US SOCOM

Navy Plane Crashes in the Philippine Sea, 3 Missing, 8 Rescued

The U.S. Navy is investigating an accident where a transport plane carrying 11 people crashed in the Philippine Sea south of Japan on Wednesday as it flew to the aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan with three of the people missing.

“Search and rescue efforts for three personnel continue with U.S. Navy and Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) ships and aircraft on scene,” the U.S. Seventh Fleet said in a news release.
“The incident will be investigated,” it added.
The plane was conducting a routine transport flight carrying passengers and cargo from Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni to the carrier, which was operating in the Philippine Sea as part of an exercise with Japanese forces, it said.
U.S. President Donald Trump was briefed on the crash at his Mar-a-Lago retreat in Florida, where he is spending the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, said White House spokeswoman Lindsay Walters.
Japanese Minister of Defence Itsunori Onodera told reporters the U.S. Navy informed him that the crash may have been a result of engine trouble.

The Navy rescued the other eight personnel, and they were transported back to the carrier and all are reported to be in good condition.

The propeller-driven C-2 Greyhound aircraft has been a mainstay for the Navy for five decades. It has been used to shuttle personnel and cargo between aircraft carriers and land bases. It is gradually being phased out of service, being replaced on the carriers by the tilt-rotor C-22 Osprey aircraft.

To read the entire article from Reuters, click here:

Photo courtesy US Navy

Special Operations Forces Selection PT Preparation 11.23.2017

A very Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. From all of us at SOFREP we hope you all have a safe and wonderful day. If your gym is open today (luckily I have a key to mine) it is a Chest and Triceps workout there 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.

And then enjoy a day filled with the Three “Fs” Food, Family, and Football.

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

Stretch well after completion

Sign Up Now for the Crate Club (members only) Special Forces Fighting Seminar

November 20, 2017 by Scott Witner

Jim “Smokey” West has a great evening in store for us in New York City on December 8. We just spoke to him this week and you’re going to love it.At one of our favorite places (a bar) Jim will demonstrate and teach (with audience members participating) skills to help you win a street fight—or any other confrontation you’re in at close distances.

The world today is a dangerous, unpredictable place. We know a lot of you guys train, practice concealed carry and generally prepare yourselves for whatever comes next. This is the perfect event to add to your prep. Sometimes the fight comes to you, and if all you have is your bare hands to protect yourself and your family—you’ll want Jim’s knowledge in your head so you can come out on top.

Sign up now. Space is limited. For $49 you’ll get first-rate knowledge and advice from a proven fighter—and share an evening with your fellow Crate Club members.

To sign up, first Join the Crate Club and then click on the following RSVP button to secure your spot.

RSVP HERE

***I had the pleasure of serving with Jim West in the 7th Special Forces Group and he’s the real deal. I would encourage all of our readers to attend if you are serious about honing your skills. – SB***

Three Military White House Staffers Reassigned After Vietnam Incident

Three service members working for the White House Communications Agency have been reassigned from their jobs and could lose their security clearances amid an investigation into alleged improper contact with foreign women during President Trump’s tour through Asia earlier this month, according to a report on Tuesday.

The Washington Post first reported the story. The three military members could receive administrative punishment or a court-martial in addition to possibly having their security clearances suspended or revoked if an investigation finds them guilty.

Trump spent nearly two weeks in Asia, visiting numerous foreign leaders.
The White House Communications Agency provides the president, vice president, Secret Service members, and others with secure communications.
Personnel in posts with high-level security clearances are supposed to report interactions with foreigners so as to not compromise national security.

The incident apparently occurred in Vietnam where the three military members broke curfew and had “improper contact” with foreign women.

In August, military members of Vice President Pence’s communications team were reassigned after trying to bring women back to their hotel in Panama.

In the words of the best safety brief ever… “Flies spread disease men, keep yours closed.”

To read the entire article from The Washington Examiner, click here:

Photo courtesy Wikipedia

Military Retirement System Being Overhauled, Big Changes Ahead

The military is revamping its military retirement system with the biggest changes to it since the end of World War II.

The new so-called “Blended Retirement System” (BRS) goes into effect on Jan. 1, 2018 and will affect many military members who have less than 12 years of service and those entering service from here on.

