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Special Forces

Special Forces

Special forces are versatile and agile elite military units capable of providing discrete reconnaissance and carrying out specialized missions. Special forces teams may be assembled for single missions or during a specific conflict. Other teams are long-term staples of the military establishment. While not on mission, they usually report through traditional military channels; often, during special missions, the hierarchy is suspended for the sake of expediency and security. On May 2, 2011, US Navy Seals were the team who executed the raid in Pakistan that led to the death of Osama Bin Laden.

Top Questions Asked on ChaCha.com for Special Forces

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    The U.S. Army has the Special Forces, better known as the Gre...

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  1. What are the names of the u.s. Special forces?

    Some different special forces units are called Navy Seals & B...

  2. Do the marines have a special forces?

    A Reconnaissance Marine is the equivalent of a Special Forces...

  3. Who is the best of the special forces in the military?

    The U.S. Army has the Special Forces, better known as the Gre...

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  5. What is the Air Force Special Forces units called?

    The most widely known United States Air Force special ops uni...

  1. What are the marines special forces?

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    The best Special Forces in the world are generally considered...

Top Questions Asked on ChaCha Mobile for Special Forces

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  1. What does S.a.s. As in British Special Forces stand for?

    The Special Air Service is a special forces regiment within t...

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  1. Are scout snipers the special forces of the U.S. Marine Corp?

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  2. What are the Special forces For the army?

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About Special Forces

Special forces are elite military teams used for 'special' military missions: usually secretive and lethal missions deployed for extreme purposes. The most famous of the Special Forces teams is the Navy's SEAL Team Six, a unit that consists of older, more experienced SEALs who have undergone the most arduous training and been successful in many missions.

Team Six was responsible for the most daring Special Ops mission ever: the attack on the compound where Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of the 9/11 bombings in NYC, was hiding in Abbottabad, Pakistan. The raid's successful results -- killing bin Laden and capturing valuable terrorist data found on computers and hard drives in his home -- was announced by President Barack Obama on Sunday, May 1, 2011.

Special forces (originally called 'frog men' due to their use as underwater bomb defusers) were used as early as World War II, when they cleared the way for beach invasions. During the Viet Nam War they gained a certain amount of glamour due to the Green Berets unit. Glamour faded after the failed mission to free the U.S. hostages held in Iran in 1979.

But during the 90's the teams began to be used for extremely daring missions to take out terrorists that may have been involved in attacks on the U.S. Newsweek reports that an estimated 2,000 members of Al Qaeda have been killed by teams like the one that took out bin Laden. (Newsweek 5/5/11 'The Coolest Guys in the World.'

Special forces teams are assembled from across the military services, and are supervised by JSOC, the Joint Special Operations Command, which is located at Pope Army Field and Fort Bragg, in North Carolina.

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Special Forces