Showing posts with label Army Special Operations Command. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Army Special Operations Command. Show all posts

Thursday, April 23, 2015

Special Operations Sister Soldiers

The sister soldiers who assisted Special Ops in Afghanistan 
PBS News Hour
April 22, 2015

TRANSCRIPT

JUDY WOODRUFF: Next: the newest addition to the NewsHour bookshelf, women in war. They were an elite band of sister soldiers deployed on insurgent-targeting night raids with one of the toughest special operations units in Afghanistan, the Army Rangers.

Their story is recounted in “Ashley’s War,” a new book by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon. Margaret Warner recently talked with Lemmon at Busboys and Poets, a bookstore in the Washington area. 

MARGARET WARNER: Gayle Lemmon, welcome. You profile some remarkable women in this book, but first explain what the theory was behind creating these all-female teams that went out on some of the riskiest missions in the Afghan war.

GAYLE TZEMACH LEMMON, Author, “Ashley’s War”: They were the cultural support teams, which were created to fill a security breach, which is that American soldiers could not go into quarters that were inhabited by women. Right?

So, to have a sense of what was happening in the women’s rooms and among women and children, you really needed female soldiers. And so, in 2010, Admiral Olson, who was then the head of Special Operations Command, had this idea.

A little bit later, Admiral McRaven, then running Joint Special Operations Command, actually says, we need these female out there with the Ranger regiment and the other special operations teams.

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Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Special Operations Aviation Regiment receive 20 medals for valor

Spec ops unit awarded 20 medals for actions
Army Times
By Michelle Tan
Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Feb 26, 2013

Seven soldiers from the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment received Silver Stars for their actions during a harrowing rescue in Afghanistan.

The soldiers, from the regiment’s 3rd Battalion at Hunter Army Airfield, Ga., were honored with the nation’s third-highest award for valor during a ceremony Feb. 22.

They were honored for their actions of Sept. 14, 2011.

Six other soldiers received the Distinguished Flying Cross, also for their actions on that day.

In addition, seven soldiers from the 160th, including one of the Silver Star recipients, received the Air Medal with “V” device for their actions during separate missions.

One other soldier, Sgt. Jonathan L. Nichols, received a Purple Heart for wounds he received in action Sept. 29.

Officials declined to discuss many details of the events of Sept. 14, 2011, due to the sensitive nature of the 160th’s missions. However, officials confirmed that the soldiers were responding to a distress call for a risky daytime casualty evacuation in an area known for heavy insurgent activity.
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Thursday, January 31, 2013

Special Ops to feel budget pain along with rest of military

Special ops to feel budget pain, leaders say
By Paul McLeary
Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Jan 29, 2013

The potential budget hit produced by sequestration and the possibility that Congress uses another continuing resolution to fund the Pentagon for the rest of 2013 may hit the U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) hard, the command’s leadership told an industry conference in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday.

SOCOM commander Adm. William McRaven warned the audience at the National Defense Industrial Association Special Operations conference that if Congress passes another continuing resolution to fund the Pentagon through the remainder of 2013, his Special Operations Command would likely lose about $1 billion in funding.

The continuing resolution “puts a greater constraint on us than I think sequestration will,” McRaven said, adding that “we don’t know what sequestration is going to look like, but there is an expectation that it is clearly going to be an additional bill on top of that.”

Whatever the cut might be, however, he assured the crowd that his command’s first priority will always be to protect SOCOM’s ability to fight, saying, “we want to make sure first and foremost that we protect our war-fighting capability. And we will do that.”
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Hagel: Sequester cuts would devastate military
By Marcus Weisgerber
Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Jan 30, 2013

Sounding much like the man he has been tapped replace, Chuck Hagel believes billions of dollars in defense spending cuts, know as sequestration, would devastate the U.S. military.

Hagel, the former Republican senator that President Barack Obama has nominee for defense secretary, expressed many of the same opinions on major budget and programmatic policies as current Defense Secretary Leon Panetta in a 112-page document submitted to the Senate Armed Services Committee.

The panel of senators will have a chance to question Hagel during a Jan. 31 confirmation hearing.