Under the legacy retirement system, military members receive no retirement benefits unless they serve for 20 years, at which point they get a pension that’s equal to 50% of their last pay.

The blended retirement system allows members to start saving immediately. The defined contribution portion allocates at least a 1% match to all military members’ Thrift Savings Plans, which can be increased to as much as 5%, similar to enrolling in a traditional 401(k) plan. To incentivize military members to stay in service longer, between eight and 12 years they get a special, one-time contribution bonus equal to 2.5% of their base pay.
The “catch,” as Meese called it, is that if 20 years of active service is completed, instead of getting a pension worth 50% of your highest 36 months of pay, you only get 40%.
“It’s actually the first entitlement reform that any part of our government has done,” Meese said.
Military members will be sorted into three categories: those who have no choice but to enter the new blended retirement system, those who have no choice but to remain in the legacy system and those who can opt into the new program.
All service members who enter the military on or after Jan. 1 will be automatically enrolled in the BRS. Individuals who have already departed the military or who have been in service for 12 years or more, will stay with the old system. But those who are currently on active duty, or in the reserves, having served less than 12 years, will have the choice of opting into the new program.
According to Meese, about 1.1 million members will have the option of enrolling in the new BRS. However, if members fail to opt-in, they will, by default, be left in the legacy system.

Does anyone find it amazing that whenever the government is looking to reform entitlements or threaten to stop payments during a possible government shutdown that military pay and retirement is the first thing mentioned? There wasn’t a mention about the bloated Congressional retirement entitlements and if they are to be amended as well. But we won’t be holding our breath waiting for that to happen.

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

Photo courtesy Wikipedia

Special Operations Forces Selection PT Preparation 11.22.2017

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 and remember to hydrate throughout the march. Don’t forget to mark your progress in the workout log book and stay hydrated.

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 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

Operation Ivory Coast, November 21, 1970, The Raid on Son Tay Prison

By November of 1970, there were 450 known American POWs in Vietnam and more than double that amount who were missing. Reports were surfacing of brutal conditions, torture, and starvation of American POWs.

Operation Ivory Coast was the mission by US Army Green Berets flown in by Air Force Commandos to rescue the POWs at a small prisoner of war camp at Son Tay, 23 miles west of Hanoi. The raid was conducted by Colonel Arthur “Bull” Simons and 56 specially selected Green Berets who trained for the mission. The mission failed despite it being a tactical success. Unknown to the raiders, rains had flooded the prison just prior to the raid, forcing the Vietnamese guards to move them to another location. The prisoners who were moved just a few miles down the road, watched the raid unfold.

However the raid was viewed as a success, they killed over 50 guards and took the compound while suffering two very minor casualties. And the Air Force was able to fly them in and out of one of the most heavily guarded air spaces on earth at that time.

Identification of the Camp: In May of 1970, the Pentagon learned of the camp when an SR-71 at 80,000 feet, streaked over the camp and took aerial photographs that showed at least 55 American POWs. The catch? There were 12,000 North Vietnamese troops stationed just 5.0 miles away from the compound.

Planning began in earnest in early August. Simons was named the commander of the raid force and he selected the raiders from over 500 volunteers from the 6th and 7th Special Forces Groups at Ft. Bragg, NC.

The training facility chosen for the raiders was Duke Field at Eglin AFB, Florida.USAF planners selected key Air Force commanders, who then picked personnel for their crews. Helicopter and A-1 Skyraider crews were put together from instructors at Eglin and personnel returned from combat tours in Southeast Asia. Two crews for C-130E(I) Combat Talons were assembled from squadrons in Germany and North Carolina.

The men were not briefed on their mission and were only told that it was hazardous.

A total of 219 men were selected, 103 Army and 116 Air Force personnel would serve as raiders, flight crew, support personnel, and planning. The Task Force was known as the “Joint Contingency Task Group” (JCTG).

The staff set up a plan for a nighttime raid, the key points of which were: clear weather and a quarter moon at 35 degrees above the horizon for optimum visibility during low-level flight. From these mission planning parameters, two mission “windows” were identified, 18–25 October and 18–25 November.

