The .30 Carbine: History you can shoot

When you mention the .30 Carbine cartridge in any conversation about firearms it quickly goes one of two distinct ways. The first is stories about it being a fun to shoot lightweight rifle, the second is the tales of being underpowered and not a caliber that can stop a man. A point that can be […]

SOFREP ARCHIVE: Across the fence with MACV-SOG, ‘You shot me 3 times.’

Near the end of September, the brass asked Schaff if he’d mind becoming the One-One, or assistant team leader. The brass wanted to put an overweight Special Forces sergeant from Germany who had a previous tour of duty with a Green Beret A-Team, but no experience in Laos, in the One-Zero slot simply because he […]

God returns to writing ‘The Punisher’

Many writers have taken up the pen to detail the dark vigilante missions of Vietnam-veteran turned murder machine Frank Castle.  Some of those writers were pretty good.  Most of them sucked.  The best of them was living legend and modern-day god, Garth Ennis. The Irish-born writer always had the strongest grasp on who the Punisher […]

Mattis builds defense partnership with another of China’s opponents: India

American Secretary of Defense James Mattis met with India’s Defense Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday, wherein both nations emphasized the importance of building a stronger military partnership in the years ahead. “This is a historic opportunity for our two democracies, a time of strategic convergence,” Mattis said. “As India takes its rightful place at the […]

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 […]

POW/MIA Recognition Part 1

One clear day in May 1968, Green Berets Glen O. Lane and Robert Owen, boarded a South Vietnamese Air Force H-34 helicopter along with four South Vietnamese team members and flew west from the top secret MACV-SOG FOB 1 base in Phu Bai near the China Sea, into a target in Laos where communist forces […]

Operation Tailwind anniversary (Part 2)

(See Part 1 HERE.) Moments after the last engine on the Marine Corps CH-53D Sea Stallion died, the heavy-lift helicopter began full autorotation, heading toward the Laotian jungle at more than 100 miles per hour while carrying the command element, intelligence documents, and more than 40 troops. These men were the last elements from the top-secret MACV-SOG B Company hatchet […]

McKeague takes over DPAA amid praise and a note of somber realism

With few exceptions, the DoD announcement on Labor Day of retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Kelly K. McKeague as director of the Department of POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) has been met mostly with praise. McKeague was finally appointed 16 months after the first director resigned in June 2016. During that hiatus, there has been derision […]

How to escape North Korea

It takes one hour and 45 minutes to fly from Shenyang, a sprawling provincial capital in northeastern China not far from the border with North Korea, to Seoul, the capital of South Korea. It’s the kind of flight in which passengers have to gobble down their beef and rice before the attendants come around telling them […]

DPAA director to be named, finally

The DoD will announce the name of a new director for the Defense Prisoner of War/Missing in Action Accounting Agency (DPAA) Tuesday after 16 months of inaction through two administrations and some in-house machinations, SOFREP has learned. Today, there are 1,603 Americans still listed as missing in Southeast Asia (SEA) from the Vietnam War, including […]