The Big Breach - Index of

The Big Breach; From Top Secret to Maximum SecurityCompliments of http://www.192.comOn the IONEC, a week of the course is dedicated to familiarisation withthe increment and the S&D flight and `military week' was eagerlyanticipated by most of us.After being issued with a set of military fatigues and boots sooutdated they looked like they were SOE relics, we set off from theFort helipad in the S&D Puma. It was just after nightfall and the cabinof the helicopter was lit by the dim, red emergency exit lights. Usinginfra-red night sights, the two pilots showed off their impressive lowaltitudeskills by flying at high speed over the rolling west countryfarmland, often below the normal military legal limit of 50-feet, aprivilege given only to the S&D flight. Every few minutes, one of thepilots cheerfully called out over the intercom, `Everyone OK backthere? Just sing if you feel sick.' Nobody replied, though Bart waslooking pale. Half an hour later, the Puma hovered to a standstill acouple of feet off the ground in the corner of a dark field. `Jump,'screamed the loadie, pushing us out into the darkness, and the Pumaroared off into the night. As my eyes adjusted, I realised that we werein the SAS's Pontrilas training area in Wales. `What are we supposed todo now?' asked Hare to nobody in particular, `Pretend to be sheep?'Bart groaned and threw up, splashing Castle's boots, but before we hadtime to laugh an authoritative voice rang out from behind a nearbyhedge, `Over here, lads.'We shuffled over to where two shadowy figures waited. One was no morethan five foot six inches tall and of slight build. The other sportedthe sort of moustache favoured by soldiers. He spoke first, in a strongBrummie accent. `I'm Barry, the 2IC of RWW. The purpose of tonight'sexercise is to give you a little insight into some of our work, so thatwhen you're back at your comfortable desks, you'll have an idea what itis like for us out in the field.' With that, he turned away, expectingus to follow. Barry's smaller companion was more amiable and trottingalongside us, introduced himself as `Tiny'.Tiny was also a sergeant in RWW and was one of its longest-servingmembers. It was easy to see why he would be useful - his diminutiveframe and modesty were advantages in undercover work. As Tiny himselfexplained, `I once spent a whole evening trying to convince my mum Iwas in the SAS, but even she wouldn't believe me.' It was difficult toimagine how he could have passed SAS selection, but all members of RWWmust do so. The only exemptions are the few female officers who areoccasionally seconded to RWW from the army intelligence corps.We trudged in silence in the drizzle for ten minutes or so until Barrycalled a halt. Tiny pulled out a folding spade from his small backpackand started digging. In a minute or so he uncovered a plastic screwtopcontainer, about the size of a beer keg. It was a cache, just like theones I had dug up in Belgium, and it contained survival rations, water,maps, compass and money. `We often bury several of these overseas tosupport emergency exfiltration contingency plans for you guys,' Tinyexplained. He then showed us how to bury it, leaving no sign ofdisturbance, and gave us tips on how to record its location succinctlyand unambiguously. Tiny finished his demonstration and lead us back tothe field we had come from. From his backpack he fished out eight NATOissue torches complete with infra-red filters, handed them out to usand arranged us in a `T' shape, the standard pattern used in NATO forguiding down helicopters. We pointed our torches skyward and in secondspage- 49 - To purchase the original limited edition hardback version of this bookplease call 08000 192 192 or go to http://www.192.com