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SOFREP is back: You asked for it, now you’ve got it

That’s right – SOFREP is back.

What began in 2012 as a small military blog quickly grew into a leading source for all-things related to Special Operations Forces (SOF), Foreign Policy, and Defense news. In 2018, our editorial team saw an opportunity to expand beyond our SOF focus, so the decision was made to broaden our editorial direction by relaunching the site as NEWSREP.

Since that time, we’ve had success in terms of traffic and subscriptions. We’ve published more than 20,000 articles, and over 16 million of you have downloaded our podcast. We’re fortunate to have a loyal community that spans the globe. But despite our success, something was just missing – for all of us.

And now SOFREP is back and better than ever.

Our developers are working hard on all of the new features and integration components for the full site launch that will be ready in the coming weeks. All of our websites – including an additional article catalog of more than 12,000 gear reviews, SOF history pieces, and military aviation articles – are being consolidated into one completely redesigned site and mobile app that will be available soon. It will include featured categories such as News, Gear, Media (video & podcasts), Team Room & member forums, Store, and the #1 Gear Club in America – Crate Club.

One site to rule them all.

Our SOFREP Team Room subscription (aka SOFREP Mafia) is an exclusive online community for members looking for insider information, longform editorial, behind-the-scenes forums, and sneak peek video access. Visitors will have access to over seven years of archived SOF content along with more than 27-hours of Special Operations training, news, and documentary video programming. This includes exclusive footage of Navy SEALs, Army Rangers and Green Berets, British SAS, World War II Paratroopers, and Snipers – on demand anytime, anywhere.

Membership has its privileges, so sign up here if you’re not already a member. We are also offering a new military veteran discount to those qualified.

To sum it all up – we’re back doing what we do best, focusing on military grade content with a 100% military veteran editorial staff.

The SOFREP that you’ve all been demanding is back. Be on the lookout for exclusive interviews with VIPs from the SOF and military community, new video content, additional writers, and so much more in the coming months.

Welcome back to SOFREP. On time, on target.

Reunited and it feels so good. (DoD photo by Roger Wollenberg).

Worst War Movies Ever | Don’t Waste Your Time on These Stinkers

Back in May around Memorial Day, we listed some of our favorite War Films that are guaranteed to entertain and keep your interest. We could have easily added a couple of more as the genre always has some worthy additions by Hollywood’s filmmakers. This year’s blockbuster “Dunkirk” could easily make its way into that list.

But today’s list is going in the opposite direction. These are some of the worst war films, in our humble opinion out there. In every genre, especially one as chocked full of entries as the war film category, you’ll have plenty of lousy films, that are just groan worthy from military veterans and war film buffs alike.

So watch these following films…if you dare. But as a word to the wise. You may turn it off before it is over. As some of these films are just plain awful. Normally we’d say, drum roll, please. Instead, we’ll play a dirge. In no particular order here is your Wall of Shame of Worst War Films:

Battle of the Bulge (1965) – Despite a stellar All-Star cast of Henry Fonda, Robert Ryan, Telly Savalas, Charles Bronson, Dana Andrews, George Montgomery and James MacArthur this one got nearly everything wrong. The uniforms, the tanks, the history was skewed horribly.

Less than a minute into the film, the narrator, William Conrad uttered this: “To the south lay Patton’s Third Army, to the North Montgomery’s Eighth”….What? Field Marshal Montgomery’s Eighth Army, for which he rose to fame in the desert, was in Italy, not the Northern edge of the Bulge. That should tell you right away that this stinker was not going to get things right.

The German Tiger Tanks were actually M-47 Patton tanks and the American Shermans were portrayed by M-24 Chaffee light tanks. Filmed entirely in Spain, the terrain resembled the wooded, hilly Ardennes, not at all.

The film wasted a good performance from Robert Shaw, as the fanatical SS officer Col. Hessler who was tasked to break through the Allied lines. Shaw’s Hessler was loosely based on SS Colonel Joachim Peiper. No mention is made of the counter-attack from Patton’s forces from the south, the 101st Airborne’s holding of the key road junction of Bastogne or the Allied air power, which after the skies cleared, decimated the Germans on the ground.

