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The Veterans Affairs secretary lied about serving in the special forces, a report in the Huffington Post alleges. "Robert McDonald, the secretary of veterans affairs, wrongly claimed in a videotaped comment earlier this year that he served in special operations forces, the most elite units in the armed forces, when his military service of five years was spent almost entirely with the 82nd Airborne Division during the late 1970s," the report reads. U.S. special operations forces (SOF) are composed of exhaustively trained and highly capable troops from each military service, including the Green Berets, Army Rangers, Delta Force and Navy SEALs --...

When Brandon Webb, a former Navy SEAL sniper instructor who helped train Chris Kyle, first watched "American Sniper," he was disappointed in the movie about his former student and friend. "I had high expectations and I have to say, when I first watched the movie, I felt really let down, for a number of reasons," Webb told ABC News Thursday. "It's hard to capture someone's life in two hours, and I get that, but I felt the film could have been, should have been, a military epic on the scale of a 'Saving Private Ryan.'" But Webb said when he...

Several French former soldiers have joined the ranks of jihadists fighting in Syria and Iraq, the country’s government confirmed on Wednesday, as it outlined a series of new anti-terrorism measures following the Islamist attacks in Paris. Most of the ex-soldiers, reportedly numbering around 10 and including former paratroopers and French foreign legionnaires, are said to be fighting on behalf of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). Most worrying is the reported presence of an ex-member of France’s elite First Marine Infantry Parachute Regiment, considered one of Europe’s most experienced special forces units and which shares the “Who...

JANUARY 16, 2015 Smearing Snipers: What Many Americans Don’t Get about Our Warrior Elite We should be proud of men like Chris Kyle, not skittish or ashamed. By Chris Mark About ten years ago, an employer of mine had an odd request: I needed to delete an aspect of my military career from my professional biography because it might “offend” a potential client or partner. Recon Marine, infantry Marine, service-disabled veteran . . . those were a boon. But “Scout Sniper,” one of the greatest accomplishments I had as a Marine — that had to go. Sadly, that kind of...

Just days after the terrorists struck, Green Berets from the Fort Campbell-based 5th Group were in Afghanistan. In more than 13 years since, the Special Forces presence in the country has been a constant. Thousands of soldiers have given years out of their lives to the Afghanistan mission. Many have been wounded. Many have died. In the process, they say, they have built the foundation for a future in a country that has known decades of war. “Back then, there was no (Afghan) army,” Schwartz said. “Really, all their equipment was predominately Soviet, and it was left over from the...

A U.S.-funded power plant and fueling station at an Afghan military complex in Kabul were barely functioning nearly two years after contractors finished building them, a watchdog report said. Another U.S.-backed project, a dining hall for soldiers at the Afghan National Army’s Camp Commando, was serving more than five times the number of people it was built to handle. The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction encountered difficulty in inspecting the three facilities due to lost records that would have shown when they were tested and commissioned in its report on the camp. Together, the power plant, fueling station and...

Dr. John “Rob” Marsh was already more than 12 hours into his workday last Tuesday when he rolled up to a tiny darkened house in Vesuvius, an out-of-the-way town in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley. “His willingness to come out here when we need him — well, it’s the kind of attitude you don’t find that much anymore,” she said. “We’re just fortunate. Tirelessness and the confidence to operate alone in a crisis — key requirements for rural physicians — were drilled into him in his previous job as the doctor for the Army’s elite Delta Force antiterrorism unit. Read the...

Couldn’t pass this up because one of our staff member have encountered such people while in the Far East Theater Staging Area, (maybe you Veterans have come across this as well) so this is quite hilarious. Read the 6 things that will make you look like a SOF member here.

American Sniper- The MovieI've read the book and passed it on to others

CAMP VANCE, Afghanistan Michael Sullivan was training to join the Special Forces when he and his fellow soldiers had a real-world lesson to talk about in a food court on Fort Bragg. On Sept. 9, 2001, suicide attackers posing as journalists assassinated Ahmed Shah Massoud, a leader of the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan. The Green Beret trainees were familiar with the ongoing conflict in Afghanistan, Sullivan said. They knew Massoud was seen as a threat to the Taliban regime. Two days later, on Sept. 11, Sullivan - then a captain - was signing for textbooks for his language courses when...

