US SOCOM

Special Operations Forces Selection PT Preparation Week 1 Day 3

We’re going to do a smoker this morning of pushups, sit-ups, and/or crunches that you can either do at the gym or on the ground and then head back out on the rucking trails. Let’s pump these out as quickly as possible, understanding that there isn’t a time limit but to build up your endurance.

UBRR Training:

More Preparation for the UBRR:

100 pushups (no time limit)

100 sit-ups (no time limit) or

100 crunches

Rucksack march: Go as hard and as fast as you can for 1 hour. Do this without running. See what your distance is and make a notation. This will give you a goal to achieve in later training sessions.

Stretch well after completion

Remembering Moe Berg, MLB Catcher, OSS Operative, Born March 2, 1902

Moe Berg was one of the more fascinating characters in the world of both professional baseball and the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) during World War II. After playing professional baseball for 15 years and coaching for two more, he joined the OSS and was an operative in Europe during the war. But prior to that, he actually spied for the United States on Japan prior to the war during a pair of “friendship tours” of Japan with fellow baseball players.

Morris (Moe) Berg was born in Harlem, NYC on March 2, 1902. When he was just four, his family moved to Newark, after his father bought a pharmacy. He graduated from Barringer High School at the age of 16 and was named to an All-Star baseball team “Dream Team” as one of Newark’s top ballplayers.

He attended New York University for a year before enrolling in Princeton. He was a captain of the Princeton baseball team and graduated with a B.A. (Bachelor of Arts), magna cum laude in modern languages. He had studied seven languages: Latin, Greek, French, Spanish, Italian, German, and Sanskrit (ancient Indian).

While playing shortstop in baseball, he and second baseman Crossan Cooper would speak in Latin in calling out their signals whenever a runner was on base. However, because of his Jewish heritage, he was never completely accepted in one of the Ivy League’s premier WASP academies.

In 1923, he signed a professional baseball contract with the Brooklyn Robins for $5000. Thus began a 15-year career in major league baseball. He was never a star, and after catching on with the Chicago White Sox in 1926, he did what at the time was unthinkable. He informed the team that he was going to skip spring training and attend Columbia Law School, in an effort to become a lawyer.

Berg languished on the bench for most of the season before injuries at catcher forced him to be placed there. He did such a good job behind the plate, that catcher became his primary position. In 1928, Berg led the Major Leagues in caught-stealing percentage (60.9). Although the game has changed drastically since then, it should just be noted that the MLB average for runners caught stealing in 2018 was just 27 percent.

Spying On Japan:

During the winter of 1932, MLB arranged for several players, including Berg to tour Japanese universities to teach the finer points of baseball. After their tour was over, while the other players returned home to the United States, Berg remained in Japan and visited other locales such as Manchuria, Shanghai, Peking, Indochina, Siam, India, Egypt, and Berlin. After returning Berg set an American League record of 117 consecutive games without an error by a catcher (since broken).

During his second trip to Japan, Berg, despite being a journeyman backup catcher was asked to be a part of an All-Star team making the rounds in Japan and playing against Japanese All-Stars. The team included such legends as Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Earl Averill, Charlie Gehringer, Jimmie Foxx, and Lefty Gomez.

Berg carried a 16-mm Bell & Howell movie camera and was to ostensibly film the tour for a film company in New York. But he’d have another job to do while there in Japan. Berg addressed the Japanese in their own language as the team arrived. While in the country, the team was to play a game in Omiya. Berg, skipped that game to supposedly visit the daughter of American Ambassador Joseph Grew in St. Luke’s Hospital. While there, he snuck up on the roof and using his movie camera to film the city and harbor, providing American intelligence some valuable insight into what, to them was a total mystery.

Later reports surfaced, that has never been confirmed that Berg’s film was used by LTC Jimmy Doolittle to plan his raid of Tokyo during the war. Once again, as soon as the tour was over, Berg didn’t return to the United States, opting to travel to Moscow, Korea, and the Philippines.

As his playing career was winding down, Berg played the final five years of major league baseball playing for the Boston Red Sox. He followed that up with two more with the Red Sox as a coach. During this time, Berg, the athlete scholar who read up to 10 newspapers a day, appeared on the radio quiz show, “Information, Please”. He was a frequent guest and blew people away with his overall knowledge about a variety of subjects.