Instead, this film would have you believe that the only thing that stopped the Germans from reaching Antwerp was the lack of gas. The climactic tank battle at the end was another loosely based big tank battle at Celles. In the film, the Germans wipe out the American forces. In reality, it was the opposite. The 2nd Armored Division left 88 German tanks smoking in the hills. This film was so bad that General Eisenhower came out of retirement to excoriate it for its lack of historical accuracy.

Inchon (1979) – This stinker was produced by the religious leader Reverend Sun Myung Moon, head of the powerful Unification Church in the 1980s. He put up $30 million of his own cash to make this limp, tepid offering. The production costs ballooned up to $46 million, which would be near $150 million today. Sir Laurence Olivier was paid $1 million bucks to play General Douglas MacArthur and it is clear, he was there for the paycheck only.

Rev. Moon claimed that the spirit of MacArthur visited him during the filming giving his blessing to the project. OK…does anything else need to be added here?

The cast of Olivier, Ben Gazzara, and Jacqueline Bissett was wasted here with dialogue as dry as a buffalo fart. Olivier looked more like Emperor Palpatine than MacArthur in this one. And Moon threw in a little sex action between Gazzara and a Korean hottie while cheating on Bissett who was his wife at home to take away from the rest of this potboiler I guess to show that the war was the cause of marital infidelity. It was actually filmed in 1979 and Moon shopped for three years for a studio to release this turkey.

I didn’t make it thru the original release, falling asleep in the theater and guarantee if you are having sleep issues watch this and it will do the trick. This one was so bad that MGM didn’t even release it on video. You can find it on YouTube if you care to.

Pearl Harbor (2001) – Michael Bay took a 90-minute action film about the bombing of Pearl Harbor and squeezed it into a 3-hour 3-minute monstrosity that took severe creative license with the actual history. Starring Ben Affleck, Josh Hartnett and Kate Beckinsale who are involved in a complicated love triangle during the and immediate aftermath of the Japanese attack that kicked the U.S. into World War II.

Pearl Harbor had a huge operating budget of $140 million but made a respectable $450 million at the box office. Some of it was filmed in the huge Baja Studio that James Cameron built for Titanic. And the ship scenes filmed there were still visible (the wreck of the Arizona) a few years later when I got to work on the beginning of a Narnia film there in 2009.

The numerous factual inaccuracies were pretty numerous, the Marlboro Lights in a sailor’s pocket…was inexcusable. A pretty amusing scene is where Affleck is talking to Colonel Doolittle in his office and behind the Colonel are his trophies for air racing. Look closely and there is an F-86 Saber jet from the Korean War. Affleck’s supposed action in the “Eagle Squadron” with the RAF is flawed. No American Army pilots were allowed to join. Only civilians. And what in the wide, wide world of sports is the intelligence officers and Beckinsale listening to during the Doolittle Raid? It certainly wasn’t radio chatter from the planes over Japan. They were on strict radio silence.

This one at least had some good action scenes during the actual bombing of Pearl Harbor which Bay did well although again inaccurately and had the always enchanting Beckinsale in the lead. A curious decision was the one to portray Mrs. Ben Affleck (Jennifer Garner) as a dowdy nurse, perhaps to take away from Beckinsale’s draw.

Redacted (2009) – If you’ve never heard of this one, don’t be alarmed, you aren’t missing anything. Normally I love the films of Brian De Palma but he swung for the fences with this one and missed. De Palma took a real incident about a rape of a young Iraqi girl and the murder of her family and tried to create an anti-war film about the U.S. involvement in Iraq. Surprisingly, some of the medium’s most well-known critics loved this film. Don’t waste your time, it was unmitigated trash, exploitation. He tried to shock the audience, right down to a slide show of gruesome pictures of Iraq’s war dead. We aren’t told who killed them, or who they are…it is just supposed to shock the viewer.

The message? here is that the war is making monsters out of American youth? I don’t know. It is kind of murky there but De Palma goes full-blown exploitive with the two Americans being the cartoonish, one-dimensional villains in the scene.The one perpetrator even wears a helmet mounted camera to catch the ugliness on film as the antithesis of the combat footage we’ve seen on screen during the war.

