Tag Archives: Special Forces

Colombian Special Ops Get 2 New UTC Choppers

By Rich Smith, The Motley Fool

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It may sound incongruous, but the Colombian Army is beefing up its air force — and hiring Hartford, Conn.-based United Technologies to help.

On Wednesday, United Tech subsidiary announced that its Sikorsky Aircraft subsidiary has contracted to sell the Colombian Army two new S-70i Black Hawk helicopters, a militarized international version of the famed UH-60 Black Hawk. Colombia already owns and operates five such helos within the Special Forces unit of the Colombian Army‘s Air Assault Division.

Colombia has long been a fan of Sikorsky’s products. Its National Police, Air Force, and Army already operate 96 UH-60L variants which, when combined with the similar S-70is, means Colombia currently has the world’s fourth biggest fleet  of these helos — after South Korea, Turkey, and of course, the U.S. itself.

United Tech did not disclose financial terms of the sale, but cost may have been a factor in Colombia‘s decision to begin buying S-70is rather than more UH-60Ls. According to public databases, the S-70i variant can cost as little as one-third the price of the UH-60L, which tends to fetch $18 million new. Even with the several modifications Colombia is asking United Tech to include on its new birds, they’re probably getting them for a nice discount to the price of the country’s other helos.

The article Colombian Special Ops Get 2 New UTC Choppers originally appeared on Fool.com.

Fool contributor Rich Smith and The Motley Fool have no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools don’t all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Yale Professor Under Fire For Proposed Special Forces Training, ‘Interrogation’ Research

By The Huffington Post News Editors

A Yale University professor currently being criticized for his recent proposal to train U.S. Special Forces in interview techniques has previously conducted research on how to tell whether Arab Muslim men are lying.

Psychiatry Associate Professor Charles A. Morgan III has proposed creating a center on the Yale campus that would teach up to 60 Green Berets per year in what he calls “cross-cultural” interviewing techniques. Critics say the plan is a violation of medical ethics and an affront to the immigrants who would be used as interview subjects.

The controversy began when a student newspaper, the Yale Herald, reported that Morgan would use $1.8 million in Department of Defense grants to create the the Center of Excellence for Operational Neuroscience. Slated to open as early as April, the center would operate as a joint venture between the United States Special Operations Command and Yale’s School of Medicine.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at Huffington Post

Special Forces: Team X Review

Sometimes, it’s the little things that bring you down. You’ve got a great idea based that tweaks an established working formula, but somehow you miss the mark on just a couple of things and the whole operation comes to a screeching halt. That’s what happened to Special Forces: Team X.

It all started when I hopped into my first match of the multiplayer-only third-person shooter. I selected my loadout (least accurate, most powerful weapon, please), voted on which sections of the map we’d be playing on (we’ll get to that), and waited for the game to start. Suddenly, I was in a firefight. It had spawned two squads of teammates on opposing sides directly across the alleyway from one another. I died pretty much immediately. And it was no fun at all.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at IGN Video Games

Let The Men Be Heroes – Because They Are

By Jude Eden

Fallujah Iraq Dec 8 2004 1 Let The Men Be Heroes – Because They Are

This is Part IV and the conclusion of my series on The Problems of Women in Combat. View the previous posts here.

On Thursday January 31,  2012, I had the pleasure of participating in a roundtable discussion on the subject of women in combat roles on the Glenn Beck show (members can view the show in full in the website’s archives).  I didn’t know Green Beret Greg Stube or Navy Seal Pete Scobell before that day, but we got to know each other well over the course of the show and afterward.  I was blown away by their level of sacrifice, what they had endured and overcome, and how they are still serving our country in their current endeavors.  “Heroes” doesn’t begin to cover it, but this is not unusual for men in units like these who have seen action again and again. As I listened, I was reminded once again of the truth about the male bond in these elite units and the superhuman things they do.

Watch the series “Surviving the Cut”, which shows the rigorous training men go through to make it into the elite Special Forces.  They’ll start off with a hundred men who are already the top performers in their branches, but only ten will make it to graduation.  The only example we have of women even attempting such training are two women who attempted the Marines Infantry Officer Course.  One washed out after a day, the other after a week.

