title: Special Air Service Regiment

text: In April 1994, a 10-man SASR team from J Troop was attached to Australian forces in Somalia to provide an elite response, VIP protection and force protection to the Australian Service Contingent in Mogadishu. Known as "the Gerbils", the small team operated from Toyota Landcruisers and Datsun utility vehicles and two M-113 APCs. They were subsequently involved in a number of actions, including an incident on 21 May when they were flown to the scene of a downed Canadian civilian helicopter north of Mogadishu to protect the crew. On 16 August they were involved in a skirmish during a convoy which resulted in two Somalis being killed after one of them aimed an AK-47 at the Australians. They returned to Australia in November 1994.


title: Special Air Service Regiment

text: In August 1994 SASR-qualified medical personnel were deployed as part of the contribution to the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda, some of whom were present during the Kibeho Massacre in April 1995, for which one SASR soldier and two other Australians were awarded the Medal for Gallantry for their actions. In addition, individual members of the SASR have been attached to a wide range of Australian peacekeeping deployments as observers, including in Kashmir, Lebanon and in the Sinai.


title: Special Air Service Regiment

text: Deaths during training accidents make up the majority of the SASR's fatalities. The worst accident in the regiment's history occurred on the evening of 12 June 1996 when two S-70-A9 Black Hawk helicopters from the 5th Aviation Regiment carrying SASR troopers collided during a live-fire counter-terrorism/special-recovery operation exercise at Fire Support Base Barbara in the High Range Training Area near Townsville, Queensland. This activity was part of Exercise Day Rotor 96 and took place on the second day of the exercise, sometime after 18:30, requiring the pilots to use night vision goggles.


title: Special Air Service Regiment

text: Six aircraft had been approaching the target area when, 30 seconds from the landing zone, one of the helicopters veered to the right, clipping the tail rotor of another helicopter. One Black Hawk crashed immediately killing 12 personnel on board, while the other was able to make a crash landing but burst into flames, killing six. Crash survivors, soldiers from the other helicopters and exercise staff risked the flames and exploding ammunition to rescue their comrades and retrieve the bodies of the dead. Fifteen members of the SASR and three from the 5th Aviation Regiment lost their lives in the accident. Fourteen personnel were later officially recognised for their part in the rescue and evacuation operation.


title: Special Air Service Regiment

text: In July 1997 an eight-man SASR team deployed at short notice to Butterworth in Malaysia to provide close protection and communications to the Australian ambassador and embassy staff in Cambodia if required, in preparation for the evacuation of Australian nationals in the wake of civil unrest which occurred following a coup in that country. The evacuation operation was subsequently completed successfully, with RAAF C-130s supported by Airfield Defence Guards and other military personnel evacuating 455 Australians and other nationals from Cambodia as part of Operation Vista.


title: Special Air Service Regiment

text: Following the agreement of a truce in October 1997 which ended the conflict in Bougainville, Australian personnel were deployed as part of the New Zealand-led Truce Monitoring Group, with an SASR officer being included in the reconnaissance party and later serving on its headquarters. In April 1998, Australia took over leadership of the mission, which was renamed the Peace Monitoring Group. Numerous SASR personnel served in Bougainville over a four-year period as part of Operation Bel Isi, both in headquarters positions and as part of the monitoring teams.


title: Special Air Service Regiment

text: In 1998, the SASR made its first squadron-strength deployment since Vietnam when 1 Squadron, with an attached New Zealand SAS troop, was deployed to Kuwait in February as part of the American-led Operation Desert Thunder. The force, known as Anzac Special Operations Force (ANZAC SOF), was fully integrated, with the New Zealanders providing the squadron's third troop. While the crisis was resolved peacefully, if military action had been taken the SASR would have been used in the Combat Search and Rescue (CSAR) role to recover aircrew shot down by Iraqi air defences. The force returned to Australia in June 1998. Regardless, the operation represented the first time that SASR tactical headquarters had been deployed outside of Australia.


title: Special Air Service Regiment

text: The SASR played a key role in the Australian-led international peacekeeping force (INTERFET) in East Timor between September 1999 and February 2000. In the days prior to the commencement of INTERFET, the SASR was involved in the RAAF evacuation of United Nations Mission in East Timor (UNAMET) staff, Australians and refugees from East Timor following increasing violence by Indonesian military-backed militia after the East Timorese voted for independence from Indonesia. The SASR subsequently provided the initial INTERFET forces to secure the point of entry at the airport and seaport in Dili. 3 Squadron, along with Allied Special Forces elements from the NZ SAS and British SBS, formed INTERFET's special forces element, known as Response Force (RESPFOR).


title: Special Air Service Regiment

text: The SASR spearheaded most operations conducted by the international force during the early days of the intervention in East Timor and, as in Vietnam, served as the eyes and ears of the force, patrolling extensively through militia-controlled areas in vehicles and on foot as INTERFET expanded to take control of the rest of East Timor. It was involved in a number of significant contacts with pro-Indonesian militia, including at Suai on 6 October 1999 during which two SASR soldiers were wounded, and later at Aidabasalala on 16 October 1999. On 22 October 1999, the SASR conducted a combined air insertion in Black Hawk helicopters and an amphibious landing from HMAS Brunei into the Oecusse Enclave to secure the beachhead ahead of an amphibious assault by the main force, after the insertion of Navy Clearance Divers by submarine the previous night to conduct a reconnaissance and survey of the amphibious landing site.


title: Special Air Service Regiment

text: It was reported that the SASR also conducted covert patrols in the Enclave before the landings. Other tasks included VIP protection and other special forces tasks as required by the task force commander. 3 Squadron was later awarded a Meritorious Unit Citation on 25 March 2000. 1 Squadron replaced 3 Squadron in December 1999, and completed its tour in February 2000.


title: Special Air Service Regiment

text: The regiment formed a key element of the security force in place for the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000, and in the lead-up to the event the regiment underwent a period of modernisation, acquiring new equipment and capabilities, including the ability to respond to chemical, biological and radiological threats, as well as developing techniques for the clandestine boarding of moving ships at night. During the Games two SASR squadrons were available for counter-terrorist operations, with one designated to respond to incidents in Sydney and Canberra, while the other was on standby for incidents elsewhere. Defence involvement in domestic security increased after the terrorist attacks in the United States on 11 September 2001, and the unit has since formed part of the security force for a range of international sporting and political events held in Australia, including the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting at Coolum, Queensland in March 2002, and the visit of US President George W. Bush to Canberra in October 2003. The SASR maintains TAG (West) to respond to incidents on the west coast of Australia. It also provided the training and use of their facilities to raise a second Tactical Assault Group in the 2nd Commando Regiment.


title: Special Air Service Regiment

text: On 12 April 2001, an SASR troop conducted a boarding of the fishing vessel "South Tomi" using two rigid-hull inflatable boats launched from the South African Navy vessel SAS "Protea" in international waters south of Cape Agulhas, South Africa. On 29 March, the Togo registered "South Tomi" fled the AFMA fisheries patrol vessel "Southern Supporter" after being detected poaching Patagonian toothfish near Heard Island and McDonald Islands in the Southern Ocean. The "South Tomi" fled towards Africa with the South African government agreeing to a request to provide a South African Navy vessel for an intercept. The SASR troop was flown on a commercial flight to South Africa. "South Tomi" was boarded after a pursuit of by the "Southern Supporter".


title: Special Air Service Regiment

text: In August 2001, the SASR was involved in the Tampa affair when its counter-terrorist squadron was ordered to Christmas Island and to board the MV "Tampa" once it illegally entered Australian waters. While the members of the SASR involved did what they could to improve conditions on the "Tampa", the use of an elite military unit to prevent asylum seekers landing in Australia was not supported by all members of the regiment and remains controversial. Less controversial was the SASR's involvement in the boarding of a North Korean freighter, the MV "Pong Su"—which was suspected of drug smuggling—off Newcastle on 20 April 2003 .


title: Special Air Service Regiment

text: In October 2001, the Australian government announced that it was sending a special forces task group built around an SASR squadron to participate in the campaign against al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan designated Operation Slipper. After staging through Kuwait, 1 Squadron arrived in Afghanistan in December 2001 with the other SASR squadrons rotating in at approximately six-monthly intervals. The SASR's main role in Afghanistan was to conduct reconnaissance and surveillance of al-Qaeda and Taliban positions, activities and capabilities. SASR force elements also conducted some offensive operations. After arriving at FOB Rhino, the SASR initially operated in southern Afghanistan with US Marines from Task Force 58, conducting long-range vehicle mounted patrols over several hundred kilometres around Kandahar and into the Helmand Valley near the Iranian-border. On 16 February 2002 Sergeant Andrew Russell was killed when the Long Range Patrol Vehicle (LRPV) he was travelling in hit a land mine during an operation in the Helmand Valley. Two other soldiers were wounded in the incident. Later the SASR operated under command of Task Force 64.


title: Special Air Service Regiment

text: The SASR then moved to eastern Afghanistan where it played a key role in Operation Anaconda in March 2002. During the operation SASR teams were to provide on-location, in-depth operational intelligence and reconnaissance after they infiltrated the Shahi-Kot Valley ten days prior to the operation, and also saved the lives of 24 soldiers of the US 75th Ranger Regiment after their helicopter was shot down, by providing sniper overwatch and guiding in precise air strikes to end the enemy advance as they attempted to overrun the isolated Americans. Up to 300 al Qaeda fighters were later estimated to have been killed as a result of the airstrikes they called-in. Two SASR advisory and liaison officers were attached with the US 10th Mountain Division to help plan the division's air assault operations, and were subsequently involved in heavy fighting after the unit they were with became pinned down and took a number of casualties. Supported by heavy close air support they were evacuated by helicopter that evening.


title: Special Air Service Regiment

text: Four days into the operation, SASR elements identified a potential escape route for the al-Qaeda leadership. Other coalition special forces had attempted to establish observation posts, but had quickly been discovered by shepherds or villagers. The Australians inserted a patrol undetected to monitor the escape route. From more than high on a mountain, the patrol spotted a group of al-Qaeda figures dressed in Russian camouflage and wearing black balaclavas. They carried more advanced weapons than normal insurgents, and appeared to be guarding a white-robed older man with a cane as they fled the battlefield. US intelligence at first believed it was Osama bin Laden but later revised the identification to his second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahiri. An airstrike was called in; however, there was later doubt about whether it was successful. Australian forces later uncovered a number of arms caches and destroyed an anti-aircraft piece, while other elements were tasked with screening possible escape routes to the south and killed a number of fighters as they attempted to withdraw. The initial task group was replaced by another squadron in March and April 2002, while a third squadron rotated into Afghanistan in August 2002. The SASR withdrew from Afghanistan in November 2002 after all three sabre squadrons had served in the country.


