Entertainment

Adam Brown: A SEAL’s Life of Courage and Redemption

An Odd Question

A while back, I was asked a somewhat unusual question on Quora, the quasi-social media question-and-answer site. It was, “Have any former crack addicts ever been on SEAL Team Six?” There was just one that I’m aware of, and his story is nothing short of amazing. When you hear this man’s story, at some points, you are proud of him, and at other times you are in disbelief at how self-destructive he once was and how much it hurt those who loved him. You’re in awe of the enormous obstacles he overcame to be one of the most elite warriors in the world when 99.9999% of others would have quit and felt sorry for themselves. You hear his story, and you laugh because he was a funny man, a big goofy kid at heart who wasn’t afraid to be himself in front of anyone. But, on the other hand, you feel pathos mixed with anger when you learn what happened when his demons would get the better part of him. Waves of sentimentality sweep over you as you read the heartfelt journal he wrote to his young children during his deployment to war zones.

Had I not known that he was a true story, I never would have believed it. I probably would have laughed at the implausibility of all of it. But the story is accurate, and so is the pain and pride people feel when they remember the life of a man named Adam Brown.

Chief Special Warfare Operator (SEAL) Adam Brown. Image courtesy of Facebook

I never had the honor of meeting Adam Brown, but after learning about what kind of a man he was, I feel that this photograph conveys a good image of what he was like. There were many images to choose from, but I kept returning to this one. Adam Brown was a walking contradiction: an incredibly loving husband and father who used to help teach his kids Sunday school class by pretending to be animals from Noah’s Ark, a battle-hardened Navy DEVGRU (aka SEAL Team Six) warrior and veteran of multiple deployments…and he was also a recovering crack cocaine addict.

It was Adam’s wish that someone would share his story with the world if he were killed in action. He wanted to be sure that his story would include (along with his heroic actions and successes) his multiple failures and his battle with addiction.

Adam was a pleasant young man who always respected his elders and would go out of his way to help other kids his age who were being bullied, even though he was on the small side. He was a nearly straight-A student in high school and a star player on his Hot Springs, Arkansas, champion football team. As one of his coaches said, “Brown wasn’t the biggest player, but he always had the most heart.”

He was a “please and thank you, yes sir, no sir” kind of adolescent that his parents could trust not to get too out of control while others his age were out doing stupid things that could have gotten them hurt or in trouble the law. That’s not to say Adam was quiet and reserved. His peers said he could be a “madman.” The climax of his daredevil days as a youth in Hot Springs was when he jumped out of the back of a moving truck as it sped across a bridge. Adam fell about 50 feet until he hit the dark river below. He mimicked a scene from the Charlie Sheen movie, “Navy SEALs.” Adam Brown, much unlike the rest of us, had no fear.

Down the Wrong Path

Sometime after beginning college, he became re-acquainted with an old girlfriend, Cindy, who had since gone on to develop an unfortunate drug habit. Adam, who up until that time counted southern whiskey as his strongest inebriant, through the prodding of his girlfriend, agreed to try crack cocaine. He later recounted that one time was all it took to get him hooked. Before long, it was all he wanted and all he could think about. He dropped out of college and spent all his time hanging out in crack houses with his newfound loves.

After a while of being high all day, every day, he switched from smoking the drug to injecting it directly into his veins. He began to add meth to the mix. When he attempted to quit, he would tell those trying to help him that the drug “called to him.” For the longest time, he could not, or would not, resist the call.

Rock Bottom

Then, as all addicts eventually do, he hits bottom. Cindy, his constant companion, left him. He became so discouraged that one New Year’s Eve, high out of his mind on crack, he began repeatedly stabbing himself in the neck with a knife. Finally, a friend found him passed out in a pool of his own blood and called 911. The police arrived along with emergency personnel and discovered that Adam had active felony warrants for his arrest due to drug-related charges. Before long, he was in jail, facing 11 felony charges. One was for the theft of a handgun.

Previously his father would bail him out and pay hefty fines when Adam wound up in jail. Not this time. He was left to face up to what he had become. During his hearing, the judge must have seen something positive in young Adam because he let him choose between a jail sentence or a year-long stint in drug rehab at a highly regimented Christian-based drug treatment program by the name of Teen Challenge. Adam decided against going to jail. At the program, he had a spiritual awakening that would last the remainder of his days. He turned his life over to God and asked Him to point to the path he was supposed to take.

After he finished his year at Teen Challenge (despite the name Adam was now in his early 20s), he met a beautiful young woman who would eventually become his wife. Her name was Kelley Trippy. Kelley shared Adam’s strong Christian beliefs, and their time together was bliss for a while. However, she had known about his past and always kept it in the back of her mind. One day it was moved to the front when Adam didn’t show up for a date. Adam had never been late before. Kelley began looking for Adam and found him, foul smelling and disheveled, sitting on the floor in a local crack house.

Adam and Kelley. Image courtesy of Pinterest.

Adam promised never to do it again….but he did…over and over. Finally, Brown needed direction, and it was fast, or Kelley vowed to leave him for good. His search for direction led him to a US Navy recruiting office. The father of one of Brown’s very best friends growing up was a high-ranking Naval officer. His buddy was going into the Navy as an aviator, so Adam thought he might also give the Navy a shot.

A Fortunate Navy Connection

Everything at the recruiter’s office went well until they got to the part of the interview where Adam was asked if he ever did drugs and if he had ever been arrested. Brown was very candid with the recruiter, who was taken aback and asked him if this was some joke. Surely a recovering crack addict who had been arrested on 11 felony charges didn’t think the Navy would accept him.

The story would have ended there, but Adam noticed a photo of his childhood friend’s father hanging in the office. It turns out he was the highest-ranking officer in that recruiting district. Brown pointed to the picture, “Give him a call; he’ll vouch for me.” After a lot of convincing, the recruiter grudgingly made the call. The officer, remembering the well-mannered, level-headed Brown of his youth, said he would vouch for him. “Treat him as if he were my own son,” he said. The required waivers were signed, and Adam Brown was in the Navy.

Adam and Kelley were secretly married in a civil ceremony before he left for boot camp. He was allowed to report with only the clothes on his back and five dollars cash. Kelley wouldn’t let him take the cash because she felt he might be tempted to look for drugs if he had money.

Not being the kind to want to be stuck on a ship out to sea for months at a time, Brown looked for a more adventurous assignment. He thought about a movie he watched in high school, Navy SEALs, and said, “I’ll do that.” From then on, Adam Brown achieved almost everything he put his mind to. He was one of the few to remain in the SEAL candidate training that ran concurrently with his boot camp.

He was accepted into BUD/S and completed the tortuous training and Hell Week with no trouble. In the dive phase of his SEAL training, he found problems he couldn’t immediately overcome, so he was recycled into the next class. He made it past the dive phase with no issues on the second go around.

Always Cut Away From Yourself

He was assigned to SEAL Team FOUR at Naval Amphibious Base Little Creek, right outside Virginia Beach. This is where he earned the nickname “Blade.” Immediately before a training mission, he used his knife to cut away a zip tie binding some gear together. He pulled towards himself with all his might; the zip tie gave way, and the blade stuck him right between the eyes. Bleeding profusely and most definitely in need of medical attention, the new SEAL covered his wound with a cloth and insisted he was fine and that there was no need to hold up the mission. Hours later, after participating fully in the successful training mission, Brown was taken to the Emergency Room due to his lost blood volume. He received a few stitches. Adam Brown never was one to put his own needs before that of the mission. Ever. His superiors realized this, and he was always considered to be at the top of the heap when evaluations of new SEALs were performed.

