SOF

Turkish Airstrikes Pound Kurdish Held Town of Afrin

Turkey launched a reported 72 aircraft to begin an air and ground offensive against Kurdish fighters from the northern Syrian city of Afrin. The Turks reportedly hit 100 targets in and around the city according to their state-run news agency.

The Kurdish YPG militia responded that it had no choice but to fight back and “defeat this aggression.”

Turkish warplanes on Saturday carried out airstrikes against Kurdish positions in the northwestern city of Afrin as Turkish-backed Syrian rebel fighters launched a ground offensive.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced the start of the operation, dubbed “Olive Branch,” adding that it would soon be expanded to other areas.
“This will be followed by Manbij,” he said, referring to a Syrian town to the east held by US-backed Kurdish militias.
The Turkish army said the land and air assault aimed to hit positions held by the People’s Protection Units (YPG) and “Islamic State” (IS) militants. However, IS is not known to have a presence in Afrin.
Erdogan did not specify whether Turkish troops had crossed the border. He said only that Turkey was determined “to clear our country up to the Iraqi border from this terror filth that is trying to besiege our country.”

This is a delicate operation for Erdogan and his government. The Syrians have said that this was aggression against their territory and will shoot down any Turkish aircraft that crosses the border.

The US has armed, advised, and supported the Kurds in the YPG and these latest moves may further the downward spiral of political goodwill between Washington and Ankara. The Russian military had improved relations with the YPG and had their own forces in Afrin. But they are pulling out to lessen the chance of their soldiers coming under fire.

Stuck in the middle of the chaos is the 800,000 civilians. Many flocked to Afrin to escape the fighting elsewhere and now stuck between two factions with the Islamic State waiting in the wings.

To read the entire article from Deutsche Welle, click here:

Photo courtesy Wikipedia

Special Operations Forces Selection PT Preparation Week 9, Day 2

We’ll kick off our Monday and work week with a mini-UBRR test. Start off with the basics of pushups, sit-ups, and crunches, then to the bar for V-ups, pull-ups and dips before a 5-mile run. The standard is 40-minutes but shoot for something bellow that.

Remember to stay hydrated and mark your progress in your workout log book.

Training:

More preparation for the UBRR

1 x 1-minute Pushups

1 x 1-minute Sit-ups

1 x 1-minute, Crunches

1 x 1-minute, V-ups

1 x Dips as many as possible to muscle failure (no time limit)

1 x Pullups as many as possible or to muscle failure (no time limit)

5-mile run (40-minutes maximum)

Stretch well after completion

Special Operations Forces Selection PT Preparation Week 9, Day 1

It is time for our Sunday morning Rucksack march. Do a quick warmup of pushups and sit-ups before heading out for an 8-mile rucksack march. Head out over varied terrain and try to go as fast as you can without running. The standard is 120 minutes. Aim to lower that

Stretch well both before and after the event. Remember to drink plenty of water and stay hydrated out there. Even with the cold of the winter weather months upon us, it is imperative to keep that going.

Training:

Warm up

2 x 20 Pushups

2 x 20 Sit-ups

8-mile Rucksack march over varied terrain with a 45-pound minimum in 120 minutes (2 hours) or less. And mark your times in your workout log book.

Stretch well after completion

Special Operations Forces Selection PT Preparation Week 8, Day 7

Saturday morning in the gym for shoulders and back work. Towel pull-ups are for those with no access to ropes. The only way to get better at pull-ups and climbing ropes….is to practice doing them until they are a strength. Followed by a four-mile run in 32 minutes or less.

Log your numbers down in the workout notebook and remember to stretch well both before and after the workout.

