US SOCOM

Special Operations Forces Selection PT Preparation Week 17, Day 7

Today we’re going to see where our fitness level is at by using a test using the new Special Operations Upper Body Round Robin (UBRR) Fitness Test. It measures functional fitness for the Special Operators much better than the traditional PT test.

This will mark the end of our 17-week Preparation PT Program. Judge where your fitness is at after the test and identify weaknesses that need to be addressed. Starting tomorrow, we’ll begin a new Preparation fitness program and start from Day 1.

Pushups: (1min) 40 minimum +2 points for each additional rep.

Sit-ups: (1min) 40 Minimum +3 points for each additional rep.

Pull-ups: (not timed) 6 minimum +3 points for each additional rep.

Dips: (not timed) 6 minimum +2 points for each additional rep.

Bench Press: (80% body weight) 6 minimum +3 points for each additional rep.

20ft. Rope Climb: with a weighted vest or body armor, Pass/Fail

Kick-ups: (1minute) 6 minimum, +2 points for each additional rep.

25 Meter Shuttle Run: x 4, 24 seconds maximum. +2 points for each 1/10 sec. under

5 Mile Run: 40 minutes maximum +2 points for every full 15 seconds under max.
or 5 Mile Ruck March: w/45 lbs +2 points for every full 15 seconds under max.

To pass the UBRR, participants must achieve a PASS in all events with at least the minimum score, and Receive at least 1100 total points from all the events combined.

Stretch well after completion

July 20, 1944, Operation Valkyrie, the Plot to Assassinate Hitler Fails

Operation Valkyrie was the plan by German Count Claus von Stauffenberg and other senior German generals in the Wehrmacht to assassinate Adolf Hitler and several other high ranking Nazis in an attempt to end the war in Europe. It failed.

Stauffenberg planted a bomb concealed in a briefcase under the conference table in Hitler’s Wolf’s Lair, his headquarters in East Prussia, but another German officer unknowingly moved the briefcase to a spot farther down the table behind a heavy wooden leg where the blast of the explosive was directed outwardly.

Hitler survived with very minor injuries. Four Nazi officers were killed in the blast, 13 others were injured, 3 seriously. The conspirators, believing Hitler dead had already moved to wrest control of the government from the Nazis and with the news that Hitler survived it quickly collapsed. Conspirators were arrested, tried in a kangaroo Nazi court and quickly executed. The war would drag on for many more months at the cost of hundreds of thousands of lives.

Prelude to a Coup: By July of 1944, the war in Europe had turned against the Germans. In the east, the sheer weight of the Soviet Union’s endless supplies of troops, tanks, and planes had pushed the Germans back into Poland.

In the west, the Allies had crossed the English Channel on D-Day, gained a foothold in France and were pouring troops and supplies into the continent. They were close to breaking out of their Normandy beachhead and sprinting across Western Europe.

The Allied air forces ruled the skies, especially over the battlefields in France. Allied fighter-bombers were taking a terrible toll on German armor and their supply lines. German cities and their industrial might were beginning to suffer under the non-stop bombing by the Americans during the day and the British at night.

With the situation looking bleak for the German people, growing tired after five years of war and millions of casualties, a group of German Army (Wehrmacht) officers planned on using “Operation Valkyrie” which was a German World War II emergency government operations plan issued to the Reserve Army of Germany to execute and implement in case of a general breakdown in civil order of the nation.

The plan of these officers was to assassinate Hitler, disarm and arrest the SS which would free all the German soldiers from their oath to Hitler once he was dead. General Friedrich Olbricht, Major General Henning von Tresckow, and Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg planned on modifying it on July 20.

Their plan involved tricking the Reserve Army into the removal of the Nazi government with the story that the SS had attempted a coup d’état and assassinated Hitler. The conspirators counted on the soldiers’ obedience to their orders from the Reserve Army High Command.

Colonel General Friedrich Fromm, as commander of the Reserve Army, could activate Operation Valkyrie. Only he and Hitler had the power to do so. Therefore, for the coup to succeed, therefore, Fromm had to be convinced to go along with the conspiracy or be removed from the equation.

Stauffenberg as Chief of Staff to the Reserve Army would attend briefings with Hitler at his Wolf’s Lair HQs. He planned on executing the assassination and then race back to Berlin to execute Valkyrie. The conspirators had already contacted the Allies thru Allen Dulles the OSS (later CIA Director) Chief of Station in Switzerland.

Between 1943 and 1944, five attempts to assassinate Hitler were put into motion and none of them ever got implemented. As the war progressed, Hitler was seen less and less in public and even shunned Berlin for the most part. He spent most of the later years of the war either at Wolf’s Lair in Rastenburg with an occasional visit to his Alpine retreat in Berchtesgaden in Bavaria. He was heavily guarded by the SS and Gestapo in both places because the Nazis feared an assassination attempt.

