Special Operations Forces

Trump Wants to Get Out of Syria, But Military Advisors Say Not Yet

President Trump says it is the time to get all of the U.S. military troops out of Syria, which they entered the civil war to deter ISIS, but have since been embroiled in other fighting.

The president’s comments appear to contradict U.S. military and national security advisors, who were speaking simultaneously at the U.S. Institute of Peace about the future fight against ISIS in both Iraq and Syria.
“As far as Syria is concerned, our primary mission in terms of that was getting rid of ISIS. We’ve almost completed that task, and we’ll be making a decision very quickly in coordination with others as to what we’ll do,” Trump said Tuesday at the White House.
“I want to get out. I want to bring our troops home.”
Contrary to Trump’s statements, Brett McGurk, the U.S. special envoy for the global coalition against ISIS, told a forum Tuesday that the U.S. mission in Syria was far from over.
“We are in Syria to fight ISIS. That is our mission, and our mission isn’t over, and we are going to complete that mission,” McGurk said.
Echoing those sentiments, Army Gen. Joseph Votel, who oversees U.S. forces in the Middle East as the head of Central Command, said that while the presence of ISIS in the region had diminished, “it is not gone.”
Votel estimated that more than 90 percent of the terror group’s territory had been recovered by U.S.-backed forces. He added that the next step for the approximately 2,000 U.S.troops in Syria would be to help stabilize the region.
“The hard part, I think, is in front of us, and that is stabilizing these areas, consolidating our gains, getting people back into their homes,” Votel said alongside McGurk.
“There is a military role in this. Certainly in the stabilization phase.”

Trump is correct here, keeping the U.S. in a stabilization phase is doing what? Stabilizing the Assad regime? With Russia’s backing, Assad has held on and Russian troops (mercenary or not) have already attacked American troops. Adding in the Turkish incursion, it is time to get out of that quagmire.

US Military Role on the Border Will Have a Limited Role

U.S. military troops are heading to the border as President Donald Trump said Tuesday afternoon he wants to deploy them to protect the Mexican border while the new border wall is built.

Tuesday evening, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders issued a statement saying the “vigorous” administration strategy includes mobilization of the National Guard.
The White House statement came after Trump met with Defense Secretary James Mattis, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Neilsen, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Joint Chiefs Chairman Joseph Dunford and chief of staff John Kelly, Sanders said.
“We are going to be doing some things — I’ve been speaking with (Defense Secretary) Mattis — we’re going to be doing things militarily”, Trump said at a White House meeting with the leaders of Baltic countries.
“Until we can have a wall and proper security, we’re going to be guarding our border with the military,” Trump said. “That’s a big step. We really haven’t done that before, or certainly not very much before.”
Mexico’s Ambassador Gerónimo Gutiérrez wants Trump to clarify his comments.
“We have formally requested a clarification on the President’s comments from the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security,” Gutiérrez said in a statement. “We share the idea of having a secure border, but we do not always agree on how to achieve that goal. Mexico, naturally, will always act in accordance with our own interests.”
But while President Trump could order active duty military personnel or federalized National Guard troops to assist with border security operations, they would not be allowed to carry out law enforcement duties like detaining migrants crossing the border illegally.
That’s because the Posse Comitatus Act prohibits the U.S. military from conducting law enforcement duties in the United States. The only way that can be allowed is by a special congressional authorization.

In the past active military and National Guardsmen have performed duties at the border under both Presidents Clinton and Bush.

To read the entire article from ABC News, click here:

Photo courtesy Wikipedia

Special Operations Forces Selection PT Preparation Week 2, Day 4

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

Training:

More Preparation for the UBRR:

100 pushups (no time limit)

100 sit-ups (no time limit)

100 crunches

5-Mile Rucksack march: Go as hard and as fast as possible without running. Log your time in your workout log book and hydrate, during the ruck.

Stretch well after completion

Gary Beikirch, Green Beret, Medal of Honor, For Actions on April 1, 1970

Prior to the war in Afghanistan, the conflict in Vietnam was the longest in United States history. And on April 1, 1970, Green Beret medic Gary Beikirch showed incredible bravery during an attack on his Dak Seang A-Camp. He was exposing himself repeatedly to enemy fire to treat wounded comrades, despite his own serious wounds that he was eventually awarded the Medal of Honor by President Nixon.

