Page 154 - Journal of Special Operations Medicine - Summer 2015

An Ongoing Series

Fuzileiros Portugueses (Portuguese Marines)

Bryan Ferreira, DDS, EMT-P

Portuguese Fuzileiro shouts to a wounded teammate to take cover. Communication can save lives.

Corpo de Fuzileiros
In the world of Special Operations medicine, the Corpo de Mozambique, and Guinea-Bissau) and against Portuguese
Fuzileiros plays a unique role as Marines of the Portuguese enemies on the African continent. One of the most famous
Navy: they are its amphibious special forces. operations was the covert operation called Mar Verde, in
which the Fuzileiros executed covert amphibious landings
The Fuzileiros are likely the oldest Special Operations unit on the shores of Guinea-Bissau’s neighbor, Guinea, to rescue
in Portugal. They trace their history back to 1585, when 26 Portuguese (among them, some fighter pilots) who had
specialized troops existed to provide riflemen in the Portu- been taken prisoner by the insurgents and moved to the cap-
guese warships. At that time, they were already considered ital city, Conakry, with the support of the local government.
an elite unit, being responsible for protecting the king of
Portugal. They also saw extensive service in the Colonial Today, the Fuzileiros are located at the Portuguese base of
Wars in Africa in the 1960s and 1970s, when they used Alfeite, near the capital, Lisbon. The unit is composed of
their amphibious capabilities to execute very lethal opera- two amphibious landing battalions (each formed by three
tions against insurgents in the Portuguese colonies (Angola, companies) and two extra support companies. They are a

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