operator

(Dedication for this essay goes to the anonymous soul who sent me the amazing gift of relaxation) Give words of gratitude? A gesture that knows no bounds; it coaxes the eager patron and gifts him immeasurable joy. I, being sound of mind and mending body, do revel in the juggernaut of compassion and support from […]

Before we start, I feel like there should be a disclaimer, something like, “The views expressed in this article do not reflect those of all police or Navy SEALs.”

Welcome back to the second part of the Top 10 unwritten rules of CQB series. In the previous part we talked about the first two rules about sight fixation and flashlights. Lets continue to our next two rules. But before, we would like to remind you that these ‘rules’ are more of a reminder of […]

Has anyone else picked up on how every movie portrayal of Special Operations personnel that they always got our guys wearing a kafiya?  You know those local neck scarves that they sell in the souk but people don’t actually wear that often in the Middle East?  The look has become so ubiquitous that I’ve even seen […]

The military is full of professional jargon and SOF is certainly no exception.  With the growing interest in Special Operations, I hear a lot of terminologies used to describe us which makes me cringe.  The worst part is that some of these terms are thrown around so often that they become an institution in and […]

It was still dark when Master Sergeant Don Hollenbaugh heard the call to prayer echoing from a minaret 300 meters to the north. The haunting sound unsettled the Delta operator. “This is not going to be a good day,” he told Staff Sergeant Dan Briggs, a twenty-eight-year-old Delta medic kneeling beside him on a street […]

As spectators watched, the paratrooper, who managed to get his parachute to open partially, passed another paratrooper who had jumped before him.

The second paratrooper, realising his colleague was in distress, managed to move rapidly towards him to help.

At the time of going to print it was not known exactly how the second paratrooper managed to help his mate, although he could clearly be seen moving above the top of the twisted parachute.

Positioning himself above it, the [second] paratrooper appeared to struggle with the parachute before it floated away.

The soldier in distress managed to deploy his reserve parachute seconds later.

In the military, we’re obsessed with creating new tools to use in war, in a tactical sense. But, the future of wars to come will be fought in the streets, and via proxies. We’ll need communication tools that are reliable, competent, and secure…

Delta Force underwent a transformation of sorts, Sacolick said, all aimed at preventing another “Black Hawk Down.”

The Battle of Mogadishu, “revolutionized how we did business,” he said.

Since 2013, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Plan X cyber warfare program engineers have done the foundational work they knew it would take to create for the first time a common operating picture for warriors in cyberspace. Next month in Suffolk, Virginia, that work will pay off when Plan X is released from the […]

This type of arrangement is hardly unprecedented, as Delta Force also worked in the shadows during the search for, and eventual killing of, Pablo Escobar in Colombia. They’ve also served in advisory capacities during hostage-rescue missions in places as diverse as Sudan and Peru.

Unlike the beards of Special Forces operators, the hipster beard conceals a shameful history filled with artisan cheese, craft beer, and homemade shoes.