By Robin Wright
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, August 24, 2007; A13

Dell L. Dailey's life has been one long string of secrets.

During more than 36 years in the Army, he led the Night Stalkers, an aviation team born from the failed 1980 hostage rescue attempt in Iran that flies secret missions, often at low altitudes, in the dark of night. He headed the Joint Special Operations Command, a unit shrouded in secrecy that runs the "black" military missions of the Navy Seals, Army Rangers and Delta Force. After the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, he directed the new Center for Special Operations, the military hub for all counterterrorism. And he ran special ops in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Now, Dailey, who retired in April as a three-star general, has stepped out of the shadows to take on a job that carries far less physical risk but may be no less trying. As head of the State Department's counterterrorism office, he will coordinate diplomats, intelligence officials and the military in the world's largest global counterterrorism effort.

Dailey's new high-profile job surprised colleagues. "The State Department asking Dell to do that job boosted my estimation of the State Department," said a former Special Forces officer now in a senior position at the Pentagon. "It's surprising they'd take a guy who is that much of a warrior."

The State Department job was created in the 1980s, and its most recent occupant was another legend, the CIA legend Henry "Hank" Crumpton.

Dailey's first task will be to implement Crumpton's regional strategic initiative to improve counterterrorism efforts. In Lebanon, for example, Dailey said a coordinated plan would involve Defense Department aid in building the capacity of Lebanon's army, State Department support for police training in tracking extremist finances and a role for the Department of Homeland Security in border control training.

He will travel to embassies around the world next month to see what he faces.

Getting up close is Dailey's trademark. Even as he rose up the military ranks, Dailey continued to see action with younger troops. He led what became known as the "Dirt Mission" before Operation Desert Storm to liberate Kuwait, when the Army feared its tank drive into Iraq might get stuck in soft soil. Dailey flew a Night Stalker mission from Saudi Arabia 250 miles into Saddam Hussein's Iraq on the path that the U.S. armored column would take.

"Although it was unheard of for a lieutenant colonel to go out personally, he always felt he needed to lead from the front. So Dailey took that mission himself and flew with two aircraft deep behind enemy lines to get Iraqi soil for composition tests," said Col. Andrew N. Milani II, who worked with Dailey. "We razzed him for putting himself at risk just to get some dirt."

Officers who served with Dailey tell other tales of derring-do -- infiltrating special forces behind enemy lines before war, plucking Air Force pilots who had ejected in hostile territory and rescuing covert operatives under fire -- without details because of secrecy oaths in the world of "black" special ops.

"He's a remarkable soldier. We'd be in a much more precarious position in the world without what he's done," said Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), a classmate in the West Point class of 1971. "Throughout his career, all our classmates talked in reverential terms about him. If I could tell you what he did, you'd be amazed."

The only danger Dailey will discuss openly is running with the bulls in Pamplona, Spain, in 1979. "I ran the Estafeta, the narrowest part of the run," he said. "I did it for the excitement after reading 'The Drifters' by James Michener. I was a captain in Germany, and I drove there with my girlfriend. I ran with the bulls while Spanish guys were chasing the woman who became my wife," he said. "I learned a lesson about priorities."

Dailey was a key player in the opening days of the 2001 Afghanistan war, said Lt. Gen. Franklin L. Hagenbeck, who spent two years in Afghanistan and is now superintendent of West Point, where he and Dailey were classmates.

"Afghanistan is a little larger than Texas, with 25 million people. We had a small footprint of troops early on. Dell was pivotal in pulling together the campaign plan -- where to insert our units, which Afghans to work with, what targets to take out. He's the unsung hero of Afghanistan, as he had to work from the shadows," Hagenbeck said. "In the yearbooks at West Point, a classmate writes the bio. Dailey's says, 'His determination and vitality will take him to the top.' They did. He's as good as they get."

But Dailey is also controversial, as is noted in the books "Jawbreaker" and "Not a Good Day to Die" about Afghanistan, and "Cobra II" about Iraq.

In "Jawbreaker," author Gary Berntsen, a former CIA operative, said Dailey opposed deploying more U.S. troops at Tora Bora during the early hunt for Osama bin Laden. Dailey will not talk about any special operations, even when personally criticized. Other senior officers interviewed countered that multiple problems -- Afghan allies fleeing the site, a two-day weather delay, U.S. troops far away and only two crews with combat experience -- precluded getting U.S. troops into the rugged mountain in time.

"That's part of being a leader: You're responsible and the blame," retired Col. Robert Richardson said.

In "Cobra II," Dailey is portrayed as at odds with a Delta Force officer in Iraq. "Dailey was known as a pit bull: once he latched onto a concept he would rarely let it go -- or as Dailey's own staff quipped, he was determined to shove a marshmellow into a piggy bank," wrote Michael R. Gordon and Gen. Bernard E. Trainor.

Dailey laughed and said: "Not a marshmallow, but a gold brick into the bank."

Retired Col. Michael Zonfrelli, who is among many fiercely loyal to him, said Dailey would routinely call in subordinates to evaluate him -- specifically asking for three things he should continue doing and three ways he could improve. Zonfrelli said Dailey was "a little stubborn, and his response was that he was even harder to change earlier in his career."

Dailey imposes tough standards at home, too. He did not allow his three sons to get their driver's licenses until they became Eagle Scouts, said Chris Craven, a retired sergeant major who worked with Dailey and was scoutmaster to his sons. Craven borrowed the idea for his own son. All of Dailey's sons enrolled in ROTC.

Former colleagues say Dailey is a good choice for the job. Dailey was noted for fixing failing military units and building new teams. "He's very, very aggressive. He'll take on any issue and work it extremely hard and as long as it takes," said retired Gen. Bryan "Doug" Brown, former commander of U.S. Special Operations Command. "When we were given the mission in May 2004 to synchronize the [Defense] Department's activities for the war on terrorism, we didn't have a lot of time, so I picked Dell to start this new center for special operations."

"He understands more than just the military application of force," said Russ Howard, a retired special forces general. "He also understands diplomacy, economics and communications -- all the elements of power and how to use them in warfare -- more than almost anyone else."