Iraq

How to field strip and clean an AK series rifle

A well made AK variant can be incredibly reliable and accurate believe it or not. It still requires routine maintenance to stay at this level of overall quality though. Sure, you can neglect the rifle or run it dry (unlubricated) but it’s not the most ideal state of operation; for any weapon system for that matter. Basic cleaning of an AK is extremely quick and easy though, it can be done with a rag and some solution alone but of course utilizing proper cleaning equipment is ideal. So for this process I will discuss the field expedient steps for cleaning it in an undesirable environment. This process will not cover all the different AK based designs and their minute mechanical differences, however it will apply to the most common variants.

Before you can clean anything, we need to break the rifle down first. Before doing any disassembly we should remove the magazine and make sure that the rifle is unloaded. After this has been accomplished, we start by removing the dust cover. To do this, push the button on the rear of the dust cover forward and lift up the cover with the other hand; It should pop right off, but some can be snug or loose depending on wear. With the dust cover removed we are going to remove the spring/buffer assembly by pushing that same button forward until the entire rod/spring pops out of its fixture in the rear trunnion.

Next we remove the bolt carrier group/op-rod assembly, make sure the hammer is down and take the safety off. Then pull the BCG to the rear of the receiver and slide it up through the opening at the rear trunnion; it should lift out easily because of tension from the hammer underneath it. the bolt should twist out of the carrier in a clockwise motion with little effort.

After we set that aside, we need to remove the gas-tube contained within the top portion of the handguard. This can be achieved by flipping a small lever on the right side of the rear-sight block. By pushing the lever up into a point of alignment, the gas tube will lift up and out but, again, some variants may be a tighter fit than others.

Ok, we are ready to do a basic clean or field expedient cleaning of the rifle. So essentially we are going to use a rag and cleaning/lubricating solution (or not if you don’t have any on you) to wipe down everything. While it’s important to do your best to remove as much carbon, dirt, or grim as possible, the purpose of a field clean is to make sure the AK will function acceptably so it’s okay if it’s not perfectly clean after we’re done.

Start by wiping down the bolt carrier group. Ensure to make a pass at all the nooks and crannies, especially the surfaces where the bolt rotates and the bolt-face. Then wipe down the piston head on the op-rod; take note here because a lot of the carbon found here will be caked on, so don’t worry too much unless you’re doing a full cleaning. Next give the spring/buffer a few passes with the rag. Next wipe out the gas-tube as best you can but it usually doesn’t get too bad. Finally, the internal components should be wiped down along with the receiver walls/rails. If it’s possible, use the AK’s cleaning rod (if it has one it will be under the barrel, running parallel to it) to punch the bore and barrel with some cloth soaked in cleaning solution.

Now that everything has been quickly scrubbed/wiped down with the rag and cleaning/lubricating solution, we can re-assemble the rifle if we are only doing some quick maintenance/cleaning. This whole process can be relevant during a trip to the range, in a training/field exercise, or being in an operational environment. By maintaining a minimal level of maintenance like this, the AK weapons platform will serve you well, provided it is of quality to begin with.

*Originally published on NEWSREP and written by Kurt T

‘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.

Nobody goes into a room like Delta Force: A CQB attitude primer

Editor’s Note: This piece was written by Delta legend and all around American Hero George E. Hand IV for NEWSREP.

(Cover photo: my good bud Robert Horrigan, KIA in Iraq)

Close Quarters Battle (CQB), or Close Quarters Combat (CQC) is to the effect about 75% (maybe higher) testicles, and then 25% technique. I don’t like to over complicate things, especially CQB, one of the most absolutely horrifying things a human may ever do. It is the very nature of the degree of difficulty inherent in ‘the act’ of CQB that bids its techniques to remain very simple, lest the mind become incapable of holding the process at all.

I say ~75% intestinal fortitude, because if you can find a person that will take an AR and run into a small room of completely unknown contents, expected deadly threat, then you already have ~75% of what you need to create a successful CQB operator. All that remains, is to teach and train your operator the very few principles, and the very simple techniques, for room combat.

I felt the virtual presence of many peers with chins dipped low peering at me over the tops of reading glasses when I said “operator.” An operator used to be a person that answered the phone when you dialed zero. Then it became a title of excellence bestowed on men who were leaders of the entire world in their game at combat skills.

Eventually the title was raffled off at National Guard family picnics, passed on to garrison Soldiers of the Quarter, featured as a prize at bingo clubs, clipped in the form of coupons from the Sunday Gazette. Finally, operator vouchers were left under windshield wiper blades in bowling alley parking lots by a meddling faux marketing plan.