title: Special Air Service Regiment

text: A Special Forces Task Group (SFTG) was deployed to Afghanistan in August or September 2005, operating in the southern province of Uruzgan. The SFTG consisted of elements from the SASR, 4 RAR (Commando), the Incident Response Regiment (IRR) and logistic support personnel. Two CH-47 Chinook helicopters from the 5th Aviation Regiment were deployed to Afghanistan in March 2006 to support the SFTG. A forward operating base was subsequently established at Tarin Kowt. This task group was withdrawn in September 2006, after a year of operations working closely with special forces from the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. During this period the task group was on patrol for 306 days, involved in 139 contacts, and sustained 11 soldiers wounded. The SFTG was replaced by a Reconstruction Taskforce made up of engineers and conventional infantry.


title: Special Air Service Regiment

text: A 300-strong Special Operations Task Group (SOTG) was redeployed to Afghanistan to support the Reconstruction Taskforce in April 2007, including an SASR squadron, commando company group, and an integral combat service support team. The commando element was mostly used to conduct direct action tasks, with the SASR returning to conducting strategic reconnaissance. On 16 January 2009, Trooper Mark Donaldson was awarded the Victoria Cross for Australia, the highest award for gallantry in the Australian honours system, for gallant acts performed whilst serving with the SASR in Afghanistan on 2 September 2008 when his patrol was ambushed, resulting in the wounding of nine Australians. In addition to the SASR's contribution to the SOTG, the regiment also provided "Defence Support Teams" to protect Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS) agents in Afghanistan.


title: Special Air Service Regiment

text: On 23 January 2011, Corporal Ben Roberts-Smith was awarded the Victoria Cross for single-handedly neutralising two machine-gun positions during an operation in Tizak on 11 June 2010. On 26 March 2013, it was announced that Special Operations Command would receive the Australian Army's first battle honour since the end of the Vietnam War for outstanding performance during the Shah Wali Kot Offensive in Afghanistan from May to June 2010. The battle honour, titled "Eastern Shah Wali Kot", was awarded in recognition of the operational actions of the SASR and 2nd Commando Regiment from the Australian Special Operations Task Group Rotation XII. The SASR has also been collectively awarded the Meritorious Unit Citation and Unit Citation for Gallantry for its actions in Afghanistan.


title: Special Air Service Regiment

text: The bulk of SOTG was withdrawn from Afghanistan in late 2013 as part of the Australian drawdown, although some special forces remain as part of the small Australian force in the country. SASR casualties in Afghanistan include five soldiers killed in action.


title: Special Air Service Regiment

text: On 26 October 2018, a SASR dog, Kuga, was posthumously awarded the Dickin Medal for bravery on a patrol on 26 August 2011 in the Khas Uruzgan district in which he was shot five times attacking an insurgent positioned to ambush the patrol.


title: Special Air Service Regiment

text: During an operation in April 2013, an SASR corporal cut the right hands from the corpses of three insurgents after being told by a military lawyer that this would be an acceptable way of obtaining fingerprints. After this incident was reported to the senior Australian command at Tarin Kowt, the SOTG was withdrawn from operations for a week-long "operational pause". One soldier remained under investigation for this incident in August 2015, but was later cleared of all charges.


title: Special Air Service Regiment

text: In 2018, it was reported that a small number of SASR personnel were being investigated for possibly committing war crimes in Afghanistan. The allegations include the murder of a detainee in September 2012. Major General Jeff Sengelman, the head of Special Operations Command, was also reported to have issued a memo in 2015 which expressed concern over standards of leadership and accountability within the Regiment, and invited troopers to write to him about any concerns. Sengelman regarded the SASR as having the worst disciplinary record of any unit in the Army. A 2015 report by the former head of ASIO David Irvine judged that the regiment was dysfunctional and affected by "arrogance, elitism and a sense of entitlement".


title: Special Air Service Regiment

text: In 2020, further allegations arose of cover-ups and the deliberate killing of non-combatants. An inquiry by the Inspector General of the Australian Defence Force was expected to report to the Chief of the ADF later that year.


title: Special Air Service Regiment

text: In November 2020, an investigation by Justice Paul Brereton into allegations of war crimes found that SAS troops had been involved in the murder of 39 Afghan civilians, with prisoners being killed to "blood" new troops, and weapons and radios planted to disguise the crimes. None of the killings were "in the heat of battle". The "Inspector-General of the Australian Defence Force Afghanistan Inquiry Report" was published in November 2020. The report stated that some of the incidents the inquiry uncovered constituted "possibly the most disgraceful episode in Australia's military history, and the commanders at troop, squadron and task group level bear moral command responsibility for what happened under their command, regardless of personal fault", though no information on these incidents was published on legal grounds. 36 incidents have been referred to the Australian Federal Police for prosecution, and the 2nd squadron will be disbanded in the wake of the findings and be replaced with a new sub-unit. The Chief of the ADF considered disbanding the SASR as a whole, but decided to pursue improvements to its culture instead.


title: Special Air Service Regiment

text: The SASR provided the majority of the ground-force element of the Australian contribution to the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, known as Operation Falconer, moving in quickly and successfully, thus enhancing Australia's standing amongst its allies. The Australian Special Forces Task Group was built around 1 Squadron, with a platoon from the 4 RAR (Commando) and a troop from the IRR available to support the SASR. 1 Squadron operated in Western Iraq as part of Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force-West (CJSOTF-West) where it was successful in securing its area of operations. B and C Troops of the SAS Squadron crossed the Iraqi border from Jordan on the night of 19 March by vehicle, penetrating before engaging in one of the first actions of the war. A Troop was inserted by U.S. Army MH-47E helicopters with their vehicles over from the staging base in Jordan. A Troop patrols were the closest coalition elements to Baghdad for a number of days, observing key roads and facilities. The Troops fought a number of actions over the following month including a raid on a radio relay station, while later they conducted highway interdiction tasks. Towards the conclusion of the 42-day campaign the SAS secured the huge but undefended Al Asad air base, approximately west of Baghdad, capturing more than 50 air force fighter jets and helicopters with a large number inoperable, and repaired the runway that had been damaged by air strikes. 1 Squadron was withdrawn from Iraq without replacement shortly after the end of the war, and was subsequently awarded a Unit Citation for Gallantry.


title: Special Air Service Regiment

text: Yet some members of the SASR continued to operate in Iraq over the next few years in a number of roles. In 2004 claims appeared in the media that Australian special forces were involved in counter-insurgency operations inside Iraq, although this was denied by the government. An SASR team was deployed to Iraq in May and June 2005 as part the effort to free Douglas Wood, an Australian engineer kidnapped in Baghdad; however, he was later recovered alive by US and Iraqi forces. In 2007, British media reports suggested that SASR elements were still operating in Iraq, along the southern border with Iran, targeting arms smugglers. Later, a small number of SASR personnel were deployed to Iraq in June 2014 to protect the Australian embassy when the security of Baghdad was threatened by the 2014 Northern Iraq offensive, while others were reported to have been tasked with providing security to Royal Australian Air Force aircrew aboard transport aircraft delivering arms and munitions to forces in Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq during September 2014.


title: Special Air Service Regiment

text: An SASR troop was deployed to Timor Leste in May 2006 as part of Operation Astute, operating alongside a Commando Company Group as part of the Special Forces Component following renewed unrest there. On 4 March 2007, along with the commandos, SASR personnel took part in the Battle of Same during which five rebels were killed during an unsuccessful attempt to apprehend the rebel leader, Alfredo Reinado. It was reported in October 2006 that 20 SASR operators were in the southern Philippines, supporting Filipino operations against the Abu Sayyaf and Jemaah Islamiah terrorist groups, but this was denied by the Department of Defence. Meanwhile, following tensions in Fiji between the military and the government the Australian Government dispatched three naval vessels in November and December 2006 as part of Operation Quickstep, in preparation for a potential evacuation of Australian citizens. On 29 November 2006, a Black Hawk helicopter from the 171st Aviation Squadron carrying four crew and six soldiers from the SASR crashed while attempting to land on HMAS "Kanimbla" and sank in international waters off Fiji. The helicopter's pilot and a soldier from SASR were killed in the crash.


title: Special Air Service Regiment

text: In March 2012, the "Sydney Morning Herald" reported that the fourth sabre squadron had been reraised in 2005 and that for many years it had been carrying out special recovery planning, gathering intelligence in Africa, specifically Zimbabwe, Nigeria and Kenya, to develop plans in case Australian civilians needed to be rescued from a hostile environment. The Squadron was reported to be working closely with the Swan Island based ASIS. Concerns within the SASR were reported that they would not be afforded legal protection the same as ASIS operatives if exposed and that there was no contingencies plans if they were detained. Professor Hugh White from the Australian National University was quoted as saying that, as soldiers, they would not have the legal cover ASIS would have if caught. The newspaper also reported that the then Minister for Foreign Affairs Kevin Rudd had argued for squadron to be used in Libya during the civil war, but was overruled by the Minister for Defence, Stephen Smith, and the Chief of the Defence Force, General David Hurley. The operations were not confirmed by the Minister for Defence. While, Rudd said the Libya claims were a "total, absolute, fabrication". However, it has been reported that the SASR has conducted intelligence gathering expeditions overseas since the late 1980s, during which a select few personnel have travelled for months at a time, with the first in Asia being to Laos, Cambodia and Burma.


title: Special Air Service Regiment

text: The strength of the SASR is over 700 personnel. Based at Campbell Barracks, it is a battalion-sized element and is known to be made up of a regimental headquarters, three sabre squadrons, an operational support squadron, a specialist support squadron, and a signals squadron. In 2002 it was reported that two sabre squadrons (designated as contingency squadrons) were assigned to maintain the regiment's warfighting capability and that the third sabre squadron was designated as the Tactical Assault Group, with squadrons rotating through the two roles. In 2015, the existence of a fourth sabre squadron was acknowledged. In 2021 the seniority of the commander of the SASR was increased from a lieutenant colonel to a full colonel.


title: Special Air Service Regiment

text: Each sabre squadron is approximately 90-strong, and is divided into three troops (Water Troop, Free-Fall Troop and Vehicle Mounted Troop). A troop comprises four patrols with five or six operators in each patrol, and is commanded by a captain with each patrol commanded by a sergeant. For surveillance operations the SASR usually operates in patrols; however, for CT operations it usually employs larger force elements. Support personnel include signallers, mechanics and technicians, medical staff, storemen, drivers, caterers and various specialists. It was reported in 2012 that six female soldiers were being trained in the United States. As of 2003, 152 Signal Squadron comprised four troops. Military dogs, designated Special Operations Military Working Dog (SOMWD), have been members of the SASR since 2005, seeing service in Afghanistan and have their own memorial.


