SOF

Niger Report Slams Troops’ Complacency, Lack of Training for Ambush

The classified Pentagon investigation concerning the death of four U.S. soldiers in Niger last October during an ambush placed the blame squarely on the unit and listed a list of shortcomings including complacency and a lack of training.

Citing a culture of “excessive risk”, low-level commanders took shortcuts to approve operations — with at least one officer lifting orders from a different mission and pasting them onto the “so-called concept of operations to gain approval,” officials said.

Initially, the mission on Oct. 3, 2017, that ultimately sent the Army Special Forces team, along with Nigerian soldiers, into a deadly ambush, was a planned meeting with local officials. However, the team was redirected to assist in a search for Doundou Chefou, a militant suspected of involvement in the kidnapping of an American aid worker.
Upon returning, the team was later attacked by Islamic State-linked militants in a village near Tongo Tongo, resulting in the deaths of four U.S. soldiers and four Nigerien troops on Oct. 4.
Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing Thursday he has given a 200-page classified summary to Congress.
Mattis acknowledged Thursday there was not one but many problems that led to the American soldiers being ambushed by roughly 50 heavily armed ISIS-affiliated fighters more than six months ago in West Africa.
Mattis said: “I think right now we have found what we believe to be the crux of the problems, not problem but problems that contributed to this. It was not a delegation of authority problem. So, we know immediately how to address and we are doing that right now.”

It doesn’t come as a surprise that the report would come down hard on the unit. Since the Pentagon has changed the narrative on this operation several times since the October ambush.

To read the entire article from Fox News, click here:

Photo courtesy Wikipedia

US Officials Say Both Chlorine and Nerve Agent Found in Syria Attack

The U.S. has proof of a chemical weapons attack from last week’s attack by Syrian forces and with both blood and urine samples from the victims now say that there is no doubt that they were hit with a chemical weapon.

The samples suggested the presence of both chlorine gas and an unnamed nerve agent, two officials said. Typically, such samples are obtained through hospitals and collected by U.S. or foreign intelligence assets on the ground. The officials said they were “confident” in the intelligence, though not 100 percent sure.
The Assad regime is known to have stocks of the nerve agent sarin, and has previously used a mixture of chlorine and sarin in attacks, say U.S. officials.
Officials also said that the U.S. has compiled intelligence from the U.S. and other countries, including images, that indicate the Syrian government was behind the weekend attack.
Activists and aid groups say that dozens died in Saturday’s airborne assault on Douma, the last rebel stronghold in eastern Ghouta, which has been subjected to intensive bombing by Syria’s Russian-backed Assad regime.
Russia and Syria have denied any involvement in the alleged chemical attack.
U.S. officials say the Assad regime has conducted multiple chlorine attacks on rebels during the past six months.

Intelligence officials are presenting their findings to the President which show that the attacks clearly originated from Assad’s forces. In April of 2017, Syrian forces used a mixture of chlorine and sarin in another attack. The US responded with a Tomahawk cruise missile attack on the airbase from which the attack originated from.

To read the entire article from NBC News, click here:

Photo courtesy Wikipedia

Special Operations Forces Selection PT Preparation Week 5, Day 6

It’s Friday, which means our favorite Leg Day at the gym this morning. Let’s get the weekend started off right with some squats and deadlifts. Mix in some lunges and the Weighted Sled Push and capped off with a 4-mile run. Stretch well and ensure you stay hydrated. Finish with a 4-mile run in 32 minutes or less.

Training:

Continue to prep for the UBRR.

3 x Front Squat 20-15-12 reps (lighter weight)

3 x 12 Deadlifts

3 x 10 Barbell Squats

3 x 10 Dumbbell Lunges

3 x Weighted sled push (heavy weight), or Fireman’s Carry

4-mile run

Stretch well after completion

War Story by Jim Morris Is the Definitive Special Forces Book on Vietnam

This book is dedicated to anybody
whoever died for something he
believed in, whether he was right
or not.

The difference between a fairy tale and a war story,
is that a fairy tale starts out with “Once upon a time,” and
a war story starts out with, “This is no shit.”

