Copied from the March 2000 issue of Maxim, Magazine for Men.
The A–Teams.
They train blindfolded, eat rats for breakfast, and assassinate all the bad guys. They’re special forces, the world’s elite commando units. But which one is the toughest?
Maxim, Mar 2001
by Shane Mooney
They’re the cream of the world’s military crop: The Army’s Special Forces, the Navy’s SEALs, Britain’s SAS, Russia’s SPETSNAZ, Israel’s Sayeret Matkal, and France’s GIGN. Every member of these elite units can live off bugs for a week in subzero climates, dismantle a bomb blindfolded, do a HALO jump into a hurricane, and kill normal humans with a single blow to the fibula. They help win wars, destroy terrorists, and rescue furry kittens from trees (or so we’re told). They can attack and secure an area the size of France in the blink of an eye (as opposed to actually overthrowing France in the blink of an eye, which anyone can do
).
But which of these commando groups is the toughest? Maxim interviewed current and former special–forces members and scores of military experts to pierce the wall of secrecy surrounding these uncompromising combat units. We uncovered their amazing histories and achievements, their freaky training regimens, their freakier weapons. So judge for yourself which group has the biggest cojones. But do us a favor: Keep your opinions to yourself. These guys know where we live.
U.S. ARMY SPECIAL FORCES (a.k.a. GREEN BERETS)
Green Berets may laugh when you mention Rambo, but Stallone’s superhuman psycho wasn’t so far–fetched.
In 1952, anticipating an inevitable confrontation with the Red Army, Fort Bragg created the first Psychological Warfare/ Special Forces center in North Carolina. America’s most intense—and least compromising—commandos have been kicking ass around the globe ever since.
Selection and Training
Only army specialists with a sergeant’s rank or higher and airborne certification need apply for the Q–Course at Fort Bragg. The Assessment & Selection Phase lasts three miserable weeks. A typical daily itinerary: marching a minimum of 17 miles, tackling a 1.5–mile–long obstacle course that emphasizes vertical obstructions, and drifting with full gear in a pool for hours on end. At the end of the program, recruits must complete the dreaded Star—a 11.2–mile nighttime land navigation course through murderous terrain. An assessment board then decides who continues.
Phase Two is where recruits are separated into specialist courses, which vary in length. Weapons specialists, for example, train for 24 weeks. By the end of the course, they know how to make a rocket launcher with (believe it or not) just two pieces of wood and a battery. One of the instructors’ favorite exercises is the Pile Test, in which five weapons are completely disassembled and thrown randomly into a heap. The trainee must put all the weapons back in working order within 30 minutes. And yes, neatness counts.
By Phase Three surviving recruits combine their individual skills with all the other recruits in what’s called the Robin Sage exercise. Detachments of these soldiers parachute at night into North Carolina’s Uwharrie National Forest in a mythical scenario complete with a specific objective—and hostile natives. Those who are successful are at last qualified to wear the famed green beret (a once contraband item formally endorsed by President Kennedy in 1961).
Unit Highlights
During the Gulf War, even before the air raids began, Special Forces carried out deep reconnaissance and surveillance, prisoner snatches, combat search and rescue, target designation, general intelligence–gathering missions, and raids. They were able to get through occupied Kuwait all the way to Baghdad, tracking down SCUDs.
Personal Combat Story
“I was on commission in Sierra Leone working with the government when, after one particularly wearying battle with the rebels, a general evacuation was called.
“When we arrived at the designated Medevac site, we found 90 frightened, healthy rebels who wanted to defect back to our side waiting in our chopper. However, the thing could only haul 60 personnel—we were extremely low on fuel and night was falling. It was critical that we be wheels–up within a minute, but our excess ‘baggage’ wouldn’t un–ass the chopper. It was a tense situation. Most of these guys were heavily armed. The one nearest me laughed when I asked some of them to get off the aircraft. So he seemed the natural choice to grab by the shirt and toss out the door. He landed flat on his face. He staggered to his feet, and spitting blood, drew down on me with his rifle. I leaped out and booted him in the chest before he could shoot, but then found myself encircled by 30 of his buddies—all pissed off.
“Their commander stepped forward and said he was going to execute me. Wouldn’t have been the first time I’d been threatened like that, but I could hear all their weapons being turned off ‘safe.’ Thinking quickly, I told them that if we hurried I could get the first load out and come right back for them. He agreed. Moments later we bugged out…and never returned.”—Lieutenant. A.G. Hawke, 35, 10–year Special Forces veteran.
THE BRITISH SAS
Don’t talk to them about James Bond: 007 is Mr. Bean compared to these real–life combat machines.
The SAS is the archetype for most of the world’s special forces. The unit is the brainchild of Lieutenant David Stirling, who in 1940 imagined a regiment of highly trained operatives for stealth attacks against enemy Axis powers. But when he tried to get his written plan seen at the Middle East Command Headquarters, he was refused entry. Undeterred, Stirling slipped over the barbed–wire perimeter fence, evaded the sentries, and barged into the office of Major General Neil Ritchie, the chief of staff. Stirling was given carte blanche.
Selection and Training
A Brit can sign up for SAS training once he’s done his 36 months of military duty. For the first month, days start at 4 a.m. and go until at least 10:30 p.m., and all the time in between is spent marching through the Brecon Beacon mountains in Wales as recruits learn to navigate in the dark or during rain, using hand–drawn maps. Then things start to get serious as the weight carried and distance marched is steadily increased until it culminates in the Endurance March, a 37–mile trek to the highest points in the Beacons (nearly 3,000 feet) while carrying at least 55 pounds of backpack along with a rifle. New recruits and even one certified SAS man have died during this phase. But as one officer noted, “Death is nature’s way of saying you have just failed SAS selection.”
