmen: CCTs and TACPs (tactical air control party). Both air and ground forces often refer to CCTs or TACPs simply as JTACs (joint terminal air control).

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Special Forces slang for guerrilla leader.

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Ahmad Shah Massoud earned the nickname “the Lion of Panjshir” after the region from which his guerrilla tactics drove the Soviets in 1989. He was the commander of the United Islamic Front for the Salvation of Afghanistan (the Northern Alliance) until he was assassinated on September 9, 2001, by suspected al-Qaeda agents.

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Mohammed Zahir Shah was the last king of Afghanistan. He reigned from 1933 until he was dethroned in a 1973 coup. He went into exile in Rome, where he headed an organization of émigré Pashtun that came to be known as the Rome Group, which lobbied for Pashtun representation in a post-Taliban government.

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Charlie Wilson was a Texas congressman who led Congress to support Operation Cyclone, the CIA’s largest covert operation, in which the United States secretly supplied the Mujahideen with weapons to fight the Soviets during their occupation of Afghanistan.

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The last confirmed sighting of Osama bin Laden occurred on November 7, 2001, when he gave an interview to a Pakistani reporter somewhere near Kabul. The U.S. government also concluded that Osama bin Laden was present during the Battle of Tora Bora in December 2001, when U.S. and British forces conducted a series of air strikes against al-Qaeda fighters in the White Mountains of eastern Afghanistan.

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A Special Operations Forces Laser Acquisition Marker is used to designate targets usually intended to be bombed from aircraft, or to obtain the range or coordinates of a position or target.

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A ravine or channel that is dry except in the rainy season.

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A snub-nosed, or “short,” version of the AK-47.

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Cluster bombs release dozens of mini bombs that cover a large area, and are used to clear minefields and large concentrations of ground troops. A small percentage of the mini bombs fail to explode on impact and are notorious for blowing up as personnel move through the aftermath of a bombing raid.

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During Karzai’s youth, his father, as chief of the Popalzai, had used the family’s guest room almost entirely for local politics. Afghan culture dictates that all guests—even enemies—receive hospitality and protection while in a home.

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Amerine devised this system based on the dearth of vehicles in Afghanistan and questions he asked Karzai regarding driving habits of the locals. In the current climate of war, Karzai and his tribal leaders confirmed Amerine’s conclusion that trucks driving in convoys of five or more were Taliban military, except in specific instances. Each case would be individually scrutinized.

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Modern soldiers no longer announce their “stand to” readiness with only wastes bullets but also enables the enemy to locate soldiers’ positions, and take other advantage of a tactical tipping of one’s cards.

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Dr. Abdullah uses only one name, though he has been widely referred to as Abdullah Abdullah. He was the foreign minister of the Northern Alliance from 1998 forward.

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While the United States was known at this time to be backing Hamid Karzai’s anti-Taliban rebellion militarily, it was also backing various Northern Alliance generals in their rebellion. Thus Dobbins considered these genuine votes of confidence for Karzai.

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Though Americans were not on the ground in the south at the time, the air campaign had been in full swing, hitting Taliban targets based on satellite imagery and air reconnaissance throughout Afghanistan.

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Placing higher-ranked officers on the ground with the important leaders of the Northern Alliance and Karzai was at best symbolic, a political ploy. There was not a single report of an anti-Taliban leader complaining about either the performance or rank of the captains assigned to work with them, nor about the NCOs on the ODAs. For example, Northern Alliance General Dostum raved about the ODA assigned to him, telling National Geographic Adventure reporter Robert Young Pelton, “I asked for a few Americans. They brought with them the courage of a whole Army.”

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The Air Force’s $250 million Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System, integrated into the shell of a Boeing 707.

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ODA 574 received an apology from Task Force Dagger the following day. They had supplied turkeys to the teams consolidating in the north, but had run out before the airdrop to the one team operating behind enemy lines in the south.

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The Marines flew almost four hundred miles overland from ships in the northern Arabian Sea to land at what they dubbed Camp Rhino, an event they later touted to the media as historic because it was the longest recorded amphibious “assault” landing in naval history. The lone airstrip was deserted at the time of the “assault.”

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A system of sorting and assigning the wounded priority for medical treatment based on urgency and chance for survival.

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Robin Sage is a training exercise conducted by the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, for U.S. Army Special Forces candidates. It is the crux of eighteen months of training that soldiers must satisfactorily complete before being presented with their green berets, during which they fight a realistic unconventional war, complete with guerrillas and enemy regime troops.

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The radio network that linked the team with Task Force Dagger, air support, and quick reaction forces for medevac or search-and-rescue.

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The DShK (called “Dishka” or, more commonly, “Dushka”) is a Russian 12.7 x 108 mm gas-operated, air-cooled heavy machine gun that fires 575 rounds per minute with an effective range topping 2,200 yards, which put the Alamo within range from the north side of the bridge.