I hope at least some of you will remember this 2003 movie starring Bruce Willis. A US Navy SEAL team must rescue an beautiful female Italian humanitarian aid medical doctor in Nigeria before rebel forces attack and destroy the village she is working within. Roger Ebert thought that the cinematography, the rain, and Willis’ face was almost enough to make a movie even without a story. Others thought the combat scenes realistic and unsensationalistic. Director Antoine Fuqua wanted to explore the human suffering of the African cycle of continuous war and often clashed with the big star of the movie and producers to make something more popcorn worthy. But what audience goers never realized is that it really happened. But it wasn’t the SEALs, it was Canada’s own JTF2.
I’ve written about past Canadian successes in combat and military innovation hoping to address the ignorance of everyday Canadians. Canadians are the antithesis to vainglorious but perhaps to a fault.
In the mid 1990s, the Canadian Armed Forces decided it was time to create a specialized antiterrorism force modelled on the famed British Special Air Service. These would be highly trained commandos who could be clandestinely inserted into hot spots all around the world to perform missions previously thought impossible to complete. This would be Joint Task Force 2. The unit would enjoy international acclaim for its exploits while remaining nearly unknown to the public back home. In 2004, a rare second US Presidential Unit Citation was awarded to JTF2 for its classified work in Afghanistan in 2001/2002 in direct response to the terror attacks of 9-11. In 2017, a JTF2 sniper operating in Iraq hit his target over 3.5 km away and held that record until it was broken in 2023 by a Ukrainian sniper.
The Canadians were tough. All the initial applicants survived Hell Week while training with the US Navy SEALs. When eight JTF2 members trained with the US Army RANGERS, they bested all the Americans when the Instructors dropped all of them into the middle of a massive corn snake nest. The Americans fled while the Canadians endured the venomous bites and completed the training mission to the astonishment of the Instructors. But it was not about the physicality, it was about the mental toughness that allowed members to endure the horrors they continuously encountered perpetrated on innocent civilians worldwide. The evil that evil men do under the guise of warfare.
The mission was to rescue a female medical doctor, a priest and two nuns from a village in Colombia that was threatened by units of the leftist guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forced of Colombia (FARC) which had been fighting the legitimate government of Colombia for many, many decades. It was not noble ideology, these people had vital intelligence gleaned from their close association with the region’s populace that the Colombian government needed. JTF2 was inserted by helicopter along the shores of a small bay close to the village in question. Unfortunately the priest and the two nuns refused to leave the sick untended in the medical clinic. The female doctor would only leave if she could bring a number of the villagers with her. They proceeded on a seven hour walk through the dense jungle to reach the extraction point because the insertion point landing zone was already compromised. Of course there was only room for the team and the doctor aboard the waiting helicopter and none of the accompanying villagers had ever been a serious consideration. The screaming and protesting doctor was bundled aboard and the JTF2 members had to prevent the villagers at gunpoint from boarding. It was painful to all in the JTF2. All they could do was direct the villagers in the direction of the Venezuelan border and safety.
As the helicopter passed over the village, the smoky remains were clearly visible. As were also the corpse of the priest and dozens of dead villagers strewn without care in the open. The CO of the JTF2 made a decision and had the pilot fly them back to the extraction point. They would not abandon those still alive to FARC.
The pursuing FARCs were much faster and caught up with the JTF2 and the villagers in a couple of hours but with the help of satellite images, the team managed to avoid contact by hiding in the jungle and they were passed by. After a night in the jungle, JTF2 lost communications and were on their own. Some hours later they were engaged in a fire fight with FARC. One JTF2 member stayed behind and kept the FARC pinned in place giving the rest of them a good 3 hours head start. Progress was slow because the children with them were tired and had difficulty keeping quiet. The CO wondered how FARC had found them and why they were still so persistent after the JTF2 had shown considerable teeth. Once again at gunpoint, one of the villagers admitted he was the son of an important Colombian official and the likely target of FARC. Another villager sudden fled and was shot. It was discovered that he was carrying a tracking device.
The group beat it to the Venezuelan border and it was in sight when FARC fell on top of them. A fierce gunfight broke out and the civilians were hit. Then two JTF2 members went down. Leaving nobody behind the group continued. The Venezuelan border guards started to provide covering fire. Then the Americans sent in air support and destroyed the FARC units. Next week, JTF2 was due in East Timor to help put down an uprising.
This very story was years later sold to Hollywood by a former JTF2 member and you will see that Tears of the Sun is remarkably similar to the real live version told here.
