Talk:Task Force 145

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Task Force Black[edit]

If the recently published book, “Task Force Black” by Mark Urban is to be believed – and it is – this article requires many amendments. At the very least, the credibility of the book is infinitely greater than the news reports currently cited as sources for this article. I will be making the following changes if there are no reasonable objections. This is not necessarily what I will add to the article but an explanation of information conflicting that which is already there, illustrating that the current article is largely based on inaccurate news reports and guess-work.

Firstly, Task Force Black/Green were both based in Baghdad. They operated from adjacent villas which later became known as Mission Support Station – Fernandez. At the time, many coalition units were claiming recently evacuated luxury villas as their base of operations, and SAS Sergeant Major “Mike Page” had noted that the building next-door to the one that Delta Force were operating from was empty. Due to the advantages of being so close to a unit already well established in the region, and the existing camaraderie between the two units, the SAS set up shop there. A hole was blown in the wall separating the two villas and it became a joint-base of operations (it also became a joint-base of Thursday night barbeques where Delta could partake of booze, which was normally forbidden to them).

The two buildings (and possibly more in that general area) became known as “Mission Support Station – Fernandez” in tribute to Master Sergeant George Fernandez, a Delta Force operative who was killed in action on an operation in April 2003.

Operation Marlborough was not an SAS operation at all; this is something that was assumed by news reporters. On the 23rd of July, JSOC had acquired intelligence from a source claiming that a multiple suicide bombing was about to be launched in southern Baghdad.

Delta Force would have normally handled this operation as at the time, political complications meant that Task Force Black was only able to hunt members of Saddam’s former regime. However, US-SF were heavily committed in other areas and the situation was so urgent that Task Force Black were asked by JSOC to deal with it, ignoring the political nonsense. The operation was conducted by M Squadron of the SBS, who were closest to the area concerned.

The source given for the paragraph stating total captured/killed insurgents by the task force as a whole is a news report regarding the SAS, and indeed the ~3500 insurgents captured and ~400 killed is by the SAS alone. Total captured/killed by the entire task force is estimated at ~12,000 captured and ~3000 killed.

These are only things that contradict the article as is (I expect there are more that I haven’t noticed yet); the book contains a vast amount of information that would serve to improve this article. That Task Force Black was renamed to Task Force Knight at the end of 2005, for example. To make this clear, I have no intention of turning this article into one that is focused on the British point of view. Despite the name of the book, it is about the Special Operations scene in Iraq as a whole and is not blind to the US-side of things. --AshBoss (talk) 00:34, 13 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

That sounds just great. Articles like these are prone to inaccuracies due to the media making uneducated assumptions and taking leaps of faith in their reporting about military subjects that are often both idiosyncratic and classified. Anything you wish to add that can be referenced in Task Force Black will be a welcome addition. Just make sure that you are careful with removing conflicting information that is referenced by other reliable sources. You don't have to concede to the position as already stated here on something that conflicts with your source just make sure that you make a notation that it is a contested point and present both sides. TomPointTwo (talk) 02:30, 13 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]