The Pic of the Day

At Grafenwoehr, a steady breath, a buddy brace and a clean trigger squeeze turn practice into battlefield readiness.

We armed a ghost army and when it vanished the keys and the guns stayed, so now our beige beasts roll under a foreign flag toward Pakistan as a seven billion dollar punchline to a war that ended with a mad scramble to the runway.

When military families line up by the hundreds for groceries while paychecks stall and aid gets snarled, that is a gut punch to readiness and a broken promise to those who serve.

War is not glorious; it is the white hot rattle of a MEDEVAC, two blood slick hands locked after an IED blast near Kandahar, and a young sergeant who learns the hard Latin that war is only sweet for those who have not been through it.

President George W. Bush visits the Delta Force compound shortly after 9/11.

A day after the Mogadishu firefight, Delta’s A Squadron lifted in to bolster a bloodied Task Force Ranger—17 Americans killed, 106 wounded, and Gary Gordon and Randall Shughart earning the Medal of Honor.

Canada’s Special Operations Regiment was forged with the DNA of the Devil’s Brigade, built to move fast, hit hard, and quietly deliver results in the world’s grey zones.

Polish GROM storms the battlefield like a crack of thunder—swift, unyielding, and impossible to ignore.

Delta Force operators pose with a Special Operations Military Working Dog.

HH-60G Pave Hawk fires flares as an F-15D Eagle soars above, joint power and precision in a test of combat rescue readiness.

In the hands of a well-trained crew the M252 81mm mortar is a whispering killer that can rain fire nearly six kilometers away with steady, deadly grace.

A Brazilian Special Forces operator leans out of a helicopter with an M110 sniper rifle in hand, a ghost in the sky ready to put round on target if the mission calls for it.