• The US military's special-operations units still use a number of weapons been in service for decades.
• Those weapons have stood the test of time and are still effective in the more-than-capable hands of American operators.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Have you ever heard the saying, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it"?

Well, this adage comes to mind when I think about the M2 Browning .50 caliber machine gun and the M79 grenade launcher. Both of these weapons have a very long, respected history and are still in service.

They have been used by thousands of Americans in battle and have reigned terror on the enemy. To this day, these two weapons are still on the inventory list for many United States special operations units.

The Browning .50 caliber machine gun was created in mid-1917 by the hands of John Browning. The US Army wanted a machine gun that could fire a larger and more powerful round. John Browning answered the call and designed and built the .50 caliber machine gun, which was an upgraded version of his M1917 .30 caliber machine gun. The first versions fell short of the desired outcome: The rate of fire was too slow and the round did not have enough power to penetrate armor. Colt redesigned the weapon and placed the M2 into service in 1933.

By the time WWII began, this weapon could be found in all branches of service. The M2 was used on aircraft, boats and ships, vehicles, and by soldiers on foot. Since then, it has seen service in every major conflict. The Browning .50 caliber shoots 450-600 rounds per minute with a maximum effective range of 2,200 yards and the ability to penetrate up to a 1.34-inch-thick steel plate.

With this kind of lethality, it comes as no surprise that this weapon is still standard issue in the special operations community.It is common to see the .50 cal mounted on vehicles and SWCC boats.

The M79 grenade launcher is another weapon that has stood the test of time. The Springfield Armory introduced it in 1960 and was immediately put on the front lines in Vietnam.

The birth of the M79 was due to the US Army's need for a weapon that could shoot an explosive round with respectable accuracy and range while still being light enough for an individual infantryman to carry. The M79 became a beloved weapon during the Vietnam War and earned itself the title, "the platoon leader's artillery."

The M79 shoots a 40 mm grenade, with an effective range of 350 meters. The 40 mm grenade comes in many variants, including high-explosive, high-explosive dual-purpose, buckshot, smoke, and illumination.

Nowadays, the M79 is a specific mission tool and has been largely replaced with its M203 counterpart. With that being said, the accuracy and range of the M79 can't be beaten. In recent years, it is still seen being used by SEALs, SWCCs, and Special Forces.

Up until my last deployment, we were still carrying the M79 grenade launcher, which we liked to call the "Pirate Gun." In my opinion, it looked like something out of a museum. But, that's where the jokes ended: When it's put in the right hands, the M79 is a very deadly weapon.

Both of these weapons have stood the test of time. It wouldn't be surprising if the .50-caliber machine gun is still in service a hundred years from now. The M79 may not stay around forever, but the people that have used it in the past and the units that still keep it on their inventory list, are well aware of its special and irreplaceable capabilities.

SEE ALSO: A Navy SEAL and an Army Ranger explain the difference between these elite tiers

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NOW WATCH: GREEN BERET: This is how we're different from US Navy SEALs

• The Army, Navy, and Air Force all have reserve and/or national guard special-operations units that allow people to serve in elite units but maintain civilian careers and lives.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Believe it or not, being in special operations can be a part-time endeavor. The Army, Navy, and Air Force all have reserve and/or national guard special operations units at their disposal. These "part-time" units give people the unique opportunity to serve in America's elite forces while still being able to maintain their civilian careers and lifestyles.

The 19th and 20th Special Forces Group make up the Army National Guard's special operations units. Individuals that receive a National Guard Special Forces contract are required to go through the same Special Forces Qualifications Course (SFQC) as their active-duty counterparts.

A National Guard member going through Special Forces training is placed on "active duty" during their time at SFQC and must complete the entire pipeline before they return to National Guard status. National Guard units stay extremely busy and take part in deployment rotation just as active-duty Special Forces units do.

The Navy consists of NSW and EOD reserve units. The NSW reserve units are SEAL Team 17 and SEAL Team 18. These two teams are comprised of both SEALs and SWCCs. The majority of the SEALs and SWCCs at these units are prior active-duty members that transferred to the reserves upon completion of their active duty commitment. But, some sailors are able to obtain an NSW contract while in the reserves and upon completion of training are assigned directly to a reserve SEAL Team.

EOD operators are similar to their NSW brothers, with most being active duty service members before their transfer to the reserves. The NSW and EOD reserve units are also on a constant deployment rotation. Usually, reservist operators are mobilized for a year. The first three to six months are used for pre-deployment training and the following six to nine months are the actual deployment, which could be anywhere in the world.

The Air Force's special operations career fields, Pararescue (PJs) and Combat Control Teams (CCTs), Special Reconnaissance (SR), and Tactical Air Control Party (TACP), have Air Force National Guard and Reserve units. Like the Army, individuals are able to enlist into the Air Force National Guard or Reserves and directly enter into a special operations training pipeline. Upon completion of PJ, CCT, SR, or TACP training, operators are assigned to their respective units.

The Pararescue community has many Rescue Wings (Guardian Angels) assigned to both the Air Force National Guard and the Air Force Reserves. The Combat Control Teams only have two Special Tactics Squadrons under the Air National Guard. These units have a wide array of responsibilities, ranging from domestic operations to deploying to combat zones downrange.

If an individual has the burning desire to become a member of the United States Special Operations Command, but still wants a "normal" life, becoming a special operator in the reserves or National Guard could be the perfect blend.

SEE ALSO: Why US special-operations units still use old-school weapons

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NOW WATCH: GREEN BERET: This is how we're different from US Navy SEALs

• US special operations forces have only gotten more active in recent years, deploying to more countries for a wider range of missions.
• Those troops have earned a reputation for their successes, but exalting them as "elite" misunderstands their role and risks corrupting the force as a whole, writes Lt. Col. Stewart "PR" Parker, a career Special Tactics Officer and senior military fellow at the Center for a New American Security.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

America's special operations forces (SOF) are in high demand and their global presence is growing. In 2019, SOF operated in 141 countries, up from only 60 just over a decade ago. Rightfully, SOF have earned a reputation for their tremendous successes, like killing Osama bin Laden in 2011.

As the pace increases, so have concerns over their behavior. But the nation's reverence for its SOF may itself be part of the problem — for too long, media has labeled SOF as more "elite" than the rest of the military. But the term "elite" implies better, and this raises the question, better for what?

Throughout history, SOF have evolved in myriad ways, most memorably with the creation of US Army Special Forces, whose Green Berets were officially recognized by President John F. Kennedy in 1962.

Today, all military personnel assigned under United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM), are known by the umbrella term "special operations forces" (SOF). But America's response to the 9/11 attacks pushed SOF into the limelight like never before, leading the way in global counter-terror (CT) and counter-insurgency (COIN) operations, and earning the media's label as the "elite" echelon of the US military.

Since 2018, the Trump administration's National Defense Strategy has been reorienting the military toward deterring state adversaries like China and Russia, simultaneously de-emphasizing CT and COIN. Unlike in current operations, during large scale conflict, SOF would primarily enable the main efforts of conventional military capabilities like fighter squadrons and infantry battalions.

Yet the obsession with "elite" SOF continues. As Dr. Tom Searle explains in the "General Theory of SOF,""too often, special operations attract inordinate attention in the media and a certain mystique due to the perceived elite-ness of the SOF that conduct these operations." The internet is littered with references to "elite" SOF units, from respected journals and news sources , to the sedate but authoritative Encyclopedia Britannica, which defines the "Green Berets" as an elite force in the US military.

It is surprising that the word "elite" has become a ubiquitous part of SOF's description in the media because it is simply incorrect.

Defense strategists obsess with using precise terminology to explain units, tasks, and operational environments. "Elite" is never used as a term of reference for SOF inside the military. Leaders do not present SOF as "elite" when speaking to the press or when testifying before legislative oversight committees. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff does not advise the president on military forces in terms of "elite-ness." The word "elite" does not appear in the USSOCOM mission statement. "Elite" is not even included in the official Department of Defense dictionary.

The word "elite" should never be used to describe SOF, because SOF are special, not elite.

While "special" and "elite" may be conflated in casual conversation, they do not mean the same thing. Elite implies better, whereas special is different. To say that SOF is better raises the question, for what purpose?

For example, Navy SEALs are special sailors, because SEALs are trained to "lock-out of submarines, jump out of planes, leave large ships, operate mini-submarines, swim to meet the enemy, and SEALs often fight the enemy on land." But SEALs are not truly elite sailors, because SEALs are not better at doing the things that traditional sailors do, like operating warships, submarines, and aircraft.

Different military forces, like tools, are designed for different functions. A broad claim that SOF is elite, or better than the rest of the military makes no more sense than describing a screwdriver as a better version of a hammer.

Not only is the "elite" description of SOF incorrect, it is potentially dangerous. Over investment in SOF at the expense of conventional military forces would cause degradation in priority mission areas, including those normally assigned to SOF. USSOCOM is guided by the "SOF Truths," the fifth of which states "most special operations require non-SOF assistance."

The mission that killed ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in Syria in 2019 and hundreds more like it could not have been possible without robust support from conventional ground, air, maritime, space, cyber, and logistics capabilities. Conceiving of SOF as elite could also lead to assigning SOF missions that would be better suited for conventional forces, which could lead to mission failure.

Furthermore, the term "elite" is dangerous because self-perceptions of elite-ness can lead to unhealthy hubris among SOF personnel. Those who feel elite may believe they are entitled to act outside the law, or that they are exempt from military standards of discipline.

Unfettered public praise for SOF may be contributing to exactly this trend. Young men — and more recently, women — who enter the military with aspirations to join SOF units are unwittingly indoctrinated by the media in their formative years that they will become "elite" once they have finished the appropriate training.

Recently, SOF have been accused of so much criminal behavior that in 2019, Congress mandated a comprehensive review on SOF professionalism. Some of the more egregious allegations against SOF include murder in Afghanistan, war crimes in Iraq, cocaine smuggling from Colombia to the US, manslaughter of a SOF teammate in Mali, theft of official funds, and numerous cases of sexual assault.

America should always be able to trust that its SOF component is ready, competent, and professional, but these crimes alleged to have been committed by SOF personnel have shown beyond doubt that perceptions of "elite-ness" are unwarranted.

SOF have contributed and sacrificed greatly in America's bloody campaigns, but SOF are merely a tool set designed to accomplish missions that conventional forces cannot conduct on their own. Notions of SOF "elite-ness" expressed by the media and popular culture are unhealthy.

Allowing such perspectives to pervade public consciousness unchallenged damage the very SOF enterprise which Americans rely upon for their protection. Without recognizing that SOF are special, but not elite, SOF risks becoming less than what the country needs them to be.

Lt. Col. Stewart "PR" Parker is a career Special Tactics Officer currently assigned to the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) as a senior military fellow. The views expressed are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Department of Defense or the US government.

