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 […]

Watch: 5 things you need to know about the AK

Readyman and and Special Forces veteran Jeff Kirk of TwistRate talk about the Ak-47 and its variants. Jeff explains some of the design parameters and how to understand why the AK functions as it does. Learn more about Jeff Kirkham and TwistRate at twistrate.com Photo courtesy of AKfiles.com This article is courtesy of The Loadout […]

SOF pic of the day: U.S. Airmen receive training from Green Berets

Airmen assigned to Cannon Air Force Base, N.M., participate in a full mission profile exercise during the Green Beret Experience, Dec. 15, 2016 at Melrose Air Force Range, N.M. Taught by U.S. Army Green Berets. The Green Beret Experience is a four-day event featuring weapons and ground operations training intended give Airmen an idea of […]

Tal Afar SWAT loses another hero in the battle against ISIS

On August 29th Abbas Antar lost his life in a small village north of Tal Afar called Afgani in what has been described as a friendly fire incident with the Iraqi police.  This follows on the heels of another Tal Afar ISWAT member who was killed by a ISIS sniper in Mosul recently.  With Tal […]

Exclusive: U.S. forces to stay in Syria for decades, say militia allies

Washington’s main Syrian ally in the fight against Islamic State says the U.S. military will remain in northern Syria long after the jihadists are defeated, predicting enduring ties with the Kurdish-dominated region. The U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an alliance of militias dominated by the Kurdish YPG, believes the United States has a “strategic interest” […]

Anti-ISIS operations in Iraq, next stop Tal Afar

With ISIS pushed out of Mosul, the next phase in the campaign is to rid the terrorist organization from the nearby city of Tal Afar.  Located smack dab between Mosul and Sinjar, Tal Afar is a medium-sized city inhabited by both Sunni and Shia but dominated by the Turkmen ethnic group rather than Arabs. As […]

How I crashed my Army Special Operations Helicopter behind enemy lines in Afghanistan and what I learned about my crew in the process.

Flying with the United States Army’s 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, the “Nightstalkers,” were some of the most rewarding and intense years of my professional Army career. These are the men and women who, when the President asks in hushed tones if we have the capability to fly specially adapted helicopters into the darkest corners of the […]

Pentagon considers airstrikes in the Philippines, but it seems unlikely

NBC News recently cited two anonymous defense officials who stated that as early as tomorrow there could be a named program to begin conducting airstrikes in the Philippines, most likely with Predator drones.  While this is certainly one possibility, it is highly unlikely.  First, this would mean a new escalation in American military involvement in […]

Behind the sudden death of a $1 billion secret C.I.A. war in Syria

 The end came quickly for one of the costliest covert action programs in the history of the C.I.A. During a White House briefing early last month, the C.I.A. director, Mike Pompeo, recommended to President Trump that he shut down a four-year-old effort to arm and train Syrian rebels. The president swiftly ended the program. The rebel […]

US Special Forces conducts search and rescue training

US Special Forces counter-terrorism missions in Syria and Iraq get a lot of media coverage, but Green Berets are deployed to over 100 countries on any given year conducting a range of operations as laid out in the unit’s Mission Essential Task List (METL) including everything from counter-proliferation to special warfare.  This past May, Special […]