The Definitive Spec Ops Resource
THE DEFINITIVE SPEC OPS RESOURCE FOR FITNESS AND SELECTION
Training:
Shoulders and Chest Day in the gym, all of this will help with the UBRR
Stretch well after completion
The Global Special Operations Forces Foundation is holding a networking reception among Special Operations professionals in San Diego on April 5th. San Diego is home of the Navy’s and Marine Corps Special Operations Commands and will feature a keynote speaker, Captain Keith Davids, the Deputy Commander of the Naval Special Warfare Command.
Davids a graduate of BUDS/SEAL Training Class 177 in 1991, will speak about the path of future operations for the command. The affair is expected to draw attendees from not only the US Special Operations professionals but from several of our allied countries forces as well.
This San Diego networking reception was a logical addition to the Global SOF Foundation’s event calendar. The greater San Diego area is home to several SOF commands, including Naval Special Warfare Command (NSW) and units from Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command (MARSOC). The abundance of active and retired members of the military has led many defense-focused businesses, small and large, to root themselves in San Diego. These factors, coupled with the views and weather, made Coronado Island the prime location for a networking reception.
As Global SOF Foundation President Stu Bradin said at the Global SOF Symposium in February, “GSF events are all about connecting people.” While GSF receptions are focused heavily on networking opportunities, this event will also feature a keynote speaker. Capt. Keith Davids, the Deputy Commander of NSW, will provide remarks to the audience, focusing on NSW’s approach to the future of special operations
Retired LTC Bradin created the foundation after his retirement from USSOCOM to connect and convene the global Special Operations Forces (SOF) community at multiple annual events across the United States and Europe. They hold multiple symposiums during the year both in the US and in Europe.
To read the entire article from the IT Business click here:
Photo courtesy DOD
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
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
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 10th 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
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
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
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
British SAS troops stationed in Iraq have been issued with a “kill or capture” list containing the names of up to 200 British terrorists fighting alongside ISIS.
In a report by The Sunday Times, MI6, MI5, and GCHQ have furnished intelligence to the SAS operators in Iraq with target orders to eliminate British nationals who have joined the terrorist network of ISIS. Any captured British nationals will be turned over to Iraqi authorities and face a possible execution if convicted of terrorism.
Under the command of the US Joint Special Operations Command, they are understood to be part of an international task force with orders to hunt and kill or capture as many foreign fighters as possible. MI5 believes the imminent capture of the northern Iraqi town of Mosul, where Isis has been in control since June 2014, will not herald the end of the terror group, but rather a new chapter in its activities.
One senior defence source said: “A kill list has been drawn up containing the names of hundreds of very bad people. A lot of them are from the UK. The hunt is now on for British Islamists who have effectively gone off-grid.
“This is a multinational special forces operation. The SAS have their own part of the plan and they will be going after British nationals. This is a kill or capture mission and it has already begun.
There are a reported 100 SAS troops operating in both Iraq and Syria. And the belief is as the terrorists are gradually weakening in both countries, it is feared that they will attempt to return to the UK and conduct terrorist activities similar to the one in Paris a year ago. Defense spokesman characterized the jihadis as “hardened fighters”.
To read the entire article from Sunday Times, click here:
Photo courtesy UK Ministry of Defence
Our military forces have been in combat non-stop since 9/11. They’ve shown that they’ve been equal to the task and have performed as we’ve come to expect from our armed forces. However, the on-going conflicts have seen increased leanings on our Special Operations Forces, who, despite being just a fraction of the overall force, are conducting combat operations at a rate far greater than their numbers.
The operational tempo is insanely high and we’re seeing the results of that creep into the force. PTSD, suicides, substance abuse and family issues from having to deploy so many times are taking a toll. The stress of constant combat deployments is a very real issue that the services are trying to work thru. And in addition, they’ll have other issues to deal with. Not in the future but now the very foundation of the Special Operations Forces is subject to change.
When Defense Secretary Ashton Carter opened combat occupation roles for women in the military, it also allowed women to volunteer for the various Special Operations units. Women have served in combat areas and performed well in combat in both Iraq and Afghanistan. There have been 160 that have paid the ultimate price. But there is a vast difference between women allowed to serve in combat and going on special missions and women who will be assigned to Special Forces A-teams, SEAL Teams, as well as MARSOC and AFSOC units.
