Ten years ago today Muslim Chechen separatists occupied School Number One (SNO) in the town of Beslan, North Ossetia which is an autonomous republic in the North Caucasus region of the Russian Federation. On the first day of school, they took over 1,100 faculty, students and their parents hostage, demanding that the Russians leave Chechnya. After three days of negotiations, during which hostages and terrorists alike died, Russian paramilitary forces retook the school. Unfortunately, over 300 were killed during the operation. This was by no means a text book operation. The bad guys have studied it and learned from it. So should you.
Over the years, terrorists have have conducted this sort of operation more than once in various parts of the world. There is every reason to believe that they will do it again. ISIS is an increasing threat. Americans are gaining experience fighting for Islamo-fascist causes. At some point, many will attempt to reenter the US.
Citizens and Law Enforcement alike should be vigilant. For citizens, if a situation doesn’t look right, avoid it. For LE and first responders, it is imperative to practice and be prepared. It can be as simple as rock drills and command post exercises to work out command and control as well as communications issues is critical. Learn critical skills. Be prepared to transition from regular duties to dealing with single and multiple active shooters. Get the proper equipment and know how to use it. This includes medical equipment.
I recommend all read up on this operation and study both the actions of the terrorists as well as those of Government forces.
Tags: Beslan
The US should have left Assad alone. YES even though he is f**king socialist asshole most of his people still enjoyed peace and something that resembled the western would (which is kinda socialist btw). Now christians are being slaughtered like pigs.
Assads troops have proven themselves more than capable to clear out this kind of vermin. He didn’t need help to kill Al Nusfra and ISIS.
I hope the syrian people get Assad out of office. But after he cleans the Al Nusfra / ISIS out.
Obama/Kerry (and Hillary I guess before she resigned) were either really stupid or had ill intent.
Umm, wasn’t it McCain that was shaking hands and taking selfies with Al nusra/Isis . Didn’t the US give them millions of dollars and arm them with atgm’s(tow’s). So let me get this right , we arm and fund them in Syria , but bomb them in Iraq ?
And for you all that are falling for the fear mongering of terrorist attacks here in the states , don’t you think if there was such a real threat, wouldn’t our borders actually be locked up tighter than a virgins p***y ?
McCain goes without saying. He would send troops to Vietnam tomorrow if he could.
Neocons like MCain are all state worshippers just the Democrats.
Both parties have their warmongers. GOP has McCain and Dems have Hitlery.
Borders are notional. Look at the land mass of the Americas. The idea that we can lock up our borders is ridiculous. The amount of freedom lost by all citizens to completely eliminate a threat like this would cause revolution. You would have to be a fully militarised nation, walking around having your identity card scanned everywhere, travelling on a schedule. Commerce and trade would be abysmal.
Look at the cost in rubles and manpower just to keep people IN the Soviet Union, let alone stop people from entering from a coastline.
It is only a matter of when not if in the US. This attack was instrumental in the DOJ grant to create the Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training program. I highly reccommend it for LEA and military.
Thanks for the reminder SSD. Beslan has been on my mind a lot lately as “back to school” looms. It was also on my mind a lot back when those assholes bombed the Boston Marathon – they could have just as easily done a “Beslan” right here in Massachusetts….
Excellent point! Operations like Beslan are not so far fetched they could not happen here. Another example to consider is the attack on Mumbai. A small handful of trained terrorists killed or injured hundreds of people in an attack that lasted several days. As SSD stated, get the proper equipment AND training. Together they can make all the difference.
But we (local police departments) are becoming too militarized. We’ll just wait for the federal government to make decisions about equipment and tactics. (Heavy dose of sarcasm here)
I’m glad someone knows the chain of command of town/city, county, state, and Federal are pretty much independent of each other.
That’s why CPXs are so important.
+1 S1……..we’ll said
Well
I am not military nor LE but have many friends in both, 2 policemen and 1 sheriff live on my street and being in a military town I have a good number of military friends.
