SOF

SOF Selection PT Preparation 4.6.2017

After a swim day, it is back to a heavy day of UBRR preparation with pushups, sit-ups, crunches, and a ruck march. Once again, ensure that you’re keeping a log of your times on your runs and rucks and you should be noticing a decrease in the times as time moves along.

Don’t forget your stretching and have you started breaking in the second pair of boots yet?

Training:

More Preparation for the UBRR:

3 x 20 pushups

3 x 20 sit ups

3 x 20 crunches

3 x 20 dips or until muscle failure

25 x V-ups

4-mile rucksack march (45-pound minimum) over varied terrain, note your time

Stretch well after completion

SEAL Team 6 Testing New Communication Headsets To Improve Performance

US Navy Special Operators from SEAL Team 6 will be testing new communication headsets that are supposed to maintain their peak performance during operations.

The Commander of all Naval Special Operations asked industry leaders at a conference in Washington, D.C. to develop and demonstrate technologies that offer “cognitive enhancement” capabilities to boost his elite forces’ mental and physical performance.

“We plan on using that in mission enhancement,” Rear Adm. Tim Szymanski said. “The performance piece is really critical to the life of our operators.”
Szymanski expanded on his remarks in a brief interview later, saying he has his eye on a number of technologies, including pharmaceutical aids. But the results of one breakthrough involving the direct application of electrical stimulation to the brain have particularly caught his eye.
“In experiments, people who were watching these screens … their ability to concentrate would fall off in about 20 minutes,” Szymanski said. “But they did studies whereby a little bit of electrical stimulation was applied, and they were able to maintain the same peak performance for 20 hours.”
Developed for elite athletes, the headset purports to work by stimulating the brain to enter a state of hyper-elasticity, allowing users to learn better and more efficiently. In physical training, he said, the technology has proven useful in developing explosive power for athletes whose sports require vertical leaps or sudden starts.
For operators, the same system could improve shooting performance, Wingeier said.
“Whatever you’re training on as far as a movement-based skill,” he said, “if you do deep practice, hard repetition, this accelerates the benefit of that.”

There have been different kinds of technology being tested including transcranial electrical stimulation that helped operators maintain their focus longer as well as a headset that resembles a set of Beats headphones by Dr. Dre made by Halo Neuroscience.

The Navy is also looking alternative performance-enhancing experiments and pharmaceutical aids such as a blood testosterone in the near future.

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

Photo courtesy DOD

Passing Selection, Land Navigation Without the Use of a Protractor

We covered a variety of subjects during our Land Navigation articles and one of the points we made was to tie down all of your equipment as to not lose track of any of it. This will play into our hands-on video this morning.

I have received some questions on my Twitter account, which I normally use for my NFL football writing. However, if any of our readers have any questions about Selection or the SFQC in the future feel free to shoot me a message on Twitter @SteveB7SFG or email me at [email protected] and I’ll be happy to answer them.

The question I received from Twitter this week was as follows: “you wrote about not losing any of your gear. …you caCan you plot your points and navigate without the use of a protractor?” The answer is yes… you can but it obviously isn’t the preferred method.

In the attached video below, I use my spare US Army Lensatic Compass. Which is teaching point #1. During my days in Panama, another unit jumped into Gatun Drop Zone, probably en route to the Jungle Warfare School at Ft. Sherman.

Part of the Gatun DZ had tall elephant grass that would be burned off. Obviously, someone (probably an officer or senior NCO) jumped in and didn’t have their compass tied down to their LBE. And moving thru the elephant grass it pulled it right off on the edge of the cleared area.

A couple of days later we did a jump there and on my way off the drop zone, I found it, all wet from the previous day’s rain. It has been my backup compass ever since. I say this as we spoke about the draws of Hoffman where the Land Navigation portion of SFAS is conducted in. And the same thing can easily happen to you. Tie it down. Tie everything down.

And the question takes into account a candidate either dropping his protractor on the ground or not securing it inside his map case. More hands-on training pieces including some video will be forthcoming.

Check out the video here:

Photo courtesy of DOD

Air Force Special Operator to Receive the Silver Star For Valor In Afghanistan

On Friday, Air Force Tech Sgt. Brian C. Claughsey will receive the Silver Star for valor for his actions in retaking the town of Kunduz from Taliban control in Afghanistan in September 2015.

Claughsey, a Combat Controller in the 21^st Special Tactics was instrumental in helping a group of Special Operations forces retake Kunduz after over 500 Taliban militants had taken the city. At great risk to himself, he directed 17 close air support airstrikes from AC-130U gunships and F-16 aircraft.

