Ever wondered why US Special Forces love the Chevy Suburban so much?

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The United States Special Forces are perhaps the best tactical fighting force the world has ever seen. Whether it’s hostage rescue, covert operations, or a Bin Laden-esque kill-or-capture mission, the Tier 1 Operators of the US military are the ones to beat.  As any Boy Scout can tell you, being prepared is the key to success. For these operators, it’s about having the best training, the best intelligence, and the best equipment—whether it’s $40,000 night vision goggles that turn day into night or $60,000 blacked-out SUVs.

That last bit is why Chevrolet invited a small group of journalists to Fayetteville, North Carolina, home of Fort Bragg and the Joint Special Operations Command that oversees the Army’s Delta Force and several other elite units. The carmaker’s PR machine wanted to show how some former operators—the preferred term for members of the most elite special forces units in the US—use the Chevy Tahoe and Suburban SUVs in environments a bit more challenging than your typical Whole Foods grocery run.

Our destination was The Range Complex, a shooting range and training facility just outside Ft. Bragg that’s owned and operated by former Delta Force members. It’s a firearm enthusiast’s dream on 1,982 acres (8km2), complete with tactical pistol and rifle ranges out to 100 yards (91m), a 600-yard (549m) long-distance rifle range, a 50-yard (46m) competition training range, and a pair of live-fire shoot houses complete with multiple rooms and an overhead catwalk for instructors to supervise activities.

We drove from Raleigh to Fayetteville in Tahoes featuring Chevy’s new “Z71 Midnight Edition” package that gives the SUV a more sinister look, complete with black painted wheels, black Chevy-logo bowties, a black mesh grille, and black roof rack cross rails. It’s a good look for the truck and Chevy says its Midnight Edition trucks spend significantly less time on dealer lots than standard Tahoes or Suburbans.

Both of Chevy’s full-size SUVs are very popular with both military and civilian law enforcement agencies. That’s thanks partially to tradition (the Suburban has been around in one form or another since the 1930’s and is the longest running vehicle nameplate in the US) and partly to the features of the car itself.

They’re roomy, with space for burly soldiers carrying body armor, rifles, ammo, and the rest of their gear. These vehicles are also reliable and easy to work on, thanks in large part to GM’s worldwide parts supplier network. Plus, the SUVs prove quite durable—the Range Complex founder James Reese, a former Delta Force commander, told us a war story from the early days of the Iraq war when he and his commander came under fire on the infamous Route Irish in Baghdad while driving a standard Tahoe purchased off a dealer lot in Kuwait. The vehicle sustained more than 50 bullet holes, including five through the engine block, but it kept running long enough to get both occupants back to safety with non-life-threatening gunshot wounds.

“It looked like it came out of a movie,” Reese said. “That car and our training saved our lives.”

Not your average automotive press event

Of course, action is more interesting than words. With journalists (wearing kevlar vests) watching from above, five Range Complex instructors (all former Deltas) and a canine companion jumped out of a Tahoe and breached the shoot house. First the dog went in and took down a real person wearing a cushioned training suit (though the dog certainly went after him with gusto), then the four-man team continued to clear the rest of the building, quickly eliminating paper targets with precision. Sure, the Tahoe didn’t have to do much aside from pulling up to the building, but it put on a good show, complete with a Hollywood-esque sideways slide.

It’s fair to say that most Tahoe and Suburban buyers won’t likely be shot at or need to kick down a door to rescue a hostage — but Chevrolet gets priceless marketing every time the armada of Secret Service Suburbans passes in a Presidential motorcade or when tooled-up Tahoes show up in action movies. Even SHIELD director Nick Fury has a highly modified, self-driving version!

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Chevy says 79 percent of Tahoe and Suburban owners plan to buy another when it’s time for a new vehicle, placing this model near the top of the highest owner loyalty ranks within the industry. Sure, they don’t make any sense on the tiny streets of Europe or in big cities like New York or Boston—but out here, in the North Carolina countryside, they’re just about perfect.