Best of SOF

The Frying Pan By Nick Brokhausen Former SOG operator When the grass whispers, the lion stalks the land… Ashanti Proverb The serenity of the South China Sea, splashed with the hues of the sunset, provides the backdrop to my musings. I am sitting on one of the bunkers on the …

From the January, 2008 issue of SOF Message from his family: SGT Jayme Pohovey passed away recently in a non combat related incident while still serving active duty in a non combat related death. He served our country for 12 years, as an Army Combat Medic, with two tours to …

by John Stryker Meyer During the eight-year secret war in Vietnam, when Green Beret-led reconnaissance teams and company-sized elements ran top-secret missions across the fence into Cambodia, Laos and N. Vietnam, many of those missions were compromised before the Military Assistance Command Vietnam-Studies and Observations Group units landed on the …

By Sgt. John Jackson Marine Attack Squadron 211 From the January 2013 issue of SOF Sgt. Rasheem Thomas never thought his first night working on Camp Bastion would turn into a gun battle with 15 insurgents. When Thomas was told he was transferring from 1st Platoon to 2nd Platoon, the …

Former Staff Sgt. Ronald Shurer II, the hero of Shok Valley, MOH recipient has lost his long battle with lung cancer. R. I.P Sir. With all the battles Shurer has gone through, he faced one more in recent years. March 2017, he was diagnosed with lung cancer, which had spread …

Marine with BLT 2/6 Awarded Bronze Star By Cpl. Joshua Brown 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit From the November 2015 issue of SOF For most service members, the Bronze Star Medal is a symbol of personal heroism. But for 1st Lt. James Salka, the medal represents something greater then himself—it represents …

Mozambique Mayhem; Where Wokists Meet Jihadists by Hannes Wessels, author A handful of hard man Hannes Wessels author I suppose it is the mindset-madness of the ‘woke world’ we find ourselves in that has come into play recently here in southern Africa, but we are presently witness to a gruesome tragedy playing out around …

By John Coleman From the May 1987 issue of SOF We hear about plots here at SOF. Lots of them. Usually they come in the form of drunk sailors in Cape Town, or out-of-work oil pipeline guards from’ ‘somewhere in the Middle East, babbling their sure-fire plan to topple someone …

New Revelations about Vietnam Command Decisions By Harold Hutchison From the April 2014 issue of SOF WHAT WE KNOW MAY NOT BE SO Many “pop history” stories about Vietnam have gone around, and a general narrative on the war has taken hold among many who feel we could have won …

A savage assault by North Vietnamese Army regulars was stopped by the combined efforts of artillerymen and infantrymen at LZ Bird during Operation Thayer II on Dec. 27, 1966. by Al Hemingway Staff Sgt. Delbert Jennings did not feel good. His stomach pains worsened, and he had trouble sleeping. Besides …