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Blinded by a dust storm kicked up by helicopter rotor wash and grenade explosions, all Sgt. 1st Class Michael Lindsay could see was shadowy figures scurrying about in the dim light, grabbing weapons. // In the ensuing firefight inside a remote rural compound in Samarra, Iraq, Lindsay was seriously wounded. But he and his fellow Army Green Berets kept firing. When it was over, 11 insurgents were dead - including the target of the predawn raid, a man described by the Army as a high-value terrorist who had been financing weapons and roadside bombs with profits from a kidnapping and...

Air Force Staff Sgt. Zachary Rhyner's story is one of heroism in battle. On April 6, 2008, Rhyner and his team were participating in an assault on Shok Valley in northeastern Afghanistan.

Washington – The Pentagon is likely to send up to 20 Special Forces teams to Afghanistan this spring, part of a new long-term strategy to boost the Afghan security forces' ability to counter the insurgency there themselves. The "surge" of elite Special Forces units would represent a multiyear effort aimed at strengthening the Afghan National Army and police units that the US sees as key to building up Afghanistan's security independence, say defense officials who asked to remain anonymous because the controversial decision has not yet been announced. The US already plans to send thousands of additional conventional forces to...

Oh, and by the way, they'll be receiving 10 Silver Stars for their trouble. From the Washington Post. After jumping out of helicopters at daybreak onto jagged, ice-covered rocks and into water at an altitude of 10,000 feet, the 12-man Special Forces team scrambled up the steep mountainside toward its target -- an insurgent stronghold in northeast Afghanistan. "Our plan," Capt. Kyle M. Walton recalled in an interview, "was to fight downhill." But as the soldiers maneuvered toward a cluster of thick-walled mud buildings constructed layer upon layer about 1,000 feet farther up the mountain, insurgents quickly manned fighting positions,...

Page A01 After jumping out of helicopters at daybreak onto jagged, ice-covered rocks and into water at an altitude of 10,000 feet, the 12-man Special Forces team scrambled up the steep mountainside toward its target -- an insurgent stronghold in northeast Afghanistan. "Our plan," Capt. Kyle M. Walton recalled in an interview, "was to fight downhill." But as the soldiers maneuvered toward a cluster of thick-walled mud buildings constructed layer upon layer about 1,000 feet farther up the mountain, insurgents quickly manned fighting positions, readying a barrage of fire for the exposed Green Berets. A harrowing, nearly seven-hour battle unfolded...

By all accounts, Robert Levy, now the 60-year-old mayor of Atlantic City, was a fine soldier during his two tours of Vietnam.The former lifeguard came home with two Bronze Stars. He was a native son who, before enlisting, had risen above his own family's prejudice to marry a local African-American woman. After his homecoming, he remained in the military until he became eligible to retire, with 20 years of service. But at some point, Levy began to embellish his service record in Vietnam by saying he had been a member of the Green Berets, the elite special force of the...

By all accounts, Robert Levy, now the 60-year-old mayor of Atlantic City, was a fine soldier during his two tours of Vietnam. The former lifeguard came home with two Bronze Stars. He was a native son who, before enlisting, had risen above his own family's prejudice to marry a local African-American woman. After his homecoming, he remained in the military until he became eligible to retire, with 20 years of service. But at some point, Levy began to embellish his service record in Vietnam by saying he had been a member of the Green Berets, the elite special force of...

FORT BRAGG, N.C., Sept. 17 — From his position about 100 yards away, Master Sgt. Troy Anderson had a clear shot at the Afghan man standing outside a residential compound in a village near the Pakistan border last October. When Capt. Dave Staffel, the Special Forces officer in charge, gave the order to shoot, Sergeant Anderson fired a bullet into the man’s head, killing him. In June, Captain Staffel and Sergeant Anderson were charged with premeditated murder. On Tuesday, in a rare public examination of the rules that govern the actions of Special Operations troops in Afghanistan, a military hearing...

