Counterdrug Teaches Woodland Operations

Members of the Georgia National Guard’s Counterdrug Task Force have been passing on their know-how in recent months to civilian law enforcement officers in a one-week Woodland Operations Course.

Many of the law enforcement officers who took part are members of the Georgia Counter-Terrorism Task Force (CTTF) and although well versed in traditional law enforcement tactics, these officers are trained through the Woodland Operations Course to conduct operational planning, camouflage, “fieldcraft,” reconnaissance and surveillance.

The Counter-Terrorism Task Force is a state-wide multi-disciplinary task force aimed at serving as the state’s rapid-response security force. Its primary goal is to protect Georgia’s citizens, critical infrastructure and key resources from terrorist attacks, major disasters and other emergencies.

Counterdrug conducts the course twice a year, contingent on operational tempo. Course instructors push participants both physically and mentally. Stealth is necessary when a majority of the state’s critical infrastructure is located in the dense vegetation of Georgia. That’s why Counterdrug’s Ground Reconnaissance Team is tasked to teach the Woodland Ops Course.

Physical training is conducted every morning followed by long hours of classroom and “in-the-field” instruction. This rigorous schedule is designed to challenge each student, and it provides training opportunities that simulate the conditions students may find during a terrorist attack. It’s not for everybody, but those who complete the course are able to face any situation the environment, and an enemy, might present. 

Georgia Counterdrug Task Force personnel are full-time Army and Air Guardsmen with years of military and civilian law enforcement tactical training and operational experience. They provide reconnaissance and surveillance support to local, state and federal law enforcement daily to combat the illegal drug trade throughout the state. Their skills were initially taught in basic and advanced individual training, and then tested on the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan.