Live or die in Cambodia: Rescue mission with James Shorten

[Editor’s Note: This is the fourth in a series of exclusive SOFREP stories of what led to the MACV-SOG Bright Light mission that haunts SOG Green Beret SSG James H. Shorten (Jones) to this day. It has taken him back to Cambodia twice and he hopes to return to Cambodia in 2018 to help DPAA […]

So close, yet so far: Rescue mission with James Shorten

[Editor’s Note: This is the third in a series of exclusive SOFREP stories of what led to the MACV-SOG Bright Light mission that haunts SOG Green Beret SSG James H. Shorten (Jones) to this day. It has taken him back to Cambodia twice and he hopes to return to Cambodia in 2018 to help DPAA […]

Into Cambodia: Rescue mission with James Shorten

[Editor’s Note: This is the second in a series of exclusive SOFREP stories of what led to the MACV-SOG Bright Light mission that haunts SOG Green Beret SSG James H. Shorten (Jones) to this day. It has taken him back to Cambodia and he hopes to return to there in 2018 to help DPAA officials […]

Think like a Green Beret: Making a PACE plan

Sometimes you get lucky and your plan works just as you thought it would. Enjoy those days, because there will not be many of them. No matter how smart you are or how hard you work, on the battlefield, the enemy always gets a vote. The famous philosopher Mike Tyson once said, “Everyone has a plan […]

Operation Ivory Coast, November 21, 1970: The Raid on Son Tay Prison

By November of 1970, there were 450 known American POWs in Vietnam and more than double that amount who were missing. Reports were surfacing of brutal conditions, torture and starvation of American POWs. Operation Ivory Coast was the mission by U.S. Army Green Berets flown in by Air Force Commandos to rescue the POWs at […]

A history of things, the fashion of war: Berets

The history of things, whatever they are, has always been fascinating to me for one reason or another. The same goes for etymology or the history of words. But, for today I’m going to attempt to write a few articles on something that’s popped up. Berets–their respective colors, whose heritage those colors are tied to […]

Murder or accident? SEAL Team 6 operators kill a Green Beret in Mali

It was 2009 in Iraq when one of my teammates decided to initiate an impromptu combatives match with half of a SEAL platoon, never a great idea under any circumstances.  He was the senior Special Forces medic on our team and we had been doing some joint operations with a SEAL platoon in Mosul.  Now […]

News Roundup: Navy SEALS under investigation in Special Forces murder, George Washington plaques too triggering for church, nude airsofter arrested with drugs/porn

What happened here???: WASHINGTON — Navy criminal authorities are investigating whether two members of the Navy’s elite SEAL Team 6 strangled to death an Army Green Beret on assignment in Mali in June, military officials say. Staff Sgt. Logan J. Melgar, a 34-year-old veteran of two deployments to Afghanistan, was found dead on June 4 […]

UK Maritime counter-terrorism is changing

The Royal Marine Commandos are changing. The Royal Navy is getting two new aircraft carriers, and thus an expanded need for an organic force capable of Maritime interdiction operations (MIO), Visit, Board, Search, and Seizure (VBSS), and personnel recovery (PR). To assume this task, 42 Commando has reorganized as a Maritime Operations Commando (MOC).  With […]

Extortion 17 SEALs had been sheep dipped into CIA’s Omega Teams

With the release of “The Final Mission of Extortion 17” by Ed Darack, new information is brought to light about one of the most deadly days for coalition troops in the War on Terror.  Darack’s work goes in-depth on the subject, probing the technical details of military rotary wing aviation, accidents, and shoot downs overseas. […]

SOG Medic to receive MoH Oct. 23rd

President Donald J. Trump will award Vietnam-era Green Beret medic Gary Mike Rose the Medal of Honor on Oct. 23 at the White House for valor stemming from a historic, top-secret mission in Laos during the secret war dubbed Operation Tailwind, the White House announced today. 47 years ago, on September 14, 1970, 16 Green […]

Ken Burns’ Vietnam stirs memory and emotion

On Sunday night, KPBS will launch the first of a ten-part, 18-hour presentation by film makers Ken Burns and Lynn Novick on the Vietnam War. In recent weeks they have hosted numerous preview clips at private screenings from the series across the country from Los Angeles to New York City and smaller venues in San […]