July 20 Attempt: On that fateful day, von Stauffenberg flew to Wolf’s Lair for the conference. He went into the men’s room to prime the bomb, he could only prime one as a result of war wounds, he lost an eye, his left hand and two fingers on his right.

He gave the other bomb to his aide, rather than leaving it in the briefcase where it was sure to explode anyway. The bomb consisted of a two-pound block of plastic explosive that was primed with a pencil detonator. He crushed the cap end which consisted of a thin copper tube containing copper chloride that would take about ten minutes to silently eat through wire holding back the firing pin from the percussion cap.

At 12:30 Stauffenberg entered the conference room and placed the bomb under the conference table next to Hitler. After just a few moments, he was paged out of the room for a phone call, which was the plan. Colonel Heinz Brandt saved Hitler’s life inadvertently by pushing the briefcase with his foot behind a thick wooden leg of the table. It directed the blast away from Hitler. It would direct the blast closer to himself, however, as his leg was blown off during the explosion which took place at 12:42.

The bomb demolished the conference room and killed a stenographer. Of the 24 people inside the conference room, only 4 would die. The blast blew out the windows and doors and a few bodies flew out as well.

Stauffenberg, believing Hitler dead, raced with his aide and driver and bluffed their way thru three checkpoints. His aide, Werner von Haeften, then tossed the second bomb into the woods on the road to the airport. They had an He-111 bomber standing by at the airfield and by 1300 they were airborne back to Berlin.

By 1600 Stauffenberg reached Berlin, he telephoned the other conspirators saying Hitler was dead. The order was given to initiate Operation Valkyrie. But a phone call from General Erich Fellgiebel, also a conspirator to the Reserve Army HQs stated that Hitler was alive. The troops didn’t know who to believe and that froze them with indecision.

Fromm, who had been sitting on the fence, called the Wolf’s Lair and spoke with Field Marshal Keitel who demanded to know where von Stauffenberg was. Fromm turned his back on the resistance and switched sides. He said he thought Stauffenberg was with Hitler.

Fromm attempted to have Stauffenberg arrested when he arrived at the Bendlerblock HQs. Olbricht and Stauffenberg then detained Fromm at gunpoint. In other places in Germany and occupied France, the army officers who were part of the plot were going thru with the plan as they’d been instructed.

But it was quickly falling apart. Himmler, who had contact with several conspirators, playing both sides against the middle, moved to consolidate Nazi power. At 1800 hours the conspirators in Berlin were still sitting on their hands as several key officers were wracked by indecision.

At 1900, Hitler called Major Remmer in charge of the Berlin garrison to assure him that he was still alive. Remmer’s orders were to surround the Bendlerblock HQs but not to enter. The conspirators panicked and many were attempting to switch sides. Stauffenberg was wounded in the gunfire. Fromm regained control of the HQs and convened a hasty court-martial for Stauffenberg, Olbricht, Haeften, and Albrecht Mertz von Quirnheim. He sentenced them to death and hastily shot them in the courtyard just after midnight to cover his own tracks.

Otto Skorzeny appeared and with Remmer they took charge of the situation and under orders from Hitler stopped all summary executions to allow the Gestapo to interrogate the rest of the conspirators.

Aftermath: Hitler, Himmler and the Gestapo decided to arrest anyone remotely associated with the conspirators and in the latter’s case, to settle old scores with anyone remotely associated with opposition sympathies.

Over 7000 German citizens were arrested. Of those, nearly 5000 were executed. Those arrested were put on trial in a kangaroo court run by fanatical Nazi judge Roland Freisler who would shout and browbeat the accused for the newsreels who filmed it all. The accused were stripped of their uniforms and given old, shabby clothing that didn’t fit. All of the accused were found guilty and were sentenced to hang with the punishment being carried out within two hours of sentencing. Included in the killing was Fromm who was found out anyway and executed in March of 1945 by a firing squad.

The failure of the 20 July 1944 bomb plot meant that the war would continue for another 9 months with hundreds of thousands of casualties. The last of conspirators, Ewald-Heinrich von Kleist-Schmenzin died in 2013 in Munich. The conspirators, long dismissed as disloyal Germans were finally thought of as heroes.

Photos: Wikipedia

Special Operations Forces Selection PT Preparation Week 17, Day 6

With a physical fitness test on Saturday (tomorrow), today is kind of a day off, with just some light stretching and nice easy run just to stretch your legs and to keep loose.

Mark your progress down in your workout log book and stretch well both before and after the run.

Training:

Continue to prep for the UBRR.

1-mile run (slow easy pace)

Stretch well after completion

Special Operations Forces: People Are the #1 Asset

After nearly two decades of war, our U.S. Special Operations Forces are still at the tip of the spear, leading the fight in Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, and countless other places every day.