Before you turn a page in “War Story” and just read that small two-paragraph introduction you are hooked. Morris begins his book with a recurring dream when in a firefight in Vietnam, his left nut was shot off, which actually happened. But in his dream, which he had for years after coming home, he’d be killed in some ugly grotesque way, but one night he finally made it in his dream. He killed the enemy soldier and was finally at peace. As he says in the book, he was finally at peace and could go home now.

Morris’ book is a page-turning, can’t put it down look at one man’s experience in Vietnam while a Green Beret in the 5th Special Forces Group. It is arguably, (here there is no argument) the finest book on Special Forces in Vietnam.

Morris loved Vietnam, the people especially the Montagnard mountain tribesmen who he remained close to even after all of those years. The way he describes the scene upon arriving back in Vietnam is particularly captivating.

“I loved Vietnam more than any other place, for the beauty and strangeness of it. I always had a weird feeling in Vietnam, as though I was in the presence of exotic, occult happenings, as though I had arrived in a place where spirits prowled and sorcerers plucked at strings that controlled natural laws. I felt valid there, as though this were my place and my time and was where I counted. I was happy.

Morris grew up in Oklahoma and wanted to get into Special Forces, little did he know in 1963 when he got into SF that the war in Vietnam would be his calling. Morris served in Vietnam before the big American involvement began and was shocked when he returned to see so many Americans and military bases dominating the countryside.

He served in Special Forces when it was the kiss of death for the careers of the Captains and Majors who stayed for very long. But he found his calling and feared being promoted or else he’d lose his chance to command a Special Forces A-Team any longer.

He loved the ambushes and searching for the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese in the close-quarters battles in the jungle. On Morris’ website, he had an excerpt from his book where he described an ambush with his close friend, Montagnard, Philippe Drouin aka “Cowboy” on one such operation.

“We were all firing. Tracers from the thirty caliber weapons were ricocheting so high I thought the Cong were sending up flares. I fired up one magazine and then another. I kept firing. We all did. I wanted nothing to live out there. I felt nothing, neither elation nor horror, just the cold astringent calm.

I fired up five magazines before I stopped. Then everybody stopped and I called out, “Cowboy, let’s check out the stiffs.”

We got up and moved onto the trail. The bodies were lying to the left, to the right, on the trail, cut down running. I fired a round in the ground beside each man to see if he would move. None did. Cowboy moved beside me, covering.

When we came to the last one I moved in on him and he raised up, his arms extended, eyes wide. I said, “Good, we got a pris…”

Cowboy stitched him up the middle with his AR-15. He didn’t even twitch.

I said, “We could have got some good information from that guy.”

“Sorry,” said Cowboy. “I get, you know, excited.”

Morris minces no words on how the war was mismanaged and opportunities to win it was lost on the people in charge of prosecuting it. “There is only one way to fight a guerrilla war and that is to out-guerrilla the guerilla. You have to steal his political issues and his social issues and his tactics; and if you do that he has nothing left to sell and the war is won. It was so easy. Why couldn’t the bastards see it?”

One of the highlights of the book was the chapter where he spoke with an SF legend in Ludwig Faistenhammer. He was an expert on guerrilla warfare and was featured in Robin Moore’s book, “The Green Berets”.

There weren’t many like Ludwig. He was the character Fritz Scharne in Robin Moore’s The Green Berets. It was the story of how he managed to ambush a VC battalion commanded by a Frenchman… It was such an improbable story that I asked him if it was true. He said it was. “I lay awake nights dreaming up ways to get that son of a bitch,” he said. Part of how he set him up was by feeding him false information while playing tennis with him at the Cercle Sportif in Saigon.’

Morris was a guest on SOFREP Radio’s podcast this week with Host Ian Scotto and Jack Murphy and you can listen to it in its entirety here:

This brought me way back. As a young man as I was preparing to go to Special Forces training, I heard about Morris’ book and must have read it about 4-5 times enthralled. He was a big influence on me in those early years.

He wrote for Soldier of Fortune magazine and whenever he had anything in it it was a must read article.His Vietnam war stories and subsequent work covering some of the hotspots around the globe were manna from heaven for an aspiring Special Forces soldier.

