Authors: Sean Naylor
FM 100-5âOperations
, published 1976 by the Department of the Army, Appendix B, pp. 2â3, accessed at:
http://www.survivalebooks.com/free%20manuals/1976%20US%20Army%20Vietnam%20War%20OPERATIONS%20201p.pdf
.
From the Sea: U.S. Marines in Afghanistan, 2001â2002
, by Colonel Nathan S. Lowrey (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Marine Corps History Division, 2011).
A History of the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne)
, a report prepared by the Library of Congress Federal Research Division, October 2001.
The Holloway Commission Report (unclassified version), accessed at:
http://www2.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB63/doc8.pdf
.
The Impact of Leaders on Organizational Culture: A 75th Ranger Regiment Case Study
, by Lieutenant Colonel Francis H. Kearney III, a strategy research project for the U.S. Army War College, Carlisle Barracks, 1997.
“Key Zarqawi Aide Captured,” a Multi-National Force-Iraq press release number 05-05-09, dated May 7, 2005, accessed at:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1383919/posts?q=1&;page=1901
(the original centcom.mil link is dead).
Operation Urgent Fury
, by Ronald H. Cole (Washington, D.C.: Joint History Office, 1997).
Operation Urgent Fury
, U.S. Army Center for Military History monograph.
“Report to Congress on the Defeat of Hard and Deeply Buried Targets,” submitted by the Secretary of Defense in conjunction with the Secretary of Energy, July 2001.
“Scott SatherâStrived for Excellence, Influenced Many,” by Lieutenant Colonel Darrell Judy, accessed at:
http://www.aetc.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123205410
.
“Selected Speeches of President George W. Bush, 2001â2008,” accessed at:
http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/infocus/bushrecord/documents/Selected_Speeches_George_W_Bush.pdf
.
Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict Legislation: Why Was It Passed and Have the Voids Been Filled?
by Colonel William G. Boykin, a study project for the Army War College, Carlisle Barracks, 1991.
“USS
Kitty Hawk
(CV(A)63),” accessed at:
http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/k4/kitty_hawk-ii.html
.
USS
Saipan
(LHA-2) Command HistoryâCalendar Year 2000, accessed at:
http://www.history.navy.mil/shiphist/s/lha-2/2000.pdf
.
Weapon of Choice: ARSOF in Afghanistan
, by Charles H. Briscoe, Richard L. Kiper, James A. Schroder, and Kalev I. Sepp (Fort Leavenworth, Kans.: Combat Studies Institute Press, 2004).
“What Will Be the Military Role in the War on Terrorism?,” an October 10, 2001, memo from Donald Rumsfeld to Generals Dick Myers and Peter Pace, accessed at:
www.papers.rumsfeld.com
.
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I could not have written this book without the love and support of many people.
My parents, Dave and Verney Naylor, never stopped believing in me, for which I will always be grateful. My brother Mark was a constant source of encouragement, while Hannah and Duncan, my niece and nephew, reminded me that there is more to life than book writing. My sister-in-law Laura and her parents, Peter and Joanne Roth, made me feel welcome as always on my all-too-infrequent visits to New England.
Christine McCann not only showed more patience and love and sacrificed more of herself than I had a right to expect as deadlines came and went. She also copyedited the manuscript, helped organize my time, provided an extraordinarily comfortable desk chair, and was a tireless advocate for the Oxford comma. Henry McCann, meanwhile, graciously allowed me to pet him and feed him “flying” treats, and was a source of enormous joy during the project's darkest days.
I began full-time work on this book at the end of 2011, when my editors at Gannett Government Media Corporation (the company that publishes
Army Times
) allowed me to disappear on unpaid book leave for an indefinite period. I eventually parted ways with
Army Times,
my professional home for more than twenty-three years, but I remain grateful to Tobias Naegele, Alex Neill, and Richard Sandza for supporting my work while I was at the paper, and to the entire newsroom staff for making
Army Times
such a great place to work for so long.
