The services need to collect and analyze more comprehensive data on special operations troops to support their transition to civilian life, according to a report from the Government Accountability Office.
With a new focus on functional combat fitness training, the U.S. Army Infantry School has modified the physical fitness assessment for students attending the Ranger Course.
Formally known as the Ranger Physical Fitness Assessment, the assessment will still require students to perform a 5-mile run and six chin-ups, but it no longer includes situps and pushups, according to a Maneuver Center of Excellence news release.
The recruiting program that enlists civilians to become Green Beret candidates “is critical to Special Forces,” the commander of U.S. Army Special Operations Command said.
Known by the MOS 18X, the Special Forces candidate program enlists young people to help build the force rather than recruiting only from within the ranks, Lt. Gen. Jonathan Braga said. Soldiers who joined the Army through the 18X program and made it through the long and arduous path to become Green Berets, he said, “make up over 50% of the force.”
In February, the Association of the U.S. Army’s “Army Matters” podcast will highlight the incredible stories of a colonel who’s using data to fight the enemy and a veteran who overcame a tough transition to civilian life and now helps others find their way.
Fifty years ago, I reported to Company B, 2nd Battalion (Ranger), 75th Infantry Regiment.
A “convergence” of adversaries is threatening global security, a development made more complex by the proliferation of battlefield technology and commercial disruptions, a senior Army officer said.
Gen. Bryan Fenton, commanding general of U.S. Special Operations Command, said he sees the security environment through three lenses, the first of which is the volatile alliance formed among the adversaries of the United States and its allies.
An Army Special Forces officer who advocates for veterans’ mental health has been appointed to the 2024–2025 class of White House Fellows, a highly selective program for leaders who are committed to public service.
As a young lieutenant with 3rd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, in 1993, James Lechner was selected for a special operations task force and found himself embroiled in the Battle of Mogadishu.
What began as a raid in Somalia’s capital turned into an 18-hour firefight, and Lechner and his fellow Rangers and Delta Force operators were surrounded and outnumbered after they came to the aid of two American Black Hawk helicopter crews shot down by insurgents. By the end of the battle, 18 Americans were killed and dozens more were wounded.
Retired Col. Ralph Puckett, a legendary and revered Army Ranger who fought in Korea and Vietnam, died April 8. He was 97.
Puckett, an inaugural member of the Ranger Hall of Fame, was awarded the Medal of Honor in May 2021, more than 70 years after leading the 8th Army Ranger Company to capture a frozen hilltop near the Chinese border during the Korean War.
Retired Col. Roger Donlon, the first person in the Vietnam War and the first Green Beret to receive the Medal of Honor, died Jan. 25. He was 89.
Donlon received the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest award for valor, for his actions in July 1964 near Nam Dong, Vietnam. During the battle, then-Capt. Donlon disregarded multiple wounds and successfully led his 12-man Green Beret team as they held off an attack by a reinforced battalion of Viet Cong fighters.
