Special Operations Forces

Remembering Nathan Chapman, Green Beret/CIA KIA Afghanistan 2002

If it seems like the war in Afghanistan has gone on forever, perhaps it is because it has dragged on for an entire generation. The United States has been involved there for over 17 years and there seems to be no end game in sight. And the cost has been very high. More than 4000 Americans (military and civilian contractors) have been killed in Afghanistan. Today, we’ll remember the first fatality from enemy action, Nathan Ross Chapman from the 1st Special Forces Group, who was detailed to the CIA Team Hotel. Chapman was killed on January 4, 2002, in Khost, Afghanistan.

Born into a military family, Chapman was born at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland where his father was stationed. He graduated high school from Centerville High School in Ohio and was active with the wrestling team. He immediately joined the Army and went to Ft. Benning for Basic, Advanced Infantry Training and Ranger training before being assigned to the 2nd Ranger Bn at Ft. Lewis, Washington.

In December of 1989, Chapman participated in the invasion of Panama during Operation Just Cause and parachuted into the airfield at Rio Hato, where the Rangers seized the airfield and took down Manuel Noriega’s beach house which had a headquarters in the upper floors.

In 1991, Chapman would once again go into combat during Desert Storm in January 1991. Later that year, he volunteered for Special Forces training and attended SFAS, and the Special Forces Qualification Course at Ft. Bragg, NC. He graduated in December 1992 as an 18E (Communications Sergeant) and then attended the Defense Language Institute’s Tagalog course, finishing in June of 1993.

Chapman was assigned to the 3rd Bn, 1st SFG(A) in July of 1993 and served on ODAs A-185 and A-195. During 1995, he went with his unit to Haiti during Operation Uphold Democracy. In 1998, Chapman was assigned to 1st Bn, 1st SFG(A) on Okinawa and served there for three years. He returned to Ft. Lewis and the 3/1 SFG in 2001.

After 9/11 he volunteered for a special mission in Afghanistan during Operation Enduring Freedom. Before he left, he told his wife that his chances of returning were 50/50. They took a family photo and he gave her a heart pendant that they broke so that each could take half.

But after arriving in the country, his odds of surviving got better. The Americans with Northern Alliance allies and massive U.S. air support battered the Taliban and bottled them and al-Qaeda up in Tora Bora including Osama bin Laden.

On the fateful day of January 4, Chapman was with a group of 25 Special Operators, CIA men and their Afghan allies commanded by Zakim Khan Zadran. Team Hotel consisted of three Green Berets, two CIA Paramilitary Officers, and one CIA Contractor. When they arrived in Khost, they were met by Afghans loyal to Padsha Khan Zadran, who, although are unrelated belong to the same clan of Pashtuns who dominate the surrounding area.

In a story that goes back hundreds if not a thousand years, the two warlords were locked in a jealous struggle for power and prestige. With the Taliban on the run, the power vacuum opened the door for old rivalries to take center stage.

Padsha Khan Zadran ordered his men to fire on the Americans at their checkpoint in order to convince American commanders to ditch Zakim Khan Zadran and force their alliance to him. To Chapman and the other Americans, they were searching for information that both bin Laden and Taliban commander Jalaluddin Haqqani were holed up in the mountains outside of town.

After the Americans had met with both warlords they set out to inspect two sites where American airstrikes had hit Taliban targets about 3 miles away. One target, a bombed-out mosque, Chapman conducted bomb assessment damage and then drove to a fort where Taliban tanks had taken a beating from U.S. airstrikes.

As they approached a checkpoint manned by Padsha Khan Zadran’s men, Chapman was standing in the rear of the truck with a camera around his neck. Shots rang out, Chapman slumped in the back of the truck, severely wounded. Before he collapsed, he emptied his M-4 in the direction of the enemy. By the time they got back to where they’d left from just a short time before, he was dead. A CIA Paramilitary Officer from the Special Activities Division was wounded.

