SOF

“Kill the Enemy, But Please…Don’t Hurt His Feelings”

If this sounds strange, ludicrous and outright ridiculous…then congratulations! Welcome to our politically correct world where our leaders who send our troops into harm’s way to kill our enemies are more worried about hurting those said enemies’ feelings than they are about ensuring that our troops have everything they need to accomplish their mission and return home safely.

Take for instance this latest fiasco with the British government, their Ministry of Defense (MOD), and the political correctness B.S. that is overrunning not just the British, but our own leaders as well.

So, the Brit SAS boys were told to remove the Punisher logo from all of their kits as the logo …“could be disrespectful to enemy forces.” This isn’t even PC run amok it is foolishness of the nth degree. Anyone who knows anything about the SAS or who has been around them knows that the Brits don’t deploy them on a whim. And if you’re an enemy who was close enough to see a Punisher logo on a trooper’s kit, to quote Samuel L. Jackson, “it meant your ass.”

So we’ll deploy SAS and Special Operations troops to kill ISIS in the Middle East and 100 other places but heaven forbid we hurt their delicate feelings? My oh my, the tangled webs we weave.

Newsrep’s Stavros Atlamazoglou hits on the fiasco right on the button.

British media reports state that Special Air Service (SAS) operators were ordered to remove all Punisher patches and other similar insignias from their kits. SAS received the removal order after military VIPs visited the unit’s headquarters in Hereford, saw the skull-like emblems on troopers’ combat kits, and considered them controversial.
The rationale behind the decision appears to be the Punisher skull closely resembles the death’s head “Totenkopf” emblem of Nazi Germany’s SS. More specifically, British outlets report the British military hierarchy believes the Punisher emblem could be “be upsetting to other units and disrespectful to enemy forces.”
Just by that remark, you can tell the leadership’s level of detachment from reality on the ground. If the destruction of an enemy is disrespectful––destruction being what the Punisher insignia portrays––then something is utterly wrong. Of course, all troops must abide by the laws of war and the Geneva Conventions. But in the end, armies are mostly intended to wreak havoc, not be politically-correct organizations that strive for designations of the “most friendly” group to work alongside.
Whether accurate or not, the story highlights the deep rift between troops on the ground and their political––and sometimes higher military––leaders. Units formed, funded, trained, and kitted for close combat have one primary mission: to engage with the enemy and destroy it.
Former SAS Sgt.Trevor Coult, a recipient of the Military Cross for his actions during a combat deployment to Iraq, said that “the Ministry of Defense should be doing everything in its power to support the SAS, not messing around telling them what they can and can’t wear on operations. This is politically-correct nonsense, and it’s ludicrous.”
Marvel Comics’ the Punisher symbol has a long history with the military. But its popularity skyrocketed after Navy SEAL Chris Kyle and his fellow frogmen in SEAL Team 3 adopted the insignia. Kyle, heralded for his astounding effectiveness during multiple combat deployments to Iraq, wrote about the decision in his autobiography, American Sniper.
Kyle wrote. “We all thought what the Punisher did was cool: He righted wrongs. He killed bad guys. He made wrongdoers fear him. That’s what we were all about. And so, we adapted his symbol––a skull––and made it our own, with some modifications. We spray-painted it on our Humvees and body armor, and our helmets, and all our guns. And we spray-painted it on every building or wall we could. We wanted people to know: we’re here, and we want to fuck with you.”

To read the entire article click here:

Photo: Marvel Comics/Netflix

Special Operations Forces Selection PT Preparation Week 14, Day 5

Back to the gym this morning for a Chest and Triceps workout before heading out for a 4-mile run. Remember to stretch well before and after and to stay hydrated. Mark your progress down in your workout log book.

UBRR Training:

More Preparation for the UBRR:

3 x 12 Bench Press

3 x 10 Dumbbell Flies

3 x 10 Dumbbell Incline press

3 x 20 Pushups (alternate sets with wide, narrow and shoulder width)

3 x 20 Plank Step Ups

3 x 20 Shoulder Touch Planks

3 x 20 Cable Push Downs (rope)

3 x 20 Dips or until muscle failure

4-mile run (32-minutes maximum)

Stretch well after completion

The Strange Story of David Baez, Green Beret, and Sandinista Officer

One of the most bizarre stories to come out about Central America was the strange saga of David Baez. Baez was born in Nicaragua but became a U.S. citizen and later a Green Beret. Baez’s father was a military officer in Nicaraguan National Guard before being executed by the military’s leader Anastasio Somoza.

Baez grew up an intense hatred of the Somoza’s and their regime and later while serving as a Green Beret in Panama with the 3rd Battalion, 7th Special Forces Group, he’d leave the military to return to Nicaragua to join the Communist Sandinista regime to fight the troops of Somoza.

Greg Walker is an author and former Green Beret from 3/7 SFG who was one of the 55 advisors in El Salvador back in the same time frame. He has written an outstanding two-part story that gets to the truth of a very outstanding NCO in Special Forces that ended up fighting against the U.S.-backed Contras and for our enemy, the Sandinistas in the early 1980s.