Beikirch was born August 29, 1947, in Rochester, New York. After successfully completing two years of college, he withdrew from school to enlist in the Army with the goal of becoming a Special Forces trooper and going to Vietnam.

In August of 1967, he attended and successfully completed Basic and Advanced Infantry Training at Ft. Dix, NJ. That was followed by the Airborne Course at Ft. Benning, Ga. Beikirch then attended the Special Forces Qualification Course at Ft. Bragg, NC. He successfully completed the Special Forces Medical Sergeant Course and was shipped to Vietnam.

Beikirch deployed to Kontum Province, Vietnam, in July 1969. During his deployment, he was the medic for Detachment B-24, of the 5th Special Forces Group, assigned to the remote Montagnard village of Dak Seang in the central highlands of Vietnam. The camp was very remote, about 3 miles from the Laos border.

Beikirch, in an interview later said that due to his affinity to the Montagnard people, he “went native”, living with the mountain people and went days at a time without speaking any English. The SF A-Team with 12 men had about 500 Montagnard “strikers” who the Green Berets trained and the remainder of about 2300 personnel in the camp were civilians, mostly families of the men that were being trained and led by the Americans.

On April 1, 1970, three regiments of North Vietnamese troops numbering 10,000 began shelling Camp Dak Seang, intent on taking the camp. The North Vietnamese artillery pounded the camp and Beikirch was wounded when shrapnel from a 122 mm rocket bruised his spinal column, not allowing him to rise and run inside the compound.

The NVA artillery pounded the camp causing a number of casualties among the camp’s defenders. Unable to move on his own, Beikirch had his two Montagnard medical assistants carry him around the camp under heavy, intense fire to treat the wounded American and Vietnamese defenders.

Beikirch, with complete disregard for his own safety, moved out into the open while everyone else around him was ducking and hiding from the artillery. The “Bac-Si” or doc as the tribesman called him went down to the aid station where he assisted the other American medic until he collapsed.

Coming to, he urged the medic to help him up, where his Montagnard medics carried him from place to place in the compound. He then would help them get to the aid station. His one Montagnard aid man Dao covered him with his own body getting killed in the process. He was just 15 years old.

Sgt. Beikirch refused treatment and continued his search for other casualties until he collapsed again. He said the last thing he remembered was the sight of a helicopter coming in. “And then I remember these hands, picking me up and throwing me into the chopper,” he said. The medics onboard the helicopter immediately stuck IVs in Beikirch telling him he was going to be okay.

He was taken to Pleiku, then to Japan, and then finally to the Valley Forge Medical Center, where he remained for six months, recovering from his injuries. He exited the army and went back to college, majoring in pre-med after his experience but the country wasn’t a great place for Vietnam veterans, especially the college campuses.

Spat on and called a baby killer, Beikirch had enough. He took off for the White Mountains in New Hampshire. His hair grew long, halfway down his back. He’s was chilling out in a cave on Mount Washington when he came down into town for supplies, he was told to wait for a call that evening.

“Is this Gary Beikirch who served with the 5th Special Forces in Vietnam?” the person asked. When Beikirch said that it was, he was told that he was being awarded the Medal of Honor. “It was things I was trying to forget,” he said. “It all came back.”

For his gallantry during the battle of Dak Seang, Sgt. Beikirch was
awarded the Medal of Honor by President Nixon in 1973. He didn’t go out to celebrate that night. He stayed in his hotel room. Feelings of unworthiness and the horror of war flooded back to him. For many years, Beikirch didn’t take part in many of the other events that veterans and other Medal of Honor recipients take part in.

Now, he’s more at peace with it and states the Medal isn’t about him or anything that he did but represents men and women that value something so strongly that they are willing to die for it and be willing to defend our country for it.

It is he said, a valuing of something greater than self.

