In preparation for the type of operations that SRTis conducting for the search for the Olympic-bombing operatorsarmed

with HK53sperfect vehicle takedown skills.(Courtesy ATF) The target was daunting. A "structure" in the middle of the desert, secured by barricades, metal obstaclesand security cameras. The targeted individuals were even more daunting-a ruthless biker gang w.antecl or the trafficking of guns and explosi ves. f Monitoringthe location was a select group of men in fatigues,carrying high-powered surveillance equipment whoknew that any operation against the target would be mostdifficult. After all, entry into the location would be hard enough-heavy. industrial-type locks. fortified fronliron-gate, and bars covered the front door. 111Ose inside.all heavi Iy armed, were not expected to resist withouta struggle.

suspect Eric Robert Rudolph,

Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms possesses One of the most difficult and least understood missions. ATF, as the bureau is most commonly known, is.tasked with unique responsibilities dedicated to reducing Violent crime, collecting revenue. and protecting the public. ATF enforces the federal laws and regulations relating to alcohol, tobacco, firearms, explosives and arson in close cooperation with other federal and state law enforcement entities. ATF special agents contend with gun runners. drug traffickers, right-wing supremacists, terrorists, biker gangs. and a myriad of individuals who believe that the United Stales government does not possess the right to enforce federal statutes relating to alcohol, tobacco, and any other type of firearm or For weeks, the operators prepared their tactical explosive. Simply put, ATF goes up against the worst or plan-the cameras were to be disabled, the gate the worst. From Ruby Ridge to the World Trade Center removed courtesy of a blowtorch. The operators bombing, from gun merchants [0 the Georgia abortion reviewedtheir strategy and choreographed their each clinic bombings, ATP has heen the lead federal agency THE ATFshield. and every move. They rehearsed every move until pitted against SOI11C of the most dangerous felons in movements were second nature, the target's layout American criminal history, According to one former New York City police officer who had worked with the ATF on several securely etched in the recesses of their minds. One early morning, before the sun had fully emerged to color the desert, the operators went into high-risk incidents in Manhattan, "These guys are not the kind of cops action.Like they had done so successfully ill the pre-operation training, who hand out Jay-walking tickets to little old ladies. Simply put. ATF goes up against the worst of the worst." they effectively removed any obstacles from their path and succeeded in containingthe location and calling out the suspects. Within minutes, several"most wanted" individuals were secured, cuffed and transported The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms is a tax backto headquarters. Guns, many of them, had been taken off the street. collecting, enforcement and regulatory arm of the U.S. Department of the Treasury. The agency's history. in many ways, dates back to 1789 when Of all the law enforcement agencies in the United Slates, local, state the first Congress imposed a tax 011 imported spirits to offset a portion of andfederal, the United States Department of the Treasury's Bureau of the Revolutionary War- debt assumed from the states. The Bureau of

As SRI operators look qn, an ATf agent peers through the ~igtits

of his SI.G9mm. (Courtesv

Am

An SR:ffield medic readies (lis emergency kif p'tior to. his re.gional team seNingQhigh-fisk warrant: Knowing that tally-certified combat medics accomRany them through every door on every cal/-out provides a great sense of'sec::uritylor5RT opetatote. (CourtesyATF)

Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms was formed in 1912.as a separate unit within the U.S. Treasury, which had previously enforced laws on weapons, alcohol. .and tobacco thtough' other agencies. Tn the Anti-Arson Act of 1982, ATF also' assumed responsibility for investigating. conunereial- arson nationwide.

