US SOCOM

Task Force Dagger Foundation Receives Award From USSOCOM for Enduring Support

The Commander of the United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) General Raymond Thomas recently commended the Task Force Dagger Foundation for “significant and enduring” support of the command.

Thomas awarded the Foundation the “Patriot Award” for their support of families, injured and disabled soldiers and advocacy.

Accepting the award on behalf of Task Force Dagger Foundation were Keline and Keith David. Keith stated, “We are blessed to be part of a team that goes above and beyond every day. Our board members both governing and advisory, our volunteers and our donors are the ones that make what we do possible. They are the ones that step out and put action to their words that gives us the manpower and the funding to help where we can.”
The award was given at the USSOCOM Warrior Care Program Conference held 1-2 March 2017. The Warrior Care Program was established in 2005 and is charged with providing Special Operations Forces (SOF) Wounded, Ill, Or Injured Service Members and their families’ advocacy after life changing events in order to navigate through recover, rehabilitation, and reintegration. The Task Force Dagger Foundation works closely with the Warrior Care Program as one of its benevolent organizations.

Task Force Dagger Foundation’s works within three core programs: Immediate Needs, SOF Health Initiatives, and Recreational Therapy Adaptive Events. These programs provide resources and healing for Special Operations Forces (SOF) members and families.

The SOF Health Initiatives provides program recipients care and treatment that is designed to treat the root cause and not the symptom through the use of Functional Medicine and other modalities that are patient centric.

The foundation supports Army Green Berets, Rangers, Civil Affairs, Military Information Support Operations, Army Special Mission Units, Navy SEALs, Air Force Special Tactics/Operations and Marine Special Operations and their families. These are the units that comprise the US Special Operations Command.

To read the entire article from the PRweb click here:

Photo courtesy Task Force Dagger Foundation

Passing BUDS, Interview with Thomas Rosehaley Pt. 1

Thomas Rosehaley is a busy man these days. When he’s not flying across the globe working as a personal security professional, he’s back at home keeping on top of his medical training, which is his bailiwick. He had just arrived back in the states but was not getting much free time. “I’m diving tomorrow in Monterrey Bay and then have a Med class at Folsom Prison, I’ll call you on my way home from there,” he said.

I was trying to catch up with him to talk about his experience with the Navy’s Selection program, Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUD/S) training which Rosehaley attended and passed just after high school at the age of 18. He was able to enlist for Naval Special Warfare right out of school as he’d been a member of the Sea Cadets in High School.

Rosehaley joined the Bryce Canyon Division of the Sea Cadet Corps based out of LA at the age of 14 where he learned basic seamanship, knots, flags, semaphore as well as basic firefighting. They had an adopted frigate, USS Wadsworth (FSG-9). During the summer months, the cadets got to go on float.

At the age of 15 he went on float to Hawaii, and Canada for a couple of weeks. “I got my Helmsman qualification before I got my drivers’ license,” he said. “Within the Sea Cadet Corps there was a mini-SEAL camp.” A series of tryouts ensued, which Rosehaley did three years in a row, he got to go to Coronado with 20 other Sea Cadets and got to experience a one-week BUD/S course to include a shortened (24-hr) version of Hell Week, not quite what he’d experience later but enough to open his eyes.

“By the time I joined the Navy, I had a good working knowledge of the Navy which was a good thing, as I was ahead of my peers a bit,” he said. And there was an ace in the hole.

“I had a really good mentor by the name of Gordon Meehan, who was an original UDT (Underwater Demolition Teams). He stood beside when I went to my recruiter,” Rosehaley said. “And he said, ‘so when he finishes boot camp, he’s going to his Corpsman A-school and during A-school, he’s going to get a chance to try out for BUD/S, and then he’s going straight into BUD/S Selection, right?’,” Rosehaley said with a laugh.

The tryout for BUD/S was administered by NSW2 sailors and consisted of a 500-meter swim, a mile and a half run, pull-ups, and two minutes of pushups and two minutes of situps. Passing that, got him into the pre-BUD/S pipeline.