LONG BEACH - Friends, family and fellow servicemen remembered Staff Sgt. Joshua Whitaker on Tuesday as a great American hero. "Josh wanted to be the best of the best," said long-time friend Matt Miller at Whitaker's funeral, held at Parkcrest Christian Church in Long Beach. Whitaker, a decorated Green Beret and former Millikan High School student, died from enemy small-arms fire during a firefight on May 15 near Qalat, Afghanistan, the Army said. He was 23 years old. ....."Seven days ago we were ambushed (in Afghanistan)," he said. "Josh died defending myself and the other two members (of the unit)....

An al Qaeda operative at Fort Bragg By JOHN SULLIVAN and JOSEPH NEFF Raleigh News & Observer November 13, 2001 FORT BRAGG, N.C. - A former sergeant at Fort Bragg who became a close adviser to Osama bin Laden obtained sensitive documents describing how U.S. special operations units function. Ali A. Mohamed, a trusted trainer in bin Laden's al Qaeda network, walked the halls of the U.S. military's top warfare planning center at Fort Bragg for more than two years as an Army sergeant. From 1987 to 1989, he acquired sensitive documents describing how special operations units work and a...

Triple Cross: How bin Laden's Master Spy Penetrated the CIA, the Green Berets, and the FBI--and Why Patrick Fitzgerald Failed to Stop Him This is the most dangerous man I have ever met. We cannot let this man out on the street." —Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, 1997 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ In the years leading to the 9/11 attacks, no single agent of al Qaeda was more successful in compromising the U.S. intelligence community than Ali Mohamed. A former Egyptian army captain, Mohamed succeeded in infiltrating the CIA in Europe, the Green Berets at Fort Bragg, and the FBI in California—even as...

A SMALL team of about 20 Australian Special Air Service soldiers has been helping track down Abu Sayyaf and Jemaah Islamiah terrorists in the southern Philippines. The soldiers have been notionally in joint patrols with Filipino military personnel but in truth the Australians are leading the efforts they are involved with. For the past couple of months a spasmodically ferocious effort has been waged in Mindanao, in particular on the island of Jolo, to eradicate the ASG, an al-Qa'ida affiliated terror group of extreme violence and cruelty. The SAS campaign is the nearest the Australian special forces have come to...

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nationworld/bal-te.special24sep24,0,3228806.story MACDILL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. -- So many of America's special operations commandos have been thrown into combat in Iraq and Afghanistan that only a handful of the elite troops are available for the quiet but critical work of training local security forces and stabilizing governments elsewhere -- raising worries about al-Qaida and related terrorist groups expanding in other parts of the world. The demand for Army Green Berets, Navy SEALs and other highly trained units in battle, which senior military commanders expect will last for the foreseeable future, is a tough problem for the military and for its...

'House cleaners' Army Special Forces soldiers are expressing outrage, among themselves, over purported remarks made by Lt. Gen. Dell Dailey last week at a meeting with new U.S. ambassadors at U.S. Special Operations Command (Socom) in Tampa, Fla. But both a Socom spokesman and a senior officer tells us the Special Forces troops, better known as Green Berets, are misquoting Gen. Dailey, who directs the Center for Special Operations, the critically important war-planning arm for all commandos. The tempest got so bad last week that Lt. Gen. Robert Wagner, commander of U.S. Army Special Operations Command at Fort Bragg, N.C.,...

America lost a good one this month. Retired US Army Lieutenant General William Yarborough, 93, passed away. Bill Yarborough was a veteran of three wars: WW II, Korea, and Vietnam. He was a highly decorated paratrooper and is considered by many one of the most imaginative, innovative combat leaders that America has ever produced. Yarborough came of age at the defining moment of the 20th century, the onset of the Second World War.

WASHINGTON -- In a historic step designed to bolster the military's ability to fight a global war on terrorism, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Tuesday he approved adding Marines to U.S. Special Operations Command, the organization in charge of SEALs, Green Berets and other commando-style forces. It is the first time since the command was created in April 1987 that the Marine Corps has been included, and Rumsfeld said the change reflects a need for the Pentagon to continue to adapt to the tactics of an adversary like the al-Qaida terror network that uses unconventional means to counter American...

