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Operation Assured Response

Summary: On Apr 9, 1996 U.S. military commandos began evacuating the first of hundreds of fearful Americans and others from Monrovia, Liberia, where a tenuous peace erupted into a new spasm of civil war. The evacuation was timed for darkness for security. It may also have been intended to prevent a stampede of terrified Liberians eager to be included. Officials in Washington said the airlift would be offered first to about 470 Americans, including 110 in the embassy and others hunkered down in homes or other refuges. The first team of rescuers consisted of six Army Special Forces soldiers and a 18-man security detachment of Navy SEALs who arrived at the embassy compound on two MH-53 helicopters. Preparing for the mission, two C-5A cargo planes, the U.S. military's biggest aircraft, hauled five helicopter gunships based in Italy to Freetown. Two of the heavily armed helicopters brought the two dozen commandos to the embassy, which sits on a point of land jutting out into the water. The plan was to ferry passengers from Monrovia to Freetown and then fly then on cargo planes to Dakar, Senegal. During a 1990 rescue mission, early in the war, Marines took 2,670 people from Monrovia, including many Liberians. A second evacuation in 1992 was reserved for 170 Americans.

Air Force deploys for Liberia evacuation - Elements of the 352nd Special Operations Group, 7th Special Operations Squadron, 21st Special Operations Squadron, 67th Special Operations Squadron, and 321st Special Tactics Squadron, all from Royal Air Force Mildenhall, England.

Special Ops people evacuate civilians from Liberia - Very good pics

USS Guam sails for Liberia to evacuate U.S. citizens under Operation Assured Response

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