And yet, despite this, young people still flock to each of the service’s Special Operations units to attempt a Selection course to get in one of them. Unlike their conventional brethren who after completing basic and advanced individual training are sent to become, albeit, junior members of functional units. And while their training within their units will continue, they’re considered fully functional members.

In the United States Special Operations Command (SOCOM), the troops have to go thru grueling Selection courses, designed to separate the weak from the strong and puts an inordinate amount of physical and mental stress on the candidates. The worthy will have to not endure the hardships but thrive and operate while under the most adverse conditions the cadre can throw at them.

Each of the different services tailors their Selection and qualification courses around their own individual missions and what the unit has to accomplish. Special Forces Selection and Assessment is quite different than BUDS (Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL). And the Ranger Assessment and Selection is different from either the Marine Corps Critical Skills Operator Selection or the Air Force’s Combat Control Operator Course.

But where they all seem to find common ground is the physical hardness and preparation that each must not only meet the standards but exceed them. The never say quit attitude and the ability to function on their own without supervision are the hallmarks of each SOF trooper.

When people picture a member of the military Special Operations community, they picture a burly, bearded badass with tats and every conceivable gadget included in their high-speed kit. But the gear and expensive toys doesn’t make SOF ‘special’. The people do.

There used to be a poster for Special Forces back in the day that stated, “People don’t Join Us Because We’re Special, but Because They Are.” That is the truest statement I can think of.

And the Selection courses are just the beginning. Many younger troops believe that once they’ve passed Selection, that they’ve arrived. Nothing could be further from the truth. Selection is the only the first gate in many more tests. In fact, among the common tenets among all of SOF are “Selection never stops and you’re always being evaluated.”

That’s why when the SOF units aren’t deployed on any given day in about 100 countries around the world they are constantly training, honing their craft. Their training and the intensity of it is what makes the units ‘special’ and not the kit they wear.

When the Special Operations Command was in its first early stages, the Commander of the JFK Special Warfare Center, Major General David Baratto coined what he called “SOF Imperatives” to serve as the basic tenets to which Special Operations Forces should operate. Then, a no-SOF officer, LTC Collins wrote these and they became part of who were are.

SOCOM adopted them and about 20 years later, they were rebranded as “SOF Truths”, but whatever they are called isn’t important. What is important is that they are the cornerstone for any operational unit and can be used in both the military and later into the civilian world. For aspiring SOF operators, these truths should become second nature.

And the very first of the “SOF Truths” gets right to the crux of the matter.

Humans are more important than hardware:

Special Operations troops make the equipment, not the other way around. The training and preparedness of the operator is the critical difference in mission success and failure.

During Operation Just Cause and the aftermath in Panama, the soldiers of the 7th Infantry Division frequently had better equipment than most of the troops of the 7th Special Forces Group who were either stationed there.

The best special operators, who are highly trained and working as a team, will always accomplish the mission with whatever equipment is available. However, the best equipment in the world cannot compensate for a lack of a trained force.

That is why SOF has such stringent Selection criteria and candidates will have to pass intense physical and psychological hurdles along the way. SOF units are looking for leadership potential and self-reliance

And the rest of the SOF Truths fall right in line with #1.

Quality is better than quantity:

This one is especially true in Special Operations. A small, well-trained team is much more effective than a large under-or-untrained one. Numbers aren’t important in filling troop billets. But filling those with the right people, trained for the right job is the key.

A quality force is a limited resource and is much more preferable, but on the flip side, they are very expensive to train and maintain. But the old adage, “you get what you pay for” rings very true when talking about quality SOF troops.

Special Operations Forces cannot be mass produced:

Cookie cutter training produces cookies, not special operators. Slapping a beret on everyone’s head and calling them elite is an exercise in futility, not training a force. As the military has found out with their shake and bake units.

Properly training Special Operations Forces troops and units take years to get them to the level of proficiency that will be needed to conduct the type of missions that these units will be tasked to perform.

Then the joint integrated training within the community amongst the units takes even more time. The military learned their lessons the hard way thru trial and error. The Army was always trying to tinker with the Special Forces Qualification Course (SFQC), in an attempt to try to standardize the number of troops coming thru the pipeline. What they didn’t understand is that the standards never change, the quality of some classes coming thru would change but the instructors would keep the standards the same regardless if 40 percent of a class passed or 10 percent.

When SFAS was first started, the classes were heavy with troops from the Ranger Regiment, the 82nd Airborne and some of the LRSU units. Those troops were very well prepared for the rigors of Selection. When the number of those candidates slowed after several classes, the troops attempting Selection weren’t as well prepped. The successful Selection rates plummeted. The standards didn’t change nor the way the cadre enforced them.

Any attempt to shorten the process or quicken it to meet operational needs only serves to weaken the entire force as a whole.

