Anyone know the scoop on Mr. Grylls.

He claims he was 21 SAS from 94-97.

Isn't selection 18 months or so? He was 21 SAS for a yr or so?

He also claims live missions (2) in North Africa.

His show on Discovery is idiotic to say the least. I have my doubts as to his authenticity.

w6, he's done a few programmes over here, think his 1st one was on the Foreign Legion selection/training. I think he's for real and was in 21 for a few years

see his web site

http://www.beargrylls.com

http://www.beargrylls.com/gallery/sas_days.html

yes Bear was 21 for 3 years till he broke his back in a Parachute accident, you've got to give credit for all the things he's done since the accident. he as been getting a load of stick over his new born survivor programme, people forget he's not a Ray Mears type presenter, when Bear was in 21, he was trained as a Combat Survival Instructor and Medic, so his ways of doing things will be different to others/Civies

I like the bloke I think he puts on a good show, Although I would like to see Old Lofty back on the Box.

All badged up

http://www.beargrylls.com/gallery/sas_days.html

Hey Dave,

I moved your post into this on-topic thread.

it all went a bit pete tong !!lol

Damn, I was sure he was a poser.
His show is the guidebook to dying in the wild.

Every shelter he has built leaked and he has gotten sick on water more than once.
I hope you fellas are better trained that Bear is.

I know what your saying 6, but at least with his show, it's not all perfect, it just shows that things don't always go to plan, plus the fact that he don't just talk about doing something he goes and does it.
the programme where it got sick due to not boiling water.

Telling people you may get sick by not boiling/serilizing your water, to some people they just don't get the message over. I've heard people saying "I could drink ought and not get sick"

well heres what happens if you don't ! allah puking all night

we are all used to watching TV wilderness programmes where all is tickiti boo, Bear show is just a different slant on things thats all. one of my pet hates on the programme is the appearence of equipment that he did not have at the start of the show, but hey that's tv for ya !!

Dave

Tommy this is a good insight to the F.L and one for your collection, the writer also covered the SBS in another book. regards ferret

http://www.john-parker.co.uk/insidetheforeignlegion.htm

Its his name?! I thought it was a delicacy on offer in a Yukon McDonald's restaurant!

Cheers for this Ferret mate!

Aye, I've seen, thought not got, the Boat Sqn book to which you refer.

I do have a 1983 copy of 'SBS: The Invisible Raiders: The History of the Special Boat Squadron from WW2 to the Present', by James D Ladd (Foreword by Lt. Col. PG Davis DSC, RM).

Like Philip Warner's Official History of the SAS (i.e. the Regiment-sanctioned version), the book is an attempt to cover the SBS and its activities during WW2 and leaves out any suggestion of glamour and 'men-in-black' type shite that we have come to expect. For example, it was published the year after the Falklands' unpleasantness and limits coverage of that war to pages 219 to 244. For the amateur military historian, the book's excellent and far better than any of this Brave Two Zero shite.

Just had a swift butcher's on Amazon and this wee beauty (Hardback 1983 version - the one I have) can be acquired from anywhere between £29 to £35!!! I paid £2.50 for my copy and it's in near mint order

Bear Grylls was in E Sqn for a short period during the mid 90's. He was an unremarkable soldier and did not distinquish himself militarily in any way. He did not deploy any where during that time. He was quite young but even so was notably immature for his age and did not inspire confidence in any of his colleagues. He used to drive around in old battered car covered in graffiti and was the very opposite of the grey man. He injured his back doing a civilian parachute jump and not as he implies in his promotional literature on ops in Africa. I can't remember whether he did a patrol med course (he may well have done) but he certainly did not attend ACSIC's and was not qualified by the army to instruct in combat survival. When I see him on the television he certainly seems to have matured but he is definitely guilty of exagerating his limited military career for the benefit of his television career.

Hey nonny, how about getting a handle?...and you know all this because you were in E Sqn at the time?

errrrrrrrrr nony wrong i know one of bears best m8s from school who also serves uksfr and he backs bears lit up
also spoke to a serving officer in 21 e sqn W M nephew of peter macaleese (ex 1 para ex 22 ex c sqn ex south african pars merc etc etc) whom also backs bear up from his time in E

petty jelousys on a anonimous forum tut tut give us concrete proof to back up your claims or do on boyo
simple really

I know nothing about this guy. I have heard mention of him but am not in a position to comment.

I was amused by the yard stick that "Lestat" used. "serving officer in 21 e sqn W M nephew of peter macaleese (ex 1 para ex 22 ex c sqn ex south african pars merc etc etc".

