Letters to the Editor Oct. 23, 2013

You’ve been busy writing to us during the past month. Here are a few key notes we received.

//Dagestan

Special Kudos to Jack for his article on Russian special ops in Dagestan. SOFREP has consistently delivered an original and excellent analysis of issues pertaining to the special operations community and Jack’s latest write up was only further example of this. One can certainly appreciate the effort and time that goes into researching and putting together this kind of articles.

There are probably very, very, very few sources that you can turn to in order to learn about counterterrorism operations in Dagestan. I mean, DAGESTAN! I am almost certain that most people don’t even know that Dagestan exist on the map, let alone being informed of the terrorism issues and concerns that have emanated from that locale.

I truly hope that your team continues in this direction by delivering even more original reporting in the future. Obviously there are far “”sexier”” topics in the news than Dagestan and SOFREP has on occasions dabbled into these controversies. But it is the “Dagestan” type of articles that will distinguish this site from any other similar outfit.

-Kat

– Thanks Kat. You may have noticed that we didn’t create SOFREP to be a typical military porn site. Not much bullshit journalism around here.

– Charlie

// GROM Videos: WTF, over!

I really hate to critique, but I have been expecting some intriguing GROM content to find its way into the pipeline. After watching the “series preview”, I feel left wanting. I’m not a “hater”, just want to provide honest feedback. I tried to watch the part 2 video, but youtube reply indicates the “video does not exist”.

I’m proud of my Polish heritage, and have been excited to see your access to the GROM training.

– Jo

Hi Jo, thanks for your time on SOFREP! We hear you loud and clear. We’ve done a couple of previews in Team Room, and our profile video is GROM. You can expect to see the series launch on SOFREP in January, 2014. “Jo, the process is slow because we have to work with the GROM on post production to maintain OPSEC”-Brandon

– Charlie

 //Heroes of Special Operations

The Sofrep TV series “Heroes of U.S. Special Operations” is that a series that is done or will be added to annually? I’m curious because it was published around Veterans Day, and I’m sure there are great stories to be told.

P.S. What happened to Bill Janson? He was a big contributor to the site and I miss his view points.

– Chris

Hi Chris, we produced Heroes of U.S. Special Operations series to publish around Veterans Day, 2012. The purpose was to tell the reasons and motivations that Nada Bakos, Jack Murphy, Bill Janson, Brandon Webb and Dan Lake our country, and importantly, to tell the stories of some friends and mentors who gave all. We honestly have never discussed doing anything more with this particular video series, but I think that, as a result of this project, Brandon realized that he wanted to write a book about some of his brothers. So, the project will extend beyond the videos and continue on for years to come in one form or another.

Regarding Bill Janson – I know! We miss him too! Bill is still around, but he’s just really busy with his company (I think that’s called ‘supporting the family and paying the bills…’).

– Charlie

(Featured Image Courtesy: DVIDS: U.S. Marine Cpl. Devin Deweerdt, a 20-year-old mortarman with 3rd Platoon, Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, and native of Riverton, Utah, writes his wife a letter in his sleeping area after a day of work here, Feb. 26. On his second deployment to Afghanistan, Deweerdt tackles an exhaustive daily schedule of foot patrolling and standing guard duty. When his work is done, he returns to his small patrol base, where he lives without internet or phones. Before the Marine left home, he and his wife resolved to handwrite each other a letter for each day they’re apart. Four months into his deployment, Deweerdt is still writing. Every night, he sits on a green fold-up cot in his tent, places a sheet of notepaper on his black storage container, dons a pair of headphones and escapes into a letter.)