He volunteered to ride in the lead convoy vehicle to assume close air support duties during the movement into Kunduz and immediately took control of an AC-130U when the troops were ambushed upon entering the city.
Claughsey directed precision fires on an enemy strong point to protect the convoy. During a second ambush, he coordinated friendly force locations with an overhead AC-130U while directing “danger close” strikes.
When a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device forced the convoy to stop in the middle of a four-way intersection, Claughsey suppressed the machine gun fire of six insurgents with his rifle while still coordinating with the AC-130U. He directed the crew on the plane to destroy the enemy fighters and helped shield the convoy from follow-on attacks as it made its way to the compound of the Kunduz provincial chief of police.
There, the American special operators and Afghan forces came under attack by Taliban mortar fire. According to the narrative of the battle, Claughsey maneuvered as close to the mortars’ origin as possible to pinpoint the location to an overhead F-16. He then controlled numerous strafing runs on the mortar position to eliminate the threat.
After helping to destroy the enemy mortar position, Claughsey moved to suppress enemy fire to allow another airman to direct another F-16 strike on the other side of the compound. He then stood exposed to enemy fire to hold a laser marker in position on an enemy building, directing two “danger close” strikes on the building from the F-16.

Claughsey’s unit, the 21^st Special Tactics Squadron is one that works closely with the other services Special Operations units. Based at Pope Field at Ft. Bragg, it is the most decorated unit in modern Air Force history, with four of the nine Air Force Crosses awarded since 2001 and 11 Silver Stars earned by the squadron’s airmen.

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

Featured photo: US Air Force

SOF Selection PT Preparation 4.05.2017

Back to the pool today for some swimming after hitting the gym for some work on the shoulders and back. After the longer rucksack march on Sunday, this couple of days with shorter runs and a swim will have given your feet a break. But we’ll get the ruck back on tomorrow.

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 Shoulder Press

3 x 8 Shoulder Shrugs

300-meter swim in fatigues and boots

Stretch well after completion

Trump Expanding Special Operations To Target Militants in Somalia

President Trump is expanding the Pentagon’s ability to and the US Africa Command to launch a more effective offensive campaign against the al-Shabab militant group in Somalia. This signing off by the President should clear the way for more airstrikes and a more active presence of U.S. Special Operations Forces on the ground.

This move should also mark a shift in policy where in the past, Special Operations forces were forced to act in a defensive posture or “self-defense” of US advisors and their Somali counterparts. Now they will be able to take a more offensive role in helping Somali units recapture territory from al-Shabab and putting more pressure on them.

American forces have been increasingly active in Somalia in recent years. The Obama administration never abandoned its “signature strike” bombing program in either Somalia or Yemen, which allowed for U.S. drones and manned aircraft to target groups of men who merely showed signs and behaviors of belonging to terrorist groups. The largest of those strikes came in March 2016, when U.S. warplanes bombed an al-Shabab training camp north of Mogadishu, killing what the Pentagon estimated were about 150 militants.
Late last year, the Obama team declared Shabab an “associated force” of al Qaeda, putting the group under the same tenuous legal umbrella that allows the U.S. government to wage war in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, and Yemen.
U.S. commandos on the ground in Somalia accompany government forces on patrol, and have the authority to shoot back or call in airstrikes if threatened, under rules set down by the Obama administration.

General Thomas Waldhauser, commander of Africa Command has said that welcomes the ability to call for attacks and airstrikes from his command HQs rather than have to wait for approval by Washington.

He said the shift in policy from the Obama administration will give his commanders the ability to launch offensive strikes that would allow his ability “to prosecute targets in a more rapid fashion.”

To read the Foreign Policy entire article click here:

Photo courtesy of US Africa Command

Reported Chemical Weapons Attack on Civilians in Syria

A suspected chemical weapons attack, reported to be Sarin gas has been alleged in the Syrian town of Khan Sheikhoun, in Idlib province held by rebels against the Assad regime. Either Syrian or Russian jets according to Syrian activist sources, dropped a bomb that has killed up to 58 civilians including 11 children on Tuesday.

This is worst attack of its kind during the bloody six-year war. It was also the third claim of a chemical attack in just the past week in Syria. The previous two were reported in Hama province, in an area not far from Khan Sheikhoun, where Tuesday’s alleged chemical attack occurred.

Mohammed Hassoun, a media activist in nearby Sarmin — also in Idlib province where some of the critical cases were transferred — said the hospital there had been equipped to deal with such chemical attacks because the town was struck in one chemical attack, early on in the Syrian uprising.
The wounded have been “distributed around in rural Idlib,” he told The Associated Press by phone. “There are 18 critical cases here. They were unconscious, they had seizures and when oxygen was administered, they bled from the nose and mouth.”
Hassoun, who is documenting the attack for the medical society, said the doctors there have said it is likely more than one gas. “Chlorine gas doesn’t cause such convulsions,” he said, adding that doctors suspect sarin was used.
Hussein Kayal, a photographer for the Idlib Media Center, said he was awoken by the sound of a bomb blast around 6:30 a.m. When he arrived at the scene there was no smell, he said.
He found entire families inside their homes, lying on the floor, eyes wide open and unable to move. Their pupils were constricted. He put on a mask, he said. Kayal said he and other witnesses took victims to an emergency room, and removed their clothes and washed them in water.
He said he felt a burning sensation in his fingers and was treated for that.