My LE neighbors know and fully agree with me having an active shooter bag in my truck, along with first aid. They wish more people would think along the lines of, “Prepare for the worst, pray for the best”. They fully understand that 9 out of 10 times they are there not to STOP a crime but to take a report of a crime.
As for the whole terrorists doing their deeds here….it’s gonna happen. Be prepared, be vigilant and train. In regards to training….I really want and need to take some advance first aid. Anyone know of good training (Dark Angel?) in the South Texas area? Thanks.
SSD, only because I think you’d want to know:
ROC Drills
(Rehearsal of Concept)
That is a new made up term. For years and years they just called “Rock drills”. They are conducted on a sand table with rocks used to represent units as they discuss scheme of maneuver. Like Pogue somehow became POG and STRAC was miraculously turned into an acronym, it looks like Rock drill has become ROC drill. However, I didn’t see this new acronym in ADP 3-0. I thought you’d want to know.
Just as legs became “LEG”.
is there an acronym for that too? They used to be NAPs as in Non Airborne Personnel.
Up here it’s used for “lacking enough guts”. False bravado nonsense.
A Mumbai type attack is far more likely. Hi visibility target such as the mall of America in Minnesota would be optimal for such Muslim terrorist operations, for example.
I agree Roy.
This requires little coordination, causes a massive chaotic response and maximum media coverage. All things required for a terrorist operation to succeed in contemporary terms.
In my opinion the bad seeds returning from the “glory of jihad” are most dangerous when mentioned in this type scenario.
Nothing is new. Bath, Michigan, 1927. Mountain Meadows, 1857. Of course it will happen again. And to paraphrase Common Sense, not to put words in his or her mouth, it’s essentially inevitable as part of the human condition. Border security? Graph out the increase in border protection staffing over the last 100 years. What’s our return on investment been? During the Clinton administration if you sat at the wrong table in the cafeteria at FLETC you wound up in the Border Patrol.
Check out D-DEY Response Group https://www.facebook.com/ddeyconsultants. They provide custom trauma kits and trauma/TCCC training for civilian, LE and Military. D-DEY is a veteran owned and operated company. All their instructors are current and former Army Special Forces Medical professionals. You can check out their kits on North America Rescue (NAR) website.
I have only one issue with many of these trauma kits, and this especially comes to light when discussing Beslan. Most of these kits are designed for use on adults and are not sized for children.
A couple of years ago, I travelled to Africa with my then nine years old daughter–whom is quite petite. When packing my travel kit, I noted that many items that I carried for international travel to third world countries could not be used on her. This required me to cut down a SOF Tourniquet, purchase a much smaller nasal airway, and much slimmer needles and catheters for use on a child. Also, many of the drugs found in these kits are formulated for adults and it required I obtain child size dosages as well. Fortunately, one of my neighbors is a pediatrician and one of my daughter’s friend’s mother is an ER doctor. They were very helpful in redesigning my travel emergency kit so I had the right size tools for use on my daughter. I would think that any truly innovative medical supply company in the emergency medicine business would come up with trauma or foreign travel kits for use by parents travelling with children. To date, I have not heard or seen on the internet a medical supply company that is filling this critical niche.
That’s a good point, thanks for mentioning this.
Makes you more cognizant of all the ‘gun free zones’.. It’s been said before and I’ll say if should I find myself in a situation similar to those who said these words, I’d rather be judged by twelve than carried by six.
Beslan was a horrible tragedy and, while many armchair commandants like to criticize Russia’s response to the siege, no other country (with the exception of Israel perhaps) has remotely experienced such tough circumstance when dealing with hostage taking. Same with the theatre hostage situation.
There was much that went wrong, although, god forbid, if something happens like that in the US while being orchestrated by an adversary as determined as trained, experienced chechens, things will get bloody even with superior US training, equipment, and firepower.
The Russian military and paramilitary special operations forces have significantly revamped their training and re-equipped their designated units in response to mistakes that were made too.