Prologue: Operation Patuca River, Honduras, 1983
On July 19, 1983, a group of 96 Marxist guerrillas with extensive training in Cuba and six months of combat conditioning in Nicaragua fighting U.S.-backed Contras, successfully infiltrated Honduras on foot after crossing the Coco River by boat.

The mission was planned and led by Dr. Jose Reyes Mata (“Commander Pablo Mendoza”), a well-known and highly-respected Honduran icon in the Latin American Marxist-Leninist community. The newly-formed Armed Forces of the People, or FAP, was a multi-national revolutionary army made up of Hondurans, Nicaraguans, Cubans, and two North Americans. Reyes Mata, an original founder of the Revolutionary Party of Central American Workers, Honduras (PRTC-H) under whose umbrella the FAP fell, had fought in Bolivia during the second attempt by the survivors of Commander Che Guevara’s disastrous 1967 effort to overthrow that South American country’s government. Captured, Reyes Mata was sent to prison until escaping to nearby and revolutionary-friendly Chile.

In Chile, he continued to promote and refine for export Che’s “foco theory” of revolution, a theory he hoped to personally plant the seed of in Honduras. Making his way to Nicaragua, he participated in the 1979 victory of the Sandinista FSLN guerrilla war against President Anastacio Somoza Debayle, thereby earning great favor with the new Marxist government in Managua as well as in Cuba where he was a welcome visitor and, at times, a resident.
Christened “the March of Liberty toward Victory,” the column, organized into four platoons, was to establish a series of logistical FAP base camps in Honduras from which to begin additional local recruiting, training, and finally to conduct guerrilla operations against the government and armed forces of Honduras. The FAP was to be the regional vanguard movement with expected support from the external PRTC forces in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Costa Rica.
Instead, in just two months, the column would be brutally annihilated by the elite Honduran Special Forces Squadron in close cooperation with its military intelligence sister unit, Battalion 316.
This NEWSREP three-part series relies upon current declassified documents, the extensive investigative efforts of both Honduran and U.S. media outlets, the declassified war diary of Dr. Reyes Mata, and personal recollections of those with first-hand knowledge of what took place in the rugged Olancho province of Honduras, as well as at the joint U.S./Honduran air base at El Aguacate.
Much has been speculated about–and written about–Operation Patuca River. To paraphrase SAS veteran Mike Coburn, author of the book “Soldier Five–The Real Truth About the Bravo Two Zero Mission,” retired Special Forces soldier Greg Walker offers: “It’s important to portray events as they really happened. Not only because the success of Operation Patuca River crushed a nascent civil war in Honduras, but because so many related to several of the FAP column have since searched for answers regarding their loved ones, regardless of their ideology, and to date found no resolution as to what happened to them.”
It begins with the family and friends of David Arturo Baez Cruz, the only known Green Beret to have willingly left his family and military career in 1980 to join the Sandinista Popular Army (EPS) in its fight against the Contras, and in 1983 against the Honduran Army as an FSLN combat adviser to the FAP.
Part One
Arturo was obsessive. He wanted to contribute something to the overthrow of the Somozas. For him it was like a sense of mission, especially after the death of [our] dad at the hands of the Somozas. He did not know him, but he grew up with ‘So, you’re Baez Bone, you must have ‘guevon’ [“big balls”] like your dad.” – Eduardo Baez, brother and former Sandinista officer
David Arturo Baez Cruz was born on December 19, 1950, in Jenotepe, Nicaragua. His father, Adolfo Baez Bone, was a young lieutenant in Nicaraguan president Anastasio Somoza Garcia’s National Guard. His grandmother, whose surname was Bone, was Guatemalan. In 1947, Adolfo was expelled from the National Guard along with other officers who had supported President Leonardo Arguello over Somoza Garcia.
On April 4, 1954, Adolfo and his brother, Luis Felipe Baez Bone, along with 23 others, sought to overthrow President Somoza Garcia by assassination. Also to be killed were the president’s two adult sons, Luis and Anastasio, the latter better known as “Tachito.” On the eve of the attack, to be led by Adolfo, an informer betrayed the conspirators, and all were arrested and imprisoned. Adolfo was personally beaten and tortured by Tachito for four agonizing days before he was fatally shot. Luis was also killed as were the others. Their bodies were burned and then secretly buried in a mass unmarked grave. In an eerie forecast of things to come, Adolfo was reported to have spat in Tachito’s face and warned him, “My blood with chase you!” before his execution.
Growing up Nicaraguan
“He [Arturo] grew up sleeping in the room where the closet held his father’s remains in a wooden trunk. The bones were eventually buried, but not Baez’s hatred for the Somozas. He always had something in his head about avenging his father.” – Eduardo Baez, brother and former Sandinista officer
Friends of the families of those murdered eventually located the mass grave. Adolfo’s remains were identified–despite having been burned–and his bones were brought to the family. They were hidden away until it was deemed safe to bury them properly. Today, in Managua, there is a monument to the “Heroes of April 4, 1954” with all 25 names of those considered martyrs inscribed on it.

To read the complete article, click here:

Photo of ODA-5 Panama and Baez: Robert K. Brown

With Mattis Gone, SF Command Again Punishes SF CPT From Niger Ambush

Op-Ed: The handwriting was on this one right from the very start. The Army tried to lay the blame on the ambush of the American Special Forces troops in Niger on the commander and NCOs of the SF A-Team before the last body had even been recovered off the battlefield.

