Former Green Beret Tim Kennedy, pictured here in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, is recovering at Walter Reed after being wounded in an ambush there. The attack took place on September 17 in South Kivu province in the east of the country, where Kennedy was reportedly working as a security contractor. He was shot three times in the leg and medically evacuated to the United States. Not everyone made it home. Justin Conaglen, a former New Zealand SAS soldier, was killed in the attack, and another contractor was wounded. New Zealand authorities have opened an investigation into his death. Kennedy served in Army Special Forces with deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan before becoming one of the most recognizable veterans in the community. This time, the uniform was different, but the danger was the same. Eastern Congo remains one of the most volatile regions in the world, and the men who work there do so knowing exactly what that means. Wishing Tim a full recovery. Rest easy, Justin.

Tech. Sgt. Ian Patterson of Fort Stewart, Georgia, was a 15 year veteran of the U.S. Air Force who served as a Tactical Air Control Party instructor with the 6th Combat Training Squadron, Detachment 2, at Joint Base San Antonio. He died on October 17 after falling during a pregame rappelling demonstration at the Alamodome, where he was one of four service members taking part in UTSA's Salute to Armed Forces and Veterans game against Navy. TACPs live and work alongside Army and Marine ground units, controlling air and fire support from the front line. Ian spent his career mastering that craft and then passing it on. In 2022, he was named the Air Force Special Warfare Enlisted Instructor of the Year at the Headquarters Air Force level, a recognition that speaks to how much of himself he put into the people he trained. His decorations included the Air and Space Commendation Medal with three oak leaf clusters, along with the Army Commendation Medal, the Air and Space Achievement Medal, and the Army Achievement Medal, each with one oak leaf cluster. The 57th Wing said his service mattered immensely to everyone who had the privilege of knowing and serving alongside him. His legacy lives on in every TACP he helped shape. Our thoughts are with his family, friends, and teammates.

Jay Cal spent nearly 18 years in uniform, first as a Royal Marine Commando and then as an operator with 22 SAS after earning his place in the Regiment in 2012. Across 11 combat deployments in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Africa, his work covered counterterrorism, hostage rescue, and covert reconnaissance. His career also reached deep into the American SMU community. He embedded with Delta Force and went on to become the only SAS operator ever to serve as an instructor for Green Team, the selection and training course for DEVGRU, the Navy's Special Mission Unit. He was also awarded the Queen's Commendation for Valuable Service. Then everything changed. After an engagement in which he says he returned fire to protect himself and his teammates, Jay was accused of murder. A commendation tied to that mission was revoked, and he has spoken openly about feeling betrayed by his own government and about what the process cost him and the men around him. Today he is a lead instructor with GBRS Group and the founder of Everyday Patriot, passing on lessons he learned the hard way.

Ben Roberts-Smith was once the most celebrated soldier in modern Australian history. A member of the Special Air Service Regiment, he deployed to Afghanistan six times and received the Medal for Gallantry in 2006. During his fifth tour, he stormed two enemy machine gun positions at close range, actions that earned him the Victoria Cross for Australia in 2011. The story that followed has been very different. In 2018, newspaper reports alleged he had been involved in the killing of unarmed Afghans. He sued for defamation and lost. In 2023, a Federal Court judge found the murder allegations substantially true on the balance of probabilities, and that ruling held on appeal. In April 2026, he was arrested at Sydney Airport and charged with five counts relating to the war crime of murder, connected to deaths in Uruzgan Province in 2009 and 2012. He was granted bail and has consistently denied all of the allegations. The criminal case must now be proven beyond reasonable doubt, a far higher standard than the civil trial. One of the most decorated careers in Australian military history now comes down to a courtroom. However it ends, this case will shape how Australia's special operations community is remembered.

Marine Raiders training somewhere in Alaska, where the cold doesn't care how good you are. In terrain like this, every task takes longer, every mistake costs more, and simply staying functional becomes part of the mission. That's exactly why units train here. When the environment is the hardest opponent in the fight, the only way to be ready for it is to have already worked through it. Spirit, Strategy, and Success.

Jeff Tiegs walked into the 1st Ranger Battalion at 18 as a private. More than 25 years later, he retired as a lieutenant colonel in Delta Force, the Army's Special Mission Unit, after serving as a Ranger, a Green Beret, an operator, and a troop commander. His career took him into combat in Panama, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Along the way he earned the Silver Star for valor in Iraq, five Bronze Stars, the Ranger and Special Forces Tabs, and the Combat Diver and Military Freefall Badges. Retirement didn't end the hunt. It changed the target. Today he leads Skull Games, an organization that gives analytical and operational support to law enforcement agencies working to identify and stop sex traffickers and predators. He also wrote "Where Have All the Heroes Gone?", which connects his time on the battlefield to the faith that carried him through it. Some men leave the fight when they hang up the uniform. Others just find a new one.

Pure 90s energy from Scott Sterling, Delta Force. Back when the kit was simpler, the photos were rarer, and the men of the Army's Special Mission Unit were almost impossible to find on the record. Images from this era of the SMU are hard to come by, and every one that surfaces is a reminder of the generation that set the standard for the operators who came after them.

On the night of October 17, 2001, just 36 days after 9/11, Black Hawks lifted off from a secret base in Uzbekistan and pushed south into Afghanistan, bound for the mountains of the north. The men on board hadn't spent months training together. They had been assembled in days. CIA case officers. Linguists. Paramilitaries. A Green Beret detailed to the Agency. On paper, it looked improvised, and it was. But it was also exactly what the moment called for: people who could negotiate, translate, fight, and earn the trust of strangers in a country where America had almost no presence on the ground. There was no time to perfect the plan. They would figure out the rest after the wheels touched down. Before the large deployments and the years that followed, this is how the war began: a hastily built team, a dark landing zone in the mountains, and a mission still taking shape.

