CAMP RAPID, S.D. – Hidden within a gully, the platoon fastened their packs and tightened their helmet straps, preparing to move. Above them, two Green Berets carefully watched from the cliff's edge. This mission began before sunrise, and now, at midday, they are ready to engage the opposing force (OPFOR). Two weeks ago, these Soldiers were strangers. But today, they move as one lethal, tactical force.
An Operational Detachment-Alpha (ODA) team from 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne) (SFG(A)) trained 34 South Dakota National Guard (SDNG) Soldiers from 19 units across the state on fundamental and advanced warrior skills from September 13-26, at Camp Rapid, South Dakota. These Soldiers had accepted the challenge to attend the voluntary course.
"I didn't know what to expect," said Master Sgt. Clint Sandness, a combat medic from 196th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade, South Dakota National Guard. "I knew it would be challenging and hard; I like doing that stuff."
The first couple of days focused on fundamental and advanced combat marksmanship. 10th SFG(A) Green Berets began by instructing on stationary shooting, tactical reloads, and switching between primary and secondary weapons systems. Then they moved into various movement and shooting drills, including walking and firing on-line toward a target, turning around and engaging, walking parallel to the targets and more.
"I had never practiced moving while turning and shooting simultaneously," said Staff Sgt. Vladimir Sobolev from the Small Arms Readiness and Training Section at the Joint Task Force Headquarters of the South Dakota National Guard. "This is essential training for us, as in wartime or a conflict, you need to be able to move and shoot effectively."
After the combat marksmanship skills course, they transitioned to a qualification range.
"We had 30 out of 34 qualify expert at the 300-meter range," said the 10th SFG(A) ODA's team sergeant. "I believe the majority of those, about 28 or 29, had never shot expert before."
Over the rest of the two weeks, blocks of instruction included tactical combat casualty care, land navigation, digital force protection, machine-gun theory, anti-tank warfare, hoist training, demolition, small-unit tactics, mission planning and more. The training took place over four different locations in western South Dakota.
Spc. Matthew Husfeldt, an engineer with the 842nd Engineer Construction Company, 109th Engineer Battalion, South Dakota Army National Guard, listed Combat Life Saver as his favorite class of the course. He's also a civilian police officer.
"CLS was an awesome class," Husfeldt said. "It is going to help out if I'm ever in that situation; I feel a lot more confident that I could actually save somebody's life."
Other training, including hoist operations, involved strapping a simulated casualty into a skid and hoisting it into a hovering UH-60 Black Hawk overhead. It's useful in scenarios where it would be unsafe for a MEDEVAC to land. Digital force protection taught students how to protect themselves from the ever-transforming cyber domain. In the demolition block of instruction, students learned how to set an explosive charge effectively and listened to a lecture on the current state of explosives in the war in Ukraine. Small-unit tactics training took place over different days, ranging from how to move as a squad to how to conduct an ambush or raid as a platoon.
"My favorite thing was small-unit tactics because it was the hardest," Sandness said. "The 34 of us had never worked together, and now we had to function as a platoon; it was fun because it was incredibly rewarding, and it was rewarding because it was hard."
Nearly two weeks of specialized classes led to the ultimate test: a full-mission profile (FMP). The event brought all their learned skills together for a comprehensive field exercise.
The 10th SFG ODA developed the program, mirroring it from a portion of their own training. This method enabled students to immerse themselves and fully absorb the knowledge, serving as an introduction to new ideas and a refresher on warrior skills.
"The way the program of instruction is created, the first few days are all individual soldier skills, and then we get into small-unit tactics and more collective training for the guys," said the 10th SFG(A) ODA's team sergeant. "And then we culminate it at the end with the FMP Rolling Thunder."
The group conducted two FMPs over 48 hours. The SDNG Soldiers were responsible for completing them from start to finish, beginning with mission planning overnight, moving to their objective rally point, infiltrating to their final assault positions, and conducting an ambush or raid.
Sobolev said he was way out of his comfort zone during the FMP, but it was where he learned the most, both from his own actions and from the instructors. It had a deeper level of execution and realism than the training he had in the past.
"We actually put all our gear on, went out in the middle of the night and were stressed-out and hungry," Sobolev said, "we were like 'oh, we're actually doing this.”
After putting on all their gear, the platoon of SDNG Soldiers moved out of the gully and quietly took up their positions in the assault line. Their security support was already in place, waiting for the signal to engage. Once everyone was in position, the platoon leader sent a radio call, and the M240 machine guns opened fire. Following a shift in fire, the line of assaulters emerged from the trees, aggressively engaging the OPFOR on the road down the hill.
After a successful assault, the team conducted safety checks, performed searches and clearings, and treated two simulated casualties they had sustained during the operation. Everyone then returned to the rally point. The Green Berets observed from the sidelines, carefully noting any flaws in the execution.
"The full mission profiles are essentially the culmination of this whole course," said the 10th SFG(A) ODA's team sergeant. "To see random strangers from all across South Dakota show up on day one, and then come out to the FMPs and be able to do a platoon ambush and a platoon raid successfully, based on the real-world things that we're seeing out of Ukraine and our current large-scale combat operations, I would say is hugely successful."
A significant portion of the instruction focused on current conflicts, particularly in Ukraine. Implementing present-day information creates a more lethal warfighter for today's climate.
"That's what we as an Army are leading forward in training for," said the 10th SFG(A) ODA's team sergeant. "The days of GWOT (Global War on Terrorism) are over. Some principles still apply in LSCO (Large Scale Combat Operations); however, LSCO is a very different fight."
Husfeldt plans to bring what he learned back to his SDNG unit and create several classes to give to his peers, helping pass along the knowledge he gained to the rest of the force.
"This is also hugely beneficial for us as an ODA," said the 10th SFG(A) ODA's team sergeant. "We get just as much, if not more, out of it than they do; it's a great opportunity to continue to train our own United States individuals who are motivated and want to be there."
Projecting a 47% increase in attendance, the SDNG plans to enroll 50 Soldiers in the following training iteration. The commitment establishes a powerful, lasting initiative by 10th SFG(A) to enhance readiness and sustain long-term training for both active duty and National Guard Soldiers.
"As SOF, we're force multipliers," said the 10th SFG(A) ODA's team sergeant. "We train individuals, and then those individuals go to train other individuals."
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