Watch: Army to extend infantry training by 7 weeks

The U.S. Army is changing its OSUT (One Station Unit Training) program for infantry, pushing it from 14 weeks to 21 weeks. This will be a “pilot program” initiated in July, which will be used to determine the effectiveness of the extension and whether or not it warrants permanent integration into the Army. It is […]

Humanity Divided: Seeing the Sunni and Shiite conflict firsthand

The first time I ever heard gunshots take a person’s life, I was in the fourth grade. They would often blow up chunks of the surrounding mountain range with bundles of dynamite, but this sounded different. My Dad would later explain to me that a Sunni had shot a Shiite dead in the bazaar. It […]

US Air Force To Adopt Army’s MultiCam Uniform

The U.S. Air Force could be soon wearing the same duty uniforms as the U.S. Army, the “MultiCam” according to documents that were on social media last week. The documents, reportedly from the Air Force Uniform Office, suggest ditching the service’s “Airman Battle Uniform” in favor of the Army’s MultiCam “Operational Camouflage Pattern.” The change […]

Early March in WWI: Influenza begins to rip through troops worldwide

When people think of the loss of life in a war, they generally think of soldiers sustaining traumatic injuries. However, conditions on the battlefield are anything but healthy, and disease has often inflicted serious casualties on forces that scramble through months of jungle mountains, or scrape through muddy trenches for weeks on end, and sometimes […]

A decade of service: From an Army Ranger to a DC Police Officer

Patrick Bacon joined the United States Army when he was 21 years old. He would make it through the rigorous schools and selections required to enter the 75th Ranger Regiment, where he served in the 3rd Ranger Battalion, spending five years in the military and leaving as a sergeant with multiple deployments under his belt. […]

Broken Faith: A wounded veteran’s search for self-forgiveness

SOFREP is proud to present its guest author, Zachary Mayne, veteran of 3rd Ranger Battalion.  Welcome, Zachary! Five weeks after being wounded by a burst of high-explosive rounds in combat, I was hooking up my static line for a daylight, Hollywood jump over Fryar DZ. My wounds had healed quickly, it seemed. The sight had […]

Christmas in Afghanistan

I’m not the type of person that puts value in obscure objects just because “I’ve had them since I was X years old.” I am constantly rifling through my drawers, under my bed and through my storage unit, throwing things away that have no utilitarian or decorative value. Sentiment hasn’t gotten me much over the […]

Want to grab an M17? Good luck: Sig announces plans for limited sales run

Sig Sauer recently announced plans to make a small number of the U.S. Army’s new Modular Handgun System (MHS) pistols available for commercial purchase.  The M17 pistols that will be sold will be nearly identical to the platform that won the U.S. Army contract, beating out entrants from other quality firearm manufacturers like Glock, FN […]

Army – Navy is about much more than a game, tradition, respect

The 118th playing of the Army-Navy game was an instant classic, on and off the field. Played in a snowstorm, one could say that the Army finally found a camouflage uniform that worked the way it was supposed to. And in a year where the Army’s West Point came under a lot of scrutiny for […]

Army – Navy Is About Much More Than a Game, Tradition, Respect

The 118th playing of the Army-Navy game was an instant classic, on and off the field. Played in a snowstorm, one could say that the Army finally found a camouflage uniform that worked the way it was supposed to. And in a year where the Army’s West Point came under a lot of scrutiny for […]