Brown certainly had his share of obstacles to overcome. One of them was just plain bad luck. During a room-clearing exercise when his Team was using simulation rounds tipped with red paint, one of the rounds impacted Adam’s face and caught him right in the corner of the eye just as he turned his head. Unfortunately, it completely missed his safety glasses. Despite numerous surgeries, his mangled eye eventually had to be removed.

This might be tough for some of you to look at, but buck up; it wasn’t you that was shot in the eye. Look closely, and you’ll see that on the prosthetic is the mascot of the Arkansas Razorbacks, Adam’s favorite football team. The man even handled the loss of an eye with a smile on his face—an image courtesy of Twitter.

With this type of injury, he could have chosen to ask for a medical discharge, where he would have received money from the government for the rest of his life. Did he choose that road? Hell no, Adam Brown instead applied to SEAL sniper school. Keep in mind this was his dominant eye that he lost. He now had to retrain himself to shoot left-handed using his off-eye. In a school where everyone else has two eyes and half still washed out, one-eyed Adam Brown not only passed but ended up second in his class.

Some of the instructors for the East coast based SEAL Teams were members of DEVGRU, better known as SEAL Team Six (or just STS). One of these elite Operators was to become Adam’s mentor. Always wanting to push himself further, Adam decided that he too wanted to be a DEVGRU Operator. Why? Because they are the best of the best, joining their ranks would be a huge challenge.

Adam applied for and was eventually granted a training spot at Green Team (the DEVGRU selection process). However, there was one issue; at this point, Brown was still undergoing procedures on his eye to regain some vision. Because of this, his superiors wanted him to wait a year before joining Green Team. In the meantime, Adam was deployed to Afghanistan.

While in Afghanistan, he was involved in a freak accident when two US military convoys, traveling in different directions at a high rate of speed on a narrow road, collided with one another. There was a ton of dust being kicked up in both directions. This disoriented one of the drivers who accidentally clipped the front end of the Humvee in which Adam was riding. Brown had his right hand on the window frame at the time, and as his vehicle rolled over three times, it smashed his fingers, leaving them hanging on by only a few tendons. Ignoring his injuries, he helped tend to others injured more seriously than he was. His fingers, now wrapped in a lump of bloody gauze, insisted on pulling security until every other man was aboard the CASEVAC helicopter.

He called Kelley and casually told her he had an accident and would be coming home a bit early. After a flight to Germany for emergency surgery, he was on his way back to Little Creek. When it came time for more surgery, Adam insisted on a local anesthetic so he could remain awake and watch the entire procedure.

During the healing process. Image courtesy of Quora.

This was in December 2006, and Green Team was scheduled to begin in June. Now both his dominant eye and his dominant hand were messed up. A month after surgery, Adam started to retrain himself to fire both his carbine and his pistol with his left hand. Adam’s biggest concern at this point was how he would handle CQB (Close Quarters Battle) drills, where lightning-fast reactions are needed to successfully clear rooms and react to threats.

The Green Team instructors understandably had great skepticism about whether a man with one eye and recently surgically reattached fingers (on his dominant hand, no less) could pass a course where only the top 2% of SEALs were accepted and half of them failed. In addition, there was concern that Brown might pose a safety hazard because so much live ammunition was used in training. Still, after reviewing his exemplary record once more, the leaders of DEVGRU decided to give him a chance.

To compensate for his diminished peripheral vision due to his missing right eye, Adam had to “keep his head on a swivel” and constantly move it from side to side. Even though his right hand had been crushed and his fingers reattached only months earlier, Brown shot flawlessly.

Adam Brown had accomplished what nearly everyone thought was impossible; he passed Green Team and became a DEVGRU Operator. He was shortly after that assigned to the Gold Squadron (one of DEVGRU’s four assault squadrons), nicknamed the Knights.

Members of the Gold Squadron display their unit flag. Their military working dog, front and center, also made it to the top of the mountain—an image courtesy of Quora.

On February 5th, 2010, Chief Special Warfare Operator Adam Brown celebrated his 36th birthday at home with his wife and two elementary school-aged kids (Nathan and Savannah), enjoying his favorite birthday cake flavor, cookies and cream. The children were excited to give their daddy his present, and Adam unwrapped it carefully. He smiled broadly when he opened the box to see an adult-sized pair of Batman underwear. Their dad was their superhero, and this was their way of proving that to him. “I love them!” he exclaimed. Then, he took a knee so he could get down to their level, and he made a promise to his children.

“I promise these are going to be my undercover underwear. I’m going to wear them on every op I go on”.

He lowered his voice to a dramatic whisper and continued, “Nobody will ever know of my superhero capabilities.” Overhearing this, Kelley called him a dork, and the kids cracked up laughing.

February 26th was Adam’s day to report for his deployment to Afghanistan. Early that evening, the family shared dinner at Chili’s. Immediately after dinner, it was off to the base, where they would say their goodbyes. Leaving your wife and children, knowing there is a fair chance you will never see them again, is an unspeakable mixture of sadness and pain. The kids tried to be brave, but inevitably the tears started streaming down their little faces. Finally, Adam turned to his 10-year-old son and told him, “This is the last time, buddy, last time.” He picked up his daughter, gave her a big hug, and told her, “Bye, little baby; it’s all fine.” Then, putting Savannah down, he turned to Kelley, “You come home,” she said. “I promise,” Adam replied. They shared a final kiss, and Kelley felt strongly compelled to have the gate guard snap a quick family photo. It is shown below.

The final Brown family photo. Image from Pinterest

Late in the afternoon of March 17th, Chief Brown attended that evening’s mission briefing. It was a typical DEVGRU mission, a high-value target in an extremely dangerous remote environment. The mission aimed to kill or capture a high-ranking Taliban leader code-named Objective Lake James. James and his men had been responsible for the deaths of several American soldiers who manned a nearby Forward Operating Base.

While in the meeting, Kelley tried to contact Adam via Skype. “Hi, Sweetie,” she wrote. She waited for a while for a reply, but there was none. Unfortunately, this was not uncommon, as Adam and his Team remained quite busy. So Kelley went about her business.

When night fell, Adam and his fellow SEALs boarded MH-47 Chinook helicopters operated by the Army’s 160th SOAR for their commute to work. The mountains of the Hindu Kush can be pretty treacherous, and it wasn’t a surprise to the Operators when they heard the choppers would not be able to land. Instead, the SEALs would have to fast rope in and walk a few kilometers to their accurate intel told them they were holed up in a small village.

After reaching the village, everything went according to the book until a Taliban sentry must have heard a noise that caused him to raise his weapon and place his finger on the trigger. Feeling he was about to be fired upon, a SEAL only thirty feet away from the enemy soldier took him out with a suppressed weapon. Then, seeing the man next to him suddenly drop dead, another Taliban sentry began spraying bullets into the darkness. The fight was on.

Before long, the SEALs found the building that recent intel told them housed Objective Lake James. Shots were coming from one of the structure’s windows, but no one could tell immediately precisely where they were coming from. Adam caught a glimpse of the shooter and relayed that info back to his Team. Wanting to eliminate the threat as soon as possible, a fellow SEAL asked over the radio, “Can anyone get a grenade in there?”. “I got it,” came the reply from Adam Brown. Adam could always be counted on to step up and take care of business. The window was beyond throwing distance, so Adam decided a 40 mm grenade launcher was in order.