The fighters loyal to Zakim Khan Zadran stated the fire came directly from the checkpoint but the other warlord disagreed. He claimed that the firing came from 50 yards away behind a half-finished mosque. He said his men had arrested a 14-year-old boy who claimed that he had fired the shots to avenge the removal of the Taliban and the bombing of the mosque. Conveniently, the boy escaped from confinement two days later and fled to Pakistan.

However, witnesses identified three men who fired the shots as fighters of Padsha Khan Zadran who then also, conveniently, fled to Pakistan.

Chapman’s body was returned to Washington state and he was buried about a week later in Tahoma National Cemetery in Kent, Washington. He was posthumously awarded the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart. His awards and decorations include the Bronze Star with “V” device, the Purple Heart, the Meritorious Service Medal, the Army Commendation Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster, the Army Achievement Medal with three Oak Leaf Clusters, the Humanitarian Service Medal, the United Nations Medal, the Kuwait Liberation Medal, the Southwest Asia Service Medal with Bronze Service Star, the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal with arrowhead, the Army Good Conduct Medal (3rd Award), the Armed Forces Service Medal, the Joint Meritorious Service Unit Award, the Army Superior Unit Award, the Combat Infantryman Badge second award, the Master Parachutist Badge, the Parachutist Combat Badge with bronze service star, the Special Forces Combat Divers Badge, the Special Forces Tab, the Ranger Tab, and the Royal Thai Army Parachutist Badge.

He left behind his wife Renae and two children a daughter Amanda (2) and a son Brandon (1) who were too young to remember their father.

The CIA honored Chapman in 2015 by unveiling a star on their Memorial Wall in his honor.

Photos: DOD

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.

UBRR 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 Deadlifts

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

Don’t Be a Babylonian, Stick to Those New Year’s Resolutions

We hope that all of you had a fantastic, happy and healthy Christmas and New Year. And now that the holidays are over we can, hopefully, get back to somewhat of a normal schedule. As we’re all creatures of habit, to varying degrees. And the New Year is the subject of today’s piece here. Specifically those pesky New Year’s Resolutions. Because we are creatures of habit, every year most Americans seem to make resolutions on New Year’s Eve that by mid-January are already forgotten.

Which begged the question, “Who started New Year’s resolutions?” and are they are a relatively recent phenomenon? If you thought that we came up with it, you’d be in error.

The act of New Year’s resolutions goes all the way back to the ancient Babylonians, about 4000 years ago. Yes, the ancient people of what is now Iraq, about 100 miles or so from Baghdad were the first recorded people to make New Year’s resolutions. Their new year coincided with planting season, which was around mid-March.

The Babylonians would reaffirm their loyalty to the king and then promise the gods to pay their debts and return any objects they had borrowed. If the Babylonians kept to their resolutions the gods would bestow good fortune on them for the coming year. If not, they would fall out of the gods’ favor—judging from how things are in Babylon/Iraq today, it doesn’t appear too many kept their resolutions to their pagan gods.

The Romans too, appear to have celebrated their ritual of New Year’s resolutions. And they can thank Julius Caesar. In between conquering a few countries, Caesar, around 46 B.C. changed the Roman calendar and established January 1 as the beginning of the new year.

January, named for Janus, the two-faced god whose spirit inhabited doorways and arches, the month held a special significance for the Romans. They believed that Janus would look back into the previous year and ahead into the future. So they would offer sacrifices to Janus to have good fortune in the coming year.

Which brings us to the present… C’mon admit it, you’ve made those resolutions and between my time in SF, later as a contractor and here at SpecialOperations.com, we’ve made them and heard a lot more.

Some of the better ones we’ve heard as they relate to joining Special Operations are these, so take note! If you make any of these, write them down and make sure that you follow through with them in 2019:

Being a Volunteer For SOF:

When I was in SF and later as a contractor, I came across many, many good troops who just needed a kick in the right direction. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard the following statements: “This is the year, I’m volunteering for SFAS”, or “as soon I come back from this deployment, I’m putting my packet in.” Or the dreaded, “I’m just waiting for the right time … to put in my packet.”

