Relentless Strike : The Secret History of Joint Special Operations Command (9781466876224) (90 page)

FM 100-5—Operations
, published 1976 by the Department of the Army, Appendix B, pp. 2–3, accessed at:
http://www.survivalebooks.com/free%20manuals/1976%20US%20Army%20Vietnam%20War%20OPERATIONS%20201p.pdf
.

From the Sea: U.S. Marines in Afghanistan, 2001–2002
, by Colonel Nathan S. Lowrey (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Marine Corps History Division, 2011).

A History of the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne)
, a report prepared by the Library of Congress Federal Research Division, October 2001.

The Holloway Commission Report (unclassified version), accessed at:
http://www2.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB63/doc8.pdf
.

The Impact of Leaders on Organizational Culture: A 75th Ranger Regiment Case Study
, by Lieutenant Colonel Francis H. Kearney III, a strategy research project for the U.S. Army War College, Carlisle Barracks, 1997.

“Key Zarqawi Aide Captured,” a Multi-National Force-Iraq press release number 05-05-09, dated May 7, 2005, accessed at:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1383919/posts?q=1&;page=1901
(the original centcom.mil link is dead).

Operation Urgent Fury
, by Ronald H. Cole (Washington, D.C.: Joint History Office, 1997).

Operation Urgent Fury
, U.S. Army Center for Military History monograph.

“Report to Congress on the Defeat of Hard and Deeply Buried Targets,” submitted by the Secretary of Defense in conjunction with the Secretary of Energy, July 2001.

“Scott Sather—Strived for Excellence, Influenced Many,” by Lieutenant Colonel Darrell Judy, accessed at:
http://www.aetc.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123205410
.

“Selected Speeches of President George W. Bush, 2001–2008,” accessed at:
http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/infocus/bushrecord/documents/Selected_Speeches_George_W_Bush.pdf
.

Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict Legislation: Why Was It Passed and Have the Voids Been Filled?
by Colonel William G. Boykin, a study project for the Army War College, Carlisle Barracks, 1991.

“USS
Kitty Hawk
(CV(A)63),” accessed at:
http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/k4/kitty_hawk-ii.html
.

USS
Saipan
(LHA-2) Command History—Calendar Year 2000, accessed at:
http://www.history.navy.mil/shiphist/s/lha-2/2000.pdf
.

Weapon of Choice: ARSOF in Afghanistan
, by Charles H. Briscoe, Richard L. Kiper, James A. Schroder, and Kalev I. Sepp (Fort Leavenworth, Kans.: Combat Studies Institute Press, 2004).

“What Will Be the Military Role in the War on Terrorism?,” an October 10, 2001, memo from Donald Rumsfeld to Generals Dick Myers and Peter Pace, accessed at:
www.papers.rumsfeld.com
.

 

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I could not have written this book without the love and support of many people.

My parents, Dave and Verney Naylor, never stopped believing in me, for which I will always be grateful. My brother Mark was a constant source of encouragement, while Hannah and Duncan, my niece and nephew, reminded me that there is more to life than book writing. My sister-in-law Laura and her parents, Peter and Joanne Roth, made me feel welcome as always on my all-too-infrequent visits to New England.

Christine McCann not only showed more patience and love and sacrificed more of herself than I had a right to expect as deadlines came and went. She also copyedited the manuscript, helped organize my time, provided an extraordinarily comfortable desk chair, and was a tireless advocate for the Oxford comma. Henry McCann, meanwhile, graciously allowed me to pet him and feed him “flying” treats, and was a source of enormous joy during the project's darkest days.

I began full-time work on this book at the end of 2011, when my editors at Gannett Government Media Corporation (the company that publishes
Army Times
) allowed me to disappear on unpaid book leave for an indefinite period. I eventually parted ways with
Army Times,
my professional home for more than twenty-three years, but I remain grateful to Tobias Naegele, Alex Neill, and Richard Sandza for supporting my work while I was at the paper, and to the entire newsroom staff for making
Army Times
such a great place to work for so long.

