One American Delta Force operator speaking years later to journalist Sha Naylor for his book on Joint Special Operations Command described watching a four-man SAS team prepare for a raid. They looked like they were going to a barbecue, he said, shorts, sandals, t-shirts, pistols tucked in their waistbands. We were kitting up with 60 lb of body armor and nodds and radios and they just walked out the door.
I thought they were going to get killed. They came back 3 hours later with four detainees and a hard drive full of intelligence that took us 2 weeks to exploit. That quote captures the culture shock perfectly, but it obscures the reality of what was happening underneath the apparently casual exterior. Every SAS operator in Iraq had completed a selection process that eliminates over 90% of candidates.
The regiment draws primarily from the parachute regiment and Royal Marines. Though soldiers from any CAT badge can attempt selection, the course itself lasts approximately 5 months. The first phase known as the hills involves progressively longer marches across the Breen beacons in South Wales carrying Bergen rucks sacks that increase in weight from around 25 kg to over 29 kg plus weapon and belt kit.
Navigating alone between grid references in all weather conditions. The final march known as endurance covers 64 km with a Bergen weighing approximately 29 kg plus rifle and must be completed in under 20 hours. Men have died on this march. The beacons kill hypothermia, heat exhaustion, navigational errors that leave candidates wandering in white out conditions on exposed ridge lines at altitudes exceeding 880 m.
Those who survive the hills enter continuation training, which includes standard and advanced infantry tactics, demolitions, close quarter battle drills, signals, combat medicine, and the infamous resistance to interrogation phase, where candidates endure simulated capture, and sustained psychological pressure designed to test their ability to resist revealing information under extreme duress.
The details of this phase are classified, but former candidates have described sleep deprivation lasting over 36 hours. Stress positions, sensory deprivation, and interrogation techniques that push men to their absolute psychological limits. Some break, many break. The ones who don’t go on to the next phase. By the time an SAS operator arrived in Iraq, he had typically served 6 to 10 years in the military, completed the most demanding selection course in the Western world, undergone specialist training in hostage rescue, covert surveillance, explosive
method of entry, advanced driving, combat shooting at a level
