Final Exam for Green Berets

		Philip Young, left, plays the role of 'Major Hawk,' chief of a guerrilla force in the mythical country 'Pineland.' Hawk negotiates with Capt. Arthur Garfer, right, leader of the Special Forces Training Group, at the guerrilla camp.   The tools of war games include a rake and a shovel along with rifles in the guerrilla base. Two soldiers cross a road in Randolph County at full tilt. They were observing guerrilla fighters' tactics as they ambushed an enemy vehicle. Special Forces Trainees encounter scenarios that could arise anywhere the war on terrorism is being waged.   Don Brochu, right, discusses opposing forces' location with Staff Sgt. Chris Buster, a Special Forces trainee. Brochu volunteers his time as an actor and lets soldiers use his land. Capt. Nick Dotti, a trainee, listens to guerrilla leader 'Major Hawk' as they work out where to set up camp.

TROY -- Capt. Nick Dotti rubs his brow and watches a plume of cigar smoke settle in the tent of the warlord he knows as Major Hawk. Dotti has a problem: persuading Hawk to help him unite two quarreling factions against a common enemy. So far, he has already failed to persuade Hawk, a fiery soldier with a taste for cheap cigars, to refrain from mutilating unarmed prisoners.

Suddenly, Hawk interrupts Dotti. "Quiet," he screams. "I want to hear the end of this race." He pokes the volume knob on his radio. "It sounds like Kurt Busch won."

If for a moment the tall, affable Dotti imagined he was hunkered in the tent of a warlord in Afghanistan, Hawk's love of everything NASCAR reminds Dotti that he is still in Pineland, a fictional country in rural North Carolina. Here, for more than half a century, Special Forces soldiers have trained in a 38-day course that culminates in an exercise known as Robin Sage.

No bullets are whizzing overhead in Pineland, but it still stands on the front line in the war on terror. It's the place where elite U.S. Army soldiers meet their allies and enemies for the first time; and, in a fundamental shift, the enemy they meet is no longer a Cold War army. Soldiers now encounter scenarios that could arise anywhere the war on terror may be fought -- places such as Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, the Philippines.

The training now reflects the experiences of soldiers who have fought in those places. It's also safer. Trainers adopted new precautions to avoid confusion between soldiers and citizens after a sheriff's deputy, in a case of mistaken identity, shot and killed a student-soldier early this year.

The scenario Dotti is grappling with comes straight out of Afghanistan -- and so do the Green Berets who are training him.

Maj. Michael Hopkins, commander of the exercise, fought in Afghanistan for several months and knows firsthand the value of the Robin Sage exercises.

"The first teams into Afghanistan described it as 'Robin Sage on steroids,' " he said. Hopkins and the other Special Forces officers in charge of Robin Sage said the key to this year's exercise has been real-time feedback from soldiers returning from Afghanistan. It's also training that looks ahead to future conflicts.

The final stage

Robin Sage is the last phase of training before soldiers become Green Berets. The course teaches conventional forces how to fight unconventionally. The soldiers -- this year there are 17 teams of 12 men each -- are driven, dropped or boated into Pineland, the fictional 7,700-square-mile country that sprawls across 14 North Carolina counties.

The teams are told to meet up with "auxiliaries," residents of the tiny towns where the training scenarios are played out. This year, more than 1,000 local people are helping in the exercise.

Once the teams find their contacts, they are led to the base camp of a local warlord. The exercise tests their ability to win the confidence of the local chiefs and forge a ragtag band of guerrilla fighters -- who in reality are regular Army soldiers -- into a formidable fighting force. At the end of the exercise, all the teams carry out an attack on a major target, such as an airport.

The learning curve is steep. Almost from the start, a team of students in Detachment 926 finds itself in trouble. A delayed helicopter flight has put them four hours behind schedule. Their guerrilla counterparts are leading them across a sloping field in broad daylight.

"That's a mistake," said Master Sgt. James Florentz, a 13-year Special Forces veteran. The group is encountering its first dilemma. They can't refuse to follow their new friends, but they can't afford to be discovered. They walk on.

Once in the guerrilla camp, a cluster of camouflaged rain ponchos strung from trees in a dense pine grove, they meet Hawk. A novice captain salutes.

Hawk responds with a scream -- a salute can signal to unseen eyes that Hawk is a leader, making him a target for snipers.

Master Sgt. Joe Caseman, a Green Beret trainer for Robin Sage who fought for more than four months in Afghanistan, said the team must figure out what motivates Hawk and use it to build rapport.

Preparing for war

Hawk is Philip "Butch" H. Young Jr., 53, a native of Cleveland, N.C. He has served in the Special Forces since 1983 and in the Army since 1971. Young knows he is preparing these students for war.

"I know exactly how it is since 9/11," he said. "We had a class in [training] right as it happened, and I thought, 'In one year, these guys are going to be fighting overseas.' " One of Young's friends "had his face blown off" in Afghanistan. "He's only got one eye now," he said.

