Helocast!  Now That's Hoo-ah!

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Story & Photos by SPC Charles Ames  -  Posted Oct, 1999
     Should you find yourself floating along idly on American Lake anytime soon, keep one eye out for a black high-speed Zodiac inflatable boat seeming to approach the speed of sound.

     As it gets closer, you will only have a second to see wet camouflaged forms lay hugging the gunwales of the boat.  A second later, you may be buzzed by the screaming 100-foot long Chinook helicopter from which they just jumped.

     Guardsmen have come from Oregon, Idaho, Canada and as far as Alaska to attend drill with Company A, 1-19th Special Forces Group (Airborne), a Washington Army National Guard organization headquartered in Buckley.  These, of course, are the famed "Green Berets".

     One weekend you may find the unit practicing 'clearing' a building and rescuing hostages... using live ammunition... while the unit's snipers cover them... also using live ammunition.

     Or they spend the weekend blowing things up, or maybe jumping out of perfectly good airplanes.  Just in the last two years, their training has taken them to such exotic locales as Thailand, Korea, and Vanuatu.

     On this particular weekend, they spent the day climbing into Chinook helicopters with their Zodiacs boats.  Then they pushed the boats over American Lake at Fort Lewis.  And after that - you guessed it - they jumped out after them!
     This insanity is called "helocasting" - which, loosely translates to "jumping out of helicopters into a lake or a river, while the helicopter is still flying along at 20 miles an hour from a height of about 20 feet".   No parachutes here, just splashing into the lake.  Then they would scramble into the boats and race for shore, load the boats into the chopper and start over again.   Operationally this maneuver is often executed at night behind enemy lines.   Today, however (a beautiful late Summer day), the scene was more like a great excuse for splashing about in the water.
     One of the Special Forces NCOs, a Medical Doctor from Tacoma, is an Operations & Intelligence Sergeant for "915", one of the detachments within the unit.  He has been in the unit for three years and recently re-enlisted for another three years. His even voice becomes slightly emphatic as he discusses the unit's adventurous training schedule.  "I like the basic things that we do.   It’s exciting. It’s not just going out and qualifying with weapons.   We have live-fire and tactical training.  It’s much more realistic and far more valuable, and a lot more exciting than it used to be."
     In August, the Green Berets headed North to Pickett’s Ridge, a grueling traverse in the North Cascade Mountains.  Their climbing team mounted a backcountry reconnaissance patrol and practice a "rough mountain insertion".

     In September other members tested for their Jumpmaster Certification, and in November they polished up their "AMOUT" skills (Advanced Military Operations in Urban Terrain). 

     Whew!  These guys are busy.  Oh yeah... they jumped out of those perfectly good airplanes a bunch too!
     Unit members are often drawn upon to teach marksmanship and squad tactics to the rest of the Washington Army National Guard, and to local law enforcement as well.  "We are victims of our own success," relates the former commanding officer of Company "A", Major Bob Hom.

     Arguably, no other unit has the flexibility that Special Forces has. The variety of possibilities are far too numerous to mention here.
     Teams are divided into five "Operational Detachments".  One OD "A" has the task of selecting and training potential candidates, a two-week process.  One of the unit's "full-timers" said "We definitely need more guys that want to go out and play.  If you’re into the 'hoo-ah' stuff, this is definitely the unit!"

     This is an all-volunteer, all-airborne qualified and all-male unit.  The standards are high.

     All prospective Green Berets must first undergo a two-week Pre-SFAS (Special Forces Assessment and Selection) to determine whether or not they are prepared to succeed at the actual SFAS training. 

     Those who pass SFAS will go on to the 24-week Phase I of Special Forces training at Fort Bragg, NC.  After that there's a few more months of language training.  Then each Green Beret attends one of a number of specialty training courses, some of which are up to a year in duration.  Finally there is Phase III, during which the Special Forces soldier learns to function as a member of the basic unit of Special Forces operations - the "A Team".
     In the spirit of the active and reserve crossover so widespread within the military today, the unit has been commanded by an active duty Major since October.  MAJ Gregory Allen will serve with Company A until Oct, 2001, and then return to the active duty Special Forces community.

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