His Navy SEAL son committed suicide, now he fights for his name

His Navy SEAL son committed suicide, now he fights for his name

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 […]

Thinking Before Shooting: Intelligence and Special Operations

Thinking Before Shooting: Intelligence and Special Operations

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 […]

Canadian soldier serving in a Tier 1 SOF unit kicked out of the military for theft

Canadian soldier serving in a Tier 1 SOF unit kicked out of the military for theft

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, […]

Gone too soon: Delta Force legend Robert Horrigan

Gone too soon: Delta Force legend Robert Horrigan

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 […]

The Mattis way of war

The Mattis way of war

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 […]

Less Blackhawks, more Chinooks for Afghanistan’s premier SOF aviation unit

Less Blackhawks, more Chinooks for Afghanistan’s premier SOF aviation unit

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 […]

US military dropped record number of bombs in 2019

US military dropped record number of bombs in 2019

According to figures released by the Air Forces Central Command, the U.S. dropped more bombs over Afghanistan in 2019 than any other year since 2010. Combined, fighter, attack and unmanned aircraft dropped 7,423 bombs in 2019, which exceeds 2018’s 7,362. By contrast, 2010 saw 5,101 bombs released over the country at a time when the […]

American surveillance aircraft crashes in Afghanistan, 2 pilots killed

American surveillance aircraft crashes in Afghanistan, 2 pilots killed

An American aircraft crashed in the Taliban-controlled area of Afghanistan on Monday. Pentagon officials have denied the Taliban reports that the aircraft was shot down. The bodies of two pilots have been recovered by U.S. forces, but additional recovery efforts are being hampered by poor weather.  The aircraft was assigned to the 430th Expeditionary Electronic […]

Ranger medic is voted USO Soldier of the Year

Ranger medic is voted USO Soldier of the Year

A Ranger medic who helped to save the lives of six of his comrades during a firefight from hell has been recognized as the USO Soldier of the year. Sergeant Ty Able, a combat medic assigned to 1st Ranger Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, was part of a Ranger assault force that was going after a […]

Canadian Special Operations: What does it mean to be an operator?

Canadian Special Operations: What does it mean to be an operator?

Looking back, I didn’t have a clue what being Special Operations actually meant. I started my career in the Canadian Forces as a combat engineer. Out of all the careers I could have chosen, I chose to enlist as a human mine detector. Frankly, I settled for this trade because infantry seemed too hardcore at […]

How Spec Ops helicopters defeat heat-seeking missiles

How Spec Ops helicopters defeat heat-seeking missiles

The MH-47G Chinook helicopter fleet, one of the most important aviation assets of the U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM), is getting a new countermeasure system aimed at improving its survivability on the battlefield. More specifically, the MH-47Gs are being outfitted with the AN/AAQ-24 LAIRCM. This enhancement is a Directional Infrared Counter Measures (DIRCM) system that […]

The Iranian version of the famous Deck of Cards

The Iranian version of the famous Deck of Cards

In a move reminiscent of the early stages of Operation Iraqi Freedom, the U.S. Army has compiled a new deck of cards. This time around, however, the deck doesn’t include the top-men of the Baathist party and Iraqi military and intelligence apparatus, but the more important weapons systems in the Iranian arsenal. According to the […]