Spec Ops selection prep: Boots and foot care 101

We always get some questions vis-à-vis about passing Selection and most of the questions center around rucking and the land navigation course. While each has their own challenges for the Selection candidate, you’ll have to utilize both together while passing land navigation as you’ll be conducting it with a rucksack on. While we encourage our […]

Making the big leap from high school to Special Operations

A good friend of mine is a career law enforcement professional here in New England and although we don’t hang out on a regular basis, whenever we run into one another we’ll stop and catch up. So weaving around a stoppage in the road a few weeks ago, I saw my friend trying to make […]

Mosby’s Rangers: The Civil War guerrilla fighters that were a thorn in the Union’s side

One of the best-known cavalrymen of the Civil War was John Singleton Mosby. He served under J.E.B. Stuart for the Confederacy during the Fredericksburg and Gettysburg campaigns and started his own cavalry unit, the 43rd Battalion of Virginia Cavalry, which became known as Mosby’s Rangers, or Mosby’s Raiders. Mosby’s Rangers operated out of Middleburg, Virginia. […]

The largest tank battle in history ended in a crushing German defeat

Operation Citadel, which resulted in the Battle of Kursk took place in July 1943 around the Soviet city of Kursk in western Russia, as Germany launched their last great offensive of the war. After the devastating defeat at the hands of the Soviet Red Army at the Battle of Stalingrad, it was the last chance […]

SOF truths with a twist: Good leaders can’t be mass produced

Opinion: Our Special Operations Command has been in the news these days for much of the wrong reasons. And with the number of questions we’ve gotten asking about the different Selection courses for SOF with an increasing number from potential officers, I felt it was time to address an issue. An increasing number of Special […]

The birth of the famous Gatling gun

There are some things that stand the test of time and Richard Gatling’s invention of the earliest days of the American Civil War has certainly fit that description. Gatling was an inventor who fashioned the first machine gun, although a different design by most standards. His basic design with many modern variants is still in […]

Learn to ruck like a pro before you get to selection

For our readers who are attempting to become part of our Special Operations Forces, of course after volunteering, the first obstacle in your path is passing Selection. And the biggest key to that is being properly prepared to do so. We went back and recently posted a series of articles on Land Navigation where we […]

SOF tips: Decrease lower back pain and workout more effectively

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 […]

And thus ends the legal saga of the SEAL who was accused of war crimes

After more than a year since he was first accused, the legal saga of Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher has come to an end. And the verdict is that he will be demoted to the rank of Petty Officer First Class (E-6) and forfeit almost $3000 of pay/month for four months. In October 2018, military prosecutors […]