it.
Or one of the SF guys might come into the division, and he just didn't look like an American soldier. He might have long hair, and be wearing tiger fatigues and big, brass Montagnard bracelets (which meant a great deal to the Montagnards), and be carrying a Sten gun or other foreign weapons. In the context of the A camp, all this was perfectly appropriate (Special Forces have always trained to use foreign weapons), but to everyone else, it was bizarre — nonregulation.
Furthermore, the Special Forces habit of rubbing the rest of the Army the wrong way did not end with the war in Southeast Asia. Since most of the Army distrusted them, the Special Forces tended to react accordingly, to overplay their skills, and then rub in their triumphs in a way certain to cause resentment.
In 1977 and 1978, Jim Guest was with the 10th SFG at Bad Tolz in Germany, a unit often called upon to mimic Soviet special-operations units, particularly those trying to 'penetrate' secure facilities. Guest's penetration teams were almost invariably successful — to their delight and the consternation of their targets.
On one occasion, the VII Corps deputy commander had Guest run an operation against the VII Corps Tactical command posts.
Jim Guest relates what happened:
'What do you want us to do?' I asked.
'I want you to attack the CP as if you were Russian operatives, Soviet Special Forces,' the general answered.
'Yes, sir,' I said. Then we went to work. Of course, he didn't tell the corps staff to expect us, and neither did we. Part of the game was to avoid tipping off corps headquarters.
We assigned one and a half A-Detachments to run the actual operation — ODA-6, reinforced by a six-man Ranger team from the Ranger detachment stationed at Bad Tolz, where they normally ran the USAREUR (U.S. Army Europe) survival training course. The team rehearsed in several ways. It moved into the operational area, occupied mission support sites, cached equipment, established observation on the targets, identified the critical parts of each target and selected routes into and out of the target areas. There were attacks on the targets, immediate-action drills, helicopter operations, sniper operations in which the snipers were used to secure the mission support sites and to provide overwatch for the attacking elements during attacks in the Corps areas, and finally, VII Corps field SOP — especially those items that would apply to the team as they conducted operations. The detachments were particularly interested in the way the Corps military police operated, since they planned to operate as MPs.
Meanwhile, we gathered all the open data on the corps we could find — how the Corps uniforms were worn, how their vehicles were marked, the normal separation distance between elements of the Corps field CP, how the VII Corps specifically provided security forces, and their estimated reaction time, and what kind of equipment we could expect to be confronted with. We also studied everything available about communication systems, about how to visually recognize secure facilities, and about antennas. We identified the different CP locations by the types of antennas, and we knew where the units were because of the orientation of their antennas. And finally, we made mock-ups of how the CPs looked laid out on the ground.
When the time came to run the operation, we did a little recon near the gates. I had soldiers hang around until they heard the challenge and the password, then we immediately passed the info on to the strike team. When they were ready to go, we put the strike team itself into VII Corps MP uniforms, and took our own jeeps and marked them up like MP jeeps. That's how our guys made the initial infiltration.
Once they were inside, they successfully penetrated and knocked out all the communications installations, simulated an attack on the operations complex with standoff weapons (81mm mortars carried in the trailers of our look-alike MP jeeps), and took out the critical technicians, such as the computer operators.
The teams successfully gained access to all its target elements in the Corps area, with the primary emphasis on the operational complex and on the areas with technicians.
Then, for show and tell, the team took pictures with KS 99 cameras. They photographed the antenna configurations, the operational complex, vehicles (with identifying markings prominently displayed). Corps security points, the technicians' living and working areas, helicopter pads with helicopters parked, the Generals' Mess, where all the key leaders and staff officers congregated on most nights for the evening meal, and routes in and out of the Corps areas, including the vehicle parks.
Here is how they took out the computers:
In those days, their scarcity value made computers more important than they are now; there were so few of them and they were so big and cumbersome. So our guys found the big van where they kept the ultracomputers, and went down, again dressed as MPs but carrying satchels like couriers, and banged on the hatch.
Naturally, the computer operators inside opened the hatch. 'You know you can't come in,' they said. 'This is—'
'That's all right. We have a message from the Corps commander that they want you to send out.' And it was two red smoke grenades. They chucked them through the hatch and slammed it shut.
Pretty soon, the fresh air generators cranked up, and red smoke came rolling out of the exhaust ports. It was quite a sight.
Other members of the strike team 'killed' the remaining computer operators in their tents — with lipstick, their normal method of 'slitting' friendly throats.
As one NCO described it: 'We crawled into the tent where they were all sleeping and waited under the bunks where we could reach up with our fingertips and find them, and then we'd take the lipstick and draw it right across their necks.
'But one of them, a female, just gave me all kinds of problems. I kept trying to find the head, and I couldn't find it. Then 1 heard this screech: 'Eeeeeeek.' So I didn't move for a while. I just laid under her cot till she went back to sleep. But because of her eeeeek, I knew where her head was, and after she was asleep again, I found her neck.'
(Incidentally, if all of this had been a real Soviet penetration, the loss would have been catastrophic for the Corps in the near term, but it would not have permanently stopped Corps operations, only significantly interrupted things for twelve to twenty-four hours until the damage could be repaired.)
When the day came for us to give the action report, the general said, 'I want the team members to come up and give a debriefing to the entire Corps staff.'
Soon after that, the strike team, in their regular uniforms, were setting up the debriefing in a big theater, when a suspicious colonel came in (it turned out he was responsible for security and counterintelligence operations). 'What are you people doing?' he asked.
'We're up here to brief the general.'
'What are you briefing the general on?'
'We're briefing the general on the infiltration of VII Corps tactical CPs in the field.'
The colonel's face went white, and he turned around and left in a fury. In fact, pretty soon most of the corps staff, from colonels on down, were equally incensed — especially as the debriefing proceeded and we described, in detail how we had broken into everything they had.
This led to a lot of hard feelings.
Another example of the kind of thing that would really incense the rest of the Army happened in 1978, when we were scheduled to participate in that year's REFORGER (Reinforcement or Germany). Beforehand, all the leaders had to go up to the V Corps to be briefed about what everyone was going to do.
At the end of the briefing, the commander got up and said, 'As the United States V Corps commander, I will not allow the so-called elite units to disrupt the exercise. They will not be allowed to run any mission I do not directly, personally okay.' He didn't want to let us operate — that is, to make him or his exercise
