Ok so i am back and the following question and answer session lasted for 4-5 days.(whenever i got a chance to ask him questions about the Army)
*Me-So you have been a part of Special Operations?How is it different to Special Forces as for me Special Ops are related to Special Forces?
*Spec Ops Operator--No thats not true.Ghatakas and CAT have also done Spec Ops.
*Me-CAT??What is that?
*Spec Ops Operator--Company Assault Team.A small bunch of soldiers who were to be trained as Para SF....as in a specialist in a 6 man squad but it didnt last long.
*Me-Wow...but why didnt it last long.I think it was a brilliant idea.
*Spec Ops Operator--Thats what we were wondering.
*Me-Okay..Comming back to Spec ops..What was the team like and what did you guys do..any behind the line ops?
*Spec Ops Operator--No..we never crossed the LOC but our task was to collect intel by infiltrating inside the group and carrying out our tasks.
*Me--What group are you talking about?
*Spec Ops Operator--I cant tell you that.
*Me-Cool..no problem.So you told me that you liked the gear western armies have for their Spec ops guys and i believe our operators are not given enough despite having a pretty good budget .I mean our Generals have money to buy golf carts but not blood clotting band aids.
*Spec Ops Operator--The thing is that things are slowly changing.A lot has changed in the last 5 years and i expect much more in the comming years.
*Me--Come on...We dont have proper night fighting abilities for a foot soldier.
*Spec Ops Operator--Are you talking about Spec ops or regulars?
*Me--I know SF has NVGs but i dont think adequate equipment is present in infantry battalions.Like for eg there are HHTI but no NVGs.
*Spec Ops Operator--No thats not true.We have NVGs and sights which combined with HHTI,LORES and TOUTI(i dont remember what he said so forgive me for that) gives us an advantage.
*Me--HHTI is Hand hekd Thermal Imager right?..But what the fck is Lores and touti(or whatever)
*Spec Ops Operator--They are long range camera kind of thing having day/night ability which we use for monitoring the LOC.Their range is 15kms and are present in most of the posts so that when there is an infiltration we have extra pair of eyes.
*Me-Nice..What kind of sights do you guys use?
*Spec Ops Operator--We have 3 sights in use..Red *** sights which do not use battery.Second is the quadrantal line sights.I dont know what they were called but they also dont use battery.Third one was what we called day/night sight which used battery.
*Me-But i havent seen regulars use any kind of sights except a few with INSAS.
*Spec Ops Operator--These are not for regulars but SF and Spec Ops only as of now due to low stock.Moreoever the problem is their battery life which is 2 hours bcoz of which many guys dont use it.
*Me-So you are telling me that you are satisfied with the stuff you have got?
*Spec Ops Operator--Absolutely and let me tell you in the comming years we are gonna be comparable to any SF unit in terms of equipments.Like for example when we go for Spec ops we are given the best equipments by the Army.Like in one operation we went we were given everything from NVGs to Drones.
*Me--WTF..My friend(abingdonboy) told me about this but i dint know it has become so common.
*Spec Ops Operator--We were given HHTI,NVGs,Dogs and drones for one particular operation in my career and the best part was the surprise package which happened to be an attack hopter(I dont knw why but he kept saying hopter again and again).
*Me--So what kind of NVGs did you use?
*Spec Ops Operator--Single tube and double tube worn without the helmet.But i would prefer HHTI and Day/Night sight over it anyday.
*Me--And what about the BPJ?
*Spec Ops Operator--We use 3 kinds of BPJs.The 1st one has 400gms plate.In this plate the BPJ is seperate and the Jacket is different.This is the one you would have seen mostly with Army SF.Second one has 4 kg plates with a rubber like outer core and the last type is the older type which has 8 kg plates.
Spec ops and SF use 400 gms one only.We spec ops guys wear 4 plates weighing 1.6 kgs and its pretty comfortable but the SF mostly wear 2 plates.
*Me--Yeah i know..they are the blue eyed boys of the IA.
*Spec Ops Operator--(Smiles)...yeah they are..They deserve it too.
*Me--Ya i know...What kind of helmets do you use?
*Spec Ops Operator--Patka is common but we use new helmets(Israeli type ones)
*Me-So you were talking about the Para SF..Can you please share something about them as i am their big fan.
*Spec Ops Operator--Yeah..They and Marcos are India's elite SF.
*Me-I know this..Talking of Marcos..have you ever worked with them?
*Spec Ops Operator-I have never seen them.