title: Special Air Service Regiment

text: While the SASR is a regular army unit, it also has a pool of Army Reserve personnel. These soldiers are former regular Army members of the SASR or specialists.


title: Special Air Service Regiment

text: Following the release of the Brereton Report into war crimes in Afghanistan, it was announced that 2 Squadron would be struck from the Army's order of battle due to its association with war crimes, and that over time the regiment would re-raise a differently titled squadron.


title: Special Air Service Regiment

text: The standard dress of the regiment is the new Multicam-design camouflage which became standard issue to special forces troops in 2012, and is now being introduced to all other Australian Army soldiers in Afghanistan and will eventually become the standard Operational Combat Uniform (OCU). Although SASR parade, working and field uniforms are generally the same as those used by the rest of the Australian Army, special uniforms—including black coveralls—are used depending on the tactical situation. Qualified SASR members wear a sandy-coloured beret with a metal, gold and silver badge, depicting the sword Excalibur, with flames issuing upwards from below the hilt, with a scroll across the front of blade inscribed with the regimental motto "Who Dares Wins", on a black shield. This differs from the British Special Air Service, which wears a woven cloth cap badge of the same design. SAS 'Ibis'-style parachute wings (rounded at the bottom and straight on top) are worn on the right shoulder on general duty, ceremonial and mess dress uniforms only. A garter blue lanyard is worn. Members of the regiment often dispense with rank, use first names, and wear long hair and beards on operations or when in the field.


title: Special Air Service Regiment

text: Soldiers are armed with a variety of weapons systems depending on what the mission dictates. These include the M4A1 carbine (designated as the M4A5 in Australia), which is used as their primary weapon. The shortened version of the M4, known as the Mk 18 CQBR, is also used. The SIG-Sauer MCX is used in counter-terrorist and specialist roles, largely replacing the legacy MP5. Primary weapons are complemented with the two issued sidearms, the USP Tactical and the Glock 19. For medium to long range engagements the Heckler & Koch HK417, SR-25 marksman rifle, and Mk 14 Enhanced Battle Rifle are also used. Support weapons used include the Mk48 Maximi Modular, MAG 58 and the Para Minimi. Sniper rifles used have included the SR-98, Blaser Tactical 2, and Barrett M82A2. The regiment also uses a number of direct and indirect fire support weapons including 66 mm M72 rockets, 84 mm M3 MAAWS, FGM-148 Javelins, M2-QCB Browning .50 calibre machine guns, Mk 47 Striker grenade launchers, and mortars. Flash bang devices and fragmentation grenades are also used depending on the tactical situation, including the thermobaric Mk 14 Anti-Structure Munition (ASM-HG) which has reportedly been used in Afghanistan.


title: Special Air Service Regiment

text: A range of different vehicles are used, including the Supacat High Mobility Transporter (HMT) Extenda with 31 purchased in 2007 designated the Special Operations Vehicle – Special Reconnaissance (SOV-SR), named "Nary" after a SASR warrant officer killed during pre-deployment training in 2005. The first Nary was delivered in 2008 but due to technical problems the vehicles did not enter service until 2011, replacing the Long Range Patrol Vehicle (LRPV) which had seen extensive service in Afghanistan and Iraq. New SOV-Logistics trucks are being acquired to replace the Mercedes-Benz Unimog for supply, support and recovery of the SOV-SR. A lighter, less protected vehicle, more akin to the LRPV—the Polaris Defense DAGOR (Deployable Advanced Ground Off-road)—was being trialled in 2015. Motorcycles are also used for long range strategic reconnaissance seeing service in Afghanistan. Polaris six-wheel all-terrain vehicles are also used, seeing service in Afghanistan. Heavily modified up-armoured Toyota Land Cruiser four wheel drive vehicles designated SOV-Support are used for domestic counter-terrorism and special recovery. The USMI 11m Naval Special Warfare Rigid Inflatable Boat designated Air Drop Rigid Hull Inflatable Boat (ADRHIB) is used for domestic counter-terrorism and special recovery. The Divex Shadow rebreather is used in diving operations.


title: Special Air Service Regiment

text: The SASR has high personnel standards, and selection into the regiment is considered the most demanding of any entry test in the Australian Army. Members of the SASR are required to work in small teams for extended periods and often without support, and are specially selected for their ability to work in this environment, rather than as individuals. Selection is open to all serving Australian Defence Force personnel. Candidates must complete the Special Force Screen Test at the Special Forces Training Centre, which tests their physical fitness, and also includes an interview. About 64 percent of applicants pass this test. Successful candidates then continue on to the 21-day SAS Selection Course which assesses both the individual's strength and endurance (mental and physical), as well as overall fitness, ability to remain calm in combat, and to work effectively in small teams. The course consists of four phases with the first two mainly of physical and navigational exercises held at the Bindoon Training Centre. The third and fourth phases are conducted in the Stirling Ranges with long pack marches in phase three and small group exercises in phase four with little or no sleep and food. Around 10 to 30 percent of candidates pass selection. These candidates then progress onto the 16-month reinforcement cycle, during which they complete a range of courses including weapons, basic patrolling, parachuting, combat survival, signaller / medic, heavy weapons, demolitions, method of entry, and urban combat before posting to a sabre squadron if successful and awarded their Sandy beret. Officers must complete additional courses to qualify as an officer in the regiment, with requisite expertise in operations, administration and command. Most candidates are generally in their late-20s and are on average older than most soldiers. In 2010, a two-hour documentary "SAS: The Search for Warriors" was produced on the selection course. Earlier in 1985, the documentary "Battle for the Golden Road", had also been produced on the course.


title: Special Air Service Regiment

text: All members of the SASR are parachute qualified, and each member of a patrol has at least one specialisation, including medic, signaller, explosive expert or linguist. Counter terrorist training includes close quarters battle (CQB), explosive entry, tubular assault (in vehicles such as in buses, trains and aircraft) and in high rise buildings, as well as room and building clearance. This training is conducted in a range of advanced facilities, including electronic indoor and outdoor CQB ranges, outdoor sniper range, and urban training facilities at Swanbourne. Additional facilities include a special urban complex, vertical plunging range, method of entry house, and simulated oil rig and aircraft mock-ups in order to provide realistic training environments for potential operational scenarios. Free-Fall training includes High Altitude Parachute Operations (HAPO) either High Altitude Low Opening (HALO) or High Altitude High Opening (HAHO) conducted at a maximum of 25,000 feet (7620 metres). SASR personnel also provide training in weapons handling to ASIS operatives at Swan Island in Victoria. Despite a possible reduction in rank, SASR operators receive significant allowances, which make them among the highest-paid soldiers in the Australian Defence Force, with a trooper (equivalent to a private) reportedly earning about $100,000 per annum in 2006.


title: Special Air Service Regiment

text: The SASR maintains close links with special forces from the United States, United Kingdom, New Zealand and Canada, regularly participating in joint exercises and individual personnel exchange programs with the British Special Air Service and Special Boat Service, Canada's Joint Task Force 2, the New Zealand Special Air Service and the United States Navy SEALs, SEAL Team Six, U.S. Army Special Forces and Delta Force. The regiment also regularly conducts exercises with and trains soldiers from South East Asian nations, and participates in exercises with regional special forces. From 1992 this has included close links with the Indonesian Kopassus, a relationship which has at times been politically controversial. Since its formation the SASR has lost more men in training than in combat, due to the nature of the training regime. In 2014, the regiment celebrated its 50th anniversary. During this period 48 soldiers have been killed during operations or in training accidents, while another 20 died in "other circumstances". More than 200 have been wounded. The names of those killed are recorded on a plaque on a memorial made of a large piece of granite outside the SASR headquarters at Campbell Barracks, known as "The Rock".


title: Bernie Kopell

text: Bernard Morton Kopell (born June 21, 1933) is an American character actor known for his roles as Siegfried in "Get Smart" from 1966 to 1969 and as Dr. Adam Bricker ("Doc") on "The Love Boat" from 1977 to 1986.


title: Bernie Kopell

text: Kopell was born in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Pauline (née Taran) and Al Bernard Kopell of Jewish extraction. Kopell attended Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn before enrolling at New York University, majoring in dramatic arts and graduating with a bachelor of fine arts in 1955.


title: Bernie Kopell

text: While fulfilling his military service, he served as a librarian at Naval Air Station, Norfolk, Virginia and then between 1956 and 1957 on board the , a World War II and Korean war battleship, stationed at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.


title: Bernie Kopell

text: During his time on the USS "Iowa", he travelled extensively to Europe in Italy, Spain, Greece, the Middle East in Turkey as well as to South America. He also taught the GED to other military personnel. After completing active duty, Kopell returned to New York before going to Los Angeles with the promise of an agent by fellow graduate James Drury.


title: Bernie Kopell

text: In Los Angeles, Kopell initially drove a taxi and tried to sell Kirby vacuum cleaners to make ends meet before being cast in a minor role in "The Brighter Day", a daytime soap aired on CBS. From there, he moved on to star in "My Favorite Martian" and "The Jack Benny Program" impersonating Latino characters, eventually managing to branch out and do other accents.


title: Bernie Kopell

text: During the 1960s and early 1970s, Kopell appeared in many television series, often sitcoms, including "Ripcord", "That Girl", "The Jack Benny Program", "Our Man Higgins", "Green Acres, Ben Casey," "The Flying Nun", "Needles And Pins", "McHale's Navy", "Lancelot Link-Secret Chimp", "Petticoat Junction", "The Streets of San Francisco", "Room 222", "The Mary Tyler Moore Show", "The Dick Van Dyke Show", "Bewitched", and "Kojak".


title: Bernie Kopell

text: However, Kopell's longest-running role was as Dr. Adam Bricker on "The Love Boat", an Aaron Spelling production. He remained on the series during its entire run, appearing in 250 episodes.


title: Bernie Kopell

text: Kopell made memorable recurring appearances as KAOS agent Siegfried in "Get Smart", Alan-a-Dale in "When Things Were Rotten", Jerry Bauman in "That Girl" and Louie Pallucci in "The Doris Day Show". He played several characters on "Bewitched", including the witches' apothecary and the hippie warlock Alonzo in the episode "The Warlock in the Gray Flannel Suit". He played Charlie Miller as a member of the cast of the situation comedy "Needles and Pins", which ran for 14 episodes in the autumn of 1973. He portrayed a plastic surgeon who gave Ed Brown a facelift on "Chico and the Man". Earlier in his career, he played a director in an episode of "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" ("Good-Bye George"). About this same time, he guest starred on the short-lived "The New Phil Silvers Show".


