Free Republic

As Capt. Tom Davis stands at the tailgate of the military cargo plane, the night air sweeps through the hold. His eyes search the black terrain 1,200 feet below. He grips the canvas of his reserve parachute and takes a deep breath. Davis and the men who make up his Special Forces A-team are among the most highly trained soldiers in the U.S. Army. It's 1972, and Davis isn't far removed from a tour in Vietnam, where he operated along the Cambodian border. His communications sergeant served in Command and Control North, which was responsible for some of the most...

For U.S. special operations personnel, conducting high-altitude parachute jumps are pretty much par for the course. Yet doing so with a nuclear bomb strapped between your legs is on an entirely different level. That’s exactly what can be seen in the top shot above. Here, a U.S. Army Special Forces paratrooper is pictured free-falling during a training exercise with a Special Atomic Demolition Munition, or SADM, harnessed to them. A form of atomic demolition munition (ADM), SADMs were man-portable nuclear weapons, also known as "backpack nukes." These munitions were fitted into specially designed hard/cloth carrying cases for their transportation on...

NK Running 'Backpack Bomb' Unit By Park Jun Hyeong [2011-11-25 21:22 ] â–² Google Earth image of the alleged area of North Pyongan Province The North Korean military has established a new military brigade in North Pyongan Province which apparently specializes in backpack-sized tactical nuclear weapons. The brigade, which masquerades as a logging brigade, is reportedly part of the 8th Corps of the Chosun People's Army, which has jurisdiction over the province. A South Korean source close to the North Korean military told The Daily NK on Friday, "Three new brigades have been stationed within the 8th Corps." One of...