The remaining SOF Truths (Competent Special Operations Forces cannot be created after emergencies occur. Most Special Operations require non-SOF assistance) fall under the same basic premise that it is the people that are most important in SOF.

If any of our potential candidates are successful in their quest and find themselves in a Special Operations unit, they will no doubt find themselves one day working with a local, host nation unit or militia force that will be woefully equipped according to U.S. standards.

Their job will be to work with, the host nation forces to get the job done. Sometimes it will entail training the locals, other times, fighting alongside them. Often it will entail both. It takes a special type of warrior to accomplish those missions. The SOF of the US are a valuable resource that makes up less than 1 percent of the total force but are doing lion’s share of the fighting across the globe.

Photo Courtesy DOD

Special Operations Forces Selection PT Preparation Week 17, Day 5

Thursday is a Chest and Triceps workout in the gym and then hit the trail for a 4-mile run. Remember to stretch well before and after and to stay hydrated. 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 (alternate sets with wide, narrow and shoulder width)

3 x 10 ‘V’ Ups

3 x 20 Sit-ups

3 x 20 Cable Push Downs (rope)

3 x 20 Dips or until muscle failure

4-mile run (32 minutes or less)

Stretch well after completion

Selection Prep: Boots and Foot Care 101

We always get some questions vis-à-vis about passing Selection and most of the questions center around rucking and the land navigation course. While each has their own challenges for the Selection candidate, you’ll have to utilize both together while passing land navigation as you’ll be conducting it with a rucksack on.

While we encourage our readers who are aspiring SOF candidates to read and follow our Physical Training prep posts in getting physically prepared for the rigors of Selection, it all begins with having proper fitting boots and taking care of your feet.

As I’ve repeated many, many times, your feet and your brain are the two most indispensable parts of your body in Special Operations Forces. They are your lifeline in Special Operations. You MUST take good care of them or you won’t last a fortnight. Foot care will become second nature to all of you (if it isn’t already) after you spend some time in SOF.

The very nature of the Selection courses is designed to stress the candidates to the max, wear them down, and put you under stress. They are hard enough as it is. Factor in any foot problems and it is a battle that is a losing proposition. That isn’t to say that if a candidate gets a few blisters that he’s guaranteed to fail. That isn’t the point nor is it true. However, if foot problems are constant there and are slowing down the candidate, the odds of being selected go down sharply.

We aren’t going to break any new ground here. This is basic 101 type of stuff. I’ve spoken with some younger guys who are just entering the military for the first time or are just finishing up their initial entry training and are still finding their way. So there are questions that they have that anyone who has been in a light infantry or an airborne unit will know already. If you don’t have that background but have NCOs or officers that served in these type of units, seek out their advice on the subject before beginning your prep for Selection.

Boots, Boots, Boots: You’ll wear what Uncle Sam issues, so you’ll have to ensure that your boots fit properly. Too big is just as much of an issue as too small. I know some guys who got boots a half-size larger to take into account their feet swelling on long-range rucksack marches. I’m not a believer in this, however, if you’re one of those guys whose feet swell that much, it may just be something for you to consider. But for the average Joe? No, I wouldn’t do it.

The key for proper fitting boots is ensuring that the boot heel sits snugly around the rear of the foot while still allowing the toes some wiggle room up front. If your foot is sliding around too much, either front to back or side to side, you’ll have friction, which leads to blisters. If your boots are too tight, your toes will either be curled up inside or squished together and neither is a good option and is just a blister waiting to happen.

Having at least two pairs of boots prepared for Selection is essential. Having three broken in pairs would be even better. Ensure the boots you wear have good ventilation and water drainage as they’ll allow your feet to breathe and dry out when wet which will cut down on blisters. You’re going to get wet in Selection, nearly every day especially if you attend a winter class, but rest assured, winter, spring, summer or fall the candidates will get wet. During the day’s events, it is what it is and they just drive on continue on with the scenario.

That’s why having two or three pairs of boots, broken in boots is key to a successful course. When you’re finished for the day’s events, let them dry out and if available, stuff them with whatever is available, (paper towels, newspapers) to let them dry out. Wear the well-broken-in backup boots the next day and switch accordingly from day to day. Having to use a new pair of non-broken in boots in Selection is not the way to get thru the course with your feet intact.

I recall one February class when I was a cadre member at SFAS. It was cold and damp and rained hard or snowed on the candidates nearly every day. The dirt back roads and trails of Camp Mackall, North Carolina were soupy and underwater in many places. The candidates’ feet were wet nearly all the time and compounded by the course’s criteria, their feet suffered. Training never stops. Our cadre had just got issued Wolverine and Matterhorn winter boots and it made a big difference. But the students suffered constantly slogging thru cold, muddy water.