Today an operator is once more a person who answers the phone when you punch zero. As far as this former operator is concerned, “What’s in a word?” A monkey dressed in silk is still a monkey. A cuddly chihuahua that eats expensive kibble from a glass goblet and wears a diamond-studded collar–mommy’s little precious… will still try to eat its own shit if given the chance. So I’m an operator, you’re an operator, EVERYBODY is an operator, and gets a new car–thanks Oprah!

You are ~75% ‘there’ once you have that individual who will storm blindly into a deadly room. Now, it can’t be a person who just says they will do it. It has to be a person that in fact WILL do it, and WILL do it over and over.

There is a constant that exists, though you may disagree ferociously, it remains nonetheless: “no amount of high-speed training and bravado will ever trump the thug behind the door, pointing his AR at the door, and with finger on trigger.” “Well I would throw a banger in there to stun the thug.” Really?

Is that really what you ‘would’ do? Well if that thing from the Movie Alien ever popped out of my thorax, I would put it in a half Nelson and snap its neck. Get it? I’m quite sure I have it on good faith with Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit that nobody knows what the hell they ‘would do’ in a deadly situation until it happens, empty macho chest-thumpers not withstanding.

That’s right, the Chuck Yeager of CQB has a bullet waiting for him; all he has to do is wait long enough, however long that is. I have known a team of Delta men who lost their junior and senior team mates to the same goat-poker in the same small room in Iraq.

Both were head wounds from the same rag-head firing blindly over the top of a covered position. For the senior brother, that room was supposed to be the last room, of the last attack, of the last day, of the last overseas deployment he was ever supposed to make. The wait was over.

These were Team Leader MSG Robert Horrigan and newly arrived Delta brother MSG Michael L. McNulty. Bob wasn’t even supposed to be there. He extended his time in-country to work with Mike and make sure he knew the ropes well enough before redeploying. If… if… if; “if ‘ifs’ and ‘buts’ were candy and nuts, we’d all have a very merry Christmas.”

I did not know Michael; he was slightly after my time. I knew Bob well though, and I cherish the many months we spent together in Bosnia, fighting the good fight there. A better man never lived.

What about this CQB then. What are the principles? I offer the following, not in order of priority, as there can be no hierarchy of principles. Then: CQB is not a defensive operation; it is purely an offensive event. Therefore CQB is, by all definition of the word, a Raid, and the three principles of a raid are:

Surprise: surprise fords the attacker the upper hand against an opponent that is unaware, and therefore unprepared for the impending attack. Understand that surprise, owes its existence to sound tactics and techniques. Surprise is a product of stealth, stealth is a product of noise and light discipline…etc.

Speed: speed compliments surprise nicely, in that if you have achieved effective surprise, speed will ensure that the enemy never recovers from the element of surprise. Seize the initiative, keep the pressure on. As Civil War General Nathan Bedford Forest described it: “Keep ’em on the sceeer (southern drawn ‘scare’)!” Conduct a flanking maneuver. Forest: “Hit ’em on the iiind (end/flank)!”

Violence of Action: complimenting still the other two, violence of action further continues to destabilize the enemy’s posture, robbing them of the chance to ever effectively overcome the juggernaut of surprise and speed. CBQ is a raid, and encompasses those principles of the textbook raid.

Maintain 360 degree security is a principle of CQB. In such an environment, you have to maintain a vigil on security all around your battle space. If you are moving through a building with many rooms, it is never likely that you will have enough men to leave one behind in each room as you move through your objective. To respect speed, you can only conduct a cursory search of a space, then continue through to the end of your objective. Return for a more comprehensive search once the objective is secure.

Every time you move into a room, you own it. Every time you leave that room empty, you have lost it, and must capture it again if you ever need to return to it.

There you have it, a model of CQB that I can defend against anyone’s shit-house notion of the axiomatic truth of the CQB paradigm. On the one hand, I look at my simple model of room combat; on the other hand, I listen to the Audy Murphy’s at the gun queer range:

“Well, when I go into a room, I pull my rifle barrel back toward my chest in case I get jammed by an unseen someone right inside the door.”

“Well, when I go into a room and someone tries to jam me right inside the door, I jab the B-Jesus out of them with my rifle barrel and plow them over.”

Children please!!

