U.S. Special Operations Forces are known as the quiet professionals, ever ready to respond anytime, anywhere to assist U.S. diplomats and military teammates, as well as foreign military personnel and local and national government officials around the world, according to U.S. Army General Peter Schoomaker, Commander-in-Chief of the Florida-based U.S. Special Operations Command. These American soldiers, sailors, and airmen, equipped with cross-cultural skills and special language capabilities, are helping foreign militaries daily, while at the same time enhancing "the stature of the United States" and promoting U.S. national security interests, he says.

Culturally aware, skilled in the language of the local population, mature and self-reliant, and low profile when needed, the soldiers, sailors, and airmen of the U.S. Special Operations Command and the regional Special Operations Commands supporting each geographical theater are uniquely qualified to make a significant contribution to U.S. ambassadors and their country teams as they seek to enhance the stature of the United States and further U.S. national security interests around the globe.

In a typical week approximately 7,000 Special Operations Forces personnel are deployed to 60-70 countries worldwide on missions that support U.S. foreign policy objectives, enhance theater military engagement efforts, develop enduring relationships with host nations, and carry out important training for U.S. personnel. In 1998 alone, Special Operations Forces deployed to and supported the U.S. diplomatic and military teams in 152 countries, successfully completed over 280 Joint Combined Exchange Training (JCET) operations, conducted 123 counter-drug missions in 104 countries, and trained host nation personnel in demining operations in 17 countries.

Special Operations Forces' participation in this diverse range of exchanges, exercises, training programs, and humanitarian activities helps us to establish and maintain important personal and professional relationships with our host military forces -- relationships built on mutual respect and trust. Time and again, those relationships have proven to be invaluable to both U.S. ambassadors and military commanders in regional theaters of operation during times of crisis and conflict.

Equally important, the presence of Special Operations Forces helps to demonstrate clearly the U.S. commitment to the host nation while promoting the institutions that contribute to local and regional stability.

A unique feature of Special Operations Forces -- a trait that often appeals to U.S. diplomatic and military teams overseas, our theater commanders-in-chiefs (CINCs), and, in many cases, host nations -- is that they routinely deploy in small teams. Be they soldiers, sailors, or airmen, these small teams lack the large footprint often associated with conventional forces. This allows them to conduct their missions with a low profile and in a way that is relatively transparent to most of the local population whenever that is desirable.

Without a doubt, the true strength of these teams lies in the carefully screened officers, the highly seasoned Non-Commissioned Officers, and the enlisted personnel who are meticulously selected for the missions in which they will serve. Special Operations Forces leaders spend a great deal of time in screening applicants to locate just the right caliber of professional. After that, we then invest a great deal of training and resources to produce a mature, poised individual whose substantial military expertise is complemented by appropriate language skills and regional and cultural awareness for the area in which he will operate. We believe it is crucial to maintain such a standard because, today, even basic tasks carried out at a fundamental level can have broader strategic ramifications. Therefore, it is imperative that Special Operations Forces continue to be mature, savvy operators who understand the implications of their actions and their link to the environment in which they operate.

U.S. ambassadors and their country teams, as well as the geographic CINCs, are increasingly aware of how the unique capabilities of Special Operations Forces can lend significant support to their regional and country objectives. As a result, the global demands on Special Operations Forces have steadily increased. Identify a "warm spot" anywhere in the world today and chances are that Special Operations Forces already are there and engaged in a number of important activities.

The ability of Special Operations Forces to conduct these activities is a direct result of training they receive for nine principal missions. In fact, when we deploy to support an ambassador's or theater CINC's objectives, the results are most often a "win-win-win" in our view. The host nation benefits from the training and support we provide, the objectives of the ambassador and/or CINC involved are advanced, and the Special Operations Forces benefit by enhancing their cross-cultural and language skills, and employing the expertise they have worked so hard to develop. Here are some examples to illustrate this "triple win" outcome:

Foreign Internal Defense, that is, helping U.S. allies organize and train their forces to enhance their own defense and contribute to overall regional stability, is a "principal mission" of U.S. Special Operations Forces. The African Crisis Response Initiative (ACRI), a State Department program to mobilize African nations to respond to regional crises, is a classic example of the application of Special Operations Forces skills in the area of foreign internal defense. Special Operations Forces units are helping to organize and train indigenous military forces in the nations of Senegal, Uganda, Malawi, Ghana, Benin, Cote d'Ivoire, and Mali as a positive step towards greater regional stability.

