Spec ops training

[ChaseKenyon]

Chuck,

brother "Paladin" recently made a comment on one Thread about the mental games tests spec ops folks weather military or civilian working for state and military go through.

I just came across this National Geo episode and thought you Armchair Warriors and those of you (bless yous for your service) who are not might get some interest from watching this video.

http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/videos/player.html?channel=60850&category=60664&title=6702


If the link does not work fully go to full episodes and page two

Number 8 at the bottom "Special Opps"
:D:D

[ChaseKenyon]

Please no BS comments until you have seen it in the past or watched it now.

I ask this of you in deference to those who have served in the past and present and future in Special Operations.

THank you.

Chase

[purri]

Extremely hard work to do (and survive) and outguess the "other". EOS

[Larks]

Chase, it seems to have been taken off?? I can't find it on page 2 (or 1)

[Michael Beckman]

http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/videos/feeds/cv-seo/Full-Episodes/All-Full-Episodes/Fight-Science-Special-Ops.html

[PeterSibley]

I can't either .....removed ?

[Michael Beckman]

works here, must not be available for Australia

[purri]

^ yup, but we still know the truth of the mater.

[Larks]

we do??

[purri]

^ weeeel.

[ChaseKenyon]

Ahh I am still resolving issues with running Chrome under Ubuntu Linux 9.10.

Can anyone help out with posting a direct link to the viedeo for me?

Thanx in advance.

Chase

[PAlien]

Michael's link worked for me. Interesting piece, thanks for the link.

[ChaseKenyon]

ok let's try again from MS internet exploder via MS XP media version overuled by firefox.

dump this in your browser

http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/videos/player.html?channel=60850&category=60664&title=6914


http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/videos/player.html?channel=60850&category=60664&title=6914


try it.......?

Don't like being here in MS land long.

[ChaseKenyon]

http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/videos/player.html?channel=60850&category=60664&title=6914

[ChaseKenyon]

http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/videos/player.html?channel=60850&category=60664&title=6914 (http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/videos/player.html?channel=60850&category=60664&title=6914)




jjjjjj

[Michael Beckman]

on the video, click share -> copy link

[ishmael]

What can you say?

I held a DOE Q clearance for a bit. Top secret. Why, given the work I was doing kinda whacks me out, but I guess they thought I was a comer. I proved them wrong. Oh I was trustworthy enough with secrets, mums the word. But there we no secrets I could relate.

I did fall madly in love that summer. Does that count as a security breach? If you listened to the old sticks running things it probably did.

[LeeG]

I've been following Pat Langs blog for awhile, he's a former Green Beret and Army intel. He made a comment a few months ago wondering if the physical training criteria weeded out candidates who were well suited for counterinsurgency operations involving communication and coordination with local cultures. In reading Kill Bin Laden the author remarked on how valuable a particular Pashtun speaking SEAL was to their operations.

[Mrleft8]

All I get is the horse whisperer meets the dog whisperer....

[Paul Pless]

What can you say?

I held a DOE Q clearance for a bit. Top secret. Why, given the work I was doing kinda whacks me out, but I guess they thought I was a comer. I proved them wrong. Oh I was trustworthy enough with secrets, mums the word. But there we no secrets I could relate.

I did fall madly in love that summer. Does that count as a security breach? If you listened to the old sticks running things it probably did.I drove by a nuclear ICBM undeground silo in Missouri once.

[John of Phoenix]

I did fall madly in love that summer. Does that count as a security breach? If you listened to the old sticks running things it probably did. Back then, only if it was a guy or a Russian ballerina.


Lee:
He made a comment a few months ago wondering if the physical training criteria weeded out candidates who were well suited for counterinsurgency operations involving communication and coordination with local cultures.I'm sure it does. Sometimes the skinny geek is exactly the guy really you want in there.

[ChaseKenyon]

Ok paul we used to have a NIKE intercept missile base in my hometown. We used to visit it all the time when in elementary school.

:)

[paladin]

Just saw this.....
When youse was in training, did they ever play those weird games where someone whispers a secret to you and you have to rpeat it to someone else, and so on....
Quite interesting what is first said, then all the iterations as it passes from person to person thru 40 people.
...and for the same reasons, when we were doing intercept work on communications, we were not allowed to write what we thought we heard, just leave a blank to be filled in by intel, and write what you know that was precisely what you heard. The problem was that after a while, you recognized the operator at the other end, and knew his train of thought, and usually what he was trying to say in a round about way.
Johns comments (I think...) about the Russian Ballerinas and gays....well....maybe.....my clearances were well above top secret and I married a gal whose two uncles were in intelligence in North Vietnam and trained in Moscow, and then the last one who actually was a fine pianist......and they knew about it, and never pulled the clearances......I was even asked what if they didn't approve the marriage...I just said I'll find other work.
After a while...they know whose gonna rat and who wouldn't give the time of day. I must say, I never regretted the work.

[purri]

What I found at a local level was that it's just "work" if you don't attach yourself to the prevailing dogma that it "must be special".
A sense of humour helps too.