This past summer, I observed a U.S. Army Special Forces exercise in Africa that represented the quintessence of imperialism as it has been practiced throughout history and yet which no modern liberal could oppose. Almost 200 Green Berets fanned out across the Sahara to train with soldiers from nine North and West African countries. It was part of a broad effort to professionalize the troops of fledgling democracies, assist them in hunting down Islamic terrorists in unruly borderlands, and deal with future humanitarian catastrophes like Darfur.... For a relatively small outlay in men and expenditures, the U.S. military has begun...

Airborne wings, the Green Beret and the numbered combat knife now given to every Special Forces soldier who wins his tabs all came from one man — retired Lt. Gen. William P. “Bill” Yarborough of Southern Pines. A volunteer committee of friends and admirers is raising funds to do something seldom done: honor a hero while he lives to hear the praise. They have commissioned a bust of the famed Army leader to be placed in the Airborne and Special Operations Museum in downtown Fayetteville. “We are very appreciative of the support of Sandhills Kiwanis Club for allowing us to...

Some of us went and fought and bled. Some died. Some stayed home and cried out against our fight. Some, with heads draped in hooded cloaks of shame and fear, went to Canada, most claiming disdain and loathing for that far-off war, not admitting actually succumbing to an inner fear of death or of wounding in a foreign land. We won every major battle, in the tradition of our forefathers at St Mere E’Glise, Normandy, San Juan Hill, and we left our virgin naiveté in those steaming emerald jungles of fear, or in the muddy larvae-laden waters of the lowland...

Pg 104…to 107 The third team selected to go into the box was 585….on October 25, 2001, the weather cleared and TIGER 03’s ten Special Forces sergeants finally reached their landing zone outside Dasht-e-Qaleh, a village in the upper northeast corner near the Tajikistan border.

Lord, Keep our Troops forever in Your care Give them victory over the enemy... Grant them a safe and swift return... Bless those who mourn the lost. . FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer for all those serving their country at this time. ...................................................................................... ........................................... U.S. Military History, Current Events and Veterans Issues Where Duty, Honor and Countryare acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated. Our Mission: The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans. In the FReeper Foxhole, Veterans or their family members should feel...

Obituaries in the News Apr 3, 2004 The Associated Press Aaron Bank LOS ANGELES (AP) - Retired Army Col. Aaron Bank, a military icon called "the father of the Green Berets" for his role as the first commander of the Army's elite Special Forces, has died. He was 101. Bank died Thursday of natural causes in an assisted-living facility in Dana Point, said his son-in-law, Bruce Ballantine. In 1952, the Army approved 2,300 spaces for men in a Special Forces unit, the 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne), at Ft. Bragg, N.C. Bank was a key figure in pushing for its...

WASHINGTON, March 29 — Senior American commanders and Pentagon officials are warning of an exodus of the military's most seasoned members of Special Operations to higher-paying civilian security jobs in places like Baghdad and Kabul, just as they are playing an increasingly pivotal role in combating terror and helping conduct nation-building operations worldwide. Senior enlisted members of the Army Green Berets or Navy Seals with 20 years or more experience now earn about $50,000 in base pay, and can retire with a $23,000 pension. But private security companies, whose services are in growing demand in Iraq and Afghanistan, are offering...

TIMBUKTU, Mali (AP) - On the Green Berets' signal, the 120 Malian troops sprang across a thorn-covered sand dune and stormed a mock enemy camp, pouring assault rifle fire into human-shaped silhouettes and an old truck cab. It was part of the U.S.-led war on terror - an effort to head off any chance that the vast and lawless desert of this African nation might become the next Afghanistan. But the start of Thursday's live-fire exercise was briefly delayed: Two donkeys wandered into the firing zone, and a Malian soldier ran out to shoo them away. "Tell him to come...

Woods to train with U.S. Army after Masters by Associated Press LOS ALAMITOS, Calif. (AP) -- Playing in the Masters might seem like a vacation compared to what Tiger Woods has planned after his week at Augusta National -- training with the Army. Woods said Tuesday he will take part in four days of military training at Fort Bragg, N.C., before hosting a junior golf clinic April 16 at the army base. Woods' father, Earl, was a Green Beret during the Vietnam War. ``It's an honor to walk in my father's footsteps by training with the service men and women...