Nearly all had multiple blister problems and our cadre’s medics were working overtime. Many of the candidates had feet that resembled raw hamburger by the end of team week. They were forced into switching out their boots daily and those who didn’t have a second broken in pair suffered the worst of all. Several were forced to wear what more resembled moleskin booties than patches. Several were medically dropped, of those a couple had secondary boots barely broken in, despite what they were told prior to coming.

Proper Care for the Feet: Having been a cadre member at SFAS, I witnessed first hand all different manners of foot preparation and care. When assigned the night duty, another cadre member Doug P. and I would walk around the candidate’s barracks incognito at night to see how they were caring for themselves and their teammates. Yes, take note, you may not notice and many did not, but you’re always being evaluated.

In an earlier piece, I wrote that a successful candidate has to know his own body and what works and what doesn’t for him, long BEFORE he gets to Selection. Everyone is different and what works for me, may not work for you and vice versa.

Each one should have a good set of nail clippers when attending Selection and ensure that they take good care of those as needed. Some candidates spray their feet or use a roll-on antiperspirant which is supposed to stop the sweating which is the cause of blisters. While I was never a big believer in this, if your feet sweat profusely as mine do, then by all means, try it during your prep phase to see if it works for you.

Other students, I’ve seen use Vaseline or some type of oil or cream to reduce friction. Again, it isn’t something I’d recommend but it does work for some people.

What I’ve found to work for me was to use just a small amount of Gold Bond powder on your feet and in your socks before going on a ruck march. Not too much, like anything else, if you put half a tin in your socks, it will clump up and create just as many problems. It cuts down on friction which creates blisters. I’d recommend putting some around your crotch as well. If you get rubbed raw in the nether regions it won’t be pleasant walking 12 miles plus every day feeling like that.

Socks, Feet’s Last Line of Defense: Socks and their fit are just as important as boots are Just as proper socks will protect them from blisters, poorly fitted ones will cause even more problems.

We know that heat, friction, and moisture are the cause of blisters. While the proper fitting boots are the start, they are only half of the equation.

Candidates should start with a good pair of tightly fit synthetic or polypro socks that will wick the moisture away from your feet. Rub your feet down with a light coat of powder or whatever you choose and then turn them inside out. Why? So that the stitching inside won’t rub your toes and create hot spots. That stitching can and will cause blisters.

The thick military issued wool socks go over the inner layer of socks and once again inside out to prevent the stitching from rubbing and creating hot spots. The second sock reduces the friction and will absorb the moisture from the inner sock while cushioning your foot inside the boot.

This two-sock system is designed so that the friction will occur between the layers of socks rather than between the socks and your feet. Have enough pairs to be able to change socks frequently and the packing lists for Selection will state to have that many on hand. You’ll need them.

Start Slowly and Work up in Preparatory Training: When you are beginning your preparatory training, the rucking you’ll be doing should increase in both distance and intensity as the weeks go by. But don’t overdo it at first. You don’t train for a marathon by running one on the first day of training, and Selection is no different.

This will play right into your boots and foot care. Start with shorter rucksack marches. If you notice hot spots or blisters forming during prep ruck work, stop immediately and deal with those. Waiting until you’re done at this point in time may result in a much more serious blister which will set your training prep work back. If you don’t have any issues with a hot spot or a blister then your prep work can increase.

Remember, it is a marathon, not a sprint. The key is to work up to being able to carry a ruck all day long with the prescribed weight and do it all over again, day after day. Once a candidate is successful and is a member of one of the Special Operations Forces units in the military, the question of boots becomes much easier as there are a lot of great boots out there that the services allow their troops to wear. But for now, you wear what is issued and those are better than the old combat boot of days of yore.

As always, I appreciate the many questions that you have and will always be here to help in any way I can. Any questions or comments can be emailed to me [email protected] or at my Twitter account @SteveB7SFG

No Days Off, Keep on Rucking. DOL

Special Operations Forces Selection PT Preparation Week 17, Day 4

Wednesday is a back and shoulder day at the gym followed by a 6-mile rucksack march. Look to better the time that is the standard (90 minutes), and remember to hydrate throughout the march. Don’t forget to mark your progress in the workout log book and break in your second pair of boots.

Training:

More Preparation for the UBRR:

3 x 12 Lat Pulldowns, behind the neck (go as heavy as possible)

3 x 12 Lat Pulldowns, front

3 x 10 Seated Rows

3 x 10 Dumbbell Side Raises

3 x 10 Dumbbell Front Raises

3 x 10 Dumbbell Arnold Press

3 x 8 Shoulder Shrugs

6-mile Rucksack march (45-pound minimum, 90-minute maximum)

Stretch well after completion

Jeffrey MacDonald Stands Trial For His Wife and Daughters Murders in 1979

Former Special Forces doctor Jeffrey MacDonald stood before a judge and jury on July 16, 1979, more than nine years after he was accused of murdering his wife and two small children on February 17, 1970, at their small housing unit at Ft. Bragg, NC.

