This actually happened. - terrified residents in Charlotte
http://dagmar.lunarpages.com/~parasc2/articles/0397/charlott.htm
by Charles Overbeck
Matrix Editor
EASTERISLE@aol.com
The sounds of automatic gunfire and flash-bang grenades cracked the Charlotte night.
Residents watched nervously as troop transports rolled in. Shrouded in darkness, a dozen helicopters -- some of them Black Hawks modified for commando operations -- swooped low over the Third Ward, rattling windows in homes and restaurants, and rattling the nerves of those inside.
The choppers converged at ground zero, dropping dozens of troops at an old warehouse at 1000 South Clarkson Street. Local police set up roadblocks at nearby intersections, telling those who inquired that "operations were being performed," ordering them to turn back. Exercise Cauldron Chariot was underway.
No, it wasn't war -- not this time. The U.S. Army's Special Operations Command, headquartered at Fort Bragg in Fayetteville, North Carolina, was conducting another of its now-infamous Military Operations in Urban Terrain (MOUT) exercises.
Charlotte was chosen for the March 4 exercises because of the lighting conditions and tall buildings, which are not available at Fort Bragg's training facilities. The target of the exercises was located in a sparsely populated commercial area, offering a realistic setting without posing a risk to civilians and soldiers -- or so the Army says.
But the Army's explanation did not satisfy Charlotte residents, who vented their rage over the unannounced exercises on local talk radio programs. As soon as the exercises began, Mayor Pat McCrory found himself besieged with phone calls from citizens and city staff as he attempted to get a grasp on the situation. The following day, congressional representative Mel Watt's phone rang off the hook with constituents' fiery complaints. Shortly thereafter, Mayor McCrory expressed his "deep concern" over the exercises in a letter to President Clinton.
McCrory told the Charlotte Observer that he had no idea what he was getting his city into when two men bearing Army credentials secured his permission for the exercises last December.
"The clear impression was that this was a very reasonable operation that would not interfere with our community," McCrory told the Observer. He said he did not hear anything else about the exercises until the night of March 4, when his phone started ringing.
The Army didn't tell the mayor when the exercises would be conducted, or that a dozen assault helicopters would waken Charlotte children from their beds. They just made sure they had his signature on the confidentiality agreement, leading him to believe that their work could be sabotaged if their plans got into "enemy hands." The two Army officials informed him that the exercises were routine, that they would be "in and out," and that no one would know they were even there.
"Their personalities fit the type of work they did," McCrory told the Observer. "They were extremely serious, secretive and to the point. I wanted to cooperate, knowing that terrorist activity is a very serious concern in our country."
"The city got hoodooed," said Malachi Greene, the City Council member representing the Third Ward district. "These guys were not truthful. They lied by omission."
Greene's comments reflected the opinion of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Dennis Nowicki, who was not informed of the exercises until 2:30 p.m. on March 4, just hours before the choppers roared in. "When you're holding back information, you're deceiving," he said. "My advice to them was that they ought to rethink their policy."
Army Special Operations Command spokesman Walter Sokalski insisted that secrecy was a vital component of the operation. "We can appreciate people's fear, but we can't contact everybody that might hear the sound of the training," he said. "We do try to let as many know as possible, and I'd think, with people seeing the street blocked, they'd know something was going on."
That line of thinking didn't sit well with Greene, however. "This is the Army," he said. "They've been known to put out disinformation. It's a deliberate thing on the part of these guys."
The Charlotte exercises were the latest in a regular series of urban combat training exercises conducted by Special Operations Command. Last June, ParaScope reported on similar exercises conducted in Pittsburgh, where nine helicopters and 200 troops stormed the areas of McKeesport, the Strip District, and Brighton Heights.
911 operators fielded calls from frightened citizens who heard gunfire and explosions powerful enough to blast in doors. Like the citizens of Charlotte, shocked Pittsburgh residents complained bitterly to the mayor, the city council, and the media.
Also, about a year before the Pittsburgh exercises, Special Operations Command "raided" the Chicago suburbs of Des Plaines, Lemont, and Homer, where low-flying helicopters and explosions sent residents running into the streets.
More MOUT exercises were conducted last October in Houston. As usual, residents were not advised in advance that hundreds of troops and a dozen helicopters would be descending on their city.
In its report on the exercises, the Houston Chronicle openly ridiculed readers who voiced their concerns about military exercises in the downtown area and the Houston Ship Channel. Reporter John Makeig wrote that conducting the exercises in secret "has the side effect of generating rumors, and some people think the media are covering up for the culprits... callers suggested there was ample room to train around Fort Bragg, N.C., where, one woman insisted, the helicopters are based."
Although the Houston exercises were conducted by the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment based at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, the regiment is assigned to the U.S. Army Special Operations Command, which is headquartered at Fort Bragg -- a fact which apparently slipped by Makeig.
Army SOCOM spin-doctor Walter Sokalski was on the scene of the Houston exercises as well, offering a particularly flaccid explanation for the envelope of secrecy: "It's like when the circus comes to town. Everybody wants to see the elephants."
In spite of three years of harsh criticism from residents and city officials in the cities targeted for the Army's exercises, Special Operations Command has not yet demonstrated its willingness to accept the well-being of the local communities as an operational variable. It is the military's prerogative to conduct training exercises as it sees fit. But to repeatedly ignore the vehement complaints of those unknowingly caught at ground zero shows a pattern of negligence that the Army will have to correct if it is to overcome public apprehension about its urban combat exercises.
