Contractors in a War Zone. It is common knowledge that, at least in the past decade, there are almost as many if not more contractors working in a war zone than there are military personnel. These contractors seem to be everywhere – in the PX, the dining facility, air terminal, sometimes in the gym, and walking around the FOB or compound.

But what do these contractors do? How much money do they really make? One writer (we assume he has spent some time in a war zone) has categorized them into six different groups: “The Action Figure”, “The Poser”, “The Professor On Safari”, “The Perpetual Expat”, “The Technician”, and “The One-And-Doner”. I guess, as a past and sometimes present contractor I used to be “The Action Figure”, but now I am “The Perpetual Expat”. Then again I am old enough and dress closely enough (love L.L. Bean) to be “The Professor On Safari”. But I am thinking that my work ethic and knowledge is very similar to “The Technician”. Hmmm. If I had to settle on one then it would be the expat.

Read more in “The 6 Types of Contractors You Encounter Overseas”, by Chief Reilly, Task & Purpose, September 28, 2016.

SOF News Update: US SOF raid in Somalia, interesting facts on the WWII British SOE, IPB in the “Gray Zone”, and SOF in the ground war against ISIS in northern Iraq.

U.S. SOF in Raid in Somalia. United States special operations forces, along side Somali troops, conducted a raid against Shabab militants last week. The raid took place on Wednesday, August 10, 2016. Read more in “Somali Forces, Backed by U.S., Kill Shabab Militants in Raid”, The New York Times, August 16, 2016.

Ten Interesting Facts about WWII SOE. “World War II saw the creation of many spy organizations to battle the menace of the Axis powers. In addition to MI5 and MI6, another group created during this time was the Special Operations Executive.” The British SOE wa the model for the United States WWII spy organization – the Office of Strategic Services or OSS. The OSS was the forerunner of the CIA and the U.S. Army Special Forces. Learn more in “Ten Interesting Facts and Figures about the World War II Special Operations Executive”, The Anglotopia Magazine, August 15, 2016.

SOE Operative Who Refused to Give Up. He was a British war hero who escaped the Nazis and evaded the Japanese in WWII. But he couldn’t avoid his final defeat. Read “Dad, the guerrilla who refused to give up.“, The Guardian, August 20, 2016.

IPB and the Gray Zone. The special operations community defines conflict that takes place between the space of peace and war as the “Gray Zone”. In this conflict zone, where it is often problematic to interpret the meaning of a non-lethal act by friend or adversary, military intelligence teams struggle to define these actions. Read more in “The Gray Zone and Intelligence Preparation of the Battle Space”, Small Wars Journal, August 17, 2016.

Fed Charges against Navy SEAL Dropped. Matt Bissonnette wrote a ‘tell all’ book about the raid that killed Osama bin Laden that got him into trouble with the feds. The charges have been dropped but he will pay a very large sum of money. Read more in “Pentagon Drops Claim Against Navy SEAL That He Spilled Bin Laden Secrets”, The Daily Beast, August 19, 2016.

SOF and the Ground War on ISIS. Mike Giglio, a BuzzFeed News Middle East Correspondent, provides us an inside look of how the U.S. special operations forces are working alongside the Kurds in northern Iraq (Aug 16, 2016).

Air Force Pararescuemen. Read about the men that keep the flyers and others safe from injury and capture in this special article by National Geographic,  August 18, 2016 – Injured Behind Enemy Lines, This Guy Is Your Best Friend.

Callsign JAG 28 Retired. Senior Airman Mark Forester, a member of the 21st Special Tactics Squadron out of Pope Field, North Carolina, died on September 29, 2010 in Uruzgan province, Afghanistan. Read about his heroic actions with the Special Forces team that earned him the Silver Star in “The Airman Who Died Leading His Team in an Intense Ambush”, Task & Purpose, August 18, 2016.

A Tribute to Green Berets. A Special Forces Soldier remembers three very hard Green Berets that were “harder than woodpecker’s lips.” Read a story by Michael Gibson entitled “The Green Berets”, Pulse, August 14, 2016.

U.S. SOF at risk of Syrian Air Attack? A recent airstrike of Syrian fighters near U.S. SOF positions in Syria have some worried. Read more in this news report by The Washington Post, August 19, 2016. Read a DoD press release on this topic (Aug 19, 2016).

Want to work for the CIA? You will need to pass a security investigation. Read “How to Pass a C.I.A. Background Check”, The New York Times Magazine, Auguat 19, 2016.

Special Operations Forces in Afghanistan. Learn about the SOF organizations leading the fight against the Taliban and ISIS  – NSOCC-A and SOJTF-A in an article posted on SOFREP, Special Operations Forces – Afghanistan, July 6, 2016.