Unfortunately, positioning himself to get the grenade to its intended target meant he would have to leave his cover position. Only 10 minutes had passed since the assault began. As he moved forward to get a good angle, shots rang out from his left flank. Adam cried out in pain. He had been shot through both legs. Adam gestured to where he heard the images and told his teammates, “They’re over there.” Again, he winced in pain, pointing towards a barn. “In there.” Realizing they were spotted, the men in the barn rained down bullets in Adam’s direction. He was hit several times on his left side. Some rounds made their way between the plates of Adam’s body armor. Only then he conveyed to his Team the code word signifying that an American was down. Two of Adam’s brothers rushed to his aid, one being shot through the wrist. Once they got to his position, they lifted their badly wounded Teammate, all 250 pounds of him, including his gear and weapons, and dragged him to safety.

A Corpsman was summoned, and he found Adam bleeding profusely. He had been shot multiple times under his left arm and through his abdomen. Surveying him for other possible wounds, the Corpsman cut off Adam’s pants. His Teammates stopped in their tracks for a second; there they were, the Batman underwear his kids had bought him for his birthday, in place just as promised. By this time, two fellow SEALs were keeping pressure on Adam’s wounds the best they could. “Hang in there, buddy!” they implored. “I’m okay, I’m okay,” Adam replied as he closed his eyes. Adam Brown had died.

Chief Special Warfare Operator Adam Lee Brown was buried in Cunningham Cemetery in Garland County in his beloved Arkansas. Kelley and the children moved back to Hot Springs, and the kids were enrolled in Lake Hamilton Elementary School, walking the same hallways Adam did when he was a child, according to his final wishes.

A few weeks after settling into their new home in Hot Springs, Kelley was up at night unable to sleep. So she began looking through a box of old papers when she spotted something she had never seen before. It had been handwritten by Adam at least nine years earlier.

He wrote:

I’m lying here about to sleep, and all I can think about is how awesome my life is with you and Nathan, and I was thinking, what if something happened to me this week and you never really knew how much I love you, and how I love being married to you, how much I love my life and how awesome it is to be NaNa’s father. You are the greatest, purest, sweetest, and most beautiful woman I have ever met, much less I get to be your husband…Nathan holds a place in my heart that is unexplainable and that I did not know existed until he came into our lives…May he always know that the greatest man on Earth is Jesus Christ, may we always show him that. I am so blessed; it makes my blood burn with a completeness and happiness I have never had. You are so precious. Although I miss you so deeply, the Word says, ‘This is the day the Lord made; let us rejoice and be glad’…
With Love Through Eternity,
Adam

A final farewell to an American hero. Image courtesy of Quora.

Postscript

This is Adam and Kelley’s daughter, Savannah, at her 2020 graduation. With the help of the Special Operations Warrior Foundation, she’s attending the University of Arkansas. He would be so proud.

Savannah Brown in 2020. Image courtesy of Twitter and Special Operations Warrior Foundation.

In other news, Jason Hall, the Oscar-nominated screenwriter of American Sniper, has signed on to write the screenplay for a film based on Adam Brown’s life. It will be an adaptation of Eric Blehm’s bestselling book, Fearless. Andrew Erwin is set to direct.

SOFREP Interview with Army Ranger, Vetrepreneur and Author Dan Blakeley

“Your past never forgets you.” – Dan Blakeley

The first thing that struck me about Dan is that he’s incredibly easy to talk to. Some special operations guys have a reputation for being a little standoffish or having a larger-than-life ego, not Dan. Yet, he endured some of the most demanding military training there is to become a member of the 2nd Battalion of the 75th Ranger Regiment, part of the US Special Operations Forces (SOF). Dan deployed six times in six years to multiple war zones in support of the Global War on Terror. He’s fought in both Afghanistan and Iraq.

Naturally ambitious, Blakeley joined the Army at the age of 17, right out of high school after graduating a year early. He went straight through basic training, followed by airborne school and the grueling Ranger pipeline, ending up at the 2nd Battalion, where he served from 2006 to 2012, eventually earning the rank of Staff Seargent.

Then, as happens to so many of us, life threw him a curveball; his was during the Army’s Advanced Leader’s course while he was on a group run. Dan started feeling a sharp pain in his chest. Instead of going away, it only got worse. In short order, he found himself in the back of the fall-out van and, later, on his way to the ER. Turns out it wasn’t just indigestion from some bad burritos the night before; the doctors found that Blakeley had a hole in his heart.

There is no scenario where that is going to be good news for anyone, especially a warfighter.

After exiting the Army, he earned a double Master’s at Appalachian State University and went on to found United Valor, an organization that helps veterans by telling their stories in a way that fosters healing and understanding, ultimately aiding their transition back into civilian life. His book is an extension of their efforts.

The Twenty-Year War is available on Amazon and at twentyyearwar.com. Proceeds from sales on twentyyearwar.com go to veteran service organizations that are supported by the authors.

Dan is shown here with his weapon and an American flag. — Dan on one of his multiple deployments, is shown here, weapon at the ready, holding an American flag. Image provided by Dan Blakeley

Hearing how Dan and his fellow authors took the stories of 71 post-9/11 combat veterans and presented them in their own words reminded me of one of the best books I have ever read, The Good War by Studs Terkel. It won the Pulitzer Prize in 1985 for General Non-Fiction and was required reading as part of my course of study as an Army cadet. Briefly, the author interviewed over 100 people worldwide and told their stories of the days immediately before, during, and after World War II. It’s an oral history of the greatest generation. Post 9/11 veterans, in their own way, can be considered to be our nation’s second “greatest generation.”

However, many of their stories have remained untold until now. The Twenty-Year War breaks their silence and allows the reader to become part of their world. In doing so, we understand the individual’s motivation, sacrifice, and ongoing challenges. This becomes both cathartic for the storyteller and enlightening to the reader. I believe it’s destined to be a new American classic.

I hope you enjoy reading the SOFREP interview of Dan Blakeley as much as I did talking with him.

Dan Blakeley stands in front of One World Trade Center in New York City — Dan poses in front of One World Trade Center, a fitting symbol of rebuilding and moving forward after 9/11. Image Credit: Dan Blakeley’s Instagram account

SOFREP: So, how are you doing this morning, Dan?

DB: I’m doing well; how about yourself?

SOFREP: Great, thanks. Could you tell us a little bit about your military background?

DB: Sure, I joined straight out of high school; I actually graduated a year early and joined when I was seventeen. Went straight through basic training…everything…airborne school, Ranger indoctrination program…ended up at 2nd Ranger Battalion, which is where I served for six years. From 2006 to 2012. It was kind of during the peak, during the height of both wars; that’s when the two surges happened and everything. So, it was a pretty high optempo at the time.

I served there up until I was a squad leader, a Staff Sergent, operated on the line, and then got out because I had some medical issues. My heart kinda started failing on me (laughs). I guess too much stress or something. I ended up deciding to go to college, and while I was in college, I also stayed in the North Carolina National Guard for two more years, teaching OCS [Officer Candidate School] through the National Guard, so I was an OCS instructor for two years.

SOFREP: I was reading your book, and I really enjoyed it because it was broken down into bite-sized stories. Seventy-one of them, right?

DB: Uh-huh, yeah.

SOFREP: I was surprised by the story of how you had to fall out of a run with chest pains and then be taken to the hospital, where you found out you had a hole in your heart. Did you suspect anything that serious was wrong with you?

DB: I did not. Honestly, up until that happened, I thought I was relatively invincible. I think a lot of people, especially that serve in special operations, think that they are…until something happens to them. I had every intention to stay in. I was coming up on a reenlistment as well, and I was recently married. Basically, what the doctors told me was that it could be fine; you could be OK for the rest of your life. Or, you could continue to stress your heart, and the hole could get bigger and you would need to have open heart surgery to repair it. I said, “That’s a pretty big ‘maybe.’”

