Dateline NBC (7:00 PM ET) October 8, 2001
Missions carried out by special operations
TOM BROKAW: The military campaign unleashed today in Afghanistan, of course, does have its conventional side, the cruise missiles and bombers. But America's military commanders say there will be a secret and possibly more important part of this operation. And Rob Stafford has more on that for us this evening.
Mr. DONALD RUMSFELD: This requires a distinctly different approach from any war that we have fought before.
ROB STAFFORD reporting: (Voiceover) This new war is likely to rely heavily on the military's most unconventional warriors, the Special Forces, who drop and dive into some of the toughest war zones in the world. Unlike conventional soldiers, Special Forces work in small units with only the weapons they can carry. They're trained for quick missions, meant to catch the enemy by surprise. The kind of missions that may soon be underway in Afghanistan. (Footage of US Military Training Video)
Mr. JOHN PIKE: This might turn out to be the first war fought largely by Special Operations Forces.
STAFFORD: (Voiceover) John Pike is director of globalsecurity.org, a Washington think tank that studies military issues.
(Pike working at his desk)
Mr. PIKE: Special Operations Forces have been called on in a lot of other wars in the past, during World War II, during Vietnam, Desert Storm, Somalia. This is going to be the first time they're operating largely on their own.
STAFFORD: (Voiceover) Which could make Special Forces missions in Afghanistan particularly dangerous.
(Afghanistan)
Mr. PIKE: This is going to be a big test for their skills and their courage.
STAFFORD: (Voiceover) What kind of person does it take to become one of the 46,000 members of the Special Forces? Like a Green Beret? Or a Navy Seal?
(Soldiers jumping out of planes; carrying guns; swimming)
Mr. CAROLS MALITA: Since I was young, I want something different. I never wanted to be, you know, I hate to say it, you know, an average person.
STAFFORD: (Voiceover) Meet Carlos Malita (ph), born in Brazil, Carlos immigrated to the United States as a teen-ager. Joining the Navy at age 23 and volunteering for the Seals a few months later.
(Picture of Malita)
Did you have any idea what you were getting into?
Mr. MALITA: Not really.
STAFFORD: (Voiceover) Special Forces training is grueling. And risky. Recruits train with real bullets and live grenades.
(Man climbing wall; gun fire)
Offscreen Voice #1: Loaded!
Group: (In unison) Loaded!
Offscreen Voice #2: Throw!
Group: (In unison) Throw!
STAFFORD: (Voiceover) For hours on end, they're pushed to the brink of exhaustion, at times weighed down with up to 100 pounds of ammunition and weapons, machine guns, grenades even rockets.
(Soldiers loading guns)
Mr. MALITA: When a Seal platoon goes through a job, the amount of fire power they can carry, it's unbelievable. It's--they take as much fire power as a--almost a battalion of Marines.
STAFFORD: (Voiceover) They learn to fight in any kind of terrain, jungle, desert, mountain and swamp, under enormous physical and mental stress.
(Soldiers in jungle, desert, mountain and swamp)
Mr. MALITA: For a week we were in six days straight, no--no sleep, and not only not sleeping, but also doing evolutions nonstop for the entire day. You're swimming, you know, two, three miles, you're--you're running.
STAFFORD: So, you tell me for six straight days you don't sleep once?
Mr. MALITA: No, no, you might doze off for like, you know, two or three minutes.
STAFFORD: (Voiceover) Seventy percent of those who trained for Special Forces don't make it through the program. But Carlos says from the start, he knew he'd beat the odds.
(Soldiers carrying a raft; battle)
Did you ever reach the breaking point?
Mr. MALITA: Never. You know, it never ran through my mind. My room where I was sleeping, I had four guys, and all those four guys quit. I was the only guy left.
STAFFORD: Carlos Malita's story tells us about the kind of soldiers who make up the Special Forces, their incredible endurance during training, their bravery during combat. But his story is also a cautionary tale about how dangerous Special Forces missions can be and what can go wrong if a military strike goes forward with incomplete or inaccurate intelligence.
How did you prepare yourself for the possibility that when you went into one of these violent situations you weren't going to make it out?
Mr. MALITA: At the time, you don't think about it, you know, this is going to happen to me. But at the same time, you know that the possibility is there.