Idlib Province is home to some 900,000 displaced Syrian refugees and is controlled almost completely by rebels battling the Assad regime. The attack was carried out early in the morning, around 6:30 a.m. when many of the victims were asleep in bed.

To read the ABC News entire article click here:

File Photo courtesy of BBC

Interview With Royal Marine Commando, SBS Operator Gaz Humphrey Pt. 2

We were fortunate enough here at SpecialOperations.com to sit down with Gary Humphrey former Royal Marine Commando and SBS over the weekend. Gary or better known as Gaz to his friends gave us some nice insight on the selection courses of the Marines and the SBS. He relayed some of his experiences as well and it makes for a fun and intriguing look back at one man’s journey.

Gaz makes his home in the states now and lives on the Florida coast, but he’s not there very often as he’s constantly on the go with film projects, and just got back from one in Panama (yes, I’m jealous) but we’ll get to more of that later.

In the first part of our interview, we talked about Humphrey’s beginnings in the military as he joined the Royal Marine Commandos, passed their selection course and was assigned to one of the units. He deployed around the world, but his service in Northern Ireland back in 1989 was perhaps the most difficult.

From there, he began Selection for the SBS (Special Boat Service), Gaz recalled that much of training consisted on needless harassment, the instructors finding the slightest provocation and then forcing the candidates to strip naked to perform many of the training scenarios.

“The SAS course was better produced, the instructors had everything mapped out on how the training day was going to be conducted and they did it. I actually went thru their course after I did ours,” he said.

Wow, I asked him, you went back thru Selection? Humphrey laughed, He replied, “They told me, ‘we’ve got a great idea, we’re going to put you back thru Selection’ we were hardened by then, we could run, we could carry weight (ruck) with the Bergen, and hey, we could swim everywhere naked…right?”

“We went into the jungle in Brunei and came out four or five weeks later, thinking, that was a nice holiday.” The SBS course that Gaz went thru started in August and lasted until May, by then we were a hardened lot,” he repeated.

“We started out with three lots of 50 guys each, pegged down to 50 men but by the time we finished the SAS course we were down to and finished with just nine of us.”

At the conclusion of his training, he was assigned to one of the SBS units that are active all over the world. He signed a confidentiality agreement, that the Brits take much more seriously than the American military does. He’s not at liberty to say publicly where, when and how long he was deployed. The official Secrets Act is something he doesn’t care to run afoul of.

But having known him for quite a few years and having seen his resume, you can be assured that he’s served in most if not all of the “garden spots” that Special Operations Forces have been operating in for the past decade.

He said, “I don’t want to be banned from camp.” He explained further, “a few of the guys, a few years back, they sold their souls, and wrote books. A few more of the guys did a television show, ‘SAS Are You Tough Enough’, which was fine. They’re allowed to do that, but we had a guy who was interviewed on television and he gave up details of different operations and such. Now he’s banned from the camp.”

What does that mean I asked him? “Well, he can’t go back to visit, for any ceremonies, graduations, matches and such. That is where you go back to see your friends. So when discussing his resume, we’ll just leave it as he was a very busy man.

“It was a good time of my life, good men but I’ve lost a lot of good mates. Two of my instructors within six months of each other,” he said. “It makes it a bit difficult, doesn’t it? But we lost as many men from training accidents as they did from ops.”

“The old adage, train hard, fight easy…but you know there comes a time when you see blokes dying, two or three a year and you think, fuck things are catching up.”

“So I did nine years, and then I needed a break and took a walk-about, hitchhiked thru Africa, ski guided and came back and did eight more years. Those were really good ones and I really enjoyed it, and that’s when you realize how much you take the job for granted. You really miss it when you’re out and you really miss the lads.”

“That was the time when the whole world changed, I came back in 1998, then 2000 and whole world fucking exploded. Then our ops changed to a strict war fighting situation. But it was good times. It was fun really, Fun times.”

He keeps up with many of his old teammates and says he tries to keep up with all the jobs they’ve been doing and occasionally get together, share a bottle of port and toast the men who are no longer there.

After his career was over he’s remained a busy man and even is the basis of a hero in a romance novel. He was approached by a female writer who was writing one of those romance, adventure novels and she wanted the female lead in the book to taken hostage and rescued by the hero and a hostage rescue team. She needed the details of how it would go down from someone who would know.