This was one of De Palma’s lesser efforts, the dialogue is atrocious and totally unbelievable for any grunts and sounds like a cliche machine.The way these guys interact with one another is a joke. Is this a unit that went to Iraq together or did they meet on the set just ten minutes before? It was just a crudely done, poorly defined film that even the “found camera footage” is unbelievable. It was a one-dimensional bit of schlock that is best left to the imagination.

Revolution (1985) – Ok, I know “The Patriot” also taking place in the Revolutionary War took tremendous liberties with the historical facts. But the cast at least made it entertaining. Revolution was one of the most horrible films I think I’ve ever been subjected to. A few years ago, I hadn’t even heard of it, and a friend of mine, said that I absolutely, positively had to watch it.

Well, I did and I agree with the original review published in 1985 with its release that it was quite probably the worst film of the year. The casting was absolutely ridiculous. Don’t get me wrong, I love Al Pacino. Some of his performances are legendary stuff, Scarface, Heat, the Godfather saga. But casting him as a trapper caught up in the Revolutionary War is a head scratcher. Where was he trapping? In Brooklyn? His accent is not American Revolution-esque unless we had a lot more Italian immigrants in the colonies than what has been reported.

Speaking of accents, Nastassja Kinski, who back in the day was quite the box office draw, has a completely different one from the actresses who play her mother and sisters. I guess we’re supposed it ignore it or assume that she was adopted.

The British characters led by Donald Sutherland, are the unequivocal bad guys here. And just in case you don’t see it first hand, the director makes sure that you do by making most of them kiddy-diddlers. Pederasty aside, it is still a horrible film that is just not worth your time. The director wasted some nicely filmed battle scenes in Yorktown by making a boring, yawner who…like the ones listed above, took great liberties with history.

There are several more we could have listed here but you get the idea. And please feel free to chime in with some of your own Hall of Shame War Films. So with Labor Day Weekend upcoming, if you’re not making one last run to the beach this summer and you’re content with sitting home and watching some of your favorite war films, do yourself a favor. Skip these five. You’ll be glad you did.

Photos courtesy: IMDB

Courtesy of Special Operations.com and written by STEVE BALESTRIERI

A Green Beret’s guide to choosing the right survival knife

A survival knife is a tool and not a fashion statement, but for any guys out there that have been in a survival situation or a school environment as in a training course, you’d know that. So it becomes a case of practicality over all else.

While I’m admittedly no expert on knives, I know what works for me and what I’ve used. And as in anything, when it comes to gear, much of what we choose comes down to personal preference. I’ve tried a lot of different knives and found some that I’ve liked and some that I didn’t. The one design that I’ve kept coming back to is the Bowie knife design.

Some guys don’t care for them, but it’s been around for about 200 years and it will work in about any situation. For most of the small mundane tasks, you’ll come across, a Swiss Army Knife or a Leatherman will work just fine, I never went anywhere without one of those in my pocket.

And the part of the world you’re going to be working in will have a factor in the decision which one to carry. A heavy-duty knife for working in the jungles of Latin America would be a very different choice than one working in the arid environments of the Middle East. So, with that in mind, you’ll still want a mix of a bigger knife for the heavy-duty tasks and a small one for the more intricate stuff will be the best way to go. Some of the other considerations include:

When looking for a heavy-duty knife, a fixed blade is better than a folding one. I look for one with a full tang, which is the part of the blade that extends down the entire length of the knife. The ones that don’t have a full tang tend to snap off at the most inopportune of times.

Most of the best knives are made from either carbon steel or stainless. Each has their good points. I prefer carbon which holds an edge better but saying that I’ve had a stainless steel one for the past decade and a half.

The handles come in a variety of styles, hardwood, bone, rubber, and polymer. All have their strong points. It just comes down again to personal choice. Blade type and length are the next criteria. I prefer the straight blade rather than a serrated one. It is better for chopping and those serrated blades are much tougher to sharpen. Blade length should be between 6-12 inches. I personally think a 6-inch blade may be a bit too short. A 9 to 10-inch knife is ideal. My Bowie is just under 11 and a half inches and at times is a bit too big for many applications.