Training:

More Preparation for the UBRR:

3 x 10 Lat Pulldowns, rear

3 x 10 Barbell Dead Lift

3 x 10 Wide Grip Pull-ups

3 x 10 Towel Pull-ups

3 x 10 Dumbbell Side Raises

3 x 10 Seated Bent-Over Delt Raise

3 x 10 Dumbbell Shoulder Press

3 x 10 Arnold Dumbbell Press

4-mile run (32 minutes maximum)

Stretch well after completion

US to Increase Military Funding for the War in the Philippines

The U.S. military beefing up support for the Filipino military fighting their own counterterrorism fight against the Islamic State, making operations there eligible for the same funding used to finance the long-running wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The decision by the Trump administration to elevate the U.S. mission to an Overseas Contingency Operation, or OCO, was made last September in response to a Philippines government request for more support to fight extremist groups, officials said. The U.S.-backed Philippine military in October ousted Islamic State-affiliated insurgents from a city on the southern island of Mindanao after a five-month battle, but faces an enormous rebuilding task.
Between 200 and 300 American troops are currently serving in advisory roles in the country and officials said that number is likely to remain unchanged for now. In addition to advisory troops, technical support and equipment, the mission is providing intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance by drone.
The administration’s decision reflects improving ties between Washington and Manila, which soured after former President Barack Obama criticized Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte over human-rights violations allegedly committed during a violent crackdown on drug use. Mr. Duterte responded by lobbing repeated verbal attacks on the U.S. and publicly cursing Mr. Obama in local Tagalog. President Donald Trump has sought common ground with Mr. Duterte, inviting him to the White House and saying the two had a “great relationship.”
The Philippines has been home to various insurgent groups for decades, but security challenges escalated last May when an extremist group known as the Maute seized control of the city of Marawi. The U.S. military supported the Armed Forces of the Philippines in its campaign to oust the insurgents. At least 165 Philippine security personnel and 47 civilians died during the five-month battle. Officials estimate around a 1,000 militants were also killed.
The operations in the Philippines represent “a new phase of our C-T cooperation,” said Joe Felter, deputy assistant secretary of defense for South and Southeast Asia.

The US and Filipino militaries have long enjoyed a close relationship, however President Duterte has gone out of his way to blast the US, its policies and downplay US support while courting the Chinese.

To read the entire article from the Wall Street Journal, click here:

Photo courtesy SOFREP

North Korea May Hold Military Parade on Eve of Olympic Opening

The North Korean military is planning on conducting a large military parade on the eve of the Olympics opening ceremonies which are slated to begin on Feb. 9.

A copy of what appears to be a letter sent from North Korean authorities to defense attaches, seen by CNN, invites them and their spouses “to attend festival functions held in Pyongyang” to mark the 70th anniversary of the formal creation of the Korean People’s Army (KPA) on February 8.
Diplomatic sources in Pyongyang told CNN that defense attaches with relations to North Korea had received invitations to the event.
On Thursday, North Korea analyst website NK News published satellite images believed to show preparations underway in Pyongyang for the event at the Mirim Parade Training Ground.
February 8 and April 25 both have significance for the founding of the KPA. But April 25 has been the bigger date since the seventies, and has been designated Army Foundation Day. Winter parades are also rare, though some analysts attribute this to training schedules beginning towards the end of the year.
Parades in North Korea typically involve choreographed performances involving thousands of individuals.
In negotiations at the Panmunjom truce village on the DMZ, it was agreed the two countries would march together at the Olympics under a flag showing a unified Korean Peninsula. North Korea also agreed to send a large delegation of athletes, supporters and performers.
While many have welcomed the reduction in tensions on a Peninsula which last year appeared to be barreling towards war, some in Seoul and Washington have questioned whether South Korea is giving up too much for too little.

The North Korean government is playing the aggrieved party card claiming that the US-South Korean military drills “serve as a prelude to the aggressive war bringing a nuclear disaster to the Korean Peninsula,” in their state-run newspaper.

So the parade may be just to inject some show of power into the mix.

To read the entire article from CNN, click here:

Photo courtesy Wikipedia

Special Operations Forces Selection PT Preparation Week 8, Day 6

Friday means another Leg Day at the gym. Begin with some Squats – front, dumbbell goblet, and barbell to build up strength for carrying a rucksack. We’re going with a lighter weight and more reps here.

Then some lunges and after the weighted sled push/Fireman’s Carry, finish the workout off by breaking things up a bit with some sprints for cardio.

Training:

Continue to prep for the UBRR.

