People living in parts of North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee are going to be hearing plenty of gunfire and may see some flares falling from the sky for the next couple of weeks. Don’t worry, there’s no actual combat, just the next crop of U.S. Army Special Forces candidates trying to earn their green berets.
“Robin Sage” is the final test for soldiers in the Special Forces qualifications course at the U.S. Army JFK Special Warfare Center and School at Fort Liberty, formerly Fort Bragg, in North Carolina.
It’s basically finals week, only instead of all-night study sessions, approximately a hundred or so Special Forces students will participate in a simulation to help guerilla fighters in their fictitious war against the oppressive powers of “Pineland.”
The Special Forces candidates couldn’t do the exercise alone, so the Army hired people who lived in the area to play the parts of guerilla fighters and opposition forces.
Robin Sage is considered one of the U.S. military’s premiere unconventional warfare exercises. It spans more than two dozen counties in North Carolina and dips into South Carolina and Tennessee as well.
The Army says it works diligently to coordinate the exercise with local law enforcement and residents, that way no one is caught unaware and wondering why more than 100 special operators are roaming through the North Carolina back country with a couple hundred guerilla fighters.
The future Green Berets are tasked with training and advising the guerilla fighters in weapons handling, communications, field medicine, and demolition. The idea behind the exercise is for the soldiers to equip the guerillas with everything they need to fight for their independence.
Once Robin Sage is complete, and if the Special Forces candidates prove to their evaluators they have what it takes to graduate, the candidates will earn their coveted berets and be assigned to one of the Army’s Special Forces units.
This round of Robin Sage exercises is scheduled to run through Feb. 1.