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The Department of Defense announced today the deaths of 30 servicemembers who were supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. They died Aug. 6 in Wardak province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when their CH-47 Chinook helicopter crashed. The following sailors assigned to an East Coast-based Naval Special Warfare unit were killed: Lt. Cmdr. (SEAL) Jonas B. Kelsall, 32, of Shreveport, La., Special Warfare Operator Master Chief Petty Officer (SEAL) Louis J. Langlais, 44, of Santa Barbara, Calif., Special Warfare Operator Senior Chief Petty Officer (SEAL) Thomas A. Ratzlaff, 34, of Green Forest, Ark., Explosive Ordnance Disposal Technician Senior Chief Petty Officer (Expeditionary Warfare...

When the coffins of the fallen Navy SEALS came back to US soil, the Pentagon and the White House closed the event to the press.That's understandable. After all, the Bush administration made similar restrictions for such ceremonies, although Obama overturned the policy.The press complied as well, but when the White House released a photo yesterday of President Obama saluting the coffins at the ceremony, they raised their eyebrows.When Associated Press reporter Ben Feller asked about the photo today at the White House Press briefing, Carney answered:

A NATO helicopter was shot down in the eastern province of Afghanistan last night, killing 31 U.S. special forces and seven Afghan soldiers. The aircraft, belonging to NATO's International Security Assistance Force, or ISAF, went down in the Maidan Wardak province, according to a statement from the office of Afghan President Hamid Karzai. The helicopter was completely destroyed, shot down by the Taliban, Shahidullah Shahid, a spokesman for the Maidan Wardak province said in a phone interview. The incident marks the biggest single loss of life for U.S. forces in Afghanistan since operations began in 2001, Associated Press reported. Establishing...

KABUL, Afghanistan — Insurgents shot down a NATO Chinook helicopter during an overnight operation in eastern Afghanistan, killing 37 people on board, a military official said on Saturday.

Robert L. Gibson MSG. Robert L. Gibson, US Army SF (RET), passed away on Feb. 10, 2011. He was born on May 16, 1927 to Lacy & Mary Gibson. When he was 16 he signed up for the draft. He was drafted and turned 18 while serving in Germany during WWII. He stayed in the Army, and became a Paratrooper with Special Forces. He was the youngest Paratrooper in the 17th Airborne according to "Thunder From Heaven". He served in WWII, Korea, and 3 tours to Viet Nam. He served in various outfits including: 17th Airborne Division, 506th Parachute Infantry...

PM got to spend some time recently with the world's newest celebrity weapon: the HK416, the U.S. Special Forces assault rifle that (we're pretty sure) killed Osama bin Laden ### The World's Newest Celebrity WeaponHeads turn eagerly as painfully bright sunlight pours through an opening door of a dark New York City warehouse. Smiles mix with the winces; a celebrity has arrived. Two men in black T-shirts step into the shadowy building, carrying opposite ends of a large green case; they place it carefully on a table. One unlocks the clasps and cracks open the case, revealing two disassembled Heckler...

It was just a matter of time before the successful Navy SEAL operation against Osama bin Laden on May 1 provoked a complaint that SEAL teams are all-male. Sure enough, Washington Post pundit (and founder of the feminist website Jezebel.com) Anna Holmes came through last week with a column denouncing the “paternalistic, discriminatory” exclusion of women from special-operations units and comparing that exclusion to racial segregation. If you’d like to get a full picture of feminist thought today, just combine Holmes’s column with the ongoing farce at Yale University, which is under federal investigation for allegedly denying female students equal...

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As the interest in counter-terrorism soars, the Walt Disney Company is attempting to trademark the name Navy “Seal Team 6,” the unit responsible for taking down Osama Bin Laden. Counter-terrorism is becoming a big market since the death of Osama Bin Laden and it appears the Walt Disney Company is ready to cash in. Disney is currently trying to trademark the name Navy “Seal Team 6,” the unit responsible for killing Bin Laden. On May 3, just one day after the news was out about the death of Bin Laden, Disney applied to trademark the name “Seal Team 6.” The...

The (Stealth) Blackhawk Crash The reason a stealthy version of the MH-60 Blackhawk crashed during the May 1 raid that killed Osama bin Laden includes the vortex ring state phenomenon, according to officials, but helicopter crashes in the Middle East are far from uncommon. Hot air close to the ground and the aircraft's proximity to the high walls of the compound could have caused that thin, hot air to be driven by propwash up the walls and then down through the rotor, causing the vortex ring state. With those conditions, the helicopter would have lost lift and settled with power,...