drug trafficking statutes that carry life without parole, so criminals realizing that they might be going.down for life will-often put up resistance.' The objective "nationalizing" the AT.F tactical project was to create consi's.tency-not onl y 'in tactics but also when the different regional divisional teams would train witli One, another. Currently, ATF field divisions located within close geographical proximity to one another are grouped to form five SRT.regions of operations but this was not always the case,

of

The Special Response Team program in the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms tame about ill 1989, when bureau commanders realized the need for an. entry-control team capable of executing the many higb-tlsk warrants. that.special agents ih the field often did on lheir own, Like any municipal or county Up until 1996, each team trained separately and -coexisted as similar, yet unconnected, units tied to .a_ police 'department, ATF agents frequently came. up singular objective ana mission. When the notion of .against heavily -armed felons all-too-eager to resist headquartersscontrolled divisional teams came about; arrest that posed a dire threat to arresting personnel. consistency became a staple of the SRT mission. Teams ATF was attempting to build a program that fostered that once trained with local and state tactical units consistency in the means and manner by which The ATFSRT patch. whenever time permitted now tritined under ATE warrants were executed. In the beginning each of the. auspices, togcthct, at a special trairring center established twenty-four ATF regional field divisions possessed its at Fort. Macl.ennan, Alabama. A two-week basic SRT school the Bureau own entry control learn, and each divisional unit was responsible for its of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms was established by the then Tactical equJpment, training and operatj'ous. There was little .oYersight from Response Branell so lbal the teams could develop uniform tactic!;, headquarters into the Emgram., and not much uniformity ,intactics. From uoif'onils -SlTa,t~gieS'ond a uni[<jn:i1 mindset-an a a.spect of tactical J989 to 1996, there, were approximately 465 ATF agents participating in assignments that would beconle cruc~a) if several teams would be lasked this b.urgepning tactical l'CSpollse. The JJrelni:se of <.:feating a bUTeaU with w<:irk.inglOgetheL "Before SRT came about;" claims an. SRT tactic.al r~sp()nse:was'obvious-investi:atrng agents came aetoss guns en supervisor, "we realLy weren't-all on the sam,e page i.n terms of tactics. virtually every warrant served by the ATE Before SR1;',different teams couJdn't really work tog~thef at a moment's netke because they often made entry; or' cleared rQoms, differently. With In 1991, the tadical program within the Bureau of AlcohOl, Tobacc.o .the .evolution of the SRT program canie. uil.if0mi_ity and consis~enoy." aid Firearins began todevelop into' a national effort. Ea,c11 regional tIel d UnifomtilY was <;llsoimp<)rtanl in terms of equipment Some teams, in division fielded a Special Re~ponse, Team, or SRT, with headqp~rters like Miami for example, _possessed a wh,at one SRT a_genl in charge implementing. some basic train'jng"o!1jecrives across the c<iuntry. Special dubbed "all the bells and whistles"-all of the latest weapons, entry tools Response Team members often trained with"the. assistance of Jocai~stilte and tacticalgear. While. other. regional. teams, however,.did nOt possess and fczderill tactica~ units. The SRT program was purely volunteer 'in anY elaboJate ()nd extensive arsenal.of weapon:s; e,ntryt(lol~; vehicles, and nature. Ohly those agents who were exemplary investjgator.~. to the.field., with the required physical and p~ycholt)gtcal aptitude. for tactical work, other ballistic and protective aids gear. were permitted .eutry into the divisio.nal teams. The' need for agents In tbe program's early days, SRT team leaders were usually .a capabl.e to rileet tbe tadical challenges of high-risk warrants: was resident agent in charge, or "RAe," and wa's task.ed with supervising pressfng? as was the need for tactical awareness. Care and prudence is training and procuring equjpment fOr each regi'onal team, 'with the especially acute' in the lype of work that ATF does. Many ATF aSBistance. of their i)ssistant .agent .in cb<Jrge(ASAC) for that respective inv.estigations are against biker gangs that traffic in narcotics and divisional SRT. fLrearms. Many gallg 10cafiQ.Ds, ither in the. impassable forests .of the e Pacific Northwest or the. barren expanses of the Mojave Desert are A major lumingpointfof. theprogram, and the bureau, was otcoursc hea.\lily defended and they are often booby-trapped. According to the SRT the pc.!3ruaiy28; 1.993, raid.on tb,e.Br-ant.h Davidian compoond of Dayi<l prognlm mana.ger, "We were preparing tor tbe'worSt-ca<;e sc,enario, That's Koresh in Waco. Texas. The. exe.cuti6n of the Branch D,avidhm comp~iun~ the whole point of usi:J?gSRT! If SRT is ~eing used, its because it's an warrant, carried out by a combined seventy-six-man force taken'frOin; ex;tremely higb-tisk situatiqn thal requjre$ the beSl <,)1' 'hest tactically, the three teams, turned intQ a ferocious gun batde that resulted in four ATJi Many of those. targeted by ATF investigatloriS are 1l:1ulti~convicted. ielO'ns agents losing their lives, and au additional twenty-si.x agents injured. 'the. with an extensive qiminalllistofY: Many ATF cases resl.\lt in mandatory gun battle began at just about 9:30 A.M. that morning, wben theATF SRT sentencing, some of stiffest in'any judicial setting, including armed