“It was good, she asked me, ‘what is your nickname?’ Gaz I told her, and she said, you’re going to be the focus of my next book!”

He talked about how he’s changed from the warrior side of his personality to a more artistic side now. He has produced an outdoor reality television show and travels to different parts of the world to set it up. It aired in the UK last April 29. Gaz says, “now I’m more of a lover!”

“It has been fun, I was a bit of a bad boy and the Special Forces life was good for me, you know, the proper soldiering, the kind of stuff that makes history.”

“Some of those things, you know… it won’t be in the paper, it won’t be in the news but when you get back, you know what you did was worthwhile.”

We had the opportunity to work together about 10 years ago, on a war film that was using Morocco as the location site for work. In fact, the streets we filmed in that was supposed to be Iraq, were the exact same streets used in the film “Black Hawk Down” but were just filmed moving in the opposite direction…ah, the beauty of Hollywood.

I was the overall security advisor and Gary provided close, discreet protection for the star of the film an “A-List” actor. We were all pulling in the same direction and the film experience was a fun one even if the weather didn’t cooperate.

The second half of the filming was done in Morocco in late October, early November and that is the rainy season there. Well, it doesn’t translate to Iraq much so there was a ton of down time. Good for the security teams, not so good for the budget, having to pay a cast and crew of 300+ people to sit around.

Photo courtesy of UK Ministry of Defense

Special Operations Forces From Australia In Conflict With Each Other

Special Operations forces in Australia have been at the forefront of the wars in the Middle East in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Now there are reports surfacing that the Special Operations Forces of Australia are bitterly feuding.

The disputes between the SASR (Special Air Service Regiment) and the 2^nd Commando Regiment are engaging in their own conflict amid reports of war crimes and other issues plaguing the two units.

The report makes note of a belief by 2nd Commando that the SASR held 2nd Commando “in contempt” and was inferior. It noted that as a result of the tensions, there was dysfunctional fallout and duplication of effort and wasted resources.
The rivalry was given a brief public airing last year when it featured in the war novel The Fighting Season by former commando and experienced Afghan veteran Bram Connelly. While much of the plot is clearly fiction, some scenarios appear close to the truth, including a Taliban spy in Oruzgan and the codename of Rapier being used to describe a Taliban bomb maker.
Rapier was mid-level bomb maker who was the target of a raid during which Australian lieutenant Michael Fussell died in November 2008 when he stepped on an improvised explosive device.

Allegations of the war crimes have prompted Angus Campbell, Chief of the Army into referring the matter to the Inspector General of the Australian Defense Force. That office has since appointed an independent investigation led by Judge Paul Brereton to look into the allegations.

Both units have been heavily involved in the conflict with one Commando and two SASR members being awarded the Victoria Cross for heroism, the highest award in the Australian military. Both units have suffered heavy casualties as well.

To read the entire article from the Australian, click here:

Photo courtesy Australian Defense Force

Special Operations From 15 Countries Take Part in “Allied Spirit VI” Joint Exercise

Special Operations operators from 15 different countries were part of the over 3000 troops that recently took part in the Allied Spirt VI exercise. The training was conducted at the 7^th Army Joint Multinational Readiness Training Center located in Hohenfels, Germany and took place for nearly the entire month of March.

Allied Spirit VI is a multinational exercise training service members from Canada, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Hungary, Germany, Italy, Macedonia, Kosovo, Latvia, the Netherlands, Slovenia, the United Kingdom and the U.S. on integrating special operations and conventional forces to increase their effectiveness.

“The primary purpose of this exercise is providing a venue for the 1st Latvian Brigade to train in a Joint Task Force environment and increase their interoperability with both U.S. units as well as other multinational forces,” said Army Maj. Robert Temple, special operations force cell planner at JMRC. “Within that [joint task force] environment they have a replicated special operations component command.”
During the exercise, soldiers from 1st Battalion, 10th Special Forces Group trained on their advise and assist mission while working closely with Estonian forces, who provided mission command of all special operations elements, and Macedonian special operations mission command elements.
“We are here supporting our Estonian Special Operations Task Group brethren. They are one of our long-time partners that we’ve worked with and continue to work within our Partnership Development Program,” explained a company commander for 1st Battalion, 10th Special Forces Group. “Additionally, we get to work with the Latvians which are another one of our primary partner nations.”

This training program is conducted to foster interoperability and ease of operations between the member countries. The ability to work together seamlessly is invaluable in joint operations and pulls together our eastern allies in the face of Russian expansion in Eastern Europe. Battle staff drills, call for fire missions and the safe clearance of lines are just some of the areas that have proved valuable in the past.

To read the entire article from Department of Defense, click here:

Photo courtesy US Army