The U.S. Army’s plan to conduct an integrated Ranger School assessment in 2015 is looking good — interest is so high that the number of female volunteers must be cut to 160 candidates. All women selected by their commands and units will take part in the two-week Army National Guard Ranger Training and Assessment Course. Those who successfully complete the pre-Ranger course at Fort Benning, Georgia, will then move on to Ranger School, which is held 11 times a year.

On Sept. 30, the U.S. Army unceremoniously stood up a new headquarters—the 1st Special Forces Command—at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. The division-level unit brings together more than 15,000 Green Berets and other special troops in a single new organization. Previously, the Army’s Special Operations Command had directly controlled all of these troops plus others on a wide range of missions. The idea behind the new HQ is to assemble a force specifically tailored for dealing with what the Pentagon calls “hybrid warfare.” Simply put, hybrid warfare is a blend of straight-up traditional combat—with infantry, tanks and artillery—and secretive insurgency. Probably...

The Navy SEAL who shot dead al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is now reportedly living in poverty after leaving the military four years short of being eligible to receive his pension, he claims. Robert O’Neill, 38, from Montana, went public with his identity after meeting family members of 9/11 terror attack victims, he told the Washington Post. And now the heroic commando is saying he was left high and dry by the government he dedicated his life to serving. “The families told me it helped bring them some closure,” said O’Neill, of killing the al-Qaeda founder. O’Neill will also be...

FOX News Channel (FNC) will present a new documentary entitled "The Man Who Killed Usama Bin Laden" hosted by Washington correspondent Peter Doocy, on Tuesday, November 11th and Wednesday, November 12th from 10-11PM/ET. The two-night presentation will feature an exclusive interview with the Navy SEAL who says he fired the shots that killed terrorist leader Usama Bin Laden. In the special, he describes the events leading up to and during the historical raid that took place on May 1st, 2011. Revealing his identity and speaking out publicly for the first time, the Navy SEAL, also known as “The Shooter,” will...

The U.S. Army is opening the door for women to go to Ranger school. It's one of the first steps in the broader effort to allow women to begin moving into more grueling combat jobs.

One couple knows all too well the pain suffered by the parents of James Foley, the American photojournalist executed on camera last month by the Islamic State. Billy and Karen Vaughn also lost their son Aaron Carson Vaughn in 2011, when the SEAL Team Six soldier's Chinook helicopter was shot down over Afghanistan. Now the couple are calling on President Barack Obama to step down, citing his reaction to the Foley video and 'lack of leadership' in confronting ISIS.

Lt. Col. Tony Shaffer (Ret.) is a CIA-trained former senior intelligence officer and he says that the rescue operation for American journalist James Foley wasn’t successful because President Obama “dragged his feet”. "Thursday morning, Shaffer appeared on WMAL radio in Washington, D.C., to discuss the ISIS execution of American journalist James Foley earlier this week. He told me and co-host Brian Wilson that the recently revealed rescue attempt led by Special Forces earlier this summer failed because President Obama was slow to give the go-ahead: I’m hearing from my friends in the Pentagon, they are giving him every single option...

In a remote village in the dangerous northeastern Kunar province of Afghanistan, Army Green Beret Maj. Jim Gant was doing something few others had — he was making progress against the enemy. To do so, he and his men went native — trading their body armor for traditional Afghan garb, growing long beards, speaking the local Pashto tongue, and forging close alliances with tribesmen, who would come to revere Gant as “Commander Jim.” But when he went to bed at night, Gant had one thing his men did not — company. Ann Scott Tyson, a Washington Post war correspondent, quit...

A would-be grocery store robber in Arizona has learned the hard way not to mess with an Army Special Forces veteran. The violent encounter was captured on surveillance video at Maen Mdanat's convenience store in Tucson in late April. A camera trained on the entrance to Axis Food Mart captured the business owner toppling his much younger opponent to the ground with a couple of swift kicks and punches after the suspect attacked him inside the store. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2664203/Caught-camera-Moment-thug-tried-rob-convenience-store-learn-hard-way-owner-Special-Forces-veteran.html#ixzz35Ehubokr Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

Iraq is getting a fresh influx of up to 300 U.S. troops. And while they “will not be returning to combat,” as President Obama said Thursday, they will be taking on a role advising their Iraqi counterparts from the sidelines. What’s that mean exactly? Special Operations troops say a big part of the job will likely be providing command-and-control expertise, along with advice on how to integrate ISR (intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance) feeds to allow for better intelligence-sharing. Command-and-control entails using service members assigned to use communications gear to connect combat troops with higher command, while ISR refers to various...