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

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

3 x 10 Barbell Squats

3 x 10 Dumbbell Lunges

3 x 10 Romanian Lunges

3 x Weighted sled push (heavier weight) or Fireman’s Carry

10 x 50-meter sprints

Stretch well after completion

Posers, Phony Special Forces, SEALs Are A Blight to the Services

I have never understood the mindset of some people that have such low self-esteem that they feel they have to invent an entire biography from thin air. You have seen them. They’re everywhere. Nary a week goes by where I’m not reading about a guy that was claiming to be a Green Beret/Ranger/Delta Operator/Navy SEAL whose exploits are so secret that they can never be told to the rest of the world.

You know the type, “I was recruited by CIA to be their lead man on a one-man operation to go assassinate senior leaders of al-Qaeda….but I can’t talk about it.” Ugh.

Or worse, the guy who can’t be more than 22-23 years old who claims to have been in the Ranger Bn. had multiple combat tours in SF and in now a Delta operator with numerous “missions I can’t talk about” under his belt. Really? Did you enlist at 13?

And when the pictures invariably come out, they wear the uniform so messed up that they couldn’t possibly have earned every conceivable combat decoration known to man in a fruit salad medley that would make Audie Murphy himself green with envy? Please. And more times than not, the uniform isn’t worn correctly.

These poor slobs have no idea how small our communities really are. It doesn’t matter if you and I served in different eras, we all have common ground and personalities that intersect with one another. And when we come across one another, it takes about 1.2 seconds to tell if we’re dealing with a fellow brother from the Regiment or a troll piece of trash that is looking to work an angle to make himself feel better about his existence or worse, line his own pockets by claiming to be something he isn’t.

These posers need to be called out every time and made to pay the price.

Which brings us to the events of yesterday. I was in Boston and in the waiting room at a hospital while my wife was undergoing surgery and was cruising thru Twitter when I got a message from Doctor Mike Simpson, and asking if I’d ever seen any posts about an individual who was claiming to be a Ranger/Special Forces guy who was associated with the Green Beret Foundation.

BTW, you won’t see this person’s name mentioned here anywhere. Why? It isn’t to protect the innocent. That is for sure. His name isn’t worthy of being posted here among us and those like us. But it is easily found.

Here’s where the rubber meets the road. I’ve never met Mike (to my knowledge) but we follow each other on Twitter. I had read some of his stuff on there and may have commented on a story or two that he either wrote or posted. My memory escapes there. But his bona fides were impeccable. Simpson was a Special Forces medic who became an Emergency Room doc. He’s served for the past few decades and works on with Sheepdog Response Crew with SFer Tim Kennedy and others. He’s also a member of a Facebook Group that is comprised of only Special Forces veterans. No wifes, girlfriends, significant others, or family members are allowed. To become a member, at least one other member has to vouch for you saying that he knows you to be Special Forces qualified. I’ve also seen Doc Simpson post there… So there isn’t any gray area there.

Anyway, I responded to his message that I hadn’t ever seen anything from this individual but after checking, there was already a message in the Special Forces FB group asking the same thing. I said that it was probably a matter for the “Guardians of the Green Beret” (GOTGB) to look into. The GOTGB are a group of overworked Special Forces veterans who, unfortunately, spend far too much time investigating frauds, phonies, and posers who are claiming to be Special Forces. They have the connections to check these people’s military records if they even have any, which sadly many do not even have. The SEALs, I’m told, have the same type of group where they have the names of every individual who’s ever passed their training program. So tread lightly posers.

As soon as I sent Doc Simpson that response, I got a message from the individual involved in he went on a rambling rage, using a slew of hashtags basically saying that everyone who was accusing him of being a phony was a racist. A racist? Judging from everyone’s profile pics, they were all Caucasians.

Simpson saw this guy’s profile and being a Ranger/SF guy (he’s a real one BTW) and asked which Ranger Bn. this guy had been in and what team he was on in SF. These are questions we all ask each other. Why? Because the Regiment is so small, like I mentioned above, it usually leads to knowing many of the same people that cross eras. And that’s how we create new brothers.

This guy claimed to have been in the 1st Ranger Bn. at Ft. Benning, and didn’t want to talk about his SF service since “his experiences made it uncomfortable”. Ouch. Any Ranger will tell you the 1st Bn. is in Savannah at Hunter Army Airfield. And Simpson didn’t ask for a detailed description of his most “hair-raising missions” and giving your team number shouldn’t send an SF guy into a bout of PTSD.