In the area of counter-drug activities, Special Operations Forces are currently working in unison with the U.S. country team in Colombia to assist the Colombian government in training units of its military counter-drug force in the organization and field skills they need to help combat their country's pervasive drug production and distribution problem. Special Operations Forces have been similarly engaged in other Andean Ridge nations such as Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia. In addition, Special Operations Forces patrol coastal ships are maintaining a continuous presence in the Western and Eastern Caribbean where they are working with the law enforcement efforts of the U.S. Coast Guard in support of the U.S. Southern Command's detection and monitoring endeavors. All of these Special Operations Forces activities have a direct impact on U.S. efforts to reduce the corrosive impact of narco-trafficking on friendly nations as well as the United States.

During 1998, U.S. Special Operations Forces participated in demining missions in 17 countries -- including several African nations, Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia -- where indigenous forces are trained to recognize, mark, and safely destroy thousands of mines that remain.

U.S. demining training activities have taken small Special Operations Forces teams to virtually every corner of the world with a history of conflict. In places like Africa, Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia, Special Operations Forces train indigenous forces to recognize, mark, and safely destroy the tens of thousands of mines that remain. Special Operations Forces also help host nations organize nationwide demining action strategies and public awareness campaigns. This humanitarian effort is designed to help these governments reduce and eventually eliminate the insidious and deadly threat posed by these mines to their civilian populations.

These examples illustrate how Special Operations Forces peacetime engagement activities produce a "win" for the U.S. ambassador and the theater CINC; a "win" for the host nation; and a "win" for the U.S. Special Operations Command. As a result, it should be apparent why "regional engagement" is good for Special Operations Forces and will continue to be so in the future.

An added benefit of regularly scheduled global deployments of Special Operations Forces is that when crises do arise, in many cases, Special Operations Forces are already on the ground or nearby. The chaos of the early moments of unfolding events in a crisis situation is often made more challenging by the absence of detailed information. Special Operations Forces who are present on the scene often provide the U.S. ambassador and theater commander additional immediate reporting from people who are engaged in the culture, speak the language, and can provide an element of truth at a critical time without having to wait for forces to flow in from somewhere else. While Special Operations Forces teams are rarely equipped to resolve a crisis by themselves, they can play an essential role in enabling the smooth and effective introduction of crisis resolution elements.

The potential benefits of Special Operations Forces peacetime engagement activities are tremendous when disasters occur. In instances where the United States is called upon to provide emergency humanitarian relief, Special Operations Forces can help shorten the U.S. response time in situations where it is most critical.

Vietnamese soldiers and police officers help Technical Sergeant Enos Porche, of the 353rd Maintenance Squadron, and Staff Sergeant Scott Splinter, of the 17th Special Operations Squadron, arrange a pallet after unloading 19 tons of flood relief supplies at Hue, Vietnam.

Just recently, tropical storms caused devastating floods in Vietnam and prompted U.S. Ambassador Douglas B. "Pete" Peterson to ask the U.S. Department of Defense to help airlift critical relief supplies. With the nearest conventional forces days away, the call was made to the Special Operations Command, Pacific headquarters, which had two MC-130 TALON II aircraft and crews already in-theater conducting training. They were able to respond within a matter of hours. These crews airlifted more than 9,900 kilograms of critical relief supplies into the ancient city of Hue where representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross and Vietnamese soldiers worked together to unload the supplies from the aircraft and facilitate the distribution of the materials.

In this instance -- and in so many others around the globe -- Special Operations Forces provided a unique, agile, capable, proven, and highly relevant set of tools to help foster regional stability and promote understanding among nations.