Chris Ryan's Weekly Blog - ...
September 23, 2010
Working with US Operators
The British SAS and the US Tier 1 operators are two sides of the same coin. During my days in the Regiment, I met guys from the American special forces who came from wildly different backgrounds to anyone I’d ever come across at SAS HQ in Hereford. I met quiet guys, tough guys, religious guys – but we all shared one characteristic: single-minded determination. When you’re being inserted into the most dangerous theatres of war in the world, it’s that quality more than any other that’s going to help you get the job done and – just as important – get out of there alive.
In 1991 I was part of an SAS patrol that got compromised behind enemy lines in Iraq, and was the only member of that patrol that managed to escape. It took seven days and nights to get across the border, and during that time I stumbled across a military installation. I didn’t know what it was at the time, but once I was debriefed back at base, it became clear that this installation was Saddam’s yellowcake processing factory at Al-Qaim where uranium was being processed for nuclear reactors. Clearly we needed to share information about this place with the rest of the Coalition forces, so one of my first tasks was to travel across country to brief a US Tier 1 team who were about to deploy in the area and target this nuclear refinery.
For any soldier about to go on the ground, intelligence is his greatest asset. I knew that; the Tier 1 boys knew that. You could see them adding this intel to their already formidable arsenal, and you could tell by the look in their eyes and the way they absorbed this information, ready to be accessed as and when they needed it, that their determination and professionalism was second-to-none.
There’s nowhere that these qualities are more important than in the badlands of Afghanistan, where Medal of Honor and my new novel The Kill Zone are set. Take it from me: Tier 1 operators have them in spades.
Medal of Honor (the book) is available for free with pre-orders of the game through HMV.
Chris Ryan’s new novel The Kill Zone is published now.
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Dan is EA's equivalent of Action Man; knows how to handle a weapon, and considers himself to be the greatest hero of them all! If you're lucky he can usually be found lurking on the EA UK forums as EA_ActionMan.
Greg is the Executive Producer of Medal of Honor.
Chris Ryan was born near Newcastle in 1961. He joined the SAS in 1984. During his ten years there he was involved in overt and covert operations and was also sniper team commander of the antiterrorist team. During the Gulf War, Chris Ryan was the only member of an eightman unit to escape from Iraq, where three colleagues were killed and four captured. It was the longest escape and evasion in the history of the SAS. For this he was awarded the Military Medal. For his last two years he was selecting and training potential recruits for the SAS. Chris is penning a prequel novel to Medal of Honor, due for release on 15th October, when you pre-order with HMV
Gamertag:
Mark served as a paratrooper with the US Army 82nd Airborne Division. He lives outside Chicago with his family and blends his love of the military with his love of gaming through his company Off Duty Gamers.
