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

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

MH-6 Little Bird upgrades include a huge increase in operational range

Some sharp eyes over at The Drive recently spotted a modification to the MH-6 Little Bird helicopter in a USASOC-released video. The footage shows the Little Bird configured with external pods designed for ferrying special operations soldiers to their targets, but underneath one can see a rectangular attachment that appears to be an additional fuel tank. Robertson Fuel Systems makes the modification known as Improved Conformal Equipment (ICE), which extends the Little Bird’s range by 200 nautical miles, according to the company’s promotional materials.

The 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (SOAR), widely known as the Night Stalkers, are the helicopter pilots who fly special operations missions around the globe. They bring a very unique set of capabilities to the table, unlike those found in any other military. The unit was created after the fiasco at Desert One in 1980, after which it was realized that special operations units—to include Rangers, SEALs, and Delta Force—required their own dedicated aviation assets.

The 160th routinely conducts joint training exercises within the United States with the units they will be deploying with overseas. Sometimes these exercises take the form of pre-mission training for an upcoming deployment. Others are readiness exercises, and once in a while, they are dress rehearsals for specific classified operations such as the raid that killed Osama Bin Laden (the rehearsals took place at the CIA’s Harvey Point facility). On other occasions, these flybys are conducted as a show of force just prior to major events like G12 summits or the Olympics to warn any terrorists plotting an attack that they will be facing the varsity team if they do anything stupid.

The Night Stalkers and their JSOC counterparts, such as Delta Force, have previously conducted such exercises in Manhattan, seemingly every few years. Normally these exercises include a full mission profile setup in which the island of Manhattan is notionally designated an enemy nation for the sake of the training mission. JSOC operators then clandestinely infiltrate Manhattan, collect intelligence on the training targets, and then the assaulters begin their own mission rehearsals. Finally, the 160th spins up their helicopters and the assault force is flown into wherever the realistic urban training is to take place to rescue a hostage, capture/kill a high-value target (HVT), or whatever other tasks they have been assigned.

There has been talk recently of the Little Bird being phased out of operation and being replaced with a more modern airframe, but considering that the U.S. military just bought a number of the specially designed special operations helicopters, it does not appear that the iconic MH-6 is going away anytime soon.

OpEd: What New Zealand’s prime minister just doesn’t get about American gun laws

Editor’s note: The following opinion piece was penned by the Editor-in-Chief of NEWSREP, Jack Murphy. His new book, “Murphy’s Law: My Journey from Army Ranger and Green Beret to Investigative Journalist,” is on sale now and can be found here.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern recently told CNN she does “not understand” why America has not banned assault weapons the way she claims she has done in her country. New Zealand residents tell us the supposed gun ban just makes it more difficult to get licenses for semi-automatic weapons but has little impact on existing gun owners in New Zealand, a far cry from the political victory many claim Ardern secured.

CBS reported in an article about Ardern’s recent comments that the U.S. has not changed gun laws despite an “exponential increase in mass shootings in recent years.” While mass shootings make for spectacular headlines and are tragic, data does not necessarily show an exponential increase in their occurrence, although to be sure, there has been a uptick over the last decade. At the same time, gun ownership in the U.S. has increased while overall gun violence has decreased. School shootings, which were the big concern before mass shootings were re-defined several years ago, are also in decline. Claims the U.S. leads the world in mass shootings has also been debunked.

We live in a time when passionate convictions are valued above all else, but passion does not lend itself well to the practical implementation of effective policy. Climate change is another issue people are passionate about, and yes the climate changes, but what should be done about it comes down to specifics. In many cases, data is massaged to fit the most apocalyptic of narratives. This leads to further distrust and a muddying of the waters when these policy debates occur. At some point, both sides are just citing junk data and mistaking passion for facts.

Ardern is clearly enjoying her moment of celebrity as the anti-gun savior (which she isn’t) but her confusion as to why America hasn’t changed its gun laws is difficult to discern. The United States has tens of thousands of federal gun laws. We even had an assault weapons ban that didn’t work to decrease gun violence, but guns cannot ever be banned in America simply because this is a right written into our Constitution. This has been further backstopped by numerous Supreme Court decisions over the years. Banning guns is not a viable solution, and those who believe we can and should need to sit down for a Civics 101 class about how government works. Once we clear that speed bump, we can begin having a rational conversation about how to decrease gun violence in America.

What Ardern did accomplish was setting a nasty little precedent: she negotiated with terrorists. The New Zealand Christchurch mosque shootings that led to stricter gun laws were perpetrated by a self-described eco-fascist who wanted to create an ethno-state reserved for the white race. In his manifesto, he was abundantly clear as to why he was committing mass murder. The killer wanted to attack a mosque and kill Muslims, specifically with an AR-15 rifle because he knew it would encourage the government to ban such weapons. This would then, in his mind, inspire whites to rise up against their government in response, overthrow it, and replace it with bizarre Nazi Disneyland.

Ardern played right into his hand, just as many unimaginative bureaucrats would.

U.S. Air Force photo/Airman 1st Class Anthony Sanchelli