Guys, (and now girls), there is no right “time” to volunteer for SOF, you either will attempt it or not. If you’re waiting until the time is right and conditions are perfect, you’ll be old and gray and your window of opportunity is long gone.

Don’t wait, every day that you delay, that is a day that is forever lost that you can be a member of the greatest fraternity on earth. There will always be distractions, commitments, and things to pull you away from what you want to do. Don’t allow it to happen. Set the goal and stick to it.

“This Week I’m Going to Get Serious About My PT Prep”:

Oh, this is another one I’ve heard so many times, if I had a dime for every time someone said it, I could trade in my Caddy for a new one. Once you submit a packet for Selection and you’ve been accepted, the onus is on you and you alone to get ready. Most units in the military aren’t going to give you time in your normal duty day to prepare. It will have to be done on your own time.

So don’t waste a minute of it. Remember, once you walk in the door at Selection, you are telling the cadre that you’re ready to be assessed. And that’s the wrong time to wish you spent more timing carry a ruck and practicing your rope climbing skills etc.

We post a daily PT prep program here, 7 days a week in a four-month window to help you prepare. We’d encourage you to follow it and you’ll be ready. But if you don’t care for ours, there are several great programs out there that may be more to your liking. Or do your own prep. It doesn’t matter how it gets done as long as its done and done correctly. Train like your future depends on it…it does.

“I Still Have Plenty of Time to Break in Those Second Pair of Boots”:

Ouch! This is another common, often huge mistake. As we’ve stated here in the past, your feet are your lifeline in Special Operations. Next to your brain, your feet are the most important parts of your body when you are in SOF. Treat them right and they’ll carry you for thousands of miles over the course of your career.

Boots wear out, it is a fact of life. You may have a pair that fit like a glove but eventually, those will wear out. What then? If the answer is you planning on putting on a pair that are barely or worse, not even broken in, then you are on the fast track to failure.

This is a no-brainer. Have at least two pairs and optimally three that are as broken in as they can be. Your feet will thank you and you’ll find your Selection experience will not only be less painful but a tad easier as well. Rest assured, your feet will get wet at one point or another in the course. Change them out every day and your socks frequently, as needed.

“I Don’t Have Time For Continuing Education”:

This is another common issue among troops across the board. I was guilty of this one myself. While I was in the military, I signed up for every correspondence course or distance learning the military offered. But it wasn’t until almost half my career was over that I started taking civilian courses whenever the time would allow itself.

Today with the internet in place, even in remote bases overseas, the opportunities are there to take courses often. You won’t always be able to, especially during deployments but your education doesn’t have to stop, and shouldn’t while you’re in the military.

Colleges and universities today are much better at working with military students who are interested in continuing their educations. Take advantage of what’s out there.

So, here we are in 2019, and while the year has just begun, the work never stops and there are “no days off.” Did you make any resolutions this year? I didn’t and haven’t in a few years now. However, if you do, do it right. Write them down, make a plan and then see it through. Make yourself one of the 20 percent. It was posted on social media that up to 80 percent of resolutions made by people have failed by February.

In Special Operations, failure isn’t an option, so ensure that it doesn’t happen.

Let’s all make a resolution to go rucking more in 2019…Who’s ready? Let’s Roll.

Photo: DOD

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.

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 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

William “Wild Bill” Donovan Born Jan.1, Head of OSS, Forerunner of CIA

William Donovan was a man who many hats, he was a decorated soldier, diplomat, intelligence officer, as well as a lawyer. He’s best known as the founder and commander of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), which was the forerunner to both the CIA and the U.S. Army Special Forces (Green Berets). He is considered the “Father of U.S. Intelligence” and a statue of him resides in CIA Headquarters.

