Category: Expert Analysis

Summer, Spring, or Winter Selection? If you’re trying to time your arrival to Special Forces Assessment and Selection, I’ll help. Spoiler Alert: Winter or Spring. My neighbor’s tulips are coming out already, and it’s only the beginning of February. By that I mean, the winter selection moving’s forward are not going to be as bad as […]

The following is a excerpt from Eeben Barlow’s military and security blog: Lately, there appears to be an increase in using the media as a medium through which to generate and distribute so-called ‘fake news’ to drive specific agendas. One must therefore investigate the origin or source of the ‘fake news‘ as that will determine […]

The Army remains on course to fielding the 2nd Cavalry Regiment in Germany with new, up-gunned Stryker Infantry Carrier Vehicles by next year. Dubbed the ‘Infantry Carrier Vehicle – Dragoon’, or ICV-D, this new variant would place a 30mm cannon onto a standard Stryker vehicle. This would add a tremendous amount of firepower to the typical […]

Losing someone during a training exercise, or while “just training” is always a difficult pill to swallow. It’s extremely painful to all involved, but because it happened during training versus combat seems to make the whole event sting a little more. This Tuesday, a civilian contractor was killed and a USAF airman was injured during […]

During one of his question-and-answer sessions on Facebook a few weeks ago, Brandon Webb was discussing politics and how it plays a role in our work here on the site. As Brandon briefly explained, and as Jack Murphy has pointed out in meetings, none of SOFREP’s management team asked me about my political affiliations when […]

The recent serious allegations of CNN broadcasting fake news aren’t new for the Atlanta-based cable network. On June 7, 1998, in an effort to compete with CBS’s popular 60 Minutes program, CNN launched a new program called NewsStand. It aired a story entitled “Valley of Death,” which alleged that 16 Green Berets and 120 indigenous troops […]

Ukrainian troops and pro-Russian rebels have been locked in a three-day-long battle with limited supplies and no resupply in sight. These troops do not have the training we do in the West, but they’re getting a lot of on-the-job-training, Ukrainians and Russian alike. In the early days of the revolt, pro-Russian separatists beat men to death. […]

1997 was a great year for movies.  Titanic, Men in Black, The Fifth Element, and even a Jurassic Park sequel that made a little bit of sense took the world by storm, and although Pierce Brosnan set out to make James Bond as lame as he could (again) Harrison Ford played an American president that threw […]

While there is a considerable amount of information available on how to become a member of America’s special operations forces, what often remains a mystery to those outside the military is how all those commissioned officers wound up leading these elite warriors, or at least absorbing the blame when things go wrong. While there are […]

Today we’ll be talking about the basics of long range / survival pack setup and the equipment that goes into them. Take a look as Loadout Room writer and Military Survival Instructor,  Mike Jones drops some knowledge on setting up your pack for longer distance rucks or backpacking trips. Mike has extensive knowledge on setting […]

I started watching the show “Gold Rush,” from the Discovery Network, about the guys who go into Alaska to mine for gold. Aside from making me want to go stake a claim and start mining myself, it reminded me of a very important aspect that any member of a military combat unit could be able to […]

I’ll never forget waking up late one morning in the field to the sound my tent being unzipped.  I had been working all night, but as a platoon sergeant, it wasn’t uncommon for one of my Marines to come and get me if an issue arose that needed my attention.  As painful sunlight tore through […]