Those who manage to survive spend the next 14 weeks learning how to handle just about every weapon known to man, in case they need to kill an enemy with his own gun. Silent tracking, silent killing, sniping, explosives, and field medicine are just some of the skills taught during these three months.
During Combat and Survival Training, the recruit must live off rats, hedgehogs, or whatever else can be trapped in the jungle, all the while avoiding capture by vicious “enemy” troops. Even if he does survive the week uncaptured, he must then surrender to an Interrogation Center, where he’ll spend most of his time shackled and hooded, listening to the sound of beatings and vomiting of nearby prisoners, knowing he’s next.
Those who keep their wits about them continue on to the four weeks of extreme parachute training before officially becoming members of the SAS. The unit spurns special uniforms in favor of traveling incognito. The only distinguishing features are the beige berets and Winged Dagger badges that are seldom seen outside the Regiment’s barracks.
Unit Highlights
In April 1980, Iranian terrorists opposing Khomeini’s rule seized the Iranian embassy in London and took 26 hostages. Almost immediately, the SAS had a life–size replica of the embassy built for training. When given the green light after eleven weeks of negotiations failed, 24 black–clad troopers armed with Heckler & Koch MP5 submachine guns burst through the windows, skylights, even the walls. They shot and killed five of the terrorists and captured a sixth. No hostages were killed during the 46–minute operation.
Personal Combat Story
“For my first tour, in the early 1990s, we were carrying out surveillance of PIRA (Provisional Irish Republican Army) strongholds in Northern Ireland.
“After a few days, my partner Paul decided to show me where the local pub of one of the PIRA commanders was. As we turned into the area near Falls Road, a sight greeted me that sent a shiver down my spine. Fifty meters ahead was an illegal VCP (vehicle control point) guarded by three armed, masked men. It was too late to back up. I drove toward the VCP as slowly as I could without looking suspicious.
“Paul whispered to stay calm and remember my training. I had practiced for this situation dozens of times, but now it was for real. I was halted by one of the masked gunmen and told to wind down the window. He asked who I was. I smiled and then, with a maneuver I’d practiced a hundred times, drew my pistol and fired two shots into his body. Paul jumped out of the car and fired at the other two terrorists. A second later I was doing the same thing. After about 10 seconds, we jumped back in the car, did a quick hand–brake turn, and were on our way out of there. We later found out that we’d killed all three of the gunmen.”—Andy Wirral*, 35, seven–year SAS veteran.
THE RUSSIAN SPETSNAZ
In 1974, the U.S.S.R. formed its own elite unit. They quickly became brutally efficient.
Some like to equate Russia’s SPETSNAZ (SPETSialnoye NAZranie, “troops of special purpose”) with the Green Berets or Britain’s SAS, but anyone even remotely familiar with their Cold War recruitment and training tactics knows that there is no way such intensity would be allowed in the West. In 1974, Yuri Andropov established the stealth military group SPETSNAZ Group Alpha to act independently of the Red Army and to carry out any mission—legal or not.
Selection and Training
During the Cold War, Soviets didn’t fill out forms asking to join the SPETSNAZ. SPETSNAZ chose them. Men from all walks of life were observed and handpicked for the arduous, long–term service by military superiors.
To this day most of the recruits training for the secretive unit don’t even realize they are prospective SPETSNAZ members until many months, even years, into the process. Notes former SPETSNAZ Vladimir Vasiliev, “Even when you are chosen for this training, no one tells you that it is something special until you get up to a certain level…but no matter how high up you get, you never get the whole story.”
Of all the world’s special forces, the SPETSNAZ is perhaps unparalleled in the time it devotes to mental training to toughen and magnify all the senses. Soldiers are blindfolded for hours until they are able to understand the exercises and principles the instructor is teaching without the benefit of sight, or thrown into pitch–black rooms for hours.
The physical training borders on cruel and unusual punishment. “We’d be forced to go through unbearable pain during some of these exercises,” says Vasiliev. “The trainers would bend your arm back until you started screaming. Then, as if this wasn’t enough, somebody would get a knife and start poking you with it. You were then given the choice of two extremes—having your arm broken or being cut with a knife.”
All SPETSNAZ soldiers learn Systema, a Russian martial art many experts consider the best technique for knife defense or fighting multiple opponents—essentially the most complete way to maim and kill. And thanks to inmates of the gulags, the soldiers have an endless supply of opponents to kick, beat, and abuse in the hand–to–hand phase of training.
Unit Highlights
In 1985, terrorists stormed the Soviet embassy in Beirut and abducted several Russian officials, demanding that the Soviet ally Syria stop its efforts to drive Palestinians supporting Arafat out of Lebanon.
Then Soviet president Gorbachev was quickly able to get Syria to stop its operation, but the kidnappers were slow in releasing the hostages. The SPETSNAZ quickly went into action, rushing to Beirut and giving the extremists 48 hours to free their people. When the terrorists let the deadline pass, the SPETSNAZ actually kidnapped four of the kidnappers and sent one of their decapitated heads in a bag to the terrorist chief, promising further unrestrained action.
The captives were quickly freed.
Personal Combat Story
“In the mid–’80s, a dangerous prisoner in the medical unit of a large city prison seized a female doctor, held a knife to her throat, and began dragging her toward the first set of exit doors. The internal alarm was activated, and an emergency call went out to my SPETSNAZ unit. While the murderer made his way through the corridors with his hostage, the unit arrived and one of our men replaced the prison guard on the other side of the exit doors. The criminal yelled to have the doors opened, saying he was prepared to slit the doctor’s throat."
