SPECIAL OPS: Green Beret Killed; Combat Controller Honored; SOCOM Brain Trauma Concerns

Veteran Green Beret Killed.

A highly decorated Army Special Forces sergeant major, on his seventh combat deployment, died July 13 from injuries sustained during combat operations in Afghanistan, according to the website Task & Purpose.

The Pentagon identified the slain Green Beret as 40-year-old Sergeant Major James G. Sartor, a member of 2nd Battalion, 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne).

Special Forces Sergeant Major James G.  Sartor, was killed July 13, 2019 in Afghanistan. (Army Special Operations Command photo)

Sartor, of Teague, Texas, was killed by enemy small arms fire in Faryab Province, Afghanistan, according to the Pentagon.

“He led his soldiers from the front and his presence will be terribly missed,” Colonel  Brian Rauen, commander of the 10th Special Forces Group (SFG) said in a statement.

Sartor joined the Army in June 2001 and was assigned as an infantryman with the 3rd Infantry Division. He deployed to Iraq in 2002. After passing his Special Forces qualification Sartor joined the 10th SFG in 2005. He deployed to Iraq as a Green Beret in 2006, 2007, 2009, and 2010. He later deployed to Afghanistan in 2017 and 2019, according to U.S. Special Operations Command.

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Silver Star for Combat Controller.

An Air Force combat air traffic controller has been awarded the Silver Star medal for his heroic, quick action during an intense, 2018 green-on-blue insider attack in Afghanistan.

Technical Sergeant Michael Perolio with the 350th Special Warfare Training Squadron, quickly took charge and rallied his teammates after an ambush erupted in a village in Nangarhar province on January 11, 2018.

He swiftly organized fields of fire, called in airstrikes and rendered aid to his wounded comrades — all while repeatedly exposing himself to heavy machine-gun fire — as he hurried his team out of the kill zone and back to their camp, according to Air Force Times.

Perolio was the Joint Terminal Attack Controller for a team of Army Green Berets with Special Forces Operational Detachment Alpha 0221. The Green berets were partnered with the Afghan 8th Special Operations Kandak Commandos in Mohmand valley in Nangarhar’s Achin district.

“Perolio saved my life and the lives of several of my guys,” said Army Captain William Clark, the ground force commander for the team, who was severely wounded in the ambush, Air Force Times reported. The five-man team — Perolio, Clark and another Green Beret and two Afghans, an interpreter and a militia commander — were leaving a meeting with what they thought was a friendly village elder when heavy machine gun fire raked their unarmored all-terrain vehicle. The Green Beret captain and both Afghans were shot. The militia commander did not survive.

Perolio took command, organized a defense, called in an air strike and radioed back to base to be ready for incoming casualties before roaring out of the kill zone and making the normally 25-minute drive over rough terrain back to base in 15 minutes

Combat controllers are specially trained, FAA-certified air traffic controllers who parachute or helicopter into enemy territory with ground troops to coordinate close air support, establish assault zones or airfields and supply fire control and reconnaissance. They are also among the first on the ground at the scene of natural disasters, like the 2010 Haitian earthquake,  to guide in relief flights when normal air traffic is disrupted.

In addition to being expert divers, rock climbers, snowmobile and motocross riders, Air Force Special Operators are also expert parachutists. (U.S. Air Force photo)

For more information about Air Force Special Operations assignments, click here.

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SOCOM Brain Trauma Study.

Special Operations Command (SOCOM) is studying how brain trauma injuries during the 17-year war on terror is affecting elite U.S. troops like Navy SEALS and Army Rangers.

Special operations forces move out of an Air Force CV-22 Osprey aircraft in 2018, at Melrose Training Range, New Mexico. (Air Force photo by Senior Airman Clayton Cupit)

SOCOM, which oversees the training and equipping of special operations troops in the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps, is examining whether trauma suffered by special operators — including brain fatigue and abnormalities in the visual cortex — affect the ability of special operations forces to make snap decisions in the field, according to the Middle East news site Al-Monitor.

The program includes an eight-year neurological testing effort by Army Special Operations Command, supported by the National Football League and the University of North Carolina, to establish a baseline for treating mild traumatic brain injuries, according to military officials and documents reviewed by Al-Monitor.