title: Bernie Kopell

text: Kopell's role as Doc on "The Love Boat" was parodied in a humorous appearance on "Late Show with David Letterman" in 1995. Two entries in that night's Top Ten List poked fun at "The Love Boat", and at the Doc character specifically. The camera cut to Kopell, who was sitting in the audience, and he stormed out of the theater. A few moments later, he was shown having been re-seated in the mezzanine when the second parody was made at his expense, and again stood up, raised his fists and stormed out, playing along with the host. In a dream sequence of "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air", Kopell made a parody cameo as an actor who played a ship's doctor so many times he offers to perform an operation for real, while in a 1994 episode of "Saturday Night Live" he appeared as Doc during a "Love Boat"-themed spoof of "". In the 1990s, Kopell traded on his Doc Bricker persona when he appeared in a commercial for an anti-snoring product named D-Snore, in which he noted that loud snoring "can even ruin a romantic cruise."


title: Bernie Kopell

text: After "The Love Boat", Kopell was so recognizable that he was not in roles often without a nod to his most famous role. He appears as a coroner in "Which Prue Is It Anyway", an episode of "Charmed". Kopell appears in the "Monk" episode "Mr. Monk and the Critic", playing Mr. Gilson, the ill-fated restroom attendant, whom Monk referred to as the Michelangelo of lavatories. He guest starred in "Pinky", a 2009 episode of "My Name Is Earl". He made a cameo as a patient in the "Scrubs" episode "My Friend the Doctor", as well as an episode of "The Suite Life of Zack & Cody".


title: Bernie Kopell

text: Kopell has been married three times, first to actress Celia Whitney, then actress Yolanda Veloz, before marrying Catrina Honadle in 1997. Kopell and Honadle have two children together, Adam (born 1998) and Josh (born 2003).


title: Heartbreak Ridge

text: Heartbreak Ridge is a 1986 American war film produced and directed by Clint Eastwood, who also starred in the film. The film also co-stars Marsha Mason, Everett McGill, and Mario Van Peebles, and was released in the United States on December 5, 1986. The story centers on a U.S. Marine nearing retirement who gets a platoon of undisciplined Marines into shape and leads them during the American invasion of Grenada in 1983.


title: Heartbreak Ridge

text: The title comes from the Battle of Heartbreak Ridge in the Korean War, where Eastwood's character had earned the Medal of Honor.


title: Heartbreak Ridge

text: In 1983, Marine Corps Gunnery Sergeant Thomas Highway finagles a transfer back to his old unit, 2nd Reconnaissance Battalion, Second Marine Division. En route, he meets fellow passenger and aspiring rock musician Corporal "Stitch" Jones, who borrows money from Highway for a meal at a rest stop and then steals his bus ticket, leaving him stranded.


title: Heartbreak Ridge

text: When Highway finally arrives, his new commanding officer, Major Malcolm Powers, seeing him as old-fashioned, assigns him to the Reconnaissance Platoon (part of his assault battalion) which by coincidence includes Jones. The platoon's previous sergeant, awaiting his retirement, had permitted their inactivity, but Highway quickly enacts a rigorous training program. Their desperate plan to intimidate him with resident body builder "Swede" Johanson, just released from the brig, fails after Highway overpowers Swede. Their conditioning provides positive results, and they develop "esprit de corps" and respect for Highway.


title: Heartbreak Ridge

text: Highway repeatedly clashes with Powers and First Platoon Staff Sergeant Webster. They deplore Highway's unorthodox training methods (such as firing an AK-47 over his men's heads to familiarize them with the weapon's distinctive sound). Seeing Highway's platoon as simply a training tool for a supposedly elite First Platoon, Powers proceeds to arrange for First Platoon to beat Highway's men in every field exercise. However, Highway's old comrade-in-arms, Sergeant Major Choozhoo, and his nominal superior officer, the college-educated but inexperienced First Lieutenant Ring, support him. After learning of his Medal of Honor award during the Korean War, Highway's men gain further respect for him, becoming unified against their perceived common enemy.


title: Heartbreak Ridge

text: Highway attempts adapting his mindset to romance his ex-wife Aggie, a barmaid at a local tavern who is dating the establishment's owner Roy. He resorts to reading women's magazines to attempt to understand the female mind. Initially resenting their failed marriage, Aggie tentatively reconciles with Highway.


title: Heartbreak Ridge

text: The 22nd Marine Amphibious Unit is then deployed for the invasion of Grenada. After a last-minute briefing on the amphibious assault ship , Highway's platoon mounts their UH-1 Huey and are dropped by helocast into the water before the rest of Powers' Battalion Landing Team. While advancing inland, they come under heavy enemy fire. Highway improvises, ordering Jones to provide cover using a bulldozer so they can advance and destroy an enemy machine gun nest. Their celebration after subsequently rescuing American students from a medical school is short-lived, as Choozhoo discovers that Cubans are manning a key enemy position that will have to be taken to prevent further incidents. Powers, not wanting Highway to outdo him, orders the recon platoon to advance on the position, but not to attempt any engagement or take the position until First Platoon arrives.


title: Heartbreak Ridge

text: Ring and Highway advance on the position, but come under heavy fire from 2 armored cars and infantry. The platoon hides inside an abandoned building, but when the Cubans attack, Profile is killed and his radio destroyed, impeding direct communication. Ring proposes making a long-distance call to Camp Lejeune for air support and sends Jones to repair the phone line before borrowing a credit card to complete the call, but enemy fire severs the line as he completes calling in the coordinates for an air-strike. Unsure if the call went through, Highway goes to put out a marker for the air support to locate the position but is fired upon and knocked unconscious. Assuming Highway is dead, the platoon exits the building to engage the Cubans, but then the air support arrives and repels the enemy. Ring and a revived Highway then disregard Powers' order, advance upon and take the position, and capture and detain the Cuban soldiers.


title: Heartbreak Ridge

text: Major Powers arrives with Webster, reprimands Ring and threatens Highway with a court-martial. However, the commanding officer of the regiment to which Powers' battalion belongs, Colonel Meyers (a combat veteran who had served in the same battalion as Highway in the Vietnam War), arrives by helicopter and after listening to Powers' and Highway's reports, commends Highway and punishes Powers with transfer back to his former support unit for discouraging the Recon Marines' aggressive fighting spirit.


title: Heartbreak Ridge

text: Highway and his men are warmly received upon returning to the States. Jones informs Highway that he is going to re-enlist and make a career in the Corps, while Highway confides to Jones he is taking mandatory retirement.


title: Heartbreak Ridge

text: Screenwriter James Carabatsos, a Vietnam veteran of the 1st Cavalry Division, was inspired by an account of American paratroopers of the 82nd Airborne Division using a pay telephone and a credit card to call in fire support during the invasion of Grenada, and fashioned a script of a Korean War veteran career Army non-commissioned officer passing on his values to a new generation of soldiers. Eastwood was interested in the script and asked his producer, Fritz Manes, to contact the US Army with a view of filming the movie at Fort Bragg.


title: Heartbreak Ridge

text: However, the Army read the script and refused to participate, due to Highway being portrayed as a hard drinker, divorced from his wife, and using unapproved motivational methods to his troops, an image the Army did not want. The Army called the character a "stereotype" of World War II and Korean War attitudes that did not exist in the modern army and also did not like the obscene dialogue and lack of reference to women in the army. Eastwood pleaded his case to an Army general, contending that while the point of the film was that Highway was a throwback to a previous generation, there were values in the World War II- and Korean War-era army that were worth emulating.


title: Heartbreak Ridge

text: Eastwood approached the United States Marine Corps, which expressed some reservations about some parts of the film, but provided support. The character was then changed to a Marine. (This raised some conceptual difficulties, given that the Battle of Heartbreak Ridge primarily involved the Army. This is explained very briefly in the film when Sergeant Major Choozoo tells Stitch Jones that he and Highway were in the Army's 23rd Infantry Regiment at the time and "joined the Corps later"; the 23rd Regiment was at Heartbreak Ridge) The Marine Corps first cooperated with the film project by allowing much of the filming to be done at Camp Pendleton. The Marines planned to use it to promote its "Toys for Tots" campaign, but upon viewing a first cut, quickly disowned the film because of the language.


title: Heartbreak Ridge

text: Marines who viewed the film cited numerous issues with the way they were portrayed. Major Powers, the battalion's inexperienced S-3 Operations Officer, is repeatedly shown disparaging and insulting Gunny Highway, as well as showing blatant favoritism regarding "his" Marines of the First Platoon. In reality, this would not have happened, given Highway's Medal of Honor. Much of the "training" done before the Grenada invasion was highly inaccurate, including the fact that Highway's Marine Recon unit did not have a Navy corpsman to deal with his men if injured. Even on a relatively small budget, the technical advice was poor. The Defense Department originally supported the film, but withdrew its backing after seeing a preview in November 1986. Eastwood was paid $6 million for directing and starring in the film.


title: Heartbreak Ridge

text: Beginning in summer 1986, "Heartbreak Ridge" was filmed at Camp Talega (the location of the barracks), Chappo Flats (the location of the parachute rigging scene) and Mainside (the 1st Marine Division headquarters) on California's Camp Pendleton Marine Corps Base, the former campus of the San Diego Military Academy, SDMA Solana Beach and Puerto Rico's Vieques Island.


title: Heartbreak Ridge

text: The sequence involving the bulldozer is based on a real event during the invasion of Grenada involving Army General John Abizaid, former commander of US Central Command. The American attack on Grenada is in some respects accurate, although it was really U.S. Army Rangers that secured the University Medical School. The scene in which Lieutenant Ring must resort to using a credit card in order to communicate with his commanders was also based on real-life events involving Army paratroopers.


title: Heartbreak Ridge

text: The film score was composed and conducted by American saxophonist Lennie Niehaus, who worked on over a dozen films for Eastwood. Actor Mario Van Peebles wrote the songs "Bionic Marine" and "Recon Rap", and co-wrote "I Love You (But I Ain't Stupid)" with Desmond Nakano.