“Our guy was done up to look old, with scruffy hair and thick glasses. He started to whine and complain that it was his first day on the job and he didn’t know what to do. Fumbling though his pockets, he took out a gun, held it by two shaking fingers from an outstretched arm, and offered it to the prisoner. Then, in the blink of an eye, the sniffling guard flipped the gun into his hand and blew the guy’s head off.” —Vladimir Vasiliev, 35, a 10–year SPETSNAZ veteran.
ISRAELI SAYERET MATKAL
Battle–tough and ultrasecretive, this commando team is known simply as “the Unit.”
While the Israeli army has numerous special forces, it’s the combat–tested Sayeret Matkal that’s entrusted with the most important, highly classified, and difficult missions. The unit was formed in 1957 by an officer named Avraham Arnan. Since then its operatives have led almost every notable counterterrorist and hostage–rescue mission conducted on behalf of the Jewish State. Current Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak is one of Sayeret’s more prominent alums.
Selection and Training
The Sayeret Matkal remains one of the most secretive of the world’s special forces; precious little is known of its training techniques. Once a person joins, he starts a regimen known as Maslul. The first four months of training are dedicated to basics at the T’zanhanim (Paratroopers) infantry brigade, with a special emphasis on physical fitness.
But the real fun starts at the IDF Counter Terror Warfare School, where the recruits undergo a five–week Takeover Units Course—learning how to storm airplanes, wear disguises, rescue hostages, and work such modern–day booby traps as exploding cell phones. Next, the recruits start LRRP (Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol) training, learning navigation skills. Once that’s completed, they’re finally given the prized commando insignia, but there’s a catch: Due to their secretive nature, they’re not allowed to wear it.
Unit Highlights
On June 27, 1976, PLO terrorists and the German Baader–Mein group hijacked Air France Flight 139 at Athens International Airport shortly after takeoff. They demanded the release of 53 fellow terrorists. The plane landed at Entebbe airport in Uganda, then ruled by tyrant Idi Amin, who secretly supported the terrorists. The hostages were corralled into a dilapidated terminal. As days went by most of the 246 passengers were released, except for 104 with Israeli passports or Jewish names.
Sayeret went into action. The plan: fly 2,620 miles to the airport under the guise of being President Amin’s entourage and raid the terminal. Four C–130 Hercules transports took off toward Uganda, flying beneath radar. Above them flew a Boeing 707 communications command post, and above that flew several F–4 Phantom jet fighters to intercede in the event a hostile country tried to stop the operation.
Before arriving the 707 radioed ahead saying that Amin was on–board and requested the runway lights be turned on. One of the C–130s carried an exact copy of Amin’s black Mercedes, loaded with Sayeret commandos.
As the Mercedes drove toward the terminal, another of the C–130s dropped explosives at the end of the runway to cause chaos and panic. The terrorists opened fire on the speeding car; the Sayeret returned fire and dropped their targets. The unit then stormed the terminal, killed the other terrorists, and hurried the hostages onto the revving C–130. By the time the plane was airborne, a mere 15 minutes had passed. Eight terrorists had been killed, and just three hostages.
Personal Combat Story
“In April 1984, we got word of four terrorists who’d hijacked an Israeli bus with several dozen passengers on–board. They demanded safe passage to Egypt and the release of hundreds of PLO prisoners. Almost immediately, we went into action, practicing various tactics on a similar bus. “Our first course of action was to try to resolve the situation peacefully. Under the command of Major General Yitzhak Mordechai, the security authorities spent 10 hours trying to negotiate, but to no avail.
“Shortly before dawn, five of us stormed the bus. I was the second one on. I immediately spotted the terrorists and shot and killed the one closest to me who was reaching for his gun. A second terrorist was taken out by one of my comrades after a brief exchange of fire, and the third and fourth terrorists surrendered. Aside from the terrorists, we had only one casualty and seven seriously wounded, including a fellow unit commando.”—Daniel Strauss*, status classified.
Editor’s Note: This incident ultimately ended in scandal, as the two terrorists who surrendered were summarily executed by their Israeli captors, who then tried to cover it up.
FRENCH GIGN
Although France fought like a girl during World Wars Une and Deux (DarkBls won't be happy about seeing that), it has since redeemed itself.
The greatest impetus in forming one of the world’s premier counterterrorist units, GIGN (Groupe d’Intervention de la Gendarmerie Nationale—National Gendarmes Intervention Group), was the 1973 Palestinian storming of the Saudi Arabian embassy in Paris. Since then the GIGN has been involved in some 650 incidents involving guerrillas, terrorists, and all–around bad guys in its 26–year existence. In that time they’ve freed well over 500 hostages and made twice as many arrests.
Selection and Training
Before a frog can join the ranks of the GIGN, he has to have a minimum of five years’ experience in the Gendarmerie (a division of the police force). Those who volunteer go through a basic qualification course, during which candidates must prove a resistance to tear gases and the ability to beat the crap out of wild attack dogs and their fellow cheese eaters alike. But the most important qualification is being able to shoot to neutralize, not to kill. Only 10 percent of applicants pass this initial qualification phase.
The GIGN spends the next 10 months learning parachuting, high–speed driving, hand–to–hand combat, and rappelling. But the training always comes back to shooting. In one of the more unique elements of training, each new member is shot with a .357 Magnum while wearing body armor so he’ll get used to the shock of being shot in the field. A soldier spends a minimum of two hours a day in firearms training, a routine that continues long after he’s earned the right to call himself GIGN. Predictably, GIGN operatives are considered the best in the world when it comes to weapons.
