Beckley, West Virginia – The wind danced through the trees as pewter-colored clouds foretold heavy rain. Soldiers carried out their duties at a rocket launch site in an otherwise densely forested hillside clearing. Everything was quiet except for the trees. But when the wind picked up again, soldiers from the 19th Special Forces Group suddenly emerged from the woods and launched a coordinated raid to take control of the scene.
Situated deep in the West Virginia Hills, the launch site and assault was part of the final exercise of lane 1 of the two-week special operations training exercise Ridgerunner hosted by the West Virginia National Guard and the Irregular Warfare Center. .
The exercise involved more than 420 troops led by the 19th Special Forces Group, headquartered in the Utah Army National Guard, and allies and partners from 16 countries. Training scenarios focused on core Special Forces mission sets, including working with foreign forces, counterinsurgency operations, and irregular warfare.
“The term illegal warfare is really difficult to explain because there is no doctrine. [definition] It’s for irregular warfare,” said the 19th SFG operations sergeant who oversaw one of the exercise’s training lanes. “They are designed to be very broad, including hybrid threats, including support for security forces, not only for counterinsurgency and unconventional warfare, but also for foreign home defense.”
Many of these mission sets were tied together throughout the training scenarios. Participants in the exercise (consisting primarily of Special Forces ODA, or the basic sci-fi tactical element, Operational Detachment Alpha Team) were assimilated into a simulated West Virginia community in two countries, with real local government I met with officials, law enforcement and emergency services personnel.
Through simulated news broadcasts and media engagement, they monitor simulated economic and political situations in each “nation” and reflect their responses in the procedures and operations used during actual deployments. I was.
Information from these engagements drove training and consequent missions, ultimately countering simulated aggression by hostile forces from neighboring countries.
“The change in scenario recreates what our troops would experience if they were in a friendly country and were about to be invaded by a hostile force,” Sgt.
Opposing forces, the teams acting as OPFOR, also had to shift to accommodate these changing scenarios, and their actions often triggered another shift by ODA.
“What OPFOR brings to the exercise is in some ways a real-world aspect,” said Sgt. 19th SFG of the OPFOR team. “We can make our own plans for what our ODA partner forces know or think they are doing. We become more realistic about how we respond.”
The exercise also coupled with a larger shift across the force as the Army and Army National Guard moved from counterinsurgency operations to preparing for sub-equal threats and potential large-scale operations.
“We are moving away from what has been our main focus for the last 20 years. [counterinsurgency operations] And you are now supporting combatants in many ways,” said the sergeant major. “During the Global War on Terror, during special operations, we were in direct action. [foreign internal defense]We were doing counterinsurgency and were tracking a specific terrorist organization. ”
Some tasks and mission sets may be similar in future operations, but their large-scale application has changed.
“This is different,” said the sergeant. “This is all-round warfare. We are preparing for invasion, preparing the territory in which we operate, to further the conventional front.”
It’s important to train and be highly prepared for that change, he said.
“Irregular warfare is our way of achieving that through lower visibility operations and the ability to avoid civilians and provide support to conventional forces.”
Ridge runners and similar exercises help teams hone those skills.
“This allows you to be very creative,” said the sergeant major. “You have to be very resourceful and adapt to the changing environment and realize that you don’t have the freedom of movement that you have elsewhere. , it is not important to have open communication with higher level people [headquarters]”
And the exercise also helped the team focus on basic tactical elements.
“We can work on some of the small unit tactics we’re doing together as this six-man detachment,” said Sgt. “We had these discussions and were able to work on basic patrols and all the other things that are fundamental to successful ODA as described in the Ranger Handbook.”
This is very important as the 19th SFG and 20th SFG (two groups of Army Guard Special Forces) are integrated into special operations missions around the world.
“Members of Groups 19 and 20 are able to do that just like active duty personnel,” he said. “They are spread out in the same neighborhoods, go to the same schools, and work with the same partners.”
And to the sergeant major, that ability is part of the Army Security Special Forces’ uniqueness.
“[It’s] It’s an opportunity to put on a green beret and be in a special operations capability operating in some of the highest missions,” he said.