SEE ALSO: The Second Battle of Midway: What the US needs to do to win in a showdown with China

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NOW WATCH: These are the favorite weapons of the Army Special Operations Forces

• US Special Forces soldiers in the Vietnam War carried out secret missions in South Vietnam and into neighboring countries.
• Those units stood apart from conventional infantry units, and their weapons and gear — some of it experimental — reflected that.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Editor's note: Since this article is talking about gear, we wanted to give a shoutout to The Loadout Room for a great launch. Check them out if you haven't already!

In the Vietnam war, the most important piece of equipment we carried on missions was the CAR-15. It was the preferred weapon of choice by everyone on ST Idaho. The sling for it would vary: Sometimes I used a cravat or a canvas strap taped tightly to both ends of the weapon for soundless movements.

The only exceptions to the CAR-15 were an AK-47 carried by "Son" when he was our point man (he also wore an NVA uniform to complete the look) and an M-79 carried by our grenadier. In November 1968, Henry King carried the experimental pump M-79 weapon on one mission. It held up to five rounds of 40 mm high-explosive ammunition. His secondary weapon was the Model 1911 Colt .45. On occasions, Black would carry the M-60 machine gun.

Every American on ST Idaho carried a sawed-off M-79 for additional firepower. We thought of it as our handheld artillery. During a patrol, the Americans would load a special M-79 round with flechettes or double-ought (00) buckshot for close contact. The sawed-off M-79 would be secured either with a canvas or rope lanyard or by using a D-ring that was covered with black electrical tape to prevent any metallic banging. During the fall of 1968, I had a one-of-a-kind sawed-off M-79 holster, which I lost when I was unconscious during a rope extraction in Laos.

I would carry at least 34 20-round magazines for the CAR-15. We only placed 18 rounds in each magazine, which gave me 612 rounds for that weapon, and at least 12 rounds for the M-79. The CAR-15 magazines were placed in ammo pouches or cloth canteen pouches, with the bottoms facing up to prevent debris from getting into the magazine, and all of the rounds pointing away from the body. We taped black electrical tape to the bottom of each magazine to make it easier to grab them out of the pouch during firefights. I also carried 10 to 12 fragmentation grenades, a few of the older M-26 grenades, the newer M-33 "baseball" grenades, and one or two V-22 mini grenades.

For headgear, I only wore a green cravat on missions. It was light, didn't get caught on jungle branches or knocked off my head by prop wash, and it broke up the color of my blond hair. As a practical matter, it kept the sweat out of my eyes. Hats didn't do that. I often wore camouflage "paint" on my face. I always wore an extra cravat around my neck.

I wore the traditional Army jungle fatigues because they dried more quickly while on the ground than the camouflage fatigues available at the time. I had the tailor at Phu Bai sew an extra zipped pocket on the upper right and left arm of my fatigue where I carried pens, notebooks, pen flares, one plastic spoon, and my signal mirror. The tailor also sewed zipped pockets between the front top and bottom buttoned pockets, where I'd place maps, morphine syrettes, an extra notebook with any mission-specific notes, and the URC-10 emergency radio.

On my right wrist, I wore a black, self-winding, luminescent Seiko watch, which was so bright at night that I wore it face-down on the bottom of my wrist, under my glove. Thus, even in the pitch-black jungle, I knew when to make communication checks with the airborne command aircraft — usually at midnight or at 2 a.m. Additionally, in the jungle, I always wore black contact gloves for protection against jungle plants, thorns, and insects. I cut the thumb, index, and middle finger off of the right glove down to the first joint for improved grip.

On my left harness strap, I taped my KA-BAR knife, with the handle facing down, then hand grenades, small smoke canisters, and a sterile bandage. On my right harness strap was a strobe light, held in a cloth pouch, more hand grenades, a rappelling D-ring, and a smoke grenade. My preferred web gear was the WWII BAR (Browning Automatic Rifle) ammo belt and shoulder straps because five CAR-15 magazines fit snugly into each individual pouch — one pouch would be used for M-79 rounds. A plastic water canteen in a cloth canteen holder fitted onto the belt, as well as one white phosphorous grenade and my survival ax.

The amount of water available in the AO would determine how many plastic canteens of water I'd carry to the field. One canteen would have a small bottle of water purification pills taped to it. I used those pills for all water outside of camp. In our AOs, the water was often tainted with the defoliant Agent Orange. We hoped the purification tablets would counteract it. On the right side of my harness, I always carried the Frank & Warren Survival Axe Type II, MIL-S-8642C. I preferred it to the machete because the backside had a nasty, sharp hook that cut through jungle vines on the return swing. I carried my folding compass around my neck, held by a green parachute cord.

I used a cravat as a belt or a cut-down green cargo belt because it was silent. In my right pocket was my Swiss Army knife secured by a green parachute cord to a belt loop on my pants. Because I always wore the bulky gas mask bag on my left side, which held the black M-17 gas mask, I rarely put anything in my upper left pocket. (If the charcoal air filters on the M-17 got wet, they had to be replaced.) In my lower left pant pocket, I carried small and large colored panels to mark our position for Covey and tactical airstrikes.

In my lower right pocket were extra pen flares, a dehydrated Long-Range Reconnaissance Patrol Ration (LRP or LRRP, pronounced "LURP"), bug repellant to squirt on leeches, an extra cravat and a sterile bandage. I always carried Swiss rope, too. The 12-foot section of green-colored rope was used as a Swiss seat for extractions by helicopter. We would hook a D-ring through the seat's rope and onto 150-foot-long pieces of rope that hung from the chopper.

On all missions, I carried the PRC-25, our primary radio contact with the outside world. It took up the most space in my rucksack. Most times, I had the short, flexible antenna screwed into it, which I folded under my right arm and tucked into my jungle fatigue jacket. I did this because the NVA always searched for the radio operator, knowing he was the primary link to US airpower. I carried the long antenna, folded in sections, in my rucksack.

Other items included one can of C-Ration fresh fruit, either peaches or apricots; extra hand grenades; the remainder of my CAR-15 magazines; extra M-79 rounds, including one tear-gas round; an Army long-sleeved sweater; a thin, hooded, waist-length plastic rain jacket; and toilet paper. Both the sweater and rain jacket would be folded under the PRC-25 to buffer where it hit my back. I also carried an extra PRC-25 battery, an extra URC-10 battery, extra smoke grenades, an extra canteen of water if needed, and extra LURPs.

On a few occasions, especially when we ran targets in Cambodia, which was flatter and more wide open, I'd carry a Claymore mine and a few pre-cut fuses — five-second, 10-second, and longer-duration fuses — used to break contact with enemy troops chasing us. On several occasions I carried .22-caliber High Standard semi-automatic pistol with a suppressor for ambushes or to kill enemy tracker dogs. I also carried cough syrup for team interpreter Nguyen Cong Hiep or anyone who coughed at night, cans of black pepper and powdered mace for enemy tracker dogs, and a compact toothbrush.

There were some redundancies, such as bullets, bandages, and smoke grenades, carried in various locations on my body. Each could be crucial to surviving a firefight and successfully directing helicopter gunships, F-4 Phantom jets that delivered ordnance on target faster than the speed of sound, or the old deadly propeller-driven A-1 Skyraiders.

The emphasis was packing firepower for survival. I preferred to go hungry instead of running out of ammo. Comfort items were discarded in favor of carrying an extra grenade or a high-explosive M-79 round.

Why?

Because in the Prairie Fire AO, there were several times when we were in contact with NVA troops for two or three hours before making radio contact with Covey or any US aircraft. Then, depending on weather and the status of other teams in the field, there would be further delays in getting air assets on-scene, especially when the team was surrounded and there were no routes for escape and evasion. On most missions, I preferred six-man teams due to helicopter extraction considerations: height, altitude, weight, and weather conditions dictated how many men could board an extraction chopper.

The type of helicopter used for the extraction would either be the old H-34s to Hueys or on rare occasions, the Air Force's HH-3 Jolly Green Giant a larger and more powerful chopper. On very rare and unique missions, SOG recon and Hatchet Force teams would use the largest helicopter available: the CH-53 Sea Stallions based in Da Nang with the Marine Corps HMH-463 unit. Which one picked up the team, usually under heavy enemy gunfire, made a difference in regards to how many men it could carry. And, to the man, every aircrew SOG team member we worked with was fearless, always willing to put their lives on the line for SOG teams.

There were at least two missions where, upon ST Idaho getting extracted from the target, I was down to my last CAR-15 magazine, M-26 grenade, and M-79 round. The NVA were relentless and fearless.

We had an intimate knowledge of all the weapons we carried to the field. Not only did we know how they worked, but we could dismantle them and clean them at night — that was mandatory training, not optional. We fired thousands of rounds through our CAR-15s and M-79s during live-fire reaction drills and at static targets. Before we carried any new weapon or device into the field on a mission, we practiced using it for hours in order to gain familiarity with it and to see how it functioned under repeated use. We also trained on enemy weapons we'd encounter on missions: the AK-47, RPD, B-40 grenade launcher, and the older SKS rifle.

With ST Idaho, if the team wasn't on a mission, we were training on the range or doing local training patrols, which included both silent and live-fire reaction drills.

For wiretaps, ST Idaho Vietnamese team leader Nguyen Van Sau was the quickest team member to climb an NVA telephone pole or tree to install a wiretap. He trained several other men on the team, including Phouc, Hung, Quang, and Son. They had to climb the pole, install the wiretap, and cover the wire, leading from the telephone wire down to our cassette tape recorder, with mud or wood putty in order to hide it from passing enemy troops.

For Bright Light missions, we carried extra rounds, hand grenades, Claymore mines, bandages, medical supplies, and at least one machine gun. We carried one canteen of water, but no food. On a few missions, we carried anti-tank and anti-vehicular mines.

Before going to the field, Black or Shore would spend hours cross-training our Vietnamese team members to ensure they could install the devices as quickly as possible without detection by enemy troops while the remainder of the team provided security for them. On those missions we'd usually carry at least one M-72 Light Antitank Weapon (LAW), but only after the entire team had drilled on them for several days.

For POW snatches, ST Idaho spent hours practicing how to set up a jungle ambush. This entailed each team member quickly placing a Claymore mine in the kill zone and at our flanks, in addition to installing the pre-cut block of plastic explosive that would knock out an enemy soldier. The Claymore mine, officially designated the M-18A1 fragmentation antipersonnel mine, weighed 3.5 pounds and contained 1.5 pounds of plastic explosive, which propelled 700 steel balls in a deadly, killing arc that was dangerous out to 250 meters.

Throughout 1968, there were experimental weapons that S-4 shared with recon men for our assessment of their performance capabilities, such as the Gyrojet rocket pistol that fired a 13 mm round similar in gauge but longer than the standard .45 caliber round. There were many variations of silenced weapons such as the M-1 carbine, the old WWII Sten submachine gun, the 9 mm Karl Gustav Swedish K submachine gun, and the XM-21 sniper rifle.

