The Decision-Making Crucible of Combat

In 2005, Major General Pat Roberson was the ground force commander for a combined special forces task force in Iraq given the task of melding a battalion of Iraqi forces and a battalion of Kurdish commandos into the newly formed Iraqi Special Operations Forces (ISOF) Brigade. One night, the ISOF Brigade and Roberson’s Green Berets conducted an air assault into Salman Pak for a nighttime raid against insurgent forces. As the task force encountered several tactical problems, Roberson found himself facing a difficult decision that weighed the lives of his task force versus the lives of the local populace.