Head on over to Amazon and throw down the .99 cents to see Six Days, a movie that depicts the British Special Air Service’s (SAS) response to the Iranian embassy crisis in London back in 1980. Counter-terrorism was still in an embryonic stage but the SAS was years ahead of where the U.S. military was, due to their experiences in places like Northern Ireland and Malaysia. I’m somewhat notorious amongst my friends for hating on war movies that claim to be recounting true events–don’t even ask me if I’ve seen whatever latest Navy SEAL flick is out in theaters or on television, because I haven’t. That said, Six Days is a notable exception to the rule about lazy Special Operations movies.
I was pleasantly surprised by the film and the hard work put into it showed. The fact that Rusty Firmin (one of the operators involved in the embassy assault) was a technical adviser on set and trained the actors in the same tactics, techniques and procedures that the SAS used back in the day really shows. Back in those days, the two main terrorism threats were aircraft hijacking and hostage barricade scenarios. The SAS had to deal with one of the more unfavorable scenarios, and in this case the enemy knew they might be coming.
While you wait to see the film, read SOFREP’s review with Rusty Firmin about his involvement in Operation Nimrod and what it was like to work on the film.
SOFREP: What was going through your mind as you and your teammates were finally prepared to breach?
Rusty: At last we had proof of murder when the press attaché, Mr. Lavasani, was thrown onto the pavement. He had been executed. This changed everything. It was no longer a police operation, it was indeed handed over to the SAS to deal with it. We started to move into our final assault positions which took about 16 minutes, but it had to be done covertly as we did not want to risk compromise.
I was a team leader. My thoughts from memory with numerous, “don’t fail,” the most important was the mission which was to rescue the hostages. Once we were in position, I just wanted to hear the words: GO! GO! GO! Once I heard them, I thought, “we are unstoppable,” and started to carry out the plan to rescue the hostages. I should imagine but can’t speak for all of my teammates, they would be exactly the same mindset and at the back of your mind there is always a sort of what if something goes wrong, you have to think on your feet and fix it and carry on the momentum.
Read the rest of the interview here.
Head on over to Amazon and throw down the .99 cents to see Six Days, a movie that depicts the British Special Air Service’s (SAS) response to the Iranian embassy crisis in London back in 1980. Counter-terrorism was still in an embryonic stage but the SAS was years ahead of where the U.S. military was, due to their experiences in places like Northern Ireland and Malaysia. I’m somewhat notorious amongst my friends for hating on war movies that claim to be recounting true events–don’t even ask me if I’ve seen whatever latest Navy SEAL flick is out in theaters or on television, because I haven’t. That said, Six Days is a notable exception to the rule about lazy Special Operations movies.
I was pleasantly surprised by the film and the hard work put into it showed. The fact that Rusty Firmin (one of the operators involved in the embassy assault) was a technical adviser on set and trained the actors in the same tactics, techniques and procedures that the SAS used back in the day really shows. Back in those days, the two main terrorism threats were aircraft hijacking and hostage barricade scenarios. The SAS had to deal with one of the more unfavorable scenarios, and in this case the enemy knew they might be coming.
While you wait to see the film, read SOFREP’s review with Rusty Firmin about his involvement in Operation Nimrod and what it was like to work on the film.
SOFREP: What was going through your mind as you and your teammates were finally prepared to breach?
Rusty: At last we had proof of murder when the press attaché, Mr. Lavasani, was thrown onto the pavement. He had been executed. This changed everything. It was no longer a police operation, it was indeed handed over to the SAS to deal with it. We started to move into our final assault positions which took about 16 minutes, but it had to be done covertly as we did not want to risk compromise.
I was a team leader. My thoughts from memory with numerous, “don’t fail,” the most important was the mission which was to rescue the hostages. Once we were in position, I just wanted to hear the words: GO! GO! GO! Once I heard them, I thought, “we are unstoppable,” and started to carry out the plan to rescue the hostages. I should imagine but can’t speak for all of my teammates, they would be exactly the same mindset and at the back of your mind there is always a sort of what if something goes wrong, you have to think on your feet and fix it and carry on the momentum.
Read the rest of the interview here.
Images courtesy of XYZ Films
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