Don’t make a Rube Goldberg out of your CQB tactics. The best mechanisms for CQB are the ones with the fewest moving parts; the fewer the moving parts, the less the propensity to break down. Remember: the more commands the mind has to process during the worst moments of its life, the more likely it can become overwhelmed.

Scared is bad enough; scared and overwhelmed is deadly.

Nobody goes into a room like the Delta Force; CQB is the Unit’s primary charter.

Consider these two extreme cases:

1.) We hosted South Korea’s purported Delta equivalent at our compound one year. I set up targets in one of our shooting houses. When I was done, the team leader brought his men on a walk-through of the shoot house, pointing out all the target locations to his men.

“We are not allowed to go into a building unless we know the floor plan and the target dispersion” explained the team leader. Ah, then you will never go into a building.

In disbelief and out of utter curiosity, I removed one of the targets from a corner of a room. I watch from the overhead catwalk as the kimchi commandos cleared the house. To my expectation, but to my horror still, a Korean soldier entered the room and fired twice into the empty corner.

The Koreans deployed home unexpectedly early, as they were caught shoplifting at the Fort Bragg Main Post Exchange. The monkeys dressed in suits, had fallen from their own trees.

2.) We moved through a pine forest of Ft. Bragg at night to a blacked out building in a clearing. I moved to the porch to shotgun breach the front door. There on the porch were three unexpected targets. I emptied the shotgun on the targets, body breached the door, and we flooded in systematically clearing rooms with gun lights.

In the last room, two of us kicked our way in and began blasting two targets in the corners of the far wall… and there between the targets, on his knees, in the dark, with headphones on and hands in the air, was a live Israeli Sayeret Matkal officer.

He was visiting the Unit and wanted to see what it was like to be in a room during a Delta assault. We didn’t shoot him of course; he had not presented a threat. The principles of CQB are simple enough.

I postulate that an unexpected live person in our assault scenario is decent testament to our ability in target discrimination. General William Garrison loved to quietly place himself in a shoot house prior to us busting in. There he would be sitting at a table, covered in toothpicks from the explosive door breach, eyes closed, and cigar hanging from his chops. There was blind faith there, in that room. Here’s to you, Bill; you’re a class act!

I was recently surprised to see the shock in the face of an acquaintance at the tell of how Delta will flood an objective from as many entry points as possible, even ones that are directly opposing. “How it that possible, without blue on blue casualties?” The answer is not complicated, yet difficult to conceive, if you have not lived it:

“We just don’t shoot each other; we only shoot the bad guys.” The principles of CQB are simple enough.

My answer comes from a level of CQB with acute target discrimination abilities not really even understood by other than Delta. It is an environment where a single off-target round can buy a fellow five extra hours of training, either before or after normal duty hours.

The Unit is a place where, for an Accidental Discharge (AD) of a fire arm, be it a full-caliber weapon, a sub-caliber weapon, a paint gun, a blank gun, in the floor, ceiling, wall, dirt—where ever, you will be gone for a minimum of one year, before you are able to apply again. It’s where hitting a friendly hostage made of paper, can buy you a ticket off of the compound—forever.

I ask you then: “would you consider those standards high?”

I tell you now: “nobody goes into a room like Delta.”

geo sends

Recon Challenge 2019: Sweat, blood, and pain for a noble cause

On May 16, active-duty and veteran U.S. Marines from units stationed around the globe gathered in Camp Pendleton, California, to participate in the annual Recon Challenge.

The Recon Challenge is an endurance event that takes participants through numerous tests inspired by the Reconnaissance Marine training and operational history. There is, for example, a grueling 30-mile ruck made while carrying more than 50 pounds of gear, a one-mile swim, an obstacle course, and marksmanship tests.

Marines formed up and competed in two-man teams, with each team representing a fallen Marine by wearing his name on their rucksacks. Upon crossing the finishing line, the teams hung their fallen brother’s dog tag on a makeshift combat cross as a final testament of remembrance.

This year’s challenge, which was the 11^th, had 22 regular teams and one unique team comprised of 13 men.

The challenge was co-funded and co-organized by the Marine Reconnaissance Foundation (MRF). According to their website, the MRF aims “to provide both ad-hoc and long-term support for the Reconnaissance Marines and the U.S. Special Amphibious Corpsmen [SARC] deployed abroad, their spouses and their children.”

