The United States Special Forces are primarily soldiers with a high degree of physical and mental prowess, who are then selected for intensive trainings geared towards the capacity to achieve objectives that other soldiers simply cannot. Due to the high level of optimism and faith in this specially trained armed forces which may lead to misjudgments of tasks and underestimation of missions, the highly esteemed US Special Operations Forces (SOF) have encountered several failures and defeat. The United States of America has experimented with SOFs since World War 2. The high faith and optimism vested on the US Special Forces, though taken with a pinch of salt by civilians, are well-earned. The exploits and successes of SOFs are well known and documented, more recently the capture and assassination of Osama bin-Laden in Pakistan. However, the Special Forces unit of the US military sometimes draw the ire of personnel from US mainstream military who feel that the regular branches of the army lose their best human capital to the Special Forces unit, and the likelihood of SOFS enjoying better training resources. There has also been concerns over the cost to the army and the nation as a whole of deploying Special Forces units for operations that the more conventional branches of the army can execute. There are also recorded criticisms, such as is expanded in the book “Oppose Any Foe” by Mark Moyer, that the excessive glamorization of the US Army Special Forces tend to gloss over their many flops and failures. Moyar argued in his book that the grand heroism vested on the SOF units helps deflect scrutiny of some of the special-operations enterprise as a whole. The United States Army Special Forces, colloquially known as the Green Berets due to their distinctive service headgear, are a special operations force of the United States Army that are designed to deploy and execute nine doctrinal missions: unconventional warfare, foreign internal defense, direct action, counter-insurgency, special reconnaissance, counter-terrorism, information operations, counterproliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and security force assistance via seven geographically focused groups. Yes, the revered US Special Operations Forces has not always excelled in every mission they executed. In fact, some of the unit’s failures are so disastrous they teach very little that’s new. Below are five of such US Special Forces flops:
The Makin Island Raiders On August 17, 1942, 211 of Marine Second Raider Battalion formed in April that same year, set out from two submarines to Makin Island, the home of a Japanese seaplane base. The raid 70-years ago was a first for the U.S. and a precursor to U.S. Special Operations forces that operate routinely from submarine assets. The strike, [which’s primary mission was to destroy Japanese installations] according to the US National Archives, was designed to divert Japanese attention from the U.S. landings on Guadalcanal and boost American morale. Unfortunately for the Battalion, the mission didn’t go as planned as the US marines were promptly discovered by the Japanese who engaged them in a firefight in what should have been a largely covert operation. The amphibious (submarine) landing had been very difficult due to rough seas, high surf, and the failure of many of the outboard motors. Lt. Col. Carlson who led the team decided to land all his men on one beach, rather than two beaches as originally planned. By the time the mission was over, little was gained and much was lost. The American raiders approached Makin in two submarines, Nautilus and Argonaut. When they surfaced, the men set out for shore in rubber boats amid heavy rains and a tumultuous sea. Most of the outboard motors on the boats failed, but somehow the men made it ashore. After suffering unexpected casualties, Col. Carlson and Maj. Roosevelt (Yes, President Roosevelt’s son) decided to abort the mission. But as the soldiers soon learned, withdrawing from Makin proved to be much harder than invading it. Outboard motors once again failed, and heavy surf capsized several boats, keeping many of the raiders on shore who couldn’t swim to the waiting submarines. A few boats made it to the submarines, but Carlson and about 120 men were stranded, most of them without weapons and weakened from their battle with the sea. The invasion of Makin Atoll by the Special Forces was described by the Washington Post as “a poignant, error-plagued raid against an isolated Japanese outpost with almost no strategic value. So many things went wrong that the Marines at one point tried to surrender to a Japanese garrison they had already wiped out.” All told, thirty of the Marines committed to the operation died, with many more injured. Hill 205: North Korea It was November, 1950 when a newly-formed Eight Ranger Battalion unit of the US armed forces embarked on a mission to capture and defend Hill 205 along the Chongchon River. The Ch'ŏngch'ŏn is a river of North