War Reporter For A Day

Delta Force taught me how to drive a Tahoe. I brought a drone to film it.

- Ezra Dyer

Filming Delta Force operatives presents two problems. First, we can’t show their faces, lest any of their nefarious counterparts ID someone with whom they might have a mortal grudge. Second, and it’s an obvious one: Nighttime sneak attacks, a Delta Force specialty, happen in the dark. But we’ll make it work.

My cameraman, Ed Ricker, and I are in a blacked out Chevy Tahoe blazing through North Carolina cornfields toward the Range Complex, a 1,900- acre training facility outside Fort Bragg. Our driver, name redacted, is an active Delta operative, one of the U.S. Army elite specializing in counter terrorism operations. Such as, say, hostage extraction. At night. Usually in countries that the U.S. might not actually be at war with, and thus bereft of available military vehicles. Those criteria make said Chevrolet particularly useful to Delta Force, a relationship Ed and I are here to document. And when it’s time for me to learn to drive like these guys, I’ll be glad the camera is here. It will serve as a sort of bionic external memory so I can concentrate on hustling these mall-crawler SUVs through the corners.

A few days earlier, at a Little League game, I asked a Special Forces friend where the Tahoe and Suburban fit in the military toolbox. “We use them in permissive environments,” he said. “Places like Colombia or Saudi Arabia, where you don’t need an uparmored Humvee.” But you might need to pay someone a surprise visit.