Major League Baseball Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis told him, “in just thirty minutes you did more for baseball than I’ve done the entire time I’ve been commissioner”, but not everyone was enamored with him. Casey Stengle once described Berg as “one of the strangest men to ever play baseball.”

World War II Service:

After the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, Berg was initially posted at a position that monitored the health of U.S. servicemen in Central and South America. But in early 1943, that all changed when he applied for and was accepted into the OSS.

Berg fit the mold perfectly that General William Donovan had for OSS, “PhDs that can win a bar fight.” Berg was a professional athlete who played 15 years in the bigs, could speak 10 languages, seven of them fluently.

Berg was assigned to the Special Operations Branch (SO). He was a paramilitary operations officer in OSS that would today be part of the CIA Special Activities Division. He was then transferred to the Secret Intelligence Branch, specifically the Balkans Desk.

Berg parachuted into Nazi-occupied Yugoslavia to evaluate the different resistance groups operating against the Germans to determine which was the strongest and which one the United States would lend more of its support. He met with both Draža Mihailović and Josip Broz Tito and got an accurate, detailed look at their different groups, deciding that Tito had a stronger and better-supported group.

From there, Berg then took part in Project Larson and Project Azusa. The mission of the first was for OSS operatives to kidnap Italian rocket scientists and bring them to the U.S. The second project had to do with the grilling of Italian physicists to see what they knew about Werner Heisenberg and Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker. Those two men were heading up Nazi Germany’s Nuclear Weapons project.

In December of 1944, OSS learned that Heisenberg was giving a lecture in Switzerland. Berg went there to find out if the Nazis were close to building a bomb. If that was the case, Berg’s orders were to eliminate Heisenberg. But Berg learned that Germans were not close to building a bomb and Heisenberg lived (and was resurrected by Walter White in “Breaking Bad…I digress).

After the war when OSS later became CIA, Berg tried to join and get posted to Israel but was rebuffed. He did, however, get tasked by the agency to use his old contacts in 1952 to check on the Soviet Union’s nuclear weapon program. In his debrief, the CIA agent described Berg as “flaky”.

Unfortunately, that wartime service was the high point of his life. Berg never again held a job and lived with his brother for 17 years where he was forced to evict him. Berg then lived with his sister for the final four years of his life. He died from the results of a fall at his home at the age of 70 in 1972. His ashes were spread over Mount Scopus in Jerusalem per his own request.

His true love remained baseball. He once said, he’d “rather be a ballplayer than a justice of the U.S. Supreme Court” In fact, on his death bed, his final words were asking the nurse “How did the Mets do today?”

Berg would be awarded the Medal of Freedom, the highest honor given to civilians during wartime, but he flat out refused it. After he died, his sister, Ethel, claimed the award, which she later donated to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

“Mr. Morris Berg, United States Civilian, rendered exceptionally meritorious service of high value to the war effort from April 1944 to January 1946,” reads the Medal of Freedom citation. “In a position of responsibility in the European Theater, he exhibited analytical abilities and a keen planning mind. He inspired both respect and constant high level of endeavor on the part of his subordinates which enabled his section to produce studies and analysis vital to the mounting of American operations.”

A former OSS operative and later the President of the New York Yankees, Michael Burke, said Berg was the ideal operative. “Moe was absolutely ideal for undercover work. Not by design; just by nature,” he said.

“One, because of his physical attributes. He could go anyplace without fear. He had stamina. Also, he had a gift for languages. In addition, he had an alert, quick mind that could adapt itself into any new or strange subject and make him comfortable quickly.”

“He was immensely involved intellectually and active in international affairs through reading and travel. He had the capacity to be at home in Italy or France or London or Bucharest. He was on familiar ground in all those places,” Burke added. “He also possessed a great capacity for being able to live comfortably alone and could do this for a long period of time. The life of an agent sometimes is a lonely one and some people aren’t suited for that.”

Berg’s life was made into a major Hollywood film starring Paul Rudd, “The Catcher Was a Spy.” We wrote a review of that here:

Photos: Wikipedia

Special Operations Forces Selection PT Preparation Week 1, Day 2

Back to the gym today, with our Monday work out and then practice our shuttle run to build up some explosion and lateral quickness in our lower bodies. Try to limit the time between sets to 30 seconds or less

UBRR Training:

More Preparation for the UBRR:

3 x 12 Flat Bench Presses

3 x 12 Incline Dumbbell Presses

3 x 10 Dumbbell Fly (Flat Bench)

3 x 10 Dumbbell Pullover

3 x 10 Dips (or to muscle failure)

3 x 10 Triceps Rope Pushdown

3 x 10 Overhead Triceps Press

4 x 25-meter Shuttle Run (x3)

Stretch well after completion

Special Operation Forces Selection PT Preparation Week 1, Day 1

How did everyone do on their UBRR Test from yesterday? If you passed but have some weak points, you now know what needs to be worked on. If you failed any portion of it, then you still have a lot of work to do. And know exactly what needs to get worked on.