Training under Simons, who was already a legend in Special Forces proceeded on Range C-2 at Eglin. Simons had taken part in a prisoner rescue during World War II with the 6th Ranger Bn. The Rangers rescued 500 POWs who had survived the Bataan Death March by raiding the Japanese POW camp at Cabanatuan in the Philippines. The Raiders used an exact but crudely made replica of the prison compound for rehearsals and a superbly detailed five-foot-by-five-foot scale table model (codenamed “Barbara”) that was built by the CIA for familiarization.

The Air Force pilots flew over 1050 hours in C-130 Combat Talon, and HH-3 aircraft to practice their formations and using the Forward Looking Infrared Radar (FLIR), to fully acquaint themselves with the mission.

The Special Forces side of the training began on 9 September, advancing to night training on 17 September and joint training with aircrews on 28 September that included six rehearsals a day, three of them under night conditions. By 6 October, 170 practice sessions of all or partial phases of the mission were performed on the mockup by the Special Forces operators, using live fire.

The Ground Force Commander was LTC Bud Syndor and the assault element leader that would purposely crash land in the prison compound would be led by another SF legend CPT Richard “Dick” Meadows.

On the 6th, the first full-scale dress rehearsal, using a UH-1H as the assault helicopter, was conducted at night and included a 5.5-hour, 687 miles (1,106 km) flight of all aircraft, replicating the timing, speeds, altitudes, and turns in the mission plan. The rehearsal indicated that the UH-1 helicopter was unsuitable for this mission. The smaller passenger compartment resulted in leg cramps to the SF raiders that completely disrupted the timing of their assault. Simons and his raiders opted for the HH-3E. Two further full night rehearsals and a total of 31 practice landings by the HH-3E in the courtyard of the mockup followed.

The primary October window was chosen, but a White House briefing, President Nixon was out of the city and couldn’t be briefed properly in time, so Henry Kissinger moved back the raid to the November time window. That month delay unknown to anyone at the time would doom the mission to failure.

Between 10 and 18 November, all of the pieces of the raiding force arrived in Thailand, which was the jumping off point for the raid. The piecemeal deployment was to not attract attention. There the force was whittled down from the 100 men who trained for the mission to the 56 that would be going. It was heartbreak for the 44 men who had to stay behind in Thailand.

The Raiding Force: The Special Forces were organized into three platoons: a 14-man assault group codenamed Blueboy Element led by Meadows, which would crash-land within the prison compound. A 22-man support group, Greenleaf, which would provide immediate support for the assault team, and a 20-man security group, Redwine, to protect the prison area from any NVA reaction forces and provide backup support if needed for either of the other two groups. Simons (using the call sign Axle) accompanied the Greenleaf group, while the ground force commander, LTC Elliott P. “Bud” Sydnor, Jr. (Wildroot), was with the Redwine group.

The 56 raiders were heavily armed, carrying 48 CAR-15 carbines, two M16 rifles, four M79 grenade launchers, two shotguns, and four M60 machine guns. They carried 15 Claymore mines, 11 demolition charges, and 213 hand grenades and were equipped with a mix of wire cutters, bolt cutters, axes, chainsaws, crowbars, ropes, bullhorns, lights, and other equipment to execute the mission.The ground force was also equipped for voice communications with 58 UHF-AM and 34 VHF-FM radios, including a survival radio for each individual soldier.

Five hours before takeoff, Simons addressed the men: “We are going to rescue 70 POWs from a camp called Son Tay. This is something American prisoners have a right to expect from their fellow soldiers. The camp is located 23 miles west of Hanoi.”

It was said that the troops stood and cheered. Simons put his own indelible mark on the operation with his final instructions.

“You are to let nothing, nothing interfere with the operation. We’re here to rescue prisoners not take prisoners. And if we walk into a trap,… don’t dream about walking out of Vietnam unless you’ve got wings on your feet. It is 100 miles to Laos….I want to keep this force together. We will back up to the Song Con River and by Christ let them come across the goddamn open ground. We’ll make them pay for every foot across the sonuvabitch.”

Airlift Into North Vietnam Undetected: The raid force began taking off at 2200 hours from airfields in Thailand and South Vietnam. The formation flew across the Plain of Jars in Laos before turning northeast. There were twelve separate legs of the flight plan. They flew on undetected by North Vietnamese radar, possibly because of diversionary bombing missions going on in the area.