For those young men of today who are planning on taking the road to go to Special Forces training, ensure that you put “War Story” on your must reading list. Although the copies are harder to come by today, on Amazon.com you can download a Kindle version of the book to your favorite device or laptop. It is worth the time and effort.

On the podcast, Murphy told Morris that if you substituted the words Communist or Viet Cong with the word “Terrorist”, the book would read much like what Special Operations troops face today in the hot spots around the Globe.

But “War Story” doesn’t delve into politics or policies, it is one man’s story of his involvement in the war. For him, it was a deeply personal one and he wanted to be involved in it all the way thru. Morris is a master storyteller and this will be guaranteed to keep you enthralled.

Photo: Amazon.com

Russian “Civilian” Contractors Return Home to Military Bases

While the Russians claim to have no control over the Russian military contractors that have been fighting in Syria, including the ones that attacked a U.S. base, once their tours of duty are finished, their return to Russia goes straight to a military base.

Reuters followed groups for Russian contractors as they left Syria and once arriving in Russia, boarded buses and drove 220 miles to the Russian military base that is home to the Russian 10^th Special Forces Brigade in Molkino.

The destination of the Russians arriving from Syria provides rare evidence of a covert Russian mission in Syria beyond the air strikes, training of Syrian forces and small numbers of special forces troops acknowledged by Moscow.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Feb. 14 Russians may be in Syria but “they are not part of the armed forces of the Russian Federation”. He referred Reuters to the defense ministry when asked why civilians fighting in Syria return to a military base. The ministry did not immediately respond.
A duty officer at the 10th special forces brigade, asked why non-military people were entering the military base, said: “Nobody enters it, as far as I am aware … You’ve seen them, okay. But you should not believe everything … You can maybe. But how can we comment on what other organizations do?”
More than 2,000 Russian contractors are fighting to help Syrian forces recapture land from their opponents, several sources, including one contractor, have said.
Reuters reporters saw a Syrian Cham Wings charter flight from Damascus land at the civilian airport in Rostov-on-Don on April 17 and watched groups of men leave the terminal through an exit separate from the one used by ordinary passengers.
They boarded three buses, which took them to an area mainly used by airport staff. A luggage carrier brought numerous oversized bags and the men, dressed in civilian clothes, got off the buses, loaded the bags and got back on.
All three reached the village of Molkino, 350 km (220 miles) south, shortly before midnight.
In the village, each bus paused for a minute or two at a checkpoint manned by at least two servicemen, before driving on. About 15-20 minutes later the buses drove back through the checkpoint empty. Publicly available satellite maps show the road leads to the military facility.

Families of contractors have confirmed that the contractors have been using the military base prior to deploying to Syria and their immediate return to a Russian military base is another sign that the government controls them far more than they admit to.

To read the entire article from Reuters, click here:

Photo courtesy Video Screen Shot

Poll: Majority of Americans Support National Guard Troops on the Border

Contrary to what was being portrayed in the debate in Congress, most Americans believe that the sending of National Guard troops to the U.S.-Mexico border will help illegal immigration issues for the short term.

In a poll conducted by Reuters/Ipsos, it seems the public sides with President Donald Trump on this one.

Fifty-five percent of U.S. adults think deploying the National Guard to the border will be effective in the short term, but only 49 percent think it will be effective in the long term. About 16 percent of Americans think it will be “very effective” short and long-term.
See graphic: tmsnrt.rs/2HDwaiT
Seventy-seven percent of Republicans think deploying the National Guard will be effective in the short term, compared with just 42 percent of Democrats.
A large majority of Trump voters – 85 percent – are confident in the plan in the short term.
But people across both parties tend to be less sure it is a durable strategy, slipping to 73 percent for Republicans and 34 percent for Democrats.
Fifteen percent of Trump voters also think it will be ineffective long-term.
The poll shows Democrats are split over whether deploying the National Guard will curb illegal immigration.
Forty-eight percent see it as ineffective in the short term, while 42 percent see it as effective – a difference of just 6 percentage points.
Only 8 percent of Democrats say it will be “very effective,” but the same percentage think this for the long term as well.
The number of Republicans showing this strongest level of support in the long term drops slightly.
See graphic: tmsnrt.rs/2vAQ3lL
Trump has also called for more Border Patrol agents as part of his immigration crackdown.
Responding to a separate question in the poll, nearly 60 percent of Americans say they support the increase.
Democrats report similar views on the strategies: four in 10 support more Border Patrol agents and sending the National Guard as a short-term plan.
But more Republicans support upping border agents, at 83.5 percent, than deploying troops, at 77 percent.

It wasn’t clear if the poll was conducted nationwide or among the border states where the issues of illegal immigration run deeper.

To read the entire article from Reuters, click here:

Photo courtesy Wikipedia

Special Operations Forces Selection PT Preparation Week 5, Day 5

Back to the gym on Thursday morning for a Chest and triceps workout to include some pushups, sit-ups, and kip ups. Then a 5-mile ruck march with 45-pounds minimum. Remember to stay hydrated and mark your progress down in your workout log book.

Training:

More Preparation for the UBRR:

3 x 12 Bench Press

3 x 10 Dumbbell Flies

3 x 10 Dumbbell Incline press

3 x 20 Pushups

3 x 10 Kip Ups

3 x 20 Sit-ups

3 x 20 Cable Push Downs (rope)

3 x 20 Dips or until muscle failure

5-mile rucksack march (45-pound minimum, 75-minutes maximum) over varied terrain, note your time

Stretch well after completion

The Australian Army Chief Got it Wrong…Bring Back the Punisher

Opinion: The Chief of Staff of the Australian military, Lieutenant General Angus Campbell, Chief of Army has written a memo in which he has decided that “what could be termed ‘death’ symbology/iconography” is to be eliminated from their military culture.

SOFREP.com’s Luke Ryan wrote about this earlier this week where the general listed several examples of such iconography, followed by why the symbol negatively represents the Australian Army: “Pirate Skull and Crossbones (maritime outlaws and murderers), the Phantom or Punisher symbols (vigilantes), Spartans (extreme militarism) or the Grim Reaper (bringer of death).” Gen. Campbell believes that these symbols are counter to the ethos embraced by the Australian Army, “employing violence with humility always and compassion whenever possible.”

While the general states that the troops wearing these symbols were never presented in an “ill-intentioned manner” however he states that “it is always ill-considered and implicitly encourages the inclusion of an arrogant hubris and general disregard for the most serious responsibility of our profession: the legitimate and discriminate taking of life.”

Part of what the general is playing to is the endless battle between what the military preaches incessantly to the troops (uniformity) and the small liberties the fighting men take with their instruments of war which builds a bit of esprit de corps and is a small price to pay for a bit of motivation for the troops. Some, like the general, take uniformity to the nth degree and end up pissing off the troops to no end for no good reason.

Rest assured, Special Operations has had its share of uniformity geeks and Special Forces was certainly not immune to it. Thankfully the generation today, while serving overseas hasn’t had to put up with pedantic ravings of certain sergeant majors who couldn’t speak of anything tactically with the adults in the room, so they became the haircut, mustache and belt police. Those of our generation know exactly who I speak of.

With all due respect to our Australian brothers in arms, this general missed the boat entirely. The Australians, like the United States military, has been in this Global War on Terror since the beginning. The vast majority of the men who use those symbols are in the combat arms MOS’ and the very symbol of the Australian Infantry Combat Badge is the bayonet. There is no compassionate way to use a bayonet unless the men who trained me and countless others at the U.S. Army Infantry School at Ft. Benning are totally wrong.

To be honest here, when I first read the headline, I thought it was a joke, a hoax, not unlike the ones we see on certain satirical websites. If the general is worried about the perception of the military and the men who wage war in it among their citizens, let them take their place and put their own lives on the line.

If instead he is, and this is probably more true, worried about having everything look the same and worried about political correctness, then he needs to step back and check himself.

These things aren’t new or related to just the Global War on Terror. A scene from the film “Full Metal Jacket” from the Vietnam era had its own pogue attempts at curbing the men’s small sense of individuality.