The decision to open the combat units to women was done without any testing because testing shows that women can’t cut it.  To be brutally honest, we can’t even approach cutting it, as anyone who watches this series will be able to see.  The truth is that the top 25% of women performers in any branch is equivalent to the bottom 50% of men.  The top woman is no comparison to the top man.  Some pundits like to say “get the best man for the job, even if the best man is a woman.”  The best man in combat is never ever a woman (and women prove it).  The best man is always a man.  Let’s give them credit where credit is due.  Each one who makes it into a combat unit or Special Forces trumps the best woman, and by a large margin.  The caliber of man that a high-performing woman could compete with doesn’t make it into the Special Forces.  He washes out.  Comparing these potential (fictional) women to the men in these units is not just comparing apples to oranges.  It’s comparing apples to steak, and the result is to demoralize our country’s strongest, bravest, and most capable men who risk and sacrifice their lives for us doing things that no woman really wants to do.

Another interesting facet of these men as I’ve gotten to know them is that they shun recognition, even refusing their hard-earned benefits from the VA.  Compare that to …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Western Journalism

Former Call of Duty Dev Announces Mobile Game

Robert Bowling has been busy since he resigned from his position at Infinity Ward. Today, Gun Media has announced that the former Call of Duty creative strategist has been working with them on a new game called Breach & Clear for iOS and Android.

The tactical shooter will allow players to plan high-level Special Forces operations before putting them on the ground to execute them.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at IGN Video Games

2 arrested in 1977 cold case murder of Texas Army officer

Investigators in West Texas say they’ve solved the murder of an Army Green Beret who was found with a fractured skull and stab wounds in an El Paso County desert in 35 years ago.

The El Paso Times reports thatLisbeth Garrett, 74, was arrested Thursday in El Paso and charged in the 1977 death of her estranged husband, Army Maj. Chester Garrett.

An El Paso County Sheriff’s Office statement said that his stepson, 54-year-old Roger Evan Garrett, was arrested in Knoxville, Tenn.

The 35-year-old major’s bloody body was found in the back seat of his 1972 Volkswagen in the desert east of El Paso. Investigators say he’d been stabbed 10 times but died of a skull fracture.

At the time of his death, investigators found footprints and a set of tracks belonging to a different car in the area, but no signs of a struggle, the El Paso Times reported.

The case eventually went cold after all leads became exhausted. The investigation was not reopened until 2006, according to the paper.

“We’ve been working this case for many years,” sheriff’s Cmdr. Paul Cross told the paper. “The homicide guys did a tremendous job never quitting that case. It’s a great night, and hopefully this is the first step in getting justice for him and his family.”

Garrett, who was an executive officer of the student battalion at the Fort Bliss Air Defense School, also coached basketball and boys baseball at the school, according to the report.

Sheriff’s Capt. Mac Stout told the El Paso Herald-Post in 1977 described Garrett as a “Special Forces type” and said “[w]hoever got him must have been mighty tough, too, and probably more than one, and probably took him by surprise.”

Both Lizbeth Garrett and Roger Garrett are charged with murder and are being held on $5 million bond, according to the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Click here for more from the El Paso Times.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox US News

Arma Tactics coming to Project Shield

There’s no denying that turn-based games are fun; XCOM: Enemy Unknown was one of the most exciting, terrifying and exhilarating games I played last year. Now the guys at Bohemia Interactive, creators of Arma II (which spawned the popular mod DayZ) are looking to give that experience to you on the go with Arma Tactics.

We heard a lot about Nvidia’s handheld gaming system, Project Shield, during CES 2013 but the announcement lacked any information about possible launch titles. Arma Tactics is one of the games used to show off the hardware, and now we know the game is targeted to release later in the year (during Bohemia’s second financial quarter of 2013), possibly an effort to help Project Shield attract hardcore PC gamers (though we don’t know for sure when Project Shield itself will debut.)

Bohemia Interactive
Sweet dynamic setting
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The player will control a four-member Special Forces team through story-driven missions or ones with randomized objectives. Bohemia Interactive boasts that there are no set paths, strategies or rails that you must move on; all decisions will be up to the player on the best way to succeed. The game can be controlled with Project Shield‘s console-like controller or the touchscreen, and it will offer unlockable weapons and campaigns, character leveling and achievements for a little extra replayability.