We had various night-vision devices, the Starlight scope, and the experimental pump M-79 weapon. The Air Force and the CIA often came to us with experimental explosive devices, communications equipment, and various trail sensors. In the early '70s, the Air Force used the recon teams' experiences combating the NVA at night to design complicated enemy-targeting devices, some of which lead to technology that was used in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Sometimes team members were issued devices that were unknown to me. For example, in 2005, Doug LeTourneau told me about a team perimeter security device that he carried with him on all missions. It was a small box that held a small strand of nylon filament which he placed around the team's perimeter. He would place the listening device near his ear and if a person or an animal walked through the team's perimeter, it would sound a barely audible alert signal.

For a short period of time, Black used a seismic alert system made up of four probes, each emitting its own signal. He had a receiver in his breast pocket with an ear jack that allowed him to hear the warning signals from each probe. Unfortunately, if it was used in grassy areas, any wind moving the grass would set off the probes, falsely indicating the team was surrounded. Once we discovered this flaw in the system we scrapped it. Not all technology worked out.

LeTourneau also reminded me that he took "no-shit" pills before a mission, which prevented bowel movements. I didn't use them. Enough said on that topic.

SEE ALSO: Why US special-operations units still use old-school weapons

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• At the Ryan F. Larkin NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, a temporary medical center in New York City, former special-operations troops have stepped up to help doctors care for COVID-19 patients.
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Fred Wellman, a West Point graduate and retired public affairs officer, was at home in Richmond, Virginia, when he got a call from his friend Kate Kemplin, an assistant professor at the University of Windsor Faculty of Nursing in Ontario, Canada, who was driving to New York.

"She said, 'we're building a hospital, and we need your network in New York City,'" Wellman, who holds a masters in public administration from Harvard's Kennedy School, told We Are The Mighty.

Kemplin was referencing what would become the Ryan F. Larkin NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital at Columbia University's Baker Field, a temporary hospital created to care for COVID-19 patients.

"She needed someone to handle the administrative aspects — things like admin work, bed tracking systems, logistics, not a hospital person, but someone intimately familiar with processes," Wellman explained. "I was telling my girlfriend about all of this later on and she looked right at me and said, 'You know that's you, right?'"

Wellman, the founder and CEO of public relations and research firm ScoutComms, talked to his senior staff and family and called Kemplin back.

"It sounds like you need me," he told her.

Wellman drove to New York City, where he has been working for a week in his new role as chief of staff at the field hospital, where the staff is composed entirely of former military.

"We put the SOS out to the Special Forces community for medics, and said we need you in New York within a day or two," Wellman said. "We were able to bring in Special Forces medics as healthcare providers under doctor supervision. It's never been done in a stateside setting, to use former medics as providers. They're putting on PPE and taking care of patients. That's what's so revolutionary about this. These are former special operations community medics and healthcare workers who have come together on a week's notice. It's never been done. Using medics this way is unheard of."

On Tuesday, April 14, 2020, the Ryan F. Larkin NewYork-Presbyterian Field Hospital opened.

Melissa Givens, a retired Army colonel, serves as the hospital's medical director with over 20 years of experience in emergency and special operations medicine and disaster operation.

"We're able to let veterans do what they love to do and that's run at the sound of gunfire, and the gunfire is coronavirus. Here we come and we're here to help," Givens, who left her work as a practicing emergency physician in the Washington, DC, area to aid in NYC, said in an interview with Spectrum News NY1.

The temporary hospital, named after Navy SEAL medic Ryan Larkin who died in April 2017, has the capacity to treat 216 COVID-19 patients, as well as staff a 47-bed emergency department outpost.

"Many beds are being taken up at local hospitals by people who are recovering and we need those beds for sicker people," Wellman said. "Hospitals are using their waiting rooms, cafeterias, as bed space. We have treated a couple dozen patients [here], and that's growing quickly. Our hope is to get our system working really well and to get sicker patients into the proper hospitals where they belong."

Despite the enormous physical and mental strain of the work being done, Wellman admits that the military's ingrained sense of camaraderie has helped.

"We all understand the gravity of what we are doing and why we are here," he said. "[But] seeing the way all these veterans, from different branches of service, with different experiences, and completely different ranks, just fell right into a unit from day one."

Speaking through a mask as the interview ended and Wellman headed back inside the bubble, he likened his experience to his former life as an executive military officer.

"I went to Iraq three times and Desert Storm before that. That first deployment, you didn't know what to expect; it's planned, you know what you're going to do, but once you cross that border, all bets are off. Yeah, we have systems and processes, but this virus gets to vote, too."

SEE ALSO: 5 tips to prevent bringing germs home from work

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• US Army Green Berets develop unique skill sets while in uniform and take those abilities with them when they leave the service.
• Some of them use those capabilities to take on missions that the Army would never send them on.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The green beret-wearing experts at Army Special Forces are an enterprising bunch, even after they leave the military. In December 2019, prosecutors allege a former special operations soldier and an accomplice helped ousted ex-Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn escape from Japan.

But that almost 60-year-old Army veteran isn't an anomaly. He's not even unique to the past few months. Another ex-Special Forces operator was captured allegedly trying to oust Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro in a "popular uprising" early in 2020.

That's just what Green Berets do. Of course, they usually have the backing of the US government. Even when they don't have any backing, former Special Forces troops can be a formidable adversary, doing a lot with just a little bit.

By the nature of their work, they need to be a truly formidable opponent. It takes a lot of time, effort and (often) money to get people in a country to overthrow their own government.

Even as civilians, Army operators are more than capable of offering their unique skills set to some interesting missions — some the service would never have considered.

SEE ALSO: Special Operations Command wants a new sniper rifle with a new round for long-range shots

1. Billionaires hire the best.

Electronic Data Systems, a US company, was hired by the Shah of Iran to create a new healthcare and communications infrastructure for the country.

When the Shah was overthrown, American EDS employees were caught in the middle. All but two EDS employees got out. Those two were jailed in Tehran's Qasr Prison, and their captors demanded a $12.75 million ransom.

Unluckily for the revolutionaries holding the EDS employees, it wasn't US President Jimmy Carter they had to answer to. It was Texas billionaire H. Ross Perot. And Perot decided to put his money elsewhere. He hired former Army Special Forces officer Arthur "Bull" Simons — leader of the Son Tay raid in Vietnam just a few years prior — to extract them.

Simons launched Operation Hotfoot, which began with EDS employees starting a riot outside of the prison. Simons and combat-trained EDS employees then stormed the prison, freeing the two executives, and then drove to Turkey, where Perot was waiting for them.

2. Ending an armed anti-government standoff.

In 1992, the US Marshals Service and FBI were locked in an 11-day siege after a shootout between the family of Randy Weaver and the marshals resulted in deaths on both sides in Ruby Ridge, Idaho.

Weaver's wife, Vicki, was killed by an FBI sniper. Through a series of bungled criminal profiles and intelligence reports, law enforcement thought Weaver's property was booby-trapped and heavily defended — and that the Weavers were heavily armed.

The government called in former Special Forces officer Col. Bo Gritz to negotiate Weaver's surrender to authorities. Gritz entered the Weaver compound at around 7 p.m. on Friday, August 28, 1992.

The entire family surrendered by mid-morning on the following Monday. Weaver was acquitted on all charges, represented by the legendary defense attorney Gerry Spence.

3. Running a drug-smuggling front. (Maybe for the CIA.)

The Nugan-Hand Bank was a Sydney, Australia-based merchant bank that was founded in 1973 by Australian lawyer Frank Nugen and former US Army Special Forces soldier Michael Hand.

The bank had ties to a number of known CIA operatives, some of whom were involved in the Iran-Contra Scandal of the mid-1980s. Money flowing through the Nugan-Hand Bank was supposedly there to destabilize the Australian government, pay for Laotian mercenaries and maybe even the Contras themselves.

Although nothing was ever proven, authorities allege the bank funneled money for covert operations while bankrolling the sale of billions of dollars worth of heroin through the Pacific "Golden Triangle."

Nugan would later commit suicide, forcing many involved with the bank (including Hand) to go underground for the rest of their lives.

4. Bo Gritz is determined to rescue Vietnam POWs.

Yes, this is the same Gritz who helped end the siege at Ruby Ridge more than a decade later. In the early 1980s, the specter of the Vietnam War still hung over the United States.

Many in America were convinced there were still POW-MIA being held by the Vietnamese. One of these believers was Bo Gritz.

He led several controversial missions into Laos and Cambodia, believing Americans held by their erstwhile enemy were being kept alive in jungle prisons as a bargaining chip to get more American aid.

All of Gritz' missions came up empty-handed, and some questioned the wisdom of the moves. A top-secret American expedition was already being planned in the early 1980s, but Gritz was captured and put on trial in Thailand, shining too much light on the former prisoner of war situation (according to some former Special Forces members).

With the world watching, the US could not go through with such a raid. The POWs — if they were ever there — were lost to history.

— Blake Stilwell can be reached at blake.stilwell@military.com. He can also be found on Twitter @blakestilwell or on Facebook.

• Sgt. 1st Class Joshua David, a Green Beret, gets paid by the US Army to play video games.
• David and the Army's other esports players stream for roughly five hours a day, but still maintain the service's military standards.
• Here's what his day looks like and how recruits can also become a member of the Army's esports league.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

US Army Sgt. 1st Class Joshua David, a Green Beret, can speak two dialects of Arabic and handle a Special Forces attack dog.

But David isn't conducting close-quarters combat training for the Army at his regular job — he could instead be found playing video games, for hours on end, as a member of the Army's esports team.

David, an active-duty soldier, is getting paid by the federal government to play video games.

The 30-year-old Oklahoma native started off playing video games during the Nintendo-64 era with titles like "Perfect Dark" and "GoldenEye," and eventually made his way to the Halo series following the launch of the Xbox.

"When Xbox came out with 'Halo: Combat Evolved', I pretty much became obsessed," David said. "When 'Halo 2' came out, I chased that."

The third title of the Halo series eventually tempered his expectations and set him on the path to public service.

"When 'Halo 3' came out, that's when I figured I wasn't going to be good at the 'Halo' series anymore," David said. "And that's right around when I joined the Army. They may be linked."

"There's probably a good relation there," David joked. "That might be why I'm not good in school, because I was playing too much Halo."

With his academic prospects dimmed, David, who "didn't know anything about the military," joined the Army as an infantryman in 2008.

"I didn't even know what a Ranger was," he said, referring to the title earned by completing one of the Army's light infantry training schools. "It got offered to me in Basic Training and I said, 'Sure.'"

After a few years in a Ranger regiment and two deployments to Afghanistan, David tried out for the Army's Special Forces selection process and then made his way to the 5th Special Forces Group. Four deployments later, he volunteered to become part of the Army's newest initiative with the esports community and began streaming video games on a full-time basis.

Much like the difficulty in the Special Forces selection process, the Army had to filter through thousands of applicants for their esports team — about 6,500 in total.

Not all of his colleagues in the Special Forces community were on board with his career move while others cast friendly shade: "He was doing the 'Call of Duty' thing in real life and now he's doing it in a video game," David recalled.