But aside from remembering fallen brothers-in-arms, the challenge also has another function: giving purpose to veterans. A former Recon Marine described this aspect of the challenge most eloquently in an inspiring post on the event’s Facebook page:

“This year was different for me from any other year, while on active duty I always wanted to get out front and prove that I could do what I was expecting my Marines to do. I thrived off the pain, misery, and suffering that this challenge forces you to endure whether you like it or not and I missed the since of comradery [sic] that I had become so accustomed to while on active duty. Running as a civilian this year reinforced the fact in my eyes that the Reconnaissance Man needs something in our lives that continually pushes us beyond what we think is possible to maintain some since of balance in our lives. I did not run to win this year, I ran to find some clarity and clear my mind of all the things we hold onto that distract us from our purpose in life. The pain I endured along the route reminded me that I’m alive and I need to take advantage of every opportunity to bond with friends and share my experiences with others in the hopes that I might help someone that is struggling to find that balance. The Recon Challenge is the only time we have the opportunity for our past, present, and future Reconnaissance Marines to come together at one location and reconnect with old friends make new ones and inspire the next generation of Reconnaissance men to strive to uphold the traditions we have earned with our blood, sweet, and tears.”

Semper fidelis.

Feature Image: CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. – Gunnery Sgt. Zachary Holm, operations chief, Echo Company, 4th Reconnaissance Battalion, fires a M1911 pistol during the marksmanship portion of the 10th Annual Recon Challenge on Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, Calif., May 17, 2018.

This article was written by Stavros Atlamazoglou at NEWSREP

Former Green Beret reviews Jack Murphy’s new memoir, ‘Murphy’s Law’

Editor’s note: This review was written by Steve Balestrieri, a former Special Forces NCO and Warrant Officer that now serves as the Editor of SpecialOperations.com

I always balk at when someone I know writes something and I’m asked to give an opinion on it. As my circle of friends has grown smaller, I have erred on the side of caution, not wanting to hurt any of my friends’ feelings. Jack Murphy has never had that problem.

Jack has been on a mission, to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. And when you’re blunt, do your homework and research and then write what you believe is the right thing, the truth, you’ll invariably piss some people off. Jack has done that. In fact, in the Special Forces community of which he was a member, many men of the Regiment have a case of the red-ass against him.

Murphy was a member of the Ranger Regiment and deployed to Afghanistan with them. He then moved on to Special Forces, and was on an A-Team in the 5th Special Forces Group, “The Legion”. He deployed again to Iraq with SF. He then decided to leave the military and graduated from Columbia University with a B.A. in Political Science. Murphy is near a perfect fit that the OSS in World War II was looking for.

OSS was the forerunner to both CIA and the U.S. Army Special Forces. General William “Wild Bill,” Donovan said they were looking for “PhDs who can win a bar fight.” Murphy is an Ivy League graduate who was a Ranger and Green Beret.

Along the way, he co-founded the website “SOFREP” which later became “NEWSREP” and developed a ton of aspiring writers who came from military backgrounds and had the itch to write. SOFREP developed a reputation as a hard-hitting journal of military and current affairs that spoke plainly and covered it all. The great successes and the failures with equal attention. It was far from a PR firm or just a cheerleader squad for the military. That was Murphy’s doing. Which brings us to his book.

“Murphy’s Law” is basically a two-part book, the first half deals with Murphy’s military career and the second part, which is the next chapter in his life takes you on the trail with an investigative journalist. But this is one who covers the military with the trained and sometimes jaundiced eye of someone who has “been there, done that”.

This book is an absolute page turner and as with everything that Murphy writes, he covers the “who, what, where and most especially, why” of his experiences. Murphy hardly paints himself as a hero, in fact, he delves into a particularly sensitive subject of a friendly fire incident in the Ranger Bn. That could’ve easily been glossed over, but again, that wouldn’t have been the “whole truth” and Murphy hardly paints himself in glowing light there. That’s part of what makes this so intriguing.

Murphy’s experiences during the Global War on Terror (GWOT), gives his perspective on what has been the United States’ longest war in its history. And like he always does, Murphy tells it like it is. His take on al-Qaeda and their fighters is an instant classic.

“The Iraqi insurgency consisted of hardcore criminals, jihadists, and a ton of foreign fighters looking to get their kill on. These dudes were murderers, members of a death cult called al-Queda. The Nazis, the Soviets, and all the North Vietnamese Army were at least fighting for some twisted vision of a better future. By comparison, al-Queda was, and is gutter trash”.

Awesome stuff there.

