Afghan Local Police – A SOF Success Story
Funding is provided by the United States to field up to 30,000 ALP. Current strength (mid-2016) is at about 29,000.
Military History
Operation Uphold Democracy – SF in Haiti (1994-1995)
President Clinton issued some ultimatums to the dictator which were rejected, so he ordered a military invasion.
History of the 8th Special Forces Group
Most people familiar with the U.S. Army Special Forces know that currently (mid-2016) there are five active-duty Special Forces groups and two National Guard Special Forces groups. Less well-known are the existence of other Special Forces groups that have long been de-activated. [1] The 8th Special Forces Group was one of these groups. It was […]
America’s Secretive Operation White Star in Laos
In the early 1960s the United States Army Special Forces was engaged in a secretive mission in the remote country of Laos in Southeast Asia. During this time we were in the midst of a Cold War with the Soviet Union, Red China, and other communist bloc nations. The perception (and reality) was that slowly […]
Robin Sage – Unconventional Warfare Exercise
The Robin Sage exercise is an important part of the Special Forces Qualification Course as it prepares the prospective Special Forces Soldier for a variety of missions and how to work with indigenous forces.
Monuments Men rescued the art, but Nazis got it back
The Monuments Men are famous for rescuing art looted from Jewish families during World War II—but it turns out that many pieces never made it back to their original owners. That’s because when the famed group turned over the artwork to the Bavarian state after the war, the state sold some of it back to […]
Entebbe hostage rescue – 40 years later
There were lots of things that could have gone wrong – an aircraft could be shot down, the element of surprise could be lost, or the hostages could be moved.
Fears of the ‘Russian bear’ may cause Finland to join NATO
Finland joining NATO is a strong possibility. The Finns are concerned about the aggressive moves by Russia in the Crimea, Ukraine, and Baltic Sea.
The Green-Eyed Secret Agent Who Seduced the French to Steal Nazi Codes (Part 1)
Trust was a rare and elusive quality in the shadowy world of espionage that Betty Pack, Allied secret agent, inhabited and yet, paradoxically, it was always in the forefront of every operative’s mind. Deskman, case officer, agent in the field—they all were preoccupied with concerns about whom they could put their faith in, and who […]
How Douglas MacArthur would have responded to ISIS terror attacks
Like all Americans, my wife and I watched with horror as the news came about the mass shooting in Orlando by an ISIS-inspired fanatic. It made me realize how Douglas MacArthur, one of America’s greatest military leaders and the subject of the biography I just published, is more relevant than ever for understanding our age. […]
How J.R.R. Tolkien Found Mordor on the Western Front
In the summer of 1916, a young Oxford academic embarked for France as a second lieutenant in the British Expeditionary Force. The Great War, as World War I was known, was only half-done, but already its industrial carnage had no parallel in European history. “Junior officers were being killed off, a dozen a minute,” recalled J. […]
That time Delta Force got called in to sort out a Georgia prison riot
As for the Delta Force operators, they slipped back into the shadows, more than happy to let others publicly claim credit while their own role remained unacknowledged in the press.
