Kopassus: Better to Come Home just in Names than to Fail in Duty

That’s the motto of Kopassus or Komando Pasukan Khusus. This Red Berets unit is an Indonesian Army Special Forces that conducts particular operational missions for the Government, such as direct action, unconventional combat, sabotage, counter-insurgency, counter-terrorism, and intelligence gathering. Let’s back a while to July 1950, when the RMS (Republic of South Mollucas) became unreasonable and did some serious rebellion. To response it, the highest commander of ABRI or TNI (Armed Forces of the Republic of Indonesia) set up the troops. ABRI’s Army won that battle. But with many casualties. It’s sad to know how the enemies with smaller number of troops were often troublesome to official trained troops. Besides, this didn’t happen just once or twice. So, they introspected. This bitter statistic then inspired Lt. Col. Slamet Riyadi to form a special military unit for specific missions. Through the ABRI Commander, on April 16, 1952, Indonesia organized the Corps of Territory Command III. That group is the forerunner of the Red Berets we see today. The unit alone changed its name for few times: the Army Command in 1953, the Army Paratrooper Command (RPKAD) in 1955, the Army Special Forces Center (Puspassus) in 1966, the Army Covert Warfare Forces [...]