The Challenges of Women in Combat Roles

From The NY Times WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta is lifting the military’s official ban on women in combat, which will open up hundreds of thousands of additional front-line jobs to them, senior defense officials said Wednesday. he groundbreaking decision overturns a 1994 Pentagon rule that restricts women from artillery, armor, infantry and […]

Zero Dark Thirty: A Former CIA Targeting Officer’s Perspective

Despite debates over its depiction of torture, Zero Dark Thirty became the most-watched movie in America this week, and looks to be heading for another strong weekend. How reliable the film’s portrait? Does it give an accurate picture of how the CIA anti-terrorism efforts really work? Nada Bakos, who spearheaded the CIA’s Zarqawi Operations team […]

Women’s Rights Activist Demands ‘Camouflage Ceiling’ Brought Down

Washington, D.C.– In a highly-anticipated press conference held in the nation’s Capitol today, a leading women’s activist announced that she would be taking up the cause of having more female service-members killed in combat. U.S. Representative Judy Chu (D, CA) announced the creation of Femme Fatal, a movement specifically tasked with ensuring that women get the same opportunities to be […]

A Female CST 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 […]

Women in The Navy SEAL Teams: Admiral (SEAL) Olson Comments…

The below email from Admiral Olson, and is an excellent narrative on women in Special Ops.  SOFREP Managing Editor Jack Murphy’s recent comments on the issue of women at war provide some excellent insight into a very controversial issue as well. Enjoy and let us know what you think. Brandon, Editor-in-Chief From Admiral (SEAL) Eric […]

The Art of Women at War

We’ve done several pieces on women in Special Ops and it’s obviously still a hot bed 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 […]

Chicks Go to Ranger School

I was going to go on an epic rant but I found someone who said it and sourced it better than I did, so here it is.  First hearing about this a few weeks ago, I held off commenting until we had confirmation.  Yesterday, it hit the press.  Maybe when I regain my composure I […]

The First Female Navy SEAL

The U.S. is in the dark ages when it comes to utilizing women in the US Special Operations community. Female Navy SEALs, Green Berets, and Combat Controllers? Why the hell not? In all fairness, the Army beat us to it with the first female Green Beret Katie Wilder. Hard-line thinking coupled with fixed ideology gets […]