What we’re going to do now is start back from Day 1 and get everyone back on the same sheet of music. Stick with us and we’ll get through this. We will go back to the basics and kick it off with our Sunday morning rucksack march.

Something to keep in mind, we won’t publish off days/rest days into the 16-week program. Everyone’s schedule is different as are your bodies. Listen to your body when you need to take a rest day or your schedule precludes you from getting a workout in.

Training:

Preparation for the UBRR:

Warm up 30 seconds Mountain Climbers

Warm up 30 seconds Spider-Man Planks

4-mile Ruck march over varied terrain with a minimum 45-pound ruck (60 minutes max)

Stretch well after completion

Hydrate throughout the ruck march…you’ll hear this a lot and get into the habit.

Special Operations Forces Selection PT Preparation Week 16, 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.

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

SFAS Wasn’t All Serious, Some Funny Cadre Anecdotes

When we think about Special Forces Selection and Assessment (SFAS), nothing fun, funny or silly immediately comes to mind. You’ll hear about the horror stories of the ruck marches, the soft sand of nearly every Camp Mackall firebreak, the Star land navigation course and the various conveyances constructed during Team Week.

It is known more for “Embracing the Suck” than it is for the levity of it all. And yet, while a cadre member, certain things stood out that made it very difficult to keep a straight face. I was talking to an old friend not too long ago and we began to talk about some of the crazy stuff that went on out there and contrary to popular belief, the cadre at SFAS in fact, DO have a sense of humor…sometimes.

I have a few funny anecdotes from those days of yore that some of you may find amusing. And many of you will have your own in the future. If so, please share.

Fun With the Sand Man:

Ask anybody who has successfully finished SFAS and they’ll have their own horror stories of the “Sand Man” event during Team Week. The way it worked back then was that the candidate team would ruck to a location where they’d be given the task of evacuating two friendly pilot casualties to friendly lines.

The students would be given several large poles, lashings, and a hammock to be used as a litter. The two “pilots” were nothing more than Nomex flight suits that were filled with sandbags. The weight of each litter had to be well over 300 pounds. Plus, each of the candidates had to carry their rucksacks which had to weigh 45 pounds dry, which meant without food or water.

The candidates were instructed to treat the casualties as you would an actual casualty. That meant, if you were to set the litter down, it had to be eased down and not dropped.

While walking with one group, I was right next to the second litter that one team was carrying. One candidate, audibly said, “F**k this!” and dropped his corner of the litter. Of course, the snowball effect happened immediately. On the corner just in front of the candidate who dropped it, the pole slid off that candidate’s shoulders and slammed into his foot with the force of a sledgehammer.

Candidate #2 yelped in pain and after hopping around for a few seconds, was walking in small circles trying to not show that he was in agony. Of course as a cadre member, while the urge to call Candidate #1 a two-pronged word of which buddy is the first, we’re expected to maintain our composure. “Candidate, would you like to see the medic”, I asked? He shook his head no. “Would like time to take off your boot and treat your foot yourself?” Again he shook his head, obviously thinking that if he took his boot off, it might never get back on. Like we were supposed to, my next question was also by the book, “Do you feel you can continue to train, candidate?” (Our major would have been proud), And he nodded without saying anything. I instructed the team leader to give the team a break in the shade off the dirt road, while I arranged a pickup for Candidate #1 who was done. He quit.

The white pickup arrived with one of our medics, Candidate #1 was unceremoniously put in the back and forgotten. Our medic talked to Candidate #2 who already had a drop or two of blood seeping from his boot. “See me when you get back tonight, candidate,” he said. Again, with a nod. “Yes sergeant,” was all he said. A few moments later the team picked up and moved out. The student team leader had two guys who weren’t under a “Sandman” and they gave Candidate #2 a break first and allowed him to try to get his feet back under him.

