Posted on 05/03/2011 6:10:31 AM PDT by Lakeshark
While we must indeed praise the bravery and efficiency of the Navy SEALS in killing Osama bin Laden, we should not forget that this was a multi-service operation. In particular, we should also be celebrating the bravery and incredible aviator skills of the pilots and aircrews of the Army's 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment out of Fort Campbell, KY. These Nightstalkers , as they are known, are unquestionably the best helicopter pilots in the world, capable of flying in weather conditions that would ground any other aviation units; without their unparalleled flying skills, this mission may not have met with the success it did.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
God bless our heroes who participated in this operation..Thank you is inadequate.
You’re quite correct. I meant Urgent Fury in Grenada...not sure why I typed Panama. Thanks for the correction!
Toby may very well have been in Afghanistan when OBL was brought to justice. I’m pretty sure he was there last week performing for the troops.
Not exactly. The idea behind the Army taking over responsibility for Special Ops came from one of the 31 Initiatives. These started between General Gabriel (CSAF) and General Wickham (CSA) on the golf course. To save money in the 1980s we went over all a large areas. For example it brought the AF back inside the fence in Europe with the Army taking more serious the role of Rear Area Security. Another was helicopters. The AF wanted to give all rotary wing assets (including the people) to the Army and they would have but for some “Iron Majors” that went to their congress men and women and got it turned around. The Office which led the 31 Initiatives was with Project Checkmate and used some of the same officers. General Joe Redden was the Division Chief at the time. I was there for 8 years in the basement. Another initiative was number 35 (an add on) which was the creation of the Army-Air Force Center for Low Intensity Conflict. It had about 25 people with half from each Service with one Marine. The AF officer who helped me staff the initiative in the Army an AF Staff was Lt Col Norton Schwartz. He left before it was completed. It was at Langley AFB and had three General Officers as oversight. One each from TAC, TRADOC and AF Plans. I was there for 5 years after Checkmate. This group wrote the initial doctrine for Low Intensity Conflict working closely with Combined Arms Command (CAC). They worked for me. The doctrine was FM 100-20/AFM 3-20 and addressed Combatting Terrorism; Insurgency/Counterinsurgency; Peacekeeping/Peacemaking; and Peacetime Contigency (PCO) Operations. The event this week would have been a PCO. It was also the grandfather of the doctrine which General Petraeus used in Iraq for counterinsurgency. Because the Center was multi-Service and not Joint, General Powell’s folks asked it to be disbanded and it was. And those two great jobs were where I spent 13 years.
Great footage. Thanks.
AMEN!
Not one shred of credit should go to the occupant of our WH who stood in front of cameras and crowed and praised himself. Gag
If you read Dick Marcincko (sp) Rogue Warrior, Bombay was their drink of choice...
The best helicopter pilots in the world fly VertReps for the Navy.
Oh, yeah, sure they do.
And they are heavily trained in night operations using thermal, IR, NVG, IFR, hot and high, terrain following, mountain operations under fire.
Yep, those VertRep guys are really special.
Heard they over-stacked the compound...chaplains don’t know a lot about that, generally.
Those Chinooks sure suck up a lot of air, though. I do know that.
they should leak stories of 25 mil to some bad guys in the network
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