me

SRT Medics are first and toremost operators. Here, on the firing rangeat Ft. MacLennan, a tactical medic undergoes some time on therange. (Courtesy ATF)

As an SRT instructor looks on, on SRT agent unleashes a magazine-emptying burst of pistol fire. (Courtesy ATF)

SRT field patches.

task force entered the seventy-seven-acre compoundsome ten miles outside Waco to execute a search warrant on the compound of David Koresh,a self-proclaimed Messiah, on weapons and explosives charges. Yet the force was ambushedand after a forty-five minute firefight. the ATF SRT teams withdrew. According to a supervisor from ATF's Dallas field office who spokeat a news conference following the raid and (oldreporters, "It was clear that despite elaborate preparations, members of the sect, the Branch Davidians,had somehow learned of the raid in advance. ft was one of largest operations ever mountedby the bureau, and it was the greatest loss oflifeever suffered by the bureau." Waco was, naturally, a turning point for the "Bureauf Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms and for o the SRT program. Primarily, logistic responsibility was removed from the division field level and directed of headquarters in Washington D.C. in out orderto strive for greater tactical consistency and professionalism the ranks of the SRT operators. ill

In 1996, ATF opted to do away with the divisionalSRT program, and endorse a regional
iactical concept. It was designed to not on ly reduce thenumberof men and women agents needed for the SRT program. and free more investigators for operationsin the field, but to further hone and sharpen skills and expertise of a more manageablesized group of tactical operators. When the

During tactical training, SRT operators suit up tor o live-fire exercise. Theyare armed with the HK535.56mm submachine gun/assault rif/e. (Courtesy ATF)

A gun-runner'$ worst nightmare-a

welcome visit from the ATF's

Special Response Team. (Courtesy ATF)

The subdued ATF shield, warn faNgues by all SRT operators,

on

SRT operators carry SIG Sauer pistols and the Heckler and Koch MP5 family of 9mm submachine guns, as well as Heckler and Koch HK53 and M16A2 5.56mm assault rilles. Yet, because of the type of people that ATF comes up against, SRT is sensitive concerning release of information concerning its equipment or tactical tools. One SRT operation that is ongoing is the dangerous pursuit for Eric Robert Rudolph. Rudolpb is charged in connection with the bombing of a health clinic in Birmingham, Alabama, in which a police officer was killed and a nurse critically wounded. He has taken refuge in the impassable and remote forests of the western North Carolina Nantahala mountains, a wilderness region he had roamed throughout his life. The hunt for Rudolph, a proverbial hunt for the needle in a haystack, and involveshundreds offederal agents, includingATF andSRT units. As one federal agent commented on the terrain in which the search is being executed, "Visibility in the dense forest terrain is often limited to five feet!" Today, ATF SRT operators are involved in a myriad of special operations that support bureau missions on a national level. Among its many missions the ATF SRT is involved in: long-time and high-risk surveillance of targeted locations and individuals (air and ground); highrisk warrant and arrest execution; tactical assistance to long term and complex undercover operations and takcdowns arrests; witness security (as well as agent and employee security); high-risk dignitary protection; and, high-risk fugitive searches for ATF defendants. The design-and luxury-of possessing a tactical ann to a law enforcement entity such as ATF is clear. It enables tile specia1 agents, the investigators in the field, to invest their time and resources to the prosecuterial aspect of a case, without having to invest the copious time and resources needed to properly plan and execute the high-risk tactical end of bringing a suspect into custody. The tactical importance of the tactical program to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms overall ability and mission can best be expressed in the fact that in 1999 ATF's SRT begin its transition to fulltime teams nationwide. They will be ready to respond at a moment's notice to bring America's most dangerous-and heavily armed-felons [0 justice.
7

