David knocked out a good one with this article. I had no idea such a paper existed, about using Special Forces and PMC’s together for small wars like what is going on in Darfur. Why not? I am sure Special Forces units are used to working with far less capable forces, why not combine them with a western PMC. It would be interesting to hear some perspective on this from the snake eater community. Or better yet, I would love to hear this Major Jorgensen on Combat Operator Radio talk about this concept.
As for combining the two groups and creating some kind of unity of command? Incident Command all the way. Matter of fact, if all NGO’s and Government types could get on the same band wagon of the Incident Command System, then we could all be speaking the same language out there. It would be the middle ground, and something that would have excellent application in wars and other disasters. This example of Special Forces combined with PMC’s reminds me of my smokejumper days.
On fires, we would parachute in with two possible missions. If the fire was small, then we would put it out ourselves with minimum support. If the fire was big, or got big as we were on the ground, then we instantly transitioned to Incident Command mode and start to organize. We would make our assessments, and call into dispatch on what we would need to put out our fire–from man power, to equipment and logistical support, to air power. During that process, we would find our selves managing a whole slew of varied agencies and private contractors. It would not be odd at all, to have a Bureau of Indian Affairs hand crew, a Type 2 Private Contractor hand crew, a Type 2 Contractor Crew from Southern California that had maybe a few guys that spoke english, an Engine or two from the Forest Service, a Cop from a local PD, and some structure Engines from the Local Fire Department, all on one fire. The key to organizing such a mess of folks, is simple. They were all red carded forest firefighters, and new the common language of Incident Command. And if they didn’t, it was so simple, that it could be explained to them on the scene.
All in all though, most folks on a fire knew the drill. They had to have programable radios that were set up on scene to communicate for that fire, they had to have the fire clothing and equipment, they had to know plan of attack and who the Incident Commander was, they had to know their part in the battle, and who the adjacent forces were, and they had to have some knowledge of fires and the red flag and fire watch out situations. If they had a red card, that meant they knew what a forest fire was all about, and they knew what the incident commander was all about, and they worked from that point.