The assault force arrived at Son Tay at 0219 hours. The helicopter that was to crash land purposely in the compound was to encounter trees thought to be 40-feet tall. The were in actuality close to 150 feet tall. However, the pilot chopped thru it like a huge lawn mower and the aircraft thudded into the ground. One man, an Air Force crew chief suffered a broken ankle when a fire extinguisher broke free and smashed into his leg.

Meadows used a bullhorn and announced, “We’re American. Keep your heads down. We’re Americans. We’ll be in your cells in a minute.” Meadows group cut down any of the guards in the compound, including several trying to escape through the east wall. But as his men methodically advanced thru the compound, they found no prisoners in the cells.

The Support Element landed in the wrong compound, which was known as the Secondary School and found it contained 100-200 Chinese soldiers who were there as advisors for new missile defense weapons being emplaced . After a brief but intense firefight. The Special Forces troops using a mixture of automatic fire and grenades eliminated the Chinese.

The Security Element (Redwine) approached the south wall and using the helicopter’s miniguns, wiped out the guard towers and landed inside the compound. There they blew a utility pole and set up a roadblock, 100 meters from the LZ. They then encountered guards who were quickly trying to react to the raid. The Raiders cut down several as a firefight raged.

Simons leaped into a trench as the fighting raged on around him. A second later an enemy soldier, roused from his sleep and wearing only his underwear, jumped in beside Simons not realizing who was in there. Simons emptied his .357 revolver into the soldier’s chest killing him.

Meadows radioed to Syndor, “Negative items.” No POWs were present. The entire raid took just 17 minutes. The assault force was preparing to leave when one of the members decided to leave the Vietnamese a message on who was responsible for the raid. MSG Joe Lupyak took a Green Beret with a 5th SFG flash and nailed it to the flagpole in the compound.

The extraction helicopters began arriving at 0239 hrs, the last aircraft departed at 0245 and the entire raid took just 27 minutes. The formation cleared North Vietnamese airspace by 0315 and arrived back in Thailand by 0438 hrs.

Intelligence Failure: The lack of good intelligence hampered the operation from the start. It was later learned that due to flooding of the river, the prisoners were moved. And the heavy rains in the area obscured the view that the satellites would have of the area. The prisoners were moved to a place they named “Camp Faith about 15 miles closer to Hanoi.

The impact of the raid was a tremendous boost in morale of the prisoners. They knew right away that they had not been forgotten. The North Vietnamese realized that had the operation had been successful, the sight of the prisoners in their current state of health would have been disastrous.

As a result, food and medical care improved for the prisoners and the Vietnamese consolidated the POWs and for the first time many of them were surprised to learn that instead of solitary confinement, they were housed together.

List of the Son Tay Raid Personnel:

US Army Personnel

Support Element

COL Arthur D Simons
CPT Eric J Nelson
CPT Glenn R Rouse
CPT Udo H Walther
SFC Earl Bleacher
SFC Leroy N Carlson
SFC John Jakovenko
SFC Jack G Joplin
SFC Daniel Jurich
SFC David A Lawhon Jr
SFC Salvador M Suarez
SFC Donald Taapken
SFC Richard W Valentine
SSG Walter L Miller
SSG Robert L Nelson
SSG David S Nickerson
SSG Thomas E Powell
SSG John E Rodriquez
SGT Gary D Keel
SGT Keith R Medenski
SGT Franklin D Roe
SGT Marshall A Thomas

Assault Element

CPT Richard J Meadows
CPT Thomas W Jaeger
CPT Dan H McKinney
1LT George W Petrie
MSG Thomas J Kemmer
MSG Billy K Moore
MSG Galen C Kittleson
SFC Anthony Dodge
SFC Lorenzo O Robbins
SFC William L Tapley
SFC Donald R Wingrove
SSG Charles G Erickson
SSG Kenneth E McMullin
SGT Patrick St Clair

Command Element – Security

LTC Elliot P Sydnor
LTC Joseph R Cataldo
CPT James W McClam
CPT Daniel D Turner
MSG Joseph J Lupyak
MSG Herman Spencer
SFC Tyrone J Adderly
SFC Donald D Blackard
SFC Freddie Doss
SFC Jerry W Hill
SFC Marion S Howell
SFC Billy R Martin
SFC Gregory T McGuire
SFC Charles A Masten Jr
SFC Joseph M Murray
SFC Noe Quezada
SFC Ronnie Strahan
SSG Paul S Poole
SSG Lawrence Young
SGT Terry L Buckler

