Scalpel among Sledgehammers

If the regular Army is a sledgehammer and the Rangers are a tactical axe, Delta is a laser-guided scalpel, one of few US military’s “Tier 1” units.

Conventional forces are called “Tier 3.” Green Berets, Army Rangers, and SEALs are Tier 2. Only Delta, SEAL Team 6, and an elite Air Force and Marines unit are classed as Tier 1. But even among Tier 1 units, cultures and mission sets are worlds apart. SEALs are the kings of the maritime world; if it involves water or a beach, they own it. Delta is the Army’s answer to complex, land-based hostage rescues and clandestine operations. They are also masters of the “long game,” often spending months undercover or in deep reconnaissance.

The mission has evolved significantly. After an early focus on counterterrorism and hostage recovery, they became the Cold War “stay-behind” force that would operate behind enemy lines if the Soviet Union ever invaded Western Europe.

After 9/11, almost all US military missions were organically reimagined, including Delta’s. It shifted to hunting “high-value targets,” like Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein. Operators became the world’s most efficient manhunters, moving through Iraq and Afghanistan, blending with the locals, and working out of secret forward operating bases to dismantle terrorist networks, one head at a time.

Men and Machines

Like all Tier 1 units, Delta operators are equipped with the best toys Uncle Sam can buy, make, or steal. While a regular soldier might carry a standard-issue rifle, a Delta operator’s weapon is a custom-built handmade masterpiece, often featuring doohickeys like suppressors that make the gun nearly silent, and optical gear that allows them to see in total darkness. Tailor-made sidearms, machine guns, and even specialized shotguns are part of their armory.

Their tactical gear, clothing, and specialized protection are unlike anything worn by the rest of the military. They were among the first to use panoramic night-vision goggles, providing a 97-degree field of view, illuminating total darkness as if it were daylight — at $65,000 a pair.

Best of the Best

The most expensive investment is the extensive training given to each operator, costing upward of $1 million. At that price, special ops personnel tend to stay in the force much longer than average soldiers. It isn’t uncommon to find Delta operators who have spent 15 or 20 years in the Unit, becoming walking encyclopedias of tactical knowledge.

Even after leaving Delta, many operators continue to serve. The CIA’s secretive Special Operations Group (SOG) often works with — and hires — Delta Force operators.

You can’t just sign up for Delta at a recruiting office. Instead, they hunt for the best of the best already serving in the military, mostly from the Army Rangers and the Green Berets. These men and women in their late twenties or early thirties have already seen combat and have nothing left to prove. Recruiters are looking for maturity, not bravado. The Unit prefers “the guy next door” because he can blend seamlessly into a crowd in Paris or a marketplace in Yemen.

The path into Delta begins with a monthlong process known as Assessment and Selection, or A&S. Held in the rugged Appalachian terrain near Camp Dawson, West Virginia, it’s designed to test human limits of physical and mental toughness.

In his 2002 book Inside Delta Force, former operator Eric Haney describes the selection process. Recruits are given a series of increasingly difficult navigation tasks, being dropped in the woods with a compass, a rucksack loaded with dead weight, and a rendezvous they must reach within a set time.

The final trial is a 40-mile trek across mountainous terrain with a 45-pound pack. Recruits are not told what the distance or time limit is and must push themselves to their own limits. Many candidates quit simply because they don’t know how much further they have to go. According to former Delta operator Paul Howe, the attrition rate is staggering, with about 8% completion.

Next, candidates are put through batteries of exhausting psychological tests and grilling sessions. Senior operators assess whether they have the temperament needed to think clearly with a heart rate of 180 beats per minute.

Qualified recruits go on to the six-month 1st SFOD–D Operator Training Course, isolated from friends and family. There, they learn special operations tradecraft:

Elite combat: Marksmanship, sniping, urban close-quarters combat, demolitions, and breaching; bomb-making using common materials

Combined hostage and counterterrorist operations: Hostage rescue and assault in varied settings, live-ammunition exercises (taught by the FBI, FAA, and other agencies)

Espionage: Asset development, covert operations, dead drops, load and unload signals, danger and safe signals, surveillance and counter-surveillance (taught by CIA operatives)

Executive protection: VIP and diplomatic protection, including advanced and high-speed driving and use of vehicles as defensive and offensive weapons (taught by the US State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service and the US Secret Service)

Culmination exercise: A final test that requires students to apply and dynamically adapt all the skills they have learned.

Behind the Curtain

Life for an active Delta operator is a strange mix of suburban normalcy and extreme violence. When they are home at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, they live in regular houses with their families. But there are constant trainings and exercises… and they can leave in a heartbeat.

The deployment cycle is grueling. Operators can be away for half the year, frequently on short-notice missions they can’t tell their family about. They might get a text message at dinner and be on a plane to Africa four hours later.

Because they operate in the shadows, their force strength and fatality rate are closely guarded secrets. A book published by an ex-Delta operator describes the unit as having, at any one time, nearly 1,000 servicemembers, of whom about 250 to 300 are trained to conduct direct-action and hostage-rescue operations. The rest are support personnel. Most will never be known for their missions, sacrifices, or heroism. This is the price of their chosen life: the hardest work in exchange for the least public recognition.

Delta #Score Sheet

Some of the US military’s greatest successes were Delta operations… as were some serious failures.

April 24, 1980

Operation Eagle Claw

LOCATION: Tehran, Iran

GOAL: Rescue Americans Hostages

RESULT: Failed

Delta Force was almost sunk before it got off the ground. Shortly after its birth in 1977, it had its first major test — and failed miserably. Army bigwigs nearly axed it on the spot. Ultimately, they didn’t — and lessons learned formed the backbone of Delta’s operating procedures.

