On the Ground With No Support: Why America’s Special Operations Forces Need a Dedicated Armed Overwatch Fleet
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By Wes J. Bryant
September 18, 2020
We were treading a thin line, and we all knew it. I was the senior enlisted joint terminal attack controller for the 300-member special operations task force sent to Iraq to quell the rising threat of ISIS—the famed “crisis response force†dispatched to safeguard Baghdad and Erbil and ensure the protection of the U.S. Embassy.
In came America to save the day . . . except, that wasn’t exactly the case. The reality during those first weeks on the ground was that the response force was a sitting duck—just waiting for a repeat of Benghazi, but 300 times over. We deployed a U.S. special operations force to counter a multi-national terrorist army. You would have thought it would be accompanied by at least a contingent of armed aircraft. But you’d be wrong.
https://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2020/09/18/on_the_ground_with_no_support_why_americas_special_operations_forces_need_a_dedicated_armed_overwatch_fleet_577880.html
