Training For Terror In 'Realistic Urban Environments'

Those mysterious black helicopters buzzing Denver last night weren't just your paranoid imagination. Several military choppers flew low around downtown and Coors Field during the Colorado Rockies game Monday night and the show isn't over. U.S. military Special Operations commandos will be conducting the airborne training with Denver police SWAT teams and firefighters from early afternoon until 11 p.m. through Friday night. It's the end of a two-week joint exercise between special ops troops and police and fire to prepare for a terrorism threat in a "realistic urban environment," said Lt. Steve Ruh, a spokesman for the U.S. Special Operations Command, headquartered at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida. "It's all in preparation for anything that could possibly happen with the global war on terrorism," said Ruh, whose command coordinates all the military branches' crack commando units - from Army Rangers to Navy SEALS. The Special Operations Command calls itself the "Tip of the Spear" against the nation's gravest threats... The United States Special Operations Command's mission is to provide fully capable Special Operations Forces to defend the United States and its interests. Plan and synchronize operations against terrorist networks. The United States Special Operations Command was founded in 1987 as an umbrella command to better coordinate special operations. This followed a reassessment of special operations after the debacle of Desert One, the attempt to rescue U.S. hostages in Iran in 1980. The mission ended in tragedy when U.S. aircraft collided on the ground in the southern Iranian desert. The command was given a more specific anti-terrorism mission after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.