Pogue Colonel: What is that you’ve got written on your helmet?
Private Joker: “Born to Kill”, sir.
Pogue Colonel: You write “Born to Kill” on your helmet and you wear a peace button. What’s that supposed to be, some kind of sick joke?
Private Joker: No, sir.
Pogue Colonel: You’d better get your head and your ass wired together, or I will take a giant shit on you.
Private Joker: Yes, sir.
Pogue Colonel: Now answer my question or you’ll be standing tall before the man.
Private Joker: I think I was trying to suggest something about the duality of man, sir.
Pogue Colonel: The what?
Private Joker: The duality of man. The Jungian thing, sir.
Pogue Colonel: Whose side are you on, son?
Private Joker: Our side, sir.
Pogue Colonel: Don’t you love your country?
Private Joker: Yes, sir.
Pogue Colonel: Then how about getting with the program? Why don’t you jump on the team and come on in for the big win?
Private Joker: Yes, sir.
Pogue Colonel: Son, all I’ve ever asked of my marines is that they obey my orders as they would the word of God. We are here to help the Vietnamese, because inside every gook there is an American trying to get out. It’s a hardball world, son. We’ve gotta keep our heads until this peace craze blows over.

Even back in World War II, the brass knew enough when to leave the men alone. During the earlier years of the war, any bomber pilot that flew and completed 25 combat missions were allowed to go home. That is how stacked the deck was against any crew trying to survive. The Army, even the stick-up-their-ass senior officers knew that the crew painting pin-ups or cartoon characters and such on their aircraft was a small price to pay for men risking their lives over the skies of Europe.

Andy Rooney of “60 Minutes” fame, was in 1943 a reporter for Stars and Stripes, but still the same Andy Rooney. And he flew a couple of combat missions with B-17s over Germany and reported this:

“Grim-faced Luftwaffe pilots, proud of the guts that take them within the suicide circle of a fortress formation, determined to do or die for the Fatherland, must wonder what the hell kind of air force they are up against. They come diving in, teeth clenched, hell-bent for Hitler and along with a hail of lead are greeted by the stupid grin of some absurd comic-book character, or the nude form of a pretty girl painted on the nose of the bomber they are attacking….” The art was “something else, Andy Rooney wrote.”

General Campbell’s own Twitter account showed how ridiculous this ban is by Retweeting an award some Australian cadets had won in a Land Navigation competition at West Point. Included was the USMA Logo, the Spartan helmet. Campbell wants to ban the helmet for being too militaristic.

This is the kind of chickenshit adherence to uniform regulations that pisses the soldiers off to no end. There are certain things that leaders should and must do for their troops.

Ensuring that they have the best equipment and enough supplies to do the job. Give them the best training that they can get to ensure that every one of them returns home alive. And provide them with the best leadership, which starts with a sense of mission that they can. When leaders come up with this, the troops that are supposed to be leading tune them right out and become convinced, and rightfully so, that they don’t have the troops best interest at heart.

Before Special Forces troops deploy on missions, they’d give a briefback to the commander and his staff. When it was the turn of the Command Sergeant Major, (CSM A.) to address any questions, we had one who would ask pertinent questions on mission accomplishment, the logistics of said mission and ensuring that every member of the team knew what his assigned part of the mission was.

We had another (CSM B.) who didn’t ask a single question about the mission, not one. But would tell the Team Sergeant to make sure that SSG so and so, trims his mustache and ask if any of the team members were wearing unauthorized belts or boots.

Which one would you want to follow, or have as your CSM?

In the end, is wearing the symbols of a skull and crossbones, or the Punisher a bit silly? Of course, it is, but as a lover of the Punisher logo, a sticker of it has been on my truck for years. But at the same time, shouldn’t the leaders of the military of each country have more important things to worry about than a logo of a Spartan helmet or the Punisher? You’re damned straight they do.

The Superman “S” is for honor and integrity, much like the shield of Captain America. The symbolism of the Punisher and perhaps Batman is a bit darker. For the lawbreakers or the bad guys, it means that “we’re coming for you and you’ll have nowhere to hide.”

Leave Frank Castle and the Punisher be, and let’s hope the U.S. military isn’t as short-sighted and dumb as this. The men have been at war for 17 years and we should be more concerned with getting them all home safely than if they are wearing a skull face veil or a logo spray painted on their kit.

