BAMAKO, Mali — The day began at Bamako’s international airport as the Malian army’s 33rd parachute commando regiment lined up in the pre-dawn darkness to board a U.S. Air Force C-130 transport.
Despite the early hour, the paratroopers were pumped up. The soldiers began singing in Bambara, the nation’s predominant language. The Malian air force doesn’t have transport aircraft approaching the size of a C-130, so the opportunity to jump comes only a few times per year.
Standing beside them and directing traffic were members of a U.S. special operations forces A-team. Their parachutes were packed and ready to go.
The event was part of a joint combined exchange training taking place under the auspices of a State Department program, the Trans-Sahara Counter Terrorism Initiative. While the larger goal is to stop Islamic extremism from making inroads in nine North and West African countries, on a smaller scale, trainers said that it’s a mutually beneficial relationship.
“The most important part for us is learning how to work with and advise indigenous forces,” said the team leader. “That’s part of our function. It doesn’t matter if you’re doing it in a training environment or a wartime environment. It’s the same kind of interpersonal and communications skills.”
For security reasons, members of the team could only be identified by their title.
An hour later and 15 miles on the other side of Bamako, the C-130 began to drop about 10 to 12 jumpers on each run, including members of the special forces team, who used the opportunity to put in some required training and a bit of jump pay.
It would have been hard to find nastier ground to fall on in this landlocked nation. The soil at the drop sight was composed of jagged, hard-packed volcanic rock. A contingent of Malian and U.S. embassy dignitaries watched as the paratroopers floated into the brush. Despite the unforgiving ground, there were only minor injuries.
A high-altitude, low-open jump with both Americans and Malians participating ended the first half of the exercise.
Later that day, the Malians and the trainers gathered at a rally point to begin an assault on a mock terrorist training camp.
The paratroopers moved stealthily through the scrub brush, down into a muddy ravine, and paused in a grove of mango trees as a senior officer moved forward with a small team to make a final check on the target. After he radioed his approval, the troops maneuvered into position and the assault began.
With the trainers at their backs, the paratroopers moved forward, then swept through the target.
It was a first for EUCOM trainers, said the company commander of the 1st battalion, 10th special forces group (Airborne), based in Stuttgart, Germany. They had never combined a jump with a tactical assault on the same day. In such an operation, transitions are often the most difficult part, he explained. Going from a jump to an assault, for example, is when difficulties arise. “This is taking them another step further in complication.”
“The support fire sounded good. They stayed in good sequence. Everything that needed to be shot is full of bullet holes,” said the company commander, who was responsible for coordinating that exercise and three others taking place in the country’s northern provinces.
“Everything went right,” said the operations sergeant. “We were actually quite impressed. They did very well.”
The final piece that day was an “after action review” when the special operators provided feedback. “There were some minor things they can practice when we’re not here that they can sustain,” the sergeant said. “Timing moving up on the target is something they can cut down on. But on this type of terrain, you can anticipate that.”
Col. I. Ould Issa, the regiment commander said, “it’s a good result. These soldiers will train other soldiers in the regiment so we can spread the American training after they’re gone.”
U.S. forces providing training to West African troops is not new. In fact, the regiment still has a table used for packing parachutes left here as a gift by U.S. trainers in the 1960s.
Along with the exercise that day, the 96th Civil Affairs teams out of Fort Bragg, N.C. were coordinating medical, dental and veterinarian clinics. Engineers carried out structural assessments of wells, schools and clinics in the country’s north. They also donated school supplies to villagers.
A few days later, the A-team and the Malian regiment gathered on the same field and unloaded a pallet of ammunition. The team spread the guns it used on the ground and prepared them for a day of “weapons familiarization.”
Among them were the SR-25 and M-24 sniper rifles and an MK-19 grenade launcher.
The A-team weapons specialists broke the Malian soldiers up into smaller groups, gave them quick lessons on how to operate the guns, then began blasting away at a rusted tank up range. Several fires broke out on the hillside above, but they quickly extinguished themselves.
In reality, the Malian forces will probably never acquire U.S. made small arms. They will continue to use the Russian-made AK-47s. The team leader said that it was more of a “fun day” for the Malians.
The regiment said they were bringing a DsHK, Russian-made anti-aircraft gun for the Americans to try out. Team members were excited to get their hands on the legendary machine gun, but it never arrived. Ammunition is expensive and the commanders may not have wanted to use their stores up, the team leader speculated. He was happy for the chance to try out a Russian-made RPG-7 rocket launcher for the first time.
The regiment brought six to shoot at the tank. The team leader didn’t hit the mark and the rocket broke up without detonating.
“It wasn’t as loud and violent as I imagined,” the team leader said. “But I didn’t like the fact that it didn’t detonate 60 percent of the time we shot it.” He attributed that to not hitting the tank. The A-team and Malians spread out on the hillside to search for unexploded ordnance. The special operators would come back to detonate the loose explosives a few days later. Because of restrictions on the Stuttgart ranges, finding time to do demolition training is hard to come by. The team used their trip to Mali to carry out some required exercises.
Because special operators are tasked with embedding in foreign forces, the opportunity to try out exotic weapons such as the RPG-7 is important. “You never know what kind of situation you’ll be in where you have to pick up a weapon that’s handed to you,” the team leader said.
They were also “trying to glean some knowledge” from the Malians as far as fighting and surviving in the harsh desert environment, he added.
Part of that would be learning how to pack a camel for combat.
Unfortunately, the camels, like the DhSK, would be a no-show. None could be located for the training and the Malians would give their lesson with a PowerPoint demonstration.
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