Area business leaders train with Green Berets

Chamber of commerce members from Fayetteville and Moore County were invited to Fort Bragg to go through several training exercises, from close-quarter battle demonstrations to work on the firing range, with Green Berets.

"We go to their churches, we go to their schools, we go to their supermarkets. So, it's our way to repay them (and) say thank you for all the support they've given our soldiers and their families over the years," said Col. James Kraft, commander of the 7th Special Forces Group.

Special Forces, elite soldiers trained in unconventional warfare, have called the Fayetteville area home for 50 years.

Susan Burke, a real estate agent with Coldwell Banker, described sitting atop an all-terrain military vehicle gripping a machine gun as "power beyond belief."

"I've lived here all my life. I had no idea this type of thing goes on out here," Burke said. "We're delighted to be out here."

Members of the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce were invited to Fort Bragg in December for a similar demonstration.

"What a lucky country we live in, to have these young men and women defending us like this," Robert Farrell, a town commissioner in Aberdeen, said Tuesday. "Where in the world are you going to find people that are so dedicated to doing their jobs?"