The 20th Special Forces Group (Airborne) (20th SFG) (A) is one of two

Army National Guard The Army National Guard (ARNG), in conjunction with the Air National Guard, is an organized militia force and a federal military reserve force of the United States Army. They are simultaneously part of two different organizations: the Army N ...

groups for the

United States Army Special Forces The United States Army Special Forces (SF), colloquially known as the "Green Berets" due to their distinctive service headgear, are a special operations force of the United States Army. The Green Berets are geared towards nine doctrinal mi ...

. 20th Group—as it is sometimes called—is designed to deploy and execute nine doctrinal missions:

unconventional warfare Unconventional warfare (UW) is broadly defined as "military and quasi-military operations other than conventional warfare" and may use covert forces, subversion, or guerrilla warfare. This is typically done to avoid escalation into conventional ...

foreign internal defense Foreign internal defense (FID) is a term used by the military in several countries, including the United States, France, and the United Kingdom, to describe an integrated, and possibly multi-country, approach to combating actual or threatened i ...

direct action Direct action originated as a political activist term for economic and political acts in which the actors use their power (e.g. economic or physical) to directly reach certain goals of interest, in contrast to those actions that appeal to oth ...

counter-insurgency Counterinsurgency (COIN) is "the totality of actions aimed at defeating irregular forces". The Oxford English Dictionary defines counterinsurgency as any "military or political action taken against the activities of guerrillas or revolutionar ...

special reconnaissance Special reconnaissance (SR) or Recon Team is conducted by small units of highly trained military personnel, usually from special forces units or military intelligence organizations, who operate behind enemy lines, avoiding direct combat and detec ...

counter-terrorism Counterterrorism (also spelled counter-terrorism), also known as anti-terrorism, incorporates the practices, military tactics, techniques, and strategies that governments, law enforcement, business, and intelligence agencies use to combat or ...

information operations Information Operations is a category of direct and indirect support operations for the United States Military. By definition in Joint Publication 3-13, "IO are described as the integrated employment of electronic warfare (EW), computer networ ...

counterproliferation Counterproliferation refers to diplomatic, intelligence, and military efforts to combat the proliferation of weapons, including both weapons of mass destruction (WMD), long-range missiles, and certain conventional weapons. Nonproliferation ...

weapon of mass destruction A weapon of mass destruction (WMD) is a chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, or any other weapon that can kill and bring significant harm to numerous individuals or cause great damage to artificial structures (e.g., buildings), natu ...

, and

security force assistance Security Force Assistance (SFA) is the strategic-level military practice of a donor country creating, equipping, training, advising, and supporting one or more groups of a foreign host country, such as a military, police, paramilitary, coast gua ...

. It is headquartered in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the We ...

, Alabama (and is thus part of the

Alabama Army National Guard The Alabama Army National Guard is a component of the United States Army and the United States National Guard. National coordination of various state National Guard units are maintained through the National Guard Bureau. Alabama Army National ...

) and as part of the United States Southern Command has an area of responsibility covering 32 countries, including Latin America south of

Mexico Mexico (Spanish language, Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a List of sovereign states, country in the southern portion of North America. It is borders of Mexico, bordered to the north by the United States; to the so ...

, the

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, the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United ...

, and the southwestern Atlantic Ocean. The area is shared with the

Eglin Air Force Base Eglin Air Force Base is a United States Air Force (USAF) base in the western Florida Panhandle, located about southwest of Valparaiso in Okaloosa County. The host unit at Eglin is the 96th Test Wing (formerly the 96th Air Base Wing). The 9 ...

-based

7th Special Forces Group The 7th Special Forces Group (Airborne) (7th SFG) (A) is an operational unit of the United States Army Special Forces activated on 20 May 1960. It was reorganized from the 77th Special Forces Group, which was also stationed at Fort Bragg, Nor ...

, which is the

active Active may refer to: Music * ''Active'' (album), a 1992 album by Casiopea * Active Records, a record label Ships * ''Active'' (ship), several commercial ships by that name * HMS ''Active'', the name of various ships of the British Royal ...