Korea having its source in the Rangrim Mountains of Chagang Province and emptying into the Yellow Sea at Sinanju. Hoping to repeat the success of the earlier First Phase surprise attack Campaign against UN forces, the PVA 13th Army launched a series of surprise attacks along the river valley on the night of November 25, 1950 at the western half of the Second Phase Campaign, effectively destroying the Eighth United States Army's right flank while allowing PVA forces to move rapidly into UN rear areas. The losses at Chosin Reservoir had been painfully high for U.S. troops. The estimated 18,000 casualties included about 2,500 killed in action, 5,000 wounded and almost 8,000 who suffered from frostbite. But there were troops worse off still—the Chinese. The Eighth Army Ranger Company, also known as the 8213th Army Unit, was a Ranger light infantry company of the United States Army that was active during the Korean War. As a small Special Forces unit, it specialized in irregular warfare. The massively surprising counteroffensive by the Chinese forces who already contemplated and prepared for an invasion brought about disastrous losses for the American troops. The US regular army could have launched a similar level of performance as did the efforts of the US special unit who executed the Hill 205 mission. The Chinese infantry and artillery swamped the Rangers’ defenses during the night of November 25, in six separate assaults. Eighty-eight Rangers attacked Hill 205; forty-seven survived to defend it; only twenty-one left the hill alive. Eagle Claw: Iran Operation Eagle Claw, known as Operation Tabas in Iran, was a United States Armed Forces operation ordered by U.S. President Jimmy Carter to attempt to end the Iran hostage crisis by rescuing 52 embassy staff held captive at the Embassy of the United States, Tehran on 24 April 1980. President Carter’s government decided to use the services of Special Forces to free American hostages in Tehran instead of a conventional military attack or a coercive air campaign. Fifty-two American diplomats and citizens were held hostage for 444 days from November 4, 1979, to January 20, 1981, after a group of Iranian college students belonging to the Muslim Student Followers of the Imam's Line, who supported the Iranian Revolution, took over the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. On November 4, 1979, Iranian students seized the embassy and detained more than 50 Americans, ranging from the Chargé d'Affaires to the most junior members of the staff, as hostages. Operation Eagle Claw was essentially a failed mission by the U.S. military in April 1980 to rescue Americans who were held during the Iran hostage crisis. The mission highlighted deficiencies within the U.S. military command structure and led to the creation of the United States Special Operations Command (SOCOM). The operation involved a complex plan to land a team of US Army Rangers and Delta Force operatives near the embassy compound, incapacitate the Iranian guards, and then airlift the hostages out of the area very quickly before regular Iranian military could react. But the raid failed woefully, with the US operatives unable to succeed in their mission due to mechanical problems in the rescue choppers. The hostages were released on January 20, 1981, the day President Carter's term ended. While Carter had an "obsession" with finishing the matter before stepping down, the hostage-takers are thought to have wanted the release delayed as punishment for his perceived support for the Shah. The failed rescue mission was highly instrumental in President Carter’s 1980 presidential elections loss. Meanwhile, 8 American servicemen and 1 Iranian civilian was killed during hostage rescue attempt. The Grenada 3-Day War Grenada is a sovereign state in the West Indies in the Caribbean Sea at the southern end of the Grenadines island chain. In March 1983, President Reagan began issuing warnings about the threat posed to the United States and the Caribbean by the Soviet-Cuban militarization of the Caribbean, evident from the excessively long airplane runway being built and intelligence indicating increased Soviet interest in the island. It should be relatively easy for the United States to depose the government of Grenada in a concerted military assault. In fact, the whole conflict, when it was eventually executed, lasted only three days. But a lot of things went wrong for the US Special Forces unit that executed the mission in 1983. The Special Forces units of the US encountered several problematic situations including a barrage of unexpected antiaircraft fire against US Black Huck choppers when they made a nighttime attempt to take Richmond Hill Prison. Three Black Huck helicopters went down and three US Army rangers died from the imperiled air raid operation. Also, the Special Forces unit failed to anticipate the weather which led to the drowning of four Navy Seals on that October 23 night. According to War History