Table Of ContentUnconventional
Warrior
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Unconventional
Warrior
Memoir of a Special
Operations Commander
in Afghanistan
C W M H
OLONEL ALTER ORRIS ERD
U.S. ARMY, SPECIAL FORCES (RET.)
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Jefferson, North Carolina, and London
LIBRARYOFCONGRESSCATALOGUING-IN-PUBLICATIONDATA
Herd, Walter M., 1960–
Unconventional warrior : memoir of a special operations
commander in Afghanistan / Colonel Walter Morris Herd.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 978-0-7864-6971-0
softcover : acid free paper
1. Herd, Walter M., 1960– 2. Afghan War, 2001–
—Commando Operations. 3. Combined Joint Special
Operations Task Force in Afghanistan—Biography.
4. United States. Army. Special Forces—Officers—
Biography. 5. Special forces (Military science)—United
States—Biography. 6. Irregular warfare—United
States—History—21st century. 7. United States Armed
Forces—Commando troops—History. 8. Afghan War,
2001– —Campaigns. 9. Afghan War, 2001– —Personal
narratives, American. I. Title.
DS371.43.H48 2013
958.104'78—dc23
[B] 2013017769
BRITISHLIBRARYCATALOGUINGDATAAREAVAILABLE
© 2013 Walter Morris Herd. All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying
or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publisher.
Cover photographs: Walter Morris Herd, commander of the
Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force–Afghanistan;
patches, tabs, pins and badges earned by Col. Herd, top to bot-
tom, left to right:Master Parachutist Badge; Combat Divers
Badge; Special Forces tab worn by all Green Berets; Ranger tab;
Airborne tab above arrowhead badge are the unit insignia
for US Army Special Forces Command; Combat Infantryman’s
Badge; Regimental Crest of the Special Forces Regiment; the
insignia of a colonel on the “flash” of the 3rd Special Forces
Group, worn on the beret; US Army Military Free Fall
qualification wings (all courtesy of the author)
Manufactured in the United States of America
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Box 611, Jefferson, North Carolina 28640
www.mcfarlandpub.com
To fallen comrades I’ve known over the years.
The price of freedom is high, but the alternative is unaffordable.
MSG Joe Gradzewicz, Special Forces, 27 July 1990
SSG Chad Duvall, Special Forces, 20 January 1996
SSG Joe Suponcic, Special Forces, 15 December 1999 (Kosovo)
1SG Brian Look, Special Forces, 3 March 2001
SSG Paul Sweeney, Special Forces, 30 October 2003 (Afghanistan)
SGT Roy Wood, Special Forces, 10 January 2004 (Afghanistan)
SPC Adam Kinser, PSYOP, 29 January 2004 (Afghanistan)
CW2 Bruce Price, Special Forces, 19 May 2004 (Afghanistan)
CPT Dan Eggers, Special Forces, 29 May 2004 (Afghanistan)
SSG Robert Mogensen, Special Forces, 29 May 2004 (Afghanistan)
PFC Joseph Jeffries, PSYOP, 29 May 2004 (Afghanistan)
BM1 Brian Oullette, SEAL, 29 May 2004 (Afghanistan)
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Table of Contents
Preface: Six Generations of American Patriots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1. The Making of an Unconventional Warrior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2. Initial Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
3. First Assignment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
4. Transfer to the Rangers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
5. Airborne! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
6. Jumpmaster . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
7. A Lesson in Leadership . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
8. Time to Move On . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
9. Understanding Special Operations Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
10. Earning the Green Beret . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
11. Special Forces History and the “Coin” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
12. Special Forces Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
13. Reporting to the Regiment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
14. Training for Unconventional War in Europe . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
15. The First Desert War . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
16. Staff Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
17. Unconventional Warfare as Illustrated by Tom Sawyer . . . . 75
18. The Lware Campaign . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
19. Firefight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
20. Fire Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
vii
Table of Contents
21. Returning Fire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
22. UW Thinking in a “Joint” Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
23. Czech Republic Paratroopers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
24. The Press . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
25. Fallen Comrades . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
26. Quarters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
27. Winning in Afghanistan: Understanding the Culture . . . . . 137
28. The UW Option . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
29. The Challenge to the UW Option . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
30. Bases, Good Order and Discipline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
31. Holiday Festivities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
32. Political Correctness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
33. Afghan and Pakistan Meetings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
34. Prisoner Interrogation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
35. Special Forces Soldiering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
36. Power in the Modern Era . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
37. Provincial Reconstruction Teams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
38. Learning from History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
39. Final Thoughts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210
viii
Preface: Six Generations
of American Patriots
The Young British Soldier
by Rudyard Kipling
When you’re wounded and left on Afghanistan’s plains,
And the women come out to cut up what remains,
Jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains
An’ go to your Gawd like a soldier.
Go, go, go like a soldier,
Go, go, go like a soldier,
Go, go, go like a soldier,
So- oldier of the Queen!
You can’t give a nation its freedom. The people have to earn it in
order to respect it and in order to keep it. They have to be part of the
process.
Several generations of Americans have been part of the process,
including the five that I am following in my family. I am happy to have
been part of the process of keeping our nation’s freedom, and I hope my
story will be an encouragement to the young men and women who now
are considering a military career. They will carry on the responsibility
of keeping the process alive. I hope also that the veterans who may see
this story will find in it many reminders of their service experience,
pleasant or not, from my father’s generation of World War II patriots,
to those patriots of our current wars.
And for those who may have family members or other loved ones
entering military service, I trust you will find descriptions that may help
you in understanding what they are doing or have done.
But most of all, I pray that the unconventional warfare lessons
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