[paladin]

It's all just "work" until you find yourself on an ice cap in the north sea trying to quietly recover 450 pounds of titanium that had gone silently under the icecap. Lotsa fun.

[Bob Triggs]

It's all just "work" until you find yourself on an ice cap in the north sea trying to quietly recover 450 pounds of titanium that had gone silently under the icecap. Lotsa fun.

I am grateful for your service Chuck. Proud to know you the little that I do.

[paladin]

It's kinda nice when you track something for months, and then perhaps it breaks and part is lost, they look for it and you pray that they don't find it, and that you will. And for 4-5 weeks you are freezing cold, wet, damp, no really hot food, and then you find a piece of cable frozen in the ice, it goes almost straight down, so you start digging in ice, for 4-5-6 days....can't use explosives because of damage or lost device, so you keep at it and maybe in a month and a half you finally get it......maybe, if you're lucky, ya gets to keep all your digits.

[ccmanuals]

My brother did 25 years in AF special ops as a crew member on a 130 gunship. Was in Panama, Grenada, Desert Storm and Shield. He had some absolutely amazing stories. Not even sure if I'm allowed to tell them though. My nephew (his son) does the same thing right now. He is also a crew member on the 130 gunship. He is doing stuff right now that he is not even allowed to tell me (and I currently have a TS and work for the Assistant Secretary of the AF).

[purri]

Hola senor P,

I was alluding to the "knowledge" rather than fieldwork.

Puuri.

[ishmael]

The reason for the Q clearance was probably the good-sized lump of plutonium they held They made the space batteries for the deep space probes. In a place I never had occasion to look, the plutonium vault. That's really what it was called. Batelle was kinda a cool place with all kinds of stuff going on.

One of my favorite stories of all time is from when I was wet behind the ears. My boss was taking me around, introducing me to the various heads and a klaxon went off. I mean if you are in a scii-fi movie it's time to panic. Lights and noise. Dick looks at Dick, a lot of Richards about, and says, "Hm, sounds like the plutoniium vault." Laconic, yawn.

I just asked, um don't we have to do something? "Nah, it'll go off in a minute."

Funny stuff, I'm kinda glad I don't work there anymore.

[paladin]

...or you're baby sitting a couple of fast birds in a hangar in a country that doesn't acknowledge nukes, the hangar has blast doors that will drop in seconds when a button is pushed, and pilots are in hot standby 24 hours a day ready to rock and roll, loaded with fuel......constantly monitoring specialized gear

[ChaseKenyon]

bump

I asked as a favor that folks watch the video of the tv special before commenting.

the few folks who have taken the trouble to go to it or find it as necessary have made appropriate comments.

While the thread drift into general aspects of spec ops is a good thread and should IMHO have a sticky in this forum section as both recognition of service and to show our communities value of extended danger and commitment to a most dangerous form of service, that was not the purpose of this thread.

So will one of you start a branch thread on service for the spec oops folks and even to include all those who risk life and limb in general service. They fail to return sometimes also.

And would some of you please return this thread to the original premise. Spec ops personnel go through extreme selection and have rare makeups of physical capabilities and drive and intelligence not unlike Olympic champions.

The video shows how these folks defy known scientific limits of human performance and do it regularly. I would especially like to point out the stop watch times for gun aquisition from an attacker. While not as fast you have a large community here within the WBF community who have that very training. Some of whom may be old now but......... I would not suggest you try to challenge them.

In ending please watch the video. It may give you the ability to help someone in need of life challenge who is not fitting into society because of it to find their way in life. Those who fit the bill often have not fit it to regular society.

For instance, the ski race team and the top ten who have been practicing for 5 years usually do not like the newbie who shows up and literally makes them all look like second string.


Again thank you all in advance for your tolerance of my foibles.

Chase

[bobbys]

bump

I asked as a favor that folks watch the video of the tv special before commenting.

the few folks who have taken the trouble to go to it or find it as necessary have made appropriate comments.

While the thread drift into general aspects of spec ops is a good thread and should IMHO have a sticky in this forum section as both recognition of service and to show our communities value of extended danger and commitment to a most dangerous form of service, that was not the purpose of this thread.

So will one of you start a branch thread on service for the spec oops folks and even to include all those who risk life and limb in general service. They fail to return sometimes also.

And would some of you please return this thread to the original premise. Spec ops personnel go through extreme selection and have rare makeups of physical capabilities and drive and intelligence not unlike Olympic champions.

The video shows how these folks defy known scientific limits of human performance and do it regularly. I would especially like to point out the stop watch times for gun aquisition from an attacker. While not as fast you have a large community here within the WBF community who have that very training. Some of whom may be old now but......... I would not suggest you try to challenge them.

In ending please watch the video. It may give you the ability to help someone in need of life challenge who is not fitting into society because of it to find their way in life. Those who fit the bill often have not fit it to regular society.

For instance, the ski race team and the top ten who have been practicing for 5 years usually do not like the newbie who shows up and literally makes them all look like second string.


Again thank you all in advance for your tolerance of my foibles.

Chase.

I have deleted my thread realizing it was in inappropriate and i had not followed the orders and directions given.

