light underneath, makes for a great night-vision monocular, but
with massive zoom capability’s. And of course has no military
signature whatsoever!
PMCI: Why is the personal role radio
carried in your bail-out bag and not
on the body?
A lot of the time during day light
hours we would be working alone so
it’s not required, and sometimes we
are so close to our subjects that if
the ear piece or an un-natural bulge
in our clothing was identified, could
turn the situation nasty very quickly.
When conducting any positive action
we would always carry the communications on our person.
PMCI: What basic Covert Camera System would you carry as
an EDC option?
We have been working with the VIVITAR Life Cam recently, this
small match box sized system supports high HD video quality,
records locally while allowing us to monitor it via WI-FI. Its small
power consumption means we only need to carry small lithium
power packs which last well.
Covert Camera System:
PMCI: What’s the Karabiner & 10 metres of para-cord used for?
Urban climbing! You never know when you may be required to
climb heights or lower yourself from them, two very simple items
can make life very easy when penetrating urban compounds, 10
metres of para-cord can quickly make a 5 metre rope ladder,
making a Karabiner hook to gain access to loft spaces if operating
alone as we all too often do, also it can make a great wash line
to dry kit!
PMCI: Would you really carry a down jacket everywhere you went?
YES! Every country no matter where it is has cold spells, and
more often it’s used in airports where flights get rolled over and
you find yourself camping out on the ground, or at best a shitty
sofa with 10 other strangers! The warmth of a down jacket can
sometimes make things bearable. Wrapped up inside the jacket is
a pair of lightweight thermal glove, hat and fresh socks and travel
toothbrushes, the type you get issued on commercial flights.
Anyone can rough it when required, the ability to admin yourself
will give you mental sustainability.
PMCI: Why the door wedge?
This is the quickest and easiest way to ‘lock down’ in a room
of your chosen safe haven, or to give you those valuable seconds
to awake, gather your senses, and react to the events about to
take place.
PMCI: What could happen in your hotel room?
We can’t always stay in the safest of hotels, there have been
a number of occasions where the hotels we are staying in, have
been raided or even under attack, a simple door wedge can make
a big difference. When working alone and living amongst our
targets, we must always consider our actions that day could have
compromised us; the wedge is like sleeping with one eye open,
you just never know.
PMCI: So what situation would you be required to deploy this
sort of camera?
This would be one of our short term camera systems used
to gather movements in and out of compounds, almost like an
anchor OP gathering intelligence while we off doing other things.
We have deployed this system a number of times within buildings
as it’s so small and easy to conceal, the great feature about this,
is that we can connect it to our solar power pack and get no-stop
power.
PMCI: This has been a real eye-opener for all of us here
at PMCI, a real glimpse into a way of life that many of us
thought had to exist, and that we now know is real. Thanks
so much to the guys for speaking to us, and sharing these
amazing insights with us!
L SU
PMCI: You say ‘safe havens’ in reference to the Sat-Nav, what
does this term stand for?
As you know by now we are self-reliant, we only carry basic
medical equipment to stabilise not fix, this is due to restrictions
on civilian aircraft, as a rule we will always input the nearest
hospitals with a 24hr A&E within the operational area. With this,
next is a drive by recce to ensure we know the route and more
importantly the entrance to the A&E ward, getting eyes on this
is always priority. We never input hotels or other locations used
as rest and admin areas, it’s like saving ‘home’ in your Sat-Nav,
anyone that breaks into your vehicle has only got to search and
will quickly discover where you live, basic self-security measures.
Communications:
pmcimagazine.com