Thomas Rathsack - Jaeger: At War with Denmarks Elite Special Forces

Shadow Army

Black Dawn

Handbook in High Performance

Visit the authors website at: www.thomasrathsack.dk/

Lose your dreams and you might lose your mind.

Rock legend Mick Jaggers words may as well have been my own. From early childhood, running around in the woods playing soldier, through my late teenage years and early adult life as an infantryman in the Danish Royal Guards, the dream of entering the prestigious elite military unit, the Jaeger Corps, consumed my life.

From the age of 16, I trained intensively to fulfill that dream, and the reward came seven years later, after having served for five years as a sergeant in the Royal Guards. The thousands of hours I had put into my solo training had paid off; I had flown through the Corps selection process and could finally put on the burgundy beret adorned with a brass emblem of a hunters bugle. I will always remember the words of my course commander after another exhausting week on the selection course. Eight of the 94 applicants remained at the final evaluation, and he said: Rathsack, its too good to be true.

I do not write this because I view myself as a superior human being or to fuel the superman myths. I have plenty of weaknesses and negative impulses. But the dream of becoming a Jaeger motivated all the best aspects of my character. I had the privilege of having a clearly defined goal and was able to focus all my energy on reaching it. No static from everyday life, no disturbances, no worries. I lived in a black-and-white world consisting of eating, sleeping, and training. This gave me a mental focus that enabled me to reach my full potential.

The conventional and predictable life has never appealed to me. I have always had a desire to explore, experience, and discoverto feel alive. Thats the key to life for me. I know I would be unhappy if I looked back on a life devoid of intensity and thrills. Thankfully, I have experienced the life I wanted as a soldier in the Jaeger Corps, as a Jaeger.

Initially though, my boyhood dream turned to disillusionment. I came to realize, after three decades of Cold War, the Jaeger Corps and the Danish military were simply not geared for operational service. It took me some time to acknowledge this, but once I had, I left the Corps to seek new challenges. In the following years, I traveled the world as a photographer in South America, became the head of NGO mine-clearing projects in the Caucasus region and Afghanistan, and even went through a short stint as a computer salesman.

Then, 9/11 happened. The terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and all Western civilization in 2001 prompted me to once again pull on the Jaeger Corps uniform. I became a part of the Jaeger Corps deployment to Afghanistan as a member of the Task Group Ferret unit, a component of the international task force K-Bar, which was under the command of the US Special Forces. As an operator, I took part in search-and-destroy operations against Taliban and Al-Qaida in the harsh and dazzlingly beautiful mountains of Eastern Afghanistan. I also participated in unconventional warfare operations dressed as an Afghan, and later spent more than a year in Iraq participating in operations to target the infamous Jaysh al-Mahdi militia. I was also, for the first time in the Jaeger Corps and indeed the Danish militarys history, deployed as a bodyguard in a war zone.

With the words of another great rock legendBono from U2I do not hold much respect for medals, but for scars. I have never been interested in medals, honors, or decorated uniforms, but there is one award I am proud to have received after participating in the Jaeger Corps operations in Afghanistan in 2002: the Presidential Unit Citation Award. It is the highest honor bestowed on military units, and the President of the United States at the time, George W. Bush, personally awarded it to my commander, Lt. Col. Frank Lissner. As a soldier representing a small nation, I was enormously proud to be part of a unit that accomplished something extraordinary.

And Denmark is a small nation, with a population of a little less than 6 million people. But despite being one of NATOs smallest member states, Denmark has seen its fair share of action on the battlefields in Iraq, and especially in Afghanistan. From the end of 2001 until the middle of 2013, 43 Danish soldiers were killed and 211 were wounded in action in Afghanistan. Not much by American standards, I am aware. But during this period, Denmark was the NATO member with the highest rate of casualties and was also one of the biggest contributors to the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), measured by population size. A 750-man-strong Danish battalion has, throughout the past decade, operated in Afghanistans bloody Helmand province. Denmark has also contributed to the war effort with F-16 fighter jets, Leopard-2 tanks, medical facilities, mobile Air Force radar units, and logistical units. Last but not least, teams of Danish special operations forcesfrom the Frogman Corps to the Jaeger Corpshave been operating in Afghanistan since 2001, and continue to do so to this day.

As a Jaeger, I have worked with some of the most elite units in the world. Ive met many excellent soldiers and some of them have become great friends, but Id argue that my brothers in the Jaeger Corps are among the finest soldiers in the world. We are not the best equipped, nor are we blessed with extensive resources, but the integrity, skills, and mental toughness of my fellow operators are, in my experience, unsurpassed. I feel privileged and proud to have served with these men.

With this book, I have done my best to offer realistic and honest insight into my life as an operator in the Jaeger Corps without compromising the safety of the Jaegers or other members of the coalition serving in Afghanistan and Iraq. Identities, training missions, assignments and locations have been altered where necessary.

This book is dedicated to my Jaeger brothers and colleagues still operative in the Corps. You know who you are. Thank you guys.

Thomas Rathsack
Jaeger nr. 229

We roar along at 155 miles per hour, about fifteen feet above ground level in the Iraqi desert. I sit on the outermost seat in the transport helicopter, feeling the heat of the motor exhaust against my left arm.

The night is black, but I have a clear view of the vast, flat landscape. It is dotted with bright spots created by the gas flares of countless oil refineries. Inside the cabin sit seven other Jaegers. The hollows of their eyes glow green through the faint light of my night vision goggles. As always, they look calm and relaxed.

I check my equipment and weapon, a C8 carbine, one final time. The helicopters loadmaster, who directs us in and out of the cabin, sticks two fingers in the air. Two minutes from the target.

This is Operation Viking. Its purpose: to identify and gather information about the enemy and, if necessary, take him down. Tonight, the mission is to destroy a weapons cache. Life had been hell during the last couple of months at Basra Air Stationonce a civilian airport under Saddam Hussein, now home to Western coalition forces during Operation Iraqi Freedom. It also served as home to the 500-man Danish DAN-BAT battalions headquarters, a battalion under the command of a 4000-soldier British brigade. The base had been under attack throughout the winter and spring of 2007: The Jaysh Al-Mahdi (JAM) militialed by the Shia Muslim cleric Muqtada al-Sadrhad been firing rockets at it from a radius of 3-6 miles up to 25 times a day.