[paladin]

Sorry, Chase...If I drifted away, tell me which comments to remove and I will do so...

[ChaseKenyon]

Danitaga It was not anything you or anyone else posted.

My point was to get folks to see what humans can really do.
It was to show how to show how those that do this work become not super human as the show indicates but just real different.

Both in our capabilities to overcome the physical and in our mental ability to stay concious and in control when most would be in a coma.

We who have done these things are not so special. Just different.

You have to understand that we go to the VA Hospital and our symptoms are evaluated on not even military standard but a civilian standard.

We can have three kidney stones at once ripping up our urethras, and still take out an attacker or write a response to a graduate thesis question. Most folks would be on their backs on the way to the hospital on morphine.

It is part training and part genetic the way you are.

Pain is a relative thing. the Va (thank god) is funding some very good research into pain control.

It is different for every human being. If you have severe pain injuries your personal cocktail of meds is very unique they have proven.

So Danitaga we and others finally are getting DR who listen and let us tell them what we need (for meds and when).

I wanted this thread to go as to show from the start how different Spec ops folks are physically and mentaly. Then I hoped to show how our training has evolved and now is a major part of the training for the rank and file military in this century.

The end result hopefully to show how not to judge those with extensive military training on regular scales as to physical injuries and abilities.

My meds are locked up and not available even to a breakin expert.

Half of my normal would send most folks to the emergency room as would Danitaga's.

So don't go ohooohhh free drugs.

What keeps us alive would kill many folks.

for this one I sign off with

Dohi ale Tsisquayu,

(peace and love for all)

EnisiWayaDekanogi

(GrandfatherWolfSinging) :)

[paladin]

I use to keep a 7 day supply of meds in the center console of my care in case of emergencies...and yes, any "normal" person taking them would be flat on their backs in a drug induced coma. The doctor was surprised at my tolerance for pain and the reaction to the drugs...as long as I can manage the pain I keep going. I don't want to be drugged to the point of affecting my thinking or reactions....that's probably what saved my life last Saturday when I had the heart attack on the operating table. The doctor kept working as he didn't believe that I was really in trouble.....yesterday he had a very red face and an especially somber one as we talked. One of my problems has been the delay in asking for help, as most folks would be yelling much sooner, so by the time I'm yelling it's getting pretty bad. When I first started dialysis I didn't recognize what was happening as a heart related problem, my heart rate dropped to 38 beats and they would go into panics as all the alarms would go off. I could feel the pain but thought it was because of the fluid being removed in the dialysis process so I mentally endured the pain and tried to control my breathing and relax even more. I finally explained to the nurse what I was doing and she asked me to stop as she couldn't assess the problem.
Got dialis in an hour...
Later 'gator....

[ishmael]

Laugh if you want, but I did get hauled before the power and interogated for that love affair. Nuthin real serious, just an hour with the big boss. Why is still beyond me. She was a nice person, not even close to Russian intelligence ops, LOL, and all I was doing for work was collecting soil, water and air samples and filing papers with the DOE. I suppose it was just protocol. It was a kinda weird taste of the"BLACK" world. I can't say I liked it much, though it did make me feel important way beyond what was called for. It was also a great gig for a kid just out of college. Strange days.

[purri]

Interesting stuff. FWIW I got into hospital after 4 months accumulation of 600mm of blood in the cranium (sub dural haematoma). Exercise kept the pain at bay but a RHS hemiparesis put me in. Thence 2 burrs, a craniotomy to remove the 25cm3 clot and consequent post op S. aureus (bacterial meningitis) with significant scarring over the tempero-parietal region. Thence osteomyelytis, a subsequent craniectomy and cranioplasty some 6 months on. In all that time my BPM never went above 50 and BP always below 95/55.



Stress conditioning both athletic and philosophical approach does a lot of good!

[ChaseKenyon]

In all that time my BPM never went above 50 and BP always below 95/55.

Stress conditioning both athletic and philosophical approach does a lot of good!


It sure does brother.

I still remember the 103.5 temperature and testing followed immediately by being dropped in a whirlpool full of rubbing alcohol and ice and then testing again. Not real fun if I do say so.

But like Paladin pointed out you learn to control your pulse and stay "focused". Wreaks havoc sometimes with the medics,m but can also save your life on occasion.:D

[paladin]

Twice in the last thirty days a nurses aide/tech removed the 14 ga. needles from my arm, put on a bandaid and walked away.....the pressure popped off the tape and compress and shot blood 4-5 feet out onto the floor. I grabbed the arm both times and ran a thumb down on the hole and sat down and just became very calm....the blood flow slowed and the nurse was called and went into a panic...maybe lost 1/4 pint of blood but it made a helluva mess both times and my face went pale, but I didn't get dizzy, lightheaded or pass out....and was able to hold it until the nurse went looking for bandages etc...when she came back I had made compresses from packs of gauze that I carried in my snack/coffee thermos bag, and had also used tape to tighten around the arm......she still insisted on cleaning it, removed the bandage, and started the blood flow again....this is 4 times the witch has screwed up. I have serious doubts about her nursing abilities, and wonder why she doesn't have a legitimate nursing job.