title: Heartbreak Ridge

text: Reaction to the film was generally positive. Among reviews, Roger Ebert of the "Chicago Sun Times", gave the film three stars and noted how the film has "as much energy and color as any action picture this year, and it contains truly amazing dialogue." Ebert also complimented director Eastwood mentioning how he "caresses the material as if he didn't know B movies have gone out of style." Paul Attanasio of "The Washington Post" agreed saying, "Those with an endless appetite for this sort of tough-man-tender-chicken melodrama will enjoy watching Clint go up against these young punks and outrun, outshoot, outdrink and outpunch them, in the process lending an idea of what it means to be a . . . Marine." Another "Washington Post" staff writer, Rita Kempley, offered a different view, commenting that it was "always fun to see misguided machismo properly channeled into service of God, country or the National Hockey League. Isn't that the trouble with combat movies these days? From "Top Gun" to "First Blood" to Clint Eastwood's entertaining action drama "Heartbreak Ridge", the empty-foxhole syndrome makes for non-endings." The staff at "Variety" added to the encouraging reviews, saying that the film "offers another vintage Clint Eastwood performance. There are enough mumbled half-liners in this contemporary war pic to satisfy those die-hards eager to see just how he portrays the consummate marine veteran." Vincent Canby of "The New York Times" expressed his satisfaction with the film, writing that "Eastwood's performance is one of the richest he's ever given. It's funny, laid-back, seemingly effortless, the sort that separates actors who are run-of-the-mill from those who have earned the right to be identified as stars."


title: Heartbreak Ridge

text: In terms of negative feedback, reviewer Derek Smith of the Apollo Movie Guide wrote that there was "not enough substance to Gunny to make him interesting enough to be the central character of a film, and since the movie offers nothing new or fresh, it just feels dull and uninteresting."


title: Heartbreak Ridge

text: "Heartbreak Ridge" holds a 68% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 28 reviews. The site's consensus states: "With "Heartbreak Ridge", director Clint Eastwood gets one of his best performances out of himself, even if the story struggles to engage." On Metacritic, the film holds a weighted score of 53 out of 100 based on 16 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.


title: Heartbreak Ridge

text: Several writers have described the film as imperialist propaganda glorifying the American invasion of Grenada without explaining any of the history or politics surrounding it; the only information the audience is given about the war is that the Marines are rescuing American hostages and that there are Cubans on the enemy side. In "Vietnam Images: War And Representation" (1989), James Aulich and Jeffrey Walsh wrote that ""Heartbreak Ridge" dehistoricises actual political and economic conditions, omits many issues of imperialism or colonisation, and represents the Grenada events as a straightforward triumph of American manhood."


title: Heartbreak Ridge

text: The film won the BMI Film Music Award for Lennie Niehaus and the Image Award in the category of "Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture" for Mario Van Peebles. The film also received a nomination, from the Academy Awards for Best Sound for Les Fresholtz, Dick Alexander, Vern Poore and Bill Nelson.


title: Heartbreak Ridge

text: At its widest distribution in the U.S., the film was screened at 1,647 theaters grossing $8,100,840 in its opening weekend. During that first weekend, the film opened in second place behind "". Revenue dropped by 41% in its second week of release, earning $4,721,454. During its final weekend showing in theaters, the film grossed $1,040,729. It went on to take in a total of $42,724,017 in ticket sales during a seven-week theatrical run and a worldwide total of $121,700,000. It ranked 18th at the box office for 1986.


title: Heartbreak Ridge

text: The film was initially released in VHS video format on 1 April 1992. The Region 1 Code widescreen edition of the film was released on DVD in the United States on 1 October 2002. The widescreen edition of the film was released on Blu-ray in the United States on 1 June 2010.


title: Modern Greek

text: Modern Greek (, , or , "Kiní Neoellinikí Glóssa"), generally referred to by speakers simply as Greek (, ), refers collectively to the dialects of the Greek language spoken in the modern era, including the official standardized form of the languages sometimes referred to as Standard Modern Greek. The end of the Medieval Greek period and the beginning of Modern Greek is often symbolically assigned to the fall of the Byzantine Empire in 1453, even though that date marks no clear linguistic boundary and many characteristic features of the modern language arose centuries earlier, beginning around the fourth century AD.


title: Modern Greek

text: During most of the Modern Greek period, the language existed in a situation of diglossia, with regional spoken dialects existing side by side with learned, more archaic written forms, as with the vernacular and learned varieties ("Dimotiki" and "Katharevousa") that co-existed in Greece throughout much of the 19th and 20th centuries.


title: Modern Greek

text: Varieties of Modern Greek include Demotic, Katharevousa, Pontic, Cappadocian, Mariupolitan, Southern Italian, Yevanic, and Tsakonian.


title: Modern Greek

text: Strictly speaking, "Demotic" or "Dimotiki" (), refers to all "popular" varieties of Modern Greek that followed a common evolutionary path from Koine and have retained a high degree of mutual intelligibility to the present. As shown in Ptochoprodromic and Acritic poems, Demotic Greek was the vernacular already before the 11th century and called the "Roman" language of the Byzantine Greeks, notably in peninsular Greece, the Greek islands, coastal Asia Minor, Constantinople, and Cyprus.


title: Modern Greek

text: Today, a standardized variety of Demotic Greek is the official language of Greece and Cyprus, and is referred to as "Standard Modern Greek", or less strictly simply as "Greek", "Modern Greek", or "Demotic".


title: Modern Greek

text: Demotic Greek comprises various regional varieties with minor linguistic differences, mainly in phonology and vocabulary. Due to the high degree of mutual intelligibility of these varieties, Greek linguists refer to them as "idioms" of a wider "Demotic dialect", known as "Koine Modern Greek" ( - 'common Neo-Hellenic'). Most English-speaking linguists however refer to them as "dialects", emphasizing degrees of variation only when necessary. Demotic Greek varieties are divided into two main groups, Northern and Southern.


title: Modern Greek

text: The main distinguishing feature common to Northern variants is a set of standard phonological shifts in "unaccented" vowel phonemes: becomes , becomes , and and are dropped. The dropped vowels' existence is implicit, and may affect surrounding phonemes: for example, a dropped palatalizes preceding consonants, just like an that is pronounced. Southern variants do not exhibit these phonological shifts.


title: Modern Greek

text: Examples of Northern dialects are Rumelian (Constantinople), Epirote, Macedonian, Thessalian, Thracian, Northern Euboean, Sporades, Samos, Smyrna, and Sarakatsanika.


title: Modern Greek

text: "Katharevousa" () is a semi-artificial sociolect promoted in the 19th century at the foundation of the modern Greek state, as a compromise between Classical Greek and modern Demotic. It was the official language of modern Greece until 1976.


title: Modern Greek

text: Katharevousa is written in polytonic Greek script. Also, while Demotic Greek contains loanwords from Turkish, Italian, Latin, and other languages, these have for the most part been purged from Katharevousa. See also the Greek language question.


title: Modern Greek

text: "Pontic" () was originally spoken along the mountainous Black Sea coast of Turkey, the so-called Pontus region, until most of its speakers were killed or displaced to modern Greece during the Pontic genocide (1919–1921), followed later by the population exchange between Greece and Turkey in 1923. (Small numbers of Muslim speakers of Pontic Greek escaped these events and still reside in the Pontic villages of Turkey.) It derives from Hellenistic and Medieval Koine and preserves characteristics of Ionic due to ancient colonizations of the region. Pontic evolved as a separate dialect from Demotic Greek as a result of the region's isolation from the Greek mainstream after the Fourth Crusade fragmented the Byzantine Empire into separate kingdoms (see Empire of Trebizond).


title: Modern Greek

text: "Cappadocian" () is a Greek dialect of central Turkey of the same fate as Pontic; its speakers settled in mainland Greece after the Greek genocide (1919–1921) and the later Population exchange between Greece and Turkey in 1923. Cappadocian Greek diverged from the other Byzantine Greek dialects earlier, beginning with the Turkish conquests of central Asia Minor in the 11th and 12th centuries, and so developed several radical features, such as the loss of the gender for nouns. Having been isolated from the crusader conquests (Fourth Crusade) and the later Venetian influence of the Greek coast, it retained the Ancient Greek terms for many words that were replaced with Romance ones in Demotic Greek. The poet Rumi, whose name means "Roman", referring to his residence amongst the "Roman" Greek speakers of Cappadocia, wrote a few poems in Cappadocian Greek, one of the earliest attestations of the dialect.


title: Modern Greek

text: "Ruméika" () or Mariupolitan Greek is a dialect spoken in about 17 villages around the northern coast of the Sea of Azov in southern Ukraine and Russia. Mariupolitan Greek is closely related to Pontic Greek and evolved from the dialect of Greek spoken in Crimea, which was a part of the Byzantine Empire and then the Pontic Empire of Trebizond, until that latter state fell to the Ottomans in 1461. Thereafter, the Crimean Greek state continued to exist as the independent Greek Principality of Theodoro. The Greek-speaking inhabitants of Crimea were invited by Catherine the Great to resettle in the new city of Mariupol after the Russo-Turkish War (1768–74) to escape the then Muslim-dominated Crimea. Mariupolitan's main features have certain similarities with both Pontic (e.g. the lack of synizesis of "-ía, éa") and the northern varieties of the core dialects (e.g. the northern vocalism).


title: Modern Greek

text: "Southern Italian" or "Italiot" () comprises both Calabrian and Griko varieties, spoken by around 15 villages in the regions of Calabria and Apulia. The Southern Italian dialect is the last living trace of Hellenic elements in Southern Italy that once formed Magna Graecia. Its origins can be traced to the Dorian Greek settlers who colonised the area from Sparta and Corinth in 700 BC.


title: Modern Greek

text: It has received significant Koine Greek influence through Byzantine Greek colonisers who re-introduced Greek language to the region, starting with Justinian's conquest of Italy in late antiquity and continuing through the Middle Ages. Griko and Demotic are mutually intelligible to some extent, but the former shares some common characteristics with Tsakonian.


title: Modern Greek

text: "Yevanic" (, ) is an almost extinct language of Romaniote Jews. The language was already in decline for centuries until most of its speakers were killed in the Holocaust. Afterward, the language was mostly kept by remaining Romaniote emigrants to Israel, where it was displaced by modern Hebrew.


title: Modern Greek

text: "Tsakonian" () is spoken in its full form today only in a small number of villages around the town of Leonidio in the region of Arcadia in the Southern Peloponnese, and partially spoken further afield in the area. Tsakonian evolved directly from Laconian (ancient Spartan) and therefore descends from Doric Greek.


title: Modern Greek

text: It has limited input from Hellenistic Koine and is significantly different from and not mutually intelligible with other Greek varieties (such as Demotic Greek and Pontic Greek). Some linguists consider it a separate language because of this.


