Special ops or not?

[hood]

Here's one for today... Are these guys Special Ops? It was said that they're operating in Baghdad to search for weapons, so it's certainly possible. Opinions?

http://a1112.g.akamai.net/7/1112/492/03312000/news.lycos.com/news/ot_getImage.asp?op=img&id=310262

[Knave]

Nice shotgun on the middleman. What is that, a Mossberg or Winchester?

[Ryan94]

For me it looks like Specops cause the guy on the right wears a MICH Helmet and has an extra pocket in his BDU...

[sunnysandy]

Well i saw a report on CNN,which said they were US Marines.I guess they are Force Recon.

[USAF G]

As to the shotgun. If they were Marines, it would be a Mossberg, however the safety in front of the triggergaurd points to it being a Remington 870. In that case, they likely aren't Marines. Other than that, I think it would be pretty hard to tell if they are special operations. So many of the front line units have all of the cool guy kit these days.

[Ratamacue]

The Marines use Remington M870 Mark 1's, which leads me to believe that it's possible for USMC SOF to use sawed off ones for CQB, even though the Mossberg 590 and Benelli M1014 are far more common now.

[venture160]

the helmet on the right deff screams specops.... who knows.. mb he was just tagging along with some marines or infantry.... its bound to have happened... also notice that he's the only one with kneepads.. i dunno

[Duke]

Marines generally use the Mossberg 500 and 590, the Winchester 1200, and the Remington 870. Only the MSG only use the Benelli. This shotgun is the Remington 870 w/pistol grip or the Police "Entry Gun".

[Bootneck]

Looks like Force Recon to me. Is this from the Palestine Hotel raid footage?

[...]

Looks like a Marpat kevlar cover in the middle.

[venture160]

still doesn't explain the special forces helmet on the right

[Ratamacue]

What do you mean? In case you didn't know, most USMC SOF uses the MICH helmet, just like units under SOCOM.

[Chris196]

The mount the Aimpoint is in is the Knights Armament Forward Offset Mount. To the best of my knowledge only Force Recon is using this. The Aimpoint QRP mount is the standard for most military units.

[GearGod]

Note that the new MICH helmet is being used by 82nd so the MICH isnt necessarily "specops"

[hood]

http://www.armytimes.com/content/editorial/editart/042303front4.jpg

Ok, here's another one for the poll. :)

[venture160]

looks to me like army sf

[bishop1]

Man guys you dissapoint me, i could be wrong yes but in my opinion the soldiers in the first pic were Rangers. I mean, NBC facilitys and airport seizures are their specialties, and those guys are dressed way to heavy to be Force Recon or SF or SEALs or whoever. I dont know of any SO team besides the conventional ones like Rangers and the 10th Mountain and so on who wear conventional body armor and full MICH or Kevelar helmets. My vote is on the Rangers for that pic

[steel bonnet]

Well l`d say NOT,surely US SpecOps don`t need to be photo`d doing everything? What about keeping one`s Identity secret as to avoid any form of hassel/retaliation another day against them or family?

Also as for gear,well you can buy most of the stuff "SpecOps" use & wear.
As some on here will know there`s lots of lads who want to look the part :D

After all we don`t scream in the UK,"look he has no headwear,SAS for sure". very stupid to think that,though some do indeed think that.
God knows how many times l`ve seen photos in the past of RM & Para guys classed as SAS. Because they were not wearing any headwear & carried a M16.
Just my opinion.
ja
Steel bonnet

[Chris196]

870's are the PREFERED breeching shotgun of Force Recon.
The Knights Armament Forward Offset Aimpoint mount is not used by the US Army, however it IS used by FR.
The dump pouch the 2 soldier has hanging from his gear and the exposed shiney magazines (that look suspiciously like the Wilson Stainless mags FR uses in their MEU-SOC .45s) are more dead giveaways.

Id put money on Force Recon

[hood]

steel bonnet, these photos come off the army's own websites. it's not like they're secret or the focus of only the media. the camo weapons, mustaches, and various other gear is unlike anything that the normal forces are allowed to look like so i'm not seeing where you're coming from. are you suggesting that random civilian americans are somehow in Iraq, dressed up as SF guys for fun?