This team has less than a year to prepare for deployment to Afghanistan. The operators are prepared to fight, but the emphasis is on building a local force to repel insurgents. Chad Hunt
The Future Of Special Ops -- Popular Mechanics
You might think of special operations forces as gunslingers who launch clandestine raids. But the traditional role of spec ops is training soldiers and building nations—skills that will be put to the test as the U.S. withdraws from Afghanistan. PM rides along with an A-Team as is preps for this mission.
Dawn is breaking as six members of the A-Team gather for physical training (PT) at an empty trailhead in Yakima, Wash. The men, dressed in MultiCam desert camouflage, deploy from a white government-issued van and immediately start unloading rucksacks and doing leg stretches.
Only half of the 12-man detachment, part of the 1st Special Forces Group, is available to stalk Rattlesnake Hills on the edge of the city for this morning's PT. One member is injured, another is in sniper training, and the team's Fox (intelligence specialist) is in dive school. The rest are sleeping off the prior night's guard duty at the Yakima Training Center. The clandestine operational detachment is a long way from its home base at Okinawa. The wide, undulating landscape and relentlessly rocky terrain here more closely resemble Afghanistan, where the team is slated to spend 2013.
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My Comment: These are the forces that will be confronting the Taliban after regular U.S./NATO forces have withdrawn .... talk about a tough mission.