Just heard on Early Today: After this year's Masters Golf Tournament, Tiger Woods will spend four (4) days training with the Green Berets at Fort Bragg, NC. His father was a Green Beret during Vietnam and Tiger wants to get a feel for what his Dad experienced.

First of three parts At 2 a.m. on Oct. 24, 2001, two blacked-out Chinook helicopters carrying Laconia native Master Sgt. John Bolduc and nine other Green Berets dropped from a star-packed sky into northeastern Afghanistan. The men carried six months of supplies and simple orders: Link up with the Northern Alliance and deliver the vengeance of America. In many ways, their secret mission represented the aspirations of all Americans reeling from the previous month’s terrorist attacks in New York, Pennsylvania and Washington. The nation stood united. Patriotism soared. An angered nation spoiled for revenge. Now, here stood soldiers from the...

The top secret international commando group which tracked down Saddam Hussein is being transferred from Iraq to Afghanistan to spearhead the hunt for Osama bin Laden. Task Force 121, a 1400-strong unit drawn from the U.S. army's Delta Force, Rangers and Green Berets, U.S. navy Seals, and attached elements of British and Australian SAS and Canadian special forces, will be used as the cutting edge of an offensive aimed at netting or killing top al Qaeda fugitives. The unit, which may be renamed before deploying on the Afghan side of the frontier with Pakistan's lawless tribal lands, is moving in...

Murder Inc. Seymour Hersh, with his usual thoroughness, has documented Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's latest scheme for Iraq. It is, in short, to set up death squads, trained by Israelis and using Israelis as consultants in Iraq. The Israeli role is supposed to be hush-hush, but not only Hersh, in his New Yorker article, but also a British reporter in the Guardian have confirmed the Israeli role. That will win a lot of hearts and minds in the Arab world. About the only government they hate worse than ours is Israel's. The idea is to hire some of the...

<p>The Bush administration's expanded role for military advisers in Colombia has started to pay dividends with the capture and killings of senior guerrilla leaders.</p> <p>Long limited to an antidrug role, U.S. personnel won authority in 2002 to train the Colombian army in counterinsurgency operations.</p>

Boise Knife Maker Carves Niche Helping U.S. Special Forces Soldiers By Jon Hanian Boise, ID - His name is Christopher Reeve, "Just as in superman." But he readily admits he is no way affiliated with superman. He just happens to make knives for the next best thing, the United States Army Green Berets. "This is the best military knife on the market and that is not sales (B.S.) that is fact." That bravado is backed by the fact this little machine shop in Boise, is cranking out one of kind hand crafted knives made to exacting specifications that have...

The Javelin Missile FORT BRAGG, N.C., Sept. 16 — The low-slung ridgeline overlooking a strategic crossroads in northern Iraq offered scant protection for the small band of Green Berets, vastly outnumbered and under attack from four T-55 tanks, six armored personnel carriers and hundreds of infantrymen with artillery on call. "We all made a mental promise," Staff Sgt. Jeffrey M. Adamec recalled of that battle on Day 18 of the war. "Nobody had to yell out commands. Everybody just knew. We were not going to move back from that point. We were not going to give up that ground. We...

 Spectator.org Print Article         Close Window         Copyright © 2002 Spectator.org. All Rights Reserved. Inside Stories of the Transformed Armed Forces By Published 9/2/2003 12:02:00 AM Buy the Book Our response involves far more than instant retaliation and isolated strikes. Americans should not expect one battle, but a lengthy campaign, unlike any other we have ever seen. It may include dramatic strikes, visible on TV, and covert operations, secret even in success.-- George W. Bush, Address to Congress, September 20, 2001 The back cover of The Hunt for Bin Laden, by Robin Moore (Random House, $24.95), shows Moore, an...