The Army had issued a letter of reprimand to Capt. Michael Perozeni soon after the ambush in Niger in 2017 that killed four soldiers from the 3rd Special Forces Group. Perozeni and other junior officers and NCOs were singled out for punishment and were thrown under the bus, while senior leaders skated.

Jim Mattis, who was the administration’s then-Defense Secretary, blasted the letter of reprimand given Perozeni stating that MG Edwin J. Deedrick, Commander of the 1st Special Forces Command was unfairly calling out Perozeni and other junior leaders for punishment in the ill-fated mission while senior officers have been spared any ill effects from the fallout.

While Mattis was Defense Secretary, not only was Perozeni’s Letter of Reprimand (which is a career ender), rescinded, Perozeni was recommended for a Silver Star. Now with Mattis out as SECDEF, the Army has re-instated a letter of reprimand for Perozeni.

LTG Francis M. Beaudette, commander of the Army’s Special Operations Command, has issued a letter of reprimand for Perozeni on January 16, for not performing proper pre-mission training before the mission that ended up with his team ambushed, leaving four dead and Perozeni and another SF NCO were wounded and five Nigerien soldiers were also killed in the attack. They wasted little time (just 15 days) from the time Mattis left his position to re-instating his reprimand.

Perozeni’s original letter of reprimand was issued for failing to ensure his team was adequately trained before working with the Nigerien troops prior to deployment. That in itself is very flawed, for Perozeni had command of the A-Team for just a few weeks prior to deployment. With the current state of CS (chicken-s**t) mandatory training, ODA’s never have enough time to do the amount of training required. And blaming a Team Leader who had just a few weeks to prepare is ridiculous.

But when the DOD did an internal investigation into the Special Force team’s actions, Perozeni was recommended for a Silver Star. Initially, ODA-3212 planned a daylong “civil reconnaissance” trip on Oct. 3, 2017, to meet with tribal elders in the African countryside.

This is where the story gets crossed, prior to leaving the base in Ouallam, Perozeni received an order for his team to conduct a kill-or-capture mission involving Doundoun Cheffou, an ISIS militant believed to be behind the kidnapping of an American in Mali, among other things.

The order was given by another Captain, the same rank as Perozeni, who was filling in for his superior who was on maternity leave. Perozeni made his objections known straight away, saying that his team had neither the intelligence nor equipment to carry it out. However, his battalion commander LTC David Painter who was based in Chad ordered the team to move forward with the mission. Painter, it should be noted, was also recently reprimanded as well, after having not been earlier. He was slated to command one of the Army’s new SFAB battalions in Afghanistan in the coming months and now that has been changed.

The mission was scrubbed due to weather and the Green Berets moved on with their original mission that had been planned. But enroute the team’s mission was changed again. They were ordered to go close to the Mali border where they were to collect intelligence on what was reported to be Cheffou’s desert camp.

The next day, after stopping in Tongo Tongo for water, the ODA felt that the village was attempting to stall them. After leaving the village they were ambushed by a numerically superior force with heavy weapons. Perozeni and SFC Brent Bartels were wounded in the ambush while SGT La David Johnson, SSG Bryan Black, SSG Jeremiah Johnson, and SSG Dustin Wright were killed during the fighting. Reportedly the ODA killed 21 of the insurgents.

The only member of the senior officers involved in the action from the 3rd SFG to go unscathed was the 3rd SFG Group Commander, COL Bradley Moses. He is currently the Chief of Staff for the Army’s Special Operations Command and is slated to soon become a Brigadier General.

Perozeni has been made a scapegoat…twice, when in fact, his actions more than merit his bravery during the action. He, Bartells and several Nigerien soldiers tried to flank the ambush on foot. Once he realized that the insurgents were much more powerful than originally thought, he ordered the men back to the vehicles.

He was wounded and thrown from the back of a truck. Bartels, already wounded, drove through fire to retrieve him. Perozeni did what every Special Forces officer is supposed to do in that situation. He tried to pick up the pieces and lead his team out of harm’s way.

So, now the Army is trying to reprimand Perozeni for his actions while putting him in for a Silver Star, the third highest award for valor in the U.S. military. The entire aftermath of a desperate battle by the Green Berets has turned into a fiasco. In the days immediately following the battle, the Army changed its story three times. At first, ODA 3212 was conducting “a recon mission”, then a training mission, and finally they conceded that it was a capture/kill high-value target raid. That should tell anyone all they have to know.

Then the Pentagon, in a 6000-page report on the ambush, the report blames the ambush partly on a culture of risk-taking, which is what Special Forces and all Special Operations units are in the business of.

Perozeni’s actions were not the cause of his soldiers getting killed on that day in October, and regardless of the fact that this reprimand was being placed only in his “local file” which is not supposed to follow him in his career, it is as wrong as rain. He and his team should be decorated, not reprimanded. The senior leadership fo SOCOM needs to step in and do the right thing here…and the troops are watching.

