Afghanistan

In light of the recent Green-on-Blue attack in Nangarhar Province Afghanistan which claimed the lives of two Special Forces members and wounded several more, it may surprise you to know that both the President and the Democrats seeking their party’s nomination in the upcoming November elections all seem to be in rhetorical agreement. The U.S. […]

Editor’s note: Please consider supporting the families of the fallen. You can support Sgt. Rodriguez’s family by donating here; and you can support Sgt. Gutierrez’s family by donating here.   On Saturday, a Special Forces team was ambushed in Afghanistan by a rogue Afghan policeman. Two American commandos were killed and six wounded. The Department […]

On Saturday, we learned of a deadly attack on American Green Berets by a member of the Afghan National Police. The Green Berets were from the 3rd Battalion of the 7th Special Forces Group (7th SFG) and were on an operation with their counterpart Afghan Special Operations Forces (ANSOF), conducting Key Leader Engagement (KLE). When […]

Update: The Department of Defence has published the names of the two KIAs. Sgt. 1st Class Javier Jaguar Gutierrez, the senior communications sergeant (18E) on the ODA, and Sgt. 1st Class Antonio Rey Rodriguez, a SOT-A soldier, were killed during the incident.    Yesterday, a Special Forces team was ambushed in Afghanistan by a rogue […]

Update: At least eight U.S. casualties (2 KIA and 6 WIA). One KIA is a Green Beret and the other an enabler. The WIAs include senior members of the ODA and Company. Most of the WIA have gunshot wounds to the legs, but at least one was shot in the face and is in critical […]

In its quest for more effective close-air support (CAS), the U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) is turning away from the Air Force and is looking to purchase its own aircraft. According to a solicitation published on the U.S. government’s site, SOCOM is looking to set up a fleet of at least 75 armed overwatch aircraft. […]

On a Sunday morning of 2017, Ryan Larkin, a Navy SEAL with four combat deployments under his belt, committed suicide. He was just 29 years old. He was haunted by a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) that was caused by repeated exposure to concussive blows and explosions. But the Navy and the Department of Veteran Affairs […]

The attacks of 9/11, which seem so long ago, caught the United States by surprise. There were some warning signs that were missed by our intelligence and law enforcement agencies but pointing the finger isn’t the purpose here. The last 16 years have seen our forces fighting a different kind of war, with a different […]

A Canadian soldier assigned to the Joint Task Force-2 (JTF2) will be kicked out of the Canadian military for stealing equipment worth thousands of dollars. Last August, a military court had found Corporal Pedro Collier guilty of possessing stolen property. He received a suspended sentence and one-year probation. According to the Canadian publication Ottawa Citizen, […]

I’m an idiot. How many times have I told myself not to chat up the owners of the corner kiosks for language training? Pick a kiosk that you don’t have to pass to get to and from your safe house; every time you pass, they will see you and wave you down to chat. If […]

Former Secretary of Defence General James Mattis’s no-nonsense approach to life is well-known. Before and during his tenure as SecDef, he pushed for more focus on warfighting and less emphasis on senseless exercises and training.  Gauging by his time of military, and now public service, the Secretary of Defense appears to prefer logic, and not […]

Afghanistan’s premier Special Operations Aviation unit is slotted to receive an unspecified number of CH-47 Chinooks from the U.S. Established in 2005, the Special Mission Wing (SMW) is the cream of the crop of the AAF. With less than 1,000 pilots and ground personnel in its ranks, the unit was initially designed to support counter-narcotics […]