On this date in 1980, after a six day siege, the Special Air Service stormed the Iranian embassy in London to free the hostages held by the terrorists inside. Prior to this incident the SAS had kept a low profile, mostly being thought of, when thought of at all, as the guys that drove around the desert in jeeps during WWII. Now live TV cameras caught images of black-clad men stacking at doorways and rapelling through windows, and people who had been unaware of the existence of the "dynamic assault" saw one in action.
Suddenly, Anti-Terrorist forces were the "in" thing and the 22nd Special Air Service Regiment were the rock stars of the British armed forces and the HK MP5 was the dream gun of nerdy gun nuts everywhere. You couldn't swing a cat in the entertainment industry without hitting a dramatization, a fictionalization, an Americanization, or a lying technical advisor who claimed he'd "Been With The Regiment". If it hadn't been for an unavoidable failure in OpSec on that May day in 1980, Rainbow Six might never have existed, and then what would a generation of gun nerds and video gamers have done with their spare time?
"What color is the boat house at Hereford?"
ReplyDeleteYup.
ReplyDelete"What color is the boathouse at Hereford?"
The Seals seem to have been so disgusted by imposters that they have set up an office to verify service on the resumes of former members.
Ian Anderson's take on the event, from the eyes of the newspaper man who was caught in the embassy:
ReplyDelete"Spring light in a hazy May
and a man with a gun at the door
Someone's crawling on the roof above ---
all the media here for the show
I've been waiting for our friends to come
Like spiders down ropes to free-fall
A thirty round clip for a visiting card ---
admit one to the embassy ball
Caught in the crossfire on Princes Gate Avenue
In go the windows and out go the lights
Call me a doctor. Fetch me a policeman
I'm down on the floor in one hell of a fight
I'm just a soul with an innocent face ---
a regular boy dressed in blue
conducting myself in a proper way
as befitting the job that I do
They came down on me like a ton of bricks
Swept off my feet, knocked about
There's nothing for it but to sit and wait
for the hard men to get me out
Calm reason floats from the street below
and the slow fuse burns through the night
Everyone's tried to talk it through
but they can't seem to get the deal right
Somewhere there are Brownings in a two-hand hold ---
cocked and locked, one up the spout
There's nothing for it but to sit and wait
for the hard men to get me out
"
"What color is the boat house at Hereford?"
ReplyDeleteA: How the Hell should I know?
Rainbow Six is one of those guilty pleasure books for me.
Few people know that the SAS started life in 1859 as a volunteer unit with a colorful name- the Artists Rifles. The senior SAS Regiment is still a Territorial (what we'd call a reserve) unit.
ReplyDeleteThey're accepting applications, being Artistic is no longer a requirement.
Love me some Anderson, didn't know about that piece.
I do love that book - it's my favorite Clancy novel, and the only one I've read more than once.
ReplyDeleteDon: the same color the Swiss Navy uses for their ships.
ReplyDeleteStaghounds:
ReplyDeleteIt's off the 1980 Jethro Tull album, "A", which was originally going to be an Ian solo album, but ended up using Martin Barre and others so extensively they just called it another Tull album.
Not what I consider to be one of their greatest albums, following on the heels of Heavy Horses (one of my faves), Stormwatch, and Broadsword and the Beast. Mostly too electricky (is that a word) for my taste.
A good concert tour that year, but I never did like the guy with the transparent violin...
You did know that (within the limitations of the UK today) that Ian is a shooter, at least of the Fudd variety? I don't know if he does any varminting on his farm, though.
"and then what would a generation of gun nerds and video gamers have done with their spare time?"
ReplyDelete...date girls?
(Tie Fighter is what I played instead of dating. That, and other fine LucasArts games.)
Thank you, Blackwing 1- that will make it easier to stea- ummm, share.
ReplyDeleteKBarrett- There is no Swiss navy, army, or air force- it's a unified command. The patrol craft are usually grey.
The term has been trademarked, though.
"and then what would a generation of gun nerds and video gamers have done with their spare time"
ReplyDeleteGone out and gotten girl/boyfriends?