The sheath is a very important part of the knife, the design will affect where you carry it and how it is drawn. But a couple of considerations to look for are The strap to keep your knife in place, some are Velcro or snaps but they should be located at the top so as to not allow the knife to slide out. A Belt loop, preferably a wide one is best so that it can be carried on your belt or as part of your kit. And a lower attachment strap or hole is nice to have so that you can strap it to your leg if need be.

Here are a couple of (but not all) good choices for survival knives to pick from:

SOG SEAL Team Elite:

SOG has updated their SEAL knives and has added a nice addition to their catalog. This is a very good heavy-duty knife that is at home with the avid outdoorsman as it would be during an operation. The blade is powder coated black or coated with hard cased black TiNi to prevent rust.

The black handle comes in ballistic nylon or Kydex. The sheath is made of nylon and has MOLLE attachments. Just over 12 inches in length, with a 7 inch partially serrated edge blade. It is a tough customer and will withstand heavy use.

Overall Length: 12.3 inches
Blade Thickness: 0.24 inches
Tang: Full
Blade Material: AUS 8
Price: $186.50 (+10.25 for the Kydex handle)

Ka-Bar BK-22 Becker Companion:

Ka-Bar has been putting out quality products for generations and this knife is a nice addition to their line. This offers great value for the money and will be a nice piece of equipment that will last for years.

It is an excellent overall tool that is heavy enough to do the chopping and splitting etc that you’ll need but versatile enough to handle smaller tasks while not being too bulky. It comes with a polyester sheath with MOLLE attachments and a front pocket.

Overall length: 10.5 inches
Blade Thickness: 0.25 inches
Tang: Full
Blade Material: 1095 Cro-Van
Price: $121.75

Caraway Cutlery Bowie:

This was a gift from a very good friend of mine nearly 20 years ago and whenever we’re out in the outdoors, this one comes with us. It is the least expensive of the three but is a good quality knife for hunting or camping. The overall blade length is a bit too long for my taste, but it keeps a razor-sharp edge with the stainless-steel blade and is a great chopping tool.

The handle made from bone and has a brass plated guard as well, so injuries are properly prevented when the user gets carried away with chopping in the base camp.

The knife comes with a leather sheath which I never cared for in steamy jungle environments but works just fine in the Northeast. It is just a little too big for most uses.

Overall Length: 15 inches, 9.75-inch blade
Blade Thickness: 0.25 inches
Tang: Full
Blade Material: Stainless steel, plain edge
Price: about $60

For those of you who are looking for a custom-made knife, I would encourage you to check out Naylor Forge. Ashton Naylor is a retired Special Forces officer who commanded a battalion of the 5^th SFG in Iraq and was the SWC Group Commander. He is a self-taught blacksmith who puts out some tremendous quality knives, tomahawks, and axes.

And he’ll tailor them to your needs and specifications. He can give you some good tips on what will work best for you. And what will fit your needs. Check out his website here:

Photo courtesy YouTube

*Originally published on Special Operations.com and written by STEVE BALESTRIERI

My disaster preparedness secret weapon: Hydrogen Peroxide

When putting together a disaster plan, it’s important to prioritize human needs in the way that you prepare. To put together a solid short-term survival plan, you need only to address the most basic of human necessities: water, shelter, food, and security, but as short-term survival transitions into “well I guess this is what’s left of the world now,” it’s important to have a plan in place that can help you get by a bit longer than just the first few days after a disaster.

While ensuring you have adequate food and water will prevent death from hunger or dehydration, it’s important to remember that those are often the very easiest forms of death to avoid. We worry about supply lines drying up after the collapse of our infrastructure for good reason, but humans have been surviving without grocery stores and running faucets for millennia… what tends to kill us in such situations often isn’t a lack of food, but rather a lack of hygiene.

Enter my favorite survival item: hydrogen peroxide. Most of us are familiar with the brown bottle of bubbling goodness from our childhoods, when our mothers would pour a bit of the elixir onto our scraped knees to disinfect it before armoring the wound with a Batman band-aid and providing an emergency booboo-kiss for pain relief. While wound care is certainly one of the things hydrogen peroxide is good to have around for, it’s far from the only thing.

