I spent the majority of my time in Special Forces as a Military Freefall (MFF) Parachutist. Military Freefall is also called HALO for High Altitude Low Opening and is a specialty infiltration tactic taught at the Special Warfare Center and School. Some people say “oh you’re a skydiver?” Military Freefall parachuting is not skydiving. Although the concept is the same skydivers have minimal gear and normally jump from altitudes less than 10,000 feet Above Ground Level (AGL) so there is no need for supplemental oxygen. MFF parachutists routinely jump from higher altitudes up to 25,000 AGL with weapons, supplemental oxygen, 90 pounds of gear strapped to their bodies and generally at night. The military can make anything fun into a chore. Skydiving is also a means to an end whereas MFF is merely an infiltration method and is generally only the beginning of the mission. Read More...

As mentioned previously, my unit changed missions while in Iraq numerous times.  This current story takes us back to when my unit was tasked out to man a quick reaction force (QRF).  Our mission was to be ready at a moment’s notice to respond to any hostile action within our area of operations (AO) which had been plagued by recent IED’s and ambushes.  We were still rolling in our “soft-skinned” humvees and homemade vehicle weapon mounts; which did not provide a 360 degree field of fire.  Read More...

It seemed as if the convoy we were in was endless.  It was comprised of various elements, if not all, of our brigade and was mainly humvees and 5 ton vehicles.  We took a few stops along the way for various reasons but quickly continued our long drive south.  We continued to move towards the city of Kirkuk through the day and in to the night.  Most of us were not quite sure what we were going to be doing next.  I remember crossing over a bridge and Kurdish Peshmerga forces were standing guard and cheering us on as we drove by.  Later, I found out this bridge was outside a city that would become familiar to us and that we could cross over several times in the future.  As we continued our slow crawl towards the airbase, we noticed a plethora of military aged males walking along the sides of the road in civilian attire.  Read More...