Humble Beginnings:

Donovan was born on New Year’s Day 1883 in Buffalo, New York to American-born parents but came from Irish immigrants. His father, Timothy, moved to Buffalo and for a time managed the railroad yard and later the Holy Cross Cemetery.

Donovan attended St. Joseph’s Collegiate Institute, a Catholic school where he played football, acted in plays, and won an award for oratory. He would then follow on to Niagara University, a Catholic university, and seminary where he studied pre-law. Donovan briefly considered becoming a priest but would ultimately decide against it. While at Niagra, Donovan won another oratorical contest, for presenting a speech warning of corrupt, anti-Christian forces that threatened the existence of the United States.

Looking to expand his personal horizons he transferred to Colombia University to study law but also attended religious services of the Jewish and Protestant faiths to gauge whether he wanted to change his religion. He continued to be a star athlete, starring with the football and rowing teams. He won another award for oratory and was voted the “most modest” and one of the “most handsome” members of Columbia’s graduating class of 1905.

While at Columbia, one of his classmates was Franklin D. Roosevelt. Although polar opposites on the political spectrum, the two would cross paths and have a solid respectful relationship.

Donovan was a partner in a law firm in Buffalo, New York when he decided to help form and lead a unit for the New York National Guard. His unit was mobilized and sent to Mexico during the punitive campaigns to catch Pancho Villa. It was part of the “Fighting 69th, the Irish Brigade” from Civil War fame.

World War I Fame:

When Donovan returned from Mexico, he was promoted to Major and joined the 165th Regiment of the famed “Rainbow Division.” Douglas MacArthur was the Chief of Staff for the division. Donovan was an officer who always led from the front, even as a battalion commander. It was here he developed the nickname “Wild Bill” for his boundless energy. While he publicly claimed to dislike it, his wife would say, that privately, he loved it.

He was wounded by shrapnel and nearly blinded by a German mustard gas attack. He was awarded the French Croix de Guerre for a daring rescue under fire of a wounded soldier.

During the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, the 165th was in heavy action at Landres-et-St. Georges. Donovan, now a Lt. Colonel, led one of three regiments with the objective of capturing an enemy position which was well entrenched on a steep ravine surrounded by machine guns and artillery.

Because of the heavy German fire and strong defensive positions, the other two supporting regiments refused to advance, but Donovan persisted and rallied his regiment and led the advance under absolutely murderous conditions.

Donovan refused to conform to the convention of the times, by not stripping off all of his rank and insignia which was common for officers, he told his men, “They can’t hit me and they won’t hit you!” Wounded three times he refused to be evacuated until his men carried the day. He was eventually awarded the Medal of Honor for his courage and 4000 veterans attended the ceremony in New York City.

At the end of World War I, Donovan was arguably the most decorated man in US military history at that time, having been awarded all of the top awards for bravery in combat. Donovan was awarded the Medal of Honor, the Distinguished Service Cross, the Distinguished Service Medal, and the Silver Star, the Purple Heart, and several foreign awards for valor. Donovan and Teddy Roosevelt started the American Legion after the war was over.

Sowing the Seeds of Intelligence Work Between the Wars:

Despite returning to his law firm in Buffalo, Donovan combined vacation and fact-finding trips to Japan, China, and Korea, and Siberia. He also took an extended trip to Europe, where he conducted work for J. P. Morgan and gathered intelligence about international Communism.

Returning home he was appointed to be the Assistant US Attorney for Western New York and became a dedicated crime fighter, especially against bootlegging which was just recently made illegal. He ran for Lieutenant Governor unsuccessfully in 1924, and Governor in 1932 when FDR left office.

With World War II started and looking like the United States would get drawn into it, President Roosevelt who respected Donovan’s experience called on him in 1940 and 1941. Donovan was FDR’s eyes and ears, but strictly an informal observer to Britain, where he was urged by the President to gauge Britain would be able to stand alone against the Nazis.