After a month of testimony and nine years of delays, MacDonald was found guilty of the three murders and given three consecutive life sentences. He was freed on appeal in August of 1980 as a court found his right to a speedy trial had been violated. The prosecution then appealed up to the Supreme Court where they ruled 6-3 on March 12, 1982 that his rights to a speedy trial were not violated and he was returned to prison with credit given for time served.

He has steadfastly for the past nearly 40 years proclaimed his innocence but remains in federal custody.

Rainy night phone call in Ft. Bragg: Initially military police and CID (Criminal Investigative Division) were called to the MacDonald home in the early hours of February 17, after MacDonald who was assigned to the Group Surgeon’s office of the 6th Special Forces Group reported a home invasion and a stabbing. MPs believing it was a domestic disturbance tried the front door at 544 Castle Drive at Ft. Bragg but found it locked, moving around the back of the house, the back door was wide open on that rainy night.

Upon entering the home, the MPs found MacDonald’s wife Collette, who was pregnant with the couple’s third child, a boy, and their two daughters, Kristen and Kimberly dead in their respective bedrooms. MacDonald was found by his wife’s side. His injuries were far less serious, he was suffering from a concussion and a collapsed lung. He was taken to Womack Army Medical Center.

Colette was severely beaten with a heavy object and both of her arms were broken in trying to defend herself. She was stabbed 21 times with an ice pick and 16 times with a knife. The word “PIG” was scrawled in her blood on the couple’s headboard of their bed.

Kimberly who was just five years old had been clubbed in the head and stabbed in the neck eight times and with a knife ten times. Two-year-old Kristen in a massive case of overkill had been stabbed 33 times with a knife and 15 times with an ice pick. The crime scene and autopsy photos were grisly and showed the extreme level of violence that entailed on that awful night.

MacDonald claimed that a group of four (3 men and a woman) drug-addled hippies who stated, “Acid is groovy, kill the pigs”, were responsible for his family’s murders. The MPs and CID descended upon the MacDonald house and generally destroyed the crime scene. The Army didn’t really buy MacDonald’s story and went ahead with an Article 32 hearing after charging him with the murders in May of 1970. The CID theorized that a fight ensued between MacDonald and his wife after his daughter wet their bed on his side and their argument got physical. Events quickly got out of control. After beating his wife with his fists and a piece of lumber, he believed her to be dead. His daughter walked in and he hit her, carried her back to her room and then beat and stabbed her to death. His wife, then regained consciousness and entered the daughter’s bedroom and threw herself on the girl to protect her.

He then killed her and dragged her back to the master bedroom where he stabbed her dead body repeatedly. He then went into his two-year old’s room and stabbed her to death to cover the last possible witness. Their case was corroborated by forensic evidence. However, the sloppy job CID did, losing important pieces of evidence would taint the case.

MacDonald reported the woman in his house, later identified as Helena Stoeckley was part of the group of four. Witnesses that night reported seeing Stoeckley, dressed as MacDonald testified in the area. Stoeckley was a well-known drug user and her on-again, off-again boyfriend Greg Mitchell from Ft. Bragg was also a drug user in the Fayetteville drug scene at the time. Stoeckley at various times admitted she was there in the house during the murders and others saying she was never there. Her story changed as frequently as the weather. She died of cirrhosis of the liver in 1983.

Six weeks of testimony followed with over 70 witnesses testifying. Colonel Warren Rock as the presiding judge, listened to evidence that CID lost important pieces of evidence, including skin that was under his wife Collette’s fingernails and decided that the charges were untrue. He was cleared under the Article 32 hearing with Rock saying the charges were untrue and that the civilian police should investigate Stoeckley.

MacDonald was given a Good Conduct Discharge two months later in December 1970.

Kassab Keeps Case Alive: MacDonald’s stepfather-in-law, Freddie Kassab who had testified on his behalf during the Article 32 hearings turned against him after getting a copy of the Article 32 transcript and seeing him on the Dick Cavett Show.

He pressured the North Carolina authorities thru the U.S. District Court to offer charges against MacDonald. A grand jury convened finally on August 12, 1974. It wasn’t until January 24, 1975, that the grand jury indicted MacDonald for the murders. While on $100,000 bail awaiting the trial, his lawyers appealed to the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed the charges on the grounds that his right to a speedy trial was violated.

The government appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court and they ruled 8-0 that MacDonald’s right to a speedy trial was not violated on May 1, 1978. MacDonald then appealed to both the 4th Circuit and the U.S. Supreme Court to rehear his arguments but both denied his appeals.

Trial and Conviction: MacDonald’s trial finally began on July 16, 1979 in Federal Court in Raleigh, North Carolina with Judge Franklin Dupree presiding. He had also heard the Grand Jury arguments five years before.