STAFFORD: (Voiceover) Still Carlos say most members of the Special Forces, himself included, can't wait to be called to duty.
(Photos of Malita with military troop)
Mr. MALITA: It's like being a doctor. You go through medical school, you want to operate. You know, you want to be able to use what you learn.
STAFFORD: (Voiceover) Two years after earning his Seal badge, Carlos got the call.
(Photo of Malita)
December 1989, the phone rings, what are you told?
Mr. MALITA: My chief called me and he said, 'It's time to go to work.' So, I grabbed my gear, said, 'I have to go.' And out the door I was.
STAFFORD: You get the mission, you leave, you can't tell your wife where you're going, when you're going to be back or what you're doing?
Mr. MALITA: We got to go to work. No. No. No. No.
STAFFORD: Those are the rules.
Mr. MALITA: Those are the rules.
STAFFORD: (Voiceover) Carlos was part of the US invasion of Panama, to unseat Manuel Noriega. His unit's mission: take over an airfield and disabled Noriega's private jet. His team of nearly 50 Seals approached from the water at night on inflatable rafts.
(Helicopter; Noriega; airplane; Panama)
What's going through your mind?
Mr. MALITA: You just go through the plan, what the plan is. You're not thinking about home, you're not thinking about, you know, bills, you're not thinking about anything else. All you're thinking about is what do I have to do.
STAFFORD: (Voiceover) But when Carlos' platoon was given the signal to storm the airfield, the mission did not go as planned. He says the intelligence they received was wrong.
(Pictures of Malita)
Mr. MALITA: We were expecting maybe a couple civilians and maybe some rent-a-cops--security guards, a couple guys, you know, just there, you know, taking care of the--of the--of the airport. And when we got there, the hanger that was--where Noriega's plane was, he had a whole bunch of these highly trained guards waiting for us.
STAFFORD: (Voiceover) Carlos says at first, the Seals tried to convince the Noriega's soldiers to surrender. It didn't work.
(Panama)
Mr. MALITA: And the next thing I hear is just machine gun open, you know, fire.
STAFFORD: In a split second, the talking stops.
Mr. MALITA: It stops. And just...
STAFFORD: The shooting starts.
Mr. MALITA: You see they're shooting at you. And they're--they're trying to kill you. Bullets are going right by you, by your face, by your head.
STAFFORD: As realistic as training was, it was nothing like this.
Mr. MALITA: Right. Nothing. Your life, you know, within one second, you know, takes a different, you know, route.
STAFFORD: (Voiceover) Before he even had time to fire a round, Carlos says, he was hit, shot in the back. In an instant, he lost the use of his legs.
(Picture of Malita)
Mr. MALITA: I fell to the ground. My--the unit I was with, they were advancing towards the target, so I had to take my gear off, because I had grenades. I had rockets in my bag. So, I had to take that stuff so I can crawl towards them and let them know that I was shot.
STAFFORD: (Voiceover) As he crawled Carlos was shot again. This time, in the leg. He was airlifted to a military hospital, where the president and first lady would come to thank him for his service. The Seals accomplished their mission of taking over the airfield and disabling Noriega's plane. But four Navy Seals died at the airfield that day, eight more, including Carlos Malita were seriously wounded.
(Picture of Malita with former President George Bush and Barbara Bush; soldiers carrying a coffin off a plane)
Mr. MALITA: I didn't know that my life was going to change like that forever.
STAFFORD: Was it worth it?
Mr. MALITA: It was, yes. It's a sacrifice, but I know it was--was one that I was willing to make.
STAFFORD: (Voiceover) The battle in Panama changed Malita, but amazingly his wounds didn't slow him down by much. Today, paralyzed from the waist down, he's one of the top disabled athletes in the world. A winner of the wheelchair division of the Iron Man Triathlon. The determination and discipline that made him a Navy Seal are still with him. And as he follows the US military action this time, Carlos says he has just one regret.
(Malita in his wheel chair; Malita racing; Malita in wheel chair; Purple Heart award certificate; Malita in wheel chair)
Mr. MALITA: It would be a perfect day for a miracle for me to get up and walk and go back in and--and do the job I love to do.
Copyright 2001 National Broadcasting Co. Inc.
