Mustang Report # 6 - Blow the ASWAN High Dam

The dust-initiator charge was an awesome
special demolition technique needing a target that meets certain "confined
space" parameters. We used a railroad boxcar to demonstrate how it or any
other enclosed area could be made into
a bomb using what would be considered readily available material. Within that confined space whole grain oats,
wheat or rye, or sawdust if available, would be impregnated with incendiary
material and a small but powerful explosive device would be used to fill the
air space in the target (a boxcar, office, warehouse or a home) with that incendiary
material. A fraction of a second later a
separate flame-producing charge would be triggered to ignite the incendiary
laden material, causing the space to become a bomb! A considerable amount of
death and destruction would follow if used in the right place at the right
time. We were all convinced of that fact as students when that boxcar located a
few hundred yards to our front was detonated and blown apart as if it were a
cracker box.

Other special demolition techniques taught at
the Special Warfare Center included home made napalm, iron pipe hand grenades,
nail grenades, wine bottle cone charges, chemical fire bottles, acid-delay
incendiary devices, chemical fire bottles, ribbon explosive charges and
sabotage using thermite grenades.



Terrorism techniques taught at the school, including a wide variety of
intimidation methods, such as the use of poisonous snakes to elicit fear, will
be discussed In Part 10 of this series titled Psychological Warfare
Operations.



Much earlier in life, when I was 16 and worked for Daniel T. Walker, a farmer
near New Lennox, Illinois, where I was first introduced to the peaceful use of
explosives. Walker farmed 2,500 acres, fed 500 head of white-faced Hereford cattle and 400 head of black and white Poland China
hogs that he took to market in the Chicago stockyards.



It was he who taught his son Roe and me to use dynamite to remove old and newly
cut stumps as a part of the clearing operation to remove hedgerows, making one
bigger field out of two smaller ones for more efficient grain production. We
used a standard plunger type detonating device and electric detonators. I was
impressed with the lifting power of a stick of dynamite that had been dug in
under a stump and tamped with wetted soil. The dynamite exploded and lifted the
entire stump out of the ground sufficiently to expose all the roots. We'd cut
the roots about a foot below the surface of the ground so they would not
interfere with cultivation of crops, remove the stump and root stubs and fill
in the depression with dirt from the surrounding area.



Once on the job as S-4 for the 6th Special Forces Group, my major task was
making certain our far-flung operational teams were adequately supplied with
items essential to the effective conduct of the team mission and the survival
of the team members. Scattered around the world as Mobile Training Teams (MTTs)
they would be re-supplied by both normal and unconventional methods. Airdrop, international
postal services, special courier, even the use of another agency of our
government made up the wide spectrum of ways and means to get what was needed
to our MTTs, many of whom were "in country" acting as civilians.



I
carried an atomic bomb! In the summer of 1964 I volunteered to command the
first eight-man team of Special Forces volunteers that would take a
man-portable atomic device into a target area by parachute to destroy targets
we volunteered to destroy. There were a total of four teams trained to carry
and activate the SADM (Special Atomic Demolition Munition) device. As team
leader of the 6^th Special Forces Group team I would carry the 95 lb
device and my XO would carry the 35 lb trigger mechanism. Once on the ground in
the target area we would first scout out a location within 15 minutes walking
distance of the target site and quietly dig or prepare a pre-existing covered
location such as a cave for our protection from the explosion and fallout. We
would, after scouting the area during daylight hours, move with the device once
darkness was again our protector to the detonation location, lock the two parts
together, arm the device and return quickly to our own survival site.



The scientist who brought the "device" from the Seneca Army Depot in
NY State in an unmarked 3/4 ton truck for the purpose of indoctrinating us in
its operation told us this first model, with an explosive force equal to ten
tons of TNT, was actually the "trigger" for a hydrogen bomb. It was
he who thought it to be an excellent weapon for Green Berets to carry to a site
in Parachutists' adjustable equipment bags (PAE bags). Of course you had to
volunteer as it was a suicide mission! Those initial SADMs used the timing
device from a commercial washing machine, or so he told us. How true I don't
know, but I do know that the maximum time we could set for the blast delay was
15 minutes and that made it absolutely necessary to put together a team of brave
men who liked to push the odds, take any risks that others would shy away from.
There seemed to be no shortage of such men within the ranks of the Special
Forces.



