How good are the SSG's

[blain2]

Blain, those just look like full grain leather boots (which would be better for wet conditions but warm for hotter conditions) and desert combat boots (That the cheif is wearing) Different boots fors different conditions.

Key,

The chief is wearing Pakistani made combat boots. At one point, SSG operators used to go on para jumps wearing the same Pakistani boots and at least during one jump, the heels broke off the boots of many of the operators upon landing. They figured that SSG requires specialized boots thus were ordered (they make a single type of boot work for all conditions unlike the western Armies who have more money to spend on these things). The desert combat boots that you see the Chief's MS wearing is a one-off thing for the regular Army (the standard issue is what the Chief is wearing). Only the SSG/SOTF cadres are issued the desert boots.

 

[blain2]

Blain what are those markings behind the SSG symbol and whats there significance?

Iit looks like old British Army regiments badges.

Fatman sahib is right on the ball. Considerable British forces were garrisoned in this area to subdue the unruly tribals (something that we still can't do).

 

[fatman17]

Fatman sahib is right on the ball. Considerable British forces were garrisoned in this area to subdue the unruly tribals (something that we still can't do).

well said! we dont learn from our past do we?

 

[Keysersoze]

well said! we dont learn from our past do we?

The only way is to build schools........The ones that aren't based upon religion.
Educated people tend not to want to die pointlessly.

 

[blain2]

The only way is to build schools........The ones that aren't based upon religion.
Educated people tend not to want to die pointlessly.

Greg Mortenson's "Three cups of Tea" should be a must read for all US officers being assigned to CENTCOM to deal with this Pakistan/Afghanistan Taliban mess.

There are other ways to deal with the Taliban problem:

Op-Ed Columnist - Nicholas D. Kristof - Building Schools in Afghanistan - Op-Ed - NYTimes.com

It Takes a School, Not Missiles
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

Since 9/11, Westerners have tried two approaches to fight terrorism in Pakistan, President Bush’s and Greg Mortenson’s.

Mr. Bush has focused on military force and provided more than $10 billion — an extraordinary sum in the foreign-aid world — to the highly unpopular government of President Pervez Musharraf. This approach has failed: the backlash has radicalized Pakistan’s tribal areas so that they now nurture terrorists in ways that they never did before 9/11.

Mr. Mortenson, a frumpy, genial man from Montana, takes a diametrically opposite approach, and he has spent less than one-ten-thousandth as much as the Bush administration. He builds schools in isolated parts of Pakistan and Afghanistan, working closely with Muslim clerics and even praying with them at times.

The only thing that Mr. Mortenson blows up are boulders that fall onto remote roads and block access to his schools.

Mr. Mortenson has become a legend in the region, his picture sometimes dangling like a talisman from rearview mirrors, and his work has struck a chord in America as well. His superb book about his schools, “Three Cups of Tea,” came out in 2006 and initially wasn’t reviewed by most major newspapers. Yet propelled by word of mouth, the book became a publishing sensation: it has spent the last 74 weeks on the paperback best-seller list, regularly in the No. 1 spot.

 

[blain2]

Chief visiting SSG hq at Cherat along with GOC SSG Maj Gen Tahir Mahmood:
http://www.ispr.gov.pk/images/Big%20Images/11-July-2008.jpg

Wanted to point out the standard PA issued boots that the chief is wearing vs. the ruggedized boots for SSG use.

More pictures from the Chief's visit to HQ, SSG at Cherat. Note that the Special Operations School is also co-located at Cherat (the establishment of the SOS is the next best thing after the raising of the SSG in 1956).

COAS Visit Cherat

 

[JK!]

Nice killing house I take it that was members of Zarar Company.

 

[blain2]

Nice killing house I take it that was members of Zarar Company.

Probably, however Kill houses are being used by regular infantry as well for training around FIBUA. These guys do look like Zarrar company cadres with their black dungarees. IIRC, they are based in Tarbela and not at Cherat though, however they are very mobile and can be moved around the country very quickly courtesy PAF and PAA.

 

[SSGPA1]

This is a crap that SSG are good.
.... From a patriot ..

I just read your post and realized that SSG actually didn't do a good job because you were able to escape alive!!

USE THIS 2ND LEASE ON LIFE WISELY

 

[Hunter911]

i dont know much about our special forces, but i was wondering how good they really are. how good are the ssg and ssgn? are they comparable to premier elite forces in training, equiptment/weapons, effectiveness, performance etc such as the sas or navy seals or delta force etc, or still arguably an immature force?

It it said that, Musharraf when he serviced in army, he was lying on the railroad tracks and his eyes looking at the rapid train pass by . SSG's courage and I think it is comparable to SEAL. Their equipments are certainly very goog .AS-50 sniper rifle, precision reconnaissance equipment, communication systems, gun-breaking equipment, which that are the best equipments among the national forces.

 

[Shiji]

Okay for everyone here who thinks that Lal-Mosque Operation was un-necessary take a look at these pictures (All of these pictures are Pre-Operation)

This operation was not a normal hostage rescue situation. It was a furious CQB Operation. In a H-Rescue Situation the Hostages are willing to cooperate with the authorities, but here what the SSG was faced with was brainwashed Extremists who didn't give a damn about the life of others, all they cared about was the spread of Islam through Violence.
If you guys ask me then I would say that the "Building" (Not a MOSQUE by any definition) should have been bombed by Napalm. Please don't be grossed out by my opinion but this was my mindset during the days of the Seige.
I still can remember GEO's propaganda anchors saying that Army Gunships were bombing the Mosque, and then should a glimpse of the so called "Gunship". Which was a Bell-412.

 

[Kamakazi 69]

SSG in my very own opinion is pretty good. But what I wanted to know was whether they were trained in a particular combat style. I saw the naval special forces learning karate on We Are Soldiers, but do they have their own combat optimized fighting style like the SEALS?

And as a side point, I noticed that US SEALS look like pro. wrestlers, especially in the upper body areas as compared to SSG who well, don't. :/
Is that due to the diet, as I know a US SEAL eats in one day approximately 5 people would struggle to eat?

 

[SSGPA1]

I still can remember GEO's propaganda anchors saying that Army Gunships were bombing the Mosque, and then should a glimpse of the so called "Gunship". Which was a Bell-412.

This is precisely why I don't watch Geo or Jang etc. I will not give my time and money to Javer-ur-Rehman and Shakil-ur-Rehman (brothers who own Jang Group).

Both Javer-ur-Rehman and Shakil-ur-Rehman are black mailers and owe billions in tax money to the GoP.

Both of these guys have investments in Karachi property and KSE through which they use to blackmail a govt. but swinging prices up or down.

 

[greatsequence]

These are the pictures of the time when government sealed the area and Genral Musharaf had decided to teach these poor girls some lesson.

 

[greatsequence]

Astra,

I am not sure how you can compare two terrorists walking into a temple and taking a few dozen people hostage, with almost a hundred militants and almost equal number of hostages, who lived in and prepared a complex for an impending assault by security forces.

Only 93 were killed according Musharaf. I think there were not more than 10 terrorists and the so called hostages were brutally murdered and they were not 93 but three to four time of this amount.

Long live SSG