Free Republic

Shirly Ray Trumps, 84, a retired Army colonel who led commando operations behind German lines in support of the Normandy invasion, died of lymphocytic leukemia Nov. 15 at his home in Annandale. Born along the Bayou Teche in Breaux Bridge, La., in the heart of Louisiana's French-speaking Cajun parishes, he joined the Army in 1940 as a member of the Louisiana National Guard and was commissioned a second lieutenant of infantry in 1942. On a weekend pass to Washington in 1943, he heard that the Army was searching for French-speaking volunteers to train for special missions. He applied for and...

BAGHDAD, Oct. 15, 2006 – U.S. soldiers continue to find multiple weapons caches, some with improvised explosive devices, for a seventh day as part of Operation Commando Hunter. The soldiers from 4th Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, seized 21 caches Oct. 13, bringing the total to 78 caches seized in the area located near Yusufiyah, 20 miles southwest of Baghdad. The 21 additional weapons caches consisted of three blocks of dynamite, 21 120 mm mortar rounds, five 60 mm mortar rounds, 80 7.62 mm rounds, an AK-47 assault rifle, three rocket-propelled grenade launchers, five...

Near to the Town of Obrenovac, at a secret polygon, about ten of former Serbian commandos are preparing themselves for a job in Iraq. The problems they are to deal with today are children's game comparing to what they shall have to go through in organization by the two most powerful world companies dealing with security in the areas of the world affected by the most serious crisis. Agents of these two companies, one American and one British, have concluded a contract with one Serbian private company picking Serbia as a place from where they can get cheap but exceptionally...

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...

Like the exploits of 21st-century special operators – including U.S. Navy SEALs, Army Delta soldiers, Force Recon Marines, Air Force commandos, and CIA paramilitary operatives – stories of men like Ortiz are rarely gleaned from books, newspapers, and magazines. Their incredibly dangerous work often goes unseen and is thankless.

For those who have been there, Hell Week is a sleepless, bitter cold, gritty, soaking wet, hell on earth where exhausted candidates – pumped full of antibiotics to ward off a variety of infections – survive on sheer heart, tenacity, seemingly incomprehensible physical courage, and about 5,000-7,000 calories per day (given they can muster enough strength to consume them). Hell Week is a short span of eternity at Coronado, California where the SEAL hopeful comes to a reckoning of the soul. Here, he “realizes,” according to Commander Richard Marcinko (USN, ret.), “the body is only tissue and the mind/brain can...

Where in the world is Osama bin Laden? Let's face it. He shouldn't be hard to find, especially from a Predator, an aerial reconnaissance vehicle that can read the minute hand of a wristwatch from an altitude of 26,000 feet. Bin Laden is very tall – slightly over 6'6" – and incredibly thin, less than 150 pounds. He wears shalwart kameez – the loose-fitting tunics and baggy pants of al-Qaida and Taliban soldiers – and, when the weather is cold, he dons a camouflage jacket. Although he was born in 1957 and far from retirement age, the al-Qaida chieftain appears...

Tehran, Jan 24 - Iran's Intelligence Minister Ali Younesi described American commandos as 'chicks' as they were alledged to have been carrying out covert reconnaissance operations inside the Islamic Republic. "We are eagerly looking for the Americans commandos to come to Iran since they are chicks which would rapidly be picked up by our eagles," he said at a news conference here. The claims were first made in the New Yorker magazine this month by the investigative journalist Seymour Hersh, alleging that US operatives were choosing targets inside Iran for future air strikes. Younesi roundly brushed off the report, saying,...

/begin my traslation S. Korean Commando....Beheads Al-Zarqawi Since that day, many volunteers came.. Able-bodied men were picked. Training started in an uninhabited island, near Inchon. Training was tough and hard.. Nobody quit, though. Probably nobody can quit. They all turned themselves into (lethal) weapons. They were their own weapon.. Can compete their mission under any extreme situations. Their training was finally over. They were sent to their mission. A few days later... The headline of the first newspaper says, 'Al-Zarqawi Found Beheaded', ' Islamic radical group, Monotheism and Jihad, wiped out' The headline of the second newspaper, 'The Last Words...

Patrick Dalzel-Job Patrick Dalzel-Job, who died on Sunday aged 90, had one of those adventurous wartime careers which inspire writers of fiction; indeed, he was said to be one of the models for Ian Fleming's creation, James Bond.Be that as it may - and in later life Dalzel-Job did not entirely discourage the notion - in 1944-45 he served in Europe with Fleming in the undercover Commando 30 Assault Unit, the mysterious special force which would race ahead of Allied front-line troops to seize secret German equipment and documents before they could be destroyed. One of the commanders in...

Carl F. Eifler, who commanded the first OSS covert operations unit during World War II and was dubbed "the deadliest colonel" for his daring exploits and planning of operations behind enemy lines, has died. He was 95. Eifler died April 8 of natural causes in a medical rehabilitation center in Salinas, Calif. Central Casting couldn't have supplied a more imposing figure than the 6-foot, 2-inch, 240-pound, tough-as-nails Army colonel. Eifler, according to his biographer, devised top-secret plans (that were later canceled) to assassinate Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek and to kidnap Adolf Hitler's top atomic scientist. He was, in a word,...

A FALLEN Australian commando was singled out for special mention by George W. Bush in marking the six-month anniversary of September 11. The President also used the first major anniversary of the terrorist attack to map out the next phase in the global war against terror. With Australia's flag fluttering in a cool breeze outside the White House, Mr Bush offered a moving tribute to SAS Sergeant Andrew Russell and his young family. quot;Last month Sergeant Andrew Russell, of the Australian Special Air Service, died in Afghanistan,quot; Mr Bush told the world from the historic South Lawn. quot;He left behind...