Support Personnel

LTC Bill L Robinson
LTC Gerald Kilburn
CPT Randel L Smith
SGM Minor B Pylant
MSG Jesse A Black
MSG Edgar C Britt
MSG Bernard L Rauscher
SFC Franklin Abramski
SFC James A Bass
SFC Archie Batrez Jr
SFC Robert L Dodd
SFC Charles M Erwin
SFC James A Green
SFC Bobby R Hansley
SFC Roswell D Henderson
SFC Frederick L Hubel
SFC Bruce M Hughes
SFC John R Jourdan
SFC Ernest R Pounder
SFC Aaron L Tolson Jr
SFC Burley W Turner
SFC Grady C Vines
SSG Elmer D Adams
SSG Rodger D Gross
SSG Larry G Stroklund
SSG David L Wilson
SGT Brian J Budy
SGT Michael G Green
SGT Robert R Hobdy
SGT John J Lippert
SGT Arlin L Olson
SP5 William F Dezurik
SP5 Lawrence C Elliot
SP5 Gary R Griffin
SP4 Christopher Casey
SP4 Frank J Closen

UH-1 Crew Members

1LT George W Williams
CW2 Ronald J Exely
CW2 Jackie H Keely
CW2 John J Ward
SP6 Larry C Boots
SP4 Alan H Wood

Photos: US Army

Afghan Special Forces Free Captives in Raid in Helmand Province

Afghan Commandos from the 7th Special Operation Kandak liberated more than 15 people from a Taliban prison in Now Zad village, Now Zad district, Helmand province. The nighttime raid also led to the detention of several Taliban and the removal of IED making materials. The Afghan SF also had support from NATO during the raid.

Several Taliban were also detained, and improvised explosive device-making materials were removed.
The rescued Afghans included four children under the age of 12 and two police officers, were taken to a secure location where they were screened before being released.
The special forces are known as the Afghan Commandos and have been working to liberate the country from Islamic State and Taliban forces. They deploy out of bases in Kandahar, Helmand, and Kabul.

Taliban spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmadi said in a statement that the people rescued were all criminals accused of murder, robbery, kidnapping, and other crimes.

To read the entire article from the Washington Examiner click here:

Photo courtesy Wikipedia

ICC Wants to Investigate US Military, CIA for War Crimes

United States forces are being investigated by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague as prosecutors there believe that there are sufficient grounds to believe that the US committed war crimes in Afghanistan in 2003-2004.

Prosecutors believe there was a “reasonable basis” that U.S. forces had tortured prisoners in Afghanistan and at Central Intelligence Agency detention facilities elsewhere in 2003 and 2004.

“Members of US armed forces appear to have subjected at least 61 detained persons to torture,” the prosecutors’ office, wrote. It added that CIA officials appeared to have tortured another 27 detainees.
The prosecutors’ office, headed by Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, said it would decide imminently whether to pursue a full investigation.
Monday’s finding marks a significant step forward in the court’s decade-old examination of conflicts in Afghanistan and could draw a sharp response from a U.S. administration that is set to become less internationalist under President-elect Donald Trump.
“These alleged crimes were not the abuses of a few isolated individuals,” the report said. “They appear to have been committed as part of approved interrogation techniques in an attempt to extract ‘actionable intelligence.’”

The prosecutors believe that all belligerents including the Afghan government and the Taliban are also guilty of crimes against humanity as well. They specifically said that CIA sites in Poland, Romania, and Lithuania may have also been scenes of war crimes as this is where detainees were taken to and interrogated.

To read the entire article from Reuters click here:

Photo courtesy Wikipedia

Special Operations Forces Selection PT Preparation 11.21.2017

Warmer day on Tuesday starts with Leg Day at the gym followed by a 4-mile run. Begin with pull-ups and towel pull-ups for those who don’t have access to climbing ropes. Then squats, lunges and the sled followed by a four-mile run

Training:

Continue to prep for the UBRR

3 x Pullups 10 reps

3 x Towel pull-ups 10 reps

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