Rosehaley wasn’t even the youngest sailor in his class, although just 18, another candidate was younger by just a few days but it was an eye-opening experience. Laughing now, Rosehaley says, “I had no clue what was going on then, and truth be told, I was too immature at 18-19 to get the whole picture.”

So, what was it like on Day 1? “You learn very quickly to ‘Embrace the Suck’ because the class was quickly whittled down. Very few people make it non-stop for the entire six months of BUD/S.”

The first phase of BUD/S he related was basically a hammer session as he called it. “That’s all it is, they’re not really working on teaching you anything yet other than learning to embrace the suck,” he said.

At the culmination of that first phase was Hell Week which is Week 4 for the candidates. That was pretty much a blur for him, where you are pushed to the maximum. This is where the rubber meets the road. Before the Navy invests a lot of time and training (and money), in a candidate, they have to know what he’s made of.

Hell Week consists of 5½ days of brutally intensive training where the candidates are cold, wet, and tired (they average less than four hours sleep). Here is where mental toughness and dedication take hold.

“We started Day 1, Week 1 with 160 students,” Rosehaley said. “We were already down to 46 at the start of Hell Week, and by the time we finished it were down to 26, the attrition rate is pretty significant.”

“And by this time, we weren’t taught anything that you couldn’t get from a P90X video,” he added. But the NSW instructors then knew they had 26 sailors that could handle the stress of being maxed out physically, under trying circumstances and still be able to think on their feet.

“I’m not trying to downplay what they do there, but it is what it is. It is a total fucking gut check. We’re going to break you down, and they see…by design how you respond to being broke down,” he said. How did you feel after Hell Week, I asked? “Shattered,” he said laughing.

In part 2 of our interview, we’ll get further along in the BUD/S program and Rosehaley will share some of his experiences post-Navy, including working as a contractor in Iraq, Haiti, going to Hollywood and keeping up with the young guys.

SOF Selection PT Preparation 3.23.2017

SOF Selection PT Preparation 3.23.2017

A heavy day of preparation with the pushups, sit-ups, and crunches. Plus, the longer ruck march to get you ready for a tough day ahead.

Training:

More Preparation for the UBRR:

100 x pushups (no time limit)

100 x sit ups (no time limit)

100 x crunches

3 x 20 dips or until muscle failure

25 x V-ups

6-mile rucksack march (45 lb minimum) over varied terrain, note your time

Stretch well after completion

Chief of Staff – Special Operations Forces the Model to Prepare for Future Wars

The US Army is still embroiled in wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria but is already planning on the next one, battling it out in mega cities. And the model that their using is being patterned after US Special Operations forces.

Army Chief of Staff Mark Milley stated this week that military will have ten years to prepare for combat in what he categorized as mega cities with a population of 10 million people in the surrounding urban area and said that the structure of Special Operations Forces will be the key to operating in the next great conflict.

“What this means then — and I have discussed this with the Army leadership — we are going to have to … optimize the Army for urban warfare. […] The Army will definitely have to organize differently, probably into smaller, more compartmented groups,” Gen Milley said at the Future of War Conference 2017.
“We will have to have, what I think, is a lot of relatively small formations that are networked and can leverage Air Force and naval-delivered joint fires.”
“If you think of how some of our special operations operate today, that may be a preview of how large your Army operates in the future,” the officer continued. “That doesn’t mean you do away with battalions and brigades, but the fighting element will probably end up having to be a much smaller entity. […] If you stay stationary for any length of time, say more than a couple of hours, you are probably going to get killed.”

Milley was speaking at the Future of War Conference 2017 in Washington, D.C and stated that while divisions and brigades will still play a large role in the military, the smaller units, the battalions will play a big role in urban combat.

But he warned that the Army will not become “Special Forces on steroids.”

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

Photo courtesy DOD

The GORUCK Challenge is a Fun, Interesting Event While Prepping For Selection

While preparing to go to Selection, there is a lot of individual work that must be put in. Finding and breaking in the best boots for your feet and prepping your feet for the long road ahead. Then there is the Land Navigation training and map reading which, if you aren’t ready for can be daunting. Then, of course, is the physical training, and finally, the rucking that goes in to prepare. No one says you can’t have a little fun while rucking and preparing for Selection which leads us the GORUCK Challenge.