Photo: US Army

Special Operations Forces Selection PT Preparation Week 14, Day 4

Wednesday is a light Shoulders and Back training day in the gym before heading off to do the SOF (Special Operations Forces) Triathlon. A 3-mile run, a rucksack march, and a swim with fatigues and boots.

These are three things that you’ll have to be able to do well to pass Selection. If your plans include being a Marine Raider or a Navy SEAL, then being a good swimmer and being more comfortable in the water with your gear on is a must.

UBRR Training:

More Preparation for the UBRR:

2 x 12 Lat Pulldowns, behind the neck (go as heavy as possible)

2 x 12 Lat Pulldowns, front

2 x 10 Dumbbell Side Raises

2 x 10 Dumbbell Front Raises

2 x 10 Dumbbell Arnold Press

2 x 8 Shoulder Shrugs

3-mile Run (24 minutes maximum)

3-mile Rucksack march (45-pound minimum, 45 minutes maximum)

100-meter swim in fatigues and boots

Stretch well after completion

Don’t Poke the Bear Especially With Special Forces Troops

“And Don’t Shoot the Goddamn Beanbag Lights”

One of the best perks of this position is that in trying to read all the news concerning the military and Special Operations around the globe every day, everyone now and then something triggers. And as you’re reading something having to do with 1158th Special Operations Squadron of East Overshoe doing a big train up or operation, it will remind of an operation or funny event, long forgotten from days of yore.

So, as many of our readers here at SpecialOperations.com know, the United States invasion of Panama (was it really an invasion? Since we had a slew of bases there), “Operation Just Cause” began on December 20, 1989. And as I said, a lot of the troops that were to take part were already there.

But what many don’t know, is that the invasion…er attack on Noriega’s Panamanian Defense Forces (PDF), nearly happened 18 months prior. And before everyone gets all OPSEC on me here, this isn’t breaking any of that. It is just the background to what ultimately transpired.

Our company in the 7th Special Forces Group (7th SFGA), had just returned from a deployment to Honduras in the early spring of 1988. As soon as we got back the entire battalion was placed on alert and briefed that we were going to conduct an emergency re-deployment to Honduras…uh huh. We were broken down into “training committees”, Sniper, Machine gun and Assault Team committees were assigned and it didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what was going down and where. I personally was thrilled, my warrant packet had disappeared into the bowels of the headquarters, and I was put on a levy for SWC and the schoolhouse. Anything to put that off for a bit.

We went thru a training cycle and as a member of the Machine gun “training committee” we weren’t rehearing any lesson plans but doing a shitload of firing. We had a nice blend of SAWs and M-60s and we spent as much time debating over where we were going as who was the sorriest machine gunner. That’s because in the Type A personality of Special Forces, every guy KNEW he was the best…LOL.

One beautiful spring morning, we went back out to the range and got our briefing on what would transpire that day. North Carolina only has a handful of these clear, crisp perfect spring mornings before the weather jumps right to mid-summer and the red clay of Ft. Bragg turns it into an Easy Bake Oven.

It was a good day, everyone was motivated, happy to be preparing to go back on another deployment and shooting a bunch of lead down range. What more can anyone ask for? Plus we were doing it with everyone from the entire battalion, which we never did. So, yes everything was as good as it gets. But little did we know that things would get crazy later that night.

The plan was to do range firing in the morning for the gunners, get the AGs (assistant gunners) some range time in the afternoon and then do a night shoot with NODs that evening. So, as the Team Sergeant who was running the range ran thru the schedule of events for the day, we all listened and were gathering all of our crap for the day, as the MSG finished up, he was mentioning the night fire. And with our NODs, the left and right limits would be set up using IR beanbag lights.

Just then one of our Sergeant Majors chimed in, “And don’t shoot the goddamn bean bag lights!” he barked out. Everyone just kind of chuckled but he wasn’t joking. “I mean it, I don’t want to see one of these fucking lights get damaged,” he said with his voice raising an octave higher. We all hushed up and glanced at one another like “WTF was that all about?”

I didn’t know this Sergeant Major, he had just come back from being at Delta, but the guys I knew and trusted all said, that this SGM was a good dude and a kickass, pipe-hitting operator. I don’t know if he was just having a bad day, or his dog bit him but that was a bit surprising.

Out on the range that day, I was next to my good bud Victor V. who was one of the most genuine good guys in SF. Victor was always in a good mood, had a smile always on his face and was universally liked by everyone he came in contact with. We went thru the Q-course together and I knew him to be an excellent Radio Operator (18E).

We were both firing SAWs and as the afternoon was wearing on, Victor was encouraging his AG (whose name escapes me) and then imitating the Sergeant Major he kept yelling, “Don’t shoot the goddamn beanbag lights!” which in his Puerto Rican accent made it seem funnier than it probably was.

That night we sat around waiting for it to get dark enough to do our night firing, we got our safety briefing followed by another rant by the Sergeant Major about firing up the beanbag lights. We were all looking at each other trying to figure out where all of this shit was coming from. One of the Weapons guys from B Company said, “I never even gave it a second thought, thinking what a stupid thing to say….Now, I’m blasting me a beanbag light.”

