JW GROM or Military Unit GROM,
named in honour of the Silent Unseen of the Home Army
is one of Poland's premier special missions units.
GROM operators gained the nickname of "The Surgeons",
due to their extensive medical training and knowledge
and their surgical ability to coordinate and execute special operations.
GROM was originally modeled on NATO's tier one special operations
units such as the US Army's Delta Force,
the US Navy's SEAL Team Six (DEVGRU)
and the British Army's SAS.
GROM,
which stands for Grupa Reagowania Operacyjno-Manewrowego,
or in English,
Group for Operational Maneuvering Response,
which also means "thunder",
is one of the five special operation forces units of the Polish Armed Forces.
The unit was officially activated on July 13, 1990.
It is deployed in a variety of special operations and unconventional warfare roles,
including anti-terrorist operations and projection of force behind enemy lines.
The unit was named after the Silent Unseen,
Poland's elite World War II special-operations unit.
In the 1970s and 1980s,
there were several formations of special forces units within Poland,
but these were either trained in purely military tasks such as sabotage,
disruption of communications and such,
or in purely counter-terrorist roles.
After the Polish embassy in Bern was taken over
by a group of four Polish emigrants calling themselves
Polish Revolutionary Home Army in 1982,
General Edwin Rozłubirski proposed that a clandestine
military unit be established to counter the threat from terrorism
and other unconventional threats.
This proposal,
however,
was initially rejected by the People's Army of Poland.
In 1989,
many Jews were allowed to emigrate from the Soviet Union to Israel.
Poland was one of the handful of countries that provided aid
in the form of organization for the operation,
later dubbed Operation Bridge.
After two Polish diplomats were shot in Beirut,
Lt. Col. Sławomir Petelicki was sent to Lebanon
to secure the transfer of civilians and the Polish diplomatic outposts.
Upon his return to Poland,
he presented his plan for the creation of a special military unit to the Ministry of Interior,
a force that would be trained in special operations
to be deployed in the defense of Polish citizens
in situations similar to the one in Lebanon.
Petelicki's ideas were well received,
and on June 13, 1990,
GROM was formally established as JW 2305.
Sławomir Petelicki was chosen as the first commander of the newly formed unit.
As a Polish intelligence officer from Służba Bezpieczeństwa specializing
in sabotage and subversion,
he seemed perfectly suited to oversee the unit's initial formation.
He gathered around himself a group of like-minded and professional soldiers,
functionaries and set about choosing soldiers
that would be fit for special operations.
Due to the high risks involved in special service,
it was decided that all men should be from professional service.
The first batch of recruits all came from a variety
of already-existing special units within the Polish Armed Forces.
The training of GROM soldiers includes a variety of disciplines.
All of them undergo the same specialized training in
anti-terrorism and special operations,
as well as frogman,
sniping,
and parachuting.
In four-man teams,
each soldier must be prepared to assume the respective responsibilities of his colleagues,
should it become necessary.
JW GROM receives basic special operations training
from the Swedish Navy's Special Command
for Tactical Operations based in Karlskrona,
Sweden's primary Naval Base.
Approximately 75% of GROM personnel are trained as medics or paramedics.
In addition,
each group is supported by several professional physicians.
GROM soldiers are trained in capture or kill methods.
During the 2003 invasion of Iraq,
GROM formed the part of the core of the Naval Special Operations Task Group,
along with US Navy SEALs,
British Royal Marines and attached US Psy Ops and civil affairs teams.
On March 20, 2003,
US Marines from 1st F.A.S.T. Company and GROM operators
assaulted the KAAOT Oil Terminals,
whilst US Marines from 1st F.A.S.T. Company and US Navy SEALs
from SEAL Team 8 and 10 seized the MABOT oil terminal,
both terminals were seized with no casualties
and explosives which were found on the terminals
were made safe by GROM and SEAL operators.
A mixed team of 35 GROM operators and 20 US Navy SEALs
from SEAL Team 5 seized the Mukatayin hydroelectric dam,
57 miles northeast of Baghdad.
Iraqi troops guarding the dam surrendered without a fight,
there were no casualties to the team,
with the exception of one GROM soldier,
who broke an ankle during the insertion from a US Air Force MH-53J Pave Low helicopter.
SEAL and GROM units continued to cooperate
throughout the rest of the invasion phase,
with raids and anti-sniper missions in Baghdad.
Following the invasion,
GROM operators formed the core of Task Unit Thunder,
as an element of Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force-Arabian Peninsula,
providing a Tier-1 counterterrorism unit for the task force.
Along with Task Unit Raider
(consisting of Det One operators),
both units became the task force's primary direct action assets,
operating in conjunction on multiple occasions.
After earlier successful tours of Iraq operating
alongside US Navy SEALs under direct US Command,
in 2007,
GROM and JW Komandosów were deployed to Kandahar .
They weren't restricted by any national caveats
the only restriction placed on them was regarding
cross-border operations into Pakistan.
Along with Direct Action successes,
they were considered very effective in training
and mentoring Afghan National Police units.