In order to discuss some of the other important uses for the magic brown bottle, I’m going to have to delve into some of the health issues that may impact a person in an extended survival scenario; some of which are likely to sound gross, but it’s important to plan for potential health hazards other than gunshot wounds and zombie bites, because dying of an infection all by yourself will leave you just as dead as the sexier alternatives we see on TV.

Hydrogen Peroxide for Mouth Care

I’m not normally one to close my eyes during a rough scene in a movie – but watching Tom Hanks remove an infected tooth with an ice skate in “Cast Away” was tough for me. I don’t like going to the dentist, let alone the idea of serving as my own using bits of trash I found on a beach, but I have to credit the movie for including an element of survival that is often ignored in movies and television: dental hygiene.

An infected tooth is a serious issue. If left unchecked, and infection can spread throughout your body, possibly even killing you without antibiotic treatment. Beyond that, an infected tooth can make eating an excruciating endeavor and can serve as a serious distraction when you need to keep your wits about you. If at all possible, one should avoid having to do their own oral surgery, and hydrogen peroxide can help.

That same brown bottle you use on cuts and scrapes is also a FDA approved mouth wash. Pouring a mix of hydrogen peroxide and water into your mouth and swishing it around once in a while may not give you the same fresh breath you’d get from a tooth-brush and a new tube of Crest Whitening, but it could keep the bacteria in your mouth from going rogue and rotting you from the inside out. Keeping your teeth intact will keep you eating, and hydrogen peroxide can help stave off infections and even cavities.

Hydrogen Peroxide to Fight Fungus

Athlete’s foot and other fungal infections of the hands and feet can be serious trouble for the long-term survivor. The reduction in available means of hygiene that may come after a disaster could leave you more vulnerable to this sort of ailment, and yet again, hydrogen peroxide can help kill the fungus causing itching and burning on your extremities.

Perhaps more important though, is hydrogen peroxide’s ability to combat yeast infections. While we tend to think of such things as a uniquely female issue, and in today’s world, we even see it as more of an inconvenience than a matter of life and death, developing a yeast infection in a survival setting is bad news and must be addressed.

Hydrogen Peroxide is safe to be used as a douche for women suffering from a yeast infection after the stores have long stopped stocking Monistat, and can be used externally for men suffering from the same ailment. Didn’t know men could get yeast infections? They absolutely can – and the resulting itching, burning and open sores could lead to any number of further infections, or simply leave you too distracted to handle your day-to-day survival needs with the level of focus they require. Hydrogen peroxide will not work as well as traditional anti-fungal medications, but as a multi-use tool, it’s good to know that you can keep the swamp-rot off your fingers and toes as well as out of your underoos with the same bottle you keep around for wound care and oral hygiene. I’d just recommend cleaning the spout before switching between uses (just kidding, do not put the spout inside any part of you, use a different means of application).

Hydrogen Peroxide for Cleaning (everything)

If you wear contact lenses, hydrogen peroxide and water can be used to clean them between uses – extending the life of your contacts and possibly your ability to see if you don’t have access to your glasses. It can also be used to clean food containers and utensils, water carriers, or even cooking surfaces to kill things like salmonella.

You can also use a mixture of hydrogen peroxide and water to clean and disinfect your clothes. A clean pair of undies may not sound like the most important thing after the end of the world, but remember, we haven’t evolved to prefer the smell and touch of clean things for no reason. Cleaning your clothes will help prevent skin irritations and even infections. In fact, using hydrogen peroxide to clean your underwear could prevent you from having to using hydrogen peroxide to treat a yeast infection in the first place.

Hydrogen Peroxide for Farming

In a long-term survival situation, cultivating your own food may be a necessity, but if you weren’t blessed with a green thumb, you’ll likely need all the help you can get in order to turn your little garden into something that’ll feed your family. Believe it or not, hydrogen peroxide can also help you start to grow your own food.

