Jack Murphy

WATCH: How to pass Special Forces Assessment and Selection

The journey to becoming a Special Forces soldier won’t be easy. Special Forces training is rigorous and highly selective, but the courage and strength you will gain as a candidate will stay with you your entire life.

In addition to Basic Combat Training, soldiers must have completed Advanced Individual Training and U.S. Army Airborne School to be eligible for Special Forces training. To learn more about training requirements, visit the qualifications page.

Special Forces Training Modules

Special Operations Preparation Course (SOPC)

This two-week course, held at Fort Bragg, N.C., prepares prospective Green Berets for Special Forces Assessment and Selection (SFAS). This course focuses heavily on physical fitness, but candidates are also expected to demonstrate a proficiency in land navigation, one of the most important skills of a Special Forces soldier.

Special Forces Assessment and Selection (SFAS)

Special Forces Assessment and Selection is designed to test your survival skills, and places an even stronger emphasis on intense physical and mental training. This is considered the first proper phase of Special Forces training. Phases II-VI continue during the Special Forces Qualification Course (SFQC).

Special Forces Qualification Course (SFQC)

Qualification consists of five phases (II-VI), lasting approximately 61 weeks. Each phase is designed to foster an expertise in the following areas: small unit tactics, advanced Special Forces tactics, survival skills, language and cultural training, unconventional warfare, survival, escape, resistance and evasion and advanced combat survival tactics.

Small Unit Tactics

The tactics phase, which lasts 9 weeks, drills candidates in advanced marksmanship, counterinsurgency, urban operations, live fire maneuvers sensitive site exploitation and other Special Forces skills. Soldiers will also take part in Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape (SERE) exercises.

MOS Training

During the MOS Qualification Phase (III), you will receive training for your newly assigned Special Forces Military Occupational Specialty (MOS). Training for this phase lasts about 16 weeks, and covers additional language training, Special Forces common tasks, Advanced Special Operations Techniques (ASOT) and interagency operations.

Collective Training (ROBIN SAGE)

Robin Sage (Phase IV) is the training phase that serves as the litmus test for Soldiers hoping to earn the Green Beret. Candidates are organized into squads and inserted into a fictional country, known as Pineland, which is made up of several counties spanning North Carolina. Pineland is rife with political turmoil, and candidates must navigate the region and complete a specified mission.

Language And Culture

During this 25-week phase (Phase V), candidates will fine-tune their skills in the language to which they have been assigned. Languages include French, Indonesian-Bahasa, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese-Mandarin, Czech, Dari, Hungarian, Korean, Pashto, Persian-Farsi, Polish, Russian, Tagalog, Thai, Turkish and Urdu.

Graduation

All of the major work and training is completed by phase VI, the graduation phase, which involves a week of out-processing. Candidates will finally don their Green Berets as Special Forces soldiers.

Feature image courtesy of the U.S. Army

Special Operations reading list: A few of my favorite hidden gems

I love reading about Special Operations history. It’s amazing what information can be found in published sources if you’re prepared to dig around. There’s a whole hidden history that can only be compiled by doing some deep research and really looking for sources.

Thankfully, some former operators penned books that are well worth tracking down. Here are four of my favorites that aren’t necessarily promoted in mainstream media but are well worth your time.

One Green Beret: Bosnia, Kosovo, Iraq, and Beyond by Mark Giaconia

I was fortunate to interview Giaconia for SOFREP Radio before reading his book. I was expecting some stories about how he supported the Kurds, calling in some airstrikes and such during the 2003 invasion of Iraq. However, Mark’s experiences go far beyond that.

He participated in Operation Viking Hammer: a CIA led mission to shore up what would be the coalitions rear areas prior to the invasion. To my surprise, Giaconia was also involved in what is probably the only joint U.S. Special Forces/Russian Spetsnaz mission in history.

Recce: Small Team Missions Behind Enemy Lines by Koos Stadler

The South African Recces performed some of the most audacious missions in Special Operations history that you’ve never heard of. This is largely due to political reasons. Although Recce teams combined white and black operators, the South African Defence Force served South Africa’s (then) apartheid regime.