So, I decided to stay in through the rest of my enlistment, I had one more deployment. Once this happened, basically, I told them, “Well, look, I’ve got to really assess whether this is smart for me and my family or not, to stay in.” Me and my wife talked about it, I went on my last deployment, came back, still was having off and on chest pain and ultimately decided it would be best for me not to stress out my body so much. And, it was hard to leave the guys that I served with and the guys that I trained. They were going to be on the same optempo and constantly deploying. So to not be able to be there and fight alongside of them was rough. It was definitely a difficult thing.

SOFREP: And how are you doing now?

DB: I think slowing down, backing off, has definitely made it better. I get chest pains every once in a while, I get checked out annually to make sure nothing is getting worse, but I haven’t had to have a procedure or anything.

SOFREP: So, did you get the idea for your book, The Twenty Year War, because it was coming up on the 20th anniversary of 9/11?

DB: Well, initially, in 2020, I had a lot of time at home, like everybody else, and I took a lot of time to reflect on life in general. I talk about it in the book, but I did not do a good job of staying connected. As soon as I got out of the military, I pushed off everything, didn’t identify as a veteran, most people didn’t know, and I didn’t even try to let people know. But in 2020 I started reflecting and thinking that there has to be countless other people out there who don’t want to tell their story, don’t want to feel connected, for whatever reason, and so I was thinking of ways to try to connect with those types of veterans.

At the same time this is happening, one of my childhood best friends, Beau Simmons, he’s the photographer for the book, was moving across the country to North Carolina to be closer to me. And he had been working on a photo series for Heros and Horses, a veteran non-profit, and he said he wanted to figure out a way to keep doing the same kind of thing. He wanted to give back to the veteran community. He hasn’t served himself, but he has a strong affinity for veterans and people who have served.

We were both talking at my kitchen table and got to thinking about how we could put our heads together and do something for veterans. We figured we’d tell the stories of veterans, do portraits of veterans, as they are today, not in uniform, out of service. He loved the idea. I realized it was the twentieth anniversary of 9/11 and the GWOT [Global War on Terror] and I said we should just lean on that theme and call it The Twenty-Year War. We’d tell stories of only people who had served in the past 20 years, in combat. Lots of time books are written so long after the fact; why don’t we do ours now when we’re right at the tail end of it?

Co-author, fine art photographer, and good friend to Dan Blakeley, Beau Simmons. Image courtesy of Dan Blakeley

DB: After we had the idea to do the book, I got a hold of Tom [co-author Tom Amenta]. We had been in the National Guard together for a year and had become good friends. He had co-founded a company called “Ranger Up” but had recently left and said he was tired of doing veteran projects because it had taken up so much of his time. When I told him this idea [for the book], he as like, “100%, tell me what you need. I’m all for it.”

The first thing I asked him for was his black book; I said, “Give me all your contacts, everybody that you know.”

SOFREP: That answered my next question. I was wondering how you found all of these fascinating people to interview for your book.

DB: We started calling people who would help support this book. About a month into it, I talked to Tom again and asked him if he could help me write these stories…because I needed some help from someone who had some experience. And that’s how he became heavily involved in the writing of the book. To go back to your question about how we got all these specific people….all word of mouth. I contacted my first initial network of people, and they asked how they could help the project, then connected us with two or three more people, and it kind of just organically grew that way.

SOFREP: I wanted to comment on how much Beau’s images contribute to the book. To see portraits of the people behind the stories goes a long way in making them more relatable.

DB: He had been doing fashion photography for a long time, and he decided he wanted to get back into more traditional photography. He shot every single photo in the book on a 1980s camera, all on medium format film.

Photo of a member of the second marine division who shared his story for the book. — Portrait of a member of the 2nd Marine Division who shared his story for the book. Image by Beau Simmons

SOFREP: My favorite quote of yours from the book is where you note, “Your past never forgets you.” Everyone deals with their past in their own way, and that comes out in the stories.

DB: Yep, we had a guy in the book, Roy…he could not open the book for months. He gave it to all his family and friends and let them read it, and they had no trouble with it, but he couldn’t bring himself to read it since it’s a piece of his story of how he lost one of his guys overseas. We left the details out, per his request. But, over a decade after he retired, out of pure luck, or chance, or whatever you call it, got connected to the guy’s father once he got back, and his photos in the book are of them at his friend’s grave. Roy’s past found him. It took him months to open it…he finally opened it (maybe five or six months after the book was released), then he called me and said, “I can’t thank you enough for doing this. For kind of forcing me to be able to read these stories because it’s important.”

And that right there was enough for me to write a book like this. I have countless other examples, but that one really struck me.

SOFREP: Your book is helping a lot of people heal, not just the veterans portrayed in the book but other veterans who read it as well.

DB: And that’s what I hope it does, and I hope it continues to do. We struck when the iron was hot, right at the end of the twenty-year war, and of course, that’s the title of the book. People are still buying it. Once people have learned of the book, they understand the impact it can carry.

SOFREP: Dan, we thank you for your service, for writing this wonderful book, and for taking the time to talk with us today.

US Exclusive: SOFREP Interviews ROK/US Navy SEAL Ken Rhee About His Recent Deployment to Ukraine

I think if I had to do it all over again and I got to choose, I’d be Ken Rhee.

He pretty much checks all of the boxes for being a 21st-century badass superhero, except being able to take flight under his own power. And rumor is, he’s working on that one.

Rhee in Ukraine taking a brief break in the action for a photo op. Photo courtesy of Ken Rhee

While preparing for my interview with Ken, I quickly discovered that he’s a massive celebrity in South Korea, where he was born. His YouTube channel, ROKSEAL, has almost 800 thousand followers. In a recent interview with Korea Now, the host described him as “The most famous personality in South Korea.” Damn, I thought, “Who is this guy, and what has he done?”

I was asked to interview him because he recently returned from a deployment to Ukraine with the International Legion.

This is a screenshot from an age-restricted YouTube video. If I had posted the actual video, all you would have seen is a big gray block with the word “age-restricted” on it. I’ll add the link below. Ken is on the left, and his buddy driving the car has a head laceration (don’t worry, it was superficial, he’s fine). They are leaving a building in Ukraine where they were taking accurate artillery fire. Video courtesy of YouTube and ROKSEAL.

If you haven’t already heard of Ken Rhee, I figured I’d start your introduction to him the same way I received mine; through this YouTube video. Go watch the first couple of minutes of it; I’ll wait. Oh, just so you know, it contains some blood and NSFW language; viewer beware. Ken would later tell me that’s the closest he’s been to dying. It was one of those situations where if you were over by where you were taking a piss two minutes ago, you’d be dead now. This footage seems to be straight out of an action movie, but I assure you, it’s quite real. To add to the drama and suspense, their vehicle (obviously not military) broke down while they were under small arms fire. Such was the experience of LT Ken Rhee fighting with the International Legion in Ukraine.

But I’ve gotten ahead of myself. Let’s start at the beginning.

Ken was born in South Korea and came to the United States at an early age, where he attended school up to and including graduating from the Virginia Military Institute (VMI). He found out during his application to the US Naval Academy that he was not a US citizen. Can you imagine that? One day finding out suddenly that you were not the American you always considered yourself to be? His parents explained to him that since he was born in South Korea and they had never applied for US citizenship for him, he was South Korean.

“Fine,” he thought. He had always wanted to join the Navy; now, he’d be joining the South Korean (the Republic of Korea, or ROK) Navy. In 2007 he did just that, was commissioned as an officer, and became a ROK Navy SEAL. After multiple deployments for the ROK, he had the opportunity to attend BUD/S in the US Navy, where he was a member of class 294. Following BUD/S, he attended SQT and was awarded his trident. To my knowledge, he’s the only man to have ever completed both grueling SEAL programs. A true international badass.

