Weapon of Choice: U.S. Army Special Operations Forces in Afghanistan

by Charles H. Briscoe

This extensive account of U.S. Army Special Operations soldiers and their actions in Afghanistan is an important contribution to understanding how these unique individuals removed the Taliban from power and destroyed al-Qaeda and Taliban strongholds in Afghanistan as part of the US global war on terrorism. The originating idea, research, and writing that went into it are strictly the product of the U.S. Army Special Operations Command and its assigned authors. The selected historical vignettes tell the ARSOF story. Many of these soldier stories demonstrate the capabilities of special operations forces (SOF)-unique equipment, while others point out the skills and bravery of the soldiers and aviators. The strength of ARSOF resides in its highly trained, very motivated soldiers. While technology plays a part in ARSOF, the soldiers make the difference. There has been a conscious effort to ensure that the stories of all ARSOF elements are presented. Thus, to provide a fair representative sampling of different activities within the security constraints, not all interviews became vignettes. One hundred-percent coverage of all participating teams was impossible. The examples selected were the best of those available to demonstrate a capability, illustrate an activity, or clarify a combat mission. The sensitive classified parts have been sanitized based on specifi c security rules, hence special forces elements do not always mean special forces teams, and pseudonyms are used predominantly. A limited-access U.S. Army Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) classifi ed annex of sources will contain true names and specify documents and briefi ngs to corroborate the material included. The controlled classifi ed annex will not be available to researchers who do not have the appropriate security clearances and a clear "need to know."

Genres: Military Fiction, History

438 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2003

Reviews

[Jerome Otte]

This is a tough book to find. The press run was limited, and copies have been snapped up by the SOF community. That's a shame, because this book is awesome, a must-read for anyone interested in special operations or how the war in Afghanistan kicked off.
"Weapon of Choice" is an authorized history of special operations forces in Afghanistan from September 12, 2001 to May 15, 2002. Practically every name is a pseudonym and practically everyone's face has a black box.
Unfortunately, it has no index or footnotes. The maps are fuzzy and you can't make out the names on them. It always italicizes "al-Qaeda" and "Taliban" as if they were obscure words.
"This is a carefully 'sanitized' rendering of selected combat operations..." it says in the intro.

The book starts off with a military history of Afghanistan up to September 10, 2001 and describes in detail the geographic, diplomatic, and military challenges of operating in Afghanistan.

However, it claims bin Laden formed al-Qaeda in 1998. Wrong.
It also says that Colonel Phillip McGee, the SOCOM deputy chief of staff for Resource Management began meetings on how to finance the war on September 9, 2001. Huh? al-Qaeda didn't even hit the WTC until September 11. How could McGee have planned the war before that?
It discusses in detail:
*the establishment of command-and-control, communications, and logistics support at Karshi-Khanabad air base in Uzbekistan
*coordination of 160th SOAR CSAR ops with 5th Special Forces Group and Joint Special Operations Air Component Command planners.
It mentions the October 19, 2001 Ranger raid on the "Rhino" airfield, but makes no mention of the Delta Force raid on Taliban leader Mullah Omar's compound other than as "another night raid."
It describes PSYOP units and their novel command structure, the development of the SOF campaign at SOCCENT, 5ht SFG's analysis of Afghanistan's ethnic/geographic make-up and the division of the country in sectors for the different JSOTFs, the conversion of HQ staffs to a war footing, and the establishment of communications, PSYOP cell, and planning for humanitarian assistance.
It describes the advance team sent to Karshi-Khanabad air base in Uzbekistan, the setup of their operations center, logistics arrangements, and their troublesome coordination with the Uzbeks.
The book then describes how cargo clogged up K2 and how the SOF overcame it, the clarification of the chain of command, the establishmentt of an intel section and Joint operations Center, problems with intel collection, collocating JSOAC with Task Force Dagger, communications support, and FINALLY, the insertion of Special Forces teams into Afghanistan.
If this sounds boring, too bad, but it demonstrates the necessity and breadth of the planning, communications, intelligence and logistics required to get the "real" soldiers into the action.
the book then describes supply airdrops and provides a brief account of the fighting for all of the different Afghan cities.
The book briefly recounts ODA 574's mission with Hamid Karzai and Marine operations at Rhino, but then RANDOMLY brings up the Rhino raid...AGAIN. The book details ODA 583's operations with Gul Agha Sherzai for Kandahar.
When describing ODA 505's operations, the book describes a "middle-aged Afghan man named Maqdoom who could speak English." It shows a picture with a strange caption: "A middle-aged Afghan man." OK, does that mean it's Maqdoom...? Or not?
The book goes on to describe aerial resupply to the ODAs, Ranger recons ("rat patrols"), Little Bird helicopter strikes, the printing of PSYOP leaflets, ODA 574 (again), the battle at Qala-i Jangi, ODA 583 (again),and Tora Bora.
On page 180 he misidentifies ODA 574 as ODA 583.

This book is very interesting. Anyone interested in the war in Afghanistan or special operations should check this out.