A Topeka native and retired Navy SEAL was named Team USA’s Male Paralympic Athlete of the Games. Dan Cnossen was presented with the honor at the Team USA awards ceremony Thursday night in Washington, D.C. In early March, the Shawnee Heights graduate medaled in every biathlon and cross-country ski event he entered at the games in PyeongChang, South Korea. Cnossen ... Read More »
In his mind, Lee Von Hack-Prestinary kept circling the crash site. His friends were in the wreckage below, and he couldnât help. The memory brought him to tears. Seated across from him, at Patrick Air Force Base near Cocoa Beach, a trauma expert watched his body language. She encouraged a drill, coaching him to use the tools she trained him ... Read More »
Saturday night at the Hotel Del Coronado, the 33rd Annual Coronado Chamber of Commerce Salute to the Military Ball was held, and by virtually any measure the event was a success. Attendance was up by one-third from one year ago, rising to the level of a sellout with 480 people in attendance. In addition, the theme of the event, which ... Read More »
Scientists from the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have developed a way to print 3-D structures composed entirely of liquids. Using a modified 3-D printer, they injected threads of water into silicone oil — sculpting tubes made of one liquid within another liquid. They envision their all-liquid material could be used to construct liquid electronics that ... Read More »
New technology is bringing the power of augmented reality into clinical practice. The system, called ProjectDR, shows clinicians 3D medical images such as CT scans and MRI data, projected directly on a patientâs skin. The technology uses motion capture, similar to how itâs done in movies. Infrared cameras track invisible (to human vision) markers on the patientâs body. That allows the ... Read More »
Poor training and a culture of risk-taking led to the deadly Oct. 4 ambush near Tongo Tongo, Niger, according to officials familiar with a Pentagon report compiled in the wake of the ambush that left four U.S. and four Nigerien soldiers dead. Military officials familiar with the 6,000-page report described its findings to the Wall Street Journal. The report included recommendations from Defense ... Read More »
A well-trained special operator is at the core of all successful missions in all branches of service. Becoming a special operator requires a rigorous screening process. However, each branch of service have their own preparation courses to give applicants who apply themselves, a better chance of succeeding. Special ops attrition rates are above 50-75% and that takes its toll, not ... Read More »
They’re one of the most elite fighting groups in the world. They silently slip into hostile countries to train and lead guerilla forces. The US Army’s Special Forces are known to the public as Green Berets â but they call themselves the quiet professionals. They work in 12-man teams, known as an “A-Team,” with each member having a specific job. The ... Read More »
US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Thursday that French special operations forces arrived in Syria over the past two weeks to help boost US-led efforts against the Islamic State group. Speaking to senior lawmakers in Washington, Mattis responded to a question about whether the United States was planning on pulling out of Syria â something President Donald Trump has said ... Read More »
The new commander of Canada’s special forces says there’s no textbook answer to the threat posed by ‘lone wolf’ terrorist or criminal attacks, but the country’s elite counter-terrorism unit has its eyes open to emerging trends. Maj.-Gen. Peter Dawe delivered the message of reassurance Wednesday following a change of command ceremony in Ottawa on Wednesday. Dawe said he was not able to ... Read More »
The official narrative in China and the highlighting of the country’s “core interests” in terms of fostering and promoting economic development in Europe and the Indo-Pacific region through the ambitiously conceived “Belt Road Initiative” (BRI) may not be entirely true. According to a report prepared by the Center for Advanced Defense Studies (C4ADS), a Washington D.C.-based non-profit organisation dedicated to ... Read More »
Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health contributed to a new U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report that finds the prevalence of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) among 11 surveillance sites as one in 59 among children aged 8 years in 2014 (or 1.7 percent). This marks a 15 percent increase from the most recent ... Read More »
The water at or around 126 military installations contains potentially harmful levels ofperfluorinated compounds, which have been linked to cancers and developmental delays for fetuses and infants, the Pentagon has found. In a March report provided to the House Armed Services Committee, the Pentagon for the first time publicly listed the full scope of the known contamination. The Defense Department identified 401 ... Read More »
The head of the U.S. military’s Special Operations Command said Wednesday that Air Force gunships, needed to provide close air support for American commandos and U.S.-backed rebel fighters in Syria, were being “jammed” by “adversaries.” Calling the electronic warfare environment in Syria “the most aggressive” on earth, Army Gen. Tony Thomas told an intelligence conference in Tampa that adversaries “are ... Read More »
The Special Air Service is the longest active special missions unit in existence and has remained one of the best. Staffed with the toughest and most resourceful enlisted and commissioned soldiers the United Kingdom has to offer, the SAS only accepts the cream of the crop. Of all candidates who try to earn the coveted beige beret and the title ... Read More »
SOFX The Crossroads of Special Operations