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Tasks

DA - Direct Action
SR - Special Reconnaissance
FID - Foreign Internal Defense
UW - Unconventional Warfare
CT - Counterterrorism

MOS's

18A - Commander
180A - Warrant Officer
18Z - Operations SGT
18F - Intelligence SGT
18B - Weapons SGT
18C - Engineer SGT
18D - Medical SGT
18E - Communications SGT

DA - Direct Action

Direct Action (DA). These are short-duration strikes and other small-scale offensive actions conducted as a special operation in hostile, denied, or politically sensitive environments and which employ specialized military capabilities to seize, destroy, capture, exploit, recover, or damage designated targets. DA differs from conventional offensive actions in the level of physical and political risk, operational techniques, and the degree of discriminate and precise use of force to achieve specific objectives. Activities within DA include the following:

Raids, Ambushes, and Direct Assaults. These are operations designed to achieve specific, well-defined and often time-sensitive results. They are sometimes beyond the effective strike capabilities of conventional force elements. Such operations typically involve attacks on critical targets, interdiction of LOCs or other target systems, capturing designated personnel or material; or the seizure, destruction, or neutralization of adversary facilities or capabilities.
Standoff Attacks. These are attacks by weapon systems or through IO. Standoff attacks can be conducted by air, maritime, or by ground platforms or units. When targets can be sufficiently damaged or destroyed without the commitment of close-combat forces, these attacks can be performed as independent actions.
Terminal Attack Control and Terminal Guidance Operations. These are actions to identify and precisely report the location of targets, and with global positioning systems, laser designators, beacons, or other means, conduct either terminal attack control (TAC) or terminal guidance operations (TGO) to effectively engage them. TAC involves actions to control the maneuver of and grant weapons release clearance to attacking aircraft. TGO includes any electronic, mechanical, voice or visual communication that provides approaching aircraft or weapons additional information regarding a specific location or target. TAC differs from TGO in that TAC includes the authority to clear aircraft to release ordnance and TGO does not. Because of this, TAC requires individuals to be qualified as joint terminal attack controllers, but TGO does not.
Recovery Operations. These are operations conducted to search for, locate, identify, rescue, and return personnel, sensitive equipment, or items critical to national security. SO recovery missions are characterized by detailed planning, rehearsal, and thorough intelligence analysis. These operations employ unconventional tactics and techniques, clandestine search, possible indigenous assistance, and the frequent use of ground combat elements.
Precision Destruction Operations. These are operations in which collateral damage must be minimized, requiring highly sophisticated weapons and/or timed detonation of specific amounts of explosives placed in exact locations to accomplish mission objectives. Precision destruction operations can be conducted against targets where precision-guided munitions cannot guarantee first strike successor when the contents of a facility must be destroyed without damage to that facility.
Anti-Surface Operations. These are operations conducted against adversary maritime surface targets, including combatants. These include, but are not limited to, visit, board, search, and seizure operations which are shipboarding operations to board and seize cooperative, uncooperative, or hostile contacts of interest.