After graduating from Colombia, Murphy wasn’t a sit in the office type of journalist. He traveled to the Philippines where his interview with the commanders of the Light Reaction Regiment of the PI’s SOF, while they were actively engaged with Abu Sayyaf terrorist units. He snuck into Syria to report first-hand on the brutal fighting that tore the country apart there.

Murphy wrote about the religion of the Yazidi and Peshmerga peoples of Syria, as in the Middle East religion is everything. Something that I never knew about was that the Yazidis predated both Christianity and Islam. All stuff I’ve never seen anywhere.

I can’t recommend this book more, it is a great take on one man’s life with extraordinary events and people thrown together. Murphy has already written some military novels but this book was different. He was trying to put down the events of his life, thus far and was worried about appearing “douchey”.

As with anything, I have to put an anecdote in there. Our local Veterans Council consists of vets from the VFW, American Legion and unaffiliated veterans. Every year we visit all of the schools in the area at Memorial Day and Veterans’ Day.

We were finishing up a school visit last week when one of our vets named George who was a Major in Army Intelligence who is now a retired attorney asked me, “Have you ever heard of a guy named Jack Murphy?”

“My wife and I were walking thru Barnes and Noble and I saw his book and picked it up. And after scanning thru it for a moment, had to buy it. I brought it home last night and can’t put it down. It is a fantastic read. The guy was a Ranger, a Green Beret…now he’s a globe-trotting journalist. Have you read it?”

After I explained the workings of NEWSREP and SpecialOperations.com and the relationship I have with Murphy, George said, “I think he’d be a great guy to sit down and have a beer with to just be able to pick his brain.”

Yes indeed.

Being so young, Murphy and his wife, who is also an investigative journalist should have plenty of adventures left in their lives for another book sometime in the future. I’d put that one on the reading list, but for now, head to the nearest bookstore and read “Murphy’s Law” asap. You’ll be glad you did.

This article was written by Steve Balestrieri for SpecialOperations.com

Photo: Amazon, NEWSREP

Adjust target: MARSOC Marines caught running a tactical gear contraband gig

Five Marines from the 3rd Marine Raider Battalion, Marine Special Operations Command (MARSOC), have been arrested for stealing government property worth more than $300,000 and then selling it on the black market.

In the span of two years, two separate theft rings run by Marine special operators allegedly stole vehicle parts and tactical gear.

The first theft ring was run by four Marines, two lance corporals and two corporals. Between 2017 and 2018, the four allegedly stole tactical gear such as SureFire flashlights, magazines, rifle buttstocks, and flashbang grenades.

The second theft ring was operated by a lance corporal. In 2016, the unnamed Marine is accused of breaking into the motor pool of the 3rd Raider Battalion and the II Marine Expeditionary Force Headquarters Group motor transport lot in two instances. He also snuck into a vehicle lot packed with Logistics Vehicle System Replacement trucks.

All in all, he allegedly stole gear that included “flashbang diversionary hand grenades, tool kits, multi-meters, BF Goodrich Baja tires, plate carriers, helmets, M16 magazines, military medical kits, fog lights, wire harnesses, headlights and composite lights.”

“These actions are not consist [sic] with Marine Forces Special Operations Command values and deter from our priority mission of deploying special operations forces,” said Gunnery Sgt. Lynn Kinney, a representative of Marine Forces/Special Operations Command, in a statement to the Marine Corps Times.

According to the Times, which had access to the charge sheets, the stolen tactical gear was sold to private individuals and pawn shops in Jacksonville, North Carolina.

“We are committed to accountability against any violation of the standards we set for our Marines,” added Gunnery Sergeant Kinney.

All five Marines that ran the theft rings were court-martialed and sentenced to confinement ranging from five to 28 months. They were also demoted and kicked out of the Marine Corps. The Corps hasn’t acknowledged if the Marine perpetrators were support personnel or Marine Raiders, but all of them were assigned to the 3rd Raider Battalion, Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.

Activated in 2006, MARSOC is the latest addition to the U.S. Special Operations Command. The command is composed of three Marine Raider Battalions, with each battalion containing four Marine Special Operations Companies (MSOCs), with each MSOC having four Marine Special Operations Teams. The command only adopted the title Marine Raiders in 2015 after much controversy. The title was inspired by Marine commandos who conducted special operations raids against the Japanese in the Pacific theatre during the Second World War.

This article was written by Stavros Atlamazoglou at NEWSREP

Feature image: U.S. Marine Raider instructor of the 1st Marine Raider Support Battalion teaching advanced weapons training. (DVIDS photo)