{"id":26680,"date":"2017-10-25T21:09:10","date_gmt":"2017-10-25T21:09:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/uncategorized\/2017\/10\/25\/mission-in-niger-is-one-special-forces-have-engaged-in-since-jfk\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T02:03:26","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T02:03:26","slug":"mission-in-niger-is-one-special-forces-have-engaged-in-since-jfk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/flashpoints\/2017\/10\/25\/mission-in-niger-is-one-special-forces-have-engaged-in-since-jfk\/","title":{"rendered":"Mission in Niger is one Special Forces have engaged in \u2018since JFK\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 The deaths of four U.S. soldiers in Niger in an early October ambush has cast a spotlight on a once-obscure mission in the West African nation. Reports indicating U.S. and Nigerien forces were surveilling an Islamic State recruiter when they were ambushed has renewed questions about the scope of the U.S. operation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the public speculation is partially due to a misperception of what Special Forces soldiers do in train, advise and assist missions, according to one former U.S. special operations soldier with several years of experience operating in the Sahel region of Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe aren\u2019t trying to run a covert war there \u2014 that is not what is going on,\u201d the former operator told Military Times on the condition of anonymity. \u201cThe scope of this is what may seem a little weird to people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reports over the last several weeks have focused on questions of whether U.S. troops in the region are properly equipped, if air support is readily available and whether wounded troops can be evacuated within the Defense Department\u2019s mandated \u201cgolden hour.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though it is rare for U.S. personnel to be encounter combat in Niger, the mission nevertheless comes with its own dangers and hazards, the former operator said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
A French soldier of the aerial detachment of the Operation Barkhane stands guard near a Reaper drone at the Nigerian military airport Diori Hamani in Niamey. (DOMINIQUE FAGET\/AFP\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe do offensive partner nation operations in Afghanistan all the time\u201d in an advise capacity, he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, the Green Berets who operated in Afghanistan in 2001 \u2014 a team featured in the upcoming movie \u201c12 Strong\u201d \u2014 were conducting a traditional advisory mission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That small Green Beret team was embedded with thousands of Afghan horse soldiers. Their job wasn\u2019t to be \u201cdoor kickers,\u201d but to advise Afghan forces against the Taliban and al-Qaida, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat the [Green Beret team] brought was air power and guidance,\u201d the former American commando said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The mission of Special Forces troops in Niger isn\u2019t to conduct combat operations, but combat can find U.S. troops on the ground, and advise missions can include guidance by U.S. troops on the ground with partner forces engaged in active combat, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The problem is the public sometimes perceives special forces as door kickers like SEALs, Marines or Rangers, but that is just not what these units do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSF\u2019s main mission is training, we are force multipliers, we are ground diplomats,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ongoing mission in Niger \u201cis what SF has done since JFK,\u201d he said. President Kennedy awarded the wearing of the Green Beret during a visit to Fort Bragg in 1961.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The former operator also pushed back on claims that surveilling an ISIS target may somehow be outside the scope of a train-and-advise mission. NBC News<\/a> first broke the story on Tuesday that the joint patrol was on a reconnaissance mission to track an ISIS recruiter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It depends on who was doing the surveilling, he said. The Niger patrol was predominantly composed of Nigerien forces, meaning the operation was Nigerien-led with U.S. troops serving as guides.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis was a Nigerien mission.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Part of the confusion surrounding the nature of train-and-advise missions stems from U.S. officials\u2019 reluctance to use the term combat, especially as those events unfold during advising missions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI wouldn\u2018t. Again, what they were doing in Niger was a train, assist and advise mission. Obviously anything that our troops do, they are in harm\u2019s way … but that mission was a security assistance mission,\u201d said Pentagon spokeswoman Dana White at an Oct. 5 press briefing on whether the Pentagon would describe the Niger ambush as combat. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
A U.S. Army Special Forces Weapons Sergeant inspects a Nigerien service member\u2019s weapon prior to entering a range as part of Flintlock 2017 in Diffa, Niger. (Spc. Zayid Ballesteros\/Army)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI would just add, I\u2019m not gonna parse the language with you. Certainly to the soldiers in the fight, it was combat … I don\u2019t want to dance around that,\u201d said Joint Staff Director Lt. Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr. at the same press briefing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The issue has become so granular and controversial that U.S. officials have even classified specific patrols as being combat or noncombat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe patrol is not designed to be a combat patrol. Patrol is designed to be a partner patrol that was going out actually doing outreach,\u201d McKenzie said at an Oct. 12 press briefing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nevertheless, the operation in Niger has also raised criticism about whether troops operating in a region where numerous Islamist terror groups \u2014 to include ISIS, al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb and Boko Haram \u2014 are known to operate are properly supported and equipped.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to a report by The New York Times<\/a>, the dozen U.S. troops accompanying Nigerien forces on the joint patrol were operating in military vehicles and Toyota Land Cruisers from the U.S. Embassy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sgt. La David T. Johnson, who was killed in the ambush and whose body was discovered nearly 48 hours later, was driving one of the Land Cruisers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Officials at U.S. Africa Command have refused to detail what military vehicles U.S. troops were operating in at the time of the ambush, citing operational security.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nigerien forces are known to operate in \u201ctechnicals,\u201d or modified, weapon-equipped pick-up trucks, and U.S. forces do accompany partner forces in similar vehicles in the Sahel region to blend in, according to the former American commando.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Niger soldiers ride in a military vehicle. (Photo credit should read ISSOUF SANOGO\/AFP\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

However, the deaths of the U.S. soldiers has raised questions about whether American troops in the region should be operating in up-armored vehicles like the MRAP, commonly operated by U.S. troops in Afghanistan and Iraq.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The former special operations forces operator who spoke to Military Times push backed on those claims. \u201cWe aren\u2019t properly equipping these guys, well yeah, we are,\u201d he said. \u201cThey are getting what they need.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThin skin vehicles are absolutely a horrible idea from a risk management point of view, but operationally, that is how the British have done it for years,\u201d he said, citing British experience in Iraq and Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSupporting operations in remote regions requires a long logistical chain, including long medevac times,\u201d he said. \u201cThe trans Sahel region is largely undeveloped desert where camels are still a common mode of transportation<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe safest I\u2019ve ever felt in an active combat theater has been in a local vehicle, local garb and local weapons,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

U.S. and western military vehicles are too easy to target and become easy prey. \u201cEvery triggerman on that road can ID that as a target,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBecause we don\u2019t like seeing our guys blown up, we created these armored cocoons,\u201d he said. \u201cThat briefs better.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The problem in Africa is that U.S. troops in the region have to be active and that requires a presence, and Green Berets and special operators are basically filling a void that the U.S. State Department isn\u2019t actively filling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The mission becomes a question of \u201chow overt or covert is it,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additionally, MRAPs are not really suited for operations in many areas of the Sahel. The vehicles don\u2019t drive well in the sand and \u201cmobility across loose terrain\u201d is a nightmare, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then add the logistical complications if sophisticated U.S. military hardware becomes stuck or lost in the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
A convoy from 4th platoon, Mobility Assault Company, 1st Combat Engineer Battalion makes a brief stop. (Sgt. Frances Johnson\/Marine Corps)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTowing is a nightmare,\u201d and there really isn\u2019t a support or logistic network to make all these components come together.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The deaths of four U.S. soldiers in Niger in an early October ambush has cast a spotlight on a once-obscure mission in the West African 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