Category: History

The Marine Corps took its time to become part of SOCOM but now their MARSOC units are not only part of the SOCOM umbrella but growing in both size and influence. The Corps keeps a pretty tight lid on their operators and their training. We visited their booth at the annual SOFIC event in Tampa. […]

On this day in 1983, members of the 1st and 2nd Ranger Battalions, 82nd Airborne Division, Marine Corps 8th Marine Regiment, US Army Delta Force and Navy SEAL commandos invaded the island nation of Grenada. The small island, located about 100 miles north of Venezuela, was under strife after Prime Minister Maurice Bishop was placed […]

Three of the biggest issues that stop candidates from being selected are Physical Fitness preparation, Rucking, and Land Navigation

During the Holocaust, it wasn’t just the Jews who suffered at the hands at the Nazis although they bore the brunt of the racism and extermination at the hands of the Germans and their allies during World War II. The Gypsies were also persecuted during the reign of Hitler and his henchmen. The Nazis at […]

There were 600 of them.  All belonged to Lieutenant Colonel Terence Otway’s 9th Parachute Battalion, and were cramped aboard thirty two transport planes winging their way over the English Channel on this momentous night of June 6, 1944.  They’d gone over their assignment during maneuvers, studying maps, and photographs and replaying everything they could remember […]

“…We are what we repeatedly do, Excellence then is not an act but a habit” Aristotle One of the biggest questions we get here at SpecialOperations.com and over at SOFREP for the aspiring SOF candidates is, “What do I have to do to get Selected?” It is a legitimate question if a bit simplistic. There […]

A friend is leaving in a matter of days for basic training, followed by Airborne School and then on to one of our Special Operations Units where, hopefully, after he navigates the Selection and Assessment courses, will get qualified and serve as a member of one of our very best units in the force. But […]

Though it sounds like the plot of a movie the reality is that select Army engineer, Special Forces, Navy SEALs and select Marines were once trained to employ backpack nukes. The scientists of Los Almos Scientific Laboratory created the W54 atomic warhead in the late ‘50s.  It was one of the smallest nuclear warheads ever […]

By the end of the First World War, rifle caliber machine gun could be defined in two categories.  One was the tripod mounted water-cooled Maxim/Vickers series, of German and British origin whose effectiveness was best used in static or fixed positions along with plenty of support.  The other was the relative newcomer, the air cooled […]

Canada’s Special Operations Regiment (CSOR) is a battalion-sized unit under the Canadian Special Operations Forces Command. Though it is a relatively young force in the world of Special Operations, coming to fruition in 2006, CSOR can trace its history back to the famous Canadian/U.S, 1st Special Service Force, better known as the “Devil’s Brigade,” which […]

19 September 2005 Basra, Iraq The British soldiers couldn’t believe what they were seeing. Before them, on a TV screen, sat two of their own, faces bloody from beatings, being paraded on Iraqi TV. The announcer read in Arabic that they were being charged with the murder of an Iraqi policeman, were held in Basra, […]

This is the time of year when the Selection courses are in full swing and the guys…and gals who want to be part of Special Operations units are deciding to get ready and give it their best shot at becoming members in the best fraternity in the world. The US military has embraced Special Operations […]