Donovan’s travels also impressed upon him that the U.S. needed an intelligence service as the British had. He alone was of the opinion that Britain could withstand the Blitz and urged Roosevelt to help them. Churchill was impressed with Donovan and gave him access to everything, including the intelligence services.

Starting an Intelligence Service From Scratch:

In July 1941, FDR established the Office of the Coordination of Information (COI) and named Donovan as its director. This new title infuriated the Army, Navy, FBI (especially J.Edgar Hoover who hated Donovan) and the State Department, who all had terrible and non-cooperating intelligence services of their own. There WAS no coordination of effort between the agencies.

COI set up shop in NYC in the Rockefeller Center. They were located one floor above the Brits, MI6 shop. Allen Dulles ran the operation, he would later serve as a Chief of Station in Europe and much later as the Director of CIA.

Once the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, the U.S. went to a war footing and COI would soon become OSS in July 1942. Donovan was off and running and tried to recruit agents and operators from every walk of life imaginable. He was initially brought back on active duty at his previous rank of Colonel but was promoted to Brigadier General within just a few months in January 1943.

Unfortunately, his turf wars weren’t just with the other Americans. MI6 and their chief, Stewart Menzies began to try to rein in their colonial cousins, trying to protect the empire for after the war. Regardless, by 1944, OSS had spread its wings to the corners of the earth with the exception of South America, where Hoover and the FBI had insisted remain their turf, and had agents and sources in nearly every capital. One of Donovan’s best sources of information turned out to be Catholic priests who were conduits of information unknown to the Vatican.

With the war turned on the side of the Allies, Donovan went ashore with troops on both D-Day and later into Southern France. He met with the Pope in Italy and with Marshall Tito in Yugoslavia. OSS men in Rumania had found a way to funnel over 1300 downed pilots back to Allied control. With the war winding down, Donovan presented a plan to FDR for a post-war intelligence service. One copy of which ended up in the hands of a newspaper reporter who deemed Donovan’s plan akin to creating an American Gestapo.

However, once Roosevelt died in 1945, Donovan found himself on the outs with the new President Harry Truman who disliked Donovan and the OSS. Truman at the war’s end would dissolve OSS and their agents and operators would be scattered to the winds. Donovan would help in the prosecution of the Nazi war criminals at the Nuremberg trials. He would go back to practicing law on Wall St.

Truman would finally recognize the need for a national intelligence agency that operated abroad and not in the U.S. and signed the National Security Act of 1947, which established the Central Intelligence Agency. Donovan’s dream had now come to fruition. Several of Donovan’s “glorious amateurs” who began in OSS would serve as directors including Dulles, James Jesus Angleton, Richard Helms, William Colby, and William Casey.

In 1953, now President Eisenhower, who was a believer in Donovan and OSS during the war, appointed him as the Ambassador to Thailand. The covert task for Donovan in Thailand was to “quietly” assume command not only of the embassy but also the propaganda, military aid, and CIA operations for Thailand. He was to build “a bastion” for democracy there and use it to fight communists overtly and covertly in the neighboring countries, which included Vietnam. Donovan, already thinking ahead, had conferred with old OSS men who worked in Thailand and had already visited Ft. Bragg, NC to meet with the new Green Berets there, the Unconventional Warfare group, headed up by Aaron Bank was a product of his OSS. He also got the Psychological Operations people involved.

Donovan died in 1959 at the age of 76 from complications of dementia at Walter Reed Hospital in Washington D.C. Upon his death, CIA sent out a message to all Station Chiefs, “The man more responsible than any other for the existence of the Central Intelligence Agency has passed away.”

Donovan was buried in Arlington National Cemetery in Section 2. General Donovan was the only American to have received the nations four highest awards: the Medal of Honor, the Distinguished Service Cross, the Distinguished Service Medal, and the National Security Medal.

