Where were our planes and helicopters and drones?
Someone decided to save money over lives?
The MOVIE Heartbreak Ridge has a scene where the men are trapped in a building on Grenada. Clint Eastwood tries to get them to use a 'normal telephone' to get through for firesupport help and help in general. They BROADCAST over an insecure Communications medium, but it was necessary to avoid being overrun.
The rest of this reply deals with this issue: when to use insecure Comm in a classified Op...
The article mentions that the bad guys had technicals.
Now, in the John Wayne movie In Harm's Way, the cruiser is torpedoed by a Japanese sub. Captain Rock Torrey (John Wayne) tells someone to send a radio message. One of the officers says something like: "Break Radio Silence?"
Since the cruiser had been torpedoed by an enemy ship, John Wayne responded basically that the enemy would know the position of this Task Force sortied from Pearl Harbor during the 7-December-'41 attack.
Folks like these (Green Berets) should be covertly monitored (UAV, etc). They could even have a conventional radio such that they could send a distress signal in the clear - if necessary.
There was an episode of the TV series Scorpion where they intercept and help a blackops team in Africa (Hollywood fiction).
Sending something in the clear could be monitored by something that the US would own nearby (must be unnamed). They might ALWAYS monitor a particular frequency as a Just in case.
Did we have a FLAPTOP in the area? Our military is still in pretty bad shape thanks to POTUS44 (I will refrain for ripping him).
This is not directed at the Pentagon, but more for training for the troops (Rangers, Green Berets, Seals, etc).
If you are attacked and you cannot get through to the appropriate channel, then an alternate channel could be used.
In the case of possibly being overrun, then it might be necessary to BROADCAST IN THE CLEAR.