Category: History

During the battle on February 6-7, 1968 at the Special Forces A-Camp at Lang Vei, NVA troops used armor for the first time against American and South Vietnamese positions. Lang Vei had to be taken before the NVA unleashed 40,000 troops against the Marine base at Khe Sanh. During the battle, as the SF camp […]

With the recent move by President Trump to issue pardons to some U.S. soldiers that were either charged with or convicted of war crimes, it is fitting that the largest war crimes trials in history and the ones that changed how the world treats war crimes began on this day in 1945. These trials would […]

In late November 1863, President Lincoln gave perhaps one of the most important speeches in American history. On the 19th of November that year, the government was dedicating the National Cemetery at Gettysburg Pennsylvania where the bloodiest battle of the Civil War had been fought just a few months before. Between North and South, there […]

On April 12th, 1961, a Russian man named Yuri Gagarin made history aboard a Soviet Vostok 3KA-3 spacecraft. For years, the United States and Soviet Union had been using the barrier between our world and beyond as a benchmark to test each nation’s greatest technological and engineering advances, and on that day, Gagarin achieved an […]

When one mentions Julia Child, the first thing that comes to mind is the marvel and ease of French cooking that she brought to the United States. But long before she was a culinary artist, she served as an intelligence officer during World War II in the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the forerunner to […]

Operation Valkyrie was the plan by German Count Claus von Stauffenberg and other senior German generals in the Wehrmacht to assassinate Adolf Hitler and several other high ranking Nazis in an attempt to end the war in Europe. It failed. Stauffenberg planted a bomb concealed in a briefcase under the conference table in Hitler’s Wolf’s […]

Like many of us, I had issues with occasional lower back pain while in the military. Eventually, suffering a major injury that required surgery, that was in no way related to the normal workout routine that the Army conducts with soldiers doing PT. However, it wasn’t until many years later, I was doing some physical […]

When we write about preparing for the rigors of Selection and the qualification courses here in Special Operations.com, one specific area we don’t write about often is proper nutrition. It is an oversight on our part and it is for two very good reasons. Number one, I am not a nutritionist and have no training […]

Sleep. We all crave it, especially on weekends. But do we ever get enough of it? If you are like the majority of most Americans, the answer is no. And when you are going thru Selection, it is a fair bet that you will not be enjoying the eight hours of slumber that doctors say […]

Michael Thornton was a Navy SEAL and was awarded the U.S. military’s highest decoration, the Medal of Honor, for his actions during the war in Vietnam. He was decorated for saving the life of his senior officer, Lieutenant Thomas R. Norris, who also a recipient of the Medal of Honor in another combat action in […]

One of the most common mantras you will hear in Special Operations is the absolute must of being known as a team player. The very essence of a successful special operation is with a team working together to accomplish their mission. With it, the missions don’t get accomplished and the units fail. And yet the […]

As a member of a Special Operations unit, you can be tasked with damned near anything and probably will. The best indicator of having a skill is the fact that you can teach it to others. As we wrote here some time ago, “Teaching is An Art in Special Forces”, and some of the best […]