The vast majority of the sources for this book consented to be interviewed on the condition that I not identify them. But I owe all my sources—named and unnamed—a debt of enormous gratitude for having the courage to talk with me. This book would not have been possible without their participation.

While the cloak of secrecy that the Defense Department insists on draping over Joint Special Operations Command meant that no military public affairs officers were empowered to arrange interviews to help in my reporting, Army Colonel Tim Nye, the U.S. Special Operations Command spokesman during the first phase of the research, not only supported my project but went above and beyond the call of duty in trying to persuade his bosses to cooperate with me. His deputy and successor, retired Army Lieutenant Colonel Ken McGraw, was always professional in his dealings with me, answering my questions when he could. Tatjana Christian in the Department of the Army's media relations office in the Pentagon was a model of efficiency in responding to my numerous requests for the official résumés of active duty and retired general officers. Jeanne Bankard, deputy chief of the Army's General Officer Management Office, was very helpful in explaining the “frocking” process as it applied to JSOC commanders. Federal Aviation Authority historian Terry Kraus patiently hunted down post-9/11 hijacking rumors for me, while Donna Tabor, Terry's counterpart at Fort Bragg, provided useful information on the scenes at Bragg in September and October 2001. Retired Army Colonel Rick Kiernan also gave of his time generously.

Several colleagues from the media world were particularly helpful: Rob Curtis placed his knowledge of special operations people and gear at my disposal; Chris Cavas explained how best to track the past movements of Navy ships; David Wood cast his mind back to Bagram in March 2002 on my behalf; and Melinda Day used her deep understanding of the Naval Special Warfare community to put me in touch with good people.

Scott Miller, my long-suffering agent at Trident Media Group, was a source of support and encouragement throughout the process of writing
Relentless Strike,
while Marc Resnick at St. Martin's was as patient and understanding an editor as an author could wish for, and one whose suggestions never failed to improve the manuscript. Responsibility for any flaws that remain is mine alone.

 

INDEX

The index that appeared in the print version of this title does not match the pages in your e-book. Please use the search function on your e-reading device to search for terms of interest. For your reference, the terms that appear in the print index are listed below.

A-10 Thunderbolt II (“Warthogs”).
See
Thunderbolt II (“Warthogs”)

AAR.
See
after-action review

Abbas, Abu

Abbas, Zaffar

Abdikadir, Abdikadir Mohamed

Abizaid, John

Abrams, Creighton

Abu Ghraib prison

Abu Khattala, Ahmed

AC-130 Spectre gunships.
See
Spectre gunships

Achille Lauro

Acid Gambit

actionable intelligence

on bin Laden

by CIA

detainee abuse and

in Iraq

advance force operations (AFO), xii

in Afghanistan

in Iran

in Iraq

in Pakistan

at Shahikot

in SMU

in Yemen

Afghan Combat Applications Group

Afghan Partner Unit (APU)

Afghanistan

AFO in

Apaches in

Aztec squadron in

biological weapons in

Black Hawks in

Bullet Package in

Bush, G. W., and

CENTCOM and

Chinooks in

CIA in

Combat Talons in

cruise missiles in

CSAR in

DAP in

Extortion 17 in

FARP in

FBI in

Franks and

friendly fire casualties in

Gecko in

HALO in

hostages in

IEDs in

Iran and

ISR in

JOC in

JRX and

Little Birds in

Night Stalkers in

NSA and

Objective Rhino in

OST in

Pakistan and

precious cargo in

Predators in

Al Qaeda in

Rangers in

risk aversion in

RPG in

Rumsfeld and

Salt pit secret prison in

SF in

Shahikot in

Signit in

SMU in

SOCOM in

Spectre gunships in

Taliban in

Task Force Brown in

Task Force Sword in

Tora Bora in

AFO.
See
advance force operations

after-action review (AAR)

