First ever female soldier passes selection for the Special Forces Qualification Course

Although the U.S. Army officially opened special operations roles to females back in 2016, thus far, not one of the 24 female soldiers who have attempted Special Forces selection have been successful — that is, until now. “Recently, a female successfully completed Special Forces Assessment and Selection and was selected to attend the Special Forces […]

Across the Fence with MACV-SOG: You shot me three times

Near the end of September, the brass asked Schaff if he’d mind becoming the One-One, or assistant team leader. The brass wanted to put an overweight Special Forces sergeant from Germany who had a previous tour of duty with a Green Beret A-Team, but no experience in Laos, in the One-Zero slot simply because he […]

BREAKING: US Special Forces attacked in Somalia by Al-Shabab

A U.S. Special Forces Operational Detachment Alpha (ODA) came under attack today in the Bar-Sanguni area near Kismayo in Somalia. The U.S. Special Forces team was in the process of constructing a new Forward Operating Base (FOB) with a large local partner force when they came under sustained mortar fire and machine gun fire from […]

The act of killing

Don’t you know it is wrong to kill? Yes. But you do it? Yes. And you still believe absolutely that your cause is right? Yes. It is right, he told himself, not reassuringly, but proudly. I believe in the people and their right to govern themselves as they wish. But you mustn’t believe in killing, […]

‘Last Son of the War God’; a book review

Seldom do I ever do book reviews. There is a cogent reason for that, being I don’t (seldom if ever) read books, and especially not fiction. Why the exception you ask? Simple: I was approached by valiant members of our SF community with the prospect of reading a recent novel by a respectful peer of […]

TigerSwan: Former Delta Operator sought to incite violence at the Dakota Access Pipeline

It was early afternoon on October 11th, 2016 when TigerSwan’s program manager, retired Delta Force Sergeant Major John Porter, met with Silverton’s owner, Carl Clifton, inside a hangar at the Mandan Municipal Airport. The hangar was initially used by Silverton security as a clandestine office for their intelligence cell that collected information on the protesters, […]

Why being an ‘operator’ doesn’t make you Jason Bourne

You know the trope found in secret agent films and novels alike: the Special Operator that is fluent in four languages, can track phones, build homemade explosives, is a parkour fanatic, a highly trained driver, is an expert tracker, better hacker, a master of like four variations of martial arts, and of course, is an […]

Think like a Green Beret: Never Quit

One thing that all special units have in common is an aversion to quitting and quitters. The greatest sin, the one unforgivable error is to quit, no matter what the obstacle. Only death can stop a truly determined man. You have to know that the man next to you will not break and run when […]