Women have already performed special operations and have gone on missions. The Special Operations Command first allowed women on operations with the Cultural Support Teams (CSTs) and those have been successful at times. Women were able to gather intelligence from Afghan women, something that was rarely done before. But many of the male operators on the missions consider them a hindrance. But remember the CSTs were not operators from the units, just attached to them. The training that is open to them will change that.
These special ops units in the military are not only difficult to get into but even more so to complete the courses. Carter admitted as such when he said that the differences in the sexes will have some occupational specialties difficult for women to fill.
Now women must complete the SFAS (Assessment and Selection) course and the SFQC (Special Forces Qualification Courses), BUDS, Ranger et al which is very difficult. Can the majority of women physically handle the task of completing the courses? No, but neither can most men. Special Operations units are very demanding so their qualification courses are very tough. The standards must remain the same regardless of the failure rate to maintain the proper level of competence to complete missions. Any kind of lowering of standards will erode the effectiveness of the force.
Physically, these courses place a tremendous reliance on upper body strength and the ability to carry a heavy rucksack for long distances and then go into combat. There are serious doubts that women will attain the standards of the men. Then there is also the very real question of whether a woman could carry a wounded team member out of harms’ way if he/she were to go down. Granted there will be some women that can meet the challenge, two recently passed the US Army Ranger School and while they aren’t members of the Ranger Regiment, there is a chance of either being assigned at some point. How will the reaction be when women go from attached to being members of special operations units? According to the data, not well.
US Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) polled their members and asked about allowing women into their MOS specialties and their units. And 85 percent of the operators were against women being allowed into their specialty and 71 percent against allowing women into their units.
The biggest reasons given in the survey by SOCOM for excluding women were:
One of the most frequent answered questions of the survey was “What is your greatest concern about opening SOF specialties to women?”
The physical standards will be lowered or there will be a double/separate standard set up for female operators. . . . [T]he men would not have confidence in her abilities and most importantly there would be a lack of trust in her ability to uphold an equal share in watching each other’s back in combat.
A common theme in operators across the Special Operations spectrum is that the teams are like a family and there has to be a tremendous amount of trust placed on each other to accomplish their mission. And many feel that once female candidates begin washing out in large percentages from the courses that pressure will be brought to bear from DOD/Congress on USSOCOM to lower the standards so that women will have a greater percentage of the force.
That lowering of the standards will have an adverse effect on mission accomplishment, lower unit cohesion and erode esprit de corps. Will the DOD and/or Congress lay off the Special Operations community and allow them to conduct their own selection courses without interference? That is doubtful.
Special Operations units when deployed operate in austere environments. Many times when working with military units of some of the poorer nations, the facilities that are given for our units to live and operate in are small and very cramped. Those tight living quarters are another issue with the operators, separate bathroom and living quarters may not be available and living in close proximity to women will have an adverse effect on the unit.
Besides the physical aspects of the job, women will have to battle cultural prejudices that exist in many hotspots around the globe where women warriors are not a common sight. In many of the countries where our Special Operations Forces now operate, women are kept separate from men and women would never be accepted. In a profession where building rapport is paramount, that is a very real concern.
This isn’t to say that women can’t continue to serve in combat roles and conduct special operations missions. About 40 percent of the operators surveyed stated that women can accomplish tasks and support missions that the avenues weren’t as open to men. The CSTs have shown that in intelligence gathering from women in Afghanistan. The CIA has had women in clandestine operations all the way back to the OSS in WWII. No one questions whether women would have the courage to do the job.
But the question on women in Special Operations comes down to basically three questions. First, with all of the combat operations going on worldwide, is this really the time for USSOCOM to begin tinkering with the force, especially in such a sensitive area for the operators involved?
Second, to quote Jeff Goldblum from Jurassic Park, “you were so preoccupied with whether or not you could that you didn’t stop to think if they should.” Is this really necessary for the force? Putting women in a traditionally male-dominated society such as Special Operations is going to be tough on them, both with the selection criteria and from their counterparts, who clearly don’t want them involved. It really isn’t fair to them.
And finally, will the force be stronger as a result? Will including women in Special Operations make the force stronger or weaker. If any of the above answers are no, then the question of women in Special Operations units should be a no.