Raising Hell - Sean Gilligan

On the day Colonel Mann was handed the job his life changed. He was hand picked from the U.S. Special Forces to come up with a plan for a revolutionary fi ghting force. It was a new concept for the Western Coalition nations, who were at war with a new threat emerging in the Middle East, The Islamic State. America the leading Superpower and their Coalition Allies having suffered casualties in The Gulf War, Iraq and Afghanistan since early 2000, were reluctant to put boots on the ground in this new insurrection in Iraq and Syria. Into this uncertain scenario, the idea of using an expendable military unit emerged from the bowels of the Pentagon. Colonel Mann stood before the Generals and CIA advisors as they briefed him on his mission. “Put together a military unit, using selected convicts from our prisons. Train them in Special Forces tactics, as a Quick reaction force to be used in future operations.” It was a decade before the emergence of ISIS, when Colonel Mann got the wheels in motion. It was a tedious process for there were many obstacles to overcome. It was kept top-secret from the start, for western political leaders would never publicly sanction such a ticking time bomb. The Pentagon put it under the umbrella of 'Black Ops'. Having used Americans and foreign soldiers as mercenaries for years, this new unit was an extension of foreign policy. It was a new tool, in the experimental phase for the world was dealing with global terrorism. The concept of the new Penal Army Unit is about a rarely used, little known, controversial method in the modern history of warfare, using condemned criminals to fight in near suicidal missions. Russian and German Armies were known to have Penal army units during World War 2. The Devil’s Brigade (1st Special Service Force), was the combined Canadian/US Commando unit in WW 2, set the standard in quick strike Combined Forces in the Allied camp. In 2014 Force X would emerge as it's modern progeny and nemesis of terrorists.