So here we were, a bunch of steely-eyed Green Berets and unspokenly, we knew what was going to transpire. We had just declared war on those damned IR beanbags. We turned on our NODs and Ft. Bragg turned into that marvelous shade of baby-shit green. As the firing started, I guess no one wanted to be the first… But a few seconds later, someone fired a burst and you could see a tracer round blast the farthest beanbag light on the left (our side) of the range. One by one the beanbag lights were extinguished as SAW and M-60 rounds thudded into them.

By the time we were finished only one beanbag light was left. The echoing of the guns was still reverberating thru the night sky. Just then, a single six-round burst from an M-60 cut the remaining light off. “OOOPs, so sorry,” came a laconic, sarcastic voice from the right-hand side of the range. You could hear everyone chuckling as the Range Tower, which housed the Sergeant Major unleashed a torrent of “MotherFuckas” at everyone.

He was still hot later as we policed up our brass. Our company commander walked up and asked what was that all about. Several of us retold the entire event chain from start to finish. “Why in the hell would he do that,” our commander asked? “The quickest way to get you guys to do something is to tell you NOT to do it,” he added walking away.

Well, our “emergency redeployment to Honduras” got called off shortly after. But our team did go back there in a few months. My orders for the SWC schoolhouse would have to wait on my return. I went to see Sergeant Major Murray (RIP) who did all the assignments. “I really need guys who are O&I qualified for the committee,” he said. Smiling I told him that I was O&I qualified… “That’s great, he said. “But I really need guys here,” he said pointing to a spot on his big board. SFOT. “We’re starting up a Selection Course and that’s where you’re going.

After about a year at SFOT/SFAS, my warrant packet was miraculously found, and off I went to Ft. Rucker and back to Bragg for the SF Officer Course. And then a follow-on assignment to 3/7 SFG down in Panama. And much rejoicing was had by all…

Photo: US Army

FIRE AND ICE: ICELAND’S ELITE, “VIKING SQUAD” SWAT TEAM

“Never walk away from your home ahead of your axe and sword.

You can’t feel a battle in your bones, or foresee a fight.”

— The Hávamál (Viking book of knowledge),

circa 1000 A.D.

Occasionally here at SpecialOperations.com we get article submissions from authors, that we believe that our readers will enjoy. And this one from Warren Gray, a former Air Force intelligence officer is a really good one. Check it out and enjoy.

In the early morning hours of Monday, December 2, 2013, at approximately 2:50 AM, a reverberating, shotgun blast in an apartment at Hraunbær 20 in the eastern, Árbær suburb of Reykjavík, Iceland, in the majestically-beautiful “Land of Fire and Ice,” awakened frightened neighbors, who naturally called the Lögreglan (literally, “Law Order,” meaning Icelandic Police.) The 59-year-old offender, Sævar Rafn Jónasson, who had fired his weapon, owned at least six shotguns, suffered from major, psychiatric illness, had a long history of criminal offenses, and was under the influence of alcohol at the time, according to subsequent, toxicity analysis.

Most Icelandic police officers are unarmed, except for MK-4 pepper spray and an extendable baton, but there is one very elite, armed, SWAT unit, the Sérsveit Ríkislögreglustjórans (Special Unit of the National Police Commissioner), more popularly nicknamed the Víkingasveitin (“Viking Squad”), which is specially trained for dealing with heavily-armed suspects. So, the Viking Squad was immediately called into action, with an estimated 18 officers from Reykjavík responding to the incident scene.

The suspect fired upon two local firemen who attempted to contact him, and Viking Squad members clad in dark blue uniforms employed a locksmith in an effort to drill out a lock on the apartment door, but the perpetrator resisted, and no progress was made. At 4:55 AM, police began firing more than two dozen tear gas canisters into the apartment to subdue the armed man, but he still stubbornly refused to surrender, not responding to any police efforts to contact him by telephone or voicemail.

At 6:06 AM, 10 more tear gas canisters were launched into the kitchen window of the apartment. The suspect replied with another shotgun blast from the same window. A larger, gas container was forced through the front door, but it failed to ignite, so the Viking Squad decided to breach the door themselves.

At 6:42 AM, still four hours before sunrise in the far north, a four-man, police SWAT team entered the apartment, armed with Brügger & Thomet (Swiss) LL-06 non-lethal, yellow, 40mm “ball guns,” making a concerted effort to take the dangerous subject alive, and Glock-17 service pistols, clearly identifying themselves vocally as “armed police.” Within the next 30 seconds, Jónasson shot the nearest two Viking Squad members from his bedroom, with three shotguns at the ready, striking one man’s helmet visor and the other man’s ballistic shield, but they were uninjured.

The Viking Squad troopers returned fire, critically wounding Jónasson with at least two 9mm pistol bullets. The injured perpetrator was rapidly transported to the National Hospital, where he died at 6:58 AM. Most notably, this was the first and only time in Iceland’s modern history that police forces fired their weapons or killed someone in an armed operation. It was a traumatic, unprecedented moment for the entire nation.

Iceland has been ranked as the safest and most crime-free nation on Earth for the past 11 years, but 37 years ago, the peaceful, Icelandic government, with no standing army, recognized the increasing need to combat international terrorism, since a hijacked (by Croatian separatists) airliner, TWA Flight 355, had landed at Keflavík International Airport on September 10, 1976, with the terrorists using firearms against unarmed, Icelandic police.