To make the training more realistic, Young and the other trainers have divided his guerrillas into two factions, the Hatfields and the McCoys. "That's what we had over there," Caseman whispers, as he watches the team interact with Young.

Young also served in Iraq during Desert Storm and said those experiences are in the front of his mind. When the team asks to stay in Hawk's camp for the night, he denies the request.

"In Iraq, our team had to stay outside for a day or so," he said.

Later that night, Hawk summons the leaders of the 926. He invites them along on an ambush. Capt. Arthur Garfer tells Hawk he is glad to have his men go along, but will tell them not to fire their weapons. Hawk explodes. "What good are you if you won't shoot?" he yells.

Garfer has another dilemma, one that is not scripted. He must now convince Hawk that he is there to help, but must also explain the rules Special Forces must follow, known as the rules of engagement, a concept few warlords understand.

"Sir, we can only fire when we are fired upon," Garfer said.

Caseman, watching the exchange, shakes his head. "They put themselves in more dilemmas than we can make up for them," he said. This is the beauty of Robin Sage. The scenarios are loosely scripted and allow Hawk to exploit any weakness he sees in the students. Now he will insist that the students send men on the raid and that they fire their weapons.

The right answer, Caseman said, is to agree to go along on the raid and fire only if fired upon.

Once they reach a road where the ambush is supposed to take place, Hawk sets up the attack in a hopeless tangle of cross-fires that will force the men to fire on each other. The students must figure out how to tactfully tell Hawk his plan is flawed. The team prevails, and the groups take their positions.

A large military truck rumbles down the moonlit road. The guns blaze and crack and the truck stops. The guerrillas drag four unarmed men from the truck and out of the sight of the students. Hawk draws his pistol and fires four times.

"What happened?" one of the students asks, as the men scramble to see what's unfolding behind the truck.

The guerrillas kneel by the soldiers with knives drawn and begin to mutilate them.

Atrocities? Don't look

Now the students face a new problem: They have just witnessed an atrocity.

"We'll be watching to see if they write up a report on this and send it up the line," Caseman whispers from the dark.

Back at the camp, the guerrillas insist their new comrades eat the testicles of the slain soldiers. The students balk. Hawk is not pleased. "You're insulting me," he screams. Later he tells a reporter that during Desert Storm the Saudis insisted the soldier they liked best eat the eye of a goat.

"You better eat that eyeball or you're out," he said.

By the next morning, Caseman has rotated Garfer out and put Dotti in charge. The change is a way to get all three captains in the detachment involved in the training. This time, the change comes a day early. Instructors said Garfer had the misfortune of being the first officer in charge.

"It takes a few days for them to realize they're not in the classroom," Caseman said.

"Every decision they make is one that weighs on their minds," Caseman said. "This could be the end of their career." Garfer will get another chance later.

Among the best

Dotti, 27, has a lot to do. In addition to trying to persuade Hawk not to mutilate any more prisoners, he must unite the two factions. And he must keep Hawk, who is now asking for money to fight, from getting too greedy.

All of these problems have been encountered in Afghanistan, Caseman said.

Dotti grew up in New Jersey and joined the army after attending Norwich University, a military college in Vermont.

"I'm one of those Type A guys who thought I knew everything before joining Special Forces," he said.

At Fort Hood, Texas, he was an artillery officer on a Paladin self-propelled howitzer. "I loved the thunder of that 155 mm round going downrange," he said, as he shot his hips around to re-create the action used to pull the cord that fires the gun. Dotti came here because he wanted to be among the best. He's quickly showing he's in the right place.

To bring the factions together, Dotti suggests an operation that includes the leaders of both factions. Dotti's second in command is Staff Sgt. Clif Cooper, from Dry Ridge, Ky. Cooper, 25, suggests the two groups sign an oath that will help unite their allegiance to one cause.

Dotti begins to call the two groups by one name: Hawk's Heroes.

He also manages to persuade Hawk to let the students move their base camp into the guerrilla camp, a major victory.

Dotti's radio man, Sgt. Christian Roberts, a baby-faced 24-year-old from North Pole, Alaska, has shown Hawk how to use a radio. Roberts looks like a tougher version of the "MASH" character Radar O'Reilly, complete with the glasses and a habit of saying "shoot." He weighs 180 pounds, and his pack weighs 130.

The training here will go on for several more weeks, and the men will face new problems, scripted and unscripted. They are in Pineland now, but they know they will be in other countries, probably fighting, soon after they finish language and survival school. A few will wash out, but most will succeed.

Dotti is focused on one goal: winning in Pineland.

"If I'm successful here, I think it will give me more confidence, especially because others who have been in Afghanistan know what it takes to succeed," he said. "They kind of slap you in the face and say you need to do this 100 percent because this is what happens."

By JOHN SULLIVAN, Staff Writer, The News & Observer, Raleigh, NC

Staff writer John Sullivan can be reached at 829-4841

Staff Photos by Chuck Liddy

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