By Steven Pressfield | Published: October 5, 2009
Last week in our first excerpt from Special Forces Major Jim Gant’s paper, “One Tribe At A Time,” Maj. Gant laid out the concept for a specialized type of American unit–a Tribal Engagement Team. Such teams would be small, highly trained and motivated, and granted broad latitude in the means of pursuing their mission. They would live full-time in the villages with the tribes, “lead, assist, train, supply,” and help organize Tribal Security Forces (TSFs.)
Dr. Akhbar was the first person ODA 316 met in Mangwel village
By Steven Pressfield | Published: September 28, 2009
The thoughts and I ideas that I will put forward in this paper are mine alone. Although I credit the U.S. Army Special Forces for the training I have received and the trust of [its] commanders, nothing in this paper reflects any other person’s or organization’s ideas.
Maj. Gant and ODA 316 in Afghanistan 2004
By Steven Pressfield | Published: September 18, 2009
Site of the tribal gathering in Zazi, Paktia province
They say that every enterprise, from D-Day to a kitchen remodel, takes three times as long as you think and costs three times as much. I must apologize: our two new series have run afoul of this same syndrome. Here’s the latest: (more…)
