Tag: SOF

Once Eugene Stoner, designer of the AR-15/M-16 series of combat rifles, left Armalite Corporation in the early 1960s, he decided to design a unique weapons platform that used a common receiver around which a family of small arms could interchange. Such a commonality would enable it to transform into a rifle, carbine or light machine gun […]

Special Forces soldiers and members of the Son Tay prison rescue force at the back of a C-130. Son Tay prison was located close to Hanoi and believed to contain a significant amount of American Prisoners of War (POWs). The military launched a raid to rescue them on November 21, 1970. The assault force engaged […]

Aviation and Special Operations go hand-in-hand. Whether it is rotary-wing or fixed-wing, SOF units have been using SOF aircraft to increase their effectiveness and lethality. Recognizing the lack of a dedicated SOF aviation program, NATO has decided to launch a training facility that aims to bring together the Alliance’s elite aviation units for training. The […]

Before celebrating Christmas with the family today it was time for some exercise. I was up before the sun and since everyone was sleeping in as we had been out late visiting family on Christmas Eve, I decided to take advantage of the quiet time to get some rucking in…and to work off some of […]

U.S. Army soldiers assigned to the Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force-Afghanistan watch the Afghanistan countryside from the tail of an aircraft after delivering bundles containing care packages, Christmas stockings and mail to soldiers stationed at a remote base in eastern Afghanistan.

Details are sketchy right now, but the Pentagon has acknowledged that an American soldier was killed on Monday in Afghanistan. The Taliban have already taken credit for a roadside bombing in northern Kunduz province, where they claim the attack took place. They also tweeted a picture of the killed soldier’s ID card. The Pentagon doesn’t […]

Special operations forces assigned to Naval Special Warfare Group TWO, a component of U.S. Special Operations Command Europe, engaged in a continuous training cycle to improve specialized skills needed to conduct missions from sea, air, and land during exercise Noble Rose. Noble Rose is a bi-lateral Counter-Terrorism (CT) training exercise to enhance capacity, capability, and […]

The Washington Post spent a lot of time and made many of Freedom of Information Act requests to dig up what they hoped would shed some light on what we’re doing in Afghanistan, why we’re still there and whether it is worth the lives of 2,400 — and counting — American military members and the […]

The Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) has released more information about the incoming changes in the new Special Warfare career field. Launched this past October, Special Warfare is comprised of the Pararescue (1Z1), Combat Control (1Z2), Tactical Air Control Party (1Z3) and Special Reconnaissance (1Z4) Air Force Specialties. Previously these were separate career fields, […]

Green Beret SFC Richard Stayskal called it a “Christmas Miracle.”  The Senate passed the National Defense Authorization Act with an 86-8 vote on Tuesday. However, inside the bill is a provision, initiated by Stayskal, which will allow service members who have been victims of negligent medical care to finally be allowed to hold the government […]

Women and men are becoming more integrated across the Department of Defense (DoD), particularly in the regular infantry, which is a reversal of the traditional structure throughout the U.S. military’s history. Women can do amazing things. They have graduated from Ranger School; passed the excruciating Marine Corps Basic Reconnaissance Course; and now graduated from the […]

“How the hell am I going to fill 1000 sandbags…and how did get myself into this mess?” Sometimes life throws her curveballs at you and you have to do your best to sit back in the box and hit it the opposite way. And in doing so, you can take a bad situation and definitely […]