SOF Pic of the Day: Hairy Riverine Operations With Delta Force

In today’s pic, we see US Special Forces soldiers jump out of a perfectly good CH-47 Chinook helicopter and into a freezing cold river, much like you might have taken that tentative jump off of the high dive at the local community pool when you were a kid…but with automatic weapons.  The guys in the water and giving the thumbs up…they are good to go. The guys on the way down are protecting their pretty faces from getting smacked up when they impact the water.

SOFREP’s own Geo Hand wrote a whole piece on riverine operations in Guyana, and you can read that here. And yes, I lifted the title directly from his piece; sue me.

And while we’re talking about Geo, show him some love and check out his website and buy his books. Go on, do it now. We can wait.

Got it?  Let’s drive on.

Here is what Geo had to say about the situation shown above:

During a Delta Queen operation, the Chinook literally sinks its tail into the water allowing the F-470 CRRC to drive in and out under motor power.

For the uninitiated, an F-470 is not a big ass Ford pickup. It’s more commonly known in military circles as a Zodiac. The “CRRC” stands for “Combat Rubber Raiding Craft.” Try saying that three times fast.

A Delta Queen maneuver is real action movie stuff. The (hopefully extremely skilled) Chinook pilot comes to a hover immediately over the surface of the water, and the ramp is lowered fully, allowing the cargo compartment to become flooded. The inbound Zodiac full of SEALs or Delta types skillfully guides their boat, outboard motor still running, into the hold, trying their best not to crush the dude up front with the red flashlight waving them in.

Once the Zodiac is safely inside, the ramp is raised slightly, and the pilot slowly lifts the Chinook, ass-end down, to drain the cargo compartment. Once that is accomplished, they gloriously fly off into the sunset; job well done.

**Check out this footage taken from inside the Chinook during a SEAL extraction.