Unit Highlights
On December 26, 1994, the third day into a hijacking that had already seen three of the 177 hostages murdered, the commandeered Air France Airbus A300 landed in Marseilles to refuel. Moments before, an identical plane carrying 40 GIGN operatives had landed at an adjacent airstrip. The Algerian gunmen demanded 27 tons of fuel, instead of the usual 10 required to fly to Paris, leading many to believe they planned to blow up the plane over the city.
At 5:17 p.m., the commandos stormed the plane and walked into a “wall of gunfire” that took out the first four GIGN. Two GIGN units entered the back of the airbus and hurried the hostages out while the terrorists were pinned in the cockpit. After using .357 Magnums, MP5s, and concussion grenades, the GIGN heard someone scream, “Stop shooting! They’re all dead in here.” The navigator and pilot had used the terrorists’ bodies to shield themselves during the gun battle. Eighteen minutes after the raid began, unit commander Major Denis Favier radioed the tower, “The operation is terminated.”
Personal Combat Story
“When some think of counterterrorist units, they usually think of commandos storming a plane and having a shootout, but we are taught the principle of a single–aimed shot; that is, taking out the enemy with one accurate round. In fact, if there are a lot of hostages, we prefer to eliminate as many adversaries as possible in a simultaneous sniper volley. That’s exactly what happened in 1976 when Somali terrorists held 30 French schoolchildren hostage on a school bus in February.
“During that incident, I was one of 10 snipers deployed to the scene. We took our positions and proceeded to wait for hours until just the right moment. My commander had mild sleep–inducing agents mixed in with the food brought for the children. We hoped it would cause them to sleep, thus getting them out of harm’s way. It worked, but still it wasn’t until after eight hours of sitting perfectly still in our sniper position that we were able to take out the first four terrorists outright. Almost immediately, the fifth and sixth terrorists exposed themselves, and I was able to drop one of them with a single shot. Another one tried to flee through the back of the bus but was killed by local forces in a heavy firefight.
“Had we not been trained to be patient and wait for just the right moment, I know the casualties would have been tremendous.”—Antoine Delmas*, status classified.
THE NAVY SEALS
They made their reputation in Nam. Now they’re even more hellbent on getting the job done.
You may think that if Survivor’s Rudy Boesch could hack it, it can’t be a big deal. But you’d be wrong. The first Sea–Air–Land (SEAL) teams date back to 1943, when they were known as Naval Construction Battalions; the unit was officially created 19 years later by President Kennedy to conduct Naval Special Warfare in Vietnam.
Selection and Training
Any Navy grunt who manages to pass the intense physical can attempt to be a Navy SEAL. However, the Navy weeds out the weak the only way it knows how: by putting recruits through hell. In fact, there was one class without a single graduate. Injuries are expected, and there have been a few deaths since BUD/S (Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL) started.
The program lasts 26 weeks and the first segment takes up nine grueling weeks of it, during which more than half of all recruits drop out. Days are spent running, swimming, and tackling an obstacle course that is generally considered by the entire U.S. armed forces to be the toughest anywhere. During this first phase, recruits have their hands tied behind their backs and their ankles bound together, then are dropped in a pool and made to avoid drowning for 30 minutes.
In the sixth week, Hell Week starts just before midnight on Saturday, when troops are awakened by M60 machine–gun fire in their bunkers. For the next five and a half days, they’ll get about 20 minutes of sleep per day and the time not spent running will be spent in the water. There’s so much water time that troops are checked every 12 hours for hypothermia. During Hell Week recruits get a fourth meal, but since they’re burning up to 15,000 calories daily, they still lose weight.
Next up is Demolitions/Recon/Land Warfare training. But even recruits who successfully learn all the specialty training don’t become official SEALs until they pass the Basic Airborne Course and serve a six–month probationary term with an assigned team. Once that’s accomplished, they’ll receive the gold symbol of the Naval Special Warfare: the Trident pin—or the Budweiser, as it’s affectionately called.
Unit Highlights
During Operation Desert Storm, a 16–man SEAL team led a decoy mission on the beach just north of a point called Mina Sa’Ud to aid in the success of the allies’ western ground attack. The night before the ground war was to begin, three pairs of SEALs planted charges near the shore.
At the designated time, two HSBs (High Speed Boats) raced to within about 500 meters and unloaded every weapon they had onto the beach in a mock amphibious assault. Moments later all the preplanted explosives detonated, making a huge boom that could be heard miles away.
Later it was learned that elements of two Iraqi divisions (about 20,000 enemy soldiers) had remained on the coastline, even after the ground attack had kicked off, to defend against the beach assault that never came.
Personal Combat Story
“I was stationed in Colombia helping the government down there. We all knew that the FARC [guerrilla revolutionaries] were getting ready to attack our base; we just didn’t know when. So I was lying in bed at about three o’clock in the morning, when I hear boom! boom! The guerrillas were launching giant gas cylinders at us, some of them even filled with acid.
“I got up and threw on my clothes. My team was running by my room, and I was throwing them Galils [Israeli assault rifles]. Bullets were whizzing by my head and explosions were going off in the background when suddenly the phone rang. I pick it up, and it’s my wife: ‘Hi, how you doing?’ she asked.
“While ducking to avoid the ricocheting bullets, I replied as calmly as I could, ‘Oh, pretty good, pretty good.’
“‘So, what’d you do today?’
“Bombs are going off all around me, and I’m still trying to keep calm. ‘Oh, not much.’ Finally I was able to discreetly get off the phone, right before all hell broke loose.
“Colombia is a war zone, so the people there are always prepared for the worst. So while we were under attack, I needed to run to the base command, about 500 yards away. While talking to the colonel, I noticed that all his secretaries had Galils strapped to their backs while taking notes just like other secretaries. It’s at that point you realize you aren’t in Kansas anymore.”—Petty Officer First Class Tom Doland*, eight–year SEAL veteran.
