KASOTC’s 6TH Annual Warrior Competition – a Global Event

The 6th Annual Warrior Competition here at KASOTC is literally a global event, making problems likely (if not probable). We expected some drama on the ground, if not a full on Charlie Foxtrot. After all, there are nearly 40 teams competing – Special Operations Forces and Counter Terror units, some military, some police, from 19 different countries. They're speaking over a dozen languages and who knows how many dialects. Throw in some bureaucrats and you're almost certain to see incoordination and confusion.

Happily that has not been the case so far. This appears to be in large part due to the caliber of the Jordanian military personnel administering the Competition. The commander of KASOTC, Brig. Gen. Aref Alzaben seems to have things very squared away. Mission X, the company tasked with overseeing the individual events, is running them improbably well.

Any time you have this many A type personalities and meat eaters in one place there will be tension. Interestingly almost all the head-butting we've seen has been between teams of the same nationality. There are a couple of teams here from Saudi Arabia, 3 each from China and Kazakhstan and several from Lebanon, Palestine and Jordan. Those who are countrymen don't always get along and play well with each other. Similarly the Dutch, Canadians and Slovakians are far more critical of themselves than anyone else on the field.

We've learned some interesting things so far – the Russians look like US “operators” and are unfailingly polite. The Chinese are fast and unsociable. A surprising number of teams use some sort of M4 platform. The standards for acceptable weapon handling and trigger discipline vary widely from country to country.  There are some very dangerous Canadians in the world. There will always be complainers; handful of teams continued to moan about technical penalties incurred or times assessed even when shown pictures or video of their infraction(s).

Oh, and there appears a lot of camaraderie between special operations personnel. Many  – not all – teams cheered for their competitors, even when they couldn't understand one another.

Check the gallery to get a look at some of the competitors we saw today. Q took some great pictures today.

Good photos by Quoc Ha. The rest by David Reeder.