I slid up next to him and after a few moments, I asked him if he was good to go. He nodded yes again, and finally said, “I was afraid if I opened my mouth a few minutes ago, the only thing that would’ve come out was me squealing like a little bitch.” And then he looked at me in horror as if he said something wrong. I tried unsuccessfully to stifle a smile and just shook my head.

Another class with the Sandman stumbled in the Camp Mackall soft sand and they lost their litter. One candidate had the pole whack the hell out of the back of his head. He was out on his feet, but rather than go down and get his bearings, he tried to remain upright and teetered-tottered every which way. He began to stumble toward the second team.

Afraid of another group going down, I tried to lurch forward and grab ahold of him, but his teetering took on a life of its own and we looked like two drunken sailors trying to hold on to a telephone pole. One of the candidates, speaking to his classmate said, “Do you two dance together all the time.” That time everyone laughed…including me.

A few moments later, and we back on the trail, none the worse for wear. And those candidates all were later selected by the way, other than the first one.

Radio GaGa…:

All of our cadre members had radios that were to be on and monitored at all times. Some guys like my old roommate and best bud Dave O. never could be bothered. Our head shed would occasionally radio us for updates and want to know where certain teams were, for what? I don’t know, just to stay informed I would venture. But the other cadre members would keep each other abreast of what was going on and certain NCOs were hilarious in their descriptions of what was going on. None better than Steve S. who was a 5th SFG guy before coming to SWC and the schoolhouse.

So one day, our Major is contacting all the teams to check in and everyone did except Dave O’s group. A few minutes later, our two teams passed each other on the road and I relayed to him that they were looking for him to check in. In typical Dave fashion, he shrugged and said, “he’ll get over it.” So, just about two minutes later, the Major is calling him again…no answer. And I had a brilliant idea. I could imitate my bud’s Cuban-American New York City accent easily and I could get him off the hook.

So I responded on the radio for him and relayed his position. Then the commander commenced chewing my/Dave’s ass for not monitoring the frequency during the day as he ordered… So, I answered as I “knew” my bud would, “No worries…I’m on it,” I said. The commander Major V. asked what in the hell he was doing anyway… In my perfect accent, I answered, “Hey I’m just working here.”

Of course, all the other NCOs knew it wasn’t Dave but me on the radio and the chatter started. No one dimed me out, but everyone was calling in with their own take on how they too were “just working out here.” Major V. was pissed.

So, when we got back, the major and the sergeant major commence to chew Dave out for being a smartass on the radio. Of course, it took them all of about a minute to realize that he didn’t have a clue of what they were talking about. As soon as my group re-entered Camp Mackall, I was called for and got a major ass-chewing and a counseling statement, for “improper and unnecessary radio chatter.” As much as I proclaimed total ignorance of what transpired and gave my best and most sincere innocent look, they didn’t buy it. Dave did monitor his radio for about a day and then went happily back to ignoring it again…

What Are You Doing, Checking His Feet For!”

As I’ve written here in the past, we had one class where the candidates got rained and snowed on for nearly the entire Selection schedule. It was February, and it started as snow but then it was just warm enough for the remainder of the class for it to fall as rain.

The soft sand of Mackall was turned into a muddy quagmire. Standing water was everywhere. The candidates’ feet were wet constantly and they took a beating. By the time that class finished they were walking like a collective group of very old men. It was also the lowest selection rate we had of any class I worked.

So, in the next class, the commander stressed that the medics had to keep a close eye on the candidates’ feet and harp on them that they needed to stress their own foot care so that we didn’t have another fiasco like the February class.

So the next class comes in and we are going thru the normal first week’s gates that the candidates must accomplish. We walked them thru the obstacle course, “Nasty Nick” in the morning just prior to lunch. After lunch, we would have them conduct if for time. There was an SFAS cadre member placed at each obstacle to ensure that the candidates conducted it correctly or marking down their roster numbers if they failed. When the final candidate went thru each obstacle, the cadre would follow behind and we’d roll up at the final obstacle which was the cargo net.

Everything went very smooth, despite having a very large class. We were rolling up on the cargo net as the final two candidates hit the bottom of the net. The cadre gathered on the other side and we waited for them to get down the other side before moving back into the compound. The first candidate maneuvered easily over the top. As the second reached the top, we could see his head and shoulders as he reached over to grab a handhold. Collectively, we all turned to begin walking back into the compound.