What is GORUCK? GORUCK is a company that was started by Jason McCarthy after his Special Forces service with the 10^th SFG(A). He originally was trying to just sell his gear that he was manufacturing. But then he got an idea to promote the gear and let people, many of whom had never rucked or experienced anything close to being in the military a little taste of what Selection is like.

But this event is built on having fun, sweating up a storm, working within a team and accomplishing a goal under the watchful gaze of a Special Operations cadre member. It is built around events that you’ll encounter in Selection, doing PT in the sand, or in some cases the water, carrying heavy objects as a team, (logs, telephone pole sections) and then building an apparatus that has to carry about 500 pounds and then moving it around a city in the US. Sounds strangely familiar?

The different GORUCK events last anywhere from:
The Light – 4-5 hours, 7-10 mile distance

The Tough – 10-12 hours, 15-20 mile distance

The Heavy – 24+ hours, 40+ miles distance

Selection – 48+ hours, 80+ miles distance (has a less than 5 percent finish rate)

They also have an Orienteering course, a Scavenger Hunt, as well as others.

So, while you’re having fun, you are also getting some difficult and useful training in. Preparing for Selection is a lot of work. It is demanding, tough and generally a lonely process, as the onus is on yourself to get ready for the challenge ahead.

This is a chance to put together a like-minded group of individuals to enjoy the camaraderie of the course, getting some challenging training in, all while in a much more light-hearted atmosphere than the Selection courses.

If you want to give your friends a taste of wait awaits you or just want to get training partners involved in a break from the monotony of singular training than the GORUCK challenge would be a fun way to do just that. And if your Land Navigation is a particularly weak area, the 36-hour Navigator course, taught by Special Forces cadre members will be a good, learning tool while also being taught some survival skills.

Now don’t think that this is a harbinger of things to come at Selection. There is no way, I’d ever try to sell you that and the GORUCK people wouldn’t either. Their course is based on having fun while you’re working your tail off.

I’m in the midst now of trying to convince some friends and family members to put together a team and attempt one of the challenges that are upcoming in the next few months. My wife thinks I’m insane to want to do this, “After all this time, you want to go back to being in selection?” Perhaps she has a point.

But being a Special Forces guy means always being up to the challenge, right? That’s what it is all about. That and doing what we love and most importantly doing it with the ones we love. That being said, I doubt I’ll have any luck convincing anyone to do the Selection challenge, but hey, it is time to throw the ruck on and get outside and work out the kinks this morning. Let’s go rucking.

Photo courtesy of GORUCK

SOF Selection PT Preparation 3.22.2017

Back to the gym today. Unlike last week where we went heavier weight with less reps, we’re going the opposite this time, building up the endurance.

Training:

More Preparation for the UBRR:

Run 3 miles and record your time

Then, head into the gym:

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

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

3 x 10 Pull-ups

3 x 10 reps Standing Arnold Press

3 x 20 Push ups

30 x “V”ups

Stretch well after completion

US Drops Special Operations Near Raqqa, Cuts Off ISIS Escape Route

The US-led coalition has dropped both American and Syrian fighters behind the city of Raqqa in an effort to cut off the ISIS escape route out of the city. That’s an encouraging sign that perhaps the battle to drive out the insurgents from Syria is going well.

According to reports from inside Syria, five helicopters, supported by five fighter jets, dropped US Marines and dozens of Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighters near the northern town of Shurfa on Wednesday afternoon.

The purpose of the operation is to seize the key Tabqa dam across the Euphrates River. This will isolate Raqqa from the remaining ISIS-controlled territory in Syria. Raqqa was named the capital city of the self-styled caliphate.

The group said in a statement that the operation was in preparation for an assault on Tabqa, an ISIL redoubt 28 miles west of Raqqa.
They claimed to have captured four villages and severed the main artery running between the extremists’ de facto capital and the western countryside.
Top officials from the 68-nation alliance are set to meet in Washington today to hear more about a revised plan drafted by the Pentagon and presented to US President Donald Trump in February.
The meeting was the first of all the coalition’s top diplomats since September 2014.