Nonetheless, this is a history worth exploring, and Stadler wrote an amazing first-hand account of his time in this unit, including experiences with long range small team Recce patrols.

One Thousand Days with Sirius by Peter Schmidt Mikkelsen

Few people have ever heard of Denmark’s Sirius Sled Patrol— Slædepatruljen Sirius—which is a division of the country’s special operation component along with the Frogman Corps and the Jaeger Corps. Sirius deploys two-man dog teams for long durations to Greenland, where they have to constantly patrol the frozen wastelands. Due to a treaty obligation, they essentially have to provide a presence in Greenland and wave the Danish flag.

Additionally, they have a recon mission to ensure bad actors aren’t messing around in Denmark’s backyard. One Thousand Days with Sirius is an obscure but fascinating book, as Mikkelsen, a former Sirius member, explains the ins and outs of his profession—one that primarily relies on dog sleds to this day.

Guardian: Life in the Crosshairs of the CIA’s War on Terror by Tom Pecora

I’ve been able to interview Pecora twice now. He was a member of the CIA’s protective detail for case officers operating in high-risk environments. This detail started off as the POC and over time, evolved into what’s now called GRS. Pecora worked there long before 9/11, and afterwards in some very dicey parts of the world.

His book is a narrative history of these experiences as well as America’s fight in the Global War on Terror. This is the first book ever written on this particular subject, and I suspect it will be the last for at least some time.

I’m sure you’ll get a kick out of these books, but let me know what other recommendations you might be interested in. For instance, I have a pretty extensive collection of hard-to-find books about contemporary warfare in Africa.

And finally, a shameless plug for my own memoir, Murphy’s Law: My Journey from Army Ranger and Green Beret to Investigative Journalist. It includes my experiences serving in 3^rd Ranger Battalion and 5^thSpecial Forces Group in Iraq and Afghanistan. Some of my adventures in Syria, Iraq, and the Philippines reporting as a journalist are also highlighted.

Watch: The Green Beret is an outdoorsman trained to live and fight anywhere

As U.S. Special Forces recently turned 67 years old, it is interesting to take a look back at this public service announcement from the 1960s about the legendary Green Berets. Check out the video to learn more, but you may also enjoy this interview I did with Sergeant Major (Ret.) William Bowles. Sergeant Bowles passed away in 2012, a few months after our interview.

JM: What path did you take from being a Signals Sergeant to getting into Special Forces? Special Forces was a new and untested unit at that time so what motivated you to sign up?

WB: I was assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division as a platoon sergeant. We had no mission. Korea was over. I grew tired of shepherding draftee recruits to the motor pool each weekend. Through a friend, I learned of the 77th SFG on Smoke Bomb Hill, I investigated the unit and found it to be more my type of unit. So I transferred over to SF.

JM: Back in those days, Special Forces was a very small community, unlike today where you don’t have a clue who is in another Special Forces Company or Battalion, never mind in a different Group. What was it like to be one of the “originals”?

WB: While the unit was small, the originals were in the old 77th and the newly activated 10th SFG located in Bad Tolz, Germany.

It was a pleasure to serve with trained professionals who were all of the approximate same rank or a little higher. No 2^nd lieutenants, no one below the rank of sergeant. We trained each other in classes and in the field on the several MOS specialties of the A Team. It all paid off big time in the years ahead. Most of those early personnel went on to become the future team leaders and team sergeants that fought in Vietnam.

JM: What were the conditions like over on Smoke Bomb Hill at Fort Bragg back in those days? What kind of facilities and equipment did you have at your disposal? Also, I regret to inform you that Hay Street has been somewhat cleaned up since the 1960s…

WB: We lived in wooden barracks built in the first days of WWII and earlier. Two-story barracks, no air conditioning, coal heated and miserable. We taught each other the different MOS specialties. We had very limited equipment, and very little external support. We were heavily involved in learning and mastering the tactics and principles of guerrilla warfare.

I have been on Hay Street in the past several years. WHAT A CHANGE. I will be there next month for the SFA convention and our 60th anniversary.