“[Sequestration] would harm military readiness and disrupt each and every investment program,” Hagel said. “Based on my assessment to date, I share [Panetta’s] concerns. I urge the Congress to eliminate the sequester threat permanently and pass a balanced deficit-reduction plan.”

Panetta has repeatedly said sequestration – about $500 billion in defense spending cuts over the next decade -- would cause significant damage to the military. The cuts are even more problematic, defense officials say, because Congress has not passed a 2013 defense appropriations bill, meaning the Pentagon is operating under a continuing resolution where spending is frozen at 2012 levels.
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Thursday, December 20, 2012

Combat stress on Special Ops "worse" then they thought

Spec ops troops’ stress ‘worse than we thought’
By Gregg Zoroya
USA TODAY
Posted : Thursday Dec 20, 2012

TAMPA — The nation’s most elite fighting forces — celebrated this year in film and best-selling books — are under more emotional strain after a decade of war than commanders realized, according to the senior non-commissioned officer for special operations.

A tragic part of that is record suicides this year, said Command Sgt. Maj. Chris Faris.

According to Pentagon data, there were 17 confirmed or suspected suicides this year among commandos or support personnel through Dec. 2, compared with nine suicides each of the past two years.

That’s a suicide rate among these troops of about 25 per 100,000, comparable to a record rate this year in the Army and higher than a demographically adjusted civilian suicide rate.

“What we’re struggling with is, OK, what the heck is going on?” Faris said.

“These guys have been under tremendous pressure,” said Kim Ruocco, who assists families of special operations troops who commit suicide. They “have given over and over again without complaining ... and then, when they do have issues, spend a lot of time hiding it.”

The problems arise as popular media showers attention on these troops, particularly the famed SEAL Team 6 whose killing of Osama bin Laden led to best-selling books and the film “Zero Dark Thirty.”

A report last month by U.S. Special Operations Command — which oversees 66,000 troops including the Army’s secretive Delta Force, Navy SEALs with SEAL Team 6, Army Green Berets and Rangers — cites “an increase in domestic and family relational and behavioral problems, substance abuse and self-medication problems, risk-taking behavior, post-traumatic stress and suicide.”

Faris said, “It’s worse than we thought.” But he added that despite signs of strain, this select category of troops remains capable of meeting any missions they are given.

Ruocco, a director at Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS), said she has worked with the families of a Green Beret and a Navy SEAL who killed themselves this year.
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Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Fort Bragg soldier killed on 9th deployment

Soldier killed on 9th deployment
Tuesday, September 21, 2010

FORT BRAGG (WTVD) -- A Fort Bragg Special Operations soldier who truly dedicated his life to fighting for America won't make it home.


The Pentagon says 30-year-old Sergeant 1st Class Ronald "Aaron" Grider died after being hit by machine gun fire September 18 during a combat operation in Konduz Province, Afghanistan. He leaves behind a wife and young daughter.


His is a story of unbelievable courage, bravery, and dedication. It was his ninth military deployment overseas. He went seven times to Iraq and twice to Afghanistan.
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Soldier killed on 9th deployment

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Fort Bragg:Army investigates video of fighting toddlers

I just looked on YouTube because most of the time, they say a video was pulled only to find it some place else. I was shocked to see how many toddlers are taped fighting.

Army investigates video of fighting toddlers

The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday Nov 18, 2008 8:46:08 EST

FORT BRAGG, N.C. — A soldier in the Army Special Operations Command is being investigated after a video made at Fort Bragg showed up on the Internet depicting his toddler son fighting with another youngster.

The Fayetteville Observer reported Tuesday that the video was on the YouTube Web site, but later removed.

The video shows two youngsters pushing and hitting each other while an unidentified man urged one to stay in the fight.

Special Operations Command spokeswoman Carol Darby said the video is at the center of a child custody dispute. The newspaper said the soldier wasn’t identified, but the video was brought to the attention of the Army by the man’s ex-wife.

The Army said in a prepared statement that it was cooperating with other authorities and didn’t condone the behavior.
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/11/ap_toddlervideo_111808/