Maybe the posers want to be John Wayne? They are not.

It was strange to see this individual’s Linkedin account. No mention of Special Forces or Ranger service, in fact, no mention of military service at all. Hmm, for a guy that it blasted all over his Twitter bio, why would he omit it off Linkedin? Later another SF guy posted on Twitter that the grainy “team photo” that this poser posted was actually a 3rd SFG team that the real SF guy had been on and he could assure everyone else, that the poser had not been a part of.

Next, this individual shoots me another message and accuses me of being a “Trumper racist” whatever that is. Way to answer a simple question you troll. It didn’t take long for the GOTGB to answer what we already knew, the guy was a liar. Simpson then posted a message from the folks at the Green Beret Foundation (GBF) stating that not only was he not associated with them at all, but according to their records, had never donated anything to them at all. Not a single dollar.

I think that…more than anything pissed me off the most. The GBF is an organization, which if you’ve read these pages here, is one that I feel very strongly about. They do tremendous things for our Special Forces veterans and their record speaks for itself. I try to buy stuff or donate thru their events at every chance, and in fact feel bad for not doing more. To see this person trying to claim association with that was the final straw.

To date there have probably been hundreds of retweets on this individual’s lying, he’s been outed and the GOTGB now have a record of him. But it shouldn’t end there. It is time to hit these lying posers where they live. It is time to start contacting their places of employment. Their employers should know what kind of people they’ve hired especially if their supposed SF/Ranger/SEAL “service” was a factor in them being hired.

Like we tell the candidates in the Special Forces Selection course, “you’re always being evaluated”, well now for the phony posers out there, you are always being watched. And sooner or later, social media being what it is, you WILL be found and caught. And the stigma of that won’t go away quickly nor quietly.

So the next time I’m in the bar and a guy starts to tell me, “I was a CIA/Delta Operator/SF Sniper in the “super secret” 28th Special Ranger Company… and you were really a screen door repairman on a diesel submarine…think again. DOL

Photo Courtesy: Guardians of the Green Beret/Warner Bros.

US Long-term Syria Presence Signals Intentions on Assad, ISIS, Iran

United States military forces will remain in Syria in a long-term presence as part of a broader strategy from the Trump administration to achieve three goals, officials announced on Wednesday. First to prevent any resurgence by the Islamic State, to prepare diplomatically for the eventual departure of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and to curb the Iranian influence which is growing in the entire area.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, in a speech at Stanford University, called for “patience” on Assad’s departure – the clearest indication yet of an acknowledgment that Russia and Iran have bolstered Assad and that he is unlikely to leave power immediately.
Billed as the Trump administration’s new strategy on Syria, the announcement will prolong the risks and redefine the mission for the U.S. military, which has for years sought to define its operations in Syria along more narrow lines of battling Islamic State and has about 2,000 U.S. ground forces in the country.
“But let us be clear: the United States will maintain a military presence in Syria, focused on ensuring ISIS cannot re-emerge,” while acknowledging many Americans’ skepticism of military involvement in conflicts abroad, Tillerson said.
U.S. forces in Syria have already faced direct threats from Syrian and Iranian-backed forces, leading to the shoot-down of Iranian drones and a Syrian jet last year, as well as to tensions with Russia.

The speech by Tillerson reinforces what the administration’s policy is going to be. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis had spelled out parts of it earlier. Trump as a presidential candidate had promised to steer clear of long-term US commitments in the Middle East but as events have shown in Afghanistan and now in Syria, the situation on the ground is a more difficult one than thought.

To read the entire article from Reuters, click here:

Photo courtesy Wikipedia

Special Operations Forces Selection PT Preparation Week 8, Day 5

Back to the gym today as we prep for the UBRR with a Chest and Triceps workout. Then a 4-mile ruck march with 45-pounds minimum. Since we’re rucking two days in a row…. It would be a great time, to wear that second pair of boots. Right? Remember to push the pace without running.

And also remember to stretch well before and after and to stay hydrated. Mark your progress down in your workout log book.

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 Kip Ups

3 x 20 Sit-ups

3 x 20 Cable Push Downs (rope)

3 x 20 Dips or until muscle failure

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

Stretch well after completion