MSG Roy Benavidez, MOH Recipient

If you ever wanted to know what a genuine American hero looks like, this is it. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oUtJxE4sjs&w=640&h=385&rel=0] BENAVIDEZ, ROY P. Rank and organization: Master Sergeant. Organization: Detachment B-56, 5th Special Forces Group, Republic of Vietnam Place and date: West of Loc Ninh on May 2, 1968 Entered service at: Houston, Texas June 1955 Born: August […]

Colonel Robert Howard

The Special Forces Sergeant pulled the small rectangular Claymore mine from its pouch. Though he couldn’t see the Soviet built truck, he smelled its fumes. The distinctive low rasp of its diesel engine spewed a heavy, acrid odor that hung under the dense jungle canopy for hundreds of yards. Unwinding the detonation wire, he sensed […]

William Bowles, First Generation Special Forces Sergeant Major

Sergeant Major William Bowles had an amazing career that stretched from Post-Word War II Germany as a young signals operator, to becoming one of the original members of the Special Forces Regiment.  As a Special Forces Communications Sergeant he deployed to South Korea, conducted a top-secret mission to Laos, and was with the first two […]

SOF fielding New High-Tech Surveillance Gear

Any military draw down, such as what we’ve seen in Iraq and will experience in Afghanistan, is an especially hazardous time. The asymmetric enemy, ever adaptive and certainly emboldened, is alert to any hint of slackened security. Combat arenas are experiencing an ominous uptick of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and shoot-and-scoot attacks. As U.S. conventional […]

Ode to the Uber SOF Faker

I was just reading about Scott Thompson, the late CEO of Yahoo’s media sites after getting a tip from Feral Jundi.  Apparently Thompson had lied about having a degree in computer science on his resume.  When the board of directors got wind of it they decided to pull the plug on him.  Good riddance I […]

SOF, Kony 2012, and The Great Game in Central Africa

The more things change, the more they stay the same.  The War on Terror is winding down, or so we are told, with all but a token force left behind in Iraq and a phased withdrawal set to begin in Afghanistan soon.  Interestingly, the war seems to be expanding outwards in all directions with covert […]

Operation Kingpin

By the Spring of 1970 the United States found itself entering a 5th year of combat operations in South Vietnam. Richard Nixon’s pledge of turning the war over through Vietnamization – that is, making the South take over the bulk of the fighting – was underway. Yet hundreds of miles north, in cramped, filthy cells, […]

OUTRAGE: Special Forces Soldiers Caught with Colombian Prostitutes

Yeah, it’s a damn outrage that this is even against the regs.  Guys wouldn’t join the Army if they thought that Uncle Sugar would come down on them over this sort of thing.  From the LA Times, “The Pentagon investigation is focusing on five Special Forces Army soldiers, two Marines, two Navy personnel and one […]

Book Review: Covert Loves by William Bowles

“Just before daylight firing started over on the left side, then it switched to the front of the main position, we had no targets so we all held our fire.  I heard people hollering and then people appeared to our front running in our direction.  I opened fire with my carbine.  I saw bright flashes […]

The Kennedy-Yarborough Statue Dedication at Ft. Bragg

President John F. Kennedy had a special relationship with the United States Army Special Forces. That relationship was sealed on Oct. 12, 1961, when the President visited Fort Bragg, N.C., to review the troops. At the now-historic meeting between Kennedy and then-Brig. Gen. William Yarborough, Kennedy embraced the iconic Green Beret. That relationship was celebrated […]