PETALING JAYA: The Malaysian Army’s elite commando unit known as the Gerup Gerak Khas (GGK), or Special Service Group, is no regular outfit but a force to be reckoned with in the face of armed combat.
Tough as nails, they have earned the admiration of their foreign counterparts for their combat and survival skills as well as the ruthlessly gruelling training they undergo to qualify as a GGK commando.
Only a handful of aspiring candidates from each recruitment batch pass the five phases of harsh training and make the grade before going on to specialise in various combat skills such as sharpshooting, counter-terrorism, hostage rescue, anti-guerilla assaults and their world-renowned skills – jungle warfare.
Apart from donning green berets and wearing a light blue lanyard on their right shoulder, the insignia worn by members of the GGK is a tiger head symbolising “bravery of a fighting tiger” with “Swift and Agile” as their motto.
They are also issued with a Fairbairn-Sykes fighting knife, known as the commando’s dagger upon graduation from training.
Based at the Iskandar Army Camp in Mersing, Johor, and the Sungai Udang Army Camp in Melaka, the origins of the GGK go way back to 1965 when it was known as the Malaysian Special Service Unit and was later called the 1st Malaysian Special Service Regiment in 1970 before being renamed as the GGK in 1981.
The early batches of commando trainees almost six decades ago received their basic training from the British Royal Marines Commandos and the British Army Jungle Warfare Training School.
The early GGK commandos, consisting of various ethnicities, were instrumental in countering the enemy during the communist insurgency.
In 1993, the commandos earned international recognition when they played a huge role in the rescue of trapped personnel of the United States Army Rangers and Delta Force at the Bakhara market during the Battle of Mogadishu in Somalia.