"When I got offered to do it full-time ... it was probably about 70-30 in favor of what I was doing," David said. "Guys my age and younger really are open and they understand what was going on."

"Some of the older guys weren't that happy," he added. "You know, they don't really understand how many people actually play videos games and watch it. But once you start showing them statistics, they really start to open up."

Esports and game streaming has exploded in recent years. Business Insider Intelligence estimates esports viewership to increase at a 9% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) from 2019 to 2023 — from 454 million to 646 million — nearly doubling the audience from 2017.

A separate study from the Activate consulting firm indicates that the number of American esports viewers will exceed the audience from every other US-based professional sports league, except the NFL, by next year.

David's transition from using real weapons to firing them in-game wasn't all too difficult and he says there wasn't an overlap with his military training. But there were other social barriers he needed to overcome in order to fit in with his new community.

"For me, being a little older than what most people ... by 8-10 years, I'd say the hardest thing for me is that I had to learn the terminology," David said. "There's so many words people use these days that I have no idea what they're saying."

'Nerdy soldiers'

David's day starts out just like any other active-duty soldier in the Army: physical training (PT) in the morning and a day out of the week for administrative tasks.

"Just like a normal unit, we have PT every morning, usually around 6:30; and then go eat breakfast; shower; get in your uniform," David said. "We're usually back to work by 9:00. Basically from there, we're either practicing our game and creating content for YouTube or whatever social media platform."

The esports league is part of the Army's broader Marketing and Engagement Brigade based in Fort Knox, Kentucky, where other military marketing teams are also stationed, such as the Golden Knights parachuting team.

"So the cool thing about the esports team is that we're right next door to the Army Crossfit and Strongman Team — so we get that unique opportunity [for] them kind of designating a workout for us," David said. "So now we have all these, you know, 'nerdy soldiers' because of how much video games they play."

David and the Army's other esports players stream to the public for roughly five hours a day, and then select highlights for upload on platforms like Twitch.

"When you're gaming ... it's really hard to get off that and then go sit back and try to clip stuff and create content if you want to do multiple platforms," he said. "There's really not enough time in the day to do everything, so you have to try and micromanage that time."

'I want to enlist as a gamer'

As a community outreach program and a recruiting tool, David and other members of the Army's esports league are bombarded with questions from potential recruits. Through their conversations, the esports team realized there have been misconceptions about what they do and how to become a member.

"I'd say the biggest misconception about our program is that you cannot join the Army to be a 'video game player,'" David said. "It's not a job in the Army where you can just come off the street and say, 'Hey, I want to enlist as a gamer. Let's do that.'"

"You're still an infantryman, you're still a medic, you're still something," David added. "You can try out as an extracurricular activity, and maybe make the E-sports team."

Because the Army and every other military branch does not offer it as an occupational specialty, recruits are not able to join the esports league at the beginning of their military careers. Once they become a soldier, they can apply to become a member on an extracurricular basis, and then, hopefully, transition into becoming a full-time streamer or competitive gamer on the team.

"It's almost daily — the younger guys, 16-17, they're like, 'I want to do what you're doing,'" David said. "But then they kind of want to do everything that I'm doing and they don't want to put in a lot of work. To even be a Green Beret, it's two years of school."

"But I actually get a lot of interest on this," David added. "Guys actually talk to me about wanting to game, and ... maybe they want to try out for Special Forces or want to be a Ranger."

Soldiers with the esports league are also required to abide by certain rules, such as not being able to solicit subscriptions from the Army's official Twitch account and keeping their profanity down to a minimum.

"The last 12 years of my life I had quite a mouth on me," David said. "When we're streaming to the Army channels, we definitely try to be family friendly because you never know who's going come in and watch you."

"We're usually very good about our language," David added. "I mean, every now and then we'll slip up, followed by a quick apology, Especially if we're in the heat of the moment in a 'Call of Duty' match, sometimes we do slip up."

Once a soldier becomes a member of the esports team, they are assigned that role for the next three years. Soldiers must maintain the Army's requirements, including keeping up with its physical standards.

"If you're in any kind of negative standing in the military, or if you can't pass your PT test, you're not even eligible to try out," David said. "Soldier first, gamer second."

"You just got to remember: Yeah you're a gamer, but at the same time you're a soldier representing the United States Army," David added. "A lot of gamers these days are pretty toxic, especially in the "Call of Duty" world. You might be best player ... but if you can't portray the Army in a positive light, there's nothing we can really do with you."

SEE ALSO: Navy SEAL who oversaw the Osama bin Laden raid says 'Batman and Superman are not coming' in a speech advising college graduates to become their own heroes

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• A National Guard soldier is about to graduate the Army's Special Forces Qualification Course, becoming the first woman to earn the Green Beret.
• Woman have made inroads with US special-operations units, but the culture within those units is still adapting to their arrival.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

A female National Guard soldier is set to graduate and don the coveted Green Beret at the end of the month. SOFREP has learned that she passed Robin Sage, a unique Unconventional Warfare exercise and the culminating event in the Special Forces Qualification Course (SFQC), earlier this week.

This marks a significant milestone for women across the force. She will be the first woman to have successfully completed a Special Operations pipeline and join and an operational team since President Obama opened all jobs within the military to women.

The graduation at the end of the month definitely will not be typical. Because of this historic milestone, graduation will be held in a closed hangar to conceal her identity. A Special Forces Engineer Sergeant (18C) with the 3rd Battalion, 20th Special Forces Group, the female soldier has big hopes of going active duty. However, her warm welcome may not be as welcome as she may like.

Just over 5 feet, her walking into a Special Operational Detachment Alpha (ODA) team room will not be high fives and handshakes. Culture takes time to adapt to change. There are plenty of older generations still within the Regiment that believe there's no place for a woman on a team.

However, when talking to newer graduates, they accept it, if she can pass the same standards. So did the new graduate pass with the same standards? All reports indicate yes. She did, however, have her fair of challenges, recycling at least one phase.

For personal security reasons, SOFREP is withholding her identity.

While this is an incredible feat, she won't be the first. Capt. Kathleen Wilder became the first woman to be eligible for the Army's Special Forces in the 1980s. (The selection was somewhat different back then.)

Capt. Wilder attended the Officers Special Forces Course at Fort Bragg but was told just before graduation that she had failed a field exercise and could not be a candidate for the military's premier Unconventional Warfare unit. She filed a complaint of gender discrimination. Brig. Gen. F. Cecil Adams, who investigated it, determined that she had been wrongly denied graduation. No reports were found on whether or not she ever graduated.

Additionally, in the 1970s, Specialist Katie McBrayer, an intelligence analyst, had served with Blue Light, a Special Forces counterterrorism element before the creation of Delta Force, in an operational role. She hadn't graduated the Q Course, however.

Delta Force and other units Tier 1 units have been recruiting women for a variety of roles for decades. So what took the SF Regiment so long? Well for one, combat fields were previously closed to females. However at Group, since 2016, women have been working at the Battalion level.

So to walk around Battalion these days and see women is now a very normal thing. And these roles could be right beside the operators while deployed as mechanics, SOT-As, intel, and now as actual operators themselves. So watch out Fort Bragg, you soon may see this woman wearing a long tab.

SEE ALSO: 10 tips to survive Navy SEAL training's 'Hell Week'

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NOW WATCH: These are the favorite weapons of the Army Special Operations Forces

• A 45-year-old former US Army Green Beret was arrested on Friday and charged with conspiring with Russia's military intelligence service, the GRU, for 15 years, according the Justice Department.
• Peter Rafael Dzibinski Debbins of Gainesville, Virginia, is accused of giving Russian spies secrets about his US Army commands and even the names of other special forces troops to try to recruit them.
• In 1997, he met with Russian officials on a military base and was given the code name "Ikar Lesnikov," according to his indictment.
• He made several statements and signed missives that mentioned he wanted to "serve Russia" and that he was a "son of Russia."
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

A 45-year-old former US Army Green Beret was arrested on Friday and charged with conspiring with Russia's military intelligence service, the GRU, for 15 years, according a Justice Department statement.

Peter Rafael Dzibinski Debbins of Gainesville, Virginia, is accused of conspiring with Russian agents between 1996 and 2011, according to the US Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia.

Debbins rose to the rank of captain and was eventually honorably discharged from the military in 2008.

Debbins is accused of "giving Russian intelligence officers sensitive information about the units in which he once served and also providing the names of other service members so Russia could try to recruit them," FBI Assistant Director of the Counterintelligence Division Alan Kohler, Jr., said in a statement.

"The facts alleged in this case are a shocking betrayal by a former Army officer of his fellow soldiers and his country," Kohler said.

Debbins's indictment accused him of providing Russian agents with information on the units he served in, including his activities and the names of other Green Berets so that the Russian agents "could evaluate whether to approach the team members to see if they would cooperate with the Russian intelligence service."

In 1997, he met with Russian officials on a military base and was given the code name "Ikar Lesnikov," the indictment said. He made several statements and signed missives that mentioned he wanted to "serve Russia" and that he was a "son of Russia."

He faces a maximum penalty of life in prison if convicted on charges of conspiring to provide US defense information to a foreign government agent.

Debbins attended the Institute of World Politics (IWP), a non-profit graduate school that specializes in foreign relations, and obtained a master's degree in Strategic and International Studies. According to an interview he had with the IWP in 2018, Debbins is fluent in Russian and traveled to the country every summer.

Debbins also described NATO, a thorn to Russia's foreign policy, as "indispensable to US national security" and a "force for stability in Europe," but added that there were issues related to resources within the organization.

"Our NATO allies in Europe and North America are carrying out an enormous responsibility with a very small military force," Debbins told IWP. "Never in human history has such a vast amount of resources and people been defended with such a small allocation of resources."

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"People are more important than hardware."

This is one of the five special-operations truths. It's not the gear that makes an operator special— it's their mentality, training, and personality traits.

That being said, special operators field some state-of-the-art weapons that allow them to dominate any battlefield scenario they might encounter.

Rifles

US Special Operations Command's standard-issued rifle is the M4A1 with the SOPMOD II upgrade, which adds a variety of accessories to the rifle, such as rails, lasers, scopes, magnifiers, and grips. Many special operators, however, are free to customize their rifle as they see fit.

The MK18 variant is also commonly seen in special-operations armories. This shorter version of the M4 was designed for close-quarters fighting and is extremely reliable.

Additionally, the HK416 is a favorite of Delta Force and the Naval Special Warfare Development Group (DEVGRU), also known as SEAL Team 6. The weapon is designed around the AR-15 platform but with some significant changes. It was a special collaboration between Delta Force and Heckler & Koch and was also used by the SEALs who killed Osama bin Laden.

American commandos, especially the SEAL Teams and Rangers, briefly fielded the FN SCAR because of long-range engagements in Afghanistan.

