Latest news with #10thSpecialForcesGroup
Yahoo
08-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
How this special operations leader ended up shuttering a US embassy and destroying sensitive materials just before Russia invaded Ukraine
A US Army special operations leader recalled shuttering the US embassy in Kyiv before Russia's invasion. Col. VanAntwerp said destroying sensitive information and clearing the office was a tough moment. VanAntwerp and his team had been on the ground in Ukraine to help train the Ukrainians. Just weeks before Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, a US special operations leader that Business Insider met last week found himself unexpectedly shuttering America's embassy in Kyiv. It was an unusual job, one for which US Army Col. Lucas VanAntwerp, then-commander of 10th Special Forces Group, had not specifically prepared, but that was the mission. In early 2022, Russian forces surrounded Ukraine, raising concerns it had plans to launch a full-scale invasion. US intelligence had assessed that Russia had moved military equipment and soldiers to borders along Ukraine, and the Ukrainians were preparing the troops and civilians for an attack. Russia invaded on February 24, 2022, bombarding Ukraine and launching assaults aimed at swiftly seizing Kyiv. Shuttering the embassy in those early days before Russia's invasion began wasn't as simple as turning off the lights and locking the doors. VanAntwerp and his team had to destroy any and all sensitive information to prevent it from falling into the hands of the Russian army. "There is a part of you in the moment that's like, 'I don't really know what I'm doing,'" VanAntwerp, now the director of US Army Special Operations Command's Capability Development Integration Directorate, told BI during last week's USASOC Capabilities Exercise at Fort Bragg in North Carolina. VanAntwerp got the call in early 2022 to shuffle his forces out of Kyiv. At that point, he and his team took over embassy security. He said that the 10th Special Forces Group had built trust with the Ukrainian military after long working with its operators since Russia's initial invasion in 2014. The goal for the US special operations advisors stationed in the country had been to help Ukrainian operators break away from their Soviet-style approaches and adopt more Western-style methods, changing how the individual soldier and the critical non-commissioned officer make battlefield decisions. "I'm not going to say we transformed everything," VanAntwerp explained, but "it was a big contributor to how they thought and how their SOF operated." Empowered NCOs have given Ukraine combat and decision-making flexibility that is vastly different from Russia's top-down approach that requires generals for battlefield decision-making, keeping them close to the front lines. When it was time to evacuate the embassy and shutter it, VanAntwerp got the call because of the relationship he and his team had cultivated in Ukraine. Embassy staff were moved to Lviv, and then the 10th Special Forces Group leader and his team shifted over to security and began sanitizing the diplomatic outpost. With an invasion looming, the amount of potentially sensitive materials in the embassy that needed to be swiftly removed was vast. Servers and computers were destroyed, and the personal effects of workers were tossed out. That experience in particular, VanAntwerp said, was eerie "because you're still sitting there seeing pictures of people's families on their cubicles, pictures of people's kids." When they wrapped, the office looked normal but empty. Once the embassy was cleared, the team went outside and watched the US flag come down. "It was probably one of the toughest moments of my military career, standing there watching that happen," he said. Despite the unusual nature of this particular job, VanAntwerp explained that it's often typical for special forces to fulfill roles that are sometimes out of the ordinary, particularly because of the relationships operators build with partners and allies. That is a key aspect of SOF's role in the US military, especially as it shifts from decades focusing on counterterrorism and counterinsurgency to great-power competition, with US rivals like China and Russia front of mind. Various SOF leaders have highlighted that operator presence around the world and the relationships that they have built are vital to success. VanAntwerp noted the importance of the partnership between the US and Ukraine, as well as between the US and Europe as a whole. "We're able to tie all that together with a very small footprint, small signature," he said, "and it really is all based on relationships." Read the original article on Business Insider
Yahoo
28-03-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Cheyenne's Jim Casey becomes first honorary member of 10th Special Forces Group
CHEYENNE — The 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne) welcomed its first honorary member into the group Thursday. Command Sergeant Major (Retired) Luke Emanuel, previously assigned to 10th SFG(A), said the group doesn't usually make exceptions, but that Jim Casey is an exceptional man. Casey is the president of Halladay Motors in Cheyenne. Although he has never served in the military, it has always been an important part of his life since his father moved his family to Cheyenne to work at F.E. Warren Air Force Base. 'I'm very honored, but, you know, I'm humbled too, because the men and women that serve and what they sacrifice and what they give is what really matters,' Casey said after being inducted into the group. Emanuel was one of the founding members of the 10th SFG(A) in 1952 in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, after he returned from the Korean War. He said the group was created to continue the duties of the First Special Service Force after World War II. The FSSF was an elite joint American-Canadian commando unit attached to the United States Fifth Army. The 10th SFG(A) is the oldest Special Forces Group in the country. Its original mission was to conduct partisan warfare, using small, independent forces, behind enemy lines in the event of a Soviet bloc invasion of western Europe. In 1991, the 10th SFG(A) was deployed to Saudi Arabia during the first Persian Gulf War and has been heavily involved in the War on Terror, deploying consistently to Iraq and other countries. Although their operations are classified, Emanuel said the group operates in 141 different countries. Casey was inducted as an honorary member after making a generous donation to the group's charitable fund, though he did not disclose how much that was. The charitable fund is used to support families who have lost loved ones in the SFG(A). 'He is a special person,' Emanuel said of Casey. 'He likes to contribute to different charities all over Cheyenne. He's been doing it for many years.' The pair have been friends for around 30 years, and Emanuel said Casey sold him his first car, a Nissan Maxima. Emanuel also presented Casey with a green beret similar to the ones members of the 10th SFG(A) wear and artwork of a Trojan horse, the insignia of the group. According to the United States Army Special Forces Command History Office, the Trojan horse insignia was chosen to represent a similarity between the techniques of the original Trojan horse and the operations of the 10th SFG(A). 'Surreptitious entry, undercover placement for a while, and then coming out and doing your thing,' 2nd Lt. Timothy G. Gannon told the History Office. The 10th SFG(A) is now based at Fort Carson in Colorado. 'I get the privilege to live in this great country and to have my life I have because of guys like Luke and those young men and women that are down there,' Casey said. He previously told the WTE that Halladay's Buick, Cadillac, GMC, Nissan and Subaru dealership is involved with more than 100 charitable organizations, and has contributed more than $4 million in financial support to local organizations. After graduating from Cheyenne's Central High School in 1979, Casey attended the University of Wyoming. One semester before graduating college, he took some time off and got a job selling cars. Casey began his career as a finance manager at a Ford store in Cheyenne. He moved to Halladay Motors in 1990, where he remained for 10 years before taking a general sales manager position at Fremont Motor Company in Sheridan. In 2007, Casey returned to Halladay Motors as general sales manager and worked his way from general manager to vice president to eventually buying the dealership. In 2024, he was nominated for the TIME Dealer of the Year award by the Wyoming Automobile Dealers Association. Casey is also on the board of the St. Mary's School Foundation and the Parish Pastoral Council for the Cathedral of St. Mary, and has served on the boards of the Greater Cheyenne Chamber of Commerce and the COMEA House and Resource Center homeless shelter.
