Posted on 03/05/2011 10:33:13 PM PST by TigerLikesRooster
SAS unit, diplomat 'held' by Libya rebels
LONDON (AFP) – A Special Air Service (SAS) unit and a junior diplomat were being held by rebels in eastern Libya following a bungled mission to put the envoy in touch with them, The Sunday Times said.
The broadsheet, citing sources, said the SAS unit, thought to be up to eight men, were captured along with the diplomat they were escorting through the rebel-held east.
"We can neither confirm nor deny the report," a Foreign Office spokeswoman told AFP.
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) said: "We neither confirm nor deny the story and we do not comment on the special forces."
The uninvited appearance of the SAS alongside the diplomat "angered Libyan opposition figures who ordered the soldiers to be locked up in a military base," the weekly said.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Well, I’ll defer to people who know better on that score. It does seem a bit strange that they would recruit from such a massive pool of untested civilians who they know very little about before they even start the selection process, but maybe they have their reasons.
From what I understand of the SAS, you already have to be a member of HM armed forces before you attempt to join them.
Also from what I understand, the Parachute Regiment and the Royal Marines are the most common units that the SAS recruit from. They will already have gone through an intense selection process and level of training at Catterick or Lympstone respectively, so the pool the SAS is drawn from will already be full of highly-trained, competent and extremely tough men before they even start whittling it down to the very few individuals that will survive this even tougher selection process and in order to get ‘badged’...
Thank you, sir, for adding clarity and reasoning to these comments.
While I don’t have special forces background (I was a Navy Scuba Diver assigned to my submarine and my son is currently stationed with the 82nd Airborne) I recognize that these SAS troopers are NOT sub par as some here automatically assumed.
One thing I would add though about your comment about “if you just wanted to blow a hole in a wall call the Rangers”....Army Rangers (specifically those assigned to a Ranger Battalion) are some serious, no holds barred, go getters. Just trying to get assigned to a Ranger Battalion takes not just enlisting, but passing Jump school, then passing RASP (an 8 week ordeal). While Rangers may not be as specialized as SEALS (I can only guess cause I was neither) they are much more then just “wall breachers”.
Although if this mission was assigned to the Army Rangers, from what I learned, they would have had to ruck march/run the whole way with 60lbs of gear while the ambassador road comfortably along in a jeep. 8 )
“And the simpletons who think the SAS troops were cowards for not shooting their way out of a roadblock while surrounded by 100s of twitchy Libyans rebels WHO THEY ARE TRYING TO MEET, NOT KILL, can go back to their child-like comic-book view of the world.”
Not cowards just dumb. Walk right into an ambush? Unless
of course Maxwell Smart is running this OP, then it all
makes sense. Getting caught with the “elite” SAS may give
the diplomat some cred and stir the curiosity of the rebel
leaders. Or they just plain screwed up.
It always amazed me how easy it is for someone on the other side of the world with zero experience in the field to tell you how you should have done things better or differently. Quite frankly, I like my skin and everything contained within it, so when someone else was willing to sacrifice it at their whim because of some idea they had gotten from a movie, I politely told them what they could go do to themselves... A couple of times I even keyed the mic when I said it and told them they had just misunderstood the transmission when I got back. Of course no one was willing to file a charge when the objective had been accomplished... They would have looked like an idiot.
I decided I was better suited to private contractor work... Never looked back.
Regards,
Raven6
The USMC on average train 11 wks, then further training.
The Royal Marines train for 32 wks, then further training. All Royal Marines are both elite light infantry and commandos.
Your Marines are good, but I will take a RM anyday.
This demonstrates the supreme need for mission clarity in the field. These guys could have absolutely manhandled anyone they KNEW they would have to fight. Diplomacy-driven initiatives are always confused because they proceed toward still-developing goals.
It's like getting lost in a bad neighborhood while driving a steamroller. Yeah you could steamroller any poor bastard who got in your way, but when you get in trouble when you stop to get directions.
I drink.
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