title: Modern Greek

text: A series of radical sound changes starting in Koine Greek has led to a phonological system in Modern Greek that is significantly different from that of Ancient Greek. Instead of the complex vowel system of Ancient Greek, with its four vowel-height levels, length distinction, and multiple diphthongs, Modern Greek has a simple system of five vowels. This came about through a series of mergers, especially towards (iotacism).


title: Modern Greek

text: Modern Greek consonants are plain (voiceless unaspirated) stops, voiced stops, or voiced and unvoiced fricatives. Modern Greek has not preserved length in vowels or consonants.


title: Modern Greek

text: Modern Greek is written in the Greek alphabet, which has 24 letters, each with a capital and lowercase (small) form. The letter sigma additionally has a special final form. There are two diacritical symbols, the acute accent which indicates stress and the diaeresis marking a vowel letter as not being part of a digraph. Greek has a mixed historical and phonemic orthography, where historical spellings are used if their pronunciation matches modern usage. The correspondence between consonant phonemes and graphemes is largely unique, but several of the vowels can be spelt in multiple ways. Thus reading is easy but spelling is difficult.


title: Modern Greek

text: A number of diacritical signs were used until 1982, when they were officially dropped from Greek spelling as no longer corresponding to the modern pronunciation of the language. Monotonic orthography is today used in official usage, in schools and for most purposes of everyday writing in Greece. Polytonic orthography, besides being used for older varieties of Greek, is still used in book printing, especially for academic and belletristic purposes, and in everyday use by some conservative writers and elderly people. The Greek Orthodox Church continues to use polytonic and the late Christodoulos of Athens and the Holy Synod of the Church of Greece have requested the reintroduction of polytonic as the official script.


title: Modern Greek

text: The Greek vowel letters and digraphs with their pronunciations are: , , , , and . The digraphs , and are pronounced , , and respectively before vowels and voiced consonants, and , and respectively before voiceless consonants.


title: Modern Greek

text: The Greek letters , , , and are pronounced , , , and respectively. The letters and are pronounced and , respectively. All those letters represent fricatives in Modern Greek, but they were used for occlusives with the same (or with a similar) articulation point in Ancient Greek. Before mid or close front vowels ( and ), they are fronted, becoming and , respectively, which, in some dialects, notably those of Crete and the Mani, are further fronted to or and or , respectively. Μoreover, before mid or close back vowels ( and ), tends to be pronounced further back than a prototypical velar, between a velar and an uvular (transcribed ). The letter stands for the sequence and for .


title: Modern Greek

text: The digraphs and are generally pronounced , but are fronted to before front vowels ( and ) and tend to be pronounced before the back vowels ( and ). When these digraphs are preceded by a vowel, they are pronounced and before front vowels ( and ) and before the back ( and ). The digraph may be pronounced in some words ( before front vowels and before back ones). The pronunciation for the digraph is extremely rare, but could be heard in literary and scholarly words or when reading ancient texts (by a few readers); normally it retains its "original" pronunciation only in the trigraph , where prevents the sonorization of by (hence ).


title: Modern Greek

text: Modern Greek is largely a synthetic language. Modern Greek and Albanian are the only two modern Indo-European languages that retain a synthetic passive (the North Germanic passive is a recent innovation based on a grammaticalized reflexive pronoun).


title: Modern Greek

text: Modern Greek has changed from Classical Greek in morphology and syntax, losing some features and gaining others.


title: Modern Greek

text: Modern Greek has developed a simpler system of grammatical prefixes marking tense and aspect of a verb, such as augmentation and reduplication, and has lost some patterns of noun declension and some distinct forms in the declensions.


title: Modern Greek

text: Most of these features are shared with other languages spoken in the Balkan peninsula (see Balkan sprachbund), although Greek does not show all typical Balkan areal features, such as the postposed article.


title: Modern Greek

text: Because of the influence of Katharevousa, however, Demotic is not commonly used in its purest form. Archaisms are still widely used, especially in writing and in more formal speech, as well as in some everyday expressions, such as the dative ('okay', literally 'in order') or the third person imperative ! ('long live!').


title: Modern Greek

text: The following is a sample text in Modern Greek of Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (by the United Nations):


title: Parma

text: Parma (; , ) is a city in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna known for its architecture, music, art, prosciutto (ham), cheese and surrounding countryside. With a population of 198,292 inhabitants, Parma is the second most populous city in Emilia-Romagna after Bologna, the region's capital. The city is home to the University of Parma, one of the oldest universities in the world.


title: Parma

text: Parma is divided into two parts by the stream of the same name. The district on the far side of the river is "Oltretorrente". Parma's Etruscan name was adapted by Romans to describe the round shield called "Parma".


title: Parma

text: The Italian poet Attilio Bertolucci (born in a hamlet in the countryside) wrote: "As a capital city it had to have a river. As a little capital it received a stream, which is often dry", with reference to the time when the city was capital of the independent Duchy of Parma.


title: Parma

text: Parma was already a built-up area in the Bronze Age. In the current position of the city rose a terramare. The "terramare" (marl earth) were ancient villages built of wood on piles according to a defined scheme and squared form; constructed on dry land and generally in proximity to the rivers. During this age (between 1500 BC and 800 BC) the first necropolis (on the sites of the present-day Piazza Duomo and Piazzale della Macina) were constructed.


title: Parma

text: The city was most probably founded and named by the Etruscans, for a "parma" or "palma" (circular shield) was a Latin borrowing, as were many Roman terms for particular arms, and the names "Parmeal", "Parmni" and "Parmnial" appear in Etruscan inscriptions. Diodorus Siculus reported that the Romans had changed their rectangular shields for round ones, imitating the Etruscans. Whether the Etruscan encampment acquired its name from its round shape, like a shield, or from its metaphorical function as a shield against the Gauls to the north, remains uncertain.


title: Parma

text: The Roman colony was founded in 183 BC, together with Mutina (Modena); 2,000 families were settled. Parma had a certain importance as a road hub over the Via Aemilia and the Via Claudia. It had a forum, in what is today the central Garibaldi Square. In April 43 BC the city was destroyed. Subsequently Augustus rebuilt it. During the Roman Empire, it gained the title of "Julia" for its loyalty to the imperial house.


title: Parma

text: and the Germanic king Odoacer later gifted it to his followers. During the Gothic War, however, Totila destroyed it. It was then part of the Byzantine Exarchate of Ravenna (changing its name to "Chrysopolis", "Golden City", probably due to the presence of the imperial treasury) and, from 569, of the Lombard Kingdom of Italy. During the Middle Ages, Parma became an important stage of the Via Francigena, the main road connecting Rome to Northern Europe; several castles, hospitals and inns were built in the following centuries to host the increasing number of pilgrims who passed by Parma and Fidenza, following the Apennines via Collecchio, Berceto and the Corchia ranges before descending the Passo della Cisa into Tuscany, heading finally south toward Rome.


title: Parma

text: The Palatine Library houses the largest collection of Hebrew manuscripts in Italy, and the second-largest in the world after the Bodleian Library in Oxford.


title: Parma

text: Under Frankish rule, Parma became the capital of a county in 774. Like most northern Italian cities, it was nominally a part of the Holy Roman Empire created by Charlemagne, but locally ruled by its bishops, the first being Guibodus. In the subsequent struggles between the Papacy and the Empire, Parma was usually a member of the Imperial party. Two of its bishops became antipopes: Càdalo, founder of the cathedral, as Honorius II; and Guibert, as Clement III. An almost independent commune was created around 1140; a treaty between Parma and Piacenza of 1149 is the earliest document of a "comune" headed by consuls. After the Peace of Constance in 1183 confirmed the Italian communes' rights of self-governance, long-standing quarrels with the neighbouring communes of Reggio Emilia, Piacenza and Cremona became harsher, with the aim of controlling the vital trading line over the Po River.


title: Parma

text: The struggle between Guelphs and Ghibellines was a feature of Parma too. In 1213, her "podestà" was the Guelph Rambertino Buvalelli. Then, after a long stance alongside the emperors, the Papist families of the city gained control in 1248. The city was besieged in 1247–48 by Emperor Frederick II, who was however crushed in the battle that ensued.


title: Parma

text: By 1328, Rolando de' Rossi was made "signore" of Parma. In 1331, the city submitted to King John of Bohemia. Parma fell under the control of Milan in 1341. After a short-lived period of independence under the Terzi family (1404–1409), the Sforza imposed their rule (1440–1449) through their associated families of Pallavicino, Rossi, Sanvitale and Da Correggio. These created a kind of new feudalism, building towers and castles throughout the city and the land. These fiefs evolved into truly independent states: the Landi governed the higher Taro's valley from 1257 to 1682. The Pallavicino seignory extended over the eastern part of today's province, with the capital in Busseto. Parma's territories were an exception for Northern Italy, as its feudal subdivision frequently continued until more recent years. For example, Solignano was a Pallavicino family possession until 1805, and San Secondo belonged to the Rossi well into the 19th century.


title: Parma

text: Between the 14th and the 15th centuries, Parma was at the centre of the Italian Wars. The Battle of Fornovo was fought in its territory. The French held the city in 1500–1521, with a short Papal parenthesis in 1512–1515. After the foreigners were expelled, Parma belonged to the Papal States until 1545.


title: Parma

text: In that year the Farnese pope, Paul III, detached Parma and Piacenza from the Papal States and gave them as a duchy to his illegitimate son, Pier Luigi Farnese, whose descendants ruled in Parma until 1731, when Antonio Farnese, last male of the Farnese line, died. In 1594 a constitution was promulgated, the University enhanced and the Nobles' College founded. The war to reduce the barons' power continued for several years: in 1612 Barbara Sanseverino was executed in the central square of Parma, together with six other nobles charged of plotting against the duke. At the end of the 17th century, after the defeat of Pallavicini (1588) and Landi (1682) the Farnese duke could finally hold with firm hand all Parmense territories. The castle of the Sanseverino in Colorno was turned into a luxurious summer palace by Ferdinando Bibiena.


title: Parma

text: In the Treaty of London (1718) it was promulgated that the heir to the combined Duchy of Parma and Piacenza would be Elisabeth Farnese's elder son with Philip V of Spain, Don Carlos. In 1731, the fifteen-year-old Don Carlos became Charles I Duke of Parma and Piacenza, at the death of his childless great uncle Antonio Farnese. In 1734, Charles I conquered the kingdoms of Naples and Sicily, and was crowned as the King of Naples and Sicily on 3 July 1735, leaving the Duchy of Parma to his brother Philip (Filippo I di Borbone-Parma). All the outstanding art collections of the duke's palaces of Parma, Colorno and Sala Baganza were moved to Naples.


