Today we have our first Combat Story from a Swedish Special Operations soldier and intelligence professional, Max Lauker. Max spent 20 years in the elite Swedish forces and was a plank holder for one of the predecessor units to what later became Sweden’s Special Operations Group.
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He served multiple deployments that we cover in this episode in what I’ve coined as four missions and a funeral to dig into more of the combat experiences and lessons while also touching on loss that comes with this line of work.
Max takes us through time fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, solo and team deployments to Latin America, doing full cycle cross-border reconnaissance missions in the Balkans, to lonely and frankly frightening intel work in Eastern Europe and Russia. This is just a bit of the action that Max writes about in his upcoming book that he co-wrote with Antonio Garcia titled ‘Number 788: My experiences in Swedish Special Operations - preparing for NATO and the War on Terror.’
I think you’re really going to enjoy this chat with our first Swede on this show, Max Lauker.
Find Max Lauker Online:
https://www.amazon.com/Number-788-experiences-Operations-preparing/dp/1804514233
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🎵 Intro Song: Sport Rock from Audio Jungle
Show Notes:
00:00 Introduction00:36 Welcome to Combat Story00:56 Meet Max Lauker: Swedish Special Operations03:53 Growing Up in Sweden and Military Service06:48 Choosing the Ranger Path08:06 Swedish Special Operations Community11:20 Joining the Arctic Rangers15:34 Selection Process for Special Purpose Units22:41 First Deployment: Latin America29:16 Unexpected Mission in Venezuela33:38 Team Deployment in Colombia38:09 Official Mission in Kosovo40:01 The Full Circle Mission in Kosovo41:19 Reconnaissance and Surveillance Operations44:22 Cross-Border Tensions and Discoveries47:30 Reflections on the Kosovo Mission49:22 Transition to Iraq: A Dangerous Deployment52:50 Afghanistan: Intel and Direct Action57:26 Lonely Intel Work in Eastern Europe01:10:54 The Challenges of Counterintelligence01:15:27 Writing the Book: A New Mission01:20:06 Final Thoughts and Reflections