If he is half the soldier that his uncle was then he won't be doing bad.

I happened to be involved with P McAleese in the Mid 60's. I doubt that there is such a thing as the complete soldier. For my money Pete was as near as you could get. There has been a lot of negative things said about him such as he was a psychopath, a wife beater and all round loose cannon.

As far as I am concerned it is a load of shit. I always found him to be the consummate professional.

Faugh-a-ballagh

Speaking of Peter MacAleese, and to touch on OC's wise words about him being a soldier's soldier, his autobiography ('No Mean Soldier') is well worth a read.

Kicked out of the 22 SAS for snotting a commissioned Yank, then goes over to join C Sqn Rhodesian SAS, and then on to join the South African Para Brigade - and in all these units he fought in actions all over Asia and Africa. And all this BEFORE he became a seasoned and much sought-after mercenary in Africa and then South America - he even lead a team paid to take out Pablo Escobar.

Never a dull minute with Mr MacAleese!!

Don't Pete have Pub in Brum now ??

If my memory serves during the Escabar Op he survived a heli crash into the jungle. You are dead right Tommy never a dull minute.

Faugh-a-ballagh

Knew Pete in D Squadron. Always thought he was ex-2 Para.

Hi Oldoak,

Yes, Peter M joined Para Reg in 1960 and then passed selection in 1962.

Please feel free to contribute to these boards mate - we've a number of the (maybe not 'Originals') Old-n-Bold on here, so if you were in D Sqn with PM, your input's welcome.

Cheers and welcome aboard.

______________________________________________

"Those who forget the past are condemned to repeat its mistakes..."

Bear Grylls, the British explorer, earned a place in the record books when he flew a petrol powered paraglider over the Himalayas higher than Mount Everest.




The former SAS soldier battled against temperatures of -60C and dangerously low oxygen levels to reach 29,500ft, almost 10,000ft higher than the current record



He had originally planned to fly over the 29,028ft summit of Everest but was worried that he would be imprisoned if he illegally strayed into Chinese airspace



The expedition raised $1 million for Global Angels, a charity which helps children in Africa



The explorer, who nearly died when he became the youngest Briton to scale Everest nine years ago, said the flight was "the hairiest, most frightening thing" he had ever undertaken



During their four-hour journey, Mr Grylls his co-pilot, Gilo Cardozo, entered the death zone where the amount of oxygen present cannot sustain human life



The pair trained for 18 months. To acclimatise, they spent more than six weeks in Britain using special equipment to simulate breathing at that altitude



They had to wait for a “weather window”, when the hurricane-force winds that spin around the mountain subsided, before they could take off at speeds of 75mph



He said his priority was now to return to his wife, Shara, and their young sons, Jesse and Marmaduke.

"I think I’ve used a lot of my nine lives and I promise that I will never undertake anything as dangerous again"



______________________________________________

"Those who forget the past are condemned to repeat its mistakes..."

Have you lads on here thought about the film crew with all their equipment, keeping up with Bears achievments? Pretty fantastic hey?

You can see the video blog here

http://www.gknmissioneverest.com/activezone/videoblog.asp?id2=7&id3=33

It's not a bad figure Bear and others have raised in one event !

"The expedition raised $1 million for Global Angels, a charity which helps children in Africa"

keep up the crazy stunts if thats what you get from them

Dave

Bear Grylls 'faked Channel 4's Born Survivor'

By Richard Edwards
Last Updated: 1:43am BST 23/07/2007

A former SAS soldier became embroiled in the television faking row yesterday after it was revealed that he stayed in hotels during a series about surviving unaided in the "hellholes of the world".


Born Survivor's Bear Grylls often had the comforts of a hotel waiting for him after a gruelling day’s filming

Viewers saw Bear Grylls biting the head off a snake for breakfast and sucking the fluid from fish eyeballs as he lived "rough" in the Channel 4 series Born Survivor.

But a crew member said yesterday that after the camera stopped Grylls would often stay in hotels - including one with internet access and blueberry pancakes for breakfast - and that many of his daring missions were stage-managed.

Channel 4 is investigating whether Eton-educated Grylls, who broke his back in a parachute accident aged 21 but went on to become the youngest Briton to climb Everest two years later, misled the public.

The accusations came as Stephen Lambert, the chief creative officer at RDF, the company involved in the furore over the Queen allegedly storming out of a photoshoot, took personal responsibility for the manipulated footage.

