The Unit

[boykinlp]

I am watching The Unit right now, and haven’t seen the whole thing, but this happened in the show! The unit member’s truck was being followed by 2 truck loads of bad guys up a mountain, with no way for him to escape. Since I hadn’t seen the earlier part of the show, I’m not sure how the equipment that he used was in his truck. The unit guy sees a large plane approaching in the distance. He inflates this rather large balloon with helium and releases it. It rises high in the air, taking a line that he is hooked to with it, and as the plane, with a pair of rods in a “V” shape from it’s nose, flies low over his head, the line and balloon is “caught” by the plane. It pulls him by the line, from his seated position, up into the air! A section under the plane’s tail opens and the crew pulls the unit member into the plane. I realize that it is TV, but how realistic is this? I thought it was extremely cool! I had videoed this part of the show, but apparently it’s too large to upload here. So, here are a few screenshots of the successful pickup.
Larry

 

[THE PILGRIM]

That’s the Fulton surface to air recovery system.
Fulton surface-to-air recovery system - Wikipedia

 

[Retired W4]

While getting ready to retire out of Dobbins JRB in 2019 we had a couple reservist whose day job was flying for some unit based at Maxwell. They tried to recruit me. 6 months on and 6 months off, and when you are on even your wife could not contact you or vice versa. I said no...I'm too old for that stuff. They did have some nice equipment though and the pay was decent. Civilian version of 160th SOAR (Abn.) but maybe more like JTF-6 stuff.

 

[sjmjax]

The air rescue, was a similar scene in an early James Bond film.

 

[Retired W4]

With a helicopter you could extract by STABO. Dopes-on-a-rope.

 

[mckenney99]

The Fulton was also featured in the John Wayne film "The Green Berets".

 

[boykinlp]

That’s the Fulton surface to air recovery system.
Fulton surface-to-air recovery system - Wikipedia

Thanks for sharing that. I found the following kinda humorous, especially the last line!

“After experiments with instrumented dummies, Fulton continued to experiment with live pigs, as pigs have a nervous system close to humans. Lifted off the ground, the pig began to spin as it flew through the air at 125 miles per hour (200 km/h). It arrived on board uninjured, but in a disoriented state. When it recovered, it attacked the crew.”
Larry

 

[boykinlp]

Watching today’s episode. In it, 100+ children of high ranking government officials, diplomats, and foreign nationals are taken hostage at an elite private school in DC by a group of Chechen terrorists. One of the “Unit” members sneaks into the school to find out where the kids are being held and other pertinent information. Of course he is wearing glasses that show everything he sees to the strike force leaders, and can communicate with them by comms. While he is doing this, they have set up the school layout on the floor of a huge room using tape on the floor.

They have decided a 2 pronged simultaneous attack will be required, and 2 SWAT teams are “going to school” and rehearsing it until they commit each hall to memory and know it better than their bedrooms”. The inside unit member is captured by the terrorists group, and while being taken to the library where half the hostages are being held, is able to see that the bad guys have set up laser trip wires and many bombs/mines placed on the ceiling over the heads of the kid hostages. Also, one of the terrorists has a detonator to set things off! They find out the second half of hostages are being held in a classroom. In both cases, all the hostages are on the floor of the rooms and the terrorists are standing up.

Outside the school is tons of news crews and law enforcement folks. They all think that the FBI is in charge of the situation. How wrong they are!

They are ordered to initiate the rescue attempt, and members of the Unit are leading it, of course. Both teams of “good guys” breech the rooms at the same time taking out ALL the terrorists by shooting them before they can detonate the explosives or hurt any hostages! It was exhilarating and awesome because the good guys won!

Again, I realize this is TV, but I bet much of the stuff that they did is actually done in “real life” situations like this today. That even used a small drone for some of the early surveillance, and this show was almost 20 years ago! Today, drones are used daily in all sorts of applications. I really enjoy watching these types of shows.
Larry

 

[ladder13]

Watching today’s episode. In it, 100+ children of high ranking government officials, diplomats, and foreign nationals are taken hostage at an elite private school in DC by a group of Chechen terrorists. One of the “Unit” members sneaks into the school to find out where the kids are being held and other pertinent information. Of course he is wearing glasses that show everything he sees to the strike force leaders, and can communicate with them by comms. While he is doing this, they have set up the school layout on the floor of a huge room using tape on the floor.

