ATACS-FG

I’ve been hard at work on new content over at SOFREP.com, I’ve got interviews and book excerpts coming with Green Berets who served in Vietnam and Afghanistan, news about goings-on in the SOF community, and I’ve also been working on gear reviews for The Load Out Room which will go live next month.  In the meantime, check out this preview of the kind of content to expect over at PredatorBDU!

75th Ranger Regiment

ODA 555 in Afghanistan

I’m proud to present to SOFREP readers this special interview with Scott Zastrow about his experiences with ODA 555 during the initial invasion of Afghanistan.  Scott was an 18D (Special Forces Medic) on his Special Forces team and was among the first boots on the ground in country on October 19th, 2001.  This will be the first of a two-part interview, and maybe I can twist Scott’s arm into having him come back again to tell us more of this incredible history of Green Beret’s waging Unconventional Warfare during the opening salvo of Operation Enduring Freedom.

Tell us about what prompted you to join the Army in the first place, and Special Forces in particular?

I was raised in the Midwest where there is a lot of Patriotism and American pride. My father and brother had both been in the Army, so it was an easy choice for me to make.

I went to Germany as a medic right out of Basic/AIT, and luckily landed in a unit with a handful of guys I trained with. Like most young soldiers, we took to drinking, fighting and trying to find love in the local pubs. We had this asshole PLT SGT who was your standard E-6 with 24 years in, three ex-wives and a couple DUIs. He lived in the barracks with us and made our lives hell daily, but it turns out that’s exactly what we needed. I owe that crew a lot to the man I am now. The first month I was there, I was supposed to cover a road march for one of the Scout Platoons and was told to link up with the PSG the day before. I asked him what they were carrying and where to meet and he said they were running 65lb rucks and were starting at 0500 at the motor pool. So the next morning I showed up with my 65lb ruck at the motor pool and jumped in with the PLT. Halfway through the ruck, the PLT LDR came up to me and asked me where my weapon was, and I told him I didn’t have one, that no one told me to get it. Well, he flipped, he started screaming at me for being such a dumbass, and I felt like one. Who doesn’t bring a weapon on a road march? I knew he was going to tell my PSG and I was going to get killed, great way to start my Army career. The PSG came over to help him scuff me up and he noticed who I was. “Sir, that’s our medic,” while I’m in the front leaning rest; under-ruck. “Oh, sorry, Doc. Get up. Thought you were one of our guys. Normally the medic follows behind us in the ambulance, good for you for walking. Catch back up with the boys.” As I ran back up to the PLT, all I could think about was why no one told me I could be driving behind them instead of walking with this ridiculous weight on my back for 12 miles. Then the word got out there was this new high-speed medic in the unit and anytime someone went out dismounted, they requested me by name, not knowing I was just stupid, not hard. We had an old 18D as our PA in that unit and after hearing his stories and watching him do his job, I knew that’s what I wanted to do. He held us to a higher standard and that became our minimum standard, which was a great thing to learn at that young age.

Bin Laden gets face-shot

When the Osama Bin Laden raid went down, there was a flurry of news reporting, many initial reports stumbling over themselves as both the media and the White House struggled to get their stories straight.  Who executed the raid?  How was Bin Laden killed?  Who is Seal Team Six?  Our readers already knew the answer to that last one, but you get the idea.  From what I gather, and we don’t have the whole story even today, is that the actions on the objective were fairly straight forward.  Maybe there were one or two terrorists who had armed themselves, but it doesn’t sound like that slowed ST6 down much, if at all.  Everything was kosher until they began to exfil off the objective.

What happened next would reveal a previously classified aviation program to the world and potentially create an international crisis.

Ranger School

*Cricket-Cricket*

Yeah, a lot of that going around apparently.  According to Ft. Benning’s newspaper, The Bayonet, Ranger School is struggling to fill its openings for Army Sergeants.  This is surprising, as Ranger School was essentially established to train Army NCOs in infantry tactics and leadership before sending them back to mother Army.  In this way, their new skill sets would diffuse amongst soldiers throughout the entire military.

The Bayonet is now reporting that Ranger School is experiencing a deficit of over 80% for the number of NCO’s who should be attending, a number that is only expected to grow.

Jack Murphy's Kifaru ZXR

I’m not going to try to pretend that I didn’t already love Kifaru before I linked up with them at SHOT this year.  I’d been enjoying my Kifaru ZXR rucksack since I took it on my last deployment to Iraq and got some good use out of it while out on patrol with a LRS unit.  These packs will set you back a few dollars but they are like the Rolls Royce of rucksacks and come with a lifetime warranty.  When I spoke with Mel from Kifaru he was more than happy to show me some of their latest offerings.

Reflexive Fire Military Thriller

Tell us about your book:

After spending eight years in Army Special Operations units, I wrote a book about the kind of mission I had always hoped I would be a part of.  In this regard, Reflexive Fire is written to answer the question, what would be the ultimate Special Forces mission?  The plot of the book is a modern take on a real life coup attempt that almost took place on American soil before it was exposed by the heroic General Smedley Butler.  In my novel, I speculate on what such a coup would look like today.  The Wall Street gang tried to get General Butler (a two time Metal of Honor awardee) to lead their coup but if it took place today, what kind of person would they approach?  What would happen if, like General Butler, that man decided to turn the tables on his employers?

Read the rest at Indie Spotlight!