Korean General Receives USSOCOM Award. A retired South Korean general and former special warfare commander has been recognized by the United States Special Operations Command. Read “Retired general sets example for commanders”, Korea Times, August 17, 2016.

SAS – Are you tough enough? “The SAS selection course is one of the most physically and psychologically demanding special forces test in the world”. “Are you tough enough to join the SAS?”, BBC.

SOCEUR Assists in Diver Recovery. Two Georgian military divers have gone missing during a recent dive training exercise. Special Operations Command Europe is assisting in recovery efforts. Read more in “US involved in deep sea search for two missing Georgian soldiers”, Agenda.ge, August 17, 2016.

Canadian Special Forces in Kurdistan. Canadian SF troops have been advising the Kurds in northern Iraq for some time. The Canadian government recently tripled the number of Canadian SOF in Iraq. Read “Canadian-trained forces clearing the way to retake Mosul from ISIS”, CTV News (CA), August 16, 2016.

D.C.’s Use of Private Contractors in War. Sean McFate, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, writes on the use of private military contractors to fight its wars and how it is a strategic vulnerability. Read “The Hidden Costs of America’s Addition to Mercenaries”, The Atlantic, August 12, 2016.

Afghanistan news – Topics include SOF burning the candle at both ends, contractors in Afghanistan, National ID card, Afghan documentary on Helmand province, and Afghan mental health issues.

US SOF Burning Both Ends of Candle in Afghanistan. Phillip Lohaus, a research fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), writes on how things are not going so well in Afghanistan. Currently there is one Special Forces battalion (SOTF-A) advising ten Afghan National Army Special Operations Kandaks (SOKs). For the SOTF-A to ‘Train, Advise, and Assist’ more would be stretching its capabilities and diminishing its effectiveness. Read Lohaus’s article posted at The Cipher Brief, August 18, 2016.

A Lot of Contractors in Afghanistan. According to a new congressional report Defense Department contractors make up 77 percent of the total US presence in Afghanistan. As of March 2016 there are almost 29,000 in the country. Read the CRS report dated August 15, 2016 posted on the Federation of American Scientist (FAS) website.

“Afghan Women Are More Than Victims”. Marzia Nawrozi, a contributing writer for Afghan Women’s Writing Project and Free Women Writers, has wrote an article about how women have been “. . . portrayed as weak voiceless victims of violence.” She says that this is a “. . . one-dimensional portrayal  . . .” Read more in “Afghan Women are More Than Victims”, Free Women Writers, August 12, 2016.

Staying for a While? Some analysis believe that the United States is going to be in Afghanistan for quite a long time. They see a Taliban insurgency that will continue to threaten the Afghan government’s hold on the countryside, the emergence of the Islamic State in Afghanistan, and the continued threat of terrorism finding a base in Afghanistan. Read more in “Why the U.S. Won’t Be Leaving Afghanistan Any Time Soon”, Strator, August 16, 2016.

New Afghan Documentary. A documentary is forthcoming about the British in Musa Qala district, Helmand province, Afghanistan. Read a review of “Heroes of Helmand: The British Army’s Great Escape”, Task and Purpose, August 16, 2016.

COMRS Concerned about NUG Disagreements. General Nicholson, the commander of Resolute Support Mission in Afghanistan, has some concerns about the current troubles between CEO Abdullah and President Ghani. Read more in “US Commander to Afghan Leaders: Don’t Let Political Process Undermine Security”, Voice of America, August 18, 2016.

Mental Health Issues in Afghanistan. “After almost 40 years of conflict and crisis, experts say the vast majority of the Afghan population suffers from some form of post-traumatic stress disorder, . . .” Read more in “After Years of War, Afghans Wary to Talk of Mental Health”, ABC News, August 18, 2016.

Afghan ID Cards. A good idea, poorly implemented. Read how “Afghan ID cards were meant to stop voter fraud but instead stoked ethnic division”, The Washington Post, August 18, 2016.

Child Soldiers in Afghanistan. The Child Soldier Prevention Act of 2008 restricts the U.S. government from providing military assistance to a foreign nation if it employs child soldiers. A recent UN report from April 2016 found that Afghanistan employed child soldiers within the Afghan Local Police (ALP). Many human rights activists want to see Afghanistan added to this list. Greg Graff argues that we need to be careful on this issue – that much is at stake. Read more in his report posted on American Enterprise Institute (AEI), August 17, 2016.