Adding a small bit of hydrogen peroxide to the water you pour on your plants can help fertilize the soil, prevent mold and mildew from developing, and even help an ailing plant regain its health. Soaking seeds in water that contains a small amount of hydrogen peroxide will even make them germinate faster. It’s important to use the correct amount of hydrogen peroxide however, otherwise it could kill your plants before they have a chance to grow. Check out this chart to help you determine how much peroxide you should mix with water for various agricultural needs.

These handy uses for the old brown bottle in your medicine cabinet are far from all of the ways hydrogen peroxide can benefit a disaster victim attempting to transition from short-term to long-term survival. I highly recommend doing some research and attempting to use hydrogen peroxide for things like oral hygiene once or twice before the world comes crashing down on you.

And maybe grab an extra bottle or two of the stuff the next time you go shopping. Just in case.

Preparing for disaster? Here are 5 unusual things that’ll help keep your car running in an emergency

In any prolonged survival situation involving a vehicle, the most important things to look for aren’t speed or even ground clearance — the first things you should consider are reliability and ease of repair and maintenance. After all, even the most badass of vehicles tend to lose their appeal when you can’t change a flat or find a replacement alternator when yours goes bad.

Regular maintenance will likely become even more important after a large-scale disaster, as you push your vehicle harder for longer and are forced to make compromises like using dirtier sources of fuel. A clog in a $5 fuel filter can leave a million dollar vehicle permanently planted where it is unless you have the resources and skills required to swap in a good one.

Whether we’re talking about post-apocalyptic survival or just evacuating from the scene of a local calamity, having an emergency set of tools (and coinciding know how) in your vehicle could mean the difference between having a ride and being forced to continue on foot. Some things can’t be repaired in the field, but the right tools could also help you get another vehicle you come across running (I’m not going to go into how to steal a car but suffice to say I’ve gotten barn cars started with the tools listed below before).

Aside from a regular toolkit (I recommend a half-inch drive rather than 3/8 for leverage’s sake) with a full complement of standard and metric sockets, and the rest of the usual emergency vehicle gear (jack, flashlight, tire iron, etc) here are a few tools you may not have thought of, but that deserves a place in your car’s emergency kit.

A Spool of Wire

Although most modern vehicles have complicated electrical systems governed by one or more onboard computers, you’d be surprised how much you can get accomplished simply by grounding a circuit and running a lead to the positive terminal of your battery. A failed driver’s side power window switch, for instance, can render all the windows in your car immobile (all switches run through a primary in many applications) so the only way to get your windows back UP may be to run that lead. In older model vehicles, you can circumvent a number of steps when diagnosing a fuel issue simply by running a lead from the battery directly to the fuel pump (it’s important to include an in-line switch or to remove the lead when the engine isn’t running to prevent burning out the fuel pump motor).

Understanding that most of the electronics in your vehicle operate via a simple mechanism (power on or power off) means that in an emergency, you can hack up some temporary fixes using little more than a spool of wire and some electrical tape. I also recommend carrying a test light to help you ensure current is moving properly when diagnosing electrical issues.

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An Impact Driver

Even under the best of circumstances, a seized screw or bolt can make common repairs or maintenance a big problem. In an emergency, a stripped screw or bolt could be all it takes to leave you stranded — but an impact driver can turn the tides in your favor. These tools usually have a 3/8 or 1/2 inch drive at one end, and a flat striking surface on the other. Place the impact socket or screwdriver bit on one end and place it on the stuck fastener securely – then smash the hell out of the other side with a hammer or rock. The impact forces the bit onto/into the fastener as it rotates, breaking bolts and screws loose while avoiding stripping them.

For less than $15 bucks, you won’t find a more versatile or valuable tool when working on vehicles that may be a bit long in the tooth (or that just exist in the Northeast where winters wreak havoc on the vehicle’s undercarriage).