Then everything went south. We all heard the candidate say, “SHHHHHHHIIIIITTTT!” as his hand slipped on the net and he tumbled the entire way from the top of the net, some 30-35 feet to the ground. He landed with a thump awkwardly on his upper back and shoulders in the mulch below and bounced a good foot off the ground.

Two medics, the aforementioned Dave O. and another guy rushed over, as this could be a very serious injury. The candidate was stunned and barely moving, having taken a bad fall. Dave was stabilizing his head and neck and telling the candidate to lie still. The other medic began to remove the candidate’s boots.

“What the hell are doing?” Dave asked our other medic whose name escapes me. “I’m checking his feet,” came the laconic reply. “WTF are you checking his feet for, this MFer probably just broke his fucking neck and you’re worried about a blister?” my buddy snapped in his own special kind of way. “Well, the major said…” he began, but Dave cut him off.

“Hey, this schmuck will probably be paralyzed but shit, he don’t got no blisters! Get outta here, I got this.” In case you wondered, Dave’s bedside manner wasn’t the greatest, but as a medic, there were none better. The rest of cadre moved off and had a laugh at this latest insanity that was SFAS. After a few moments of recuperation, the candidate was able to continue with the course albeit with a very sore neck and shoulder region.

CID visits the Cadre Office… Run Away….”

There is never a dull moment in SF. One morning at our building back on Ft. Bragg, we had a large, the largest at that time SFAS class we had up to that point in-processing to begin the course. About 15 of the cadre members were crowded in the front office as we had about 30 mins before we had a formation for the candidates.

As we were talking an unmarked Army CID sedan pulled up in front of the building and two plainclothes MPs got out. You could always spot those guys from a mile away. Driving a white Chrysler K car with military tags, the cops dressing in highly flammable polyester with ties out of the 1960s…you get the idea.

The effect of CID was immediate…everybody began scurrying out of the room, and Steve S. put it perfectly, “I’m not afraid of the cops, but…Run awwwwaaaayyy,” in a Monty Python voice.

The cops entered the office and I was the only cadre member left. The bigger of the two cops spoke, “where’d everybody go?” he asked. “Who?” I said. “I just saw about 15 guys in here when we pulled up and now they’re all gone…are they hiding in the back office,” he asked? Little did he know.

Calling this guy the bigger of the two was the understatement of the year. This huge black dude looked like a football nose tackle. His neck (if you want to call it that) was as big as his head and his hands were the size of catcher’s mitts.

So, he asked if we had a student by the name of so-and-so. I checked off the roster and indeed we did. They asked to speak with him. The Sergeant Major came in and they brought this candidate in and used our Major’s office for a moment with the door closed.

Shortly after, the door opened and the smaller cop came out followed by our candidate who was in cuffs. The huge cop followed with a mitt-sized hand on his shoulder. “We’re taking him with us…he won’t be returning,” the big guy boomed. And as he was walking out, he turned and said, you can tell the other guys they can come out now.”

About a year later, while attending the Warrant Officer Candidate Course at Ft. Rucker, AL, who comes walking in the door. Couldn’t miss him, the biggest candidate they may have ever had at Rucker. His name was Steve Blue (RIP).

He was, in fact, an NFL player for a short time with the Giants as a nose tackle and one of the best guys you’d meet anywhere. He was as funny as he was huge and he became inseparable with the SF guys there.

One night I reminded him of the story and he relayed the rest of it. It seems our candidate was stationed in Korea with the 2nd I.D. He married a Korean girl, got her a dependent I.D. card and such until he was transferred back to the U.S. At Ft. Ord, he married a local girl and got her an I.D. too. You can see where this is going. At Ft. Riley, the genius did it a third time. Alarm bells were ringing in the bean counting world.

So, our erstwhile candidate volunteers for SFAS. CID was alerted and they sent a couple of guys (Blue and his partner) to interview him. I asked Blue, “Did he admit to it?” He replied, “yep in about two seconds.” Steve Blue asked him what was he thinking….the guy responded, “I really did like all of them and didn’t want to lose any of them.” So, naturally, the next question was, “why did you volunteer for SF?” The guy thought he’d be able to hide overseas until the heat blew over. Blue asked the guy, “but wouldn’t you have gotten into more trouble overseas?”

The response, Well, I did hear those Colombian girls make great wives.” Indeed.

