"The US Ambassador in the Congo ordered a small unit to Leopoldville in the Congo to help save American and European lives. The team consisted of three helicopters, three light single engine airplanes, an Air Force radio expert, and the Special Forces group from the 10th. A meeting with the Ambassador, the SF Team, and the Belgian paratroopers took place and the mission was defined. At the larger airfields the Belgian paratroopers would be in charge.
The Special Forces Team would control operations on the smaller airfields. The mission was to get as many Americans and Europeans out as possible. Despite enemy contact resulting in a few holes in the aircraft, the mission was accomplished. Nine days following their arrival in country, the team had evacuated 239 refugees without a single casualty.”
No publicity that US Special Forces Soldiers were involved with this action was ever made.
In addition to the Unconventional Warfare mission, the Group in the early 1960’s also started to pick up the mission of counter insurgency. Most of the training missions described earlier fit into this category.
With this new mission, in addition to Eastern Europe, the Group found themselves responsible for North Africa, the Middle East, and Southwest Asia as far east as Pakistan.
So in addition to teams qualified in the languages of Eastern Europe, now the new languages of Arabic, Urdu, Farsi, Greek, Turkish, and Pashto could be heard in the coffee shop and around the team rooms. In fact, at times English was really the “foreign” language of the 10th Special Forces Group."
Any of that sound familiar?
Peace,
Koko.
