special operators

[victor steinbok]

Well, this is interesting.

http://goo.gl/x33PN

> Officials described the reaction of the special operators when they were
> told a number of weeks ago that they had been chosen to train for the
> mission.


I never heard of troops in special operations referred to as "special
operators". It makes some sense, but introduces all sorts of subjective
nuances. Maybe it's my sheltered existence limiting exposure again... Just
running a search on "military special-operators" gets a lot of hits--some
are recent and many are spurious, but plenty of relevant info as well.

Russians use the same term for both the troops and the units--SpetzNaz,
short for "special designation" or "special purpose". Avoids the whole issue
;-)


"Special operations" not in OED either for actual ops or for the units that
run them. Of course, nothing on "special operators" either. "Black
op[erations]" is not in OED either.

VS-)

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