Reply #19: What Seals are Trained to do.

[happyslug]

Observe and report. A four man team is large enough for them to take turns sleeping but small enough not to be observed by the enemy. Each was probably cross trained with what the other members can do but you can guess one carried medic equipment, Two carried the radio, one carried a laser tracker (to indicate to smart bombs what to hit), all carried the M4 Carbine (The M16 with a 16 inch barrel instead of the 20 inch barrel of the M16). While the M4 Carbines are light, the other equipment including night vision goggles are not. Please note while I used the term "Radio", the team probably had a Satellite Phone system to directly connect to their command structure either by voice communications or data Communications (i.e. type in the information than send a short burst of radio waves to the Satellite with the information gathered).

Observe and Report is what Special Forces do. Contrary to the movies they are not intended to fight. Now they are well trained in fighting techniques but only to disengage from the enemy if the enemy finds them. They orders are generally NOT to engage the enemy, if possible hide undetected from them. Most of the "Real" stories of Special Forces (including Seals and the British SAS) relate to how they were able to get near or into an enemy position and report enemy movements. For example during the Falkland wars British SAS soldiers supposedly were able to sneak into Stanley Harbor and report directly to the British Carriers how effective was the British Air Attacks and where the Argentina's air defenses were.

I have NOT been following this two closely, for from the news reports the Seals teams were dropped in by Helicopter, and then when detected called in another helicopter to be pulled out, that Second helicopter was the one shot down. This is NOT my understanding of standard special forces techniques to insert a Special Forces team deep into enemy territory. Helicopters are to loud, when people hear them over head they go out and look around, thus a terrible way to insert a Special Force team like Seals who you want to be undetected as much as possible.

The standard practice to insert a Special Forces Team into enemy territory since Vietnam has been to insert such teams using High Attitude, Low Opening (HALO) techniques. HALO is when a plane flies at a high Attitude over the area one is to parachute into. Flying high prevents the locals from hearing your plane as it flies high overhead. After the Parachutist jumps from the plan he only opens his parachute as he nears Ground level. This technique minimizes the possibility of detection. Now extraction of the Team tends to be by Helicopter for then you do NOT care if the enemy knows you had been around.

HALO has worked since Vietnam and I can NOT see why it was NOT done in this case. I suspect it was, but somehow the Seal team parachuted right into some locals who opened fire (or someone reported the team as it hit the ground, or someone just stubble across them, children tend to be the one who do these things and then report it to their parents).

Apparently the team was able to extract itself and call in to be pulled out, but then the Helicopter that was to pull them out was shot down. Once the Helicopter went down the team was doomed. The locals were hot on their trail and there was no way the Seal team was carrying enough ammunition to survive a long term fire fight.