Delta Force taught me how to drive a Tahoe. I brought a drone to film it.
FILMING DELTA FORCE operatives presents two problems. First, we can’t show their faces, lest any of their nefarious counter parts ID someone with whom they might have a mortal grudge. Second, and it’s an obvious one: night-time sneak attacks, a Delta Force speciality, happen in the dark. But we’ll make it work.
My cameraman, Ed Ricker, and I are in a blacked-out Chevy Tahoe blazing through North Carolina cornfields towards the Range Complex, a 770-hectare training facility outside the gigantic Fort Bragg military complex. Our driver, name redacted, is an active Delta operative, one of the US Army elite specialising in counter-terrorism operations. Such as, say, hostage extraction. At night. Usually in countries that the US might not actually be at war with, and thus bereft of available military vehicles. Those criteria make said Chevrolet particularly useful to Delta Force, a relationship Ed and I are here to document. And when it’s time for me to learn to drive like these guys, I’ll be glad the camera is here. It will serve as a sort of bionic external memory so I can concentrate on hustling these mall-crawler SUVs through the corners.
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