Meanwhile, the US and President Donald Trump are having discussions on whether or not to continue to support the YPG, the Kurdish group that is fighting ISIS but is considered a terrorist organization by Turkey and President Erdogan. If the US should shift its allegiance away from YPG, it could signal a thawing of relations between Washington and Ankara.

The US is also ramping up plans to add another 1000 troops to Syria in support of the SDF.

To read the entire article from the Telegraph click here:

Photo courtesy DOD

Special Operations At the Forefront Of Trump’s Counter-Terror Plan

President Donald Trump is using Special Operations troops to carry the fight against Islamic terrorists across the globe in an attempt to minimize large conventional troop deployments.

Trump will continue the plan put in place by the Obama administration to train, equip, advise, and support the indigenous forces in the region rather than post large American conventional forces on deployments overseas.

The global reach of Special Operators is widening. During the peak of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, nearly 13,000 Special Operations Forces were deployed on missions across the globe, but a large majority were assigned to those two countries. Now more than half of the 8600 of the elite troops overseas are posted outside the Middle East or South Asia, operating in 97 countries according to the Special Operations Command.
Still, about one-third of the 6000 American troops in Iraq and Syria are Special Operators, many of whom are advising local troops and militias on the front lines. About a quarter of the 8400 troops in Afghanistan are special operators.
In Africa, about one-third of the 6000 troops assigned there are special operators.

The Special Operations forces of the US continue to do the work in trying to eliminate the terrorist enclaves around the world. And the president is removing some of the shackles that have constrained them under the previous administration, such as loosening the constraints on drone attacks, as seen by the strike recently against Al-Qaeda extremists meeting in a mosque, despite claims that they were civilians.

The US is expanding its influence in Africa, conducting counter-terrorism exercises in Chad, equipping and training local forces and building a $50 million dollar drone base in Niger that will monitor the ISIS insurgents that operate between Chad and Senegal.

To read the entire article from the New York Times click here:

Photo courtesy DOD

SOF Selection PT Preparation 3.21.2017

Today is a swim day, which hasn’t been a big focus on here recently but should be.

Remember the swim test is a big part of the initial testing phase and many candidates fail to properly prepare for it.

Warm up first – 3 x 30 seconds each of Mountain climbers and Spider-Man planks

Swim 300 meters with fatigues and boots. Ensure you wear the uniform and boots because when you’re swimming with them as on the Selection test it will feel like little gremlins are pulling you down in the water from the corners of your uniform.

Stretch well after completion

Special Operations Sustainment Brigade Gets New home at Fort Bragg

Special Operations troops from Ft. Bragg have the only airborne sustainment brigade in the US Army. And the 528^th Special Operations Sustainment Brigade has a new home on Ft. Bragg.

The unit had been spread around the post but now occupies a 70,000-square foot facility, which is more than four times of the old one. The new headquarters is located in the new Yarborough Special Operations Forces Complex. Besides the 528^th, it also holds units from the 3^rd Special Forces Group and the 95^th Civil Affairs Bn.

The brigade will furnish support in the areas of parachute rigging, logistical support, signal support, military intelligence and medical support for the Special Operations community according to the Brigade’s commander, Col. Lance Curtis.

Maj. Gen. James E. Kraft, commanding general of the brigade’s higher headquarters, the 1st Special Forces Command, said the headquarters was a “world-class facility” for “world class soldiers.”
He praised the soldiers for their efforts in support of Special Forces, psychological operations, and civil affairs troops. The 528th is the only sustainment brigade in the special operations community and the only airborne sustainment brigade in the entire Army.
The unit provides vital support to ongoing special operations missions and currently has about 125 soldiers deployed across 20 countries.
“Thanks for all you’ve done,” Kraft said. “Thanks in advance for all you’re going to do.”

This project is part of a huge overall plan to modernize and update the Special Operations community on base. It has been in the works for more than a decade in the making and allows with the demolition of the brigade’s old, outdated headquarters at the corner of Reilly and Gruber roads to make room for updated construction at the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School.

Eventually, all of the Special Operations forces will reside in the Yarborough Complex which is located on the site of the post’s old ammunition supply point.

To read the entire article from the Fayetteville Observer click here:

Photo courtesy US Army