JM: In your book, you mentioned conducting Unconventional Warfare training in South Korea. What did this training entail and was it presumed that this was in preparation in case war broke out on the Korean peninsula again?

WB: In the 1st SFG (Okinawa), my company was assigned Korea as an area of operations. We taught and trained the South Korean units in unconventional warfare, guerrilla warfare and in weapons employment. We also taught them parachuting and small unit tactics.

JM: Before there was Vietnam, there was Laos for the Green Berets. What was the task and purpose of “Operation Hotfoot”? What were your impressions of Laos back in 1959?

WB: The North Vietnam-supported Pathet Lao guerrillas were taking over parts of Laos. We were assigned the mission to train the Laotian army units in self-defense. Teach them how to organize and train in the art and tactics of war, using more modern weapons.

My impression of Laos was, it was the backwater of the Orient. A pitiful excuse for a nation.

JM: You were among the very first Special Forces troops into Vietnam. Two ODAs flew in on a C-130 and dropped ramp in At Tan Son Nhut airport in Saigon in 1961. What were you thinking that day? Did any of you have any inclination as to the escalation that would happen in Vietnam or was it just another mission to you, like in Laos?

WB: I was just thinking that it was another training mission. We were in civilian clothes. No one among our group had any idea that it would escalate. We were forewarned, however, to be prepared to protect ourselves if we were attacked by the Viet Cong. That training mission cost my team three team members. Eleven years later it all ended.

JM: In the book, you write about plowing into the jungle with a 12-man team, clearing a section of forest, building an A-Camp, and training the locals for war against the enemy. It seems your team did this with little more than determination and improvisation. Today, we would call this the “man test.” Amazingly, your team passed that test, including direct combat with the enemy. Could you describe this experience of going into the jungle with almost nothing and beginning to conduct an unconventional warfare campaign?

WB: We did drive two old 2-1/2 ton trucks with Jurai Yards as far past the village of Plei Mrong as we could before the jungle stopped us. We were very close to the Laotian border west of Pleiku. The team leader said, “We will build our camp here.” With axes and crosscut saws and loads of C-4, we cleared out the trees and undergrowth. We worked from morning ‘til night. Hired natives to build bamboo huts and a messhall and dispensary. We also trained at the same time. We had to introduce to the native yards what a weapon was and how to use it. We would use at times three interpreters: English, French, Vietnamese and then Jurai language. What a nightmare.

We conducted patrols, ambushes, and got into firefights. We also continued to build our camp. Dug trench lines and a berm. Built a 32-wire double apron barbwire fence around the camp and defended it all.

No matter what you may call such actions today, I can assure you, under those circumstances, it is pure hell!

JM: One topic briefly mentioned in your book was a CIA agent who worked with your team during the early years in Vietnam. How would you describe the relationship and interactions that Special Forces and the CIA had at this time?

WB: The relationship with the CIA agents was superb. You could not ask for a better relationship. They supported our teams in everything we did. They supplied us with weapons, money, and other equipment. They directed our actions and locations. It was a great relationship.

‘Murphy’s Law’ — Covering the war against ISIS alongside the Peshmerga

An excerpt from the new book, “Murphy’s Law: My Journey from Ranger and Green Beret to Investigative Journalist“

Another story developed when a fixer we had hired to help translate informed us that there was a big battle going down early the next morning near Kirkuk. No way were we going to pass that up. We left around four a.m. the next morning.

“Just keep driving until you get to the Daesh,” the Peshmerga checkpoint guard said. I was trying to get to the front line to follow along with the Kurdish offensive outside Kirkuk on September 11. Can’t really blame the guard for his concise instructions. As our car approached the front, we saw dozens of up-armored Humvees and pickup trucks. Peshmerga fighters stood around waiting for their orders, talking and smoking cigarettes. As I got out of the car and began walking down the road, a group of Kurdish journalists looked at me and began waving their hands, saying, “No good, no good!”

The puffs of smoke from either IEDs or mortar rounds rose into the air in the distance. Before even getting to the berm lines, I ran into a group of foreigners who had joined up with the 9th Brigade. They all wore MultiCam and balaclavas to conceal their identity. As I was soon to find out, one of them had already had his rifle confiscated because he was taking potshots at the Pesh, mistaking them for ISIS.

