The United States Army Intelligence Support Activity (USAISA), frequently shortened to Intelligence Support Activity or Mission Support Activity, and nicknamed The Activity, the Army of Northern Virginia,[1] or Office of Military Support, is a United States Army Special Operations unit originally subordinated to the US Army Intelligence and Security Command (INSCOM) but now part of the Joint Special Operations Command. It is tasked to collect actionable intelligence in advance of missions by other US special operations forces, especially 1st SFOD-D and DEVGRU in counter-terrorist operations.
USAISA was the official name of the unit from 1981 to 1989; previously it was known as the Field Operations Group (FOG), created in September 1980. In 1989, the then USAISA commander sent a telex "terminating" the USAISA term and his special access program Grantor Shadow, but the unit continued under a series of different Top Secret codenames which are changed every two years. Known codenames included Capacity Gear, Centra Spike, Torn Victor, Quiet Enable, Cemetery Wind, and Gray Fox.
Recruitment and training
According to Sean Naylor in Not a Good Day to Die, most (but certainly not all) Activity operatives come from United States Army Special Forces, due to their self-reliance and specialized skill-set.[9] Candidates also come from the other military branches. Most candidates assigned to the Operations and SIGINT squadrons go through an assessment and selection course, as well as a lengthy background investigation and psychological testing. Once admitted, they receive further training in a specialized Operator Training Course. Like all units, this Special Mission Unit contains operational detachments as well as support detachments.
HUMINT and SIGINT
Candidates must have previous training in tactics, such as CQB, sniper, counter-sniper, and source development. Foreign language skills, although highly desired, are not a prerequisite to becoming a member of the ISA, though to be a SIGINT/HUMINT operator in the field with other Special Mission Units, working clandestine operations in non-permissive environments, knowing a minimum of several languages is usually indispensable (e.g. Persian, Arabic, Pashto, etc.).
Some of the disciplines focused on in the training course are: infiltration techniques, advanced air operations, professional driving (offensive and off-road), personal defensive measures, and state-of-the-art communications, deep surveillance, tradecraft, weapons handling, hand-to-hand combat, signals intelligence, etc.