Bohemia Interactive
Different perspective and some dynamic lighting.

Arma Tactics‘ setting looks good from the few screenshots provided. Not only is it pretty, but it looks complex enough to warrant many different play styles. Ladders and stairs look like an interesting way to change up the flow of combat, while a plethora of objects could provide cover and areas to regroup. If the developers bring the careful attention to detail and authenticity that Arma II is (in)famous for, this could be a killer launch title.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Source: FULL ARTICLE at PCWorld

War games: Laser tag helps military stay sharp

By Michelle Macaluso

Laser tag is helping the country’s armed forces keep their skills sharp.

Army Staff Sgt. Patrick Jenkins plays at Tac-Ops Laser Tag in Central California at least once a week.

“It’s definitely helping me out bit and keeping my skills because when I go back to my regular job and I’m not a recruiter, I’ll have a little experience and I won’t be so rusty,” said Jenkins who did tours in Afghanistan and Iraq and knows he could be deployed again down the road.

Tac-Ops attracts law enforcement agents and even members of the Special Forces, who come individually on their own time and together for organized sessions set up by their bosses.

“I’ve been contacted by the international guard, a gentleman who does maneuver scheduling for the Marines and a gentleman from the sheriff’s office. And all of them said they will be contacted us in the future to bring in their superiors,” said Tac-Ops Laser Tag general manager Dexter Morgan.

Morgan says Tac-Ops is different from most laser tag arenas, where you wear a bulky vest and walk into a black lit room filled with smoke and lots of flashy lights.

“There’s more of a mission-based approach, as opposed to just running around and shooting at each other randomly, agreed Army Staf Sgt. Lucas Earnest, another Army soldier who trains there. “It takes a little bit more thought to it, it’s team building, and it’s a lot more fun.”

Earnest says you have to communicate with the other players in order to win the game.

“You have to play as a team, there has to be teamwork, there has to be communication and that’s the same thing in the Army. If you don’t communicate we’re not to accomplish our mission,” he said.

Jenkins said the lessons learned at Tac-Ops are real.

“You learn how to transfer from right hand to left hand around corners, piecing off corners, doing high and lows, doing your wedges when you move when you clear, and communicating with your buddy,” said Jenkins.

The weapons are heavy and realistic, made of the military-grade materials real weapons are made out of. They can be programmed to simulate any types of situation.

“How many rounds in each clip, how much damage is done to them. We can also put sensors on bystanders, so if someone shoots them we can tell,” said Morgan.

Special forces and law enforcement uses other types of training simulations, but Morgan says laser tag is a good alternative.

“There’s no projectiles, so no one is getting hurt, there are no paintballs, so no mess, and we supply everything right here,” Morgan said. “There’s basically zero liability.

You don’t have to be a pro fighter, you can be as young as eight to play and it will cost you $12 for 30 minutes.

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox US News

US military preparing to support French forces in Mali

By Justin Fishel

The Pentagon is preparing to provide military support to French forces in their new fight against rebel militants in Northern Mali, Fox News has learned.

The U.S. is considering a range of options to help, including sending cargo aircrafts to lift more French ground troops into Mali, providing air refueling tankers for French air combat patrols, and offering intelligence gleaned from aerial surveillance.

Fox News has also learned that the U.S. sent Special Forces to train Mali forces last year.

Earlier Monday, Canada announced its intent to send a C-17 military transport plane to assist with the French campaign. The Canadians were careful to say their role will not include direct involvement in the conflict and that the aircraft is on loan for one week.

In recent months, the Malian government has lost control its tribal northern region to Al Qaeda-linked militants, who have brutally imposed strict Islamic law.

The French have had concerns in recent days that the whole country would fall into Al Qaeda hands.

The French, who see the destabilized region as a threat to their own national security, began to take military action in recent days to weaken the rebels. French fighter jets conducted air strikes over the weekend targeting militant camps and weapons depots.

Currently the French have less than 500 troops on the ground.

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News