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| -Short Attention Span Theater- |
| Surprise parachutists likely from Special Operations Command |
| 2007-07-17 |
| Only partly addresses the mystery from Sunday's post. U.S. Special Operations Command sez it wuz us and that's all they would say. Nobody got hurt so butt out. Those weren’t just unidentified, heavily armed parachutists who accidentally invaded a state prison in Cañon City last week. Those were unidentified, heavily armed parachutists from U.S. Special Operations Command, or maybe foreigners working with the command, the Defense Department said today. The command took responsibility for the training exercise gone awry that culminated with 25 men dropping from the sky into a cornfield on the grounds of the Fremont Correction Facility, a 1,200-inmate medium-security prison. But the command wouldn’t reveal exactly who made the jump Thursday or why the parachutists wound up three miles from their intended landing zone at the Fremont County Airport. Here’s the best answer the military will give: “Those were Special Operations Command forces conducting routine training,” said Army Col. Hans Bush, a spokesman for the command at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida. Special Operations Command forces is a term broad enough to cover most of the U.S. military. It means any unit under orders from the command. But Bush’s hesitance to name the unit likely points to covert units from the Navy Seals or the Army’s Green Berets or Delta Force. Local units are off the hook. It wudn us The 10th Special Forces Group, which often conducts training out of the Fremont County Airport, is mostly deployed. Its Green Berets are working with Iraqi special forces in Baghdad to nab insurgents in lightning raids and have recently reported success in capturing or killing enemy leaders. Other Army units in Colorado Springs don’t have parachutes. The 72-ton M-1 Abrams tanks they’re armed with just weren’t built for airborne assaults. The Air Force Academy does run cadets through parachute training, but they don’t go near Fremont County and don’t carry weapons when they jump. “We try to stay out of prison,” one academy spokesman quipped. It’s also possible that some of the forces involved were not American. Parachute-dropping aircraft with British markings were at Peterson Air Force Base today, and Bush acknowledged that it’s common for his forces to drill with allied forces. Units at Peterson said they didn’t know anything about a foreign plane today. More at link |
| Posted by:GK |
| #14 Just imagine how far off course we'd be if there were a Rantburg pin-up girl like Grace in the midst. No offense meant to the fine ladies here, TW, Sherry, Jules et. al. |
| Posted by: BA 2007-07-17 22:38 |
| #13 a 25 man Rantburg contingent and that is the way they get to their conventions - heavily armed and off course Normally we're only this far of course after our conventions... |
| Posted by: Steve 2007-07-17 16:32 |
| #12 Better yet, after reading the article in full, I have written to Tom Roeder the reporter and told him who these guys really were. I swore him to secrecy, so you will be able to read his followup tomorrow. I told him that it was a 25 man Rantburg contingent and that is the way they get to their conventions - heavily armed and off course. |
| Posted by: Jack is Back! 2007-07-17 16:00 |
| #11 Or maybe there is a prison or other type of fortified facility in the ofting? In Iran, I believe there are these type of prison facilities where there are dissidents, Americans of Iranian descent, future insurgents, etc. I have read Tom Clancy and this is my enlightened opinion. |
| Posted by: Jack is Back! 2007-07-17 15:57 |
| #10 Yes. See other comments, read Tom Clancy or books from the same genre, become enlightened. My apologies for doing whatever it is that I did to you that forced you to respond in such a manner. If you can call that manners. |
| Posted by: Mike N. 2007-07-17 15:24 |
| #9 Prison cornfield this time. Distant, far away embassy compound the next. Good stuff I'd say. Lets see more of it! |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2007-07-17 11:58 |
| #8 Do these guys jump from that high? Yes. See other comments, read Tom Clancy or books from the same genre, become enlightened. |
| Posted by: Natural Law 2007-07-17 10:08 |
| #7 I'm just glad everyone noticed that they were friendlies quickly and had a good laugh. Also, hard to see plane and chutes at 4:50am |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2007-07-17 10:00 |
| #6 Damn, foiled again! I too thought of the Onion's very special forces and their short Ac130. |
| Posted by: anonymous5089 2007-07-17 05:31 |
| #5 And with the new wing chutes, you can glide for miles silently. So unless the guards were doing a sky watch like at Marion Federal Penitentiary, the parachutists would be just 20-30 feet off of the ground before they would come into full view. Plus as was mentioned before, they landed OUTSIDE of the prison, and that is NOT where the guards would normally be watching. |
| Posted by: Shieldwolf 2007-07-17 04:21 |
| #4 If it was a HALO or HAHO jump, the plane could have been at 20,000 (or more) feet and offset from the prison by miles. Prison guards look down and in not up and out. |
| Posted by: Anguger B. Hayes7857 2007-07-17 01:00 |
| #3 Or Very Special Operations. /don't hurt me |
| Posted by: Seafarious 2007-07-17 00:57 |
| #2 CIA ghost jet? |
| Posted by: Seafarious 2007-07-17 00:55 |
| #1 Somebody please learn me something about how this works. The story from Sunday said the guards noticed the soldiers just before they landed. Now, as I understand it, prison guards that are on watched generally pay attention. It was before dawn I believe, so that explains why they didn't see them, but how did they not hear the plane? Do these guys jump from that high? |
| Posted by: Mike N. 2007-07-17 00:24 |