A Force Recon Team in the Battle of Fallujah

The Battle of Fallujah, Iraq is destined to go down in Marine Corps history. Marine Recruits will soon be learning about this battle along with the other historic battles of the Corps. The battle began with an aerial bombardment on November 8, 2004. A Force Recon team was inside the city limits calling targets and […]

Remembering aviation & space hero NASA Astronaut Eugene Cernan

The last man to walk on the moon, retired Navy Captain Eugene Cernan died today, January 16, 2017 at the age of 82. Not only remembered as the last man on the moon, Cernan may very well have been the most colorful man on the moon. On his Apollo 17 mission he did not want to […]

The artform of women at war

We’ve done several pieces on women in Special Ops and it’s obviously still a hotbed for debate.  I like that the SOFREP community can hold a healthy debate and look at things objectively (for the most part). In the past we’ve seen military capabilities come and go and get re-invented quite a few times (e.g. […]

Some Thoughts on Scouts and Spies | Book Review

Sometime around 1757, during the French and Indian War in the North America, Major Robert Rogers wrote a set of guidelines for his Rangers to follow when out scouting enemy territory. These “Rules of Ranging,” as they came to be known, were a set of common-sense combat tactics that he learned through personal experience. They served […]

Operation Tonga: The fight for Pegasus Bridge and Horsa Bridge

As you stand there looking at it, as I did in June 2010, it is difficult to grasp the fact that for a brief period in time, it was the most important man-made structure in the world. A tiny drawbridge that spanned a narrow body of water in France. One that was subject to a […]

Watch: M134 Minigun, history, and how it works

For a long time now, I have been a subscriber to the YouTube channel called Forgotten Weapons. There, the host Ian McCollum presents a wide variety of obscure and rare firearms. What I find interesting is that Mr. McCollum aside from production details, history and anecdotes for each weapon, field strips them (when is not a […]

Blair “Paddy” Mayne, a Special Air Service ‘Original’

Robert Blair “Paddy” Mayne typified those individuals who seemed to exist on this planet for one thing: to fight wars, and fight them well. To possess a heroism envied by many, yet lack the needed traits in peacetime that so often led to trouble. The following story is about such a man, one who made […]

Ukraine is still at the center of the great unraveling

Recently, Senator McCain commented during a Sunday talk show that we might be seeing the beginning of a great unraveling of the world order put in place after World War II. But, if anything, it’s probably scaling back to that very world order he mentioned. The one where Russia and the U.S. are in a great […]

Five momentous military events that took place on Christmas Day

Christmas is one of the most celebrated holidays on earth. But that doesn’t mean that conflicts simply freeze every December 25th. Here’s a look at some of the major military events that have fallen on Christmas, a date with a surprisingly rich history. 1776 — George Washington Crosses The Delaware River Important events in both […]

Captains Courageous, Christmas Day 1968, Spike Team Idaho

This guest post is an excerpt from “Across the Fence” by John Stryker Meyer. Christmas Day 1968 was just another day for Spike Team Idaho. Early that morning ST Idaho was loaded onto Kingbees and flown to the Quang Tri launch site. The early morning rush came to a halt at Quang Tri, as there […]

A special friendship: “Col Moschin” and the US Special Forces

Telling the story of special forces regiment is not an easy task, especially if we speak of the “Col Moschin” or better known as “The Ninth.” The Regiment’s origins date back to the First World War when a few brave men – inspired by the German Sturmtruppen – formed the Arditi units, specialising in enemy […]

The Nazino Affair: Russia’s Cannibal Island

Russia is a vast nation, with huge expanses of undeveloped land in parts of the country that are generally considered to be difficult or impossible to cultivate.  Soviet leaders were not unaware of the possible untapped potential this uninhabited land presented, so in 1933, Genrikh Yagoda, the head of the Russian secret police and Matvei […]