It was now about six a.m. The sun had not fully risen and burned off the cloudy haze that engulfed the battlefield. The Peshmerga’s mission today was to liberate a series of villages on the outskirts of Kirkuk, pushing ISIS farther away from the city. What I had come upon was a fighting column, firing on a Daesh village called Zanghar with machine guns and tanks, while hundreds of vehicles were stacked up, ready to roll forward.

For fans of the New York Times bestsellers “The Last Punisher” and “Lone Survivor,” a heart-pounding military memoir from a former Army Ranger sniper and Special Operations weapon sergeant-turned-journalist about the incredible highs and devastating lows of his career.

Growing up in small New York towns, Jack Murphy knew he wanted to lead a life far from the ordinary – a life of adventure and valor. After the 9/11 attacks, he immediately enlisted in the Army, knowing this was his chance to live the life he desired and fight for a cause he staunchly supported. After making it through the rigorous Ranger Indoctrination Program, he graduated sniper school and was promptly deployed to Afghanistan, where his experiences went from ordinary to extraordinary.

In this gripping military memoir, Murphy recounts the multiple missions he underwent as a Ranger, a Special Forces weapons sergeant, and ultimately, a boots-on-the-ground journalist. From enemy ambushes, dodging explosives, crashing terrorists’ weddings, and landing helicopters in the streets of Mosul, Jack provides a hard-hitting glimpse of what combat is like in some of the world’s most dangerous, war-torn places. With tours of duty in two of the most decorated units of the armed forces, Murphy brings a unique perspective to the military genre as he reflects on his great triumphs and shattering failures both on and off the battlefield.

Later, Murphy turned his attention to breaking news within the military. His stories have taken him from Iraq to Switzerland, from Syria to South Korea. From crossing Middle Eastern borders in the dead of night, to rolling into an IED-laden zone, Murphy’s stories are always a thrill a minute.

“Murphy’s Law” tells a story of intense bravery and sacrifice – both on and off the battlefield. Get it today as a hardcover, ebook, or audio book.

Watch: Special Operations veterans recount experiences during the Battle of the Black Sea

Col. Larry Perino, Col. Lee VanArsdale, and Command Sgt. Maj. Kyle Lamb recently sat down with the Modern War Institute at West Point to discuss the Battle of the Black Sea. They participated in Operation Gothic Serpent which the public is largely familiar with through the book and film “Black Hawk Down.” The interview contains a terrific overview of what happened in the lead-up to October 3rd, 1993, when Delta Force operators and Rangers were pinned down and engaged in a massive firefight with militias in Mogadishu. Also in the interview are some outstanding notes from Sergeant Major Lamb and Colonel Collins (the moderator) about tactical planning, manifesting troops, how over-planning for operations can slow things down on target, and comparing missions in Mogadishu to later missions in Iraq.

This article originally appeared on NEWSREP.com

Op-Ed: ‘Call of Duty’ peddles us some more amoral nihilism about ‘Modern Warfare’

Editor’s note: This piece was written by NEWSREP Editor-in-Chief and Special Operations veteran, Jack Murphy. You can purchase his new memoir, “Murhpy’s Law,” here.

The “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare” video game series has always included scenes that are intentionally controversial. In “Modern Warfare 2,” one level sees the protagonist acting as an undercover operative in a Russian terrorist cell that raids an airport terminal and murders hundreds of civilians. The protagonist, played by the player of the game from the first-person perspective, is forced to participate in the slaughter. The first time I played the game, I turned my weapon on the terrorists I was undercover with and started shooting them. The game was interrupted by a forced cut scene in which my character was gunned down by the terrorists.

This wasn’t a game like “Deus Ex” in which you find yourself put in morally gray areas and have to choose one of many ambiguous options. “Call of Duty” has a narrative to advance about modern warfare, one which informs us that we must default to the level of savagery of our adversaries in order to win. The game forces you to murder people; it is the only way to win.