Secrets: Good news of bin Laden's death may be followed by bad news of Pakistan giving China a peek at our downed helicopter. Will we be threatened by our own technology? They are something out of the latest Batman flick, the modified Black Hawk helicopters that were used in the raid on Osama bin Laden's Pakistani compound. With a curious hublike housing around the unusually configured rear-rotor, among other things, it was clearly designed to be as quiet and stealthy as possible. When one of the copters clipped a wall in bin Laden's compound, it had to be destroyed, leaving...

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It seemed an innocuous, catch-up phone call. Last year Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti, the pseudonym for a Pakistani known to U.S. intelligence as the main courier for Osama bin Laden, took a call from an old friend. Where have you been? inquired the friend. We’ve missed you. What’s going on in your life? And what are you doing now?

A FEARLESS four-legged recruit joined US Special Forces as they stormed Osama Bin Laden's secret lair. The explosive-sniffing dog was strapped to an assault team member as they took on one of their greatest challenges to date. He was part of the operation in which the elite US Navy Seals lowered themselves down ropes from three Black Hawk helicopters into the terrorist supremo's hideout in the town of Abbottabad, Pakistan, on Sunday. [Snip] Heavily armoured hounds — equipped with infrared night-sight cameras — have been used in the past by the top-secret unit. Wearing oxygen masks, the pooches have...

SAN DIEGO — Patrons in bars across the country are raising toasts in the air, hoping the gesture of gratitude would somehow reach the clandestine Navy SEAL team that took down Osama bin Laden. Millions of others are turning to social networks with their thoughts.

THEIR motto - Failure is Not an Option - would have been ringing in the ears of the Navy SEALs as they flew into Pakistan to capture or kill Osama bin Laden. Their mission was so meticulously planned they built a full replica of the target compound to train in. The SEALs (SEa, Air, Land) are one of the US military's most diverse special forces units. For the bin Laden raid they were joined by members of the US Army Delta Force and CIA specialists. It was a SEAL from counter-terrorist Seal Team 6 who delivered the fatal shot to...

From Ghazi Air Base in Pakistan, the modified MH-60 helicopters made their way to the garrison suburb of Abbottabad, about 30 miles from the center of Islamabad. Aboard were Navy SEALs, flown across the border from Afghanistan, along with tactical signals, intelligence collectors, and navigators using highly classified hyperspectral imagers. After bursts of fire over 40 minutes, 22 people were killed or captured. One of the dead was Osama bin Laden, done in by a double tap -- boom, boom -- to the left side of his face. His body was aboard the choppers that made the trip back. One...

WASHINGTON – Helicopters descended out of darkness on the most important counterterrorism mission in U.S. history. It was an operation so secret, only a select few U.S. officials knew what was about to happen. The location was a fortified compound in an affluent Pakistani town two hours outside Islamabad. The target was Osama bin Laden.

Interesting commentary going on there right now.

*snip* Instead, he was in a house eight times larger than its neighbors, with a seven-foot wall and valued at $1 million. The house had no phone or television and the residents burned their trash. The house had high windows and few points of access, and U.S. officials concluded it had been built to hide someone. According to U.S. officials, two U.S. helicopters swept into the compound at 1:30 and 2:00 a.m. Sunday morning. Twenty to 25 U.S. Navy Seals under the command of the Joint Special Operations Command in cooperation with the CIA stormed the compound and engaged Bin...

US and Egyptian special forces have reportedly been offering covert armed training to rebel fighters in the battle for Libya, Al Jazeera has been told.

Forty-three years ago this month, U.S. Army Spc. 4 James Leslie Moreland vanished during a fierce battle at Lang Vei, South Vietnam. He would later be awarded a Silver Star for heroism that night and be promoted to sergeant first class while listed as MIA – missing in action. Now, his remains positively identified using DNA from five family members, the Green Beret medic is coming home. Sisters Linda Brown of Puyallup and Edna Anita LeMoine of Olympia and brother Donald Moreland of Lakeside, Calif., are relieved, grateful, tearful. “I’ve never given up, and I’m so thankful that after all...