Beikirch’s other awards and decorations include the Medal of Honor; Distinguished Service Cross, Silver Star Medal; Bronze Star Medal; Purple Heart Medal with one oak leaf cluster; Good Conduct Medal; National Defense Service Medal; Vietnam Service Medal; Vietnam Campaign Medal; Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry with silver star; Combat Medic Badge; Parachutist Badge; and Vietnamese jump wings.

Medal of Honor Citation:

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. Sgt. Beikirch, medical aidman, Detachment B-24, Company B, distinguished himself during the defense of Camp Dak Seang.

The allied defenders suffered a number of casualties as a result of an intense, devastating attack launched by the enemy from well-concealed positions surrounding the camp. Sgt. Beikirch, with complete disregard for his personal safety, moved unhesitatingly through the withering enemy fire to his fallen comrades, applied first aid to their wounds and assisted them to the medical aid station.

When informed that a seriously injured American officer was lying in an exposed position, Sgt. Beikirch ran immediately through the hail of fire. Although he was wounded seriously by fragments from an exploding enemy mortar shell, Sgt. Beikirch carried the officer to a medical aid station. Ignoring his own serious injuries, Sgt. Beikirch left the relative safety of the medical bunker to search for and evacuate other men who had been injured. He was again wounded as he dragged a critically injured Vietnamese soldier to the medical bunker while simultaneously applying mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to sustain his life.

Sgt. Beikirch again refused treatment and continued his search for other casualties until he collapsed. Only then did he permit himself to be treated. Sgt. Beikirch’s complete devotion to the welfare of his comrades, at the risk of his life are in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service and reflect great credit on him, his unit, and the U.S. Army.

Beikirch’s interview with the American Legion can be seen here:

Photos: US Army

Saudi Crown Prince: Israel Has a Right to its Own Land

In a stunning turn of events, Saudi Arabia’s crown prince said Israelis are entitled to live peacefully on their own land in an interview posted on Monday.

While outwardly the ties between Riyadh and Tel Aviv are appearing to grow closer, there remain obstacles in their paths. But to hear a Saudi crown prince echo those words were unfathomable not long ago.

Asked if he believes the Jewish people have a right to a nation-state in at least part of their ancestral homeland, Mohammed bin Salman was quoted as saying: “I believe the Palestinians and the Israelis have the right to have their own land. But we have to have a peace agreement to assure the stability for everyone and to have normal relations.”
Saudi Arabia — birthplace of Islam and home to its holiest shrines — does not recognize Israel. It has maintained for years that normalizing relations hinges on Israeli withdrawal from Arab lands captured in the 1967 Middle East war, territory Palestinians seek for a future state.
“We have religious concerns about the fate of the holy mosque in Jerusalem and about the rights of the Palestinian people. This is what we have. We don’t have any objection against any other people,” said Prince Mohammed who is touring the United States to drum up investments and support for his efforts to contain Iranian influence.
Increased tension between Tehran and Riyadh has fueled speculation that shared interests may push Saudi Arabia and Israel to work together against what they see as a common Iranian threat.
“There are a lot of interests we share with Israel and if there is peace, there would be a lot of interest between Israel and the Gulf Cooperation Council countries,” Prince Mohammed added.
Saudi Arabia opened its airspace for the first time to a commercial flight to Israel last month, which an Israeli official hailed as historic following two years of efforts.
In November, an Israeli cabinet member disclosed covert contacts with Saudi Arabia, a rare acknowledgment of long-rumored secret dealings which Riyadh still denies.

Saudi Arabia and the Crown Prince are definitely walking a different path than ever before. While they were for normalizing relations, they condemned the U.S. plan to move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem. How their Arab neighbors react to this will be interesting to see.

To read the entire article from Voice of America, click here:

Photo courtesy Wikipedia

Special Operations Forces Selection PT Preparation Week 2, Day 3

Tuesday is a leg day at the gym. These exercises build strength and explosion in your lower body and you’ll need both in Selection. These will also help your times with both running and carrying a rucksack. We’re going to go for heavier squats today with fewer reps, at other times we’ll go lighter and more reps.