MacDonald’s defense team immediately began suffering blows as the prosecution was allowed to use a 1970 Esquire magazine that was found at the crime scene as evidence. In that issue, there was a feature on the Manson crime family murders in California which they said gave MacDonald the idea for the hippie killings.

The prosecution also called FBI lab technician Paul Stombaugh who testified that MacDonald’s pajama top had 48 small, smooth, and cylindrical ice pick holes through it. In this scenario to have happened, the pajama top would have to remain stationary, strongly contradicting MacDonald’s assertion that he had wrapped it around his hands to defend himself from an ice pick attack.

Worse for the defense Stombaugh showed that by folding it one particular way, all 48 holes could have been made by 21 stabs of the ice pick, the same number of times that Colette had been stabbed with it and in an identical pattern, implying that she had been repeatedly stabbed through the pajama top while it was lying on her.

Stombaugh’s testimony showed that had MacDonald had the pajama top wrapped around his wrists as he testified, the holes would have been jagged and not smooth like they were.

Helena Stoeckley testified and claimed to have never been in MacDonald’s home or had ever been in his presence. Defense lawyers tried to call rebuttal witnesses where she admitted to being present but they were denied by Judge Dupree.

MacDonald took the stand in his own defense but he couldn’t dispute the government’s theory of how the murders took place despite the lack of a motive. On August 26, 1979, he was convicted of 2nd-degree murder for the deaths of Collette and Kimberly and first-degree murder of Kristen. But the story didn’t end there.

Appeals: On July 29, 1980, a panel of the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned his conviction as a violation of his 6th Amendment right to a speedy trial. He was granted $100,000 bail on August 22 and returned to his job as the Head of Emergency Medicine at the Long Beach Medical Center. In late December the 4th Circuit ruled 5-5 to hear the case en banc which would consist of all of the judges rather than a panel. Their earlier decision stood. The government appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court and in late May 1981, they agreed to hear oral arguments. That took place in December 1981. On March 31, 1982, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that his right to a speedy trial had not been violated. He was re-arrested and sent back to prison.

Subsequent appeals to the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court were denied, the latest on January 9, 1983. Five days later Helena Stoeckley was found dead in her apartment in Fayetteville.

He’s appealed numerous times since the Supreme Court upheld his conviction, the last in 2014 had to do with DNA testing of hairs found at the crime scene on Collette’s leg and her hands which didn’t match any member of the MacDonald family. But his appeal was denied.

MacDonald has been transferred to the Federal Prison in Cumberland, Maryland. He continues to maintain his innocence. He’s next eligible for parole in May of 2020.

MacDonald’s story was made into a best-selling book, “Fatal Vision” by Joe McGinness.

Photos: Wikipedia

Special Operations Forces Selection PT Preparation Week 17, Day 3

Our last week of prep, Tuesday starts with Leg Day at the gym followed by a 4-mile run. Begin with pull-ups, then squats, lunges and the sled followed by a four-mile run.

Leg Day is everyone’s least favorite day, make it your go-to day. Make sure you stretch well afterward and remember to hydrate.

Training:

Continue to prep for the UBRR

3 x Pullups 10 reps

3 x 10 Deadlifts

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

3 x Goblet Squats 20-15-12 reps (lighter weight)

4 x Sled push heavier weight or Fireman’s carry

3 x 10 reps Dumbbell Lunges

3 x 20 Planks with Shoulder Touches

4-Mile run

Stretch well after completion

Israel Rocked By Rocket Attacks is the Iranian Two-Front Strategy Beginning

We’ve all seen how since late Friday, Israel has been facing an unending series of rocket and mortar attacks which has kept the country on alert. Hamas from their enclaves in Gaza has launched, to date over 200 rockets and mortars on the Israeli territory around Sderot. Most of the rockets fell into open fields or were shot down by Israeli Iron Dome air defense systems. But one rocket hit just outside a family’s home injuring three while another hit a synagogue although it was empty at the time.

The Israelis have responded with their heaviest air strikes since the 2014 Operation Protective Edge. More than 40 targets were hit including a Hamas training facility that the IDF has stated contained underground tunnels for training as part of Hamas’ tunnel network operations. Hamas claimed that the facility was empty and only two teenaged passersby across the street were killed.

Reports were surfacing of a ceasefire brokered by Egypt which will reportedly stop the rockets for now and the Israeli counter strikes. It will only put off the inevitable because this was just the opening salvo of the Iranian two-front strategy.

This strategy is already well-known by the IDF chiefs in Tel Aviv. It is simple as it aims to put the Israelis under a two-front scenario that they cannot win. They are pumping rockets into Gaza with Hamas and together with the Syrian offensive aimed at retaking the southern areas of the country back from the rebels during the on-going civil war, they are planning on having a presence on the Israeli border at the Golan Heights.

