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Mountaineering and Special Operations courses inaugurated

Friday, September 6, 2019

Number: 7564

In Jaca (Huesca)

The director of the Military School of Mountaineering and Special Operations (EMMOE, to use its Spanish acronym), Colonel Jañez, inaugurated the 75th Mountaineering Course and the 64th Special Operations Course in a ceremony held on the 5th of September in the headquarters of the EMMOE in Jaca, Huesca.

Once the selection tests, which measured the physical aptitude of the potential participants, had finished 29 of the 47 soldiers who applied to the first course and 48 of the 105 who applied to the second were admitted. Amongst the students are officers and non-commissioned officers from the Army, Navy and Air Force, as well as officers from the Argentine, Philippine and Mauritanian armies.

Lasting approximately nine months, the Mountaineering Course gives students the technical knowledge and skills to live, move and fight in high mountains and extremely cold climates. To achieve this goal, they concentrate on practical tactical exercises, which are carried out in various valleys in the Pyrenees in the regions of Aragon, Navarre and Catalonia, as well as in the Picos de Europa. It has been organised in three phases, with two modules each: mountaineering in summer and mountaineering in winter. This is a very demanding course, both physically and mentally, and requires a lot of training regarding knowledge of procedures, safety rules, techniques and equipment.

The Special Operations Course takes a similar amount of time and is carried out in three modules: basic, specific and applied. Its objective is to provide the necessary information to conceive of, plan, run and execute the specific missions from Special Operations, as well as to advise the command of these missions. It is also eminently practical, with exercises in every kind of terrain and climate, lots of exercises at night and in an aquatic environment. The course is mostly held in Jacetanía and other regions of the Pyrenees in Aragon as well as in Alcantarilla (Murcia), the ‘San Gregorio’ training centre in Zaragoza, and Cartagena in Murcia and includes very diverse phases such as topography, shooting and explosives, para-trooping, fighting in water and military scuba diving, survival and evasion, aircraft operations, urban combat, and the execution of tactical operations in collaboration with units from the Army, the Navy and the Air Force.

Ceremony of presentation and inauguration of the courses.Ceremony of presentation and inauguration of the courses.