SHALIMAR — The president of a construction company working at the Army Special Forces cantonment was arrested Wednesday and charged with fraud for falsifying Social Security numbers of her employees, lawmen have announced. Her husband and two other employees were arrested on similar charges last month. Sheyenne Contreras, 30, president of H&S Drywall, was arrested in Lake County following a three-month investigation by the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office. She is charged with obtaining more than $900,000 in payments from the federal government using stolen and counterfeit Social Security numbers, many of which were procured by her company. “This particular case...

N.Korea Boosts Special Forces, Conventional Arms North Korea's special forces have grown by 20,000 over the past two years, reaching about 200,000 in total and increasing the so-called asymmetric threat the country poses to the South. The numbers come from the defense white paper 2010 published on Thursday, which says the North has consistently boosted its special warfare capabilities, deploying a light infantry division under an Army corps stationed on the frontline and adding a light infantry regiment to an Army division there. The 200,000-odd special troops are primed to carry out combined operations such as attacks on major facilities...

Ceremony salutes 2010 operations by Israel's new Underwater Missions Unit TEL AVIV — The Israel Navy unveiled details of its new Underwater Missions Unit, designed to conduct sabotage, reconnaissance and other operations. Military sources said the unit was also trained to repair the hull of ships while inside the water. "Our level of diving today is among the best in the world," unit commander, identified only as Maj. Oren, said. At a recent ceremony, Oren said the unit also searches for remains of soldiers lost at sea, Middle East Newsline reported. The commander said the unit, which recruits once every...

BILOXI, MS (WLOX-TV) - Retired U.S. Army Special Forces Colonel Henry Cook is a 40 year military veteran who nearly died when he was wounded in Vietnam. He is also a Hancock County attorney, who has donated thousands of hours of legal work to veterans over the years. In fact, his work has been so important that three years ago, he was chosen to serve as the National Commander of the Military Order of the Purple Heart. Cook told WLOX News that he was honored when he was chosen to serve as the groups National Commander. He knew it would...

In 2005 Petty Officer First Class David Goggins’ life took a tragic turn. Several of his fellow U.S. Navy SEAL(s) were killed in a helicopter crash during a mission in Afghanistan. To honor them, Goggins vowed to raise money for the Special Operations Warrior Foundation, which gives college scholarships and grants to the children of fallen special operations soldiers. Goggins rationalized that to raise money, he would have to do something extreme, something phenomenal— something incredibly painful. He decided to race ultramarathons when he Googled the 10 most difficult feats in the world. First on the list was the Badwater...

In 2005 Petty Officer First Class David Goggins’ life took a tragic turn. Several of his fellow U.S. Navy SEAL(s) were killed in a helicopter crash during a mission in Afghanistan. To honor them, Goggins vowed to raise money for the Special Operations Warrior Foundation, which gives college scholarships and grants to the children of fallen special operations soldiers. Goggins rationalized that to raise money, he would have to do something extreme, something phenomenal— something incredibly painful. He decided to race ultramarathons when he Googled the 10 most difficult feats in the world. First on the list was the Badwater...

WASHINGTON — The National Security Agency, headquarters for the government’s eavesdroppers and code breakers, has been located at Fort Meade, Md., for half a century. Its nickname, the Fort, has been familiar for decades to neighbors and government workers alike. Yet that nickname is one of hundreds of supposed secrets Pentagon reviewers blacked out in the new, censored edition of an intelligence officer’s Afghan war memoir. The Defense Department is buying and destroying the entire uncensored first printing of “Operation Dark Heart,� by Anthony Shaffer, a lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve and former Defense Intelligence Agency officer, in the...

Washington (CNN) -- The Department of Defense recently purchased and destroyed thousands of copies of an Army Reserve officer's memoir in an effort to safeguard state secrets, a spokeswoman said Saturday. "DoD decided to purchase copies of the first printing because they contained information which could cause damage to national security," Pentagon spokeswoman Lt. Col. April Cunningham said. In a statement to CNN, Cunningham said defense officials observed the September 20 destruction of about 9,500 copies of Army Reserve Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer's new memoir "Operation Dark Heart." Shaffer says he was notified Friday about the Pentagon's purchase. "The whole...

9 killed, 3 hurt in Afghanistan chopper crash KABUL, Afghanistan – All nine troops killed in the worst helicopter crash for the coalition in Afghanistan in four years were Americans, the Pentagon has confirmed without providing further information on why the aircraft carrying Navy special forces went down.

