military special operations, but were in the country as civilian operators. Several of the CIA team members previously served in U.S. On arrival, both teams linked up with the Northern Alliance and 'Jawbreaker' CIA advisers. They were hundreds of miles from any allied forces and any possible extraction was hours or days away. The teams arrived only 39 days after the Al-Qaeda attack on the World Trade Center for what they thought would be a year-long stay. Nutsch onto a farmer's field at 0200, in the Dari-a-Souf Valley, about 80 km (50 mi) south of Mazar-i-Sharif. The second Chinook finally dropped the 12-man ODA 595 led by Capt. They were in a deadlock with Taliban forces a few miles south in the vicinity of Bagram Airfield. The Chinook dropped ODA 555 in the Panjshir River Valley just 20 miles north of Kabul, where they linked up with warlord Fahim Khan and his Northern Alliance forces. One Chinook made its second attempt at infiltrating ODA-555, "Triple Nickel" after being turned around two days before by severe weather trying to fly over the treacherous Hindu Kush mountains. After refueling, they flew into a sand storm and heavy fog which created near-zero visibility conditions. The MH-47 crew set a world record for combat rotorcraft missions, refueling three times during 11 hours of flight. The Black Hawk escort was forced to turn back when they could not clear a pass along the flight route. The pilots refueled the helicopters at very low altitude under black out conditions, flying using night-vision goggles, and without radio communications, as they had trained to do multiple times. Because the Chinooks didn't carry a centralized oxygen-delivery system for passengers, the troops had to use single-use " bailout bottles" at high altitude to survive the flight. Conditions were marginal due to the altitude and icing conditions brought on by the low temperatures. They flew in two SOAR ("Nightstalkers") MH-47E Chinook helicopters, escorted by two MH-60L Black Hawks. On 19 October 2001, in the first operation of its kind, ODA 555 and 595 were flown from a former Soviet airbase, now named the Karshi-Khanabad Air Base (nicknamed K2 by the Special Forces), in Uzbekistan more than 300 kilometers (190 mi) across the 4,900 metres (16,100 ft) Hindu Kush mountains.
ODA 595 MEMBERS PLUS
Operational Detachment Alpha (ODA) 555 and 595, both 12-man teams, plus Air Force combat controllers, were the second and third groups of Task Force Dagger to enter Afghanistan. Known by the callsign Jawbreaker, the team linked up with Northern Alliance commanders and prepared for the introduction of Army Special Forces into the region. They brought three cardboard boxes filled with $3 million in $100 bills to buy support. The CIA team infiltrated Afghanistan into the Panjshir Valley, north of Kabul, on 26 September, only 15 days after 11 September attacks. The first group of Task Force Dagger included seven members of the CIA's Special Activities Division and Counter Terrorist Center (CTC) led by Gary Schroen, who formed the Northern Afghanistan Liaison Team.
Task Force Dagger, established on 10 October 2001, was built around the 5th SFG with helicopter support from the 160th SOAR, and assigned to infiltrate northern Afghanistan in order to advise and support the commanders of the Northern Alliance. Their mission was wide-open: to assist General Abdul Rashid Dostum in conducting unconventional warfare operational area to make the area unsafe for terrorists and Taliban activities. The unit received its orders in mid-October. By 13 September 2001, the 5th Special Forces Group was ordered to stand up a forward headquarters to conduct operations in Afghanistan.
The following day, President Bush called the attacks more than just "acts of terror" but "acts of war" and resolved to pursue and conquer an "enemy" that would no longer be safe in "its harbors". Main articles: United States invasion of Afghanistan and War in AfghanistanĪfter 11 September attacks, the U.S.