Regular Army A regular army is the official army of a state or country (the official armed forces), contrasting with irregular forces, such as volunteer irregular militias, private armies, mercenaries, etc. A regular army usually has the following: * a standin ...

Special Forces group responsible for the same region. Following the start of the

Global War on Terror The war on terror, officially the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT), is an ongoing international counterterrorism military campaign initiated by the United States following the September 11 attacks. The main targets of the campaign are militant ...

the 20th has been actively deployed to

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is borde ...

and other places around the world.

History

Gulf War

The first large scale activation of the 20th Special Forces Group took place during the first

Gulf War The Gulf War was a 1990–1991 armed campaign waged by a 35-country military coalition in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Spearheaded by the United States, the coalition's efforts against Iraq were carried out in two key phases: ...

. The unit was mobilized and based at

Fort Bragg Fort Bragg is a military installation of the United States Army in North Carolina, and is one of the largest military installations in the world by population, with around 54,000 military personnel. The military reservation is located within Cu ...

, North Carolina for training. The

supported and validated the training. The war ended quickly and the 20th Group was soon deactivated. Some individual members did participate in the conflict as augmentees to other Special Forces groups or organizations.

Operation Provide Comfort

As many as 50 individuals served as augmentees to the

10th Special Forces Group The 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne) (10th SFG (A), or 10th Group) is an active duty United States Army Special Forces (SF) Group. 10th Group is designed to deploy and execute nine doctrinal missions: unconventional warfare (UW), foreign in ...

and deployed to Turkey and northern Iraq during

Operation Provide Comfort Operation Provide Comfort and Provide Comfort II were military operations initiated by the United States and other Coalition nations of the Persian Gulf War, starting in April 1991, to defend Kurdish refugees fleeing their homes in northern I ...

Operation Uphold Democracy

The 20th Special Forces Group provided several rotations of companies to the operation in Haiti during 1995 during

Operation Uphold Democracy Operation Uphold Democracy was a military intervention designed to remove the military regime installed by the 1991 Haitian coup d'état that overthrew the elected President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. The operation was effectively authorized by t ...

Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF)

The 3rd Battalion, 20th Special Forces Group deployed a significant number of its battalion headquarters to augment the Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force - Afghanistan (CJSOTF-A). At the time the CJSOTF-A was led and manned by the 3rd Special Forces Group. The 3rd Battalion also provided companies to the fight in the early states of OEF. The 20th Special Forces Group headquarters and support staff was activated in the spring of 2002, trained up at Fort McClellan, Alabama, and then deployed to Afghanistan to lead and man the CJSOTF-A. It was augmented by several officers and NCOs of

. In addition, the 1st Battalion deployed to Karshi-Khanabad Air Base, "K2," in Uzbekistan and basing AOBs and teams throughout northern and eastern Afghanistan. At the same time a battalion of the 19th Special Forces Group was based at

Kabul Military Training Center The Kabul Military Training Center (KMTC) was a basic training centre for the Afghan Armed Forces. Located about 8 miles to the east on the outskirts of Kabul, it offered basic courses including 16-week basic infantry training. Kabul Military Tra ...

just north of Kabul to train up the initial battalions of the Afghan National Army. The 2nd Battalion, 7th Group was based at Kandahar. 2nd Battalion 20th Special Forces Group would replace 1st Battalion at K2 in 2003. At this point, the entire unit had deployed to Afghanistan. The 20th Special Forces Group would continue to deploy its companies and battalions to Afghanistan for almost two decades. In addition, numerous individuals would serve as augmentees to several different organizations in Afghanistan over the years. The 20th Special Forces Group headquarters and support company was activated in 2011 and deployed to Afghanistan to augment the CJSOTF-A, and CFSOCC-A.

Operations Iraqi Freedom (OIF)

Several individual augmentees from the 20th Special Forces Group served with various units in Iraq in the early stages (2003-2004) of the conflict - to include the CJSOTF-AP. Eventually almost all of the 20th Special Forces Group battalions and companies would rotate at least one time through Iraq from 2006 to 2011.

Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR)

Several companies and numerous individual augmentees would deploy in support of OIR to Iraq.

Combined Joint Task Force – Horn of Africa

For several years the 20th Special Forces Group manned the Special Operations Command and Control Element (SOCCE) Horn of Africa (HOA) located at Camp Lemonier, Djibouti.

Subordinate units

The 20th Special Forces Group is headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, with companies and battalions in the following locations: * 20th Special Forces Group Headquarters (Birmingham, Alabama) ** Group Support Battalion (Gadsden, Alabama) ** Military Intelligence Company (Louisville, Kentucky) ** 1st Battalion HHC (Fort Payne, Alabama) *** Company A (Auburn, Alabama) *** Company B (Albemarle, North Carolina) *** Company C (Chicopee, Massachusetts) ** 2nd Battalion HHC (Jackson, Mississippi) *** Company A (

Camp Atterbury Camp Atterbury-Muscatatuck is a federally-owned military post, licensed to and operated by the Indiana National Guard, located in south-central Indiana, west of Edinburgh, Indiana and U.S. Route 31. The camp's mission is to provide full logi ...

, Indiana) *** Company B (Glen Arm, Maryland) *** Company C (Camp McCain, Mississippi) ** 3rd Battalion HHC (

Camp Blanding Camp Blanding Joint Training Center is the primary military reservation and training base for the Florida National Guard, both the Florida Army National Guard and certain nonflying activities of the Florida Air National Guard. The installation ...

, Starke, Florida) *** Company A (Ocala, Florida) *** Company B (Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina) *** Company C (Wauchula, Florida)

Notable current and former unit members

* Tim Kennedy, retired mixed martial artist who has fought in the UFC, Strikeforce, the WEC * Scott L. Thoele, retired U.S. Army general officer

Gallery

File:National Guard Special Forces Image 2 of 6 4469177 180608-Z-KA180-001.jpg, Soldiers from the 20th Special Forces Group, Massachusetts National Guard prepare to raid an objective during training here, June 8, 2018. The highly trained and specialized soldiers are taking part in a combined arms exercise that tests the capabilities of combat support units. File:Army National Guard Special Forces combat divers 140915-A-KC506-204.jpg, A member of the Army National Guard's 20th Special Forces Group (Airborne) combat dive team tests his rebreather apparatus prior to entering the water at Naval Station Mayport, Fla., April 29, 2015. The divers were performing closed circuit dive training required to complete their re-qualification. File:Illinois Special Forces Soldiers conduct Airborne training 140808-A-SA683-145.jpg, Special Forces Soldiers with the Illinois National Guard's Company A, 2nd Battalion, 20th Special Forces Group (Airborne) in Chicago, prepare for a night high altitude high opening jump at 14,000 feet from a CH-47D Chinook with Company B, 2nd Battalion, 238th Aviation Regiment in Peoria, Illinois, at Fort McCoy, Wisconsin, August 8. File:Army National Guard Special Forces Helo-Casting 150502-A-KC506-085.jpg, A member of the Army National Guard's 3rd Battalion, 20th Special Forces Group (Airborne) combat dive team helo-casts in Florida waters from a CH-47 Chinook helicopter at Naval Station Mayport, May 1, 2015. The divers were performing closed circuit dive training, help-casting and additional maritime training required to complete their re-qualification and familiarization. File:Special Forces conduct Night Operations 2363203 150803-Z-XH364-135.jpg, National Guardsmen with Company A, 2nd Battalion, 20th Special Forces Group (Airborne) prepare to exit a C-130 Hercules during a night training mission over Muscatatuck, Ind., Monday, Aug. 3, 2015.

References

External links

20th Special Forces Group facebook page – updated weekly20th Special Forces Group (Airborne) Homepage
from GlobalSecurity.org
Beret Flash (Archived)
{{US Army SFG Special Forces 020 Groups of the United States Army National Guard Military units and formations established in 1961