I had the distinct pleasure to read two memoirs from two different soldiers among our country’s most elite soldiers: Eric Haney, an operator in Delta Force, wrote Inside Delta Force (of which The Unit is based off of) and Chuck Pfarrer, an operator in the Navy SEALs, wrote Warrior Soul. What amazed me even more was that both accounts were extremely readable and engaging, hooking you in and not letting you go until there were no more pages to read. We were treated to an in depth description of the selection and training processes for both units, along with a smattering of the more publicized operations they went on. This is acceptable as well because, and you can bet on this, there were many, many missions that they probably went on that are still classified and can most certainly not be talked about in any way.
But in the ones that are talked about there is an amazing similarity between the two men's careers, not to mention between their respective parent organizations. The training for both are very similar and extremely arduous. Haney tells us of the forced marches over extremely rough terrain, using a map and some coordinates as the only guidance they had. The final test was a 40 mile forced hike, of which turned into 55 when Haney took a wrong turn - and still managed to beat everyone else - and didn't even guarantee that the would make the cut. 18 started that hike and all 18 finished it, but not all 18 passed the final interview with Charlie Beckwith. This of course granted them the distinct privilege to partake upon some even more arduous training and conditioning. One of the more unique facets of their training was the shooting house that they designed, in which to practice identifying friend and foe and clearing the room in a matter of 3 seconds. Such marksmanship is absolutely amazing, especially when taken in conjunction with the fact that oftentimes the terrorists were hiding behind a hostage and there were just mere inches to hit your target. And in order to solidify team confidence in one another and insure that this could be done in real life, their fellow operators were made to sit as the hostage in order to simulate a real life training.
This is all very similar to the Navy SEAL selection and training process as well. SEALs had to go through days and days of an extremely rigorous selection process that was designed to filter out the strong from the week, or I should say the more strong of will and heart, determination enough to push through the pain and suffering in order to accomplish their mission of passing selection. They were made to run the 5 miles to get their food, not to mention running the 5 miles back to training. They would be put into teams and made to carry boats and logs and if you dropped, at any time, the log than you had just dropped from the selection course. What made this even more difficult was that if one of your team dropped, then that meant the weight had to be held up by the rest of the team, which often resulted as the whole team dropping. This did much in solidifying that the team must succeed as one. Another example was sitting on the beach and letting the waves continue to bash on you as you each are holding the arms of the man next to you, forming one long line of men directly in the path of the wave. This was meant to remain this way until someone was forced to quit and volunteer to leave the selection course, sometimes the men were there for hours and when nobody quit they were excused. Selection is every bit is strenuous as Delta Force, with the accrual rate just as low. You were most certainly an elite if you were selected to either.
One interesting facet was that the SEALs had the same shooting house as Delta, which they called the Kill House, and ran along the same principals as Delta, right down to having your team members standing in as a live hostage. What I found as funny was that both believed that they were the best at clearing rooms based off of their respective training, and yet they trained the exact same way without knowing it (or perhaps upper management knew and thus the reason the training was so similar)!
Eventually they each went on missions. Pfarrer had traveled to the Latin American countries several times on various missions to either assist the rebels or the legitimate government. Haney of Delta Force was also used in this capacity. One particular mission that stuck out was the mission to use the legitimate government’s forces and aid them in ousting and destroying the rebel army. They hunted them down and Haney eventually sniped their leader, who turned out to be an American with the United States Army, one that was still in good standing with the army. Haney's take on what happened was that he and his fellow Delta Operator were used to kill their fellow soldier, who was in fact assisting the rebels on official US business. The CIA, according to Haney, was working both sides and eventually wanted the rebels snuffed out in order to not have the US's assistance of the rebels revealed.
Another interesting cross in their paths was that both had spent a good amount of time in war torn Beirut, Pfarrer spending a good deal more time there. Their paths crossed when Pfarrer was in Beirut at the time of the bombing of the US Marine Headquarters, and Haney was aiding the invasion of Grenada, both events of which were happening at the same time.
This was perhaps the most interesting thing involved around both of these elite units. That they were in and out of the same countries, doing the same operations as one another at different times. The two separate units of their respective organization are remarkably similar. Which is tougher or more elite? Hard to say, but I pity the country that these men are sent against. They are most certainly the best at what they do and hard pressed to find their equal.
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