The A–Teams.
They train blindfolded, eat rats for breakfast, and assassinate all the bad guys. They’re special forces, the world’s elite commando units. But which one is the toughest?
Maxim, Mar 2001
by Shane Mooney
They’re the cream of the world’s military crop: The Army’s Special Forces, the Navy’s SEALs, Britain’s SAS, Russia’s SPETSNAZ, Israel’s Sayeret Matkal, and France’s GIGN. Every member of these elite units can live off bugs for a week in subzero climates, dismantle a bomb blindfolded, do a HALO jump into a hurricane, and kill normal humans with a single blow to the fibula. They help win wars, destroy terrorists, and rescue furry kittens from trees (or so we’re told). They can attack and secure an area the size of France in the blink of an eye (as opposed to actually overthrowing France in the blink of an eye, which anyone can do
).But which of these commando groups is the toughest? Maxim interviewed current and former special–forces members and scores of military experts to pierce the wall of secrecy surrounding these uncompromising combat units. We uncovered their amazing histories and achievements, their freaky training regimens, their freakier weapons. So judge for yourself which group has the biggest cojones. But do us a favor: Keep your opinions to yourself. These guys know where we live.
U.S. ARMY SPECIAL FORCES (a.k.a. GREEN BERETS)
Green Berets may laugh when you mention Rambo, but Stallone’s superhuman psycho wasn’t so far–fetched.
In 1952, anticipating an inevitable confrontation with the Red Army, Fort Bragg created the first Psychological Warfare/ Special Forces center in North Carolina. America’s most intense—and least compromising—commandos have been kicking ass around the globe ever since.
Selection and Training
Only army specialists with a sergeant’s rank or higher and airborne certification need apply for the Q–Course at Fort Bragg. The Assessment & Selection Phase lasts three miserable weeks. A typical daily itinerary: marching a minimum of 17 miles, tackling a 1.5–mile–long obstacle course that emphasizes vertical obstructions, and drifting with full gear in a pool for hours on end. At the end of the program, recruits must complete the dreaded Star—a 11.2–mile nighttime land navigation course through murderous terrain. An assessment board then decides who continues.
Phase Two is where recruits are separated into specialist courses, which vary in length. Weapons specialists, for example, train for 24 weeks. By the end of the course, they know how to make a rocket launcher with (believe it or not) just two pieces of wood and a battery. One of the instructors’ favorite exercises is the Pile Test, in which five weapons are completely disassembled and thrown randomly into a heap. The trainee must put all the weapons back in working order within 30 minutes. And yes, neatness counts.
By Phase Three surviving recruits combine their individual skills with all the other recruits in what’s called the Robin Sage exercise. Detachments of these soldiers parachute at night into North Carolina’s Uwharrie National Forest in a mythical scenario complete with a specific objective—and hostile natives. Those who are successful are at last qualified to wear the famed green beret (a once contraband item formally endorsed by President Kennedy in 1961).
Unit Highlights
During the Gulf War, even before the air raids began, Special Forces carried out deep reconnaissance and surveillance, prisoner snatches, combat search and rescue, target designation, general intelligence–gathering missions, and raids. They were able to get through occupied Kuwait all the way to Baghdad, tracking down SCUDs.
Personal Combat Story
“I was on commission in Sierra Leone working with the government when, after one particularly wearying battle with the rebels, a general evacuation was called.
“When we arrived at the designated Medevac site, we found 90 frightened, healthy rebels who wanted to defect back to our side waiting in our chopper. However, the thing could only haul 60 personnel—we were extremely low on fuel and night was falling. It was critical that we be wheels–up within a minute, but our excess ‘baggage’ wouldn’t un–ass the chopper. It was a tense situation. Most of these guys were heavily armed. The one nearest me laughed when I asked some of them to get off the aircraft. So he seemed the natural choice to grab by the shirt and toss out the door. He landed flat on his face. He staggered to his feet, and spitting blood, drew down on me with his rifle. I leaped out and booted him in the chest before he could shoot, but then found myself encircled by 30 of his buddies—all pissed off.
“Their commander stepped forward and said he was going to execute me. Wouldn’t have been the first time I’d been threatened like that, but I could hear all their weapons being turned off ‘safe.’ Thinking quickly, I told them that if we hurried I could get the first load out and come right back for them. He agreed. Moments later we bugged out…and never returned.”—Lieutenant. A.G. Hawke, 35, 10–year Special Forces veteran.
THE BRITISH SAS
Don’t talk to them about James Bond: 007 is Mr. Bean compared to these real–life combat machines.
The SAS is the archetype for most of the world’s special forces. The unit is the brainchild of Lieutenant David Stirling, who in 1940 imagined a regiment of highly trained operatives for stealth attacks against enemy Axis powers. But when he tried to get his written plan seen at the Middle East Command Headquarters, he was refused entry. Undeterred, Stirling slipped over the barbed–wire perimeter fence, evaded the sentries, and barged into the office of Major General Neil Ritchie, the chief of staff. Stirling was given carte blanche.
Selection and Training
A Brit can sign up for SAS training once he’s done his 36 months of military duty. For the first month, days start at 4 a.m. and go until at least 10:30 p.m., and all the time in between is spent marching through the Brecon Beacon mountains in Wales as recruits learn to navigate in the dark or during rain, using hand–drawn maps. Then things start to get serious as the weight carried and distance marched is steadily increased until it culminates in the Endurance March, a 37–mile trek to the highest points in the Beacons (nearly 3,000 feet) while carrying at least 55 pounds of backpack along with a rifle. New recruits and even one certified SAS man have died during this phase. But as one officer noted, “Death is nature’s way of saying you have just failed SAS selection.”
