Special Operations: Roswell Redeemed

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December 20, 2010:  Several groups of former American commandos (U.S. Army Special Forces and NAVY SEALS) have set up security and combat training facilities in the United States. One, run by Matrix International, is in Roswell, New Mexico, on part of a deactivated U.S. Air Force base. Here corporate security personnel, police and Special Operations troops from foreign countries, learn new skills and sharpen existing ones.

There is a retired Boeing 747 aircraft there for practicing hostage rescue, and operational aircraft available at all times for parachute exercises. There is terrain and buildings for all sorts of commando training. Canadian special operations troops regularly train at the Roswell facility. One reason the Roswell facility is so busy is because the climate and terrain is very similar to Afghanistan, and Matrix can also bring in Afghan-Americans to act as Afghan civilians in very realistic training exercises.

Matrix has only been around for five years, An older firm, Xe (formerly Blackwater) has several facilities. Xe has been a major provider of civilian security personnel in Iraq, Afghanistan and to clients world-wide, has an 80 acre, training area in Illinois, as well as a 7,000 acre facility in North Carolina, a much smaller training center in California and a jungle survival skills center in the Philippines. Founded in 1997 by former U.S. Navy SEALs, Xe is privately owned. The company originally concentrated on corporate security and law enforcement training. But the war on terror, and especially the war in Iraq, brought it a lot more government work. Apparently Xe managers realize that the war on terror operations will end eventually, and the company is continuing to concentrate on corporate security and law enforcement training. The Illinois facility is mostly for police training.

 

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