Grup Gerak Khas : History

In handling the problems arising from the Confrontation in 1965, the Honorable Tun Abd Razak bin Dato’ Hussien who was the Defence Minister, issued a specified instruction to form an experimental task force unit. The Ministry of Defence then came out with instructions for volunteers and a number of volunteers from the Army and the Navy took the challenge. On 25th of February 1965, an introductory training was conducted by 40th British Royal Marine Commando at Majidee Camp, Johore Baharu, Johore.

From the 300 volunteers who enrolled, only 15 were selected to undergo the 6 weeks Basic Commando course. On completion, only 4 Officers and 9 Other Ranks managed to get through. They were:

This achievement proved that Malaysians were capable of undertaking whatever roles and tasks given. With the guidance from the instructors from the 40th British Royal Marine Commando, the Special Service Group began expanding and in that year alone, they conducted 6 courses of Basic Commando.

Major Abu Hassan bin Abdullah was the First Commanding Officer of the The Malaysian Special Service Group (MSSG), and Sergeant Ariffin became the first Squadron Sergeant Major. In late 1965, the strength of MSSG was 70%. In keeping with the development of the Armed Forces; officers and other ranks were sent abroad for specialized courses such as airborne, rigger, special operations forces, ranger and amphibious.

MSSG also conducted joint training with foreign Special Operations Forces. MSSG took part in operations in East Malaysia and during the 13 May 1969 incident. After the Confrontation in 1967, there were discussions whether to disband or continue the special forces unit. The argument was that the financial implication of MSSG unit is similar to that of maintaining two Infantry Battalions. Despite the argument, MSSG was moved to Segenting Camp, Port Dickson in 1968.

The confrontation and the 13 May incident proved that the MSSG is an asset to the government and should remain and further expanded to a regiment. In deploying all the new units and elements, MSSG was then moved to Sungai Udang Camp, Malacca and on 1 August 1970, the first Special Service Regiment was formed. The Special Service Group was accredited in 1971 but its members still belonged to their respective 'corps'. This situation however caused problems in the personnel career planning. To avoid these problems, volunteers were enlisted to join the Special Forces. In 1973, the ‘corps’ was assigned with 6 officers.

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