Make sure you are hydrating enough during the workout and do a good stretch before and after. No one likes Leg Day but learn to embrace it and drive through. Eventually, it will become one of your favorite days.

Training – Prep for UBRR:

3 x Pullups 10 reps

3 x Squats 10-8-6 reps (Heavyweight barbell)

3 x Deadlifts 10-10-10 reps (Heavy weight)

3 x 10 Leg Extensions

3 x Sled Push or Fireman’s Carry

30 x “V” Ups

3-mile run (24 minutes minimum)

Stretch well after completion

Israel Prepares For Weeks of Tension After Gaza Incident

The Israeli government is rejecting the charges that it acted with disproportionate violence to the events that took place in Gaza over the weekend.

Israel is bracing for several weeks of military and diplomatic confrontation that began with Friday’s march in the Gaza Strip. The march left 17 Palestinians dead and hundreds more injured, and its protests are expected to continue until May 15, which the Palestinians mark as Nakba Day, the “Day of Catastrophe,” marking Israel’s founding as a modern nation.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday night congratulated the IDF for defending the borders and making it possible for the country’s citizens to celebrate the Passover Seder quietly.
“Israel acts with firmness and determination to defend its sovereignty and the security of its citizens,” he said in a statement.
An estimated 30,000 Palestinians took part in the Hamas-organized protests, with the IDF saying that those who were shot were either attempting to cross over, plant bombs at or physically harm the fence.
Israeli sources said that except for one “problematic” incident, there are photos and videos to back up the IDF’s claims. This material, the sources said, will be shown to those in the international community who condemned Israel for Friday’s incidents, and accused it of using disproportionate force.
The Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying that the fence between Israel and the Gaza Strip “separates a sovereign state from a terrorist organization.”
This fence, the statement said, “separates a state that protects its citizens from murderers who send their people into danger. The fence separates an army that uses force in self-defense and in a focused and proportionate manner, from Hamas, which has for years – including yesterday – been trying to harm millions of Israelis, and which sanctifies murder and death.

While the international community is roundly condemning the Israelis for the actions of its troops, the U.S. has stood behind them. In a statement, the U.S. stated that “Hamas should focus on desperately needed improvements to the lives of Palestinians in Gaza instead of inciting violence against Israel that only increases hardship & undermines chances for peace.”

To read the entire article from Jerusalem Post, click here:

Photo courtesy Wikipedia

4/2 Special Operations Forces Selection PT Preparation Week 2, Day 2

After the rucksack march of Sunday, we go back to the gym with some prep for the Upper Body Round Robin (UBRR) followed by a 3-mile run. Set the pace for as fast you can and try to better the standard and the time of your last run.

When doing the pushups, don’t worry about speed so much right now, ensure that you’re using very strict form. The cadre at Selection are sticklers for perfect form. Get in the habit now and the PT Test will be a breeze when you take it for real.

Training:

More preparation for the UBRR

2 x 30-seconds Pushups

2 x 30-seconds Sit-ups

2 x 30-seconds, Crunches

2 x Dips as many as possible to muscle failure

3-mile run (24 minutes maximum)

Stretch well after completion

Special Operations Forces Selection PT Preparation Week 2, Day 1

Time for our Sunday morning rucksack march, we’ll warm up with quick exercises and a stretch and then hit the trail for a 5-mile march over varied or uneven terrain. Make sure that ruck fits correctly and the same for your boots and socks. You can reference some of our earlier pieces for any information on those.

Try to push as hard as you can without running. Do the best that you can. And remember to drink plenty of water on the course, and don’t let yourself get dehydrated.

Training:

Warm up 30 seconds Mountain Climbers

Warm up 30 seconds Spider-Man Planks

5-mile Ruck march over varied terrain with a minimum 45-pound ruck (75 minutes max)

Stretch well after completion

Special Operations Forces Selection PT Preparation Week 1, Day 7

Let’s kick off this Saturday morning right and head back to the gym for a shoulder and back workout. Pull-ups, Rows, Deadlifts and Shoulder work. Followed by a three-mile run. Log your numbers down in the workout notebook

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 Seated Rows

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

3-mile run (24-minutes maximum)

Stretch well after completion