Skinny jeans, plate carriers, and a modified MCX. German SEK officers don't always look the part until the moment they need to. SEK teams are the tactical police units of the individual German states. They're called in for the jobs regular police aren't equipped to handle: armed suspects, hostage situations, and high-risk arrests. That work doesn't always come with time to change into full kit, and sometimes blending in is the point. The loadout here is a modified MCX alongside the MP7, a compact PDW that has become a familiar sight across European police tactical units. It's a serious pairing, worn with whatever was on when the call came in. Would you roll out like this?

What was meant to be a tribute turned into a moment no one in the Alamodome will forget. During pregame ceremonies for UTSA's Salute to Armed Forces and Veterans game against Navy on Saturday night, a U.S. service member lost control during a rappelling demonstration from the stadium rafters and fell to the field. Medical personnel were at his side immediately. He was treated on the turf, placed on a stretcher, and transported to a local hospital. The band stopped. The crowd went silent. His condition has not been released. We are praying for a full recovery and keeping his family and his fellow team members close in our thoughts. The people who do this work accept a level of risk most will never see, whether it's downrange, in training, or in front of a full stadium. Last night, that risk became real for one of them.

In 2022, SAS operators deployed to Syria against ISIS killed a man they believed was wearing a suicide vest. The engagement was over in moments. What followed lasted years. Five serving members of the Regiment were later arrested by the Royal Military Police on suspicion of murder. Investigators sent case files to the Service Prosecuting Authority recommending prosecution, and the men spent close to two years under investigation before the Ministry of Defence confirmed they would not face charges. The Sunday Times Insight team has now published the full story behind the operation and everything that came after it. The questions it raises reach well beyond one engagement. How should decisions made under the threat of a suicide attack be judged from a desk, long after the fact? And what does a process like this do to the men involved and to the unit they serve? Accountability matters. So does the reality of the ground these men operate on. This case sits right where the two meet.

Worn PEQ-15, GPNVG-18s, an MP5SD and bangs staged by the door. None of it was set up for a photo. Which piece would you grab first? #GreenBeret #SpecialForces #GWOT

GIGN, BRI, and RAID operators on the roof of the Stade de France in Paris.

French operators equipped with the SIG SG 553 and the HK416F, two rifles that show how French special forces mix standard issue with specialist tools. The HK416F is the French version of the Heckler & Koch rifle that replaced the FAMAS across the French armed forces beginning in 2017, with the "F" standing for French. Special forces were the first to receive the HK416, before the rest of the army, so it's now effectively the baseline rifle in the community. The SG 553 is a compact member of the SIG 550 family, and it's more of a niche choice. Reporting says teams of the 1er RPIMa use it, and that it's particularly appreciated by combat divers. Its short, sturdy, gas-piston design handles wet and rough conditions well, which helps explain the preference. Seeing both in one photo suggests operators with different roles, one working from the standard rifle and one from a specialist's choice. French units also use other weapons, such as the SIG MCX and the FN SCAR, depending on the team.

Army SMU operators posing with a pile of cash in Panama, 1989, one of the stranger photos from that campaign. The photo fits the story of Operation Just Cause. Manuel Noriega's regime ran on drug money, and when U.S. forces moved on his hiding places, they found cash, passports and credit cards. The Defense Department photographed part of what it described as his "getaway money." Delta's role in Panama was larger than most people realize. In the opening hours it rescued Kurt Muse from the Modelo prison in Operation Acid Gambit, and its assaulters and teams were part of the hunt for Noriega that followed. Photos of operators with seized cash are exactly the kind of "souvenir" shot that came out of those days, and they show how strange the war was. Elite operators who had just fought in a prison raid were counting bundles of dictator's money. The story behind a photo like this is usually simple. Seized cash had to be counted, photographed for evidence, and handed over.

US Special Operations is adopting a new half-mask and goggle system. The Pentagon and Avon Protection announced the contract on October 9. The system is Avon’s MITR, which pairs the MITR-M1 half mask with the MITR-PG1 powered goggle. It has been a long time coming. Operators breathe hazards most people never think about, from lead dust off their own weapons to chemicals, riot agents and toxic substances like fentanyl. The old choice was a disposable N95 or a heavy full-face respirator that no one wants to carry. The MITR sits in between. It weighs about half a pound, clips to a helmet or a head harness, and the goggle and mask can be worn together or separately, so an operator can scale protection up or down as the threat changes. The goggles seal under positive pressure, drain sweat, and blow cool air across the lens to fight fogging. Special operations units are already wearing it in the field, and it is being delivered to others. The US joins Canada and another Five Eyes nation in buying the system. It also follows a November 2025 study of cancer among special operations forces, which reportedly found a higher cancer risk tied to constant exposure to hazardous materials. Half-masks aren’t new, and Ops-Core’s SOTR already filled a similar role, so this adds to the toolbox instead of replacing the full-face respirator. For operators breathing the same fumes year after year, it’s a long overdue upgrade.

Reports are circulating that one or two women are currently in BUD/S at Coronado, training alongside male candidates for a shot at the SEAL Trident. Other posts claim admirals have been observing early training in Class 379 and may be pushing the women to move past First Phase. None of it has been confirmed, and we found no Navy statement or credible report backing either claim. What we do know: women have been eligible since 2016, and the Navy has said the standards are the same for everyone. Most candidates who start BUD/S never finish, and no woman has completed it yet. If anyone does, the only thing that will matter is that she earned it under the same standard as everyone else. We'll update when the Navy confirms.