The SCAR, which was specifically designed for special-operations units, promised one platform for all jobs since operators could change barrels according to the situation. But the weapon never really became popular because of its inefficient design and tendency to malfunction.

Machine guns

The machine guns of choice for US special-operations units are the MK46 and MK48.

The former is chambered with the 5.56 mm round and offers a lighter and more portable option, whereas the latter, firing the 7.62 mm round, is heavier but packs more punch. Both weapons are reliable and have trickled down to conventional units because of their effectiveness.

Given their small numbers, special-operations units rely heavily on firepower to overcome a usually numerically superior enemy. Firepower that is disproportionate to their numbers makes special operators exceptionally lethal and effective on the battlefield. Firepower superiority gives special-operations units a short and local advantage that often translates to victory.

For example, a Navy SEAL platoon of 16 men might carry upward of six machine guns depending on the mission. Compare that to a Marine weapons platoon of 48 Marines that packs six machine guns and the difference in firepower is evident. During the Vietnam War, SEAL platoons would often go out in the jungle to fight the Vietcong with 10 machine guns.

Close-quarters battle

Often, special operators will find themselves in a Close Quarters Battle (CQB) setting. Room-to-room combat is both an art and a science that requires years of practice to master. It's mainly their top-notch CQB skills that distinguish Delta Force and SEAL Team 6 from the rest of America's special-operations units.

"When one does CQB, one must remember that it is often not necessarily based on short distances," Eli Fieldboy, a former Israeli special-operations soldier who now teaches CQB, told Insider. "One second you could be clearing a 4-by-4-meter office room, and seconds later you can find yourself in a 50-meter long hallway, a long street, or in need to shoot from a window to the outside of a building."

In the early years of CQB and the Global War on Terror (GWOT), it was quite common for units to have a different weapon platform for each mission. The SEAL Teams, for instance, used the MP5 when clearing the claustrophobic rooms in ships but the CAR-15 and M4 for direct action missions in other environments.

Although that encouraged adaptability, it came at the cost of consistency. It's better to train with the same platform for all scenarios.

Fieldboy, CEO of Project Gecko, a CQB and tactical training company, prefers the SIG Sauer MCX Low Visibility Assault Weapon (LVAW), which is also used by Delta Force and numerous other international law-enforcement and military special-operations units.

"I think the SIG Sauer MCX LVAW offers a pretty solid and versatile functionality," Fieldboy explained. "Chambered with the 5.56 round, compact, and short with a 6.5-inch barrel, the weapon offers an all-around, comfortable package that's not only very mobile and easy to pack or carry but also still relevant for a variety of distances up to 200 meters." 

Ready for anything

In addition to rifles and machine guns, during a mission commandos will carry an assortment of other equipment, such as breaching materials, night-vision goggles, anti-tank missiles, grenade launchers, vests, first aid kits, knives, watches, GPS devices, helmets, belts, slings — you name it.

Breachers, in particular, pack an assortment of gear depending on the target and its potential defenses, from simple door charges to blast off doors to shotguns to hooligan tools to chainsaws to blowtorches.

In the 1990s, when Delta Force was tasked with countering nuclear proliferation, it set up a heavy breaching unit with members who were trained and equipped to tackle hardened bunkers and vaults that might contain nuclear weapons.

Although loadouts vary per unit, team, and individual, this is what a Delta Force five-man team might carry for a direct action mission: HK416 rifles with a total of 1,500 rounds, Glock 17 or 21 or M1911 pistols with 425 to 500 rounds, a MK46 or 48 machine gun with 800 to 1,000 rounds, flash-bang and fragmentation grenades, and perhaps even a grenade launcher.

Quite a punch indeed.

SEE ALSO: Meet the Army's 'Night Stalkers,' the special-operations pilots who can fly anything anywhere in the world

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NOW WATCH: GREEN BERET: This is how we're different from US Navy SEALs

In May, reports surfaced of a supposed failed coup against the Venezuelan government. Headlines called the event "Bay of Piglets," or "Keystone Coup," and footage released by the Venezuelan government seemed to back up the nicknames.  

The footage showed a ragtag group of men who appear to be under-prepared; a few of the men were shirtless and had their passports on them. According to President Nicolás Maduro, eight people were killed and dozens more were captured. Among the captured men were two American former Green Berets.

But the footage, as well as circumstances leading up to the event, created a few red flags. 

Business Insider spoke with the brother of captured American Luke Denman, the U.S. State Department, and Juan José Rendón, a former advisor to Venezuela opposition leader Juan Guaidó, to understand what aspects of this complex story are rooted in fact, and what aspects may have been constructed by the Venezuelan government.

Following is a transcript of the video.

Narrator: In May, this Venezuela State TV footage made headlines around the world. Venezuelan security rounding up a ragtag group of men in a village on the country's northern coast. Some of the captured men were wearing no shoes or shirts at all.

Interrogator: What's your name?

Luke Denman: Luke Alexander Denman.

Narrator: Two of the men captured were Americans, ex-US Army Green Berets. And Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro said dozens more were captured and eight men killed.

Nicolás Maduro: They have been detained, surrendered, and submitted by the law of Venezuela.

Narrator: Maduro said the men planned to enter Venezuela on its northern coast and make their way to Caracas, where they would attempt to kidnap him. Many reports about the footage characterized it as the aftermath of an attempted but failed coup against the current Venezuelan government. But the US State Department called this footage "propaganda." In a statement to Business Insider, a spokesperson called it "scripted, coordinated, and staged by the illegitimate Maduro regime."

Mark Denman: Something had gone terribly wrong.

Narrator: Business Insider spoke to Luke Denman's brother, Mark, along with the US State Department and other key figures to try and understand what happened in May and what happens next.

Jordan Goudreau: At 1700 hours, a daring amphibious raid was launched from the border of Colombia deep into the heart of Caracas.

Narrator: This is the man behind the mission. Jordan Goudreau, also a former US Green Beret and founder of a private-security firm called Silvercorp USA. Goudreau reportedly planned the mission, known as Operation Gideon, that led to the two Americans being captured. But his whereabouts are currently unknown.

Goudreau: We manage risk. Anywhere, anytime, any situation.

Narrator: In this promotional video from Silvercorp's Instagram, Goudreau is presented as an athletic, adventurous, very patriotic soldier for hire. Born in Canada, Goudreau eventually became a US citizen and joined the Army Special Forces. He served for about 15 years, and during that time, he met Luke Denman and Airan Berry.

Denman: He was their, from what I understand, their superior officer, and heavily respected guy that had a lot more time in than they did.

Narrator: After his service, Goudreau founded Silvercorp USA in 2018. In February 2019, Goudreau was reportedly hired to work security at a concert event on the border of Venezuela and Colombia. He posted this video to Silvercorp's Instagram account with the caption: "Venezuela Aid Live. Controlling chaos on the Venezuela border where a dictator looks on with apprehension." The dictator in question seems to be Maduro.

Mike Pompeo: We're here to urge all nations to support the democratic aspirations of the Venezuelan people as they try to free themselves from former President Maduro's illegitimate mafia state.

Narrator: Opposition parties in Venezuela have long claimed that Maduro's 2018 presidential election did not meet international democratic standards. Which is where Juan Guaidó's name comes in.

Pompeo: The time is now to support the Venezuelan people, to recognize the new democratic government led by interim president Guaidó, and end this nightmare.

Narrator: Guaidó, the president of the National Assembly, claimed the title of interim leader in January 2019. And political bodies including the European Union, the Lima Group, and the US government recognize the 37-year-old opposition leader as the legitimate president of Venezuela. And Guaidó's team was looking for ways to get Maduro out.

Juan Rendón: So, President Guaidó said, "OK, everything's over the table. And under the table, too."

Narrator: Juan José Rendón, otherwise known as JJ Rendón, worked as an advisor to Juan Guaidó.

Rendón: So when they say that, and they say, "OK, explore everything," we explore different scenarios of use of force.

Narrator: Jordan Goudreau was working on one such scenario of his own. A few months after posting this video, Goudreau traveled to Bogotá, where he met Clíver Alcalá, a former Venezuelan Army general.

Juan Cruz: This is a person who was one of the generals close to Chávez when Chávez was president.

Narrator: This is Juan Cruz, a former member of the National Security Council who served as a special assistant to President Trump.

Cruz: When Maduro comes on the scene, there's a falling-out. That wasn't uncommon. He was one of the individuals that was too often associated with saying out loud that he wanted to displace or overthrow Maduro.

Narrator: The Associated Press reported that Alcalá said he had a training camp with a few dozen men in Colombia. And Goudreau said Silvercorp could train them. So he sought the backing of Guaidó's government, which led him to JJ Rendón.

Rendón: With Jordan, he asked to have a moment to pitch his company. He said that he was in contact with the Venezuelans in Colombia. And they were in touch, and they were planning something.

Narrator: Rendón said Goudreau told him the cost of the mission itself would be covered by a secret group of backers and that upon completion, he wanted a payment of $212 million.

Rendón: He said that he has this plan and that he has his people and that he has backers. Interesting.

"Who are they?"

"Oh, I cannot reveal to you."

OK. But if you have big backers with a big army ready to go, we wanna know about it. And we want that to be aligned, or at least under the supervision of our government.

Narrator: That's when Rendón began to grow suspicious.

Rendón: Those were enough red flags to back off. So we sit and say, "Look, my friend, we are not moving with that."

Narrator: Rendón said he and Guaidó's government cut all ties with Goudreau, paying him only $50,000 for any expenses and to wash their hands clean.

Rendón: It was like, let's get out of this.

"Oh, my expenses."

"OK, there you go. How much you spent?"

"$43,500."

"OK. In case you've missed something, I will give you $50,000."

Narrator: But preparations at the camp in Colombia continued with the help of the two former Green Berets. Here's Luke Denman's older brother, Mark.

Denman: Luke's saying this is a US-government-backed operation, back in February the 2nd.

Narrator: We interviewed Mark via Skype on June 15.

Denman: What he told me, he was training Venezuelans in Colombia and had no intention of going to Venezuela at all.

Narrator: But obviously that's not what happened.

Goudreau: At 1700 hours, a daring amphibious raid was launched.

Narrator: The same day Goudreau posted this video announcing the mission had launched, the Venezuelan government released its footage of an operation that had seemingly been thwarted by Maduro's security team.

Officer:: In the group are two Americans, two gringos?

Man: They are detained.

Officer: Where do they work? What do they do?

Man: They are intermediaries. They are from the security chiefs of the president of the United States.

Venezuelan officer: From Trump!

Man: Yes.

Narrator: The global media covered the story like something out of a Hollywood movie. Headlines like "Bay of Piglets" and "Keystone Coup" portrayed the captured Americans as wannabe heroes who led a botched operation that one writer described as something out of "a bad Rambo movie." But according to Luke Denman's brother, Mark, what you can see in the footage raised red flags.