After his death, Donovan was awarded the Freedom Award of the International Rescue Committee. He is also a member of the Military Intelligence Hall of Fame. The George Bush Center for Intelligence, inside the CIA headquarters building in Langley, Virginia, has a statue of Donovan in the lobby.

Today we remember General Donovan on what would have been his 136th birthday.

Photos: US Army

Special Operations Forces Selection PT Preparation Week 8, Day 4

Shoulders and back day in the gym before heading off to do a 5-mile rucksack march. Conduct the ruck over varied terrain and remember to hydrate throughout. After unseasonably high temps yesterday and a muddy mess on the trail, the colder more typical January weather should have everything frozen back solid.

It is a good habit to get used to hydrating while rucking and a needed one for the time when you’re in the course. Mark your time down in your workout logbook.

UBRR 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 Seated Rows

3 x 10 Dumbbell Side Raises

3 x 10 Dumbbell Front Raises

3 x 10 Dumbbell Arnold Press

3 x 8 Shoulder Shrugs

5-mile Rucksack march (45-lb minimum) over varied terrain, 75-minutes maximum

Stretch well after completion

January 1, 1962, The US Navy SEAL Teams Are Born

On this day in 1962 is the official date of the beginning of the United States Navy’s Sea, Air and Land Teams (SEAL) as President John Kennedy established the Navy’s Unconventional Warfare unit. SEAL teams are designed to conduct direct action missions from any environment.

Although the official date for the SEAL Teams is in 1962, they were actually tied to units in World War II that they owe their lineage to. Less than a year after Pearl Harbor, the Navy recognized the need for dedicated beach reconnaissance. The Amphibious Scout and Raider School was established at Little Creek, Virginia and contained both Navy and Army personnel. This first group of special operators also contained Phil Bucklew, who is considered the father of all Navy Special Operations.

And while most people think of the work that the Navy’s beach clearing operations in the Pacific, they also conducted operations in every major amphibious landing in the European theater. They were instrumental in leading the way for amphibious forces in North Africa, Sicily, Salerno, Anzio, Normandy on D-Day, and the landings in Southern France.

The Navy also developed Navy Combat Demolition Units (NCDU) which would blow gaps in beach defenses for amphibious forces to breach during invasions. NCDUs suffered a large number of casualties during D-Day. While in the Pacific they created Underwater Demolition Teams (UDT). The UDTs rewrote the manuals of the NCDUs and wore just swimming trunks (UDT shorts), fins, masks, and a combat knife. They, contrary to orders would get out of their boats to conduct their missions and thus became known as the “naked warriors.”

UDT swimmers conducted operations at Eniwetok, Saipan, Kwajalein, Tinian, Guam, Angaur, Ulithi, Peleliu, Leyte, Lingayen Gulf, Zambales, Iwo Jima, Okinawa, Labuan, and Brunei Bay. During the Korean War UDTs would perform operations all long the Korean coastlines and they targeted bridges, mines, and scouted out the landings at Inchon.

It should be noted that OSS (Office of Strategic Services) had its own Maritime Unit. And many of the missions we think of SEALs today were actually conducted by the special operations unit then. The OSS Maritime Unit conducted operations using newly improved fins, masks, SCUBA (self-contained, underwater breathing apparatus), the use of Swimmer Delivery Vehicles and conducted the first submarine lockout.

As the war in Vietnam was still in its infancy stage for the Americans, President Kennedy recognized what kind of a war it would eventually become. He helped get the U.S. Army Special Forces the recognition it needed to expand the Army’s Unconventional Warfare capabilities. He foresaw the same need for the U.S. Navy. While making the speech about putting a man on the moon, he spoke about spending $100 million dollars to strengthen the U.S. UW capability. However, while he was the one signing the SEAL Teams into existence, the Navy had already been working on expanding the role of UDTs for several years.