<p>COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Unconventional warfare in Bosnia, Afghanistan and Iraq taught the U.S. Army it needed more unconventional warriors.</p> <p>To increase the pool of potential Special Forces members, officials have started selectively recruiting civilians straight into a program that could make them Green Berets in about two years. It is attracting hundreds more recruits than expected, and they are doing well, Army officials say.</p>

Floyd Holcom probed parched soil along Kuwait's border with Iraq in March, making sure it would support a tank's churning treads. Members of Holcom's U.S. Army Special Forces team watched Kuwaiti soldiers cut openings in the border's gleaming steel fence. The desert was eerily quiet. Then, for three days and nights, the Astoria man and his fellow Green Berets stared in awe as thousands upon thousands of tanks, Bradley Fighting Vehicles and trucks shattered the desert silence. The most powerful fighting machine on Earth thundered toward Baghdad, trailing dust and smoke. Finally the desert grew tranquil again. The Kuwaitis sealed...

The U.S. Special Operations Command is looking for “leap-ahead” technologies that can give its troops a decided advantage over their adversaries in wars such as those in Iraq and Afghanistan. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld announced in January that the command—made up of elite, unconventional warfare units from the Army, Navy and Air Force and headquartered at Florida’s MacDill Air Force Base—is being strengthened so that it can play a bigger role in U.S. military operations. Currently, SOCOM consists of about 47,000 personnel, including Army Special Forces, Rangers and specialized helicopter, psychological operations and civil affairs units; Navy SEAL (sea,...

I was reading the new book just out by Robin Moore entitled, "The Hunt for Bin Laden" and came across some excerpts that I wanted to cite in honor of my NY friends. This book has been hard to put down and parts of it are simply hilarious. So, with the setting in Afghanistan early on in the conflict...quoting from pages 74-75 and 99: ----------------------------- Like it's Vietnam predecessor, "Puff the Magic Dragon," the Spectre is easily described by Special Forces troops on the ground as "raining death." With Chain guns, and autoloading 105mm cannon, a 25mm Gatling gun and...

IWANIYA, Iraq, April 17 — They were trained in the art of war and came to Iraq to fight. But now that the regime has been toppled, Army Special Forces soldiers in Diwaniya have found themselves on an entirely different and, in many ways, more difficult mission. They are trying to rebuild the city. It is a battle against chaos instead of bullets. The Green Berets have had to wade into angry crowds. They have mediated between rival tribes locked in blood feuds. They have tried to hold together the city's thin threads of social order, not always with...

<p>KUWAIT CITY - As U.S. air and ground forces blast into Baghdad, dozens of CIA paramilitaries and thousands of U.S. Special Operations forces are waging a hidden war in Iraq's shadows.</p> <p>Under the cover of darkness, they're hunting and assassinating Baath Party members and Republican Guard leaders, rigging selected bridges with explosives and detonating them when suspected Iraqi leaders drive by, and using viruses to disable computers at military command centers, power plants and telephone networks.</p>

As U.S. air and ground forces blast into Baghdad, dozens of CIA paramilitaries and thousands of U.S. special operations troops are waging a hidden war in Iraq's shadows. Under the cover of darkness, they're hunting and assassinating Baath Party members and Republican Guard leaders, rigging selected bridges to explode when suspected Iraqi leaders drive by in armored vehicles, and using viruses to disable computers at military command centers, power plants and telephone networks. Their efforts, largely off-camera, burst into view with the dramatic rescue last week of Pfc. Jessica Lynch from a hospital in Nasiriyah where she was being held...

NO MAN’S LAND at night was a wondrous silver world of empty desert to the two teams of American Green Berets as they moved slowly towards their reconnaissance objective. The desert town near the Iraqi lines outside Kirkuk seemed abandoned, but there were other eyes scanning the wilderness. The men eased forward in two vehicles, acquired days earlier from their Kurdish peshmerga allies. “Then the engine block seemed literally to fall right out the bottom of the vehicle,” one of the lead team recalled. “We’re standing around trying to fix it when we hear a sound. The town isn’t empty...

