Word: deltas
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...trained a variety of military units in antiterrorist tactics: the special operations Delta Force, the Army's helicopter unit Task Force 168, the Navy's SEALs (for Sea, Air and Land forces) and the Air Force's First Special Operations Wing. West Germany has its G.S.G. 9 antiterrorist group, while the British government has recently decided to station units of its highly regarded Special Air Services at five airports. As British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher told the American lawyers in July, "We have behind us many fine declarations and communiqués of good intent. We need action, action to which...
...military command, however, has been a good deal less enthusiastic about this new breed of warrior. Special Forces are often regarded by the brass as unworthy of precious defense dollars and a bit too independent to boot. Disclosures last November that members of the supersecret Delta Force had been charged with skimming covert intelligence funds only heightened Pentagon suspicions that the Special Forces are a bunch of freebooters. Shrugged retired Army Brigadier General Donald Blackburn, an expert on unconventional warfare: "Special Forces have always been the bastards of the Army...
...unit in particular, readiness has not been as big a problem as simple logistics. Based at Fort Bragg, N.C., the Army's elite Delta Force has been too far from recent targets of terrorism to play a role. By the time Delta Force troops reached the Mediterranean to respond to the seizure of TWA Flight 847 last June and the hijacking of the EgyptAir flight to Malta in November, they were too late for a successful rescue operation. One of the Holloway Commission's recommendations is for the "forward deployment" of some special-operations forces and equipment overseas...
...bridges and ships. The Air Force's First Special Operations Wing (1st SOW) is set up to ferry combat troops in high-tech flying machines that can race undetected in the dead of night. But the most highly visible, politically popular mission of the Special Forces is counterterrorism. The Delta Force is trained to rescue hostages by land, the SEALs...
...Joint Special Operations Agency, established in 1984 to advise on policy, is run by Marine Major General Wesley Rice. Yet until 1985, the Leathernecks had no Special Forces and historically eschewed their importance. Not surprisingly, the Marines' new experimental unit is studying hostage rescue, something both the Army's Delta Force and the Navy's SEAL Team Six have been working on for years...