It was also deemed an urgent requirement to be able to defend against possible, Soviet SpetsNaz raids during the Cold War. And, in the wake of some criminals using firearms against unarmed police, it was necessary to create an armed, SWAT branch of the national police force for dealing with serious incidents of crime, so the Icelandic government asked Norway for help.

Lieutenant Arnór Sigurjónsson, an Icelander serving with the Norwegian Army (and currently Director of Security and Defence Department of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Iceland, and NATO Military Representative for Iceland), was tasked with overseeing the training of the new, Viking Squad unit, which was formally founded on October 19, 1982, upon completion of their arduous training by Norwegian Special Forces.

Modeled on the Norwegian Emergency Response Unit (nicknamed “Delta”) police counterterrorist organization, the Viking Squad was assigned the primary duties of counterterrorism, support of local police forces, VIP security for Icelandic officials and foreign dignitaries, and protecting important installations in wartime.

As a paramilitary, police commando force of just 55 men, Víkingasveitin is subdivided into five main squads: Alpha Squad is an explosive-ordnance disposal (EOD) unit, Bravo Squad is a boat/diving unit for seaborne operations, Charlie Squad specializes in sniper warfare and close, target reconnaissance, Delta Squad is an intelligence unit, specializing in intelligence collection, surveillance, and infiltration, and Echo Squad is an airborne unit specializing in aircraft hijacking situations, skydiving, port security, and surprise assault operations.

Some of this parachute training may be carried out at Skydive Iceland in Hella, 48 miles southeast of Reykjavík, the only active, skydive center in the country, operating a Cessna P206 Super Skylane light aircraft, but sometimes with special access to an AS350B2/B3 Écureuil (Squirrel) helicopter, an AS332L1 Super Puma, or an older, ex-Icelandair DC-3/C-47A Skytrain transport.

As of March 2018, Viking Squad SWAT members wear a new, steel-gray (formerly dark blue), assault uniform, with black berets, black Kevlar helmets, black body armor with the distinctive, winged badge of the Víkingasveitin velcroed on, and black leather combat boots. Their weapons include Glock-17 service pistols, H&K MP5A3 submachine guns (150 were supplied to the Icelandic Police by Norway in 2014) with optical sights, H&K G36K assault carbines, Mossberg 500 Tactical shotguns, Blaser (German-made) R93 Tactical 2 and older, Steyr (Austrian) SSG 69 sniper rifles in 7.62mm NATO, LL-06 non-lethal grenade launchers, possibly Rheinmetall MG3 machine guns, and at least one Glock FM 78 field knife has also been seen in unit photos.

Viking Squad is stationed in three locations, in Reykjavík, at Keflavík International Airport, and in the northern city of Akureyri. Their vehicles and other transportation sources include Volvo XC70 and XC90 all-wheel-drive station wagons, powerful, Ford Police Interceptor Utility SUVs, black Chevrolet Suburbans, and other, unmarked vehicles for tactical operations, plus the Icelandic Coast Guard’s three white, blue, and red AS332L1 Super Puma helicopters and DHC-8-Q314 reconnaissance aircraft, fitted with U.S. night-vision equipment.

Although technically a police SWAT unit within the Ministry of the Interior, the Viking Squad is considered to be part of the Military of Iceland, since there is no standing army, and they often participate in joint, military exercises with Norwegian and Danish Special Forces. Viking Squad members have deployed to Afghanistan and the Balkans on NATO-led, peacekeeping operations, often as part of the Iceland Crisis Response Unit (ICRU) under the Ministry for Foreign Affairs.

The ICRU is a paramilitary unit, consisting of only about 30 active members at a time. Until 2008, they wore Norwegian-pattern, woodland or desert-camouflaged uniforms and royal-blue berets (the primary color of the Icelandic flag), and carried weapons (including H&K AG-3 [G3A5] battle rifles until 2008, Diemaco C8 assault carbines afterward, Glock-17 service pistols, FN Minimi light machine guns, and Rheinmetall MG3 medium machine guns), mostly of Norwegian, military origin, for self-defense, but this generated controversy at home amid liberal, societal traditions of non-militarization and pacifism, and now they only wear uniforms and carry weapons under special circumstances.

Iceland’s entire population is just over 350,000 people, of whom 60 percent live in the Capital Region of 208,000 people, in and around the city of Reykjavík, and 99 percent live in urban areas, with local populations greater than 200 people.

Their extremely low crime rate has been attributed to several significant factors, primarily including the lack of racial tensions, ethnic strife, or societal inequality. The nation is a largely-homogeneous society, consisting of 93-percent ethnic Icelanders, three-percent Polish immigrants, and more than three percent from other European nations (Lithuania, Denmark, Germany, etc.), the United States, and Canada. In fact, the only ethnic minorities are Asian, from the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, China, and India, all constituting less than one percent of the national population. So, racism is not as acute in Iceland as it is in many other countries.