WASHINGTON -- In the largest operation in their storied history, elite special operations forces are waging a shadow war in Iraq whose success could determine whether coalition forces can topple the regime of Saddam Hussein quickly or whether the conflict will drag on for months, say military officials and specialists. The military's ''silent warriors,'' as President Bush called them yesterday, were involved in the first operations of the war and are likely to conduct some of the last, including helping spearhead the birth of new civil institutions in a post-Hussein Iraq. Details of their activities in recent weeks -- from...

Canadians weren't always fools and cowards My father served with Canadians in the 1st Special Service Force. Here is a brief history: The "Devil's Brigade" While the origins of U.S. Army Special Forces date back to the French and Indian War and the formation of Rogers’ Rangers, the modern concepts of unconventional warfare were largely developed in World War II with the formation of several specially trained units. One of the these early Special Forces units was the First Special Service Force, also known as the “Devil’s Brigade.” The origins of the First Special Service Force (or the Force, as...

American Green Berets who launched yesterday's attack in Baluchistan's "devil's triangle" with their Afghan allies have for months been probing the frontier area in Nimruz province where Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan meet. They have been led by a man known to locals as "Captain Tony", and riding with heavy machineguns and in plain clothes in pick-up trucks. They have been forced to play by unusual rules in Afghanistan's "wild, wild west". The "devil's triangle" is a region where heroin dealers refine their product in clandestine factories and smuggle it into Iran with huge, heavily-armed convoys that can take out Iranian...

Document created: 3 June 02 Published Aerospace Power Journal - Summer 2002 What’s So Special about Special Operations? Lessons from the War in Afghanistan Col John Jogerst, USAF** Colonel Jogerst is the Special Operations Chair to Air University, on the faculty of Air War College, Maxwell AFB, Alabama.Watching the war in Afghanistan and listening to speculation about future US moves, one hears a lot of discussion about US special operations forces (SOF). The consensus seems to be that these forces are tailor-made for the unconventional nature and uncertainty of this war. Every war is unique, but if the uncertainty and...

The U.S. military dominates the globe, but increasingly faces an enemy it cannot see. In the third in a series on U.S. power, Peter Goodspeed chronicles efforts to build a secret army for the covert war on terrorism. - - - The United States is building an elite, secret army to carry the war against terrorism into the world's darkest corners with a new wave of covert pre-emptive operations. For the first time since the Vietnam War, U.S. defence officials are undertaking a massive mobilization of their elite special operations command, pouring billions of dollars in new funding into high-tech...

Maj. Christopher Miller lay awake on a cot in a filthy room, no larger than a prison cell and cluttered with weapons and ammunition. He couldn't sleep. It was a cold January night at the Special Forces base in Kandahar, and Miller was on the verge of commanding an assault against six Qaeda fighters barricaded inside a nearby Afghan hospital. So many things could go wrong, Miller realized, and it could be disastrous if any of them did. For the first time in his life, Miller would be engaging in C.Q.B. -- a military abbreviation for ''close-quarters battle.'' After years...

<p>December 6, 2001 -- The three Green Berets felled yesterday by a stray bomb in Afghanistan grew up in small towns in different corners of America, and were brought together by a dedication to the military.</p> <p>Sgt. 1st Class Daniel Petithory, 32, was raised in Cheshire, Mass., a New England mill town in the Berkshire Mountains. He went into the Army immediately after high school.</p>

Remarks by President George W. Bush at the White House ceremony for the presentation of the Medal of Honor to the late Capt. Humbert R. Versace USA July 8, 2002 THE PRESIDENT: Good afternoon, and welcome to the White House. It's a - this is a special occasion. I am honored to be a part of the gathering as we pay tribute to a true American patriot, and a hero, Captain Humbert "Rocky" Versace. Nearly four decades ago, his courage and defiance while being held captive in Vietnam cost him his life. Today it is my great privilege to recognize...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush presented a posthumous Medal of Honor Monday to Army Capt. Rocky Versace, a Green Beret who defied his Viet Cong captors and was executed in 1965. "He was fluent in English, French and Vietnamese and would tell his guards to go to hell in all three," Bush told a group of about 200 in the East Room of the White House. The audience included Versace's friends and family members, including three brothers. The president gave the framed medal to the captain's brother Steve, who was applauded as he held it over his head and turned...