Denman: I mean, the guy was arrested in shorts and a T-shirt with his passport and driver's license on him. And I know that people like to have a lot of fun with that, but if you can kinda look at this realistically, all of these guys are guys that have gone on many combat missions with combat loads and combat gear. I don't think that he suddenly thought that going into combat in shorts, T-shirt, no shoes, with his passport on him and no weapon was a good idea. It doesn't really add up.

Guaidó: We will not need foreign mercenaries.

Narrator: In a statement, Guaidó denied any involvement and said the operation was "infiltrated and financed" by the Maduro administration. And a key event that occurred over a month before supports the idea that Operation Gideon was in fact infiltrated.

Guaidó: No one believes your lies.

William Tarek Saab: A criminal investigation has been opened by the Public Ministry against Guaidó, Alcalá, and others involved in this attempted coup.

Narrator: On March 23, more than a month before the capture, Venezuela's government announced that $500,000 worth of weapons were seized en route to a training camp in Riohacha, Colombia. During this press conference, the minister of communication and information also identified the three Americans involved in the camp. This means the Venezuelan government was not only aware of a plot to oust Maduro, but it also knew exactly who was involved. US prosecutors then indicted Clíver Alcalá on drug-trafficking charges, and he turned himself in to US authorities.

Cruz: Things started to collapse a little. When he's removed from the scene, you and I probably would have taken a step back and reevaluated what we had and planned for another, for plan B or plan C. In this case, it appears that Goudreau and others that were still associated with it decided that they were gonna move forward.

Narrator: One reason the operation continued to move forward may have been the $15 million reward offered by the US government for information leading to Maduro's arrest. And so, without Guaidó's support, without Alcalá, and with the Maduro administration well aware of the plan, Goudreau's team continued forward. Only to be captured.

Cruz: There are probably three possibilities, and I would say probably all three come into play. One is bad operational security, known as OPSEC. People probably writing emails and having phone conversations and calling back home. Second is deliberate infiltrations or penetrations, where you, ahead of time, move somebody to appear to be part of the group who in reality was sent there by the bad guys to keep a finger on the pulse. Lastly, there are those that might be victimized in this. You can certainly imagine where there would be one of these guys, and somebody on the other end in Venezuela sends him a picture of his grandmother with a 9-millimeter in her mouth. And these guys say, "Hey, you either tell us what you're up to, or else."

Narrator: It's unclear when and where these men were intercepted by Venezuelan security forces and at what stage of planning they were at.

Cruz: Clearly, the point is that what these guys were doing was known to elements of the regime.

Narrator: One thing that's certain: Goudreau was not with Berry and Denman when they were captured. And meanwhile, Venezuelan State TV released footage of the two Americans...

Interrogator: What were the objectives of the mission?

Narrator: Giving what the government called confessions.

Denman: The only instructions that I received from Jordan was to ensure that we took control of an airport for a safe passage for Maduro.

Mark Denman: What we're calling a confession video, I mean, we're acting like this is somebody that was read their Miranda rights. I don't think those confession videos are their own words. They're kind of being prompted, they're heavily edited. Being held in some unknown environment and reading off a script essentially on what it is they're confessing to.

Luke Denman: My responsibilities to Silvercorp are written in a contract.

Narrator: The so-called confession videos released by Maduro's government also feature a document with Guaidó's name on it.

Berry: Signed by Juan Guaidó, Jordan Goudreau, and Juan Rendón.

Narrator: But Rendón maintains that he only signed an exploratory agreement and questions the validity of Guaidó's signature on the document shown.

Interrogator: Who commands Jordan?

Denman: President Donald Trump.

Mark Denman: From what he understood, this was a US-government-backed operation. His very trusted friend brought him in on it. It was for a cause he believed in.

Narrator: Although Luke Denman may have believed the mission had the support of the US government, the State Department flatly denies it.

Pompeo: There was no US government direct involvement in this operation. If we'd have been involved, it would've gone differently.

Narrator: Trump also disavowed any US involvement in the plot.

Trump: We just heard about it. But whatever it is, we'll let you know. But it has nothing to do with our government.

Narrator: Amid all of this, Mark Denman says it has become almost impossible to hire legal support for his brother since the United States doesn't recognize Maduro's government as legitimate.

Denman: I'm supposed to work through the legal process. However, because of the situation in Venezuela, there is no legal process to work through. So that's the catch-22 of it. That process doesn't exist, and how are they lawfully detained by a government you don't recognize?

Interrogator: Why did you train irregular groups as special forces to invade Venezuela? 

Denman: I believed that it was helping their cause.

Mark Denman: Luke is a strong guy. He's mentally strong; he's physically strong. He's been through training for exactly this kind of thing. And we're confident that he can handle what he's going through, and we're doing everything we can to get him back.

Narrator: This interview was recorded on June 15. On August 8, his brother Luke and Airan Berry were sentenced to 20 years in prison. In a statement to Business Insider, the US State Department said: In the meantime, Alcalá remains in US custody and is reportedly cooperating with authorities. A federal investigation is looking into Goudreau on suspicion of arms trafficking, and Goudreau is also wanted in Colombia. He did not respond to Business Insider's requests for comment. [men shouting] And on September 3, Colombian authorities announced the arrest of four Venezuelan nationals on allegations they conspired to plan the operation, with President Iván Duque noting the allegations that Maduro financed it. If that's true, these events in May on the Venezuelan coast could have been orchestrated by Maduro's regime, building a narrative that tightens his grip on Venezuela. And Denman and Berry may have just been pawns in all of it.

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Special Forces snipers from a handful of NATO countries recently practiced taking tough, high-angle shots in what appears to be the Austrian Alps, and some of the scenes captured in the training photos are pretty stunning.

For two weeks, from late September into October, snipers from Belgium, Italy, Germany, and the Netherlands, among other countries, trained to fight in the mountains at the International Specialty Training Center High Angle Sniper Course in the Hochfilzen training area in Austria.

Here's what it looked like:

The purpose of the high-angle shooting training is to prepare snipers for mountain combat, situations that demand more of snipers than traditional shooting ranges.

"High-angle shooting is when you shoot further than 300 meters at angles greater than 15 degrees," a Norwegian Army Land Warfare Centre sniper instructor explained during a previous iteration of the training.

Source: US Special Operations Command Europe

High-angle shots require more calculation and adjustment than shots on a flat shooting range, John Wayne Walding, a former Green Beret who became a Special Forces sniper instructor after losing his leg in Afghanistan, told Insider.

Read more:This Green Beret had his leg shot off on a 'cursed' mission, but that didn't stop him from becoming an elite sniper

If the target is at a different elevation than the shooter, the angled line of sight distance to the target is greater than the horizontal distance along which gravity will affect the bullet's trajectory, meaning the sniper has to do a little trigonometry and adjust before pulling the trigger.

The sniper has to take the cosine of the angle of deviation and multiply it by the line of sight distance to the target to determine the distance along the horizontal axis and adjust for bullet drop accordingly.

Walding told Insider that at smaller angles and shorter distances the need for adjustment is insignificant, explaining that the shot might only be off by a few inches without adjustment. "It has to be really steep or really far to make a difference," he said.

In addition to the extra calculations, Walding said that what makes high-angle shots tough are the uncomfortable shooting positions required to actually take many of them.

"Shooting flat, you can lay on your belly and not have to worry about stability problems, but for the high-angle shots, you'll very rarely shoot from the prone," Walding said. "Alternate marksmanship positions really come into play on those high-angle shots."

Then, of course, there are all of the various other considerations, such as wind adjustment, that a sniper has to put into each shot.

Read more: This Marine Corps sniper put a bullet in a target nearly 8,000 feet away — here's how he took one of the toughest shots of his life

During the Vietnam War, the US military had a covert special-operations unit that conducted cross-border operations in Cambodia, Laos, and North Vietnam.

Composed of Army Special Forces operators, Navy SEALs, and Air Commandos, and other personnel, the Military Assistance Command Vietnam-Studies and Observations Group (MACV-SOG) took the fight to the enemy without hesitation.

SOG teams were primarily tasked with strategic reconnaissance deep behind enemy lines and would often end up fighting against overwhelming superior enemy forces. The unit's 100% casualty rate meant a SOG assignment came with a body bag or a Purple Heart, sometimes multiple ones.

Complicating matters, the US adamantly denied its troops operated outside South Vietnam. Accordingly, SOG operators wore sterilized uniforms and carried weapons without serial numbers — for all intents and purposes, they weren't Americans when they crossed the border.

Where is the NVA?

As Americans at home sat down for Thanksgiving dinner in 1968, John Stryker Meyer and his team of operators, ST Idaho, were called in to solve a deadly puzzle.

Army intelligence and the CIA had lost track of the 1st, 3rd, and 7th North Vietnamese Army divisions, totaling 30,000 troops, somewhere on the South Vietnam-Cambodia border.

US intelligence estimated that more than 100,000 NVA troops were in Cambodia, and SOG headquarters was worried that the missing NVA were preparing to launch another attack on Saigon or overrun one of the Special Forces A camps in the area.

The NVA had recently attacked several A camps, and the Tet Offensive in January that year had caught American forces off-guard across South Vietnam.

It fell on Meyer and his team to locate the missing NVA, and if they got the opportunity, to snatch an enemy soldier alive.

ST Idaho — a six-man team of two Americans and four indigenous operators — went in packed.

They carried CAR-15 rifles, sawed-off M-79 grenade launchers, detonation cord to clear landing zones, dozens of M-26 fragmentation grenades and Claymore mines, and thousands of rounds of ammunition. In the field, firepower was life.

For the Claymores — small boxes with C4 explosive and hundreds of small metal balls — the team carried five- and ten-second fuses. In case they were compromised and running toward a landing zone, they would drop the Claymores and pull the fuse. The NVA were often so close behind that those fuses were barely long enough.

ST Idaho was used to operating in Laos. In Cambodia, however, the game was played differently.

The State Department had imposed strict limitations to the rules of engagement there. The teams couldn't rely on fixed-wing aircraft for close air support or use white phosphorus, and they could only go 20 km from the border.

ST Idaho, however, found consolation in the Air Force's 20th Special Operations Squadron. Nicknamed the "Green Hornets," these airmen flew the UH-1P Huey, a better version of the helicopter also in use by the Army.

More importantly to ST Idaho was the Green Hornets' arsenal, which included rockets, M-60 machine guns, and M134 mini-guns with tens of thousands of rounds.

A Thanksgiving to remember

On Thanksgiving Day, the team was inserted without incident and began patrolling. After a few minutes, they sighted smoke and moved toward it.

They were soon in the periphery of a huge enemy base camp, but the NVA weren't home. As the point man, one of the indigenous operators, scouted for the enemy, Meyer snapped pictures.

Suddenly, the point man shouted, "Beaucoup VC!" Although Meyer couldn't spot any enemy, he trusted his indigenous teammate and gave the call to withdraw. As he did, the NVA arrived.

Seemingly hundreds of enemy soldiers came pouring in from the south and north. The team leap-frogged toward their landing zone, planting Claymores, lobbying grenades, and firing their CAR-15s as they went. Despite their casualties, the NVA kept running after them.