In addition, fully 97 percent of the population identified themselves economically as “middle class,” so there are virtually no economic, class-struggle issues, and this relative equality is usually considered to be the leading reason for the lack of crime. Iceland ranks first in the world in income equality and gender equality. There is also a notable lack of hard drugs in Iceland, with cocaine usage reported at less than one percent of the population (less than half the U.S. cocaine-usage rate), removing the incentive for drug-related crimes.

GunPolicy.org estimates that there are approximately 90,000 guns in the country, sufficient to arm a quarter of the overall population. In fact, figures from 2007 showed that 23.5 percent of Icelandic households owned at least one firearm. Iceland ranks 15th in the world in terms of legal, per-capita, gun ownership, but most of those weapons are for hunting or target shooting, not self-defense, are seldom misused, and acquiring a firearm requires a medical examination, extensive, firing-range training, and a written test, so gun violence is almost non-existent.

Owning a handgun is possible, but can take as long as three to four years, and semi-automatic rifles are all but banned. In 2016, as an example, the Icelandic homicide rate averaged only .30 per 100,000 inhabitants (about one person per year), compared to the United States, where the homicide rate was 5.35 per 100,000 inhabitants (17,250 people per year), more than 17 times higher than in Iceland.

“There’s nothing wrong with the gun,” said Jóhann Vilhjálmsson, a gunsmith in Reykjavík. The gun kills nothing, you know? It’s the person who is holding the gun.” The last shooting murder in Iceland occurred 12 years ago, in 2007, and there have only been four killings by firearms in the past 20 years, according to GunPolicy.org.

Using statistics from 2011 as a typical, annual example, the Viking Squad responded that year to more than 2,120 law enforcement incidents, including 462 traffic incidents, 761 surveillance projects, 246 special missions (63 of them armed), 177 surveillance events on motorbike clubs, nine EOD missions, four special diving missions, and they assisted regular police units 125 times with the arrests of dangerous suspects, crowd control, and other difficult, SWAT-related tasks. In addition, they carried out 786 special security inspections at various embassies.

Recent, terrorist attacks in 2018 in the United Kingdom have prompted an increased presence of armed, Viking Squad officers at airports and public events. Haraldur Johannsessen, the National Commissioner of Police, assured the gun-shy nation that, “We are not increasing gun use; we are not arming more officers. We are just making the SWAT team more visible at large gatherings.”

On the foggy evening of January 13, 2017, 20-year-old Birna Brjánsdóttir, a cheerful, young woman from the suburbs of Reykjavík, got drunk at the Húrra night club and left at about five o’clock the next morning. She climbed into a red, Kia Rio rental car at about 5:50 AM and the car entered the Hafnarfjörður harbor area six miles south of the city soon after six o’clock, parking alongside the fishing trawler Polar Nanoq, from Greenland. The car had been rented by Thomas Møller Olsen, a 25-year-old crewmember on the visiting vessel.

One week later, Birna’s nude body was found floating in the ocean near the Selvogsviti Lighthouse, 22 miles south of Reykjavík, along Iceland’s southern coastline. There was no evidence of sexual assault, but she had been struck in the face, strangled, and then dumped unconscious into the water, where she died of drowning. Olsen never confessed to her murder, despite overwhelming, forensic evidence, and he was sentenced to 19 years in prison. Police still had no idea why Birna got into his car, or why he killed her.

Six Viking Squad SWAT members were instrumental in the search for Olsen, boarding a Coast Guard Super Puma helicopter to fly out and meet the Polar Nanoq as it returned to Icelandic waters. They rappelled onto the deck in rough seas, arrested the suspect, and escorted him off the ship to stand trial at Hafnarfjörður.

Birna Brjánsdóttir’s brutal murder shook Iceland’s national psyche to the core. It was a wake-up call that the times were changing. Egill Bjarnason, a local correspondent for the Associated Press, said, “Many people feel overwhelmed by how fast the country is changing, from a small, island nation to something more cosmopolitan. Birna’s death somehow encapsulated people’s unease about this new era.” Iceland still welcomed foreign visitors and immigrants, but there was a new sense of shattered peace and security. There are now more CCTV cameras in Reykjavík, and young women are warier than ever before, badly shaken by a loss of national innocence.

Despite tragic incidents such as this, which are very rare, indeed, Iceland officially remains the safest country in the world, made and kept so by the tireless efforts of the dedicated Viking Squad, who embody the modern, Viking spirit. “The Land of Fire and Ice” remains an absolutely breathtaking, tourist destination, constantly safeguarded by this elite, counterterrorist, SWAT team, the peaceful, Nordic nation’s only special forces unit.

* * *

Warren Gray is a retired, U.S. Air Force intelligence officer, author, and historian, with experience in joint special operations and counterterrorism. You may view his web site at warrengray54.webs.com.

Photo: Wikipedia

Special Operations Forces Selection PT Preparation Week 14, Day 3

Tuesday means it is Leg Day at the gym followed by a 4-mile run. Start off with pull-ups, then squats, lunges and the Sled push/Fireman’s carry followed by the run.

Remember to stretch well and hydrate well during and after your workout.

