Special Forces in Syria

With the White House sending Special Operations Forces to Syria to “train, advise and assist” Syrian rebels against ISIS, The Daily Caller got an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at how Green Beret students train for just such a situation.

This reporter went to Fort Bragg’s John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School in North Carolina for two weeks to cover and train with Army Special Forces students trying to earn the coveted Green Beret and Special Forces tab. Part of that time was spent embedded with student A-Teams in the culmination exercise to their Special Forces qualification course called Robin Sage, where the candidates must put their unconventional warfare training to the test.

The exercise requires Special Forces students to build rapport with people posing as indigenous forces in their fight — the very same type of mission they’ll perform in Syria.

Robin Sage is the foremost unconventional warfare exercise in the world. It tests the Special Forces students as they support guerrilla forces in the fictional country of “Pineland.” It’s staged over 15 counties in central North Carolina, and has been used to train students for more than 50 years.

“When they come here already, they [have] advanced tactical and technical proficiency,” said Lt. Col. “Stone,” a Special Forces Assessor playing the role of a guerrilla chief or war lord. “But what they don’t know what to do is teach a bunch of people who have a different culture, maybe a different language, certainly different customs why they have to do something like that and to get folks to go along with American policy, national policy, and make it a win-win situation for both sides.”

More than 1,000 people — instructors, students, volunteers and civilian authorities — participate. Local citizens portray natives and auxiliary forces, while additional service members role-play opposing and guerrilla forces to depict a realistic unconventional warfare environment.

“If [they] can manage an unconventional warfare campaign within the political, military and cultural boundaries of the North Carolina ‘Pineland’ scenario, then [they] can handle any unconventional warfare or foreign internal defense situation in the world, after they graduate and become Green Berets,” Major “Derek,” a Special Forces Company Commander explained while in Diyala Province, Iraq in 2007, during coverage of real-world A-Team missions. Major “Derek” had been a Special Forces instructor previously, and recommended covering Robin Sage to learn more about one of the core Green Beret missions: unconventional warfare.

With the White House sending Special Operations Forces to Syria to “train, advise and assist” Syrian rebels against ISIS, The Daily Caller got an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at how Green Beret students train for just such a situation.

This reporter went to Fort Bragg’s John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School in North Carolina for two weeks to cover and train with Army Special Forces students trying to earn the coveted Green Beret and Special Forces tab. Part of that time was spent embedded with student A-Teams in the culmination exercise to their Special Forces qualification course called Robin Sage, where the candidates must put their unconventional warfare training to the test.

The exercise requires Special Forces students to build rapport with people posing as indigenous forces in their fight — the very same type of mission they’ll perform in Syria.

Robin Sage is the foremost unconventional warfare exercise in the world. It tests the Special Forces students as they support guerrilla forces in the fictional country of “Pineland.” It’s staged over 15 counties in central North Carolina, and has been used to train students for more than 50 years.

“When they come here already, they [have] advanced tactical and technical proficiency,” said Lt. Col. “Stone,” a Special Forces Assessor playing the role of a guerrilla chief or war lord. “But what they don’t know what to do is teach a bunch of people who have a different culture, maybe a different language, certainly different customs why they have to do something like that and to get folks to go along with American policy, national policy, and make it a win-win situation for both sides.”

More than 1,000 people — instructors, students, volunteers and civilian authorities — participate. Local citizens portray natives and auxiliary forces, while additional service members role-play opposing and guerrilla forces to depict a realistic unconventional warfare environment.

“If [they] can manage an unconventional warfare campaign within the political, military and cultural boundaries of the North Carolina ‘Pineland’ scenario, then [they] can handle any unconventional warfare or foreign internal defense situation in the world, after they graduate and become Green Berets,” Major “Derek,” a Special Forces Company Commander explained while in Diyala Province, Iraq in 2007, during coverage of real-world A-Team missions. Major “Derek” had been a Special Forces instructor previously, and recommended covering Robin Sage to learn more about one of the core Green Beret missions: unconventional warfare.

“There’s a lot of dilemmas out here that they put us in,” Captain “Jarrod,” a Special Forces student, told The Daily Caller. “We have to think through the solutions, and those effects that your actions could cause.” “Is that the key — the ‘thinking’ part? Since your soon-to-be A-Team brothers downrange are known for thinking outside the box, and having very little to work with?” TheDC asked Captain “Jarrod” during the war game scenario. “I would certainly say it is,” he replied.

This intense training exercise runs eight times per year; the next iteration begins after Veterans Day next week across North Carolina.

Article from the Daily Caller.   This article came out over a week ago an in light of the recent Terrorist Attacks in Paris, France attributed to ISIS, it is surmised that any plan to deploy Special Forces into Syria is a rapidly evolving plan and there the possibility of NATO getting involved as an organization due to France declaring that the attacks were "An act of war" and therefore the likeliness of invoking NATO treaty provisions obligating support from member nations.    


To watch the video associated with Alex Quade's article, click on this link: How Special Forces Learn To ‘Train, Advise, Assist’ — Which Is What They’ll Do In Syria