Operation Silver Wake was a non-combatant evacuation operation (NEO) led by the United States to evacuate American citizens, noncombatants and designated third country nationals from Albania in March 1997. The operation was performed by U.S. Marines from the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit conducting operations from the USS Nassau Amphibious Readiness Group. U.S. Marines from 1st Battalion, 8th Marines secured the U.S. housing compound and held the U.S. Embassy. Over 900 personnel were evacuated during the course of the operation.
Some of the awards presented to participating units included the Meritorious Unit Commendation, Joint Meritorious Unit Award and the Humanitarian Service Medal. Selected Marines were also awarded the Combat Action Ribbon.
Easy enough to slide in our imaginary Rangeman AFO [Advanced Force Operations] unit to go after a specific target.
Advanced Force Operations (AFO) is a term used by the U.S. Department of Defense to describe a task force that encompasses personnel from 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta (1st SFOD-D), DEVGRU and U.S. Army Intelligence Support Activity (USAISA). According to Gen. Michael Repass, who conducted it in the Iraq War and was very familiar with its use in Afghanistan, "AFO consists of U.S. Secretary of Defense-approved military operations such as clandestine operations, source operations, and deployment of enabling forces and capabilities to conduct target-specific preparations prior to the conduct of an actual operation. It is logically part of Operational Preparation of the Battlespace (OPB), which follows the Intelligence Preparation of the Battlespace, a concept well-known in U.S. and NATO doctrine, OPB is seldom used outside of Special Operations Forces channels. OPB is defined by the U.S. Special Operations Command as "Non-intelligence activities conducted prior to D-Day, H-Hour, in likely or potential areas of employment, to train and prepare for follow-on military operations".
An AFO unit reported to JSOC in the Afghanistan War. In the Iraq War, Respass, who first commanded the 10th Special Forces Group, took control of a Joint Unconventional Warfare Task Force, which used the 5th and 10th Groups to conduct AFO. AFO units were heavily involved in Operation Anaconda and Operation Viking Hammer.
NATO does joint operations, and will use helicopter units from various countries to transport and support US troops when needed. Medium Transport Helicopter Regiment 25 (German: Mittleres Transporthubschrauberregiment 25) is a real unit, I know one of the pilots that was active at this time though his call sign is faked. His CH-53G "Baby" is used for the insertion and evacuation, and yes all the air crew are fluent in English as that is the default language for control towers and NATO operations.
A Gooney or Gooney Bird is a Douglas C-47 Skytrain. MAC [Military Airlift Command, now renamed Air Mobility Command] is the cargo and personnel carrying branch, used by all of the different forms of US military. The Gooney was based on the civilian DC-3, the original workhorse of airplanes. The military version were somewhat stripped down and speaking from personal experience they could be pretty rocky to fly in. They were equipped for passengers with very minimal canvas and metal jump seats, and it was not uncommon to need to wrap up in a shelter half or sleeping bag to keep warm, and a leaky fusilage combined with a heavy storm outside could result in it raining inside. When I was 5 I flew back from Germany in one when we moved back to the US.