In 1979, the Iranian Revolution led by Ayatollah Khamenei overthrew pro-American Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. After President Carter welcomed the shah to America, infuriated revolutionaries stormed the US embassy in Tehran in November, taking 52 Americans hostage and holding them for 444 days.

The newly minted Delta Force was sent on Operation Eagle Claw in April 1980 to rescue the hostages, but the mission was a disaster. Forces missed meeting points, helicopters malfunctioned, and two aircraft collided. After the sandstorm settled, eight US servicemembers were dead — and all 52 hostages were still in captivity.

The lessons learned from that disaster led to the creation of the modern Joint Special Operations Command structure. It also taught the military that Delta needed its own dedicated pilots and its own streamlined chain of command. The 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (SOAR) Nightstalkers were created. This helicopter unit, trained in special operations aviation, successfully flew Delta Force in and out of Caracas on Friday night.

October 3, 1993

Operation Gothic Serpent

LOCATION: Mogadishu, Somalia

GOAL: Neutralize Somali militant leader Farrah Aidid

RESULT: Mixed

An international force bogged down in Mogadishu was suffering heavy losses to terrorism and bombings perpetrated by Somali militant leader Farrah Aidid’s forces. President Clinton signed off on a 400-man group called Task Force Ranger to battle the organization. Seven special ops units participated, including a team from 1st SFOD–D C Squadron.

The task force ran missions throughout September, with mixed success. On October 3, an attack on Aidid himself was launched, but met with failure. Two Blackhawk helicopters were shot down by Somali forces, and fighters ambushed others and attacked the crash site. In total, four Blackhawks were lost, 18 men killed, and 97 wounded.

The Delta Force part of the mission was more successful — two operators, Gary Gordon and Randy Shughart, successfully secured the crash site for a while, waiting for rescue. They were eventually overrun and killed; both were awarded the Medal of Honor

December 13, 2003

Operation Red Dawn

LOCATION: Ad-Dawr, Iraq

GOAL: Capture Saddam Hussein

RESULT: Success

In search of the highest of high-value targets during Operation Iraqi Freedom, teams of special operators tracked intelligence, talked to locals, and combed the country for deposed dictator Saddam Hussein. Soldiers from C squadron found him in a spider hole under a floorboard in a site code-named Wolverine 2, near the town of Ad-Dawr. He was disarmed and captured without resistance.

December 20, 1989

Operation Acid Gambit

LOCATION: Panama City, Panama

GOAL: Rescue CIA agent Kurt Muse

RESULT: Success

US forces invaded Panama in 1989 as part of Operation Just Cause, in a mission remarkably similar to the one pulled off last week in Venezuela. Special forces captured dictator Manuel Noriega and brought him to the US to stand trial on drug trafficking and other charges.

Panamanian officials had threatened to kill Muse, who was incarcerated in the notorious Carcel Modelo prison, if the US invaded. As soon as the operation began, 23 Delta Force operators ferried by Nightstalkers landed on the roof of the prison, blew their way into Muse’s cell, killed the guards, and were back in the air within minutes. One helicopter crashed on exit and four operators were injured, but all returned.

October 27, 2019

Operation Kayla Mueller

LOCATION: Idlib, Syria

GOAL: Kill Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi

RESULT: Success

Delta operators cornered ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in a tunnel in Barisha village, Idlib. They successfully protected noncombatants, including children, and killed five ISIS fighters. Al-Baghdadi died in the operation, officially as the result of detonating a suicide belt when he was cornered, prompting President Trump to famously pronounce in a subsequent press conference that he “died like a dog.” No Americans were injured.

October 8, 2023 – present

Operation Swords of Iron (Israel)

LOCATION: Gaza; Israel

GOAL: Rescue or return Israeli hostages from Hamas

RESULT: Mixed

The 250 hostages returned from Hamas captivity since October 7th, 2023, were rescued by Israeli forces or returned through diplomatic negotiations. However, Delta Force operators were on the ground in Gaza and Israel, working to assist with hostage rescue.

Due to the secretive nature of the force, we only know this through a flub by the White House media team.

When President Joe Biden visited Israel on October 18th, he took the time to greet members of the Delta Force squadron involved in the operation. The White House posted a photo of him shaking hands with operators and neglected to redact their faces, putting them at risk. The post was deleted within an hour, but it was too late — screenshots had flooded the Internet. (The redactions on the image below were added by our staff.)

The caption of the post read: “In Israel, President Biden met with first responders to thank them for their bravery and the work they’re doing in response to the Hamas terrorist attacks.”

The Future Force

As it looks toward 2026 and beyond, Delta Force faces its greatest challenge yet. The military has shifted its strategic focus to the “Great Power Competition” with China and Russia. This means Delta’s mission is evolving again.

The tools of warfare are also changing, moving from boots on the ground to robots, drones, and AI-driven algorithms. What does this mean for Delta? With operations changing from desert raids to high-tech sabotage and cyber-integration, and with war moving from caves and compounds to hyperspace and outer space, is there a place for hardbody tough guys?

Will the future Delta operator be as comfortable with a keyboard as with a carbine? Will he fight with a smartphone and smart-drone, instead of a spear and dagger?

Delta Force began as a dream in the mind of a visionary colonel. The Maduro capture proves that even today, it stands as the final argument of the United States government. Its soldiers go into the dark so the rest of us can live in the light. They don’t want your thanks, and they don’t want your applause.

They just want to be ready to answer the call.

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 1094)