Heads Up San Antonio, Texas (Urban Warriors Coming Your Way This Week)

Well, at least they may have learned a valuable P.R. lesson recently. (Thanks, e friend for the alert). -- Diane

San Antonio Express-News [Metro section, pg 1B, actually in today's paper- Feb 16.]

http://www.expressnews.com/pantheon/news-bus/military/1601bcja.shtml

Special Ops to arrive in force

Military to train for hostage rescues

Monday, Feb 15,1999

By Sig Christenson
Express-News Staff Writer

A unit believed to be the Army's elite Delta Force anti-terrorist team is poised for nighttime urban warfare training this week at two San Antonio military facilities.

But don't expect Mayor Howard Peak to give team members the key to the city.

Fort Sam Houston spokesman Phil Reidinger said Monday a unit from the Army's Special Operations Command at Fort Bragg, N.C., is scheduled to train at the near-downtown post or at Camp Bullis north of the city.

But Peak, who accused Delta Force of sneaking behind his back to secure training areas in the city last year, said he knew nothing of the visit until he received calls from reporters Monday.

"I was surprised but not surprised," he said. "Surprised that they come back after we told them no and then not surprised because this seems to be their MO (modus operandi).

"They like to do things their own way and don't seem to pay a whole lot of attention to the concerns of local government," Peak added.

The mayor said neither he nor Police Chief Al Philippus were told of the unit's visit to town, which comes more than a week after Delta Force members accidentally set fire to a vacant police annex in downtown Kingsville, a South Texas community of 26,000.

Reidinger said exercises would be conducted at night and vowed they would be safe, though he acknowledged residents near Fort Sam or Camp Bullis might hear helicopters and explosions.

He wouldn't confirm if the unit was the storied Delta Force or say exactly where or when training would occur. He wouldn't identify the troops involved as anything other than a "special operations unit."

A Delta Force commander at Fort Bragg said even less, refusing to admit the unit exists.

But helicopters and explosive devices are hallmarks of the elite force, which trains for hostage rescue operations in urban settings.

Delta Force's impending San Antonio visit comes nearly a year after the Alamo City rebuffed the super-secret unit's plans to conduct mock air and ground assaults on the West and East sides.

The Special Operations Command had already conducted urban warfare exercises in at least 21 U.S. cities, among them Atlanta, Chicago and Houston, when four Delta Force members discussed training sessions in a meeting last April with San Antonio officials.

The exercises called for nighttime mock air and ground assaults using live ammunition, explosive charges and helicopters. About 100 Delta Force commandoes would have been dropped onto rooftops before firing on targets.

Citing public safety concerns, Peak and other city officials ultimately rejected the exercises, which would have involved St. Theresa's Academy and brushed homes on the Southeast Side.

Earlier this month eight black Delta Force helicopters swooped over downtown Kingsville in a nighttime raid on an abandoned Police Department annex and a vacant two-story Exxon office building.

A similar exercise took place Friday in Port Aransas, and also may have occurred recently in San Angelo, where the city manager's secretary, Dixie McIntyre, said low-flying black helicopters prompted at least one phone call to municipal officials.

The mock hostage rescue in Kingsville started at 7:25 p.m. Feb. 8 and lasted 15 to 20 minutes, said City Manager Carlos Lerma.

"I think they were all very professional," he said.

Lerma, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel and an F-4 "Phantom" pilot who served two tours in Vietnam, defended Delta Force's training and said he'd allow the unit to make a return visit.

But there also were problems in Kingsville, as there had been in past Delta Force mock raids in places such as Charlotte, N.C., where one man grabbed his shotgun as commando copters flew at treetop level in 1997.

About 50 residents in Kingsville called authorities after eight black helicopters flew low over downtown, part of which was sealed off by police as the raid ensued, Lerma said. Residents were not told of the exercises at Delta Force's request, he said.

The fire in the police annex was sparked by welding equipment that was used to cut through cell bars during the mock rescue, Lerma said, adding that Special Operations Command has agreed to reimburse the city for the damage.

Asked about the unit's recent training in South Texas, the Delta Force commander said: "I can't confirm any of that."

San Antonio businessman Bob Sanchez, who chairs a task force that's trying to build public-private partnerships on local bases, favored the training if it takes place at Fort Sam or Camp Bullis.

Former Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce chairman Bob Bomer agreed, as did Peak.

"Let 'em blow the barracks up," the mayor said, adding, "I would encourage them to get the inhabitants out first."

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), February 16, 1999

Answers

Diane,

Thanks for the post(thanks "e" friend too). I am always fascinated by things like this which only seem to get local coverage. No, I not implying conspiracy but there are so many interesting things going on that you would never hear about relying solely on local news sources. Long live the www.

-- Deborah (tired@all.day), February 16, 1999.

See also threads ...

Invasion of Monterey PLEASE READ

http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id= 000VNi

It's only urban warfare training

http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id= 000VHT

FEMA sealing off Texas?

http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id= 000V7t

Army to reimburse Kingsville

http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id= 000Uzb

Military Test Exercises For "Urban Warrior" & National Institute for Urban Search and Rescue Web-site

http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id= 000ToL

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), February 16, 1999.

Well, I'm totally convinced the govt knows Y2K will bring cityzzzzns to their knees and the mils are perversely looking forward to that corrupt evil power. It's getting blatantly obvious. NEVER would have thought this way a year ago! These exercises are #1, a legit way to train & practice for stomp & squelch maneuvers they fully intend to employ; #2, a creepy intimidation tactic. Very depressing and sickening. I have no stomach for guns, violence, and brutality. God, please let us off this humanimal-twisted planet soon, gently. Place us somewhere heavenly akin to our own vibration. Incarnating here must be a mistake. NEVER AGAIN !!!!!

xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx x

-- Leska (allaha@earthlink.net), February 16, 1999.

OUR tax dollars at work.

Seems like throughout history one has always had to pay the exicutioner.

-- Greybear

-Got change?

-- Greybear (greybear@home.com), February 16, 1999.

It should be no surprise that Delta does not talk about itself.. At their European base in germany, you can ride by the compound, the outsiders will tell you that this is theirs, but no one on base (including someone whose jump manifest, and Desert Storm and bosnia assignments would suggest very intimate knowledge) will admit to anything. (the above referenced trooper is my Lodge brother's son-in- law.)

Considering their charge, i don't think I'd say much about who or what the unit was either. difficult to live if you've got a LARGE price on your head, in gold, no questions asked, just deliver head.

Chuck

-- Chuck, night driver (rienzoo@en.com), February 16, 1999.

Do you think it is the weather down here that makes us such an attractive target?

-- Sharon in a military playground called Texas (Sking@drought-ridden.com), February 17, 1999.