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| Special Operations Forces, Team Tiger 03, Northern Afghanistan, 2002 |
| The war in Afghanistan marks the first time, the small, but highly trained U.S. Special Operation Forces, Green Berets, have been deployed as the main force behind a major conflict. These soldiers operated largely in secret. They wore long hair and beards along with some local clothing to better blend in with the population, but were still easily recognized by their desert camouflage BDUs. From a distance the Green Berets appeared to be normal Afghan soldiers in the trenches.They lived in unmark compounds and moved mostly at night. Working with the Northern Alliance, Team Tiger 03's primary mission was to direct airstrikes against the Taliban's front lines. Once on the front lines, the team set up their laser-range finders, target designators, powerful telescopes and radios in a trench over looking the Taliban front lines and began calling in airstrikes. Bombs from a B-52 struck squarely on the Taliban positions. The impact hurled Taliban soldiers out of their trenches and spilling bodies down the front of the hill. Other times, Tiger 03 controllers noticed that Taliban fighters would come out of their trenches to watch bombs fall on their nearby comrads. They began choreographing bomb runs so that a couple of minutes after the bombs started falling on one hill, they would begin landing on the spectators on the neighboring hill. Soon Tiger 03 controllers were placing bombs on one side of a hill to push the Taliban in one direction, then bomb the next hill to push the enemy in another direction. When they were all bunched up, bombs fell right on top of them. One Green Beret recalled, "It seemed like the more accurate the bombing, the better the locals fed us." This soldier is holding a Laser Target Designator. When aimed, the LTD emits a beam that "paints" the target allowing laser-guided munitions to accurately hit to their targets. |
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