Agency Ground Branch

AH-6 Little Birds.
See
Little Birds

AH-64 Apaches.
See
Apaches

Aideed, Mohammed Farah

air assault

air strike

in Afghanistan

in Iraq

air vehicle interdiction (AVI)

airborne

alert force

the alert force

alert force update

Alexander, John

Tora Bora and

Ali, Hazrat

Alvarez, Deciderio (“Jack”)

America
(U.S. Navy ship)

Amerine, Jason

Amin, Ghassan

Andrews, Bob

Andrews Air Force Base

Ansar al-Islam (Supporters of Islam)

antiaircraft gun

in Iraq

at Tora Bora

ZSU

AOR.
See
area of responsibility

Apaches

in Afghanistan

Apseloff, Roy

APU.
See
Afghan Partner Unit

AQAP.
See
Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula

AQI.
See
Al Qaeda in Iraq

AQSL ExOrd.
See
Al Qaeda Senior Leadership Execute Order

Arab Spring

area of responsibility (AOR)

Aristide, Jean-Bertrand

Army of Northern Virginia

in Balkans

in Beirut

in Colombia

GWOT and

in Haiti

in Iraq

at Shahikot

in Somalia

in Syria

at Tora Bora

in Yemen

Asayish

Assad, Bashar

Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict

AT4 rockets

Atlantic Command

ATVs

Aurora Lightning

Austin, Aaron

AV-8B Harriers

AVI.
See
air vehicle interdiction

Aweys, Sheikh Hassan Dahir

al-Awlaki, Anwar

Ayro, Aden Hashi

Aztec squadron

in Afghanistan

B-1 bombers

in Pakistan

B-2 stealth bombers

B-52

Badr Organization

Baghdad International Airport (BIAP)

al-Baghdadi, Abu Bakr

Bainbridge
(U.S. Navy guided missile destroyer)

Bake, Christopher

Balad

Balderas, Iggy

Balkans

detainee abuse in

Banach, Stefan

Barefoot, Wayne

Bargewell, Eldon

Bartholomew, Reginald

Battlestar Galactica

Beckwith, Charlie (“Chargin”)

Beechcraft airplanes

in Colombia

for CP

in Pakistan

Beirut

hostages in

Bennett, John

Berntsen, Gary

bin Laden and

BIAP.
See
Baghdad International Airport

bin Laden, Osama

Bush, G. W., and

GWOT and

JIATF and

in Pakistan

Pakistan and

in Sudan

Task Force Sword and

Tora Bora and

Yemen and

biological weapons

in Afghanistan

Biological Weapons Convention of 1972

Birch, Greg (“Ironhead”)

Birdseye

Bissonnette, Matt

Blaber, Pete (“Panther”)

Afghanistan and

deck of cards mission and

Iraq and

Shahikot and

Black, Cofer

Black Hawk Down
(Bowden)

Black Hawks

Achille Lauro
and

in Afghanistan

bin Laden and

for CP

deck of cards mission and

in Gecko

Ghadiya and

in Grenada

in Iraq

on
Kitty Hawk

in Montenegro

in Pakistan

at Shahikot

in Somalia

stealth technology for

in Syria

al-Zarqawi and

Black Squadron

Black Swarm

Blackwater

BLU-82 “daisy cutter” bombs

Blue Force Tracker

Blue Squadron

Bluebirds

BMP-1 armored personnel carriers

Boivin, Larry

Bolling Air Force Base

Bosnia

Bouterse, D
é
si

Bowden, Mark

Boxer
(U.S. Navy amphibious assault ship)

Boykin, William G. (“Jerry”)

Balkans and

Colombia and

in Somalia

in Sudan

Bradley, Mitch

Bradley Fighting Vehicles

BRAND X

Bravo Two Zero

Bremer, Paul

Briggs, Dan

Brown, Bryan (“Doug”)

WMD and

Brown, Dean (“Beef”)

Brown, Harold

Brown Cell

Montenegro and

Buchanan, Jessica

Bugarin, Edward

Bulkeley
(U.S. Navy guided missile destroyer)

Bullet Package

in Afghanistan