title: Parma

text: Parma was under French influence after the Peace of Aachen (1748). Parma became a modern state with the energetic action of prime minister Guillaume du Tillot. He created the bases for a modern industry and fought strenuously against the church's privileges. The city lived a period of particular splendour: the Biblioteca Palatina (Palatine Library), the Archaeological Museum, the Picture Gallery and the Botanical Garden were founded, together with the Royal Printing Works directed by Giambattista Bodoni, aided by the Amoretti Brothers as skilled and inspired punchcutters.


title: Parma

text: During the Napoleonic Wars (1802–1814), Parma was annexed to France and made capital of the Taro Department. Under its French name, Parme, it was also created a "duché grand-fief de l'Empire" for Charles-François Lebrun, duc de Plaisance, the Emperor's Arch-Treasurer, on 24 April 1808 (extinguished in 1926).


title: Parma

text: After the restoration of the Duchy of Parma by the 1814–15 Vienna Congress, the Risorgimento's upheavals had no fertile ground in the tranquil duchy. In 1847, after Marie Louise, Duchess of Parma's death, it passed again to the House of Bourbon, the last of whom was stabbed in the city and left it to his widow, Luisa Maria of Berry. On 15 September 1859 the dynasty was declared deposed, and Parma entered the newly formed province of Emilia under Luigi Carlo Farini. With the plebiscite of 1860 the former duchy became part of the unified Kingdom of Italy.


title: Parma

text: The loss of the capital role provoked an economic and social crisis in Parma. It started to recover its role of industrial prominence after the railway connection with Piacenza and Bologna of 1859, and with Fornovo and Suzzara in 1883. Trade unions were strong in the city, in which a notable General Strike was declared from 1 May to 6 June 1908. The struggle with Fascism had its most dramatic moment in August 1922, when the regime officer Italo Balbo attempted to enter the popular quarter of Oltretorrente. The citizens organized into the "Arditi del Popolo" ("People's champions") and pushed back the squadristi. This episode is considered the first example of Resistance in Italy.


title: Parma

text: During World War II, Parma was a strong centre of partisan resistance. The train station and marshalling yards were targets for high altitude bombing by the Allies in the spring of 1944. Much of the Palazzo della Pilotta, situated not far (half a mile) from the train station, was destroyed. Along with it the Teatro Farnese and part of the Biblioteca Palatina were destroyed by Allied bombs; some 21,000 volumes of the library's collection were lost. Several other monuments were also damaged: Palazzo del Giardino, Steccata and San Giovanni churches, Palazzo Ducale, Paganini theater and the monument to Verdi. However, Parma did not see widespread destruction during the war. Parma was liberated from the German occupation (1943–1945) on 26 April 1945 by the partisan resistance and the Brazilian Expeditionary Force.


title: Parma

text: In Parma, the average annual high temperature is , the annual low temperature is , and the annual precipitation is .


title: Parma

text: The following data comes from the weather station located at the university in the city center. It is affected by the urban heat island phenomenon. Parma has a mid-latitude, four-season humid subtropical climate (Köppen: "Cfa") with heavy continental influences due to the city's inland position. Relatively nearby coastal areas like Genoa have far milder climates with cooler summers and milder winters, with the mountains separating Parma from the Mediterranean Sea acting as a barrier to the sea air. The city receives approximately 45 cm of snow each winter.


title: Parma

text: On 1 January 2016 there were 192,836 resident citizens in Parma, of whom 47.64% were male and 52.36% were female. Minors (children aged 18 and younger) totalled 16.46% of the population compared to pensioners who numbered 22.64%. This compares with the Italian average of 17.45% and 22.04% respectively. In the fourteen years between 2002 and 2016, the population of Parma experienced 17.72% growth, while Italy as a whole grew by 6.45%. In the same period foreign born residents in Parma experienced +385.02% growth, while in Italy growth was of +274.75%. The current birth rate of Parma is 8.62 births per 1,000 inhabitants compared to the Italian average of 8.01 births.


title: Parma

text: , 84.09% of the population was Italian. The largest foreign group came from other parts of Europe (namely Moldova, Romania, Albania, and Ukraine: 6.45%), followed by Sub-Saharan Africa (namely Ghana, Nigeria and Ivory Coast: 1.81%), North Africa (namely Morocco and Tunisia: 1.46%) and the Philippines: 1.33%.


title: Parma

text: Parma is famous for its food and rich gastronomical tradition: two of its specialties are Parmigiano Reggiano cheese (also produced in Reggio Emilia), and Prosciutto di Parma (Parma ham), both given Protected Designation of Origin status. Parma also claims several stuffed pasta dishes such as "tortelli d'erbetta" and "anolini in brodo".


title: Parma

text: In 2004 Parma was appointed the seat of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and was appointed to the Creative Cities Network as UNESCO City of Gastronomy.


title: Parma

text: Parma also has two food multinationals, Barilla and Parmalat and a medium-large food tourism sector represented by Parma Golosa and Food Valley companies.


title: Parma

text: Alberi, Baganzola, Bedonia, Beneceto, Borgo Val di Taro, Botteghino, Ca'Terzi, Calestano, Carignano, Carpaneto, Cartiera, Casalbaroncolo, Casalora di Ravadese, Casaltone, Case Capelli, Case Cocconi, Case Crostolo, Case Nuove, Case Rosse, Case Vecchie, Casino dalla Rosa, Casagnola, Castelletto, Castelnovo, Cervara, Chiozzola, Coloreto, Colorno, Corcagnano, Eia, Fontanini, Fontanellato, Gaione, Ghiaiata Nuova, Il Moro, La Catena, La Palazzina, Malandriano, Marano, Marore, Martorano, Molino di Malandriano, Osteria San Martino, Panocchia, Paradigna, Pedrignano, Pilastrello, Pizzolese, Ponte, Porporano, Pozzetto Piccolo, Quercioli, Ravadese, Ronco Pascolo, Rosa, San Pancrazio, San Prospero, San Ruffino, San Secondo, Sissa, Soragna, Terenzo, Tizzano Val Parma, Traversetolo, Trecasali, Valera, Viarolo, Viazza, Vicofertile, Vicomero, Vigatto, Vigheffio, Vigolante.


title: Parma

text: Parma Calcio 1913, founded in 2015, is a Serie B (second division) football club. It replaced Parma F.C., which went bankrupt in 2015. It plays in the city's Stadio Ennio Tardini, which opened in 1923 and seats up to 23,000.


title: Parma

text: Parma's other sport team is the rugby union club Zebre which competes in Pro14, one of the top rugby competitions in the world. Parma also is home to two rugby union teams in the top national division, Overmach Rugby Parma and SKG Gran Rugby.


title: Parma

text: Parma Panthers is the Parma American football team which provided the basis for John Grisham's book "Playing for Pizza". Stadio Sergio Lanfranchi is the ground of rugby and American football teams.


title: Parma

text: Pallavolo Parma and Parma Baseball are other sports teams in the city. Nino Cavalli Stadium is a baseball stadium located in Parma. It is the home stadium of Parma Baseball of the Italian Baseball League.


title: Parma

text: Parma has a thriving economy, and the food sector is very developed. Some of the players in this sector include Barilla which is based in


title: Parma

text: the city. Chiesi Farmaceutici in the pharma industry is headquartered in Parma. The European Food Safety Authority is also based in Parma.


title: Parma

text: The Parma trolleybus system has been in operation since 1953. It replaced an earlier tramway network, and presently comprises four trolleybus routes.


title: Parma

text: Aeroporto Internazionale di Parma, Parma's airport, offers commercial flights to cities in a number of European countries.


title: Anikka Albrite

text: Albrite was born in Denver, Colorado She is a former lab technician and she double majored in molecular biology and business.


title: Anikka Albrite

text: In June 2015, Albrite, Mick Blue and Maestro Claudio formed the production label, BAM Visions, for Evil Angel. That same year, she made her directorial debut with the film "Anikka's Bootycise". On June 4, Albrite made her feature dancing debut at the Crazy Horse in San Francisco. Albrite co-hosted the 2016 AVN Awards alongside Joanna Angel on January 23.


title: Anikka Albrite

text: In 2013, "LA Weekly" ranked Albrite first on their list of "10 Porn Stars Who Could Be The Next Jenna Jameson". She was also placed on CNBC's list of "The Dirty Dozen: Porn's biggest stars" in 2014, 2015 and 2016. Albrite played a grim reaper in the 2015 mainstream Austrian horror film "Chimney or Pit".


title: Anikka Albrite

text: In 2015, Albrite and Blue won AVN Awards for Female and Male Performer of the Year, making them the first married couple in AVN Awards history to ever win both awards simultaneously.


title: Odessa, Texas

text: Odessa is a city in and the county seat of Ector County, Texas, United States. It is located primarily in Ector County, although a small section of the city extends into Midland County.


title: Odessa, Texas

text: Odessa's population was 114,428 at the 2020 census, making it the 28th-most populous city in Texas; it is the principal city of the Odessa metropolitan statistical area, which includes all of Ector County. The metropolitan area is also a component of the larger Midland–Odessa combined statistical area, which had a 2010 census population of 278,801; a report from the United States Census Bureau estimated that the combined population as of July 2015 is 320,513.


title: Odessa, Texas

text: In 1948 Odessa was also the home of First Lady Barbara Bush, and the onetime home of former Presidents George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush. Former President George H. W. Bush has been quoted as saying "At Odessa we became Texans and proud of it."


title: Odessa, Texas

text: Odessa is said to have been named after Odesa, Ukraine, because of the local shortgrass prairie's resemblance to Ukraine's steppe landscape.


title: Odessa, Texas

text: Odessa was founded in 1881 as a water stop and cattle-shipping point on the Texas and Pacific Railway. The first post office opened in 1885. Odessa became the county seat of Ector County in 1891 when the county was first organized. It was incorporated as a city in 1927, after oil was discovered in Ector County on the Connell Ranch southwest of Odessa.


title: Odessa, Texas

text: With the opening of the Penn Field in 1929, and the Cowden Field in 1930, oil became a major draw for new residents. In 1925, the population was just 750; by 1929, it had risen to 5,000. For the rest of the 20th century, the city's population and economy grew rapidly during each of a succession of oil booms (roughly in the 1930s–1950s, 1970s, and 2010s), often with accompanying contractions during the succeeding busts (particularly in the 1960s and 1980s).