*Me--How would you compare them?
*Spec Ops Operator--I wont compare them but i know this for a fact that in CIJWS various teams take part including the PARA SF,MARCOS,GARUDA,ITBP etc and the Para SF have won most of the events and have stood first.
*Me--Can you share your sources please?
*Spec Ops Operator--No i cant..Just know that i am heading towards CIJWS next.
*Me-All the best...But why dont you join Para SF?
*Spec Ops Operator--I didnt get the chance as i was in RR when the opeinings came.Next time it comes i am going.
*Me-How does this opening system work?
*Spec Ops Operator--Interested canidates are tested in their Command and then only sent for further probation.
*Me--Its looks like you respect the SF a lot..since you told me that you didnt know about SF in your childhood then how did they earn respect in your eyes?
*Spec Ops Operator--It was this operator that we had solid intel that 3 terrorists including the area commander are present in the forests.We laid down the the cordon and ambush for 7 days but no result.As we were about to end this operation thinking that there is no one out there we saw the CO of the Para SF come and tell our commander that he has permission from Higher authorities to carry out this operation on their own without any support.
They laid ambush at strange positions(He was technically explaining but i was not getting it) and we felt like they are not gonna get them but in the next 12 hours they killed 3 terrorists with 0 casualties.
Their CO was straight out of a Hollywood Special Forces movie in his SUV(not a Gypsy and i am not naming the model here).He is the most bad *** officer i had ever seen.
*Me-Wow,thanks for sharing and what about that operation you said in which dogs and drones were used.
*Spec Ops Operator--We planned and practised for 7 days to take out a hideout in the forests.We(team of 12) were dropped in the snow by the hopters and when we threw our rucksacks it went 10 feet inside the snow.It was a very tough operation for us as well as the dogs.We had everything we wanted from NVGs to drones.The drones were hovering over our position and we had the choice of calling air strike when we wanted.
The commander decided to blow the hideout using attack hopters but it was of no use as it was well hidden inside the tunnel..."the attack hopters firing its machine gun over us and empty shells falling on us were awesome"(thats his line word to word)
So we moved in after 7 days of no meals and only chewing toffies as we couldnt afford to prepare MREs.As we moved in we saw trails which the drone had earlier confirmed as enough evidence of carrying out a special op..so we hit the tunnel with the RL and threw grenades and carried out an intervention while the snipers were covering us from far away.We killed 4 terrorists that day.
*Me--Woow...Thats cool..My respect to you and your friends in the Spec ops who are doing so much for the country.
*Spec Ops Operator--Its not for the country alone..We enjoy doing it.I always wanted to be different from the beginning and this is how i wanted my life to be.
*Me-Any other incident which you can pleease share?
*Spec Ops Operator--Hmm..okay last one.When we were on covert ops we got this info that Hizb-ul-Mujahiden were recruiting young college going kashmiris to carryout their propoganda campaing and these guys were teasing the sister of a BSF soldier from the same village.
We came to know about them and since we lived away from the Army no one knew about us.There was only one route where they used to tease her so we went on that route picked up these guys.Took them to the jungle and tied them to the trees.Then we thrashed them for the next 2 hours without saying a single word.
The result we got info out of them and these guys never went on that route again and hence the BSF soldiers sister was never teased again.(they didnt come to know that the Army had thrashed them)
*Me--These bastards should be thrashed like this only.
*Spec Ops Operator-The thing is that some are brainwashed and others do it for money.We knew of a house where 2 beautiful girls lived who used to go to the forests to give the terrorists food and were basically into prostitution and got money in return.
*Me-Thats really sad.
*Spec Ops Operator--And we are not authorised to even question them these days so we stick to what we are best at(covert ops)
*Me--So what about the good Kashmiris..do they support you or are they quite?
*Spec Ops Operator--I was once sitting behind a house in an ambush.It was 2 am and it was very cold.It was soo cold that i couldnt hold my gun properly.Suddenly we saw a old man and his daughter comming towards us with a hot bucket of water and tea.
We in the Army are not allowed to take anything from the civilians but we hardly had any choice so half of the team took tea(just incase the tea is poisoned).I was the among the ones who didnt take tea but i dipped my feet in the hot water...and it felt soo good that i felt like kissing the old man.
There are other incidents also where school children used to wave at us and people came to us for photographs.Not every one is against us there.
*Me--Hmmm..thanks for sharing soo much with me and i hope you get to wear the maroon beret soon.
