Book Update: Not Your father’s Coast Guard

Hello MK’s. A few weeks ago I wrote about a new book coming out called Not You Father’s Coast Guard, that tells the story of a bunch of Coasties that executed a pretty awesome mission destroying Colombian coke labs. Well, through my travels I have been in contact with the author of the book and he passed some MK related information my way that I thought was pretty cool and I figured you all may enjoy. From Matt Mitchell:

In the late 90s the DEA and a bunch of mercenaries were dug in at a fire base in Northern Peru. They were surrounded by a group of narcoterrorists and under siege. It was illegal for the DOD to help because of various legal restrictions (Mansfield Amendment, Posse Commitatus, etc.). So, it was the USCG to the rescue. The plan was to resupply the fire base with a modified C-130 but there was a problem. The narcoterrorists had SAMs and USCG C-130s didn’t have flares and chaff to ward them off. What to do? The answer, strap a MK2 in a gunners belt, hang him out of the back of a C-130 with a flare gun and if he saw a SAM approaching he was to shoot a flare at it! (take a moment to think about that). Yes, we actually did this. But as crazy as that sounds, the situation on the ground was far wilder…

…one more note, believe it or not, MKs played THE crucial role in most of these specialized missions and that fact is clearly laid out in the book. Often, the MKs had to be both tactically proficient and able to tackle the maintenance of the fleet at the same time. Operation Snowcap, for example, didn’t really take off until we were wise enough to send a couple high speed MKs down south. Once the MKs hit the ground, the missions really started taking off.

I think that pretty much seals the deal on me getting the book, how about you? This type of mission is so rare in the USCG, and it’s definitely going to be a pretty cool read. The book is tentatively scheduled to be released on Nov. 20th, but it may change. You can check out a few chapters and see some pics on the books website www.notyourfatherscoastguard.com for more info.

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