Operation Anaconda

[Timster]

Hello everybody,

 

I am looking for information about operation anaconda. I hope someone can tell me if there was any dutch involment in this operation. My collegue told me about this operation and claimed he was involved in this as a Satcom operator. He also claimed he was in the field and was brought back to base by Black Hawks together with US Rangers. He saw 2 chinooks shot down en 7 collegues die. He wrote a short text about this on FB. I can post this if you want. 

 

Its not that I dont believe him I just want to know more about the dutch involment. I can not find anything about this. 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Anaconda

[Brig]

The largest Dutch contribution was Task Force Uruzgan, but that wasn't until years after Anaconda, thought the Dutch were involved with the war for nearly its entirety.

 

A good book on the battle is "Not a Good Day to Die" by Sean Naylor. Can't remember if it mentioned the Dutch at all, though, but worth checking out

[Timster]

Thank you for your reply! I will look in to that book. The only thing I can find is indeed al lot about Task Force Uruzgan, but almost nothing before that. We did send some material to support operation Enduring Freedom and did some backfill operations. 

 

 

[Brig]

Likely a lot of early participation was advisors, planners, and intelligence analysts. Many countries could/would only contribute a small platoon-size detachment, but at the end of the day, there's not much a single platoon can do besides man a checkpoint somewhere with sleep rotations. Analysts and planners would have resulted in much greater "bang for the buck".

[Timster]

So then it would be strange that a dutch satcom operator would participate in operation Anaconda? This is what the dutch government site says. 

 

https://english.defensie.nl/topics/historical-missions/mission-overview/2001/operation-enduring-freedom/dutch-contribution

 

So far I can see most of the contribution took place after operation Anaconda. I also send them a message for more information.

[snake36bravo]

Signals. whether it be SIGINT, COMSEC, EM&C, or otherwise plays a bigger role than just manning a checkpoint. Maybe your grunt or Marine RTO is filling a 1hr guard rotation but not someone running a SATCOM antenna and exfiled with Ranger elements.

SATCOM is a bacon saver so are FOs, from any element AF, Army. Marine, for those who've had them attached to their squads/platoons.

 

Not a Good Day to Die is a great book. 

 

"So then it would be strange that a dutch satcom operator would participate in operation Anaconda?"

 

Not in my book. There are a lot of things that go down outside of standard channels. 

[Brig]

10 hours ago, snake36bravo said:

Signals. whether it be SIGINT, COMSEC, EM&C, or otherwise plays a bigger role than just manning a checkpoint. Maybe your grunt or Marine RTO is filling a 1hr guard rotation but not someone running a SATCOM antenna and exfiled with Ranger elements.

SATCOM is a bacon saver so are FOs, from any element AF, Army. Marine, for those who've had them attached to their squads/platoons.

 

 

I feel like this snippy comment was targeted at me because you specify Marines.

 

I am intimately familiar with what SATCOM operators do. And yes, I agree that they would be value-added because their contributions outweigh what a lone platoon could accomplish. Obviously they wouldn't be pigeonholed into checkpoints on some remote MSR

[Timster]

Oke, but why would they use a Dutch Satcom operator for such a mission? I can imagine they want a Satcom operator from them own and not from a multinational division. 

[snake36bravo]

10 hours ago, Brig said:

I feel like this snippy comment was targeted at me because you specify Marines.

 

I am intimately familiar with what SATCOM operators do. And yes, I agree that they would be value-added because their contributions outweigh what a lone platoon could accomplish. Obviously they wouldn't be pigeonholed into checkpoints on some remote MSR

 

Tone and context are lost sometimes in responses.  I was not sniping at you. 

 

My response was for the poster who may be confused at the difference between what someone operating a SATCOM antennae and handling those specific coms might be doing versus an RTO at a checkpoint checking in at intervals or requesting instructions from higher would be doing. If this Dutch operator exfilled from a location along with two Ranger chalks like he said he did then he was not running basic radio ops and had a reason to be there. 

 

Hope that helps adjust fire.

[snake36bravo]

1 hour ago, Timster said:

Oke, but why would they use a Dutch Satcom operator for such a mission? I can imagine they want a Satcom operator from them own and not from a multinational division. 

 

Why use German intelligence sources for a US led operation or embed someone from the French DGSE on a US operation in AFRICOM? There are specific reasons units work together based off SIGINT/HUMINT (Signals Intelligence/Human Intelligence) that is gathered or being gathered during this operation. You asked if it was feasible that a Dutch SATCOM operator was participating in the early stages of Ananconda along with a Ranger element that was then exifiltrated together and my response to that is yes. There could be myriad reasons for this up to and including he was there to capture SIGINT/HUMINT on a Dutch national assisting AQ and the two chalks of Rangers were his security in the badlands. This might be why in later stages  Dutch forces were then involved. 

 

If you dont believe the guy why dont you simply check him on it. 

[Timster]

Thank you for your reply. I never said I dont believe him. I just start wondering. Especially after I found out that one of the pictures he used is not one of him, but from a norway special forces. 

 

The other picture he used looked liked photoshop to me if you look at the gun.

 

But if he really was there I do not want to doubt him, So before asking I have to be absolute sure and thats why I am gathering information.

 

I knew someone (and his family) who lost his live in Uruzgan. Thats why these things interest me

 

 

[snake36bravo]

Copy that. Hope you get your answer. I understand.

 

From March/April 2002 Brookings Institute on Foreign Affairs, "A Flawed Masterpiece". OSINT.

 

 

 

[Timster]

Thank you for finding this! The Netherlands by the look of this was not part of this operation I see. He stated that he was in a multinational division that took part. 

[Timster]

So I reached out to Sean Naylor who was kind enough to look up for me if there was anything in his book about the Dutch or Netherlands. He could not find anything. 

 

Are there more sources where I can confirm this? Department of defense maybe?

[Brig]

19 hours ago, Timster said:

So I reached out to Sean Naylor who was kind enough to look up for me if there was anything in his book about the Dutch or Netherlands. He could not find anything. 

 

Are there more sources where I can confirm this? Department of defense maybe?

Anything unclassified would be available via FOIA request to the National Archives...but I wouldn't expect a quick turnaround as a private citizen.

 

Obviously, anything classified or even FOUO would not be disclosable. 

 

https://gijn.org/2019/09/28/where-can-foreigners-make-foia-requests-read-the-new-gijn-guide/