If there had been an activation of the contingency mission - which was to
destroy the hydroelectric plant in Egypt's ASWAN high dam - we would secure the
SADM devices in their special canvas containers, similar to the parachutist's
adjustable equipment (PAE) bag, along with other PAE bags loaded with sharp
entrenching tools, survival rations, skyhook harnesses and special radio
equipment that would act as air-to-ground communications and homing signal
devices for our post-mission pick up by C-130 aircraft equipped with a
"skyhook" system.



We would use the most effective way to infiltrate the site with the device
attempting to avoid detection. We would use the high altitude high opening
(HAHO) method, go in at 30,000 feet over the ASWAN High Dam on a moonless
night, exit the aircraft up wind to compensate for winds at various altitudes, based
on conditions at the time. Once outside the aircraft our extra heavy clothing would
keep us from freezing and oxygen equipment would keep us alive until we got
below 20,000 feet. We would then glide for the entire distance to the landing
point with little fear of being detected.



If there was even a trace of a moon we'd have to opt for the High Altitude Low
Opening (HALO) method, leaving the aircraft at 30,000 feet but not opening our
parachutes until we were almost on the ground. We would literally
"fly" toward the target, using our extended arms to steer the course.
Legs would be of little use as they were tied together with PAE bag straps.
We'd be dropping fast by the time we got to 1000 feet above the ground where it
was essential to "pop" our canopies and hone in on the area we'd
predetermined to be sufficient distance from perimeter security lighting to be relatively
safe from immediate detection, but yet nearby the upper entrance to the dam
site where our target was located.



The intelligence we needed to provide us accurate target site information was
derived from "'company" sources, including a Mafia-owned, CIA
employed construction company out of Massachusetts that was in Egypt at the
time on an "arranged" contract to help the Russians build the dam
using mostly Egyptian labor. Strange bedfellows, I thought at the time, but
perhaps necessary to got the job done. If the mob men got it right we'd be
honing in on a location about four hundred yards from the fence that surrounded
the hydroelectric station with its six huge water tunnels and we would have in
hand the blueprints needed to place the device for maximum destructive results.
I must admit that at the time I thought nothing about the potential loss of
lives or widespread contamination downstream where millions of Egyptians lived
and depended on the Nile for water. .



Needless to say, the contingency mission remained just that and the geographies
of politics in that region changed sufficiently to remove the ASWAN High Dam
from danger of Special Forces actions as was envisioned when I commanded that
small team of death-defying volunteers. Of the approximately 10,000 active and
retired Army Special Forces, only one has come forward, willing to go before
Congress and corroborate what I would tell of the SADM mission. He is a retired Master Sergeant who was on
the same SADM team that I had organized in 1964, he was there two years later
and they had the same contingency mission and a better timing device!



I did not, however, forget the SADM devices and how easily two men could carry,
place and detonate a miniature atomic device. When the World Trade Towers, Pentagon
and the field in Pennsylvania were attacked by terrorist-driven aircraft, I
thought back over my years in the Special Forces and what we'd learned about
terrorist-type activities and came to realize that the potential existed for
our stockpile of SADMs to fall into the hands of terrorists and be used against
us or our allies if they were not adequately protected.



After providing the New York State Police information on the SADM and some
"how to" on suspension bridge destruction, thinking it a good idea to
advise Governor Ridge on this matter, I wrote him as follows:

By the end of the week, having heard nothing from his office, I wrote a second
letter to follow-up:

I did receive an excellent response from the Now York State Police, who were
themselves waiting instructions from Governor Ridge's office. But, other than
the standard "boiler plate" reply on an official postcard (postmarked
24 Jan 02) mailed some three months after my Inquiry and more than two and a
half months after my follow-up letter) thanking me for my
"suggestions" and then stating unequivocally that "An
appropriate member of our staff will respond directly to you."



Years have passed and I have yet to hear from that "appropriate
member."



I now ask the readers to judge for themselves if there is any possible reason
for their lack of response and even more, their ignoring a potential danger of
such magnitude as I posed to them. They have made no attempt to contact this
former Green Beret combat veteran with experience in overt and covert, even
independent unconventional warfare and whose credentials are immediately
available to them. They would know, on reviewing my military records, that I
have been a credit to this nation in time of war and peace, contingency
planning and with the experience necessary to be of value in any study on
potential terrorist activity. Perhaps you should write your Senators and your
Congressmen and demand they call me before Congress to testify about this
matter and the aiding and abetting of the enemy as I prove to be the case in my
book Victory
Edition - Expendable Elite - One Soldier's Journey Into Covert Warfare.
It is time for action!

© 2007 Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Marvin, US
Army Special Forces (Retired)

.Proverb 12:22 Lying
lips are an abomination to the Lord,

But
those who deal faithfully are His delight