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A sturdy pipe

As I mentioned above, I recommend carrying a half-inch drive socket and breaker bar in your vehicle’s toolkit — they occupy more space than a traditional 3/8 drive, but I’ve always appreciated the extra leverage I can exert via the heavier hardware. Just like with the impact driver, a good pipe can mean the difference between breaking something loose or not — sliding the pipe over the handle of a wrench can help increase the length of your lever, thus increasing the force you can exert. Be aware that using that much muscle may well break a bolt that’s seized in place, but that isn’t always a bad thing. A cross threaded lug nut could make it nearly impossible to get your wheel off when changing a flat, and while breaking a cross threaded lug stud may not be the best case scenario, your vehicle will have no trouble getting you home with the 4 remaining studs (on a 5 lug vehicle). The same principle applies to cars with only four lug studs, though spirited driving on only three lug nuts isn’t recommended but then how often is surviving about keeping things within the “recommended” parameters?”

The same pipe can also serve as a hammer for striking your impact driver or for leverage when trying to shift the engine within the limits of its rubber motor mounts to reach something deeper in your engine bay. Trying to swap rotors but they’re seized on? Bash it with a pipe. Car starter not working properly? Believe it or not, banging on it a few times with a pipe might do the trick as well.

Tire pressure gauge

A tire pressure gauge comes in handy any time you’re filling your tires up with air, but that’s not actually the value it provides in a survival situation. Driving on low traction surfaces like snow or mud can mean having to take your time to cover terrain, but if you find your vehicle struggling to maintain traction, letting some of the air out of your tires can actually make a big difference. If your car’s tires are rated for a maximum of 41 PSI, try dropping 10-15 pound of air pressure from your drive tires to increase the tire’s footprint on the ground, and as a result, adding a bit of traction. This method won’t get you un-stuck (you’ll still need kitty litter or sand and a shovel for that) but it can hopefully help you avoid getting stuck in the first place.

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Duct Tape

You can fix anything with enough duct tape — but if you’re just trying to keep a car running long enough to get you out-of-town, it can really be a lifesaver. A vacuum leak on any of the lines leading into your Mass Air Flow Sensor or cylinder head could wreak havoc on your car’s performance or even kill the engine completely. Identifying the leak and sealing it with duct tape could get your vehicle moving again. The same can be said for leaking fuel lines in a pinch, though gasoline has a nasty habit of eating its way through temporary fixes of that sort. Duct tape won’t make your vehicle reliable but it might keep it running for long enough to get you to safety.

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Feature image courtesy of Flickr

More rucking tips from a Green Beret: Revisiting the hills with a 45-lb ruck

About six months ago in our SFAS training tips, we hit the trails with our rucksack and were hitting the hills as they present issues that as a Selection candidate that you will encounter in the various courses that the services will offer.

With the rain, we had in the area as the remnants of a hurricane dumped some needed moisture in the forest, what better time is there than to get out in the rain and mud and carry a rucksack? The one good thing is that the trails would be empty as most people that time of morning decided that hiking in the rain and muck isn’t the most fun way to start the day.

It should be noted, that my training companion bailed on me. My bulldog took one look outside at the rain and wind and gave me a look like, “you’ve got to be kidding me?” and flopped, not rolled over, flopped on her side with her back to me. Sigh. I was on my own.

On another side note, besides the training value of rucking for those of our readers who are aspiring Special Operations candidates, going out on an early morning hike/ruck is a great stress reliever for a bit. For those who need to clear their head and decompress, it is a wonderful tonic for the cluttered brain. And there has been plenty of that lately…Nuff said.

In getting the weight right for the rucksack, which should be a 45-pound minimum, I went back to using a sandbag that I placed in the top radio pouch of the rucksack. Back a few months ago, we got several questions about using bricks, which you can and for the purpose of that one exercise I did. But to me, and it is just my personal opinion, bricks are bulky and it takes quite a few of them to get the weight right.

For the purposes of training and just for the plain ease of getting it right, a sandbag is much easier and foolproof. But there is no right or wrong answer here, whatever works for you is fine as long as the weight is correct. And that is what it is all about…

We’ve posted some tips based on our experience that we feel will be of good value to you. I don’t claim to know it all, but after many years in SF, these tips and techniques worked for me and hopefully, they’ll work for you as well.

So, the weight, in this case, the sandbag should be packed up high between the shoulder blades as much as possible. The ruck that I’m using has radio pouch up high, that is where the sandbag was placed. And it bears repeating that I prefer sandbags because it will mold to your ruck and back and doesn’t have any sharp edges that can rub you on a long-distance ruck march.