The vast majority of the sources for this book consented to be interviewed on the condition that I not identify them. But I owe all my sourcesânamed and unnamedâa debt of enormous gratitude for having the courage to talk with me. This book would not have been possible without their participation.
While the cloak of secrecy that the Defense Department insists on draping over Joint Special Operations Command meant that no military public affairs officers were empowered to arrange interviews to help in my reporting, Army Colonel Tim Nye, the U.S. Special Operations Command spokesman during the first phase of the research, not only supported my project but went above and beyond the call of duty in trying to persuade his bosses to cooperate with me. His deputy and successor, retired Army Lieutenant Colonel Ken McGraw, was always professional in his dealings with me, answering my questions when he could. Tatjana Christian in the Department of the Army's media relations office in the Pentagon was a model of efficiency in responding to my numerous requests for the official résumés of active duty and retired general officers. Jeanne Bankard, deputy chief of the Army's General Officer Management Office, was very helpful in explaining the “frocking” process as it applied to JSOC commanders. Federal Aviation Authority historian Terry Kraus patiently hunted down post-9/11 hijacking rumors for me, while Donna Tabor, Terry's counterpart at Fort Bragg, provided useful information on the scenes at Bragg in September and October 2001. Retired Army Colonel Rick Kiernan also gave of his time generously.
Several colleagues from the media world were particularly helpful: Rob Curtis placed his knowledge of special operations people and gear at my disposal; Chris Cavas explained how best to track the past movements of Navy ships; David Wood cast his mind back to Bagram in March 2002 on my behalf; and Melinda Day used her deep understanding of the Naval Special Warfare community to put me in touch with good people.
Scott Miller, my long-suffering agent at Trident Media Group, was a source of support and encouragement throughout the process of writing
Relentless Strike,
while Marc Resnick at St. Martin's was as patient and understanding an editor as an author could wish for, and one whose suggestions never failed to improve the manuscript. Responsibility for any flaws that remain is mine alone.
Â
The index that appeared in the print version of this title does not match the pages in your e-book. Please use the search function on your e-reading device to search for terms of interest. For your reference, the terms that appear in the print index are listed below.
A-10 Thunderbolt II (“Warthogs”).
See
Thunderbolt II (“Warthogs”)
AAR.
See
after-action review
Abbas, Abu
Abbas, Zaffar
Abdikadir, Abdikadir Mohamed
Abizaid, John
Abrams, Creighton
Abu Ghraib prison
Abu Khattala, Ahmed
AC-130 Spectre gunships.
See
Spectre gunships
Achille Lauro
Acid Gambit
actionable intelligence
on bin Laden
by CIA
detainee abuse and
in Iraq
advance force operations (AFO), xii
in Afghanistan
in Iran
in Iraq
in Pakistan
at Shahikot
in SMU
in Yemen
Afghan Combat Applications Group
Afghan Partner Unit (APU)
Afghanistan
AFO in
Apaches in
Aztec squadron in
biological weapons in
Black Hawks in
Bullet Package in
Bush, G. W., and
CENTCOM and
Chinooks in
CIA in
Combat Talons in
cruise missiles in
CSAR in
DAP in
Extortion 17 in
FARP in
FBI in
Franks and
friendly fire casualties in
Gecko in
HALO in
hostages in
IEDs in
Iran and
ISR in
JOC in
JRX and
Little Birds in
Night Stalkers in
NSA and
Objective Rhino in
OST in
Pakistan and
precious cargo in
Predators in
Al Qaeda in
Rangers in
risk aversion in
RPG in
Rumsfeld and
Salt pit secret prison in
SF in
Shahikot in
Signit in
SMU in
SOCOM in
Spectre gunships in
Taliban in
Task Force Brown in
Task Force Sword in
Tora Bora in
AFO.
See
advance force operations
after-action review (AAR)
Agency Ground Branch
AH-6 Little Birds.
See
Little Birds
AH-64 Apaches.
