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The internet has no shortage of basement-dwelling commandos beating at their keyboards like chimpanzees as they forcefully insist upon one incorrect factoid or another regarding Special Operations units. All SEALs are considered Tier One, right?No. Rangers pull security for Delta, correct? Time to throw away that scratched-up "Black Hawk Down" DVD, hero.Since the Internet stupidity goes on and on, two of the SOFREP staff decided to team up and write a definitive article about the differences between SEALs and Rangers. This article was co-written by Brandon Webb, who served in SEAL Team Three, and Jack Murphy, who served in 3rd Ranger Battalion.

A bipartisan group of four congressmen introduced a bill Thursday that would abolish the Selective Service System, more commonly known as the draft. "Maintaining the Selective Service simply makes no sense," Rep. Mike Coffman (R-Colo.), a former Marine, said in a written statement. "In 1973, the last draftee entered the Army and since then, despite the first Gulf War and subsequent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Pentagon has never considered reinstituting the draft. Our all-volunteer military has given us the most elite fighting force in the history of this country." Coffman introduced the bill with Reps. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.),...

For the first time since combat operations were declared over at the end of 2014, a battalion of 500 U.S. Army infantrymen is being sent to southern Afghanistan's volatile Helmand Province where the Taliban have made a comeback, Fox News has learned. The decision, confirmed by defense officials, is a sign of military escalation in the country even as the Obama administration tries to draw down. The battalion is meant to relieve a company of 150 soldiers, giving the U.S. Army nearly 350 more soldiers to prevent the Taliban from taking over volatile Helmand province. The Army's 2-87 infantry battalion,...

Nationwide Air Force & Army COMEX communication GRID down exercise Friday 02/12/2016 http://blog.pwcares.org/?p=182 Amateur Radio Emergency Service, Events, PWCARES Air Force & Army MARS COMEX 2016/01/19 David Lane Air Force & Army MARS COMEX By: Clarence, K4CNM – (AAA3R3, Army MARS Region Three Operations Officer) The Air Force and Army MARS (Military Auxiliary Radio System) will conduct their first 2016 communications exercise (COMEX) from 7:00 am until 6:59 pm EST on Friday, 12 February. The scenario will be: there is no power, no phones (cell or landline), and no internet. Also, internet linked radio repeaters (such as D-Star) should not...

WASHINGTON -- Two House Republicans introduced a bill Thursday requiring eligible women in the United States to sign up for the military draft, just days after it was recommended by the Marine Corps and Army. Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., a Marine veteran, and Rep. Ryan Zinke, R-Minn., a retired Navy SEAL, filed the Draft American's Daughters Act to stoke debate over the military's historic move to fully integrate female troops into all combat roles. If passed, women from 18-26 years old would for the first time have to join men in registering with the Selective Service program and potentially be...

A 21-year-old man has pleaded guilty in federal court to two counts in connection with a plot to plant a bomb outside an Army post in northeast Kansas. John T. Booker Jr., of Topeka, aka Mohammed Abdullah Hassan, changed his pleas to guilty Wednesday in U.S. District Court to charges of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction and attempting to use an explosive device to damage government property.

Decorated soldier being kicked out of Army after shoving Afghan police commander accused of raping boy Army axing Green Beret who stood up for Afghan rape victim EXCLUSIVE: Even as the U.S. military denies reports that American troops were told to ignore Afghan child abusers, an 11-year Green Beret who was ordered discharged after he confronted an alleged rapist was informed Tuesday that the Army has denied his appeal. Sgt. 1st Class Charles Martland earlier this year was ordered discharged by Nov. 1. He has been fighting to stay in, but in an initial decision, the U.S. Army Human Resources...

Army Human Resources Command has recommended that the Green Beret who confronted an Afghan police commander for raping a young boy be kicked out of the service. Rep. Duncan Hunter (R., Calif.), who has pushed back against the Army’s decision to punish Sgt. 1st Class Charles Martland, revealed the development in a letter to Sen. Pat Roberts (R., Kansas) Wednesday. “Recently, a decision within Army Human Resources Command recommended that the Army uphold the judgment that Martland be removed from service, although a final decision has yet to be made about his future,” Hunter wrote. While serving in Afghanistan in...

According to an internal military document, the Swedish army is preparing for war. Per a Breitbart report, "the chief of the Swedish army General Anders Brannstrom told men under his command they could expect to be fighting a war in Europe against skilled opponents 'within a few years'." The 28-page document was directed to soldiers, civil servants, politicians, and guests who will be attending next week's military demonstrations that will focus on the army's ability to fight and survive a winter war.

