Security

Secrets of the Special Ops Goat Lab Revealed

In follow-up to yesterday’s "goat post," we’ll now fill in the details. Just as a reminder: I asked yesterday why Special Operations Command at Ft. Bragg wants to buy goats. As much as I would desperately like to believe that the main purpose of the Goat Lab at Ft. Bragg is to allow Special Ops […]

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In follow-up to yesterday's "goat post," we'll now fill in the details. Just as a reminder: I asked yesterday why Special Operations Command at Ft. Bragg wants to buy goats.

As much as I would desperately like to believe that the main purpose of the Goat Lab at Ft. Bragg is to allow Special Ops to practice their top-secret goat-killing ESP powers, I'm afraid the truth, like all truth, is far more mundane (well, maybe not for PETA). The goats, as many commenters correctly surmised, are for practicing medic skills.

Goat2 As our friends at Inside the Pentagon have reported in the past:

With much ado paid to the role of special forces in the war in Afghanistan, here's a little-known fact about their preparation for combat: The medics assigned to Army special operations units are often surgically trained using live goats.

*U.S. Special Operations Command last week announced it needs 500 goats delivered to Ft. Bragg, NC, most of them by the end of April.*The command's John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School requested the goats, which it says are needed to aid medical and survival training for Army special forces soldiers.

"We have established protocols [that allow us to use animals] to teach our students surgical skills," said Army Maj. Richard Patterson, a spokesman for the center.Patterson was unable to say exactly how the goats are used, stipulating security reasons, but added that the center is certified and inspected by the Association for the Assessment and Accreditation for Laboratory Animal Care.

The military also has its own internal oversight committee to ensure the Army follows animal welfare laws.

I'm not going to go into all the gory details -- but there's good additional info about the medic training in the comments to the post.

By the way, the winner (we did mention a prize....) of the goat competition is "Keith," the first commenter to correctly identify the goats' purpose. Keith needs to contact me to receive his complementary copy of The Men Who Stare At Goats.