Mr Lambert said a misjudgment in editing was the worst mistake of his life and had created a "perfect storm". He added that he had been trying to convey a "slightly ruffled encounter" between the Queen and photographer Annie Leibovitz but insisted the footage was never intended for use in a BBC trailer.

The BBC has apologised for the error and is also facing a crisis of trust after admitting faking the results of phone-in competitions in shows such as Comic Relief and Children in Need.

Yesterday Channel 4 faced its own trust controversy.

Mark Weinert, a "survival consultant" on Born Survivor which attracted audiences of 1.4 million in March and April, said that at one location where Grylls claimed to be a "real-life Robinson Crusoe" he was on an outlying Hawaiian island and spent nights at a motel.

On another occasion in California's Sierra Nevada mountains he slept some nights at the Pines Resort at Bass Lake, advertised as "a cosy getaway for families" with blueberry pancakes for breakfast.

In one episode Grylls, a Daily Telegraph columnist, tried to coax an apparently wild mustang. He told viewers that the area was "one of the few places in the US where horses still roam wild". Weinert said the horses were driven in from a nearby trekking station for the "choreographed" feature.

"If you really believe everything happens the way it is shown on TV, you are being a little bit naive," he added. Channel 4 confirmed that Grylls had used hotels during expeditions and had asked Diverse, the Bristol-based company behind the series, to look into the other claims. "We take any allegations of misleading our audiences seriously," said a spokesman for the channel. She added: "Born Survivor is not an observational documentary series but a 'how to' guide to basic survival techniques in extreme environments. The programme explicitly does not claim that presenter Bear Grylls's experience is one of unaided solo survival."

Grylls was trekking in the Brecon Beacons with his four-year-old son and was unavailable for comment.

______________________________________________

"Those who forget the past are condemned to repeat its mistakes..."

You have to love it, four years old, anyone can hack it. Go for it.

Anonymous2


Grylls was trekking in the Brecon Beacons with his four-year-old son and was unavailable for comment.

"Grylls was trekking in the Brecon Beacons with his four-year-old son and was unavailable for comment."

A cameraman has now let it slip that the child is a mere 6 months old, is female and that they are actually in St. James' Park.

Give time to load, I can assure you it is worth the wait. regards ferret


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoagOL29Zqk&mode=related&search=

Grylls series 'to be transparent'


The US Discovery Channel is to ensure a survival show is "100% transparent" in future after conceding parts could have misled viewers, according to reports.
Man vs Wild - called Born Survivor on Channel 4 in the UK - saw Bear Grylls supposedly abandoned in the wild.

But a consultant said Grylls stayed in a motel and had scenes set up for him.

"Isolated elements" were not "natural to the environment", Discovery said in a statement to the Hollywood Reporter, and promised greater clarity in future.

"For health and safety concerns, the crew and host received some survival assistance while in the field," the channel told the publication.

"Moving forward, the programme will be 100% transparent, and all elements of the filming will be explained upfront to our viewers."

Discovery also promised that any repeats of the series would be "edited appropriately".

Matter 'taken seriously'

The issue of scenes being manipulated was raised by Mark Weinert, a US survival consultant.

He told the UK's Sunday Times that Grylls spent nights in a motel in Hawaii when he was claiming to be stranded on a desert island.

Mr Weinert also alleged that a raft was put together by team members before being taken apart so Grylls could be filmed building it.


Channel 4 has also been in trouble over Gordon Ramsay's show
Channel 4 said the programme never specifically claimed Grylls was coping "unaided".

But it said it took "seriously" any suggestion of its viewers being misled and promised to raise the matter with Diverse Productions, who made the show.

Diverse Productions declined to add to Channel 4's statement, and Grylls' agent was not available for comment.

The integrity of television shows has come under the spotlight in the UK in recent weeks, with claims that some factual programmes were manipulated and winners for phone-in competitions were faked.

The BBC admitted a promotional clip for a forthcoming documentary had been wrongly edited, giving the impression that the Queen had stormed out of a photoshoot.

And last week, Channel 4 admitted that a scene in The F Word, where chef Gordon Ramsay was supposedly seen catching fish at sea, had been faked.

There you go. One of the lads. regards ferret


http://www.specialforcesroh.com/gallery.php?action=view_image&id=4514

If you pass selection no matter if its 21/22/23 you are a worthy member of the clan.

Given the extra training that 22 get most members of the other regiments can be up there with the best.

They have already prooved their worth and earned their laurels in passing selection, it just takes a few more months of hard training.