Photo: US Army

Special Operations Forces Selection PT Preparation Week 16 Day 6

Friday, that must mean its Leg Day at the gym but with the UBRR (Upper Body Round Robin) Test on Saturday, we’re scaling back our workout today. Just a light stretch and a very short ruck march to get the kinks out.

Training:

Warm up

Stretch well and hydrate

2-mile Rucksack march with a leisurely pace, not fast at all, just enough to loosen your body up. Save it for the test on Saturday.

Stretch well after completion

ISIS In Syria Being Decimated, Russia, Assad Call For US to Withdraw

Opinion: The Syrian Defense Forces (SDF) have continued to hammer the forces of the Islamic State (ISIS) that lay in front of them. The Syrian government of President Assad, along with their Russian allies are calling for the United States now to withdraw from the country.

“We also call on the United States, whose military units are on Syrian territory illegally, to leave the country,” the joint statement said.

The ISIS fighters are being squeezed into a four-square-kilometer sliver of territory along the Euphrates River. The fighting is fierce where the ISIS troops are now left with the prospect of having nowhere to run. In the recent fighting for the villages of Susa and Marashida, the Daesh, the Arabic word for ISIS are taking reprisals against the civilians who try to flee from the fighting. SDF troops, like everywhere ISIS has been are finding piles of bodies at every turn.

In the fierce fighting in Susa, SDF troops took the town, only to have ISIS counterattack and force them back out. But SDF augmented by Kurdish Special Forces troops, massive amounts of artillery and air strikes, routed the ISIS elements in the town, which lay in ruin now.

Because of the reprisals, ISIS has taken against the civilian populace, they’ll follow on with their next tactic out of their playbook which is to use the civilians as human shields. And the international community will call for them to be given another free pass like the one they were given at Raqua. ISIS made a deal with the SDF to allow “a few hundred” fighters and their families leave Raqua.

The BBC reported that 250 fighters were permitted to leave Raqqa. They left with 3,500 family members to ISIS-controlled territory. According to the BBC, their convoy included nearly 50 rented trucks, 13 buses, and more than 100 ISIS vehicles. Ten trucks were loaded with weapons. What was told was that just a few dozen fighters and their families would be let go. With no foreigners and no weapons.

If there’s one thing we’ve learned about ISIS over the past several years, is that they deserve no quarter from anyone. Have they given any to any civilian anywhere? The U.S. and British would not attack the convoys as the vehicles were driven by civilians and the coalition said they wouldn’t bomb women and children.

That sordid affair was captured here in its entirety:

The Syrians and Russians are also calling for the U.S. to allow refugees in Rukban along the Syrian-Jordan border to be evacuated by Syrian and Russian troops. The regime is supplying buses to move the refugees in the camp where conditions are dire.

Rukban lies smack in the middle of the US-Russian demilitarized zone, created by the two superpowers so that no “mistaken” conflicts arise between the two countries. Neither the Americans nor Russians would take responsibility for the camp.

The nearby U.S. military base near al-Tanf also allows the US to be close to a supply route where Iranian weapons enter Syria from Iraq.

The Jordanians will no longer help the camp after ISIS attacked its troops near the border. The civilians in the camp (about 50,000) are stuck in the middle. They initially fled from the Assad regime and ISIS. Assad’s forces have not allowed aid to reach the camp.

The Russians claim that a recent poll conducted by the U.N. had 95 percent of its refugees wanted to leave Rukban and that 80 percent wanted to return to areas under Syrian regime control. Yet when the Russians opened a pair of “humanitarian corridors” to territory held by the Assad regime, not one refugee left.

The civilians (80% women and children) fear arrest, torture, and even death at the hands of Assad.

But yet, the Syrians and Russians try to lay the blame on the Americans. “The command of the US group in the al-Tanf zone interferes the exit, moreover, misleads the refugees about the inability to leave the camp, spreads rumors, that on the territory controlled by the Syrian government, they will be devastated, forced into conscription and arrested,” they said in their statement.

The Trump Administration had said that they were completely pulling out of Syria, which is exactly what the regime, the Russians and the Iranians have wanted. But after speaking with Turkish President Ergodan, Trump reversed his field and has decided to leave about 400 troops in the country at two different locations. That is about 20 percent of the currently 2000 troops in the country.

Erdogan has made it clear that his government will not tolerate armed Kurds on the border with Turkey as he considers the SDF the same as the YPG and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which his government sees as terrorists.