Those who manage to survive spend the next 14 weeks learning how to handle just about every weapon known to man, in case they need to kill an enemy with his own gun. Silent tracking, silent killing, sniping, explosives, and field medicine are just some of the skills taught during these three months.
During Combat and Survival Training, the recruit must live off rats, hedgehogs, or whatever else can be trapped in the jungle, all the while avoiding capture by vicious “enemy” troops. Even if he does survive the week uncaptured, he must then surrender to an Interrogation Center, where he’ll spend most of his time shackled and hooded, listening to the sound of beatings and vomiting of nearby prisoners, knowing he’s next.
Those who keep their wits about them continue on to the four weeks of extreme parachute training before officially becoming members of the SAS. The unit spurns special uniforms in favor of traveling incognito. The only distinguishing features are the beige berets and Winged Dagger badges that are seldom seen outside the Regiment’s barracks.
Unit Highlights
In April 1980, Iranian terrorists opposing Khomeini’s rule seized the Iranian embassy in London and took 26 hostages. Almost immediately, the SAS had a life–size replica of the embassy built for training. When given the green light after eleven weeks of negotiations failed, 24 black–clad troopers armed with Heckler & Koch MP5 submachine guns burst through the windows, skylights, even the walls. They shot and killed five of the terrorists and captured a sixth. No hostages were killed during the 46–minute operation.
Personal Combat Story
“For my first tour, in the early 1990s, we were carrying out surveillance of PIRA (Provisional Irish Republican Army) strongholds in Northern Ireland.
“After a few days, my partner Paul decided to show me where the local pub of one of the PIRA commanders was. As we turned into the area near Falls Road, a sight greeted me that sent a shiver down my spine. Fifty meters ahead was an illegal VCP (vehicle control point) guarded by three armed, masked men. It was too late to back up. I drove toward the VCP as slowly as I could without looking suspicious.
“Paul whispered to stay calm and remember my training. I had practiced for this situation dozens of times, but now it was for real. I was halted by one of the masked gunmen and told to wind down the window. He asked who I was. I smiled and then, with a maneuver I’d practiced a hundred times, drew my pistol and fired two shots into his body. Paul jumped out of the car and fired at the other two terrorists. A second later I was doing the same thing. After about 10 seconds, we jumped back in the car, did a quick hand–brake turn, and were on our way out of there. We later found out that we’d killed all three of the gunmen.”—Andy Wirral*, 35, seven–year SAS veteran.
THE RUSSIAN SPETSNAZ
In 1974, the U.S.S.R. formed its own elite unit. They quickly became brutally efficient.
Some like to equate Russia’s SPETSNAZ (SPETSialnoye NAZranie, “troops of special purpose”) with the Green Berets or Britain’s SAS, but anyone even remotely familiar with their Cold War recruitment and training tactics knows that there is no way such intensity would be allowed in the West. In 1974, Yuri Andropov established the stealth military group SPETSNAZ Group Alpha to act independently of the Red Army and to carry out any mission—legal or not.
Selection and Training
During the Cold War, Soviets didn’t fill out forms asking to join the SPETSNAZ. SPETSNAZ chose them. Men from all walks of life were observed and handpicked for the arduous, long–term service by military superiors.
To this day most of the recruits training for the secretive unit don’t even realize they are prospective SPETSNAZ members until many months, even years, into the process. Notes former SPETSNAZ Vladimir Vasiliev, “Even when you are chosen for this training, no one tells you that it is something special until you get up to a certain level…but no matter how high up you get, you never get the whole story.”
Of all the world’s special forces, the SPETSNAZ is perhaps unparalleled in the time it devotes to mental training to toughen and magnify all the senses. Soldiers are blindfolded for hours until they are able to understand the exercises and principles the instructor is teaching without the benefit of sight, or thrown into pitch–black rooms for hours.
The physical training borders on cruel and unusual punishment. “We’d be forced to go through unbearable pain during some of these exercises,” says Vasiliev. “The trainers would bend your arm back until you started screaming. Then, as if this wasn’t enough, somebody would get a knife and start poking you with it. You were then given the choice of two extremes—having your arm broken or being cut with a knife.”
All SPETSNAZ soldiers learn Systema, a Russian martial art many experts consider the best technique for knife defense or fighting multiple opponents—essentially the most complete way to maim and kill. And thanks to inmates of the gulags, the soldiers have an endless supply of opponents to kick, beat, and abuse in the hand–to–hand phase of training.
Unit Highlights
In 1985, terrorists stormed the Soviet embassy in Beirut and abducted several Russian officials, demanding that the Soviet ally Syria stop its efforts to drive Palestinians supporting Arafat out of Lebanon.
Then Soviet president Gorbachev was quickly able to get Syria to stop its operation, but the kidnappers were slow in releasing the hostages. The SPETSNAZ quickly went into action, rushing to Beirut and giving the extremists 48 hours to free their people. When the terrorists let the deadline pass, the SPETSNAZ actually kidnapped four of the kidnappers and sent one of their decapitated heads in a bag to the terrorist chief, promising further unrestrained action.
The captives were quickly freed.
Personal Combat Story
“In the mid–’80s, a dangerous prisoner in the medical unit of a large city prison seized a female doctor, held a knife to her throat, and began dragging her toward the first set of exit doors. The internal alarm was activated, and an emergency call went out to my SPETSNAZ unit. While the murderer made his way through the corridors with his hostage, the unit arrived and one of our men replaced the prison guard on the other side of the exit doors. The criminal yelled to have the doors opened, saying he was prepared to slit the doctor’s throat."
