Special Forces Colombia

We had a chance to train with the Colombian Special Forces. It was a real treat and they were very patient with us civilians. Kudos to the Colombian army.

We were supposed to throw some hand grenades but since it was raining they removed that from the course.

They showed us a number of facets of their training and duties.

First off some of the weapons that they use which are better quality than the regular army forces.

Their standard weapon is the M4 rifle, often with the M203 grenade launcher.



40mm grenades for the M203.



They also use a suppressed version.



M249 SAW.



The M60 GPMG.



The 60mm mortar. We didn't get to shoot this.





The Barrett .50 BMG rifle. We didn't get to shoot this.



The Remington M700 rifle.

Their Gen 2 NVG.



They let us rapel with them from their 18m training tower.



They demonstrated canine bomb detection and water crossings.



They also treated us to a lunch of their field rations. I had the goulash and rice!



From left to right, breakfast, lunch, dinner.

 

Wow bet that was interesting! Were you in Columbia and how was the Goulash?

 

Nice write up and pictures, thanks for sharing

Under what circumstances did this training happen if I may ask?

 

Me likey M60!

 

Cool little picture summary. What part of Colombia were you in? Are you still in Colombia? Beautiful country.

 

We were at the army's national training center south of Bogota. I'm still working in Colombia near Medellin. It's a great country, beautiful scenery, nice people. There are great resorts on the Caribbean coast at Cartagena and Santa Martha.

 

Was a guy named Mike M. There?

AFS

 

I really liked it in Medellin. I did minerals work in Cordoba province years ago. I hated it and loved it at the same time. If nothing much has changed, it sure is a different world as compared to the US or Canada. PM me if you are interested in chatting about it.

We did work out in the country where there was a lot of drug activity as well as the gorilla issues. We didn't receive any training at that time. There were some minor problems speaking of the group in general, but I personally did not have any problems. You really have to get used to the "police" carrying full auto's and definitely giving you the feeling that they were willing to use them.

 

It's great to see Colombia's comeback from the brink! Their Junglas and other elite units are very impressive.

 

AFS

All of the trainers, officers and non-coms were Colombian.

 

Our tax dollars at work!

Cool stuff.

 

Keeping FARC on the run sounds good to me.

 

The FARC are said to be down to less than 5000 from a high of 40000 in the bad old days. It's a lot safer in Colombia these days and the citizens are aware of how much better it is.

 

'Choco cheese'? Even MRE's shouldn't have something like that.

 

Tolemaida I'm guessing? Very cool approach flying into there.

 

Thanks for the interesting write up and great pics. I haven't been to South America in years, but this brought back some memories.

 

These days its more about buying friends to keep China out, but that's another story.

 

FARC may be slim on numbers, but Chavez is doing his part to keep things interesting down that way. Back to the guns, US aid to Colombia has helped tremendously and if the Colombians are trained up on those weapons, that's certainly a success story. How many times have we given weapons and equipment to other countries that do nothing but sit around and let it rust or sell it off. Colombia is a success story and to see that professionally maintained gear is great.

 

Cool thread... thanks for posting.

 

I bet that was a fun day! Thanks for sharing.