Just in case you’re reading this item from a screen situated in yet another office building, trying to escape into a less boring world: let me assure you, for some people, there is another life out there.
For the past decade, I was able to share many utmost rare moments with the members of the elite navy seals from the Belgian army (the para commando “frogmen” team) - my ex-diving instructor was actually one of them. Due to budget cutbacks the old core team was split up and was forced to move in different directions. Let me show you some pics from their “good old days”:
[pic left: courtesy of my ex-diving instructor - yes, its a "scripted" shot 
- right: "humanitarian" mission in Benin, Africa]
Yep, war in Kosovo, trouble all over Africa: you name it, they were there, “securing the safety of civilians” (sound great for their press releases) in countries during/after a war. They obviously were a very close team. Last Saturday, they had a reunion barbecue, and much to my surprise, I was invited, as the only civilian.
Their children had grown, their jobs had changed, but deep down inside they were all still trained to kill, a fact no “army make-over” will ever change. I try to ignore this gruesome fact, as I’ve mostly met them during all those PR-type of events: BBQs, open-door events: the classic “hey, this a a regular job” type of hype, ignoring their true nature.
I will have to check if I’m allowed to upload more of the shots I took, but for the time being: this was the campfire they lit, just the way they did on “missions” in Africa and all over the globe:
[my shot: Belgian frogmen campfire, Sept 2, 2006]
My former diving instructor - we lost touch after he started to engage in life-threatening behavior - was kind of quiet when I drove back later that night. Words were not suited to describe the experience. I couldn’t help wondering though, how many lives were “terminated”by these smiling “frogmen”. Like Bob Dylan used to sing: “The answer, my friend, is blowin in the wind”..
This blog is not affiliated with or endorsed by the city of Antwerp, Belgium.
..that doesn’t make sense..NAVY SEALs is an american special forces
and to say, NAVY seals of the belgian ARMY? i don’t get it– just wondering
[Blog author comment: "Well Tim, it's often kind of hard to translate a Dutch military title into English. Let's just say that the former Belgian 'frogmen' team got a training based on the one received by US navy seals. They even use much of the same equipment."]
Comment by tim — April 17, 2008 @ 2:32 am
Navy seal is not the correct term, I’m in the Belgian army as well as a para commando, the way i see it here we got 3 Levels of military you go the normal military thats the least hard , then the 2 most elite groups are para commando we receive overall a 4yr long drill training varying all aspects of landscape and combat training, parachute jumps,survival,mountain climbing etc you name it then you got the special forces group thats the hardest they are trained for everything mostly black ops and gathering intelligence i did the effort to translate the specifications for the para commando and special forces group
:* close combat test 3 times 1 minute
*timed swimming in full equipment 100 meter
*rope climbing
*water dare jump 3meter and 10 meter in a river
*bivak;survival and orientation in the outdoors
*risico flexibility parcour
*mountain climbing parcour
*2.4km running timed,pull ups,sit-ups,again swimming
*12km running in less than an hour
*speed walking 7km in 52 mins with 20kg backpack in varied landscape conditions
*blackout; marching at night in varied conditions could be in snow, could be mountain landscape etc
*dropped on an unknown location 50km walking with backpack fully equipped you need to find way back to the base in less than 15 hours
*morse code
*group activities
[Blog author comment: "Thanks for commenting Tom. The dissolved group I'm referring to was known as the Belgian "frogmen". "]
Comment by Tom — May 21, 2008 @ 8:35 pm
Nice pictures of those elite man.
Your para commando diving instructor was a homosexual? I thought the para world was an exclusive ’straight’ envirnoment.
Greetings
[Blog author: "I've known quite a few gay men who were employed by the Belgian military, who strongly adhere to a non-discrimination policy. But I've got a feeling we know each other: your IP belongs to a Telenet customer in Leuven, Belgium, home of the dissolved para-commando team. Do get in touch (but do use a valid email address if you need a reply)."]
Comment by Frogg — August 8, 2008 @ 6:35 am