ST Idaho set up a hasty perimeter around the LZ, waiting for the Green Hornets. As more and more NVA appeared, the cavalry arrived.

The Huey gunships put down a devastating rate of fire that kept the NVA at bay long enough for ST Idaho to climb up the helicopters. As Meyer's Huey was getting ready to lift off, a lone NVA soldier broke through the hail of fire and stopped feet away from the chopper.

"I remember watching the clumps of mud from his boots slowly kicking upward toward the rotors as the door gunner and I hit him in the chest with a burst of gunfire," Meyer told Insider.

As the choppers rose, several more NVA burst into the perimeter, firing at the Americans. Meyer threw a white phosphorus grenade as a parting gift. Minutes later, ST Idaho was safely back on base. They had found the missing divisions.

"It was one of the most terrifying missions of my 19 months in SOG," Meyer told Insider.

That says a lot, given the hair-raising operations that Meyer participated in and has written about. But ST Idaho wouldn't have made it without the Green Hornets.

"Nothing gave us more satisfaction than getting our SF brothers out when they got in trouble, which was almost all the time," Alfonso Rivero, a Green Hornet gunner, told Insider. "The feeling of camaraderie and brotherhood among all of us SOG people remain to this day. Nothing like it."

Despite barely surviving, the team's morale was unaffected.

"We were very sober at first, realizing how close we came to getting whacked," Meyer said. "We took pride in accomplishing the mission, but there was no braggadocio about it. We went in again two days later."

Just another day in SOG's secret war.

SEE ALSO: The story of the first special-ops mission deep inside Afghanistan just weeks after 9/11, from troops who were there

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NOW WATCH: Rare color film shows what it was like for Marines during WWII, the Vietnam War, and the Korean War

A fabricated image of an Australian soldier harming a child published on a Chinese official's Twitter account on Sunday has further divided China and Australia.

The doctored image depicted an Australian soldier slitting a child's throat with a knife, in front of a Australian flag and an Afghan flag in the form of an incomplete puzzle. A caption at the bottom of the photo reads, "Don't be afraid, we are coming to bring you peace!"

The image was published on the Twitter account of Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian, who wrote alongside it: "Shocked by murder of Afghan civilians and prisoners by Australian soldiers. We strongly condemn such acts, and all for holding them accountable."

Zhao's tweet came as Australian Defence Force (ADF) released an investigation that recommended 19 current and former special forces soldiers be investigated over the deaths of 39 non-combatants in Afghanistan between 2009 and 2013.

According to the report, junior enlisted soldiers were pressured to kill unarmed civilians, a process dubbed "blooding" that signified their first kill. The ADF also found evidence of weapons being placed near bodies to suggest civilians were combatants. Over 400 witnesses were interviewed during the four-year investigation.

Following Zhao's tweet, Prime Minister Scott Morrison issued a stern rebuke, calling the picture "repugnant."

"It is utterly outrageous and cannot be justified on any basis whatsoever, the Chinese Government should be totally ashamed of this post," Morrison said, adding that his government had contacted its Chinese counterparts.

"There are undoubtedly tensions that exist between China and Australia, but this is not how you deal with them," Morrison added.

Chinese-Australian relations have been further strained in recent years, partly due to Beijing's growing trade with and political influence in the region.

Australia was one of 39 countries that condemned China's "gross human rights violation" in Xinjiang, where 11 million predominantly Muslim Uyghurs reside. Around a million Uyghurs are estimated to be detained in internment camps in Xinjiang, where evidence indicates many have been subjected to torture, sexual abuse, and forced labor.

China, which denies those allegations despite mounting evidence, doubled down on its doctored photo.

"The Australian side has been reacting so strongly to my colleague's tweet," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said during a press conference Monday. "Why is that? Do they think that their merciless killing of Afghan civilians is justified but the condemnation of such ruthless brutality is not? Afghan lives matter!"

An Australian special forces soldier who completed multiple combat tours in Afghanistan described China's tweet as a "dirty game."

"It looks like they're trying to tarnish us for different transgressions," the soldier told Insider. "This is one way they're trying to get back at us. It's pretty unheard of to do it through official channels like this."

"I'm obviously offended, but I also know this is a game," the soldier added. "Even though I take offense, I also know it's countries trying to gain leverage over each other."

The offending tweet did not go unnoticed in the US, where Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida condemned the image and requested that Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey take action.

"Twitter has had more than 36 hours to identify, investigate, and evaluate a tweet sent by Zhao Lijian ... that contains a doctored image that depicts a violent act that may in turn inspire other violent acts," Rubio said in a statement Tuesday.

"It defies belief that Twitter is unaware of the image, which falsely portrays an Australian soldier holding a bloody knife to the throat of a young Afghan child, as Australia's Prime Minister Scott Morrison requested the image be taken down," Rubio added.

Zhao's tweet and picture remained online as of Tuesday afternoon.

SEE ALSO: 'All wars must end': Top US military official reportedly acknowledges 'it's time to come home' in memo

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NOW WATCH: The world's most dangerous venomous animals are all in Australia

Five months after becoming the first female Green Beret, a National Guard soldier is facing a civilian misdemeanor charge for accidentally firing a pistol inside a Colorado apartment.

In July, the soldier, whose identity has been kept secret, graduated from the grueling, 53-week Special Forces Qualification Course (Q Course) at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, becoming the first woman to earn the Special Forces tab and coveted Green Beret.

On Dec. 12, she allegedly discharged a handgun by accident inside an apartment in Colorado Springs. Army 1st Special Forces Command (Airborne) released a statement about the incident.

"Our command is engaged with local authorities regarding an incident involving one of our soldiers and an apparent accidental discharge of a firearm at an off-post residence in Colorado Springs," Maj. Dan Lessard, spokesperson for 1st SF Command, said in the statement.

"While the handgun was discharged inside an apartment, no injuries occurred. Because the incident occurred off-post, local authorities have jurisdiction. We will continue to coordinate with local authorities and closely monitor the civilian case as it moves towards resolution in municipal court."

While the statement does not mention the Green Beret, Lessard told Military.com that the story by Connecting Vets -- the first outlet to report on the incident — "is factual."

US Army Special Operations Command has a policy that prohibits releasing the names of its members because of their "unique missions," USASOC officials have said in the past.

As the first female graduate of the Q Course, the soldier "excelled throughout the course and earned the respect of both her instructors and her peer group," a senior Army official told Military.com in June.

After graduating the Q-Course, Green Berets typically are assigned to 12-member operational detachment alpha (ODA) teams, which are made up of weapons, communications, intelligence, engineer and medical specialists.

After the alleged accidental discharge, the soldier received a summons to appear in court for the "minor misdemeanor charge," Lt. James Sokolik with the Colorado Springs Police Department told Military.com, adding that her court appearance will likely occur sometime in January or February.

Since no one was injured in the incident, Sokolik said this an "extremely minor charge."

Weapons safety is constantly stressed by all branches of the US military, but accidental, or negligent, discharges do happen.

An April 12, 2019 incident ended in tragedy when former Marine Cpl. Spencer Daily fatally shot his roommate, Cpl. Tyler Wallingford, in the barracks at Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort in South Carolina.

Daily had been drinking heavily. As the two Marines sat playing video games, Daily pointed a handgun at Wallingford in a "teasing way" and pulled the trigger, sending a bullet into his fellow Marine's head, killing him.

Daily was dishonorably discharged and is now serving a 69-month prison sentence at Naval Consolidated Brig in Hanahan, South Carolina.

— Matthew Cox can be reached at matthew.cox@military.com.

SEE ALSO: For the first time ever, the Marine Corps will train women at its all-male West Coast boot camp

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NOW WATCH: GREEN BERET: This is how we're different from US Navy SEALs

The US Army's highly secretive counterterrorist unit, 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment Delta, is without a doubt among the best counterterrorism units in the world. But it wasn't the first.

While Delta is extremely well known, if only by its name, it wasn't actually the first American counterterrorist force in existence. That honor goes to a different unit — now long lost to history — known as "Blue Light."

Col. Charlie Beckwith, a former Green Beret and the brains behind 1st SFOD-D, discussed the parallel history of Blue Light in his co-written book, "Delta Force." Beckwith, after serving an exchange tour with the British Special Air Service, returned to the US with an idea for a dedicated counterterrorist unit, similar to the SAS.

With terrorism on the rise throughout the 1970s, it became imperative for the US military to create a force that would deal with terror threats with precision and extreme effectiveness.

The firebrand colonel would go on to outline his concept to the Pentagon, particularly Army generals and fellow colonels with enough sway to allocate funding for such a unit.

Beckwith encountered resistance — especially from "old guard" officers who disagreed with allowing Delta to exist on its own with its own funding.

Rather, they felt that Delta needed to remain within an already established pecking order in the asymmetric warfare community — the US Army's Special Forces.

Despite its official title, Delta Force had absolutely nothing to do with Army Special Forces Operational Detachments, also known as "A-Teams." The title was just another vaguely misleading cover for the unit's real purpose.

Delta, instead, would have a direct line through the Department of Defense to the president's office, circumventing Special Forces altogether. Further incensing the brass was the fact that Delta would be given free rein to recruit whoever interested them, including experienced Green Berets from the groups.

Inner-Army politicking quickly led to Special Forces brass deciding it would create a counterterrorist unit of its own, ostensibly as an interim solution while Delta was getting up to speed, but with the inward hopes of it being a more permanent fixture.

The new unit — Blue Light — was staffed with commandos brought in directly from 5th Special Forces Group's 2nd Battalion into a subordinate unit. There, they would be trained in an array of skills necessary for counterterrorist mission and be readied for real-world operations. Col. Bob "Black Gloves" Mountel would be responsible for helming the new unit in its infancy.

Blue Light would only be equivalent to a company-sized element of troops but would still draw its funding from Special Forces and would push its members through further airborne and dive training, weapons courses and more.

It was assumed that because Green Berets were already highly trained for asymmetric warfare, they would be ready to fight far quicker than Delta.

In the meantime, Beckwith and his cadre got to work designing and training the founding members of Delta Force, still very aware of the potential for Blue Light to completely take over their mission and tank 1st SFOD-D before it could even get off the ground.

Blue Light was beefed up with the presence of veteran operatives with significant combat experience under their belts, including Joseph Cincotti, a Vietnam-era Green Beret who would later go on to head up the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School, and who was responsible for creating the curriculum all Special Forces candidates undergo today.

In their book, "Special Forces: A Guided Tour of US Army Special Forces," authors Tom Clancy and John Gresham claim that Blue Light was somewhat handicapped from the start.

While Delta was designed to operate in every conceivable environment, using a multitude of mission-relevant skills, Blue Light was, in reality, only prepared for a few contingencies.

Little by little, Delta Force took shape at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and by the end of the 1970s, Delta was ready for action.

