Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1959-07-04


These unconventional wa
staked out areas of the Com
and China, into which they
plan to go under cover of night
by submarine, parachute or on
foot in event Of war.
Some of the Army's guer-
rilla attachments have been
studying the terrain, customs,
economics. language and Gull
ture of Red-held areas for as
long as six years.
So expert are these men in
the art of disrupting and con-
fusing conventional forces.
they have been barred from
participating in m neuver
both here and overseas.
No Rotation
The soldiers who make up
these units know there will be
no rotation, that once they are
committed they will remain in
enemy territory for the dura-
ton, whether it be one year or
10.
While the United States in
the past has had noted guer-
rilla fighters and has sen t
spies and saboteurs into
enemy-held territory to CO.
operate with existing partisan
bands, this is the first time it
has trained guerrillaS in a
systematic fashion as an in
ternal part of the Special War
fare Center here.
Guerrilla warfare is not the
only concern of the center. 1t
also operates a psychological
warfare school.
The system is supposed to
work like this: The psychology
cal warfare unit will create the
anti-government climate favor
able to guerrilla operations.
Central Intelligence Agency op-
orators will make the contacts
to insure a friendly reception
for the guerrilla specialists.
The chief function of these
specialists is to arm, organize.
train and advise the anti-gov-
eminent civilians. If necessary
they will provide leadership.
3 Guerrilla Outfits
There now are three guer-
rilla outfits, known as special
forces groups the LIST on
Okinawa, the 10th in Germany
and the 77th here.
While the overall strength
levels of the three groups are
classified, they probably num-
Der fewer than $500 officers
and men.
Col. Everett N. Smith, as
SiStant commandment of the
centers, says there have been
estimates that with between
5000 and 10000 men in spe-
cial guerrilla forces literally
millions of Communist soldiers
could be pinned to rear area
duty in a war.
In time of war Col. Smith
emissions each of his nine to
15-man teams operating over
100 = square mile areas. The
largest guerrilla force one team
can train is placed at 1900
men, though they would never
fight in a body, but in so to 80
man groups.
1.-The idea" says Col. Smith,
"is not to fight pitched battles
but to hit 'em where they
amt"
Trained to operate exclu-
sively by night, the volunteers
are qualified parachutists,
frogmen and rangers. Any enc
of them can live off the land
whether it be jungle, noun
tain, desert or Arctic waste.
Weapons Experts
They are experts with bows
and arrows and authorities on
every type of small srm used
in quantity anywhere in the
world at any time since World
War 1.
Why tie bows and arrows?
There are times when guerril-
las must operate silently. either
to gather food or knock over
sentries. At 40 yards, with a
60-pound bow. you can drive
an arrow through a man.
An arrow with a dynamite
cap in place of a steel tip
can be used to explode gasoline
dumps from 200 yards or more
away.
The men, incidentally, have
to buy their own bows and ar
rows. Authorization to supply
them as part of their training
equipment has not been made.
Most of the guerrilla forces
receive their initial living-off-
the-land training in the Pisgah
National Forest near Asheville,
N. C. They learn to eat snakes,