Exercises

Information provided courtesy of Rexer.

Exercise Joshua Junction, 1978

This three-day exercise, held by the FBI and Delta Force, was the start of the counter terrorist partnership between these two units/agencies. Held in 1978, one year after Delta's creation, this was one of their first training exercises. For the FBI, it was a chance to practice and refine their hostage negotiation skills. The exercise was planned and carried out at Jackass Flats on the Nevada Test Site. The terrain was desert, and it had important structures such as roads, bunkers, and an airport nearby. Actually, the airport is not specified, but Delta did assault an aircraft.

The scenario of the exercise went something like this. Middle Eastern terrorists have seized an underground nuclear weapons site, along with several hostages (role-playing FBI agents). They demand a safe passage to their home country, along with the nuclear weapon, I suppose. At first, the FBI negotiates several hostages, in return for two buses and an airplane. The buses carry the hostages and some of the terrorists to an airplane waiting on a nearby strip. When the last terrorist boards the airplane, Delta Force operators do an assault. The hostages are recovered intact. Next, the FBI convinces the terrorists that the first group had reached the airplane safely. Now, the second group of terrorists loads up into another bus. En route to the airfield, Delta Force does a mobile assault on the bus. All terrorists are subdued and hostages rescued. The scenario ended up being so realistic, that during the assault on the last bus, some of the hostages exhibited the Stockholm Syndrome and opened fire on the Delta operators.

This was one of the earliest joint training exercises between Delta and the FBI, starting a partnership that would continue to this day, with the FBI's Hostage Rescue Team and Delta, who hold training exercises together.

 

Exercise Olympic Charlie, 1996

Prior to the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta, the United States counter-terrorism force staged a massive exercise in what was the largest peacetime security force in history of the Games. Present were BATF, FBI, Secret Service, local SWAT Teams, the Hostage Rescue Team, the US Army's Delta Force and even rumors of SEAL Team Six for maritime security. Even the Chemical/Biological Response Team were summoned for fear of terrorist attack. Olympic Charlie was a specific exercise dealing with the threat of chemical weapons attack, but I will also provide some information on the general security emplacements for that period of time.

Olympic Charlie simulated a gas attack in a subway, and was led by the FBI. Atlanta's subway service MARTA also has their own SWAT Team which according to a MARTA spokesman is trained in chemical response.

While this is all about Olympic Charlie in particular, a series of other exercises were run before the olympics. I am not sure if these are all a part of Olympic Charlie. Just before the Olympic Games, CNN ran a special on "Guarding the Games," which featured the look into the security organization behind the games. Amazingly, they ran a fairly long video clip of Delta Force operators in training, storming buildings, blowing in windows and performing evacuation of hostages under fire. It was quite amazing to see.

It ran quite a long segment on an assault by the MARTA SWAT Team on one of their subways with FBI agents role-playing terrorists sympathetic to Timothy McVeigh. Another part was all about suicide bombers, and the story of one who turned away from it all. Next was a feature about chemical weapons, and how one man acquired a deadly sample of the black plague through the US mail. It was this sort of thing that officials feared the most. That is why the 1996 Games were going to be the safest ever, with multiple agencies standing by in case of attack. The security was run, as I said before, many agencies, including the CIA's counter-terrorism branch, and experts were called in. One counter-terrorism expert, Jeff Beatty, a former Delta Force, CIA and HRT operator, (and who incidentally helped develop the Delta Force computer game released in Oct. '98), worried that all these agencies running the show would lead to confusion.

Other scenarios trained for were a Royal couple kidnapped, a French diplomat held hostage, chemical attacks and even nuclear attack.

Even though all these preparations were held, someone did manage to set off a pipebomb in the Centennial Olympic Park during a concert, and although the blast was luckily nothing compared to the OKC bombing, did kill 2 people and injured hundreds more.

FBI Takes Lead in Developing CT Effort - Chemical & Engineering News, focuses on the chemical and biological side of security.