The back of the C-130 opens to a blast of suffocating heat. Down the plane’s ramp and past the glare of the narrow asphalt runway is an endless horizon of sand. A line of pick-up trucks and forklifts await, ready to offload crates of coveted supplies, crucial to turning this remote corner of the Chadian Sahel into a working military camp, a temporary home to some of the world’s most elite forces.
Exercise Flintlock’s Mao training site is a jumbled collage of camouflage, various dark olive green and white tents, and some of the African nations’ makeshift colorful encampments set in the middle of this austere landscape.
For the last decade, this annual exercise has involved U.S. and European Special Forces on a month-long training mission with African nations.
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Since its inception, Flintlock was not designed to combat a specific enemy. But this year’s exercise against the backdrop of a growing terrorist threat posed by al Qaeda across North Africa and the Sahel, Boko Haram in the Lake Chad Basin, coupled with ISIS trying to gain a strong foothold on the continent, makes this Flintlock even more vital when it comes to combating global terror. Europe has already felt the direct impact of ISIS and other extremist-influenced groups and individuals, while the U.S. is on alert for potential lone wolf or extremist-inspired attacks on its own soil.
“No one can do it alone,” says Col. George Thiebes, Special Operations Commander, Command Forward West Africa. “The relationships we build, the interoperability, the collaborative and the cooperative nature helps us become stronger too so we can address threats at a regional level before they become broader than that.”
