Navy SEALs

The officers ran into baggage claim and yelled, “run for your lives, there’s an active shooter in the terminal!” Talk about a wake-up call. I had just landed from France in Terminal 1 at JFK. It was the same year as the Paris attacks. Imagine the reaction of 400+ people from France and Germany flying […]

The Navy found a SEAL Team 6 operator guilty of catfishing a woman online. The operator will now spend 30 days in the brig and forfeit $500 from his paycheck for three months ($1,500 t0tal). A Navy court-martial found Special Warfare Operator 1st Class (SO1) Aaron Howard guilty of trying to elicit nude pictures from […]

In a move that should surprise no one, Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte has announced on Tuesday that he would scrap a security pact that allows American forces to train there without the usual visa or passport control. Duterte has been very vocal about his anti-American feelings since being elected back in 2017, despite the United […]

When people hear of Navy SEALs or Special Warfare Combatant-Craft Crewmen (SWCC), most think of a scene of guns blazing, cool ass night vision goggles, and fast helicopters and boats slipping through the dark night. In reality, Naval Special Warfare has many different mission sets, including Foreign Internal Defense (FID). FID may not be the […]

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 […]

Seven years ago yesterday, Navy SEAL Chris Kyle was murdered. He was shot and killed, alongside his buddy Chad Littlefield, by Eddie Ray Routh, a former Marine with serious mental problems. They had gone to a range to shoot some targets and unwind in an effort to help Routh battle his demons. Chris left behind […]

U.S. Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Zachary Larsen, a combat graphic specialist with Headquarters and Support Battalion Marine Corps Installations Pacific-Marine Corps Base Camp Butler, attempts to escape a simulated attack during a water survival advanced (WSA) course Jan. 29, 2020, at Fairchild Pool on Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, Japan. WSA is the highest swim qualification […]

Benghazi 2012. Niger 2017. Manda Bay 2020. These are just the high-profile cases where American warfighters and diplomats have died in Africa in the last decade. For the most part of the last two decades, the Middle East has captivated the attention of the Pentagon and U.S. media. But Africa has been steadily warming up. […]

After months of investigation, the U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) has finished its comprehensive review into the professionalism and ethical issues in the Special Operations community. The 69-page report found that Special Operations units are too focused on being lethal on the battlefield and deploy as much as possible. As a consequence, what might appear […]

Green Berets from the 1st Special Forces Group (1st SFG) conduct Visit Board Search and Seizure (VBSS) training somewhere in the Pacific ocean. The 1st SFG is responsible for Asia. Each Special Forces Group is comprised of numerous Special Forces Operational Detachment Alphas (ODAs). The ODA is the basic ground unit that gets deployed. Manned […]

In part 1 of this series, I discussed my start in the military and my transition into the Special Forces, as well as the meaning of mastering the basics. In part 2, I’ll delve deeper into what being Special Operations is all about and how selection is, in part, used to select the right kind […]

Special Warfare Combatant-Craft Crewmen (SWWCs) pride themselves in being subject matter experts and jacks of all trades simultaneously. As all special operations units do, SWCCs operate in small groups in harsh and remote environments. This unique mission set requires operators to become very good at their respective jobs because most likely, they won’t have any […]