New elite Army unit for insurgent warfare

Reported here:

The unit was created last year as an extension of the Improvised Explosive Device Task Force, which was itself started to counter the threat in Iraq from roadside bombs.

Jennings is taking applications from NCOs in the pay grades E-7 through E-9, and officers O-4 and O-5. No one in the unit or its support staff will rank lower than E-5.

“It’s a very top-heavy unit,” he said.

The group is standing up at Fort Meade, Md., with new quarters and new equipment, Jennings said. About one-third of its members are civilians, all of them retired senior NCOs.

The centerpiece of the unit, Jennings said, will be its rapidly deployable field teams made up of active duty and retired E-8s and E-9s who will respond to emergencies such as kidnappings or car bombings around the world. The team members will be trained in advanced marksmanship, post-blast analysis, and catastrophic crime-scene investigation. They’ll work with military intelligence agents, the CIA and special forces.

The exact mission, Jennings said, is still being determined.

Mission to be determined? Right.