Rather than use Hezbollah’s bases in Lebanon which would invite an Israeli incursion, they are going to establish Iranian bases in southern Syria. That’s what Tehran wants, an Iranian presence in the Golan. Under the current de-escalation agreements between the United States, Russia and Jordan, the southern area of Syria were supposedly off-limits. However, Syrian forces under the Assad regime are actively attempting to retake the southern areas and return them to government control with a heavy dose of Russian air power in support.

President Putin has frequently stated that only Syrian troops will occupy the borders along the Jordanian/Israeli.Syrian border. And that any Russian or Iranian troops will withdraw soon after the area is retaken. Right now the Syrian troops are moving east towards Daraa close to the Jordanian frontier. It is when they turn southwest towards Quneitra that things are likely to get dicey. It is no secret that Iranian militias are embedded with the Syrian troops.

Israel has made it clear that it will tolerate no Iranian bases or troops along its border. In the past several months, their intelligence has been able to pinpoint the Iranian bases inside Syria and they’ve been decimated by air attacks. But these bases were mainly Iranian bases. Once embedded with Syrian forces it presents another factor entirely. Will Putin and the Russian Air Force, which hasn’t lifted a finger to stop the Israeli airstrikes thus far respond now as they’ll be attacking both Syrian and Iranian troops? Right now the answer is no, but this has all the earmarks of a quagmire in the area.

The Iranians know that of right now an all-out conventional conflict with Israel will go badly. But that’s not what they’re looking for. A two-front conflict with Israel with rockets poised in Lebanon, Syria, and Gaza will effectively stop the Israelis from acting decisively in any location.

And the Iranians haven’t even been trying to do so covertly, they’re broadcasting their aims openly over social media. Back in June, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) deputy commander Hossein Salami spelled out Iran’s plan to use Hezbollah, which he called a “mighty power” with 100,000 rockets aimed at Israel.

He also called upon the “Islamic Army in Syria, operating in the Golan Heights was awaiting orders “to eradicate the evil regime.” He added that the Palestinians, armed with missiles can now act against Israel, the Americans and the west.

In typical Iranian rhetoric, Salami said that Iran controlled the shipping lanes that operate out of the gulf and that any attempt by the West (read Europe) will result in the Islamic Republic squeezing the Europeans off from their oil and goods shipped thru the gulf.

Some of his comments during the Quds speech are here:

The Islamic Revolution created a mighty power called Hezbollah, that today, as the Zionist regime itself acknowledges, has over 100,000 missiles ready for launch. Hezbollah today has tremendous might on the ground that can on its own break the Zionist regime. The Zionist regime has no strategic-defensive depth, and in some places, the breadth of this regime is barely 34 km, and in order to destroy it, it will take only one ‘Jerusalem operation to destroy it.

“Today an international Islamic army has been formed in Syria, and the voices of the Muslims are heard near the Golan… Orders are awaited so that the custom of God vis-à-vis the eradication of the evil regime [Israel] will land and the life of this regime will be ended for good. The life of the Zionist regime was never in danger as it is now.

“Once, the Palestinians fought with stones and slingshots, but today they are armed with missiles. Every regime site is today under fire from the missile launchers. The farther and more deeply [we look], the more we see that there is a politically and militarily powerful regime in the world that raises the flag of fighting evil. This regime is Iran.”

“Iran Invites The Muslims To Jihad”

“We Have A Duty To Defend The Palestine Movement That Is Now Fighting… We Are Creating Might In Lebanon Because We Want To Fight Our Enemy From There With All Our Strength”

“Does today’s world know that [its] energy is under Iranian security control? They must know that if their industry flourishes thanks to Persian Gulf energy, they owe this to Iran, and they must not annoy Iran. Their life’s vein is in our hands. The security of their interests is in our hands.”

The Israelis were well aware of the Iranian plans and hard-liners in the government were already debating whether the IDF should hammer Gaza hard now before the Iranians are digging into southwestern Syria.

In regard to Iran, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is of the opinion that if war is coming with Iran, it is better to deal with it now rather than later. The Israelis know that an Iranian presence on their border is going to lead to conflict between the two countries. Tehran is wanting for the low-intensity type with the Israelis being hamstrung between two fronts and limited to carrying out airstrikes in Gaza and Syria, without the capability to decisively deal with either threat.

The leaders in Tehran have no issue, as in the past by using the Palestinians for that purpose. Meanwhile, the mainstream media ties the recent rocket attacks from Gaza as a continuation of the “protests” along the border that hit the area recently. It is not. Nor will it, as is repeatedly stated effect the “peace process” between the Israelis and Palestinians. Hamas is of the opinion that Israel doesn’t have the right to exist.

What this is, however, is a power play by Tehran and how events unfold in southwestern Syria will bear watching in the very near future.

Photo: AP

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