Hawar News Agency (ANHA) has reported that Turkish troops have entered Syrian territory through Jarablus border crossing Tuesday evening. Hawar News Agency (ANHA) has reported that Turkish troops have entered Syrian territory through Jarablus border crossing Tuesday evening. According to the ANHA report which is grounded on local sources, the Turkish force of military vehicles and heavy equipment accompanied a mine detection and removal device. After crossing the border, Turkish soldiers moved westwards within the Syrian territory. Sources reported that ISIS gangs in the area were all unresponsive to the activity of Turkish soldiers, and just watched them as they...

WASHINGTON -- Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) finally set a confirmation hearing for Eric Fanning, who President Barack Obama nominated months ago to be the secretary of the Army. Fanning will appear before the Senate Armed Services Committee, which McCain chairs, on Thursday. If confirmed by the full Senate, he will make history as the first openly gay person to fill the post. Fanning has served in a number of senior positions at the Defense Department, and he had been filling in as acting Army secretary since he was nominated in September. But last week, the Pentagon announced Fanning was pulling...

The world's most interesting paratrooper known exclusivly as "HURD BLACK" performs an emergency tree landing and then climbs down his reserve to continue the mission. AIRBORNE!!!

In August, U.S. Army veteran Spence Rogers sold his house in Tampa, Florida and bought an RV, and set off with his wife and three children for a cross-country adventure. "We wanted to go to the mountains, wanted to go maybe check out Montana, wanted to check out different states -- just enjoy ourselves," Rogers explained. Instead, they found themselves parking semi-permanently on flatter land. Rogers, his family and the RV ended up in Iowa -- a state he had never before visited -- and instead of sightseeing, he signed on to be Cruz's deputy director for Iowa. Rogers, who...

Today, my former boss, a retired Army Intelligence officer sent me a copy of a memorandum for record concerning the US Army’s most recent lactation and breastfeeding policies, signed by the new Secretary of the Army, Eric K. Fanning and dated November 10, 2015. My first reaction was to pop a couple Tums even before starting to read it. As I scanned the document, I realized how far the Army has fallen on its sword. The sword of feminism, the sword of lunacy has completely eviscerated the lean green machine, so that it is the US Army in name only...

One year later, as I reflect upon my service to Israel, I am so proud as an American to say that I have stood alongside both the defenders of the United States and the defenders of Israel. As a result of this military service, I have learned a great deal about myself, our two countries, and why we are — as I learned to say in Hebrew — brothers. The first thing that struck me as I donned the dark green uniform of the Israeli Defense Forces, and for the first time since my own injury while serving in the...

Hillary Clinton says that her "not-so-secret weapon" is her husband Bill and has asked the former president to campaign for her in New Hampshire after the New Year. Bringing in Bill to rescue a flailing Hillary actually sounds like a pretty decent strategy. It appears that she's trying to cash in on the curious but nonetheless real phenomenon of Clinton nostalgia--Bill Clinton nostalgia, that is. People genuinely like the former president even if they can't name a single thing he accomplished while in office. Even so, Bill's rescue operation reflects poorly on Hillary. It's as if she's saying "Yes, I...

The juxtaposition of two American military men who could stand in the same courtroom in the coming months couldn't be set in more stark relief. Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl faces a general court-martial for walking off of his base in eastern Afghanistan in 2009. Bergdahl spent five years in Taliban captivity, where he was tormented, before being freed in a controversial prisoner exchange last year. Jimmy Hatch, a Navy SEAL senior chief who led a platoon into a fierce battle to try to rescue Bergdahl, was shot and badly wounded on that mission. Beside him, service dog Remco lay mortally wounded,...

Imagine being assigned to create a massive trompe l’oeil, and not just a painting, but a complex, 3-D, multimedia installation spread out over many kilometres. Imagine that it must convince an attentive and discerning audience to believe in and interact with something that is not really there. Further imagine that your workspace is in the middle of a war zone, and that thousands of lives depend on your success. Also, imagine that next week you will be asked to do it again. That, in a nutshell, was the mission given to the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops, also known as the...

Army Lt. Gen. John Mulholland was apoplectic. Seated at the head of a table in a staff meeting, the veteran Special Operations general was furious that a briefing for him at U.S. Special Operations Command did not follow the directions that he and the top officer in the command, Adm. William McRaven, had provided. In a profanity-laced tirade, Mulhulland told the staff members they had "all failed me" as a commander, and they should all go "shoot themselves right now," according to later accounts of the meeting. He promised that if they tried to brief their work to McRaven he...

Another test. Another form of terror — “Preston shopping centre bomb alert: Police say device was planted deliberately to endanger life,” British Army News, December 17, 2015 (thanks to Armaros): Preston’s Fishergate Shopping Centre remains closed as bomb disposal experts examine device Police have confirmed a device that went off at a shopping centre in Preston was planted deliberately and was intended to endanger life. Army bomb disposal experts are on the scene after the “suspicious device” went off in bin. It caused no real damage and no injuries.