Today we have our first Combat Story from a Swedish Special Operations soldier and intelligence professional, Max Lauker. Max spent 20 years in the elite Swedish forces and was a plank holder for one of the predecessor units to what later became Sweden’s Special Operations Group.

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He served multiple deployments that we cover in this episode in what I’ve coined as four missions and a funeral to dig into more of the combat experiences and lessons while also touching on loss that comes with this line of work.

Max takes us through time fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, solo and team deployments to Latin America, doing full cycle cross-border reconnaissance missions in the Balkans, to lonely and frankly frightening intel work in Eastern Europe and Russia. This is just a bit of the action that Max writes about in his upcoming book that he co-wrote with Antonio Garcia titled ‘Number 788: My experiences in Swedish Special Operations - preparing for NATO and the War on Terror.’

I think you’re really going to enjoy this chat with our first Swede on this show, Max Lauker.

Find Max Lauker Online:

https://www.amazon.com/Number-788-experiences-Operations-preparing/dp/1804514233

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🎵 Intro Song: Sport Rock from Audio Jungle

Show Notes:

00:00 Introduction
00:36 Welcome to Combat Story
00:56 Meet Max Lauker: Swedish Special Operations
03:53 Growing Up in Sweden and Military Service
06:48 Choosing the Ranger Path
08:06 Swedish Special Operations Community
11:20 Joining the Arctic Rangers
15:34 Selection Process for Special Purpose Units
22:41 First Deployment: Latin America
29:16 Unexpected Mission in Venezuela
33:38 Team Deployment in Colombia
38:09 Official Mission in Kosovo
40:01 The Full Circle Mission in Kosovo
41:19 Reconnaissance and Surveillance Operations
44:22 Cross-Border Tensions and Discoveries
47:30 Reflections on the Kosovo Mission
49:22 Transition to Iraq: A Dangerous Deployment
52:50 Afghanistan: Intel and Direct Action
57:26 Lonely Intel Work in Eastern Europe
01:10:54 The Challenges of Counterintelligence
01:15:27 Writing the Book: A New Mission
01:20:06 Final Thoughts and Reflections