I hope you enjoy reading the SOFREP interview with LT Rhee as much as I did talking with him.

Rhee and his team in Ukraine. Image Credit: LT Ken Rhee

SOFREP: Some of our readers watched your latest video where you were in Ukraine, and the driver of your vehicle had a nasty-looking head laceration.

LT Rhee: Yeah, he cracked his head open pretty good.

SOFREP: Was he alright?

LT: Rhee: Yeah, he was maybe out of it for maybe two, three weeks. He got surgery, but then he was back in the game after that…so it wasn’t too bad.

SOFREP: They [the readers] wondered how bad that guy was injured; some didn’t realize that superficial head wounds tend to bleed that much. Once he realized he was OK, he wanted a souvenir pic of it.

LT Rhee: (laughs) I think he was pretty out of it; he had a concussion.

SOFREP: You grew up in the States, right?

LT Rhee: I did. So, I was born in South Korea, but I grew up in the States. Elementary school, Junior High School, High School…all the way to college. I went to VMI, Virginia Military Institute.

SOFREP: I understand that after you graduated, you went back to Korea.

LT Rhee: After I graduated from VMI, I went back to Korea, joined the Navy, went through officer candidate school (OCS), got commissioned, and became a Korean SEAL. Then I did a couple of deployments in Somalia. Then after these deployments, I had an opportunity to go to US SEAL training…US BUD/S…I applied for that and did that. I think it was about two weeks before graduation, the commander of BCT at the time, he came up to me and said I was hand-selected for SQT, which is SEAL Qualification Training. So I actually got to go through the entire SEAL pipeline. BUD/S, the junior officer training course, and SQT. It was pretty much a two-year pipeline…I got pinned, then I came back to Korea.

SOFREP: So you were actually a member of the US military and Korean military concurrently?

LT Rhee: Yeah, in a way. So I got to go through Korean SEAL training and US SEAL training. So, I have two tridents.

SOFREP: You’re probably the only one. I’m not aware of anyone else who’s done that.

LT Rhee: Yeah, I believe that I’m the only foreign officer that was able to able to go to SQT, not just the only foreign officer, but the only foreigner, enlisted or officer, I was the only one who was able to go to SQT.

SOFREP: Did you ever deploy with the US SEALS?

LT Rhee: No… uh, actually, in a way, I did in Ukraine because there were a few team guys there…US team guys.

SOFREP: I remember hearing in the interview after the combat footage on the YouTube video that your government, the South Korean government, wasn’t letting people go to Ukraine.

LT: Rhee: That’s correct; it’s against the law to go to Ukraine.

SOFREP: Has anyone come after you for that once you got back?

LT Rhee: (smiles) Oh, yeah, I had 15 cops waiting for me. So, we landed and were taxiing to the door. Before the door opened, there was an announcement that everyone on the plane had to stay seated; no one could get up. Once the door opened, all these dudes started pouring into the plane. They came up to my seat, showed me their badge, and said, “It’s time to go.” I counted them and thought, “you sent 15 suits after me; I wasn’t going to make a run for it.” (laughing). But they didn’t put handcuffs on me. They questioned me and told me that because we still have COVID restrictions in Korea, I’d have to be self-isolated for a week, and I would get my investigation after that.

SOFREP: And you had a torn ACL at the time, so you really weren’t going anywhere. How’s that doing now?

LT Rhee: I was first diagnosed at the Ukrainian military hospital, and they said it was ACL tears and I got checked in Korea when I got back, and my Korean doctors are saying that I tore my meniscus…in both of my knees. So, I’m going to go through surgery in mid-July, and fortunately, it’s not going to be a very big surgery; they’re 100% that I’ll get better, back to my feet within a few months. That was ultimately the reason I ended up leaving the country and coming back to Korea.

SOFREP: How was the medical care you received in Ukraine?

LT Rhee: In Ukraine, especially on the front lines, there aren’t any adequate hospitals. Even on operations, there’s pretty much no MEDEVAC or CASEVAC plan…so, medically, it’s really tough out there. The biggest military hospital would be in Kyiv; even in that hospital, I noticed that their operating rooms aren’t very sanitary because there are so many operations being conducted there. Obviously, they’ve been overloaded because of the war. It’s a tough situation.

SOFREP: So, how long were you in country?

LT Rhee: I was in country for approximately three months.

SOFREP: Do you plan on going back after your knee rehab?

LT Rhee: Yeah, that’s the plan. After my whole situation in Korea, I’m not sure how that’s going to work. I’m going to try to request permission now that we have a new President and a new administration…the atmosphere is a lot different now. We’ll see. I can’t be certain for now, but personally, yes, I’d like to go back. I have my teammates…I talked to one of them today; he’s a former agency guy and a former Green Beret, and he’s like, “you need to come back out here, you know,” and I’m like, yeah, man, I miss it. (smiling broadly) I do want to go back. So, we’ll see what happens.

SOFREP: From our end, we’re hearing that the Russians are pretty jacked up, there are morale issues, resupply issues, and troops are abandoning their posts and refusing to go back. Nothing seems to be happening to them as a result. Have you seen this?

LT Rhee: Well, morale is definitely bad, and I saw that first hand. I’ve worked with the Ukrainian Navy SEALS, the 73rd Center, and on the last operation where we were working together, they caught a few Russians. And what Russians are telling us, the prisoners, they were saying that a lot of them are deserting and there’s a full-scale operation with the Russians trying to find their own deserters (laughs) So, that’s how bad it is. In terms of equipment and weapons, they definitely have good weapons out there, but they also have the sh*tty side as well. Because Russia is so big, and their military is so huge, you’ll see both sides.

I remember being told before going to Ukraine people were telling me, “Oh, their training isn’t very good, their technology sucks,” and whatever, but when I got there, I’ve seen some good fighters. I’ve s en some good planning on their part as well, and I saw the part they weren’t very good at. But, for the most part, I think their strategy has definitely changed after losing Kyiv, Bucha, and Irpin. So, they definitely brought in new officers to change up their strategy, to change up their tactics…and it’s getting tough now.

SOFREP: Why do you think they have retreated to the eastern part of the country to regroup instead of trying to take everything at once?

LT Rhee: Yeah, they realized it was just too tough…they did a lot of cowboy sh*t at the beginning of the war, and they got all the way to the outskirts of Kyiv and were almost successful at it, too; that’s the scary thing. But I think they realized that the Ukrainian fighting spirit it’s strong. So the thought, “We can’t do this; we’re just stretched too thin.” So they pulled back, concentrated most of their forces in the east, and in the south, near the Black Sea, and they definitely changed up their strategies because they were taking a lot of losses.

On the Ukrainian side, especially the US…the international community, they’re coming together…they’re helping the war effort. You’ve got the International Legion like I was part of; you have advisors like me going in there and working with the Ukrainian Special Forces. So, I think it’s really pissing off the Russians. But I don’t believe the Russians will be successful in taking over the country, that’s for sure. I think they’re going to have a tough time even gaining more ground…but we’ll see. What I m worried about is that people are starting to forget about what is going on right now…the war is dragging out; it’s going on for a while, and people are not interested in the war anymore, which could result in the international community not helping as much. But, at the same time, the Ukrainians, they are losing soldiers. They have about 200 soldiers dying each day, so if their numbers are going down and people are not interested in the war, then that might be catastrophic in the future.

So, I’m what I’m trying to do out here in Korea is let people know that there’s still a lot of fighting going on. Ukrainians, they still need all the help they can get. The international community needs to support the war effort, so that’s one of the things I’m trying to do.

