Afghanistan

Fast jets, UAVs and Oakleys cannot and should not take the place of a complete understanding and healthy respect for the people and cultures in the areas in which we intend to operate.

How many of you have been in that team that we have fought or would have fought tooth and nail to stay in? You know, the team that you just cannot live without. The one that you look forward to going to work with every morning, where things just smooth seamlessly and everyone gets along. […]

The next brawl of the century comes down to two scrappy opponents: the Taliban and ISIS. Regardless of who loses, we win.

The CO of 1st Force Recon Company recently spoke to the graduates of Basic Reconnaissance Course 3-15.

Unlike the beards of Special Forces operators, the hipster beard conceals a shameful history filled with artisan cheese, craft beer, and homemade shoes.

Does America place its troops in unnecessarily dangerous situations because of overly restrictive Rules of Engagement in places like Afghanistan?

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani visited the United States for the first time this past week, spending five days in the nation’s capital. Ghani is in the midst of an effort to fundamentally alter the tone of the relationship between the Afghan government, the U.S., and the world. Ghani was received warmly by both U.S. President […]

My heart stopped. Less than 30 feet from me, two Talibans carrying Kalashnikovs were crawling toward our base. They clearly couldn’t make out what they were seeing, squinting in the morning sun…

  The first time I was made aware that one of my Special Operations Task Group (SOTG) rotation videos had been obtained by the media and was being reported on was early last year. The Sydney Morning Herald published an article on 16 March 2014 titled “DVD exposes Australian commandos at play in Afghanistan.” The […]

  The DEA FAST are an elite tactical unit which focuses exclusively on counter-narcotics (CN) operations. There are only five of these teams within the administration with one permanently stationed in Afghanistan. They are there to conduct CN and counterterrorist missions as Afghanistan is the world’s most prolific narcotics production and trafficking countries. Although they […]

As former Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai prepared to leave power in his final year, he made a series of decisions to restrain International Security Assistance Forces (ISAF) from participating in combat operations in Afghanistan. Further, he repeatedly tightened the constraints on United States Special Operations Forces (SOF). Due to a series of incidents in which […]

The 23rd of October, 2014 marked the handover of the last U.S. Marine Corps base to Afghan control. During the ceremony, Camp Leatherneck, along with British-run Camp Bastion, were handed over to Afghan forces, marking the close of the NATO and allied mission in Regional Command Southwest, overseeing Helmand and Nimroz provinces. On 28 December, […]