Meanwhile, freezing temperatures, lack of food, medicines, and doctors have the refugees on the brink. Eight children have starved to death in Rukban since the beginning of the year.

Now is not the time for the United States to leave too soon or to allow ISIS to leave the country unmolested. European nations are refusing to allow nationals who left to fight for ISIS back in their countries. The United States should adopt the same policy.

Photo: Getty Images

Special Operations Forces Selection PT Preparation Week 16, Day 5

Thursday is a Chest and Triceps workout in the gym and then hit the road 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.

UBRR 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

US Airstrikes in Somalia Kill 35 al-Shabaab Fighters

On Monday, the Pentagon announced that a U.S. airstrike in Somalia targeted and killed 35 al-Shabaab fighters near the Ethiopian border. No civilian casualties were reported.

The U.S. was active with airstrikes over the weekend, conducting four against al-Shabaab targets alone, which reportedly killed two other fighters.

The U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) released a statement saying that the airstrike hit the targets “as they were transitioning between locations in a rural area,” this site is located approximately 23 miles east of Beledweyne, Hiran region.

“We continue to support our Somali partners, especially when their operations provide us opportunities to take the fight to Al Shabaab as an element of our partnered strategy,… “In the case of this strike, we interrupted an Al Shabaab attempt to mass their forces,” AFRICOM Director of Operations Maj. Gen. Gregg Olson said.

“Precision strikes eliminated a potential threat to our partners and to the people of Somalia well before the terrorists ever got themselves organized.”

According to the DOD, there is between 3000 to 7000 al-Shabaab fighters and up to 250 ISIS fighters in the region as of last summer. The head of AFRICOM, Marine Corps Gen. Thomas Waldhauser, told the Senate Armed Services Committee earlier this month that the U.S. airstrikes alone will not defeat the militant group.

“At the end of the day, these strikes are not going to defeat al-Shabaab,” Waldhauser said.

But with the U.S. vowing to cut troop strength in Africa, especially the counterterrorism missions by about 10 percent, or roughly 720 of the 7,200 military forces serving in the command, the U.S. has stepped up airstrikes on the terrorists. It is one way of keeping the al-Shabaab fighters off-balance while they aid the Somali National Army to step up and take the lead role in securing their own borders.

They have a long, long way to go but they are making some progress, with the help of coalition airstrikes. Prior to 2017, the U.S. was only authorized to strike targets that were threatening U.S. advisors on the ground in a self-defense mode. But last year, the airstrikes were allowed to target al-Shabaab or ISIS elements wherever the opportunity arose. They carried out nearly 50 airstrikes a year ago.

So far, this year, the U.S. has conducted 20 airstrikes, including this latest this weekend where they “eliminated checkpoints and facilities used by al-Shabaab to collect illegal taxes to fund terrorist activities and to oppress” [Somali citizens], AFRICOM released in a different statement. Whenever and wherever the terrorists of al-Shabaab or ISIS begin to mass their forces, if U.S. intelligence spots them, then, they’re targeted.

Al-Shabaab (the Youth) began as the armed faction of the Islamic Courts Union (ICU), which later splintered into several smaller factions. This happened after al-Shabaab was defeated in 2006 by Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government.

In 2012, they announced their support for al-Qaeda. They believe in a very strict interpretation of sharia law. They ban most entertainment, such as films and music; the sale of khat, a narcotic plant that is often chewed, which is very popular in the area; smoking; and the shaving of beards. The punishment meted out is often of the stoning or amputation variety.

They try to block any humanitarian aid which forces the civilian populace to live in a near-starvation state and in fear. The U.S and many other countries have branded them a terrorist organization. Their recruitment is down due to defections, lack of pay for low-level fighters and airstrikes. However, due to large Somali faction living in the Minneapolis, MN area, they attracted dozens of recruits from there.

Al-Shabaab was responsible for a pair of bombings in Mogadishu that killed over 500 people in October 2017.

The terror organization wasn’t a big priority of the previous Obama administration and in 2016, the U.S. conducted just 16 airstrikes. Things began to change with the new Trump administration. Airstrikes more than doubled to 35 in 2017, including a large one that killed 100 fighters in October 2017 northwest of Mogadishu.

While the U.S. has waged mainly a proxy war against al-Shabaab, arming and training regional forces, the U.S. has 500 personnel in Somalia, which includes troops, civilians and contractors, mostly in an advisory role.

Photo: Wikipedia