SOFREP: Do you think the international aid is being put to good use? All the weaponry that has been sent?

LT Rhee: Oh, yeah. It’s helping tremendously. My unit got to use the Javelins that were sent over. I know the howitzers they were coming over as I was doing my last operation, and they’re helping a lot. I mean, it’s actually changing the tide of the war. So, I hope that they continue to go to Ukraine, and it’s not just the Javelins or the howitzers…I know switchblades went in as well. I was just talking to my former teammates who utilizes switchblades very well, and they were able to get a lot of good kills with them.

So hopefully that kind of support…you know the humanitarian support is very important as well, the water, the food, the MREs and all that stuff, but the main [thing] would be the weapons, and I hope that doesn’t stop, especially from the US because they can’t send troops over officially, so, what can they do? Continue with the arms. That’s gonna really change the tide of war.

I’m really grateful to the US as well; most of the International Legion are Americans most of my teammates were Americans, so the US definitely has a foothold in Ukraine; it’s pretty crazy. I think most of the Legionnaires are American or British.

SOFREP: We really don’t hear a lot in the mainstream media about individual US citizens getting involved in the fighting. You’ll hear about the occasional SF guy taking early retirement, and then a few weeks later, he is on a plane to Ukraine, but that’s about it.

LT Rhee: Oh, yeah, there are guys like that. You’ve got a whole bunch of guys. You’ve got guys from the 75th Ranger Regiment, from the SF Groups, from the SEAL teams, from JSOC, from the Agency…It’s the same with the British side as well, SAS guys, paratroopers, good bunch of guys.

LT Rhee’s team taking out some bad guys. Image Credit: LT Ken Rhee

Everyone here at SOFREP thanks LT Rhee for taking the time to talk with us about his experiences in Ukraine. We wish him the best with this surgery and hope that he realizes his wish to get back out there in the action again.

You can keep track of him on his Instagram account here.

DELTA Force Doc – Can You Save The Hand?

He ought to be screaming in pain

After two years of working at Fort Bragg, NC, as a Clinic Director, I was approached by the secret DELTA Force organization. They asked me to apply for the job of the unit’s Command Surgeon. “Surgeon” is a military title given to physicians of any specialty when assigned to a medical command and staff position in the military. As a family physician, I was invited to become the senior medical advisor to the commander.

I was recruited in part because of my past special operations experience as a Navy SEAL. I accepted the position and reported to the Deputy Commander’s office for my initial brief.
“Doc,” pronounced the intent colonel. “I’ve done the job of every officer on my staff, except yours. I can never do your job, but I consider it essential to our command’s success. I want you to provide the best medical care in the military to my staff and their families. I’ll expect you to ask for what you need to accomplish this, and when you ask me, I will approve it every time. I’m not qualified to argue with you, so if you say we need it, you’ll get it.”

That promise was never broken. Our clinic building was expanded and renamed in honor of unit medics killed in combat. Then we opened the doors to family members. We added a dental clinic, provided obstetrics care, and began delivering the children of unit moms. I delivered forty-four babies for these families. When I return now for reunion gatherings, there is always a mom or dad that regales me with stories of their children that I delivered. Good times.

Challenging patients frequently presented themselves because of the constant training with live weapons, explosive ordinance, parachuting, and aviation operations.
“Eagle down,” came the message to my secure phone. “There has been an accident in the field with an explosive injury to a hand. He’s en route to the hospital now,” finished the voice on my secure phone.
“Roger that. I’m on my way. Give me his name, please.” The name was passed, and as many times before, I drove above the speed limit to the emergency room. I arrived soon after the casualty did and was met by the nurse, who expected me.
“Hello, Doctor Adams,” she breathed. “Your patient is in room three. He may have lost his hand.”

“Thank you,” I replied. “How is he doing?”

“Sir, I have to be honest with you. He ought to be screaming in pain. His hand is almost completely gone! But he is just looking at it, while we clean it, and asking if we can save it. Who is this man?” She finished in awe.
He’s the definition of someone special. “He’s made of different stuff,” I replied.

When I got to the room, he was looking at his hand. Most of the soft tissue was gone. The bones of his fingers were mostly there, but he could not move them. There were burned edges of flesh visible down to the wrist area. I had been briefed en route, by the medic on the scene, that the squad was conducting simulated combat building clearance operations. He had pulled the pin on a flash-bang grenade to throw forward. Instead of the standard three-second delay, it had detonated instantly in his hand. A flashbang grenade produces a brilliant, eye-blinding flash of light and heat, with a loud explosive noise, but does not produce shrapnel. It is used to disorient attackers before entering a room.
The orthopedic hand surgeon arrived almost immediately after we called him. He took a careful look and directed us to move to the operating room. He would be better able to determine the extent of the injury with the patient under anesthesia. Our patient insisted on a local nerve block so he could listen and watch. Who were these men, and where do we get them?
A few months later, after they had fitted him with a new functional artificial hand, he came to me and requested to be medically cleared to freefall parachute again.

Where do these men come from?

The next week the same orthopedic medical team was back in the operating room. During building assault training, a rope rappelling rig had failed, and my new patient had slid down a four-story building. He had landed feet first onto the ground and performed the best parachute landing fall he could. His feet took the brunt of the fall, absorbing the impact of full body weight, weapon, and backpack. He had broken almost every bone in his two feet. We were passing stainless steel wires from the tip of each toe back towards the heel as we manually pushed bone fragments back in line.

“Bob, I hate to hang black crepe here,” stated the concerned surgeon. “These wires pass through the smooth cartilage of every joint in his toes and feet, and this creates a type of joint arthritis that will probably make it impossible to run again. Walking will be painful for a long time.”

“Thanks, Kurt,” I replied, concerned. “I’ll let the boss know.”
That afternoon, after seeing our patient tucked in and stable, I went back to the unit and passed the same prognostic information to the commander.
“Really, Doc?” he responded. “I know you’re telling me what the book says, but I’ll suggest something different. He’ll be running in six months,” he predicted, smiling.

“You just don’t know yet what these men are made of,” he concluded.
Six months later, I watched him run by the clinic and wave.

Dr. Bob Adams is a graduate of the Naval Academy and then BUDs and becoming a Navy SEAL. Then, off to medical school to become a physician as a civilian again. Bob joined the Army as a doctor and became the Delta Force Command Surgeon. He retired as a Colonel in the Army. Doctor Bob has written several books, including, Sword and Saints and an autobiography of his time in both the Navy and the Army.

Army-Navy Game 2021, Keys to the Game And Key Matchups

The college football season can’t begin the bowl season and playoff without first the traditional Army-Navy game. This year is set for December 11 and will be held at MetLife Stadium with a CBS broadcast starting at 3 p.m. eastern time.

One of the oldest rivalries in college football, the two service academies will meet for the 122nd time, with the Naval Academy holding the edge 61-53-7. It is a streaky rivalry; the Navy won 14 in a row, many by a wide margin from 2002-2015. However, Army has won 4 of the last 5 contests, including a 15-0 shutout last year at West Point.

Army (8-3) – has already clinched its second straight Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy, a three-way competition between Army, Navy, and Air Force. Navy lost to Air Force 23-3 in September. The Black Knights then beat Air Force in O.T. in November.

This Black Knights team is one of the best that Jeff Monken has fielded at West Point. They are a Top 20 scoring team and a Top 20 defense. Army averages 301.2 yards per game and over 5 yards per rush with their ground game.

Navy (3-8) – will miss a bowl game for the second year in a row under head coach Ken Niumatalolo and their third losing season in four years. The offense, specifically their scoring offense, has been an issue, especially earlier in the season.