Photo: SOFREP, Marvel

Due to Declining National Support Is a Military Coup a Possibility in Iran?

Water shortages, economic and political fallout at home, increased military presence Syria and other countries have resulted in larger protests in Iran. The government cracked down violently against the protests in over 80 cities which have resulted in at least 21 deaths.

In early February, dozens of women were arrested for taking off their head scarves and protesting against mandatory veiling in Tehran.
Later the same month, police clashed with members of the Gonabadi Sufi order, which led to five deaths, according to Gonabadi activists, and hundreds arrested. In late March, Arabs staged protests in Khuzestan province after a the national TV excluded their community from a program about Iran’s ethnic diversity. Then in April, the security forces cracked down on water shortage protests in Isfahan province. Labour strikes in various cities across the country have also persisted.
Apart from these protests, the Islamic Republic has been facing numerous social-economic and political problems, including a rapidly depreciating currency, worsening droughts and deepening military involvement in Syria. At the same time, the government has not been able to alleviate many of the root causes of these issues.
It is amid these heightened tensions that the possibility of a coup against the current government, whose term expires in 2021, has arisen. There are already some signs that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) could be moving in that direction if Ayatollah Khamenei orders them to do so.
There is a growing consensus among Iranian political elites who believe implementing radical reforms is the only solution to these crises. But reforms seem very unlikely since Iran’s dual political structure is in deadlock.
The elected bodies of the regime, including the president and the parliament are incapable of creating any meaningful change because their powers are limited by the system in place. At the same time, the unelected bodies, including the supreme leader, the judiciary, and security forces, which enjoy vast political powers, believe that it is the government’s incompetency that is causing the current problems.

There is talk among Iran’s hardliners that having a military president under the control of supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei would solve all of their domestic and economic issues.

To read the entire article from Al Jazeera click here:

Photo courtesy Wikipedia

Russia, China Strengthen Ties to Challenge US in the Middle East

U.S. sanctions against Russia have resulted in pushback from Moscow. The Russians and Chinese have pledged to strengthen their bilateral military and political ties to challenge U.S. interests everywhere but especially in the Middle East. Moscow has one of its biggest allies in Syria and the Russians are surprisingly taking the side of Iran as well in this latest development.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu met Tuesday with Air Force General Xu Qiliang, deputy vice chairman of China’s Central Military Commission, and other regional military officials as part of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in the eastern city of Qingdao. As increasingly powerful Russia and China build up their clout on the world stage, they sought a more united front against the U.S., which frequently challenged their rise.
“Time changes everything,” Shoigu said, according to the Russian Defense Ministry. “But, fortunately, it does not change our relations both personally between us and between our states, and the very close, friendly relations of the heads of our states serve as a guarantee of this.”
Shoigu praised “the privileged character of intergovernmental ties” evidenced by numerous meetings between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping, both of whom secured enough national support to extend their terms last month. He said the two nations were continuing “their strategic course toward further boosting friendly and trustworthy ties in the defense sphere,” calling this relationship “an important factor for maintaining global and regional security.”
The U.S. and its allies have accused Assad of using chemical weapons in rebel-held territory, and President Donald Trump has twice ordered missile strikes against Syrian government facilities. The U.K. and France joined in the latest and most intense round earlier this month, despite warnings not only from Russia and Iran, but China as well, all of whom doubt Assad’s role in alleged toxic gas attacks. China has also joined Russia, Iran and other countries in investing in the war-torn country’s reconstruction.

The Russians characterized the recent gas attack and resultant Allied coalition response as “Western Style”, in a play on words that may mean their dropping the pretext of no gas attack happened to the U.S. and coalition did it to allow a missile attack.

To read the entire article from Newsweek, click here:

Photo courtesy Wikipedia

SOF

This book is dedicated to anybody whoever died for something he believed in, whether he was right or not.

The difference between a fairy tale and a war story, is that a fairy tale starts out with “Once upon a time,” and a war story starts out with, “This is no shit.”

This book is dedicated to anybody
whoever died for something he
believed in, whether he was right
or not.

The difference between a fairy tale and a war story,
is that a fairy tale starts out with “Once upon a time,” and
a war story starts out with, “This is no shit.”