Sean Spoonts

Dick Marcinko, Navy SEAL and founder of SEAL Team Six passed away at his home on Christmas Day.

From Russia to China and even TikTok subverting law and order in public schools, this is the SOFREP week in review.

A Navy ship is stuck in port at Guantanamo Naval Station with a 100% vaccinated crew after several tested positive for exposure to COVID-19. This seemingly turns the whole point of a vaccine mandate on its head as it was suppose to assure that Navy ships and their crews would be able to deploy and complete their missions.

You might be very surprised to find out that when Washington crossed the Delaware River on Christmas night in 1777 he wasn’t really depriving his own men of anything. Christmas was all but banned by law in the thirteen colonies at the time. But he still used the holiday to his military advantage against the Hessians.

Home for Christmas is the dream of every U.S. service member serving in uniform since the Civil War.

Recent developments point to how the USS Connecticut collided with a sea mount in October. It relates to how the Navy treated her commanding officer, executive officer and Chief of the Boat.

The Pentagon’s restatement of its policy regarding extremism in the ranks contains clarifications on social media and commanding officer discretion in handling these situations. This should prevent the policy from being used to conduct a witch hunt of service members merely suspected of being extremists.

The threat posed by hypersonic missiles from nations like Iran, Russia and communist China has prompted a treaty of close cooperation between the Navies of the U.S., France and the UK as they each increase their naval presence and operations in the Indo-Pacific region.

The U.S. Navy has tested a high-energy laser in the Gulf of Aden putting China and Iran on notice that its hypersonic missile developments may have been a big waste of time and money.

Taiwan has never been a participant in the U.S. Navy’s largest military exercise, the Rim of the Pacific or RIMPAC. Aggression by Communist China has prompted Congress to tell the Department of Defense to include Taiwan in the next RIMPAC as a show of solidarity with the island nation.

A company in Russia known for extravagantly priced iPhone accessories is offering a $6,250 iPhone case that will stop a 9mm bullet. Your phone will be destroyed but you will live.

Congress had to step in to assure Honorable discharges for service members who refused to get the vaccine citing religious and medical concerns. The DoD was preparing to court martial those who refused which amounted to them being convicted of a felony in a civilian court.