“Our guy was done up to look old, with scruffy hair and thick glasses. He started to whine and complain that it was his first day on the job and he didn’t know what to do. Fumbling though his pockets, he took out a gun, held it by two shaking fingers from an outstretched arm, and offered it to the prisoner. Then, in the blink of an eye, the sniffling guard flipped the gun into his hand and blew the guy’s head off.” —Vladimir Vasiliev, 35, a 10–year SPETSNAZ veteran.
ISRAELI SAYERET MATKAL
Battle–tough and ultrasecretive, this commando team is known simply as “the Unit.”
While the Israeli army has numerous special forces, it’s the combat–tested Sayeret Matkal that’s entrusted with the most important, highly classified, and difficult missions. The unit was formed in 1957 by an officer named Avraham Arnan. Since then its operatives have led almost every notable counterterrorist and hostage–rescue mission conducted on behalf of the Jewish State. Current Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak is one of Sayeret’s more prominent alums.
Selection and Training
The Sayeret Matkal remains one of the most secretive of the world’s special forces; precious little is known of its training techniques. Once a person joins, he starts a regimen known as Maslul. The first four months of training are dedicated to basics at the T’zanhanim (Paratroopers) infantry brigade, with a special emphasis on physical fitness.
But the real fun starts at the IDF Counter Terror Warfare School, where the recruits undergo a five–week Takeover Units Course—learning how to storm airplanes, wear disguises, rescue hostages, and work such modern–day booby traps as exploding cell phones. Next, the recruits start LRRP (Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol) training, learning navigation skills. Once that’s completed, they’re finally given the prized commando insignia, but there’s a catch: Due to their secretive nature, they’re not allowed to wear it.
Unit Highlights
On June 27, 1976, PLO terrorists and the German Baader–Mein group hijacked Air France Flight 139 at Athens International Airport shortly after takeoff. They demanded the release of 53 fellow terrorists. The plane landed at Entebbe airport in Uganda, then ruled by tyrant Idi Amin, who secretly supported the terrorists. The hostages were corralled into a dilapidated terminal. As days went by most of the 246 passengers were released, except for 104 with Israeli passports or Jewish names.
Sayeret went into action. The plan: fly 2,620 miles to the airport under the guise of being President Amin’s entourage and raid the terminal. Four C–130 Hercules transports took off toward Uganda, flying beneath radar. Above them flew a Boeing 707 communications command post, and above that flew several F–4 Phantom jet fighters to intercede in the event a hostile country tried to stop the operation.
Before arriving the 707 radioed ahead saying that Amin was on–board and requested the runway lights be turned on. One of the C–130s carried an exact copy of Amin’s black Mercedes, loaded with Sayeret commandos.
As the Mercedes drove toward the terminal, another of the C–130s dropped explosives at the end of the runway to cause chaos and panic. The terrorists opened fire on the speeding car; the Sayeret returned fire and dropped their targets. The unit then stormed the terminal, killed the other terrorists, and hurried the hostages onto the revving C–130. By the time the plane was airborne, a mere 15 minutes had passed. Eight terrorists had been killed, and just three hostages.
Personal Combat Story
“In April 1984, we got word of four terrorists who’d hijacked an Israeli bus with several dozen passengers on–board. They demanded safe passage to Egypt and the release of hundreds of PLO prisoners. Almost immediately, we went into action, practicing various tactics on a similar bus. “Our first course of action was to try to resolve the situation peacefully. Under the command of Major General Yitzhak Mordechai, the security authorities spent 10 hours trying to negotiate, but to no avail.
“Shortly before dawn, five of us stormed the bus. I was the second one on. I immediately spotted the terrorists and shot and killed the one closest to me who was reaching for his gun. A second terrorist was taken out by one of my comrades after a brief exchange of fire, and the third and fourth terrorists surrendered. Aside from the terrorists, we had only one casualty and seven seriously wounded, including a fellow unit commando.”—Daniel Strauss*, status classified.
Editor’s Note: This incident ultimately ended in scandal, as the two terrorists who surrendered were summarily executed by their Israeli captors, who then tried to cover it up.
FRENCH GIGN
Although France fought like a girl during World Wars Une and Deux (DarkBls won't be happy about seeing that
), it has since redeemed itself.The greatest impetus in forming one of the world’s premier counterterrorist units, GIGN (Groupe d’Intervention de la Gendarmerie Nationale—National Gendarmes Intervention Group), was the 1973 Palestinian storming of the Saudi Arabian embassy in Paris. Since then the GIGN has been involved in some 650 incidents involving guerrillas, terrorists, and all–around bad guys in its 26–year existence. In that time they’ve freed well over 500 hostages and made twice as many arrests.
Selection and Training
Before a frog can join the ranks of the GIGN, he has to have a minimum of five years’ experience in the Gendarmerie (a division of the police force). Those who volunteer go through a basic qualification course, during which candidates must prove a resistance to tear gases and the ability to beat the crap out of wild attack dogs and their fellow cheese eaters alike. But the most important qualification is being able to shoot to neutralize, not to kill. Only 10 percent of applicants pass this initial qualification phase.
The GIGN spends the next 10 months learning parachuting, high–speed driving, hand–to–hand combat, and rappelling. But the training always comes back to shooting. In one of the more unique elements of training, each new member is shot with a .357 Magnum while wearing body armor so he’ll get used to the shock of being shot in the field. A soldier spends a minimum of two hours a day in firearms training, a routine that continues long after he’s earned the right to call himself GIGN. Predictably, GIGN operatives are considered the best in the world when it comes to weapons.
Unit Highlights
On December 26, 1994, the third day into a hijacking that had already seen three of the 177 hostages murdered, the commandeered Air France Airbus A300 landed in Marseilles to refuel. Moments before, an identical plane carrying 40 GIGN operatives had landed at an adjacent airstrip. The Algerian gunmen demanded 27 tons of fuel, instead of the usual 10 required to fly to Paris, leading many to believe they planned to blow up the plane over the city.