See
Apaches
Aideed, Mohammed Farah
air assault
air strike
in Afghanistan
in Iraq
air vehicle interdiction (AVI)
airborne
alert force
the alert force
alert force update
Alexander, John
Tora Bora and
Ali, Hazrat
Alvarez, Deciderio (“Jack”)
America
(U.S. Navy ship)
Amerine, Jason
Amin, Ghassan
Andrews, Bob
Andrews Air Force Base
Ansar al-Islam (Supporters of Islam)
antiaircraft gun
in Iraq
at Tora Bora
ZSU
AOR.
See
area of responsibility
Apaches
in Afghanistan
Apseloff, Roy
APU.
See
Afghan Partner Unit
AQAP.
See
Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula
AQI.
See
Al Qaeda in Iraq
AQSL ExOrd.
See
Al Qaeda Senior Leadership Execute Order
Arab Spring
area of responsibility (AOR)
Aristide, Jean-Bertrand
Army of Northern Virginia
in Balkans
in Beirut
in Colombia
GWOT and
in Haiti
in Iraq
at Shahikot
in Somalia
in Syria
at Tora Bora
in Yemen
Asayish
Assad, Bashar
Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict
AT4 rockets
Atlantic Command
ATVs
Aurora Lightning
Austin, Aaron
AV-8B Harriers
AVI.
See
air vehicle interdiction
Aweys, Sheikh Hassan Dahir
al-Awlaki, Anwar
Ayro, Aden Hashi
Aztec squadron
in Afghanistan
B-1 bombers
in Pakistan
B-2 stealth bombers
B-52
Badr Organization
Baghdad International Airport (BIAP)
al-Baghdadi, Abu Bakr
Bainbridge
(U.S. Navy guided missile destroyer)
Bake, Christopher
Balad
Balderas, Iggy
Balkans
detainee abuse in
Banach, Stefan
Barefoot, Wayne
Bargewell, Eldon
Bartholomew, Reginald
Battlestar Galactica
Beckwith, Charlie (“Chargin”)
Beechcraft airplanes
in Colombia
for CP
in Pakistan
Beirut
hostages in
Bennett, John
Berntsen, Gary
bin Laden and
BIAP.
See
Baghdad International Airport
bin Laden, Osama
Bush, G. W., and
GWOT and
JIATF and
in Pakistan
Pakistan and
in Sudan
Task Force Sword and
Tora Bora and
Yemen and
biological weapons
in Afghanistan
Biological Weapons Convention of 1972
Birch, Greg (“Ironhead”)
Birdseye
Bissonnette, Matt
Blaber, Pete (“Panther”)
Afghanistan and
deck of cards mission and
Iraq and
Shahikot and
Black, Cofer
Black Hawk Down
(Bowden)
Black Hawks
Achille Lauro
and
in Afghanistan
bin Laden and
for CP
deck of cards mission and
in Gecko
Ghadiya and
in Grenada
in Iraq
on
Kitty Hawk
in Montenegro
in Pakistan
at Shahikot
in Somalia
stealth technology for
in Syria
al-Zarqawi and
Black Squadron
Black Swarm
Blackwater
BLU-82 “daisy cutter” bombs
Blue Force Tracker
Blue Squadron
Bluebirds
BMP-1 armored personnel carriers
Boivin, Larry
Bolling Air Force Base
Bosnia
Bouterse, D
é
si
Bowden, Mark
Boxer
(U.S. Navy amphibious assault ship)
Boykin, William G. (“Jerry”)
Balkans and
Colombia and
in Somalia
in Sudan
Bradley, Mitch
Bradley Fighting Vehicles
BRAND X
Bravo Two Zero
Bremer, Paul
Briggs, Dan
Brown, Bryan (“Doug”)
WMD and
Brown, Dean (“Beef”)
Brown, Harold
Brown Cell
Montenegro and
Buchanan, Jessica
Bugarin, Edward
Bulkeley
(U.S. Navy guided missile destroyer)
Bullet Package
in Afghanistan