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Ladies and Gentlemen: Once Again, It. Is. On.
Today was the opening ceremony for Fuerzas Comando 19. This year, the competition will be held in Chile. Special Operators from about 19 countries from the Caribbean, the US, and Central and South America will square off to see who will be the Fuerzas Commando champion.
It’s a week of suck. Don’t come if you don’t want to hurt. You can follow the competition on Facebook via the SOCSOUTH page.
I’ve posted this before, and I’ll do it again. If I can keep up, I’ll post updates here.
Probably the best FC promo made, and not just because it’s got a little Mongo in it.
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Published in General
They show you jumping out of an airplane, don’t they? A perfectly good airplane. One of my airplanes!
Wow. If only I was young, physically and mentally fierce and a man. As an older woman with no military experience I am in awe. These are men I want on my side.
Wull, it might not have been perfectly good…
Go win it, Boss!
It’s nice having a window into this through you.
Gracias, hermano.
And just like that I can see the sense in jumping out.
Hey! All my planes that went up came down again. Somewhere.
I think that’s almost an aphorism.
What @arahant said. It’s us who should be thanking you though…por la ventana y mucho más.
I always have questions after viewing through your windows, Boss. Like how heavy is that gear? Does anyone wear corrective lenses or is that a disqualifier for special ops?
Most of the rest of my Qs I figure you can’t answer since I’m not ‘need to know’ :-)
Great promo video. The perfect antidote to Naked and Afraid. Is Beto O’Rourke competing this year?
An interesting development: Yesterday, before the opening ceremony, we got word that “the US team has been disqualified.” A little digging revealed that they hadn’t been disqualified from the competition; they hadn’t passed the water survival proficiency swim prerequisite (a must-pass in order to participate in the water event. Drowning a competitor is considered no bueno from a PR perspective). So, they just can’t compete in the water event. Me and the retired CSM talked it over, and–
Possibility: One or some of the boys couldn’t pass the swim test. Pretty remote chance, as SF guys have to pass something very similar to pass the Q-Course, and the use of a swim in/beach landing for infiltration is not unknown to the boys. However, they are some big ol’ corn-fed, creatine-pounding, kettlebell swinging fellas. They are all definitely negative buoyant.
Probability: It’s cold in Chile right now. Unlike every other nation participating, our team doesn’t train specifically for the competition. They’re commandos and consider being able to walk on the field and perform part of the mission. Plus, they always sweep all of the shooting events. So, they probably looked at the event schedule and figured they’d take the 200 point hit for not competing in the water event, but save the juice for the rest of the competition.
We’ll see how that works out.
45 pounds not including water, weapon, and load-bearing equipment. US standard is 55 pounds for a road march, but some of our partner nation brethren are traditionally little fellas, so we lighten the load a bit.
Definitely. However, your eyes have to be correctable to 20/30. Also, if your uncorrected vision is too awful, you have to get a waiver to go SF. I had to get a waiver; my uncorrected visual acuity was worse than 20/400 in each eye. It didn’t detract from the training–right up until I went to SERE school. The first thing they do in the Resistance (i.e., prison camp) phase of training is take away your glasses if you wear them. I resolved I wasn’t going to be that vulnerable again. As soon as I got to the language school phase (6 months), I took leave and got RK surgery (which was thoroughly, totally unauthorized at the time). Won the lottery with that one. The cuts brought my vision to 20/15 in each eye. They told me when I got to my 40’s my vision would diminish naturally like most all other people in their 40’s. It did, and I once again have to wear corrective lenses to see at 20/20 acuity.
Beta told us he really, really wanted to but he had a calendar conflict. He couldn’t miss his dirt-eating appointment.
“Every nation has frontiers. Every frontier must be guarded…”
Man, that’s such Old Consciousness. Beta and Occasional-Cortex told me that if we just acknowledge that we are all One World and One People, that all this mean stuff will just go away and we can have free stuff for everyone.
Ur somthin’ like that…
No standings/scores posted yet for today.
I’m confused. All that gunplay, and not one hippie gets shot?
Disappointing.
Rad, Boss! Thanks for sharing. I’ll ask because I assume everyone else will – where are you in the vid?
FIFY
Boss, are you in that promo somewhere?
Team Rico, on the little sliver of tape with the guys parachuting off the ramp of the C-130 into the water, I’m the guy wearing the go-pro camera.
They couldn’t use most of the footage. I had a pre-jump “discussion” with the camera guy that attached the camera to my helmet. I maintained he needed to tape the camera in place, or the little reticulating arm thingie holding the camera would get knocked out of alignment on opening shock. The camera guy didn’t want to do it; he didn’t want any yucky tape residue on his equipment after the jump. He got a little obstreperous and told me he’d “been doing this type of work for fifteen years.”
I told him I’d been on jump status more than 20 years, and if it ain’t tied down or taped down, it’s going to be frapping in the wind upon exiting the aircraft. The plane “slows down” to 120 knots to put out jumpers. The static line and deployment bag getting ripped open slows you to effectively 0 knots on exit. The opening shock is significant, and non-jumpers have a hard time getting their heads around it. Thus the skepticism on the “tape it or tie it” requirement.
So, I exited the aircraft, the camera was knocked askew (thus the reason you can see me). I knocked the camera out of the way (wasn’t real concerned with making the film crew happy at that particular point in time), so the only footage they could really use was the initial bit and the landing in the water bit.
The camera guy was a little sheepish after he reviewed the film.
Tailgating off a C7a Caribou is awesome! Best Jumps Ever!
Here’s where we’re at right now:
Is this counting the forfeited water event?
We’ll spot you an event, and still do better than fifteen of you after a few days.
Wow.