When Col. Greg Champion took over Special Operations in Afghanistan last year, not many people took notice – and that’s just the way he liked it.

While such a seamless change of command is desirable, especially in combat situations, what made this one unique is the fact that Champion, a commercial negotiator from Dallas, Texas, and commander of the 20th Special Forces Group, became the first National Guard soldier to take command and control of combat operations since the Korean War, according to Army Special Forces officials.

Putting a National Guard commander in charge of such a large-scale operation showed “a rather high regard for National Guard SF,” said BG David Burford, deputy commanding general of U.S. Army Special Forces Command at Fort Bragg. He points to Champion’s “highly successful” mission in Afghanistan, as proof that differences between active duty and National Guard Special Forces are negligible on the battlefield.

“All Special Forces soldiers take the same qualification course,” said Burford, himself a National Guard officer and former 20th Group commander, “expectations and performances are identical.”

Champion is more modest about his command. “It really was LTG McNeil’s campaign,” he said, referring to LTG Daniel McNeil, commander of U.S. Ground Forces in Afghanistan. “All I can say is, we planned and executed numerous combat operations, various operational and tactical, and all were successful.”

One of the biggest successes Champion can claim is the relatively small number of battle casualties under his command. And not one soldier under his command was killed while he was in charge, he said.

“We were very, very lucky,” said Champion. “All those soldiers – not just the ones from the 20th – were my soldiers. I may not have known the others as well, but it affected me when any one of my soldiers was hurt.”

This isn’t the first time the 20th Group made history. In 1991, the Group was the first-ever Reserve component Special Forces Group to be mobilized when it was activated for duty during Operation Desert Storm. The Group trained at Fort Bragg, but the conflict ended before its soldier were deployed overseas.

MAJ Randy Zeeger, who has been with the 20th Group for more than half of his 20 years with the National Guard, remembers the 1991 activation well. “It’s the hardest thing in the world to be that guy who trains and trains for battle, then doesn’t get deployed,” he says. “You’re basically on the outside looking in.”

This time, Zeeger was in the middle of the action, heading up a “Fire Base” in Afghanistan, a basis of operations that served as a safe haven for Americans in a “hot area.”

“We lovingly referred to it as the ‘Big Target,’” he laughs. “You can’t hide, [the enemy] knows you’re there,” he said, which is why the camp received dozens of rocket, RPG and morter attacks.

“For 20 years, one of the biggest challenges in the Guard has been to motivate soldiers about the seriousness of what we do. Now I don’t have to manufacture enthusiasm for training. We know we’re going to get called up – it’s more a question of when.”

One of the best things to come out of their Fire Base, said Zeeger, was an unconventional warfare hospital – the first one the 20th Group has done.

“It was probably the single most important thing we did to win over the locals,” he said. “Out there, there’re virtually no medical facilities at all, and the supplies the locals did have were very outdated.”

SFC Kurt Schnupp, 46, who has commuted from Hawaii to Mobile, Ala., for drill the past four and a half years, treated more than 4,000 patients in the makeshift hospital he established in the remote terrain of Afghanistan – and did not lose a single patient.

“About a quarter of the patients we treated were for trauma, such as major burns and missing anatomy,” he says. “It was phenomenal to me that we did not lose a single one of them, especially operating in such an austere environment.”

The hospital was little more than four cots – two surgical beds and two recovery beds – but it did more for the soldiers to earn the trust of the local villagers than anything else.

“Medicine is tangible, says Schnupp, a former Army medic who has been with the 20th Group 14 years. “The locals became very forthcoming with information, and I feel having the hospital there actually reduced our exposure to enemy fire.”

Schnupp credits the extensive training required of Special Forces medics to his successes in Afghanistan.

“I’m actually in training all the time,” he said. “My job is one of a very few in which I can continue to practice my civilian line of work while on duty.”

Special Forces medics go through the longest and hardest of all the SF schools, he said. “We go through about 18 months of training, as opposed to the usual 8-10 months,” said Schnupp. “There’s no cutting corners in training, even though you’re a part-time soldier.”

Many guardsmen believe they have an edge on their active duty counterparts because of the range of skills they bring to the table through their civilian jobs.

“There’s no doubt in my mind that having civilian skills really benefited many of our guys,” said SGM Bruce Williams, who has served with the 20th Group for more than 20 years. “Over there, we relied heavily on commercially produced [computer] hardware,” he says.“And we had some guys who had compatible networking and computer skills from their day-to-day jobs that helped them jump right in and get things done.”

The biggest challenge faced by 20th Group soldiers in Afghanistan, according to several soldiers, was getting used to using vehicles for operations.

“We’re not a mobility group,” said Zeeger, who pointed out that the 20th Group typically either jumps or rucks to its missions, which are usually in the jungles of Southern Command’s Central or South America.

And the vehicles the 20th Group did have were not specialized for use in the desert, said MSG. Brian LaMorte, who was one of the first members of 20th Group to arrive in Afghanistan in 2001, with B Compan of 3rd Battalion, attached to the 3rd Special Forces Group along with its Battalion HQ.

The best vehicle they found was a rented small civilian truck, which was then adapted for use as a military vehicle, he said.

“That’s the thing about Special Forces soldiers,” said LaMorte, who served with the National Guard’s 19th Special Forces Group before coming to the 20th almost 10 years ago. “They’re very adaptable, and do whatever they can to make the mission successful.”

While SF soldiers can adapt to any given situation, said officials, it does help to have the right equipment.

“SF Command really did everything they could to get us everything we needed,” said Zeeger. “Unfortunately, the rapid, massive deployment just caught the Army system off guard.

One aspect of equipping Guard SF units that is seeing a positive change since their time in Afghanistan is the elimination of the “cascade” effect, which, in essence, meant that Guard units received leftover equipment from active duty units.

BG Burford said he doesn’t want to hear the word “cascade” ever again. The attitude now is to buy the same equipment for all seven SF Groups as needed. Burford pointed to recent comments by his former boss, then U.S. Army Special Operations Commander LTG Doug Brown, who “said it all when he commented that the Army has seven Special Forces Groups – with no distinction between active duty and National Guard.”

With training, expectations and performance, and now the equipment of active duty and Guard SF virtually identical, there are other differences that are not so easy to rectify.

All agree that this was one of, if not the longest, deployments seen by 20th Group soldiers – some now in their second year of activation. That kind of time spent away from families and civilian jobs can be difficult – and costly – but the 20th Group’s soldiers said they are ready to go again if needed.

“A lot of these guys are at the professional level, or own their own companies,” said Zeeger. “There were a lot of financial hardships for some guys, but if you lined them up and asked them to go again, all would volunteer to do so. That’s what makes Special Forces so special.”

Families of deployed guardsmen can have a harder time with the separation, simply because the support mechanisms in place for active duty families are much harder to make work for those who are spread across several states.

Zeeger, who lives in Dallas, Texas, and commutes to Birmingham, Ala., for drills, says he is not the exception, but the norm, for SF Guard members, many of whom travel great distances to be in an SF unit. So a Guard spouse may live hundreds of miles away from the duty post, without the same conveniences and securities found on or near an Army post.

While overseas, some soldiers were able to make telephone calls home via satellite phones, while others were able to keep in touch by e-mail or Instant Messaging. But all agreed any extended separation from family is one of the toughest things about being in the Guard.

Having broad American support for the Global War on Terrorism made the separation easier, for soldiers, families and employers, said Zeeger.

“My wife and family supported it more because of Sept. 11 – we were actually going over there and doing something,” he said. “Supporting us was their way of fighting terrorism.”

Jennifer G. Williams is a freelance writer and editor living in Northern Virginia.