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Groups > 20th SFGA
The 20th Special Forces Group is an Army National Guard unit
based in several states in the eastern region of the country.
The Group headquarters is located in Birmingham, Alabama. The
three battalion headquarters are located in Alabama,
Mississippi, and Florida. The line companies are in states along
the east coast and eastern region of the country.
Desert Storm Activation
The first large scale activation of the 20th Special Forces
Group took place during the first Gulf War. The unit was
mobilized and based at Fort Bragg, North Carolina for training.
The 7th Special Forces Group supporrted and validated the
training. The war ended quickly and the 20th Group was soon
deactivated. Some individual members did particate in the
conflict as augmentees to other Special Forces groups or
organizations.
Provide Comfort
As many as 50 [1] individuals served as augmentees to the 10th
Special Forces Group and deployed to Turkey and northern Iraq
during Provide Comfort.
Haiti
20th Group provided several rotations of companies to the
operation in Haiti during 1995.
Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF)
The 3rd Battalion, 20th Special Forces Group deployed a
signiificant number of its battalion headquarters to augment the
Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force - Afghansitan
(CJSOT-A). At the time the CJSOTF-A was led and manned by the
3rd Special Forces Group. The 3rd Battalion also provided
companies to the fight in the early states of OEF.
The 20th Special Forces Group headquarters and support staff
was activated in the spring of 2002, trained up at Fort
McClellan, Alabama (and elsewhere), and then deployed to
Afghanistan to lead and man the CJSOTF-A. It was augmented by
several officers and NCOs of 7th Special Forces Group. In
addition, the 1st Battalion deployed to K2 in Uzbekistan and
basing AOBs and teams throughout northern and eastern
Afghanistan. At the same time a battalion of the 19th Group was
based at KMTC just north of Kabul to train up the initial
battalions of the Afghan National Army. The 2nd Battalion, 7th
Group was based at Kandahar. 2nd Battalion 20th Special Forces
Group would replace 1st Battalion at K2 in 2003. At this point
the entire had deployed to Afghanistan.
The 20th Special Forces Group would continue to deploy its
companies and battalions to Afghanistan for almost two decades.
In addtion, numerous individuals would serve as augmentees to
several different organizations in Afghanistan over the years.
The 20th Special Forces Group headquarters and support company
was activated in 2011 and deployed to Afghanistan to augment the
CJSOTF-A, and CFSOCC-A.
Operations Iraqi Freedom (OIF)
Several individual augmentees from the 20th SFGA served with
various units in Iraq in the early stages (2003-2004) of the
conflict - to incluide the CJSOTF-AP. Eventually almost all of
the 20th SFGA battalions and companies would rotate at least one
time through Iraq from 2006 to 2011.
Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR)
Several companies and numerous individual augmentees would
deploy in support of OIR to Iraq.
SOCCE HOA
For several years the 20th Special Forces Group manned the
Special Operations Command and Control Element (SOCCE) Horn of
Africa (HOA) located at Camp Lemonier, Djibouti. The manning for
the small unit, working for SOCAfrica, was minimal requiring an
06, 05, SGM, and several senior staff officers and NCOs.
References
Read about the history of early reserve component Special
Forces groups and units.
https://www.specialforceshistory.info/groups/reserve-component-special-forces-groups.html
Footnotes
[1] For the number of personnel augmenting the 10th Special
Forces Group during Provide Comfort see page 49 of a paper
posted by the U.S. Army War College entitled Reserve
Component Special Forces Integration and Employment Models for
the Operational Continuum, by LTC Wayne Morgan, USA, 1992.
(PDF, 59 pages)
https://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a251195.pdf
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