While the Midshipmen have a potent running offense of their own averaging 228.7 yards per game, their passing attack has been woeful, totaling only 599 yards on the season. The Navy QBs have attempted 91 passes and completed 44 but have been sacked 29 times.

Every year, the two teams wear customized uniforms just for the game. This year, the Army is honoring Special Forces. They will be wearing the SF crossed arrows around their neck and have a patch of Task Force Dagger and where an Army name tape would go on a camouflage uniform. They’ll have the SF motto “De Oppresso Liber,” as well as the Special Forces crest on the crown of their helmets.

Army’s Special Forces themed football uniforms. US Army Photo

The Navy’s uniform this year will be honoring the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet fighter jet. The Navy’s website says about the uniforms, “Using one of the most famous naval career paths as an inspiration, the 2021 ‘Fly Navy’ uniform highlights classic American symbolism and the most utilized multirole fighter jet in aircraft carrier aviation, the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet… the Super Hornet will remain the backbone of the carrier air wing well into the future.”

Navy’s F-18 themed uniforms. US Navy photo

So, let’s look at some of the key matchups:

When Army Has The Ball – Advantage Army:

The Black Knights running game is their bread and butter, and it all funnels through QB Christian Anderson, a dual-threat QB who is the team’s leading passer and the second leading rusher with 519 yards, an average of 5.9 yards per rush, and six touchdowns. Army’s leading rusher is running back Tyrell Robinson, who has carried the ball 89 times for 582 yards (9.9-yard average), with a long of 87 and three touchdowns. Army has four players with over 400 yards rushing.

The Black Knights throw the ball even less than the Midshipmen do, having only passed 85 times but have nearly double the yardage (1030 yards) with 10 TDs and 3 INTs. Army QBs have only been sacked six times. Their biggest threat in the passing game is Isaiah Dalton, who has caught 18 passes for 384 yards (21.3-yard average) with 3 TDs.

But it comes down to the running game. Neither of these teams is going to air it out; they live or die by the running game. Army’s rushing attack was superb in 2021, rushing for 3313 yards, a 4.9 yard average with 43 rushing touchdowns. If the Navy is going to keep this a game, they have to slow down the Army’s rushing attack.

Army’s rushing attack was #2 in the FBS. US Army photo

That will require a total team effort, but their big guy at stuffing the run is #54, linebacker Diego Fagot. In the past three years, he has 11 tackles for a loss in 2021 and has 34 TFL. The Middies need a huge game from him on Saturday. However, their rush defense has been good, allowing just 131.6 yards per game.

Army has averaged scoring 35.5 points per game, while Navy is allowing 29.6 points per game. If the Knights get anywhere close to that, it may be another long after for Navy.

When Navy Has The Ball – Advantage Army:

The Midshipmen have a good running game of their own, pounding the rock for 229 yards per game. Navy has two good fullbacks who can carry the pile, the chew, and the clock. Isaac Ruoss has carried 157 times for 608 yards (3.9-yard average) with 5 TDs. Carlinos Acie has carried 57 times for 546 yards (9.6-yard average), with two TDs.

Navy’s QB is Tai Lavatai, who has completed 54.5 percent of his passes with 5 TDs and 2 INTs. But he has a penchant for being sacked a lot, as have all of Navy’s QBs. Lavatai has also rushed for 309 yards on 150 rushes (just a 2.1-yard average), with 5 TDs. Navy’s most productive receiver is Chance Warren, with 10 receptions for 157 yards and 3 TDs. He has also been productive in the running game with 242 yards and a score.

The Midshipmen need their big FBs to keep Army’s defense on the field. Army has allowed only 103.7 yards per game on the ground. And like Navy, they have a big run stuffer, junior linebacker Andre Carter II. Carter is a big, athletic 6’7, 250-pound outside linebacker who has played outstanding for the Knights. A year ago, he was playing around 260, but this year, he lost some weight to improve his speed and conditioning. This year, he doesn’t have to come out as much. Carter has logged 15 tackles for loss, 13.5 sacks, 4 forced fumbles, and an interception.

This one, like every year, comes down to who can be more physical, control the tempo and the line of scrimmage, and most importantly, finish drives by running the football. The Army is favored by 7.5 points. The over/under for this one is just 33, and it tends to go with the under every year.

The Navy will be looking to pull a big upset on Army this year. US Navy photo

But this one has a little different vibe to it. Although, as the old saying goes, “you can throw out their records” for this huge rivalry game, Army has a superior unit this year. Look for it to be close for a half and then the Black Knights ground game to eat the Navy up. Army 24-10

This rivalry is unique in that upon graduation, all of the players then join the same team. Some of the Army troops may find themselves in a tough spot somewhere in the world, and a Navy pilot will fly ground support missions for them. That’s where the rivalry may be bitter on the field but is full of respect off of it.

Go Army, Beat Navy.

US Special Forces in Colombia – Storming a Dunkin’ Donuts in Bogota

It was with great interest that I read Brandon Webb’s piece about his travel to Bogota, Colombia. Having spent time there during the heyday of the Medellin/Cali Cartel, I was really interested in how much the city has changed. Bogota is beautiful and huge. I had heard from other SF guys who were there recently or had families there (quite a few SF guys married Colombian women) that since the peace deal with the FARC, tourism has been back and things are much better in Bogota. Yet, back then, Bogota, and Colombia were much more unsafe places. And even a donut could be dangerous…

Colombia wasn’t considered safe for American military troops assigned to either the American Embassy or the Colombian Military Headquarters (CAN). Nevertheless, Bogota, and Colombia overall, was fantastic places.

If memory serves me right, Chico, where Brandon was staying, is only about five minutes from the Zona Rosa. This is a T-shaped area of luxury shops, cafes, and upscale restaurants. The rich and famous Colombians would hang out there. If you were a single guy, that is what Special Forces guys would call “a target-rich environment.”

7th SFG presents its guidon in Colombia — U.S. Army 7th Special Forces Group (Airborne) Soldiers present their unit’s guidon December 7, 2016, during an award ceremony in Florencia, Colombia. A Colombian Army Counter-narcotics Brigade, known as BRCNA, honored the U.S. Special Forces unit with the unit’s “Bandera de Guerra” military medal. (Photo by Staff Sgt. Osvaldo Equite/U.S. Army)

The Rich History of US Special Operations Units in Colombia

Army Special Forces and Navy SEALs made multiple deployments to several areas in the country. They trained counter-insurgency and counter-narcotics troops and performed riverine operations. Delta Force troops did specialized training with select Colombian units. Also, they were part of the task force with DEA, CIA, and Colombians in the hunt for Pablo Escobar. Today, Colombia’s Special Forces are some of the best in the world.

During one such deployment, we had an augmented SF team assigned to the Colombian Army HQ. We were helping facilitate the creation of training packages between the American Embassy, Washington, and the Colombians. It was basically an administrative job and pain in your fourth point of contact. But the good part was that we got to live in Bogota.

Every two SF guys got an apartment, which was a nice perk from the embassy. Nevertheless, due to security concerns and threats against Americans, we had to get picked up each morning in an armored Suburban. Four heavily armed Colombians in a jeep would escort us from the front door of our apartment to the vehicle and follow us to the HQs.

Uniforms were low-key. That black windbreaker over the green dress shirt and no Class A jacket allowed, (those were left in the office). No berets or jump boots either… You get the idea. Although the distance was only five-six miles, due to the horrible traffic, it would take an hour to get there. The MILGRP had some great SF guys assigned there and they were always on top of stuff. My good buddy Wade Chapple was the American liaison officer to the Colombian Lancero School and we got to see one another on occasion.