SEAL Teams One and Two deployed to Vietnam to operate in the deltas and thousands of rivers and canals in the country to try to effectively disrupt the enemy’s lines of communication.

SEALs advised and trained Vietnamese forces, such as the LDNN (Vietnamese SEALs) and conducted their own brand of UW. These Navy commandos also perfected the art of nighttime Direct Action missions such as ambushes and raids to capture prisoners of high intelligence value. These are considered the bread-and-butter of the SEAL forces today.

During the war, the intelligence gathering for the troops was generally poor, it was then that SEALs and Green Berets would begin gathering their own intelligence. It was then that the value of the intel gathered by these Special Operators rose up quickly. Both Army and Navy Special Operators would serve together along with CIA personnel in the Military Assistance Command, Vietnam Studies and Observation Group (MACVSOG).

These men while representing less than 1 percent of the ground forces in Vietnam, produced about 75 percent of all the usable intelligence for the troops in the country.

After Vietnam, the SEAL Teams would expand during the buildup of Special Operations forces in the 1980s. SEALs would serve in the battles in Grenada, Panama, the first Persian Gulf war with Iran, Somalia, Afghanistan after 9/11, Iraq and in Syria. They’ve also been involved in more low-visibility operations in the Philippines, in the Horn of Africa and countless other third-world countries where Special Operations Troops generally work in the shadows.

But two of the missions that SEALs have conducted have become mainstream news items. One was conducted in April of 2009 when Somali pirates took over the U.S. ship the Maersk Alabama. The pirates had taken the Captain of the Alabama, Richard Phillips hostage and they were in a lifeboat being towed behind the USS Bainbridge. SEALs from DEVGRU were alerted and transported to the Navy ships in the Area. Then, in a tremendous feat of marksmanship while on the open seas, DEVGRU snipers took out the pirates, each with a headshot.

During the early morning hours of May 1, 2011, in the country of Pakistan that is where SEALs of DEVGRU (Naval Special Warfare Development Group) were alerted after CIA intelligence pinpointed the location of Osama bin Laden.

In a combined operation with CIA assets on the ground in Abbottabad, Pakistan about 35 miles from Islamabad, Pakistan, DEVGRU SEALs infiltrated into the target area using specially designed “stealth” Blackhawk helicopters landed in the compound that bin Laden had been hiding in, with members of his family. They quickly moved thru the facility and killed bin Laden and brought out his body and several of his computers in a tremendous intelligence coup.

Since the initial Iraq War in Desert Storm and thru the on-going Global War on Terror (GWOT), over 80 SEALs have given their lives in the service of our country. Today, there are 10 SEAL Teams and a SEAL Delivery Vehicle Team deployed everywhere around the globe.

Photos: US Navy

Special Operations Forces Selection PT Preparation Week 8, Day 3

Tuesday is Leg Day, time for building strength and endurance, begin with pull-ups and. then squats, lunges and the sled followed by a four-mile run in under 32 minutes which is the standard.

If your gym has no sled, you can substitute a Fireman’s Carry with a training partner.

How is your head after New Year’s Eve? Leg Day and a good run in the cold will fix that.

Training:

Continue to prep for the UBRR

3 x Pullups 10 reps

3 x 10 reps Deadlifts

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

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

4 x Sled push heavier weight or Fireman’s Carry

3 x 10 reps Leg Extensions

3 x 20 Side planks

4-Mile run (32 minutes maximum)

Stretch well after completion

Egyptian Security Forces Kill 40 Islamist Militants After Bus Attack

Security forces for the Egyptian government have raided three Islamist militant hideouts and killed 40 of them in response to an attack on a tour bus near the tourist town of Giza where three Vietnamese tourists and their Egyptian guide were killed.

The three raids killed “40 terrorists” in Giza and North Sinai, the statement from the interior ministry said about the coordinating raids on terror cells.