SRToperators carefully climb a flight of stairs during building assault training, as they search the surrounding terrain for any possibleambush. (Courtesy ATF) buildings and targeted areas are searched and secured. The mindsei is simple. You can always escalate, but diffusing an already explosive situation is often quite difficult. SRT's "Operational Medical Support Program" is also unique. The teams' combat medics provide a "golden window" of emergency medical care should an agent be wounded in the execution of an operation and deployment. Providing immediate and proper emergency medical care to a gunshot wound, or trauma caused by explosives, can be the fine line between life and death. Many ATF medics are equipped with full trauma kits, defribulaters, as well as oxygen capabilities. Medics are also fullfledged operators. "Being there, on a mission, provides an intangible sense of security to agents about to deploy," claims the SRT supervisor program manager who served as both an operator and medic with the Boston divisional team, "the guy~ know that if anything happens, you willbe taken careof immediately and by one of your own." The combat medics program also provides the added benefit of increased operational security.SRT no longer has to rely solely on civilian emergency medical teamsand fire departments for emergency medical assistance. It now has the ability to handle most medical emergencies on their own.

The forward observers are far more than snipers and counter-snipers.
Theyare tasked with gathering intelligence Oil a targeted location, setting upconcealed observation posts, as well as "being the eyes and ears" on the target prior to any SRT operation.

Cautious and deliberate, a "stick" of ATFSRT operators hone their building takedown skills.(Courtesy ATF)

program was divisional, there were 465 agents assigned [0 the teams. When a regional division was initiated, and the number of SRT 'operators throughout the country decreased to accommodate the following- team configurations nationwide: REGION ONE Baltimore Field Division Boston Field Division New York Fjeld Division Washington D.C. Field Division REGION TWO Atlanta Field Division Birmingham Field Division Charlotte Field Division Miami Field Division Nashville Field Division Ncw Orleans Field Division REGION THREE Chicago Field Division Detroit Field Division Kansas City Field Division Louisville Field Division St. Louis Field Division REGION FOUR Dallas Field Division Houston Field Division Phoenix Field Division REGION FIVJ~ Los Angeles Field Division San Francisco Field Division Seattle Field Division

"-

...

1997, headquarters tasked command of the _ program to full-time SRT team leaders-Region One's team leader was headquartered in Wash.ington D.C.; Region Two's team leader was headquartered in Miami. Region Three's team leader was based in Detroit; Region Four's team leader was headquartered in Dallas; and Region Five's team leader was headquartered in Los Angeles. By 1997, the ATF's SRT program had evolved quite markedly since the first entry teams were established. After careful. review and evaluation, and analysis following Waco, great strives were made in creating a cadre of tactical specialists whose tactics strive (or guaranteed safety and prudence. Planning and preparation is carried out zealously before each and every deployment and by the team. Augmenting the unit capabilities, each SRT team, crisis negotiators, tactical medic personnel, and forward observers are also deployed. ATF's crisis negotiators are used in a very proactive manner in respect to the execution of search and arrest warrants. This highlytrained group of individuals is instrumental in the initiation and culmination of containment and call-out tactics. And, of course, Ole crisis negotiators can diffuse any difficult barricaded situation. "Tactics have changed in recent years for police tactical teams," claims an SRT supervisor. "everything has slowed down. We do a Jot more containment call-outs now where we surrounded a. house and talk the suspects out in a calm and deliberate manner. After all, time is on our side." Once inside a location, the methodical aspect of the unit's tactical philosophy is also expressed in the intricately secure means by which
A wall of fire by some of the finest tactical

In

operators in the U.S.low enforcement order of battle. During live-fire training, SRToperators bear down on 0 torget. (Courtesy ATF)