Pull-ups, protein and offset infils

When comparing myself to other men in Ranger Battalion, I never labelled myself as the strongest or the fastest. I was and am an endurance-minded individual. I have always enjoyed running, but thanks to the men in Batt, I was able to gain a greater understanding and appreciation of the physically well rounded soldier. One […]

Photo of the Day: Airman 1st Class Seth Elich Tactical Air Control Party Specialist

Tactical Air Control Party Specialists are some amazing people doing an amazing mission. If a picture says a 1000 words lets just leave this to your imagination as to what you see. Learn More About the Tactical Air Control Party Specialist mission…watch below! Calling in air and ground strikes all while embedded with teams like the […]

The Long Range Shooting Handbook: A Beginner’s Guide to Precision Rifle Shooting

I’ve shot a lot of rounds in my life.  I was a pretty heavy volume shooter in my teens, chewing through case after case of .223, 7.63×39 and 12ga as well as various handgun calibers.  After I joined the military my volume went up drastically easily pushing tens of thousands of rounds downrange annually.  I was well […]

Operation Red Wings II: Lone Survivor recovery operation (Part I)

I sat down with a former Ranger medic from 3rd Ranger Battalion for a few hours to talk about the massive rescue and recovery operation following Operation Red Wings. Doc’s platoon was alerted and deployed to Afghanistan within 18 hours. SOFREP: What was going through your head when you first got the page to deploy […]

The race card in US Special Operations: Prior 75th Ranger Nick Irving weighs in

I want to personally thank Nick Irving for writing this piece for SOFREP; it’s an important topic and his perspective is extremely valuable. In the Special Ops community racism and bias surely still exists but with far less frequency then what is still found in American society. One of the biggest gifts of being in a […]

1st Ranger Battalion: It’s been 70 Years since Sened Station

On February 11th 1943, Darby’s 1st Battalion Rangers conducted their first night raid of WWII on a rail town in Southern Tunisia called Sened Station. They did not have the technology or weapons that modern-day Rangers are blessed with, but their willingness, tactical knowledge, and mastery of the night was very similar to the Rangers […]

Seaspray, the CIA Shadow of TF 160th

After the tragedy that unfolded at Desert One, the attempted Delta Force rescue of American hostages held in Iran in 1980, the Pentagon was forced back to the drawing board.  While it is easy to take for granted the Special Operations infrastructure that we have today, thirty years ago the military was still struggling in […]

Schwarzkopf, Grenada, and the Rangers

I was surprised to find out that before he was “Stormin’ Norman” leading coalition forces to a swift victory against Iraqi forces during the Gulf War, he was the newly promoted Brigadier General Norman Schwarzkopf of the 24th Mechanized Infantry Division. There Schwarzkopf found himself in charge of ground forces in Grenada during Operation Urgent […]

Aerial Platform Sniping, lessons and insights.

As a professional shooter, it is important never to overestimate your skills, and even more unforgivable to misrepresent your skill level to commanding officers who will probably take those perceptions into account during mission planning. This is especially true of snipers preparing to conduct specialized tasks, like providing target interdiction from a helicopter based platform. […]