'H.M. KING ABDULLAH II'

by Stuart Brown

H.M. King Abdullah II of Jordan dispatches paratroops from a C-130 Hercules during his command of Jordanian Special Forces.
An oil painting commissioned by the Jordanian Royal Court for His Majesty King Abdullah II King of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.
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H.M. King Abdullah II entered the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst (U.K.) in 1980 and was commissioned as second Lieutenant in spring of 1981. He then served as a Reconnaissance Troop Leader in the 13/18th Royal Hussars Regiment (British Army) in the U.K. (and West Germany).
From 1985 to 1993 he served mainly in the Armoured Corps (3rd Division) in all related command appointments at platoon, company and as battalion second in command positions, until finally commanding the Second Armoured Battalion, 40th Armoured Brigade with the rank of lieutenant Colonel from January 1992 to January 1993. During this period he attended several military courses in the U.S. and the U.K. including Staff College Camberley (U.K.) 1990-1991.
He also has several attachments to the Special Forces and a year as a tactics instructor with Jordan Army's Anti-Tank, Cobra Helicopter Wing.
The beginning of 1993 saw him as Deputy Commander of Jordanian Special Forces till he took full command in November 1993. He commanded these forces till October 1996, when he was instructed to re-organize this and other elite units into the Special Operations Command (SOCCOM).
In 1998, as SOCCOM Commander, he was promoted to the rank of Major General and continued this command until the passing away of His Majesty King Hussein in February 1999

A rumor has it that he was on the jump with the Rangers and Jordanian SF into H-1 during the opening of the Iraq war.........

LOAD CLEAR! LOAD CLEAR!

Your Job is my Hobby!

Mortarman11c (12/16/2009)

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Where's your helmet Majesty?????

A rumor has it that he was on the jump with the Rangers and Jordanian SF into H-1 during the opening of the Iraq war.........

Ha!  I was just about to post the same thing! 

Every time I performed JM duties I had to wear a helmet, including static safety. 

Also, who the hell jumps with sleeves rolled up? 

The interesting detail to me is that the jumpers do not have weapons' cases.

Defend the Second Amendment

Believe you me, my skid lid has protected my pretty little head on two seperate occasions.

One of them left a streak of interior green paint on my helmet about 5 inches long after a little t-tail wag threw me UP into the ceiling of the 141......

Had I not been wearing a helmet, I could have been leaving five inches of hair, scalp and blood on the wall!

LOAD CLEAR! LOAD CLEAR!

Your Job is my Hobby!

When I was in 3rd and 19th SF Groups our SOP was to jump without them.  I was going to post that, at least for us, those weapons would not have been cleared by the JM.  We always had to tape up the muzzle, the front sight, the rear sight, the charging handle and the forward assist. 

It's actually a PITA and I always hated doing it, but AFAIK it's pretty common SF SOP to not use weapons cases.  Maybe it's more "covert?"  I don't know, because once you hit the ground it takes longer to remove all that tape than it would to just unzip a weapons case, but all I can say is, that's the policy.