“A group of terrorists were planning to carry out a series of aggressive attacks targeting state institutions, particularly economic ones, as well as tourism… and Christian places of worship,” the ministry stated.

The government recovered a large number of weapons, bomb-making materials, and ammunition in the raids.

The roadside bomb blast on Friday night in Giza also wounded 11 other Vietnamese tourists, although no group claimed responsibility for the bombing, Islamic militants have tried to disrupt the tourist trade in the past, which is one of Egypt’s biggest boosts to their economy.

Vietnamese foreign ministry spokeswoman Le Thi Thu Hang, while grateful for the support given to the victims by Egyptian authorities, called for swift justice.

“Vietnam is very angry and strongly condemns the terrorist act that killed and injured many innocent Vietnamese and has asked Egypt to soon open an investigation, chase and give harsh punishment to those who carried out these terrorist act,” she said in a statement.

Prior to the “Arab Spring” in 2011, tourist numbers had peaked the year before with over 14 million tourists to the country. After the Muslim Brotherhood attacked the Egypt Museum and fanatical Muslim clerics called on the Egyptian government to destroy the pyramids as “symbols of paganism,” those numbers plummeted. In 2016, the number of tourists fell to just over five million.

Town of Giza, lies just behind the famous pyramids. (Author photo)

This latest attack took place in the heart of the tourist season, where the numbers have been coming back thanks to the government’s crackdown on Islamic terror groups. With the Coptic Christians of Egypt celebrating their Christmas, which they observe on January 7, the government fears even more attacks to target the long-suffering Copts who comprise between 16 -18 percent of the population of Egypt, about 9 million people.

The Islamic terrorists have attacked numerous buses and churches of the Copts as well as people traveling to their monasteries which, several are located in the desert region.

Coptic Christian monastery located in the desert, many of these have suffered attacks due to their remote location. (Author photo)

One of the issues is that the Egyptian police in the past have done little to nothing to stop the violence, often showing up (conveniently) just after the attacks or standing by and doing nothing to prevent them. In one case, refusing to prosecute Islamists who burned a Catholic church.

A good friend and colleague who has lived in the Middle East for many years and written about the plight of Christians there, Lela Gilbert, penned an article about the plight of the Copts, which can be read here.

Thirty of the terrorists were killed in two separate, simultaneous raids in Giza while 10 more were killed in the North Sinai. Although the government didn’t link these particular terrorist cells with the bus attack, they had to have had these particular targets under surveillance for some time, considering the quick timing of the raids after the bus attack.

The Egyptians launched these raids with hours of the bus bombing which happened at 1845 hours local time as the Vietnamese tourists were on their way to dinner at a restaurant.

The North Sinai has been a hotbed of Islamic terrorist activity since 2013, as terrorists with ties to the Islamic State (ISIS), claimed responsibility for attacks on tourist destinations. Back in February, the Egyptian Army launched a large-scale operation against Islamic terrorists named “Sinai 2018” to rid the Sinai of jihadists after the terrorists attacked a mosque in the peninsula killed more than 300 people. Since the inception of this operation, the army says that hundreds of suspected jihadists have been killed.

Having been to the tourist areas and museums of Egypt, the security there was largely a show of force and not particularly tight, however, things have changed in recent months as the government has tightened up their security protocols at those sites as well as at airports in the country.

With the tourist season in full swing, expect that trend to continue. If anyone is planning on visiting there during the height of tourist season, ensure you check with the American Embassy before and during your stay to keep abreast of any developments in the security situation there.

Photos: Author, Fox News

Special Operations Forces Selection PT Preparation Week 8, Day 2

A good workout is the best way to start Monday (and New Year’s Eve) and the week off right. We’ll start 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 in 40 minutes or less in a mini UBRR test.

Remember to mark your progress in your workout log book. Then go out and enjoy the festivities.

UBRR 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

1 x Pullups as many as possible or to muscle failure

5-mile run (40 minutes maximum)

Stretch well after completion