Johan RaathRecce Book Bundle

About

A Breed Apart: The Inside Story of a Recce’s Special Forces Training Year

Over the years, many have signed up for the South African Special Forces selection course but only a select few have ever passed. The gruelling course pushes recruits to their physical and mental limits. Those who make it through selection still have to complete a demanding year-long training cycle before they can join the ranks of this elite unit.

In A Breed Apart, former Special Forces operator Johan Raath offers a rare insider’s view on the training he and other young soldiers received in the mid-1980s. Drawing on the reminiscences of his fellow Recces, he describes the phases of selection and training and offers valuable insights into what makes a successful operator.

The courses in the training cycle show the range and standard of Special Forces training, including weapons handling, bushcraft/survival, parachuting, demolitions and urban warfare, as well as seaborne and riverine operations. For Raath and his training cycle buddies, the cycle culminated in an operation in southern Angola where the young Recces saw action for the first time.

Much of what Raath underwent still forms part of present-day Special Forces training. Comprehensive and revealing, this book shows why these soldiers truly are a breed apart.

Blood Money: Stories of an ex-Recce’s Missions as a Private Military Contractor in Iraq

Shortly after we took off from the checkpoint I saw an old Opel with young men trying to pass us . . . I remember the cracks of the AK-47 bullets when it came through our windscreen. Our driver drew his pistol and fired back with his right hand while trying to control the speeding vehicle with his left.’

Johan Raath and a security team were escorting American engineers to a power plant south of Baghdad when they were ambushed. He had first arrived in Iraq only two weeks before. This was a small taste of what was to come over the next 13 years he worked there as a private military contractor (PMC).

His mission? Not to wage war but to protect lives. Raath acted as a bodyguard for VIPs and, more often, engineers who were involved in construction projects to rebuild the country after the 2003 war. His physical and mental endurance was tested to the limit in his efforts to safeguard construction sites that were regularly subjected to mortar and suicide attacks. Key to his survival was his training as a Special Forces operator or Recce.

Working in places called the Triangle of Death and driving on the ‘Hell Run’, Raath had numerous hair-raising experiences. As a trained combat medic he also helped to save people’s lives after two suicide bomb attacks on sites he then worked at.

 About Author - Johan Raath

Johan Raath qualified as a SA Special Forces Operator in December 1986. He served in the SADF for seven years and left as a staff sergeant after which he founded a tactical training school in Durban. In the late 1990s, he started working as a security contractor, military trainer and VIP protection specialist. Johan worked in various conflict zones globally and ended his career in Iraq in 2017 after working there for over a decade. His book about his experience in Iraq called Blood Money (2018) was a local bestseller.

Johan Raath worked in Iraq as a private military contractor from 2004 to 2017. He offered specialized protection services to VIPs and sheikhs, as well as engineers working on construction projects, oil field engineers and port construction workers. Raath is a former South African Special Forces operator or Recce. In 1992 he started a security training company and did high-risk security work in Africa. Since the 1990s he was involved in security missions in over 15 countries. Raath has also worked as a bodyguard for a number of presidents. His training and protection services have won him accolades, including from US government clients and USAID.

Product Features

• Category: Military History
• Format: Paperback
• Dimensions: 230 x 152 x 25mm (L x W x T)