When the trailer for the latest edition of the “Modern Warfare” series was released this week, I clicked on it wondering if the series has evolved. Surprise, it hasn’t. You can check out the trailer for yourself, but from the outset we are informed there is a fine line between right and wrong, and that our highly stylized Special Operators are sent into the shadows to find that line. It is an incredibly romanticized view of war and what modern counter-terrorism operations actually are. Or as one of my Special Forces friends might describe it, “You’re just looking in the mirror while jerking yourself off.”

The narrator of the game tells the player, “We get dirty and the world stays clean, that’s the mission.” Our heroes bloody their hands in our names so that the free world remains free. The visuals of the game tap into familiar scenes reminiscent of the Bin Laden raid in Pakistan and Marines patrolling a Middle Eastern city. Another scene appears to show the White Helmets in Syria, while others seem to reflect recent terrorist attacks in European cities. According to one article, there is even a scene in the game where operators raid a target and gun down unarmed women, ostensibly because they are a part of a terrorist cell. We are even told that a part of the game allows you to play as an Arab soldier, so hooray for #inclusivity, I suppose.

Oddly enough, the game romanticizes Special Operations while also advancing an incredibly nihilistic narrative. In the “Call of Duty” games, you won’t find a lot of jingoism or hyper-nationalism. The operators (and the players) are not fighting for God or country. The thing is, you don’t really know what you’re fighting for. “Call of Duty 2” repeatedly told us the winners write the history books, so in other words, perception is reality. Infinity Ward’s new addition to the franchise seems to continue this trend with plot hooks and catchy quotes straight from the worst bro-vet memes on the internet. “You need me on that wall. Strong men stand ready to do violence on your behalf,”…or something.

The “or something” is the difficult part, because while the player in “Call of Duty” will sweep into enemy compounds on Little Bird helicopters, do HALO jumps, and engage in firefights with the enemy (things I did myself during my military service), you find yourself asking the question why, or what is the point? When the Global War on Terror kicked off, we were fighting for freedom, to prevent another 9/11 type attack, to deny the terrorists behind it a safe haven from which to operate. Seventeen years later and we are not even interested in the reasons why we are fighting in a dozen different countries.

As George Orwell wrote, “We have always been at war with Eurasia.” What this has spawned is a form of amoral nihilism in a certain segment of our youth and our soldiers who now see modern warfare as fighting simply for the sake of fighting. Talk to them and they will even tell you they are part of America’s warrior class. Modern day Spartan warriors we are told, fighting because that is what fighters do.

It pains me to say this as a former soldier and as someone who is now a pro-military veteran. I support many of our counter-terrorism missions abroad, but I hope we are actually trying to accomplish something with them, not just stroking ourselves off with our cool guns and flashy go-to-war gear. Killing is sometimes necessary and is a socially legitimate tool to use to protect your country and culture, but not if we are just killing for fun.

The immediate rebuttal to this opinion will be for people to say, “But Jack, it’s just a video game!” Yes, that’s true and there is nothing wrong with playing a video game and being entertained by it. However, we also can’t underestimate the influence that movies and video games have on our culture. Millions of young people will play “Call of Duty.” Very few will read the many available books that provide a more nuanced understanding of conflict, be it historical or contemporary.

Sure, it is just entertainment, but Infinity Ward is never going to make a game about veterans cracking up with PTSD in clinics around the country because they gunned down unarmed women. There will never be a “Call of Duty” game about Chief Eddie Gallagher and the drama he and his family have gone through as we lead up to his court-martial proceedings in which he is accused of war crimes in Iraq. “Call of Duty” shows us the alpha male bros with their cools guns and gear but strips away the actual costs of war while simultaneously glamorizing it as the price the operators pay, sacrificing themselves for the greater good. It all gets woven into a superficial sheep dog narrative.

I’m able to write all of this with hindsight, having joined the Army in 2002 and then having left in 2010. I’ve been a civilian for nine years now, covering Special Operations as a journalist. I was one of the lucky ones, but now I have to wonder what is going through some kid’s head when he plays a game like “Call of Duty” and how little the narrative will resemble what he finds when deployed to combat. Except the nihilism, except for that.

That he’ll find in spades.

Feature image courtesy of Infinity Ward