title: Odessa, Texas

text: Odessa is located along the southwestern edge of the Llano Estacado in West Texas. It is situated above the Permian Basin, a large sedimentary deposit that contains significant reserves of oil and natural gas.


title: Odessa, Texas

text: According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of ; are land and of it (0.05%) is covered by water.


title: Odessa, Texas

text: Odessa has the semiarid climate typical of West Texas. Summers are hot and sunny, while winters are mild and dry. Most rainfall occurs in late spring and summer; snowfall is rare. The area exhibits a large diurnal temperature range and frequent high winds.


title: Odessa, Texas

text: As of the 2020 United States census, there were 114,428 people, 41,942 households, and 28,218 families residing in the city. As of the 2010 census, 99,940 people, 35,216 households, and 27,412 families resided in the city. The population density was 2,276.5 people per square mile (954.2/km). There were 43,687 housing units at an average density of 995.1 per square mile (384.2/km).


title: Odessa, Texas

text: In 2010, the racial makeup of the city was 75.4% White, 5.7% Black, 1.1% Asian, 1.0% Native American, 0.1% Pacific Islander, 14.2% from other races, and 2.5% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino residents of any race was 50.6%. By 2020, the racial and ethnic makeup was 32.68% non-Hispanic white, 6.12% African American, 0.37% Native American, 2.14% Asian, 0.23% Pacific Islander, 0.31% some other race, 2.01% multiracial, and 56.14% Hispanic or Latino of any race, reflecting state and nationwide trends of greater diversification.


title: Odessa, Texas

text: Of the 35,216 households in 2010, 37.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 51.6% were married couples living together, 14.5% had a female householder with no husband present, and 29.6% were not families. About 25.7% of all households were made up of individuals, and 9.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.65, and the average family size was 3.21. The population was distributed as 29.8% under the age of 18, 10.6% from 18 to 24, 27.8% from 25 to 44, 20.0% from 45 to 64, and 11.8% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 32 years. For every 100 females, there were 93.2 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 88.6 males.


title: Odessa, Texas

text: At the 2000 census, the median income for a household in the city was $31,209, and the median income for a family was $36,869. Males had a median income of $31,115 versus $21,743 for females. The per capita income for the city was $16,096. About 16.0% of families and 18.6% of the population were below the poverty line, including 23.9% of those under age 18 and 14.1% of those age 65 or over. The 2020 American community Survey estimated the median household income increased to $63,829 with a mean income of $82,699.


title: Odessa, Texas

text: Historically, the Odessa economy has been primarily driven by the area's oil industry, booming and busting in response to rises and falls in the crude oil price. Many of the city's largest employers are oilfield supply companies and petrochemical processing companies. In recent decades, city leaders have begun trying to decrease the city's reliance on the energy industry to moderate the boom-bust cycle and develop greater economic sustainability.


title: Odessa, Texas

text: Odessa has also taken steps to diversify the energy it produces. In 2009, a wind farm has been constructed in northern Ector County. Around the same time, a coal pollution mitigation plant had been announced for a site previously entered in the Futuregen bidding. The plant will be run by Summit Power and will be located near Penwell. This plant was supposed to lead to the creation of 8,000 jobs in the area. Plans were also in place for a small nuclear reactor called the High-Temperature Teaching and Test Reactor to be run as a test and teaching facility in conjunction with the nuclear engineering department at University of Texas of the Permian Basin.


title: Odessa, Texas

text: Odessa's main enclosed shopping mall is Music City Mall, which includes Dillards, JC Penney, At Home, Burlington Coat Factory, an indoor skating rink, and CBS affiliate KOSA-TV. Construction of new retail in recent years has been concentrated on the city's northeast side. In November 2007, the city approved a contract with a company that develops armaments for US Army helicopters to begin operations in Odessa.


title: Odessa, Texas

text: As in many municipalities, some of the largest employers are in the education, government, and healthcare industries. Outside of those areas, the city's major employers are concentrated in the oil industry. According to the city's 2018 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, the top employers in the city were:


title: Odessa, Texas

text: The Midland–Odessa Symphony and Chorale (MOSC) was founded in 1962, and is the region's largest orchestral organization, presenting both Pops and Masterworks concerts throughout the year. Composed of professional musicians from the area, as well as Lubbock, San Angelo, and other surrounding cities, the MOSC is also home to three resident chamber ensembles: the Lone Star Brass, Permian Basin String Quartet, and West Texas Winds. These ensembles are made up of principal musicians in the orchestra, who come to the area from across the United States.


title: Odessa, Texas

text: The Globe of the Great Southwest, located on the campus of Odessa College, the community college in Odessa, features an authentic replica of William Shakespeare's Globe Theatre. It hosts plays and other community groups throughout the year, as well as an annual Shakespeare festival.


title: Odessa, Texas

text: Built in 1951, the Ector Theater served as one Odessa's finest theaters until it closed. Today, the renovated 700-seat theater provides the community with classic movies, live theatrical productions, and concerts. The theater is now part of the Marriott Hotel and Conference Center which is scheduled to open in August 2019.


title: Odessa, Texas

text: The Odessa Jackalopes junior A ice hockey team plays its home games at Ector County Coliseum. High-school football is also popular. Ratliff Stadium, which was featured in the movie "Friday Night Lights", is home to the Odessa Bronchos and the Permian Panthers. It is one of the largest high-school stadiums in the state, listed as seventh in capacity within Texas.


title: Odessa, Texas

text: Odessa's Presidential Museum and Leadership Library, on the campus of the University of Texas of the Permian Basin, is the only facility of its kind in the United States—dedicated to the office of the Presidency, not any particular occupant of the Oval Office. It also has displays about the presidents of the Republic of Texas. The museum was pushed to fruition by the late State Representative George "Buddy" West of Odessa. The building itself is named for West and his wife, Shirley.


title: Odessa, Texas

text: After fighting financial hardships, the Presidential Museum closed its doors to the public as of 21 August 2009. In February 2010, additional funding allowed the doors to reopen, with negotiations pending for the University of Texas of the Permian Basin to take control of the museum.


title: Odessa, Texas

text: The White-Pool House east of downtown is the oldest surviving structure in Odessa. It was built in 1887 and opened as a historic house museum in 1984.


title: Odessa, Texas

text: Texon Santa Fe Depot, recently relocated to West Odessa, serves as a museum in honor of the old west and the railroads.


title: Odessa, Texas

text: The Parker House Museum is Odessa's newest addition to the historical records of Odessa. In 1935, the Parker family moved into this modest house located on . It represents the lifestyle of a prominent ranching family, who served the communities of Andrews and Ector Counties since 1907.


title: Odessa, Texas

text: Odessa has a Stonehenge replica on the campus of the University of Texas of the Permian Basin. Completed in 2004, the replica is horizontally equal to the Stonehenge in England, but only 70% of the vertical height of the original.


title: Odessa, Texas

text: Odessa has a council–manager government, with a city council of five councillors (elected from geographic districts) and a mayor (elected at-large). The council appoints and directs other city officials, including the city manager, and sets the city's budget, taxes, and other policies.


title: Odessa, Texas

text: In the 2014 fiscal year, the Odessa government had $179.1 million in revenues, $146.3 million in expenditures, $454 million in total assets, and $203 million in total liabilities. The city's major sources of public revenues were fees for services (such as public utilities), sales taxes, and property taxes, and its major expenses were for public safety and for water and sewer service.


title: Odessa, Texas

text: On December 14, 2022, the Odessa City Council voted to make Odessa a "sanctuary city for the unborn." In a 6-1 vote, Mayor Javier Joven and council members Denise Swanner, Mark Matta, Gilbert Vasquez, Chris Hanie, and Greg Connell established Odessa as the 62nd city to "outlaw" abortion. The new city ordinance makes a person civilly liable if any person aids, abets, or assists anybody in an abortion operation.


title: Odessa, Texas

text: The United States Postal Service operates three post offices in Odessa: Odessa, Northeast Odessa, and West Odessa.


title: Odessa, Texas

text: The University of Texas Permian Basin (UTPB) began in 1973. UTPB was an upper level and graduate university until the Texas Legislature passed a bill in spring 1991 to allow the university to accept freshmen and sophomores. As of 2006, the university was holding discussions with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission about the construction of a new High-Temperature Teaching and Test Reactor, which if successful, would finish licensing and construction around 2012. It would be the first university-based research reactor to be built in the US in roughly a decade, and be one of the few HTGR-type reactors in the world. In January 2006, UTPB's School of Business was awarded accreditation by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business International, which is generally regarded as the premier accreditation agency for the world's business schools. According to the university, only 30% of business schools in the United States, and 15% of world business schools, have received AACSB accreditation.


title: Odessa, Texas

text: Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center Permian Basin Campus opened as a school of medicine in 1979, beginning in the basement of Medical Center Hospital. Since 1994, TTUHSC Permian Basin has included a school of allied health, offering a master's degree in physical therapy. Also, on the campus of Midland College, it offers a physician-assistant program. Additionally, TTUHSC Permian Basin includes a school of nursing focusing on primary care and rural health. In June 1999, the Texas Tech Health Center opened as a clinic, providing increased access to primary and specialized health care for the Permian Basin. Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center Permian Basin also operates 21 WIC clinics located in nearby small communities.


title: Odessa, Texas

text: Odessa College is a public, two-year college based in Odessa, serving the people of Ector County and the Permian Basin. It opened in 1952 and currently enrolls about 6,000 annually in its university-parallel and occupational/technical courses, and 11,000 students annually in its basic education, continuing education, and community recreation courses.


title: Odessa, Texas

text: Odessa College serves most of Midland, as in the parts in Ector County. Parts in Midland County are assigned to Midland College.


title: Odessa, Texas

text: The Ector County Independent School District serves portions of Odessa in Ector County (the vast majority of the city). ECISD was established in 1921, in a consolidation of seven area schools. The district now contains 38 campuses. It administers these high schools: Permian High School, Odessa High School, George H. W. Bush New Tech Odessa, OC Techs at Odessa College and Odessa Collegiate Academy, also at Odessa College.


title: Odessa, Texas

text: Odessa's private schools include Montessori Mastery School of Odessa, Latter Rain Christian School, Odessa Christian School, Permian Basin Christian School, Faith Community Christian Academy, St. John's Episcopal School, St. Mary's Central Catholic School (of the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Angelo, Rainey School of Montessori, Sherwood Christian Academy, and Zion Christian Academy. Odessa is also home to five charter schools: Compass Academy Charter School, UTPB STEM Academy, Harmony Science Academy-Odessa, Embassy Academy, and Richard Milburn Academy-Odessa.