Women in SOF

Female Kurdish Snipers cut ISIS down

In an abandoned luxury apartment building in Til Kocher, Syria, a group of young women laugh, sing songs, and prepare chai tea for their guests. In the adjacent room is an arsenal of weapons ranging from American M4 rifles to Hungarian-made Dragunovs and locally manufactured Zagrov .50-caliber sniper rifles. The cheerful young women enjoying their […]

Women on Special Operations Forces Teams? No Easy Answer

Our military forces have been in combat non-stop since 9/11. They’ve shown that they’ve been equal to the task and have performed as we’ve come to expect from our armed forces. However, the ongoing conflicts have seen increased leanings on our Special Operations Forces, who, despite being just a fraction of the overall force, are […]

Woman falsely claims SAS service

As you can imagine I have been swamped with all sorts of people asking me about Azi Ahmed. And before you ask “No woman has ever attempted selection.” So this whole story is being blown out of control by Azi who is selling a story which is based on twisted truth in an attempt to […]

The artform of women at war

We’ve done several pieces on women in Special Ops and it’s obviously still a hotbed for debate.  I like that the SOFREP community can hold a healthy debate and look at things objectively (for the most part). In the past we’ve seen military capabilities come and go and get re-invented quite a few times (e.g. […]

A female Cultural Support Team member and Special Forces enabler speaks out

First could you explain some of your background to us. Years in service, rank, MOS, deployment locations, units deployed with, other pertinent details… I spent 12-years in the Army Reserves (1982-1994), took a 14-year break, and joined the National Guard in 2008. While in the Reserves, I served basically as a generator repair tech, and […]

Meet ‘Hunter Troop,’ Norway’s groundbreaking all-woman special forces unit

Norway’s military has been open to women fighting in combat positions for over 30 years. While Special Forces units were also open to female soldiers, none had made entry into that country’s Navy SEAL-like FSK. It wasn’t until Norway was participating in anti-terror actions in predominantly Muslim countries that the nation’s military realized they had […]

The Israel Defense Forces’s female special operations officers

With all of the intensity of the job, it’s easy to forget we’re talking about young women, who are dealing with complex situations and who carry the heavy burden of responsibility on their shoulders. Only few others their age have to handle such responsibility every day. They try to also lead normal lives—with families, friends, dating, and fun—but it’s not always possible.

Women in Special Ops: Original OSS Spec Ops unit included women

Nancy Wake was the most decorated woman of World War II. John Lichfield of the Independent wrote that in her life, “she became a nurse, a journalist who interviewed Adolf Hitler, a wealthy French socialite, a British agent and a French resistance leader. She led 7,000 guerrilla fighters in battles against the Nazis in the northern Auvergne, just before the D-Day landings in 1944. On one occasion, she strangled an SS sentry with her bare hands.