Afghan Interpreters at Peril? The US Congress is having difficulty in assisting around 10,000 Afghans who served for years as interpreters for US military forces in Afghanistan. And now the Taliban are slowly getting back – targeting these out-of-work interpreters in killings. The Visa program to bring these loyal Afghans to the U.S. is getting shut down by Congress yet the Obama administration wants to bring in thousands of unvetted Syrian immigrants. Who do we blame here? Senators Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Jeff Sessions of Alabama – playing politics in an election year; instead of doing what is right. Where’s the justice? Read more in “Dimming Hope for Afghan Translators”, The New York Times, August 18, 2018.

Violence Against Women – Afghanistan. Amy Jo Davies has penned an article entitled “How Does Violence Against Women Manifest? The Case of Post-Conflict Afghanistan”, E-International Relations, August 18, 2016.

SOF News Update Topics: We like football, they like soccer; airborne & SOF books, CIA’s ‘Elephant Counter’, Paratrooper Leapfest competition, endgame in Libya, SAS in Syria, DoD IG report on JIDA, TV documentary on India’s paratroopers, CENTCOM ‘cooked the books’ on intel reports about ISIS, and more.

CIA’s ‘Elephant Counter’. During the Vietnam War the Central Intelligence Agency employed Laotian tribesmen to conduct surveillance on the ‘Ho Chi Minh’ trail. The trail was a jungle / mountain road that traversed the length of Laos from the North Vietnamese border to the South Vietnamese border. The trail was used by North Vietnam to move men, supplies, equipment, and weapons from North Vietnam into South Vietnam. The CIA’s ‘trailwatchers’ were usually illiterate so a device called the ‘elephant counter’ was designed for the Laotians dispatched to watch the trail and record the traffic. Read more in an account by the CIA in “Elephant Counter”.

Books – by ASOMF. The Airborne & Special Operations Museum Foundation (ASOMF) has an online bookstore worth checking out. http://shop.asomf.org/category-s/1823.htm.

Leapfest Competition. Paratroopers from around the world gather once a year to participate in the Rhodes Island Leapfest competition. The 19th Special Forces Group stages the competition every year. Read more on the “Leapfest Facebook” page.

Modern Warfare Has Changed. The U.S. Marine Corps top general, Marine Commandant Robert Neller, has made some comments on the changing nature of warfare. He compares our (the U.S.) concept of warfare with that of our adversaries in sports terms. Read “Top Marine general: We like football, they play soccer”, Washington Examiner, 9 August 2016.

Australian Defence Magazine. The latest issue (August 2016) of Australian Defense Magazine has been published online. www.australiandefence.com.au/home/adm-editions

More on Lost SOF Equipment in Afghanistan. Earlier reports had said that a special operations forces position had been overrun and some SOF equipment captured by the Islamic State in Afghanistan. Now it appears that the Resolute Support HQs is refining the story by saying that the equipment was inadvertently abandoned due to a withdrawal of SOF personnel under fire. Read more in a news report by Reuters, August 9, 2016.

Libya – What is the Endgame? Once the U.S. gets involved in a conflict there is consternation about how it all ends. As in Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, . . . and now Libya. We currently have special operations forces on the ground and are conducting bombing raids (manned and unmanned). So we are looking for a short-term gain (degrading or defeat of ISIS in Libya) but what about long-term stability? Read “How Not to Plan for ‘The Day After’ in Libya”, The Atlantic, August 9, 2016.

Brit SAS in Syria. It appears that the Brits are committing their Special Air Service troops to Syria for the long-haul. Read a news report in The Sun, August 9, 2016.

Private U.S. Contractors in Syria. It appears that private contractors will soon be working alongside U.S. troops in Syria. Read more in “Spies-for-Hire Now at War in Syria”, The Daily Beast, August 9, 2016.

Pentagon IG Report on JIDA. The Joint Improvised-Threat Defeat Agency has some housekeeping to do according to the Defense Department’s inspector general. Read “Effectiveness of some counter-IED efforts unproved, Pentagon report finds”, Military Times,  August 9, 2016.

TV Special on Indian Army’s Paratroopers SF. The Discovery Channel will air a special program titled ‘India’s Paratroopers: Earning the Badge’ on August 15th, 2016 at 9:00 pm.

USSOCOM Awards Aviation Contracts. Four firms are the recipients of contract work from the United States Special Operations Command. Read more in a news report by IHS Jane’s 360, August 9, 2016.

CENTCOM Intel Officials Cooked Books. Inaccurate reports by leading intelligence officers at Central Command downplayed the strength of the Islamic State. Read more in “ISIS Intel Was Cooked, House Panel Finds”, The Daily Beast, August 9, 2016.