Written by a retired Delta Operator:
WHY DOES AMERICA NEED DELTA FORCE? AN OPERATOR’S PERSPECTIVE
The Delta Force, like so many other organizations, is the answer to a problem. If you can consider that our country’s civic police force is the answer to a very general problem — the domestic physical safety of the population — then you could view the Delta Force as an answer to some very specific and complex problems.
Domestic protection in our country comes in the form of our police departments, our National Guard forces, Department of Homeland Security, the Coast Guard, and others. Our Armed Forces — Army, Navy, Air Force, etc. — protect our nation and its interests abroad, a feat that can only be accomplished by relatively powerful nations like our own.
There came a time when our country realized we did not boast an adequate capability to cope with one of the developing scourges of international terrorism of the time; that is, an aviation hijack situation. To clarify, there are basically two ways to respond to a hijacked airliner — wait it out and negotiate with the terrorist(s) hoping you can win the semblance of a decent outcome, or you can seize the initiative and carry the fight to the terrorist. Being Americans, we prefer the latter of the choices.
Imagine a large jet airliner with hundreds of people on board. Next time you are traveling by air look around and try to imagine the complexity of breaking into and storming aboard and airliner filled with people and blaze through the aircraft trying to only shoot the terrorist(s) — somehow.
To accomplish the arguably monumental task we need a breed of person with hard-to-find balance of specific traits. Perhaps those traits should include a person who is in good physical form. Not some guy who follows a yoga workout on YouTube, or the guy who goes to the gym to discuss working out for an hour then hits the showers. Not the guy who joined a weekend jogging club or owns several bicycle riding costumes but never actually rides a lot.
Maybe we need huge guys who can bench press Volkswagens. Sounds legit, aw… but big guys typically can’t run fast and long and can’t climb to well or fit though holes that are almost too small for them. Ok then perhaps we want those guys that run olympic marathons and can actually compete with the Kenyans. Sounds good, but those guys don’t boast much upper body strength or look like they can carry other than tiny nylon shorts, a tank top T-shirt, and $2,000.00 running shoes that weight as much as a handful of raisins.Read the entire article at the link.So to find these men the Delta Force puts the candidates through a month of intense physical stress in the mountains of West Virginia. Most of them don’t make it. Then they are subject to rigorous psychological evaluations. Finally the candidates go through five months of amazing specialized training that is specific to the missions of the Delta Force. If a candidate makes it to one of the assault squadrons he maintains a probational status for six months while operating with his assault team.
During those six months he says very little and generally offers opinions and ideas only when solicited by the seasoned operators on his assault team. Men in Delta engage with a myriad of special operations skills. Close Quarters Combat is a skill that Delta specialize in to the highest degree in the U.S. Armed Forces. Responding to a terrorist hijacking of an airliner is an operation absolutely exclusive to the Delta Force in America. We practiced the scenario several times a year in very realistic environments.