Rogers, the assistant special agent in charge of the hostage rescue team.

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"This was a classic, textbook situation, " said Clint Van Zandt, a former FBI negotiator who worked with the hostage rescue team repeatedly before retiring in 1995.

WSJ: Military tactics, arms, helped rescue Ala. hostage

The hostage rescue team is organized into tactical units made up of assaulters and snipers who are supported by helicopter and intelligence and communication teams, among others.

NPR: FBI: Agents Fell To Deaths Training Off Va. Coast

Both were members of the bureau's elite hostage rescue team, a group known most recently for rescuing an Alabama boy from a kidnapper in an underground bunker.

NPR: FBI: Agents Fell To Deaths Training Off Va. Coast

Among those who made the denials was Danny Coulson, a senior official at the operations center in Washington at the time and founder of the FBI's hostage-rescue team (HRT).

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It has only been almost 10 days since the FBI sent a rescue team into the bunker in Midland City, Alabama, where Ethan was held hostage for nearly a week by Jimmy Lee Dykes.

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