EXCLUSIVE Stig was SAS Hero  RACING driver Ben Collins, unmasked yesterday as Top Gear mystery man The Stig, is a former member of the SAS. Ben trained SAS heroes in daring "escape and evade" driving skills while serving with the regiment, The Sun can reveal.     No more mystery nice guy ... Ben Collins aka The Stig   Millions of viewers have seen the race ace coaching celebrities on how to achieve the fastest time around a TV circuit in Top Gear's reasonably-priced car. But sources close to the special forces unit - motto Who Dares Wins - last night...

highly decorated Navy SEAL from Virginia Beach died Wednesday from injuries sustained in combat operations in eastern Afghanistan, the Navy said Friday. Chief Special Warfare Operator Collin Trent Thomas, 33, was shot while deployed with a SEAL team based at Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek. As is customary in operations involving the elite commando units, the Navy released no other details about the circumstances of his death

OUTPOST NOLEN, Afghanistan (Reuters) – Elite U.S. special forces soldiers are relieving insurgent pressure on American outposts in the volatile Arghandab Valley with a series of night attacks on suspected Taliban hideouts. The raids, backed by a "Spectre" C-130 gunship and Afghan commandos, began four days ago in the village of Khosrow Sofla, and followed weeks of near-daily attacks by insurgents on American bases near the town of Jelawar. "We considered it an area of Taliban sanctuary, or at least of tacit or semi-permissive support," said U.S. Army Major Brendan Raymond, of Woodbridge, Virginia. Last month, the U.S. military said...

Obama secretly deploys US special forces to 75 countries across world Tim Reid and Michael Evans, Washington President Obama has secretly implemented a huge increase in the number of US special forces carrying out search-and-destroy missions against al-Qaeda around the world, with American troops now operating in 75 countries. The dramatic expansion in the use of special forces, which in their global span go far beyond the covert missions authorised by George W. Bush, reflects how aggressively the President is pursuing al-Qaeda behind his public rhetoric of global engagement and diplomacy. When Mr Obama took office US special forces were...

-3 Communications subsidiary EOTech, Inc. in Ann Arbor, MI received a $25 million sole-source, firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/ indefinite-quantity contract, to provide their optical sighting system for U.S. Special Operations Command’s M4A1 carbines. Work will be performed in Ann Arbor, MI and is expected to be complete by May 2015. $262,636 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year, on Sept 30/10. The US Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane Division in Crane, IN manages this contract (N00164-10-D-JN68). EOTech offers a unique technology, thanks to its Holographic Weapon Sight. The firm says that their night-vision compatible sight combines ranging and aiming...

This is a link to the original Japanese story just now.Rather sketchy and breaking, but will synopsize main points into English as thus:There is the large Kaesong Industrial Complex in North Korea for manufacturing products, which is just across the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) from the truce village of Panmunjom, jointly run by North and South Korea. You can clearly see this development from overlook vantage points on hills located around Panmunjom. There are a number of South Korean managers and employers there on-site as we speak. At this time, they are apparantly not free to leave.N. Korea is threatening to...

Teams of American special forces have been authorised to conduct spying missions intended to pave the way for a military strike on Iran in case President Obama orders one, US government sources have confirmed. The military units would penetrate Iranian territory to reconnoitre potential nuclear targets and make contact with friendly dissident groups, according to a secret directive written by General David Petraeus. The document's existence was disclosed for the first time yesterday. It authorises an expansion in the use of US special forces throughout the Middle East, US officials said. However, it is the possibility of American troops operating...

Jake Johnson is a veteran with more than a decade of Special Operations experience. Recently, I asked him about the so-called “Courageous Restraint Medal”.

An Afghan prosecutor has issued an arrest warrant for an American special forces commander over allegations that a police chief was murdered by a US-trained militia. Brigadier General Ghulam Ranjbar, the chief military prosecutor in Kabul, has accused the US of creating an outlaw militia which allegedly shot dead Matiullah Qateh, the chief of police in the city of Kandahar. The militia, which Ranjbar claimed is armed and trained by US special forces, also allegedly killed Kandahar's head of criminal investigations and two other officers, when they attempted to free one of their members from a courthouse. "We lost one...

