4                              HUMANITARiAN OPERATIONS IN NORTHERN IRAQ, 1991:

called for delivery of emergency relief, the second was to be a sustained effort
to deliver humanitarian assistance.
    Joint Task Force Provide Comfort deployed to Incirlik Air Base at Adana,
Turkey, on 6 April 1991. General Jamerson's first briefing painted a gloomy
picture. The refugee camps were scattered across some of the most inaccessible
terrain in the world. Refugees were virtually clinging to cliffs. There was
inadequate shelter, no potable water, little food, poor sanitation, and limited
medical care. Hard-pressed Kurdish families often faced the difficult choice of
saving either their aged parents or their young children because there was not
enough food and water to go around. The relief needs were so massive that no
single international agency had the resources to support an adequate effort. To
make matters worse, all this misery existed in a politically complex, potentially
hostile environment.3
    The initial Provide Comfort deployment was a scaled-down package made up
of the lead elements of the USAF 39th Special Operations Wing (SOW). The
remainder of the joint task force was assembled from units in England, Germany,
and Italy. They included a headquarters, follow-on echelons of the 39th SOW,
and the   10th Special Forces Group (Airborne) [SFG (A)].     The comniand
component was Joint Task Force Provide Comfort Headquarters made up of
detachments    from   USAFE    Headquarters;  the 7440th  Composite   Wing;
Headquarters, Joint Special Operations Task Force (later redesignated Joint Task
Force Alpha); and a Patriot missile battery.
    Brigadier General Richard W. Potter, USA, was temporarily released from
his  post  as  Coinmanding   General, Special  Operations Cornn~and  Europe
(SOCEur), to lead a joint special operations task force to support Operation
Provide Comfort. This unit was first labeled "Express Care. "4 Joint Task Force
Express Care consisted of a headquarters detachment, the 39th SOW, and the 1st
Battalion, 10th SFG (A). The headquarters detachment was provided by SOCEur
at Bad Toelz, Germany. The aviation component was the 39th SOW from Rhein
Main, Germany, and Woodbridge, England. The 39th SOW was comprised of
the 7th Special Operations Squadron flying Lockheed MC-130 Talons, the 21st
Special Operations Squadron flying Sikorsky MH-53J Pave Low deep-penetration
search and rescue helicopters, and the 67th Special Operations Squadron flying
HC- 130    aerial  refuelers. Its ground   organization included  command,
administration, ordnance, maintenance, supply, and support personnel.
    The ground component of Joint Task Force Express Care was the        1st
Battalion, 10th SFG (A). The Army's Special Forces were experienced, highly
skilled, unconventional   warriors specially trained to work and   live with
indigenous populations in remote areas. About 200 Special Forces soldiers were
assigned to support Provide Comfort. These units included headquarters, combat
intelligence,  service,  support, signals, and tactical detachments. The 1st
Battalion, 10th SFG (A) had one C-Team (coinmand group), three B-Teams
(control detachments), and 12 A-Teams (operational units). The men of the
Special Forces were called the "Green Berets" by most Americans because of
their distinctive headgear, however, during Operation Provide Comfort most