An Inside Look at Elite Special Forces

CBS News Exclusive: Training Camp Bolsters One of America's Most Potent Weapons in Fight Against Taliban

(CBS)  A group of Green Berets are on a night mission to take out several high-value Taliban leaders, every minute bringing them closer to their target.

The shooting starts before they even land. The soldiers touching down in hostile territory - gunfire lights up the night sky, reports CBS News chief foreign correspondent Lara Logan.

But the operation is swift and decisive. The Special Forces soldiers secure the area and eliminate their targets.

This operation has the feel of Afghanistan and the terrain is strikingly similar. But it is not on Afghan soil - it's thousands of miles away in the middle of the Utah desert on a special forces training mission.

The enemy here is a paper target. But these soldiers know from experience that the targets and the dangers they'll face in Afghanistan are very real.

That's why they've chosen the remote mountains at the Dugway Proving Ground for their training. This military facility is the size of Rhode Island and the closest you can get inside the U.S. to the conditions these soldiers face in Afghanistan. CBS News can't identify any of them for security reasons.

They execute mock assaults on enemy compounds, and work through an interpreter to treat Afghan civilians - practicing the strategy to win over the people.

We spoke to a team member who has served in Afghanistan before.

"It's a pretty good mock up of what we can expect in Afghanistan," he said.

It needs to be. The soldiers told CBS News the enemy they now face eight years into the war is one who knows American tactics, and has adapted to stay two steps ahead.

When these soldiers are not training, they're deployed. The operation tempo for Special Forces is relentless, and the demand for these elite soldiers is growing.

Their skills are rare. CBS News watched as they practiced parachuting from more than 10,000 feet in the dead of night. A high-altitude jump designed to bring them unseen and unheard onto a target. They can be dropped miles away then drift silently through the black sky, reaching their targets undetected.

Elite soldiers - at the tip of the spear in President Obama's new strategy for the Afghanistan war.

[7SFGwife]

My husband was a part of this training in Utah-he's "somewhere" in Afghanistan now... These men go through MORE than most can imagine, and that's just the training-not what really goes on down range!

[beevillebee]

It's interesting, DOD and the Army Spec Ops types are always stating, "We need to ramp up more Special Forces units." Yet they recruit these 18X's off the street who want to be a Special Forces team member more than anything. They get through Basic and Airborne at Ft Benning and are supposed to go thru intensive a SF Prep course at Ft Bragg to get them ready for SFAS. What a joke. They are hearded around by an E-5 or 6 who is a non-select and is babysitting them until their SFAS class begins. There is NO formal prep for these soldiers and then they are put in teams with all of these soldiers who have been in combat or have been through SFAS before and are 'trying' again. Guess who the odd men out are - the 18X's. What a waste of time and money.

[7SFGwife]

were u one of those that didn't make it through the course? Sound a quite bitter! how else do expect them to be trained? my husband is SF, he's constantly gone for training and @ schools etc- when he's not "deployed!" he was an "18x" and is now an E7 without prior service!

[BurzumNazgul]

Calling the Berets "Green" doesn't make them any more environmentally friendly.

[Dgunner]

All you pessimistic posters would cry down your sh---ty pants leg the first sign of combat conditions.Pray to your God and buy a soldier a burger.Then go back home and spew your patriatism to your idealistic neighbors and fellow idiots.

[7SFGwife]

AMEN!

[longtree-2009]

green berets, marines, recon marines, seals, rangers, special ops, regular troops, missiles, tanks, drones, and the list goes on. still, the wars drag on, and on, against ragged poorly armed fighters, the taliban, the insurgents, whatever they are called. ragged fighters all over the world are learning how to hold off, fight off the american military and still be a force to be reckoned with in modern warfare.

[hower4]

As long as they stay in the Utah desert then innocent Afghan women and children won't be killed.

[babooph]

These guys are way too important to be used in haste-our military is not to be thrown at every problem-that is how we have ended up in two costly endless wars ,losing MANY thousands of dead & injured troops & maybe destroying the US middle class.

[bajajohn1]

That fight in Afghanistan will be a tough fight, but a winnable fight. Russia failed there because the U.S. supplied the missiles to bring down the Russian Sikorskys.

[legacyabq]

That's over-simplifying things just a little, isn't it?

[tautomer]

Sikorsky was an American helicopter mfg now owned by United Technolgies. What would the Soviets be doign fly Sikorskys? That's gotta be the dumbest thing I've heard all day.

[rwsmith29456]

"This military facility is the size of Rhode Island".... Geez! Great kudos and thanks to anyone that is in the line of fire.

[johninpennsyl]

Declare victory and stay home!

[tautomer]

Gee, that sounds like the CIA plan that Cheney is getting ripped for. It will never fly. Dems are VERY PARTICULAR about how Al Qaeda's are killed!!! LOL

[wtcmedic911]

I salute you all for what you do.

[jwesel1]

The ruskies used to claim the same way about their elite forces the sputniks. Enough chest thumping already, try sending real people rather than drones.

[wtcmedic911]

What? your last sentance made no sense at all.

[Lawyers-Guns-n-Money]

Sputniks?

You figure the rest out.

[rwsmith29456]

I think the best idea would be to send both. No comment on the Russkies and their Sputniks. PAWHAWHAWHAWHAW!!!!

[usaircav]

That's Spetsnaz...sputnik was a Russian space program.