Military officials on Tuesday acknowledged a helicopter shortfall plaguing Special Operations Forces, but said the Defense Department has a long-term plan to fill gaps in the in-demand force's aviation inventory. The unpredictable security environment, with heavy deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan over the last several years, have strained special operators' helicopter assets, Gary Reid, deputy assistant Defense secretary for special operations and combating terrorism, told the House Armed Services Terrorism and Unconventional Threats Subcommittee. The shortfall was exacerbated by early delays in fielding the Bell-Boeing CV-22 Osprey tilt rotor aircraft, as well as delays in modifying some of the special...

<p>A U.S. military jury has cleared a Navy SEAL in an abuse case involving an Iraqi prisoner accused of masterminding an attack that left four Blackwater security contractors dead.</p> <p>1st Petty Officer Julio Huertas, 28, was the first of three Navy SEALs to go on trial for the alleged assault. He was not accused of abusing the prisoner but of failing to safeguard him and attempting to influence the testimony of another service member.</p>

<p>Military Justice: The first of three Navy SEALs charged with abusing a captured jihadist has been cleared. Why has this administration taken the word of terrorists and let American heroes twist in the wind?</p> <p>The acquittal of Petty Officer 1st Class Julio Huertas, 29, of Blue Island, Ill., by a six-member U.S. military jury in Baghdad on Thursday is good news and the correct verdict.</p>

September 6, 1999 WASHINGTON--A former government officer has told investigators that members of the secret Army unit Delta Force said they participated in a shoot-out during the final assault on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned. The witness, according to congressional sources, has already named names; and will soon offer his account under oath! The development caused panic and confusion at the top levels of the Justice Department and the FBI over the holiday weekend, leaving one top official scrambling for details. FBI Director Freeh has demanded a full briefing, one agency source divulged late...

WASHINGTON, April 1, 2010 – U.S. special operations forces in Iraq will remain at current levels even as the number of American troops there is nearly halved over the next five months, the top special operations commander said today. As the 98,000-strong force in Iraq is reduced to 50,000 by Aug. 31 in accordance with a U.S.-Iraqi agreement, roughly 4,500 special operations forces will maintain a presence there, military officials said. “The special operations forces are not experiencing a drawdown in Iraq,” said Navy Adm. Eric Olson, commander of U.S. Special Operations Command. “Supporting them is a continuing mission of...

Military: Two U.S. congressmen take the lead in proclaiming the obvious — that those who attack this country should be punished and not those who risk their lives to defend it. The Navy SEALs are a special breed of patriot and warrior. This highly trained and select group — the best of the best — is a daily participant in the long twilight struggle against the enemies of freedom that President Kennedy warned us about. Kennedy formally created the SEAL (sea, air, land) outfit as an elite force capable of combat operations in any environment. It was a team of...

Elite Marine recon teams were dropped behind Taliban lines by helicopter Friday as the U.S.-led force stepped up operations to break resistance in the besieged insurgent stronghold of Marjah. About two dozen Marines were inserted before dawn into an area where skilled Taliban marksmen are known to operate, an officer said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of security concerns.

BRITISH SAS heroes have killed up to 50 Taliban commanders in daring raids behind enemy lines. The joint attacks with US special forces over the past two weeks have helped prepare the ground for the biggest battle in Afghanistan yet - when 4,000 British troops will go into action. Read more: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/campaigns/our_boys/2848942/SAS-men-and-Navy-SEAL-teams-take-out-top-50-Taliban-leaders.html#ixzz0fLbXqg9f

MARJAH, Afghanistan -- U.S., Afghan and British troops were in the early stages of securing the town of Marjah Saturday, with thousands of infantrymen moving in on foot after helicopter-born soldiers seized two central shopping bazaars. The airborne troops landed before dawn, opening the first major military push in the latest surge of U.S. and allied forces into Afghanistan. So far, the troops have encountered only hit-and-run resistance from Taliban fighters, who have been taking potshots from compounds before moving out as the allied troops returned fire. Afghan officials said five Taliban had been killed; there was no word on...

Special Forces Assassins Infiltrate Taliban Stronghold in Afghanistan Sunday, February 07, 2010 PrintShareThisAmerican and British troops poised to assault the Taliban stronghold of Marjah have begun targeting insurgent leaders for assassination. Military sources said special forces had been infiltrating the town on "kinetic" missions — jargon for armed attacks. "Special forces guys have been going in on assassination missions with the aim of decapitating the Taliban force," one said. At the British base of Camp Bastion and the adjoining Camp Leatherneck, the U.S. Marine base, troops and munitions have been airlifted in by night to avoid enemy rockets. It is...