UBRR Training:

Continue to prep for the UBRR

3 x Pullups 10 reps

3 x Front Squat 20-15-12 reps (lighter weight)

3 x Goblet Squats 20-15-12 reps (lighter weight)

3 x 10 Deadlifts

4 x Sled push heavier weight/ Fireman’s carry

3 x 10 reps Dumbbell Lunges

3 x 20 Spider-Man Planks

4-Mile run (32 minutes maximum)

Stretch well after completion

Talos “Iron Man” Was Always A Pie in the Sky Option For SOCOM

Opinion: Coming back to reality was the first order of business for USSOCOM this winter. The command finally admitted that the Tactical Assault Light Operator Suit or TALOS project was not even close to being a reality, which we reported after attending the SOFIC Conference in Tampa two years ago.

The entire concept was flawed from the outset. The way it was configured, the suit would have weighed close to 600-700 pounds. An operator weighing that much would be in more danger falling thru 2nd story floors he may encounter in Syria, Afghanistan or Iraq than he would from enemy action.

Back in 2013, SOCOM first unleashed its idea for constructing a close-quarters combat suit that was based on the suit that Marvel Comics made famous in the “Iron Man” films with Robert Downey Jr. While obviously not nearly as technologically advanced as Tony Stark’s suit, it was supposed to be the next big thing. The Russians, always one to copy a bad idea if it means trying to one-up the United States, announced plans to build their own version of TALOS.

SOCOM Acquisition Executive James Smith put all that hoopla to rest recently when he told an audience at the 30th Annual SO/LIC Symposium & Exhibition that TALOS is out of reach of our current efforts.

“It’s not the Iron Man. I’ll be the first person to tell you that,” he said. It never really had a chance to succeed, but SOCOM continued to pump money into a dry well, as recently as January of last year looking for a new round of proposals from contractors for a workable potential TALOS design.

Thankfully, reality has set in and the money spent on pie in the sky money pits can be better spent elsewhere. “When we get the exoskeleton here in a few months, we will have the best exoskeleton in the Department of Defense,” Smith added. “It will not be something our operators will feel comfortable putting on a close environment today. So, moving, shooting, communicating in the face of enemy fire … not quite there yet.”

Also in May two years ago, we reported about a much less sexy but eminently more workable solution that was already being tested by Lockheed-Martin. Their system works, doesn’t make an operator the size of a pickup truck and doesn’t need a battery bank that will light up Manhattan.

Lo and behold, the Army was testing this system called “Onyx” back in June with members of the 10th Mountain Division at the US Army Natick Labs to get a clear picture of how well this system will work. In our original piece, we noted that Lockheed-Martin had already tested this exoskeleton extensively with an American Special Operations unit and they put the unit thru the paces jumping up and down on walls, staircases and humping heavy loads around a simulated battlefield.

So, no, Lockheed-Martin didn’t build a suit that will protect an operator thru a nuclear blast, fly thru the air like Superman and shoot laser weapons that will knock down tall buildings…but one that will protect an operator’s knees and back by easing the amount of weight those joints bear in the day-to-day operation of conducting special operations.

Finally. SOCOM is ditching the sci-fi geek projects that will do nothing for the operators in the field for the next several generations for ones that will help our operators today…and tomorrow.

The current design has a much smaller profile than the TALOS and only is worn from the hips down. And it works…what a concept. Sensors on the exoskeleton report the soldier’s speed, direction, and angle of movement to an onboard computer that drives electro-mechanical actuators at the knees.

The exoskeleton delivers the right torque at the right time to assist knee flex and extension. The exoskeleton ultimately reduces the energy needed to cross terrain, squat or kneel. These benefits are most noticeable when ascending or descending stairs or navigating inclined surfaces.

This system boosts leg capacity for physically demanding tasks that require repetitive or continuous kneeling or squatting, or lifting, dragging, carrying, or climbing with heavy loads.

With the added news that our operators may soon be getting upgraded weapons systems that will increase the range and effectiveness of their weapons, 2019 is at least starting off on the right foot.

But sci-fi geeks can take solace that Smith didn’t rule out better armor for operators. “We’re not going to stop looking for better body armor, better situation awareness, better lethality,” he said. “We’re going to keep looking at all of those things.” Maybe a “Predator” helmet with an integrated laser cannon?

For now, I’ll take a workable exoskeleton that will ease the burden on our operator’s knees and backs….I wish we had that a generation ago.

Photos: Marvel/Lockheed-Martin

Special Operations Forces Selection PT Preparation Week 14, Day 2

A quick workout to start the Monday morning and week off right. Start off with the basics of pushups, sit-ups, and crunches, then to the bar for V-ups, pull-ups, and dips before a 5-mile run in a mini UBRR test. Remember to stay hydrated and mark your progress in your workout log book.

So how was your time in the 12-miler on Sunday? Were you under the standard of 3 hours? How do your feet feel after that? If your time was near or over the time limit, then you know what needs to get worked on.

UBRR Training:

More preparation for the UBRR

1 x 1-minute Pushups

1 x 1-minute Sit-ups

1 x 1-minute, Crunches

1 x 1-minute, V-ups

1 x Dips as many as possible to muscle failure (No time limit)

1 x Pullups as many as possible or to muscle failure (No time limit)

5-mile run (40 minutes maximum)

Stretch well after completion