They have decided a 2 pronged simultaneous attack will be required, and 2 SWAT teams are “going to school” and rehearsing it until they commit each hall to memory and know it better than their bedrooms”. The inside unit member is captured by the terrorists group, and while being taken to the library where half the hostages are being held, is able to see that the bad guys have set up laser trip wires and many bombs/mines placed on the ceiling over the heads of the kid hostages. Also, one of the terrorists has a detonator to set things off! They find out the second half of hostages are being held in a classroom. In both cases, all the hostages are on the floor of the rooms and the terrorists are standing up.

Outside the school is tons of news crews and law enforcement folks. They all think that the FBI is in charge of the situation. How wrong they are!

They are ordered to initiate the rescue attempt, and members of the Unit are leading it, of course. Both teams of “good guys” breech the rooms at the same time taking out ALL the terrorists by shooting them before they can detonate the explosives or hurt any hostages! It was exhilarating and awesome because the good guys won!

Again, I realize this is TV, but I bet much of the stuff that they did is actually done in “real life” situations like this today. That even used a small drone for some of the early surveillance, and this show was almost 20 years ago! Today, drones are used daily in all sorts of applications. I really enjoy watching these types of shows.
Larry

Saw that one. Win for the good guys.

 

[X-Raycer]

First saw The Unit in 2010 about 2am on one of the OTA re-run channels. They were broadcasting an episode every weeknight.

I liked it so much I wanted to see the episodes I missed, so I bought the Complete Series Boxed Set.
Funny I just looked it up. I paid $101 and now the same set is $183. Nuts...

 

[jimmyj]

I am watching "The Unit" on Amazon.
1. Is the Unit Special Forces, Rangers, Seals, or ??
2. Did the series start out with the Colonel in Charge having on going affair with the Unit Member's blonde wife ? (WOW!)

 

[lihpster]

I am began watching "The Unit" on Amazon.
1. Is the Unit Special Forces, Rangers, Seals, or ??
2. Did the series start out with the Colonel in Charge having on going affair with the Unit Member's blonde wife ? (WOW!)

Based on Delta with a former Delta providing technical support.

 

[WR Moore]

An old one-liner: My job is so secret that I'm not allowed to know what I do.

Similar to the highest document classification: BBR-burn before reading.

 

[boykinlp]

I am began watching "The Unit" on Amazon.
1. Is the Unit Special Forces, Rangers, Seals, or ??
2. Did the series start out with the Colonel in Charge having on going affair with the Unit Member's blonde wife ? (WOW!)

That is part of the series plot. You’ll have to watch to see how it plays out.
Larry

 

[max]

She was in the sack with the Colonel in the first episode.

I am watching "The Unit" on Amazon.
1. Is the Unit Special Forces, Rangers, Seals, or ??
2. Did the series start out with the Colonel in Charge having on going affair with the Unit Member's blonde wife ? (WOW!)

 

[Onomea]

I dunno fellas.... It sounds pretty complicated to me...

 

[boykinlp]

I was watching The Unit last week and forgot to post this, and thought a part of the show was very funny. The Unit was assigned to protect a Mexican diplomat from a drug cartel assassination threat. They thwarted cartel’s attempt and captured the bad guys. The local Los Angeles police leader wanted the bad guys turned over to them saying they had jurisdiction, and refused to let the Unit guy’s keep the bad guys until she talked to their leader. The Unit’s leader agreed, and asked to see the LA leader’s phone. She handed him her phone, and he dialed the number for her, then handed it back. When she put the phone to her ear, she hears “White House switchboard, where can I direct your call?” The Unit’s leader tells her to ask for the President!! She just hands the phone back to him!

I found it extremely funny, and the perfect way to handle the situation.
Larry

 

[X-Raycer]

I really enjoyed the show because of the drama of the missions.
What I didn't like was the secondary plots involving the families. I had no interest in what was going on back at the base.
Even though I bought the DVD series, because of that I only rate it at Three Stars.

 

[CalifEd]

Again, I realize this is TV, but I bet much of the stuff that they did is actually done in “real life” situations like this today. That even used a small drone for some of the early surveillance, and this show was almost 20 years ago! Today, drones are used daily in all sorts of applications. I really enjoy watching these types of shows.
Larry

My son likes drones, both big and small.
His smallest is about 3" with a camera and is kinda noisy.
He says there are smaller and quieter ones that are on his shopping/budget list.
I can only wonder what real world stuff is in the military/spy drone inventory.

 

[6518John]

That’s the Fulton surface to air recovery system.
Fulton surface-to-air recovery system - Wikipedia

I think I would rather the bad guys get me than be rescued with that contraption!