Online, there was another incident during the operation in which U.S. aircraft targeting anti-aircraft guns unintentionally bombed a mental hospital, killing 18 people and adding unnecessarily to civilian casualties. These mistakes occurred largely due to lack of verified ground intelligence. All told, American forces sustained 19 killed and 116 wounded; Cuban forces sustained 25 killed, 59 wounded, and 638 combatants captured. Grenadian forces suffered 45 dead and 358 wounded; at least 24 civilians were also killed, 18 of whom died in the accidental bombing of a Grenadian mental hospital. Black Hawk Down: Mogadishu Initially, the US participated in the Somali civil war only on the grounds of humanitarian missions such as providing food and supplies to the civilian population. Unsurprisingly, the scope of the US in the region soon began to expand. This was during the US government transition from the administration of George H. W. Bush to President Bill Clinton who had little foreign policy experience at the time and did not have a clear vision of what he wanted with Somalia. Here is what preceded the Mogadishu conflict: In December 1992, U.S. President George H. W. Bush ordered the U.S. military to join the U.N. in a joint operation known as Operation Restore Hope, with the primary mission of restoring order in Somalia. The country was racked by civil war and a severe famine as it was ruled by a number of faction leaders; rival warlords who were preventing the distribution of humanitarian aid to thousands of starving Somalis. Somalia is Located in the Horn of Africa, this location is so important for oil shipment coming from gulf countries, and going to Asia, Africa, and Americas. Somalia has the longest sea shores in all Africa, and the government is not functioning well to defend it, and because of that there is pirates. So, a team of US Army Rangers and Delta Force operatives launched a combined air and land military campaign in 1993 targeting the top lieutenants of Mohammed Farah Aidid. Aidid was an Italian-trained military leader, often described as a warlord, and a naturalized American citizen who humiliated the United States in 1993. He is known for attacking UN troops, causing him to be named one of the main targets of the Unified Task Force. As it turned out, the combined air and land operation to apprehend Aidid’s top goons went awry rather quickly. By the time the melee was over, two US military choppers had crashed- one of them due to rocket grenade attacks- while the ground vehicles couldn’t find their way to the target at central Mogadishu. The American special forces soldiers suffered 19 fatalities, not counting the nearly a thousand of Somalis who died during the fight that lasted throughout the night. The Pentagon initially reported five American soldiers were killed, but the toll was actually 18 American soldiers dead and 73 wounded. The elder Mohamed Farrah Aidid continued his struggle for power, even declaring himself President of Somalia in 1995, a declaration no country recognized. He was shot in a battle against former allied warlords in July 1996 and died of a heart attack during surgery. Hussein was declared his father's successor at age 33. Each individual Special Forces operator represents years of intensive training, along with a rare set of physical, mental and emotional traits and that is what is lost every time a SOF operator is neutralized. While politicians may enjoy touting deployment of Special Forces unit for operations, the use of these units in conventional warfare often exposes them in situations where they cannot leverage their specialized trainings which may lead to surprising casualties that are not only amount to political and economic losses, but the loss of some of America’s finest. SEAL Team 6, officially known as United States Naval Special Warfare Development Group (DEVGRU), and Delta Force, officially known as 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta (1st SFOD-D), are the most highly trained elite forces in the US military. The Green Berets have about as much street-cred as numbered SEALs and Force Recon, depending on who's doing the talking. Notably, Green Berets (Special Forces) have some of the toughest initial training in the entire military (at the risk of drawing the ire of SEALs and Marine Recon). For almost two decades, special operations forces have been constantly engaged in a wide range of missions, and demand for these elite troops seems endless. Yet the growing strains on this insular and elite cohort are showing, and it may be nearing a breaking point. Misconduct, indiscipline, and leadership failures are rising, and threaten the very foundations of the community. Unless the underlying reasons for these problems are addressed, America’s special operations forces will remain at risk of a major breakdown that jeopardizes their ability to conduct critical missions in the national interest.
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