On this particular ruck march, I once again used the waist strap on my rucksack, that way, the weight rides more on your hips and not on your shoulders. This way you can loosen your shoulder straps just a bit so that the weight isn’t all on them.

We covered boots in a several of our earlier pieces. I have several favorite pairs that I take on hikes depending upon the conditions. Since I had recently purchased a new pair of the Merrell MOAB2 boots. As we’ve stated before, these are great boots.

They are comfortable right out of the box, very stable, have excellent traction in all kinds of conditions (this day would be a mix of wet forest and rock) and the new footbeds fit better with improved arch and heel cup design. I almost went with the heavier Sawtooth boots but I’m putting them on a pitch count so to speak so that they last as I can’t get any more of them.

Someone emailed me a while back and asked what boots I rucked in back in the day. It is a very good question. I answered my issued jungle boots. Why? Because that is what I was going to use when I was either at home base or deployed and had several pairs broken in. Use what you are going to wear down range.

The closed loop trail in my favorite “Purgatory” hike gives plenty of varied terrain so it was up and down some steep hills. As it is a short trail I went back and forth (twice) to get some distance in which is guaranteed to get you some strange looks from any other hikers that you come across. But on this rainy, wet morning I was alone anyway.

I took my SFAS Cadre walking stick (The staff of Ra) on the course. But unlike Mr. Indiana Jones’ medallion, mine has a large snapping turtle skull attached. It makes for an attractive topper and a good weapon for the occasional dog that decides to attack the crazy person walking in the woods alone. Usually, all it takes is to point it and Fido thinks better of it. Of course, that is what the bulldog’s secondary (implied) task is for.

So, with the Apple iPod in place, some soothing Metallica in my ears, it is off to Purgatory. When hitting the upslope of the hills, I like to lean forward just slightly and lengthen, not shorten my stride. Some people do the opposite, whatever works for you. Try it. I’m not talking a big difference, just an ever so slightly longer one which keeps your momentum going. The walking stick will definitely help here and when you reach the downside of the slopes.

Running: This is a touchy subject with a lot of people and you’ll get 100 different answers from a 100-different people. But when it comes to increasing speed, I don’t recommend that you run with a rucksack on your back while in training. Learn to increase your speed without resorting to running.

Running with a rucksack puts an incredible amount of stress on your knees. On this trail, there are some steep downhill slopes where it is easy to pick up a shuffle for a short distance, and it can speed things up but there is a difference between doing that and for running a longer distance.

From one of our earlier articles on rucking while preparing for selection, “They’ll be times in your selection course or the qualification course that you’ll have to make up time or want to pick your pace, especially on the downhill slopes. At those times, you’re going to have to do what you must.”

I can’t stress enough as someone who now has two arthritic knees and a back to boot to learn to increase your speed without running. Lengthen out your stride and generate power with your legs and your speed will come naturally without resorting to running. But while in the course…do what you must, to pass. When I was becoming a SFAS Cadre member, we had to go thru the course before working there. I was one of the “dinosaurs” who went thru the SFQC before there was SFAS. And on one of our long-range rucks, I jogged the last mile and a half, almost two, just to get it over with as I still had plenty of time (why do people who give advice, never take their own?).

The standard is a 15-minute mile pace to pass the course. That is the minimum. You should be aiming much better than that. I used to keep about a 12-minute per mile pace. It is plenty fast enough for where you’ll finish a 12-mile with just over 30 minutes to spare and is a pace that you can keep up for an even longer distance.

Water and hydration are very important as we keep harping on in every PT piece every morning. On this day, despite the rainy, raw conditions, I drank quite a bit of water, close to 36 ounces. It is a good habit to get into during training to continue to push water all the time. If you get into the habit now, you’ll keep it up during the course.

Happy Rucking…now I have to have a word with a bulldog about abandoning me.

If anyone else has any questions, feel free to send them along to [email protected] or at my Twitter page @SteveB7SFG and I’ll be glad to answer them.

Photo courtesy of US Army, author

*Originally published on Special Operations.com and written by STEVE BALESTRIERI