At 5:17 p.m., the commandos stormed the plane and walked into a “wall of gunfire” that took out the first four GIGN. Two GIGN units entered the back of the airbus and hurried the hostages out while the terrorists were pinned in the cockpit. After using .357 Magnums, MP5s, and concussion grenades, the GIGN heard someone scream, “Stop shooting! They’re all dead in here.” The navigator and pilot had used the terrorists’ bodies to shield themselves during the gun battle. Eighteen minutes after the raid began, unit commander Major Denis Favier radioed the tower, “The operation is terminated.”
Personal Combat Story
“When some think of counterterrorist units, they usually think of commandos storming a plane and having a shootout, but we are taught the principle of a single–aimed shot; that is, taking out the enemy with one accurate round. In fact, if there are a lot of hostages, we prefer to eliminate as many adversaries as possible in a simultaneous sniper volley. That’s exactly what happened in 1976 when Somali terrorists held 30 French schoolchildren hostage on a school bus in February.
“During that incident, I was one of 10 snipers deployed to the scene. We took our positions and proceeded to wait for hours until just the right moment. My commander had mild sleep–inducing agents mixed in with the food brought for the children. We hoped it would cause them to sleep, thus getting them out of harm’s way. It worked, but still it wasn’t until after eight hours of sitting perfectly still in our sniper position that we were able to take out the first four terrorists outright. Almost immediately, the fifth and sixth terrorists exposed themselves, and I was able to drop one of them with a single shot. Another one tried to flee through the back of the bus but was killed by local forces in a heavy firefight.
“Had we not been trained to be patient and wait for just the right moment, I know the casualties would have been tremendous.”—Antoine Delmas*, status classified.
THE NAVY SEALS
They made their reputation in Nam. Now they’re even more hellbent on getting the job done.
You may think that if Survivor’s Rudy Boesch could hack it, it can’t be a big deal. But you’d be wrong. The first Sea–Air–Land (SEAL) teams date back to 1943, when they were known as Naval Construction Battalions; the unit was officially created 19 years later by President Kennedy to conduct Naval Special Warfare in Vietnam.
Selection and Training
Any Navy grunt who manages to pass the intense physical can attempt to be a Navy SEAL. However, the Navy weeds out the weak the only way it knows how: by putting recruits through hell. In fact, there was one class without a single graduate. Injuries are expected, and there have been a few deaths since BUD/S (Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL) started.
The program lasts 26 weeks and the first segment takes up nine grueling weeks of it, during which more than half of all recruits drop out. Days are spent running, swimming, and tackling an obstacle course that is generally considered by the entire U.S. armed forces to be the toughest anywhere. During this first phase, recruits have their hands tied behind their backs and their ankles bound together, then are dropped in a pool and made to avoid drowning for 30 minutes.
In the sixth week, Hell Week starts just before midnight on Saturday, when troops are awakened by M60 machine–gun fire in their bunkers. For the next five and a half days, they’ll get about 20 minutes of sleep per day and the time not spent running will be spent in the water. There’s so much water time that troops are checked every 12 hours for hypothermia. During Hell Week recruits get a fourth meal, but since they’re burning up to 15,000 calories daily, they still lose weight.
Next up is Demolitions/Recon/Land Warfare training. But even recruits who successfully learn all the specialty training don’t become official SEALs until they pass the Basic Airborne Course and serve a six–month probationary term with an assigned team. Once that’s accomplished, they’ll receive the gold symbol of the Naval Special Warfare: the Trident pin—or the Budweiser, as it’s affectionately called.
Unit Highlights
During Operation Desert Storm, a 16–man SEAL team led a decoy mission on the beach just north of a point called Mina Sa’Ud to aid in the success of the allies’ western ground attack. The night before the ground war was to begin, three pairs of SEALs planted charges near the shore.
At the designated time, two HSBs (High Speed Boats) raced to within about 500 meters and unloaded every weapon they had onto the beach in a mock amphibious assault. Moments later all the preplanted explosives detonated, making a huge boom that could be heard miles away.
Later it was learned that elements of two Iraqi divisions (about 20,000 enemy soldiers) had remained on the coastline, even after the ground attack had kicked off, to defend against the beach assault that never came.
Personal Combat Story
“I was stationed in Colombia helping the government down there. We all knew that the FARC [guerrilla revolutionaries] were getting ready to attack our base; we just didn’t know when. So I was lying in bed at about three o’clock in the morning, when I hear boom! boom! The guerrillas were launching giant gas cylinders at us, some of them even filled with acid.
“I got up and threw on my clothes. My team was running by my room, and I was throwing them Galils [Israeli assault rifles]. Bullets were whizzing by my head and explosions were going off in the background when suddenly the phone rang. I pick it up, and it’s my wife: ‘Hi, how you doing?’ she asked.
“While ducking to avoid the ricocheting bullets, I replied as calmly as I could, ‘Oh, pretty good, pretty good.’
“‘So, what’d you do today?’
“Bombs are going off all around me, and I’m still trying to keep calm. ‘Oh, not much.’ Finally I was able to discreetly get off the phone, right before all hell broke loose.
“Colombia is a war zone, so the people there are always prepared for the worst. So while we were under attack, I needed to run to the base command, about 500 yards away. While talking to the colonel, I noticed that all his secretaries had Galils strapped to their backs while taking notes just like other secretaries. It’s at that point you realize you aren’t in Kansas anymore.”—Petty Officer First Class Tom Doland*, eight–year SEAL veteran.
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