Ambushed by Donuts in Bogota

One particular morning, there was a bad accident on the route to work. So our drivers and security guys told us that we were going to have to take a different route. No problem, just sit back, read the Miami Herald and shoot the breeze. We were in the left lane of traffic zipping along at a pretty good clip. Then, suddenly, one of the guys spotted a piece of Americana across the road… a Dunkin’ Donuts. Although today there are several Dunkin’ Donuts in Bogota, back then there was only one, which we weren’t aware of.

“Turn left quick!” we yelled at the driver motioning him to pull into DD. He cut in front of a small opening of oncoming traffic and we zipped into the parking lot. We quickly went inside and ordered two boxes of Joe and two dozen donuts for the guys in the office.

Don’t make any mistake, Colombian coffee is the bomb and we had developed an affinity for it that still exists today. In fact, some of the big Colombian coffee producers would come by the Embassy every month and you could send home cases of the stuff that would be delivered to the Embassy mail room and shipped right out to addresses in the states. I had enough stockpiled back home in NC that I had a year’s worth upon returning.

https://i0.wp.com/ccmetropolis.com.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Mesa-de-trabajo-3-copia-6.png?resize=968%2C726&ssl=1 — Dunkin’ Donuts in Bogota, Colombia. Just like home. (ccmetropolis)

Dunkin’ was a taste of home. And although they used Colombian coffee, the donuts had been sorely missed. But in our haste (or stupidity) of having the driver veer off the route, we’d neglected our security guys who were delayed in getting across the same oncoming traffic. And they were pissed.

A Very Unique Direct-Action Operation

Believing something was wrong, or just to make a point, the three heavily armed security guys, entered the restaurant with drawn weapons and demanded to know what was wrong. The people in the Dunkin’ Donuts were aghast. They sat stock still and with mouths wide open. When we told them that nothing was wrong and we just wanted to stop at DDs, the commander of the detail fumed. He told us in no uncertain terms to never f***ing do that again.

“We were ready to come in shooting,” he said, which wasn’t true — they were too well-trained for that. Yet, their entrance had a great effect on the people behind the counter who looked like we they were about to empty their bladders.

We apologized to the detail leader. One of our guys turned to the cashier and asked how much we owed… He just pushed the donuts and coffee across the counter and shook his head. “Nothing, just take it and go,” he replied.

We passed the last few minutes, before arriving at our HQs, in silence. After which point, we all burst out laughing. Our escapade ended up reaching the ears of the MILGRP commander. He commenced with chewing our asses a bit, which was pretty common. He was a Marine Corps pilot and hated SF and the SEALs for our closeness and familiarity. All being on a first-name basis, regardless of rank, nearly gave him a stroke every day.

A Compromise Is Reached

Later that afternoon, our security guys and driver offered a compromise. If we wanted, they’d drop us off at work. And every Friday, they’d go back and pick up a box of Joe and donuts for the crew… Perfect!

Our driver later told us that the cashier remembered him when he went back the next time. And he begged him to not bring the gringos back. “I thought we were all going to get shot because of them… my heart can’t take that stuff,” the cashier had told him!

Many years later I had a similar experience in Mexico City while working security for a film company. Hey, like my favorite coffee company says… “Coffee or Die.”

But that is a story for another day.

‘Brothers of the Cloth’ by George Hand IV – A Fantastic Account of Life in Delta Force

George Hand IV, better known as “Geo,” is among the rare breed of special operators who have served at the very tip of the spear in the United States military. Geo’s book Brothers of the Cloth gives an inside look at life in a Special Mission Unit (SMU), the Army’s Delta Force.

Yet, the book isn’t about Geo, although he is there in all of the short stories he has put together. No, Brothers of the Cloth is about his brothers-in-arms in Delta and life “at the ranch,” as another Delta member once put it.

A Distinguished and Elite Career

Geo spent 20 years in the United States Army, nearly all of it in Special Operations units. He served in the 7th and 1st Special Forces Groups and as an instructor at the Army’s Combat Diver Qualification Course, known as “Scuba School” by SF troops. He then embarked on Selection for Delta Force where he spent the final 10 years of his military career.

His life after the military was as varied and interesting as his service. His civilian life also took him to SOFREP where we got to know one another. In comparing notes we realized that once we were standing within five feet of each other during the retirement of General William Garrison.

George Hand Delta Force — Geo ready to board a Little Bird. (Courtesy of George Hand)

Geo, who is fluent in more than half a dozen languages, is also a master cabinet maker and master photographer. Since his retirement, he has helped get Counter Human Trafficking organizations off the ground in Albuquerque and the Northeast.

Geo’s stories for SOFREP, WE ARE THE MIGHTY, and Sandboxx are a cause to stop what you were doing and read them.

Geo’s service took him — as one can imagine of someone with a 10-year career in Delta — all over the world. From helping chase down Colombian drug cartel kingpins, including Pablo Escobar, to the city of Mogadishu, Somalia, in the immediate aftermath of what later became known as “Black Hawk Down,” to Bosnia where his language proficiency became more of a curse than a blessing, and many places in-between.

Brothers of the Cloth

George Hand Delta Force HALO — Geo conducting a HALO jump over the desert. (Courtesy of George Hand IV)

The focus of the short stories collected in Brothers of the Cloth is Geo’s brothers in Delta.

As always with Geo’s writing, there are moments of hilarity, such as when during a mortar attack in Mogadishu, Geo dove behind what he believed to be cover only to later discover that it was a mosquito net. His friend Sam shined a flashlight on him and said, “Good thinking George… do you feel safe behind this mosquito net that even mosquitos can break through?”

However, other parts of the book are touching as Geo relays the sad passing of members of the Unit. And if it weren’t for Brothers of the Cloth, the story of these men would have been completely unknown to us.

Geo’s tale of Delta Force Selection is classic Geo, complete with a myriad of intriguing characters, humor, and the pain and misery — that one can only imagine — of trudging through the mountains of West “By God” Virginia. There, he met his now life-long friend and Delta legend, retired SGM Pat McNamara, whose videos “Basic Dude Stuff” are must-see on YouTube. But his most compelling character of the many in that chapter has to be the Marlboro Man.

Through all of the book’s short stories, the reader becomes part of the action and is transported right there besides these special operators, as Geo tells the tale from his perspective.

The book also touches on some dark moments of Geo’s own life and the struggles he faced after his military service.

By Almighty God and With Honor

Everyone who knew Geo back in his Delta days has a fond memory of him, for his humor, resourcefulness, and, most of all, humility. Recently, SOFREP Radio recorded a podcast with Geo’s former commander at Delta, Pete Blaber who relayed a great story of Geo while in Bosnia.

If you’ve read any of Geo’s articles, you will have noticed that he finishes them off with the sendoff, “By Almighty God and with honor, geo sends” without capitalizing the first letter of his name.

That is his humility shining through. The lowercase G denotes his respect for one of his departed comrades whose last name also began with a G. That man, Geo says, was the most humble man, and every time he signs his name he thinks of him.

That speaks volumes of that operator and of Geo himself.

Geo is someone we are proud to call a friend.

We can’t recommend Brothers of the Cloth enough. It is a page-turner and a must-have to everyone who enjoys military books. Unsurprisingly, the book’s hardcover edition is already sold out. The softcover edition will soon become available on Amazon. You can keep an eye for it through Geo’s website and we will also notify you once it becomes available. In the meantime, stay tuned for our upcoming SOFREP Radio interview with Geo!

By Almighty God and with honor… buy Brothers of the Cloth… you’ll be glad you did.