Some SOF units were immediately stationed along the Saudi Arabia/Kuwait border to conduct reconnaissance and act as a “trip wire” in the event of an Iraqi offensive. Others began training Saudi and other arriving coalition troops. Eventually about 30,000 troops from a variety of countries were trained in 44 subject areas, including armor operations, artillery use, communications, and vehicle maintenance.
SEALs were tasked with operations along the Kuwaiti coast as part of a deception to convince Hussein and his commanders of an imminent attack from the sea.
To keep Iraq at bay during the buildup of ground forces and logistics, Schwarzkopf ordered an intensive air campaign. Eventually more than 100,000 sorties would be flown. Though Iraq’s air force had been driven from the skies within hours of the launch of the air campaign on Jan. 17, 1991, Iraq’s extensive anti-aircraft defenses continually challenged coalition aircraft. This made combat search and rescue (CSAR) a high priority. SOF conducted CSAR missions, some deep in Iraqi territory. But of all the tasks assigned to it, SOCCENT’s most famous one was the “SCUD hunting” mission.
Special operations forces were deployed into the western Iraqi desert in response to Saddam Hussein launching SCUD missiles at Israel. Using modified HMMWVs, they scouted large tracts of desert searching for the elusive, mobile SCUD launcher vehicles and seeking out and disabling the communications infrastructure that allowed them to operate. The British Special Air Service was also deployed on SCUD-hunting operations. DoD photo
With his air force neutralized, Hussein attempted a strategic end-around by attacking Israel with SCUD missiles. If successful in goading Israel to retaliate, he’d be able to transform the conflict into one pitting Israel against the Arab world, thus shattering the American-led coalition and ending the impending land offensive before it could begin. SOF teams inserted deep into Iraq were successful in dramatically reducing the number of SCUD attacks and convincing the Israeli government not to counterattack.
SOF psychological operations and civil affairs teams targeted Iraqi soldiers, stressing that the quarrel was with Hussein and not them and calling on them to surrender. When Desert Storm concluded, on Feb. 28, 1991, 86,743 Iraqi POWs were found to have in their possession surrender leaflets distributed by the teams. Following the successful conclusion of Operation Desert Storm, SOCCENT civil affairs elements remained in Kuwait City for two months, coordinating and assisting in relief efforts.
What is noteworthy is the fact that the special operations CSAR missions, and all the special operations air force missions, were conducted by a SOCOM command created in the same year that Iraq invaded Kuwait. Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) had as its initial component, the 23rd Air Force (AF), previously a part of Military Airlift Command and headquartered at Scott Air Force Base, Ill. When the 23rd became a component of AFSOC, it moved to Hurlburt Field, Fla.
The administrative move making 23rd AF a part of AFSOC had another consequence. 23rd AF was tasked with CSAR for the Air Force. Its transfer to AFSOC left the Air Force without the specialized aircraft or aircrews trained to conduct those missions. With a war going on, AFSOC simply assumed that responsibility. Plans were made for the Air Force’s Air Combat Command to assume the combat search and rescue role by the end of 1994, but that change never occurred, and AFSOC continued performing the CSAR mission for the rest of the decade.
Soldiers from the 9th PSYOPS, Fort Bragg, N.C., ride in M998 high mobility mutipurpose wheeled vehicles (HMMWVs) broadcasting messages to the Somali locals that line the street in Kismayo, Somalia. Elements of the 10th Mountain Division, Fort Drum, N.Y., walk alongside the HMMWVs providing security. This mission was in direct support of Operations Restore Hope. Photo by Sgt. Michael Bogdanowicz
As it turned out, the Desert Shield/Desert Storm campaign would be the 20th century’s last hurrah for traditional warfighting between large armies. In fact, the transition to the new normal began within weeks after Desert Storm concluded. When Iraq was defeated, Iraqi Kurds in the northern part of the country rebelled, hoping to create an independent Kurdistan. But Hussein retained enough military strength to crush the rebellion. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqi Kurds fled across the border into Turkey. USSOCOM forces were dispatched to Turkey to oversee the refugee camps and humanitarian aid and assist in defense of the Kurds as part of Operation Provide Comfort. USSOCOM was so successful that five months later, in July 1991, Provide Comfort was concluded.
Operation Provide Comfort revealed something that would become a chronic problem for SOF for several years: restrictions imposed by the host nation making SOF personnel unable to train to the full range of required capabilities. What this meant in practical terms was that host nations expected SOF units to arrive fully trained, not to conduct training during deployment. In the case of Provide Comfort, Turkey limited Air Force SOF training flights to a maximum radius of 50 miles, and restricted the amount of flying hours, flight duration, and flight profiles (e.g., night and low-level flights). Eventually this would be partially solved by an increased stationing of SOF units within the United States to allow for such training.
Conditions in the Horn of Africa were rapidly deteriorating in the early part of the decade. The weak government in Somalia proved incapable of supplying even the most basic of necessities to its people or protecting them from warlord militias. With more than 3 million Somalis facing starvation, in August 1992 Operation Provide Relief was launched, based in Kenya and part of the multinational United Nations humanitarian aid effort in Somalia.
The crash site of Super Six Four, one of the two Blacks Hawks that went down during Operation Gothic Serpent in Mogadishu, Somalia. Photo courtesy of Michael J. Durant
When the situation in Somalia collapsed, the United States initiated in December 1992 Operation Restore Hope, an expanded joint effort with United Nations forces within Somalia itself. The success of the humanitarian effort was overshadowed and ultimately thwarted by Operation Gothic Serpent, the October 1993 mission that captured two of Somali warlord Muhammad Farah Aideed’s lieutenants in a safe house in Mogadishu.
The mission was planned as a swift snatch-and-grab, using 19 aircraft and an armored convoy of 12 vehicles and 160 troops from Task Force Ranger. Commanders planned to be in and out of Mogadishu before the warlord’s militia could react, and they anticipated incurring no casualties. But, shortly after Aideed’s lieutenants were captured in the late afternoon of Oct. 3, 1993, two MH-60 Black Hawk helicopters were shot down, forcing a rescue operation. The task force faced an overwhelming Somali mob that necessitated them taking up defensive positions around one of the helicopter crash sites for the night. A mission expected to take no more than an hour didn’t end until well after dawn the following day.
Task Force Ranger suffered 17 killed in action and 106 wounded in what would be called the “Black Hawk Down” incident. Two SOF operators, Master Sgt. Gary Gordon and Sgt. 1st Class Randall Shughart, were posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for their actions in trying to save one of the downed helicopter crews. In March 1995, U.S. presence in Somalia ended with Operation United Shield, in which U.S. forces conducted the evacuation of United Nations peacekeeping troops from Somalia.