IT WAS A bright Monday morning in a carpark in the Wicklow Mountains, hillwalkers set off on walks across the peaks, dog owners and tourists took selfies of the picturesque scene.
In the car park was a line of young Irish Defence Forces soldiers, with large heavy backpacks and helmets with individual identification numbers scrawled in marker on them. In their hands they carried a metal bar designed to mimic the weight and awkwardness of an assault rifle.
There is no shouting – just a curt order to begin the feared ‘foreman aftman test’.
This is the real ultimate hell week that inspired the hit RTE TV show, known as SOF-Q – the beginning of the nine month process to become an elite Army Ranger Wing (ARW) operator.
The ARW is Ireland’s special forces unit, also known as IRL SOF, known as a strategic asset, they are a small but elite group of Irish soldiers trained and tasked with the most challenging of operations.
Earlier this week The Journal was invited to observe their selection course for new operators.
The test is marched over 12 kilometres of mountain peaks – over the bogland, forestry and scree of peaks such as Scar, Brockagh and Tonelagee – the pace is set by ARW members at the front and they must not fall behind the Ranger Wing operators at the back.
The quick march began with a rush across a water-filled ditch. One of the candidates lost his footing and plunged into bog brown water, his colleagues assisted and continued to make make their way rapidly up a steep valley wall and vanish into the mountains.
It was only the beginning of their torment. The night before they were up into the early hours performing an intense test of stamina in the dark in the Curragh known as the ‘scratch phase’. In the weeks to come they will have to jump off bridges, swim with their gear through lake water, crawl through pipes under ground, navigate courses with weighted backpacks – it is difficult to convey the toll on the body and mind.
By the end of the 24 hours they were down to half of the candidates they started with. Unlike the television series their ‘Hell Week’ lasts a month before more technical tests of military skills begin.
Back in the Curragh Camp, inside the secure compound where the ARW is based, we sat down with two of the most experienced members of the unit – the Sergeant Major and one of the sergeants who talk us through the selection process.
None of the people we spoke to can be identified – their job is so sensitive that the minute they join the unit they can’t be named publicly. Their missions are also kept secret – but the taking of the MV Matthew, known as Operation Piano, brought the unit to public attention.
They are busy. We heard that they had recently been prepared to deploy on a major international operation but were stood down at the last moment as the need for them passed.
They all must live within a set distance from their base in Kildare and are on call to respond in a set, rapid, timeline.
Education and skill development is key for them. They train regularly in specialist military parachuting abroad where they can maintain their high altitude skills -jumping out of aircraft at the height of an airliner.
The high security compound is a fascinating place of activity, members of their elite unit, categorised as operators, enablers like communications specialists and support staff were carrying out different jobs as we walked through.
It is very busy with soldiers preparing parachutes, snipers (known as precision fire teams) maintaining their weapons, combat divers examining equipment and other operators doing physical training to keep them at a fitness standard.
In another facility Rangers are practising parachute jumps into water and the exercises and movements to prevent themselves from being pulled down by their own canopies.
It has the atmosphere of a professional sports team but an awful lot more jeopardy.
They are backed up by enablers like drone pilots, bomb disposal technicians and other experts and it is all made possible by the backroom support staff. Those staff have passed a training course also to be there. There is also a high performance set up of physical training staff to keep the Rangers at their fittest – with a gym and a recovery room with ice baths and sauna.
It’s a unique environment for a military unit, people are addressed by first name or nickname, not rank , but it is clear that everyone knows their role and respect for each other is unanimous, both up and down the ranks.
The Sergeant Major said that the intensity of serving in the unit doesn’t stop after selection: “you just reach the level and then you keep maintaining that”.
A definition of their role, a senior leader said, is to “achieve conventional military and strategic outcomes by unconventional means”.
But what are they looking for during the nine month selection?
“When you think about everything ultimately it is all about a young corporal, who’s the lead guy going into a room, or going into an aircraft, who is making the decision to shoot [his weapon] or not.
“Everything boils down to that one guy that we pick from the selection course, and he has to be the right guy, because he actually is the person making the most important and correct decision,” the Sergeant Major explained.
The SOF-Q course is open to all personnel in the Army, Navy and Air Corps – it has been redesigned to mirror that of the British Special Air Service and the US Delta Force. It is based over four modules that will ultimately lead a successful candidate to a graduation ceremony.
In a preliminary meeting with the unit they are given a 12 week fitness programme that gets a candidate up to the required physical level to undergo the gruelling first four weeks which is classified as module one. They recieve lessons in navigation and briefings from the high performance fitness team.
“There’s a lot of thought and a lot of research into it and we find that taking this approach gets the best results,” the sergeant said.
The ultimate goal of that preparation is to “carry weight over distance” which is the key test in the four weeks of module one.
The Sergeant Major said that the course is not, despite the belief of people outside the unit, designed for people to fail.
“We want more operators in here,” he added.
The sergeant explained the concept of the four weeks as being about getting soldiers out of their “comfort zone”.
“A lot of people aren’t comfortable with the start of the course, but to work in our environment, you have to be really fit and be able to work outside of your comfort zone.
“So that’s why we do that, because people aren’t going to be suited to it. It’s best that they’re gone, probably sooner rather than later,” the sergeant added.
They are also tested on navigation skills repeatedly – given a grid reference they must find their way to the location alone. They will carry weights from 45 pounds to 85 pounds or six stone.
It is not all about long distance speed marches. There is a test to see if candidates suffer from claustrophobia because operators will be asked to work in very confined spaces.
Once they get through the hell of module one they then get into the more technical tests which will include special forces courses. Module two tests their conventional skills as soldiers but with the added stressor of very little sleep.
Module three lasts twenty weeks and is where they start learning those special forces skills which include Close Quarter Battle (CQB) tactics – in other words how to enter a room, deal with an armed threat and rescue civilians inside. It is a key ARW skill.
Should the candidate be successful after that they then march 38kms from the Glen of Imaal back to ARW headquarters in Kildare. They are given a Fianóglach shoulder flash that signifies they have passed the course but they still have not passed the last hurdle to join the unit.
Module four is the high end testing of their capabilities and they are then given lessons in counter terrorism operations which includes the skill to deal with high risk armed rescue scenarios.
This is “the bread and butter for the unit” because they learn Close Quarter Battle Hostage Rescue in complete darkness which is much more complex and tactically advanced than anything they have done before and tests their split second decision making ability.
They learn how to take down hostage takers (known as tangos) without harming the hostages or “hotels”.
“So the fundamentals of what they are taught in a single room – they will carry that into an aircraft, into a bus, into a train, and then carry that into Marine Counter Terrorism, on board ships, ferries or container ships,” the Sergeant major said.
Once they complete that, they then suffer one last session of endurance before being taken, in a van, to the Hill of Allen where they join the unit.
Why the Hill of Allen? The unit takes much of its history from the mythology of Fionn Mac Cumhaill and na Fianna. They are not the only special forces unit to relate back to warrior mythology – other countries do the same including Norwegian Special Forces which reference norse mythology.
The Sergeant Major recalled his own moment: “For me it was just a huge sense of relief. I was now badged and I’m now in but the ironic thing about it is that the momentum and pace doesn’t really change. It is just continuous then.”
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