Bragg was also the home of Blue Light, and the rivalry between the two counterterrorist units was palpable. Former operator Eric Haney discusses the animosity between Blue Light and the 1st SFOD-D in his book, "Inside Delta Force."

When Delta was declared fully operational, Blue Light faded into the shadows, eventually being disbanded in 1978. Its former members were either transferred to other units within the Army's various Special Forces groups or decided to retire altogether.

Beckwith, not willing to let an opportunity pass, extended invites to Blue Light commandos to try out for Delta Force, and at least four of the former counterterrorist unit's operatives successfully passed selection and the arduous Operator Training Course to become Delta Force operators.

Former Blue Light officers would later play a part in planning Operation Eagle Claw, the failed mission to rescue American hostages in Iran in 1980.

SEE ALSO: 3 of the 4 longest sniper kills on record have been with this kind of rifle

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NOW WATCH: 5 of the most elite special forces in the world

This story originally appeared in September 2015.

Special Forces soldiers are the snake-eaters, known for slipping into enemy territory, living off the land, and then killing all the enemies of America they find.

They trace their unit lineage back to the Office of Strategic Services in World War II, served with distinction as both warriors and spies in the Cold War, and snuck into Afghanistan to hunt the Taliban before anyone else.

But for all most people think they know about Special Forces, there's a lot they don't. Here are seven things that might surprise you.

1. They have a reputation for 'creature comforts'

While Green Berets are known to rough it on missions, they're also known for bringing blankets and cots to training exercises.

Operators have a grueling deployment schedule and are required to prove their skills to their teammates every day. So when they show up to a training event, they're likely to cut loose and enjoy some barbecue and football in their off-time.

2. Green Berets are as much teachers as fighters

While SF soldiers are very capable fighters, it's just as important to their mission that they are good instructors.

Green Berets are called on to deploy all over the world, build lasting relationships with local groups friendly towards the United States, and then teach those groups how to kill effectively. The SF soldiers then begin going on missions with the locals and fight side-by-side.

3. They are required to learn new languages

Of course, training the locals to kill their enemies is a lot easier when everyone speaks the same language. Special Forces soldiers attend 18-24 weeks of foreign language and cultural training at the Special Operations Academic Facility at Fort Bragg.

The language these soldiers learn usually depends on what Special Forces Group they are later assigned to, since each group has a certain region of the world it needs to be oriented toward.

4. They're in about 90 nations every day

Operators need access to so may bi- and trilingual service members because they are in about 90 nations every day.

In 2015, they've already visited at least 135 according to media reports. This represents a significant increase in operational tempo. Eight years ago SF visited only 60 countries.

5. They're still in Iraq and Afghanistan

Two of the countries people might not be surprised to find Special Forces is in Iraq and Afghanistan. While most military units have been pulled out of these countries, the Green Berets never left Afghanistan and may have never fully leave Iraq.

Currently, Special Forces soldiers are advising troops in both countries. In Afghanistan they are fighting shoulder-to-shoulder against insurgents with commandos they have trained. In Iraq, they are advising Iraqi Army and militia units who are trying to roll back ISIS.

6. Recruits can enlist straight into Special Forces

Believe it or not, a recent high-school graduate could walk into a recruiting office and enlist for 18X, Special Forces Candidate.

These recruits go through basic training and then immediately enter the Special Forces training pipeline. If they fail or are simply aren't selected during the Special Forces assessment, they are re-assigned to infantry.

It wasn't always this way. In the past, Special Forces typically wanted soldiers to be older and more seasoned in the regular Army before making the jump. The older SF soldier even have a name for the younger generation making it through the Q-course: "SF Babies."

7. 'Weekend warriors' can be Green Berets

The National Guard has SF companies across the south. Green Beret and UFC fighter Tim Kennedy continued serving by switching to a National Guard unit in Texas.

These soldiers drill like other National Guard soldiers, but are still required to maintain the same certifications as Active Duty SF.

SEE ALSO: 4 pieces of special-operations gear that regular troops now get to use too

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NOW WATCH: These are the favorite weapons of the Army Special Operations Forces

What do snipers think about before they pull the trigger? There are dozens of possible considerations that go into a sniper's shot, everything from wind to an escape plan should things suddenly go sideways, current and former US military sniper instructors told Insider.

A sniper must be able to put accurate and effective fire on targets that may be moving at distances far beyond the range of regular infantry, which are trained to shoot at targets out to a few hundred meters. Snipers are trained to shoot targets possibly thousands of meters away.

To shoot at those greater distances, which sometimes requires pushing a weapon beyond its limits, snipers have to consider things like target selection and priority, size, distance to target, whether or not the bullet is lethal at that range, and, if the target is moving, target speed and direction.

'We know what a bullet does'

There are also the ballistics — anything that affects the flight path of the bullet that could cause the sniper to miss.

Extensive ballistics knowledge is one of several key differentiators between snipers — expert marksmen — and other troops who are simply good shots, according to a former instructor.

"We know what a bullet does," John Wayne Walding, a former US Army Green Beret who became a Special Forces sniper instructor after losing a leg in Afghanistan, told Insider. "A sniper has education on not just what the bullet's doing but why it's doing it. That is what sets us apart."

There are both internal and external ballistics, he said.

Internal is everything happening inside the rifle and includes things like bullet size and weight, which affect to what degree a bullet will be impacted by the various external factors, and the barrel twist, which affects the spin drift of the round at greater distances.

External ballistics are everything happening to the bullet once it exits the barrel. Among the external factors that can affect the bullet's flight path are atmospherics like wind, humidity, temperature, barometric pressure, and air density.

Wind speed and direction, which can change suddenly and inexplicably, are particularly important because they account for most missed shots, US Marine Corps Scout Sniper instructor Staff Sgt. Joshua Coulter told Insider.

Snipers need to know wind at not only their position, but also at various points along the bullet's path and at the target. To get a wind reading for the distant points, the sniper looks for makeshift wind indicators like trash, clothes on a clothesline, smoke, or really anything that might be blowing in the wind.

Other possible considerations may include the curvature and rotation of the Earth, the angle of the shot if the shooter and target are at different elevations, and anything, such as thicker vegetation, between the sniper and the target that might throw off the shot.

Snipers have to take most, if not all, of these factors into account and correct before they fire a shot to hit a distant target — with the knowledge that their first shot is likely to be their best chance at striking it.

There are electronic tools that snipers can use to simplify the process to determine things like range, gather atmospheric data, and generate a firing solution. Snipers try not to rely on these though, but if they do use them, they verify the data.

The much more important tool snipers have is their collection data on previous engagements, which contains detailed information on how the sniper, the rifle, and the bullet performed in certain conditions in the real, not digital, world.

"At the end of the day, the bullet is not going to lie to you," US Army sniper instructor Sgt. 1st Class Joshua Jones told Insider.

"We really don't need a lot of technology to be able to operate," he said, explaining that "given a weapon system with an optic and data on previous engagements, we are pretty effective at doing our job as far as engaging targets goes."

'That is when you want to fire the weapon'

There are also marksmanship fundamentals like shooting position, trigger control, and breathing that the sniper has to take into consideration. Through training, many of these things will become second nature for a sniper.

The ideal shooting platform is one that is solid, stable, and durable, and the ideal shooting position is prone. That is not always an option in battle though, so snipers have to be prepared to work with what is available, Walding told Insider.

"Out in the real world, you're shooting over a Humvee, shooting out of a window, on a rooftop, on a knee, standing, standing while moving," he said. "There are so many alternate shooting techniques we run through because of the realities of the battlefield."

A proper shooting position improves recoil management, preventing the explosion that violently forces the bullet out of the rifle from disturbing the sight picture and complicating follow-on shots.

For similar reasons, it is also important that snipers have good control of the trigger, applying pressure smoothly when firing, and have relaxed, natural breathing.

"You want to breathe as natural as possible," Jones said, explaining that snipers wait for a "natural pause" in ther breathing. "That is when you want to fire the weapon," he said.

Snipers also have to think about mission-specific considerations such as muzzle flash, lens glare on the scope if the sniper is shooting into the sun, and barrel blast that can blow out vegetation or kick up dust. Any of these things can affect concealment and give away a shooter's position.

Stealth and concealment, though they are crucial sniper skills, are not necessarily required for every mission, but when they are, snipers have to be prepared for the possibility that their position is compromised by their shot.

It is critical that snipers have an escape plan, "a tenable egress route and sourced contingency assets and fire support agencies in the event their position is compromised post-shot," Coulter said.

'Somebody that can get the job done'

"There are a million things that go into being a sniper, and you have to be good at all of them,"an Army sniper previously told Insider. That said, when it comes to the shot process, "everybody is going to have their checklist" that they run through, Jones said.

And in many, but not necessarily all, cases, there is also planning before the mission.

Coulter said that ideally a sniper's "ability to conduct a mission analysis prior to crossing the line of departure or taking the shot will allow them to occupy a brief position of advantage when relatively compared to the enemy, the terrain and current weather."

Doing so increases "the odds of mission success," he said.

And with practice comes experience, reducing the time it takes to run through the process. A trained sniper can put accurate fire on at least 10 targets in about 10 minutes. It is actually something Army snipers have to do to graduate from the program.

For the extreme long-range shots, the shot process can still take some time, as well as some math. A Marine Corps sniper previously told Insider about a shot he took in training that involved putting a bullet in a target 2,300 meters away. It took him roughly 20 to 25 minutes to plan the shot.

Although shooting is a very important part of what snipers do, it is only a part. Snipers also gather intelligence and provide overwatch on the battlefield. The role requires professionalism, reliability, capability, and maturity.

"Just because you can shoot doesn't mean you can be a sniper," Walding said, adding that "You've got to have somebody that can get the job done, and not every marksman can."

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After a long period of hibernation, tension in the Arctic is increasing, with military build-ups and encounters there between the US and its near-peer competitors, Russia and China.

In a reflection of that tension, the Army recently released a strategy meant to secure its military preeminence in the Arctic.

Dubbed "Regaining Arctic Dominance," the strategy aims to create a dedicated headquarters and specialized Arctic warfare units, improve infrastructure in the region, and invest in individual and collective training.

Although mentioned only briefly in the document, Army special-operations units are expected to have a significant role in the region both in peacetime and during war.

Why the Arctic?

Economic and military activity in the Arctic is nothing new, but the region's value has been steadily increasing as it becomes more accessible.

As the ice melts and more passages open, trade becomes easier. The Northern Sea Route, stretching along the Russian coast from Norway to the Pacific Ocean, promises to connect Europe and Asia, two markets with more than 70% of the world's GDP.

In addition, the increased accessibility caused by climate change allows for the exploitation of natural resources that have thus far been unreachable. Although the exact size of the oil and natural gas reserves underneath the Arctic is still uncertain, it is considerable enough to catch the interest of every major global player and several regional ones.

Further, climate change means that the region is becoming increasingly accessible to military forces.

Recent satellite images show that Russia is amassing forces in the region and testing new weapons.

In addition to Russian ground and air force buildup in the Arctic, there is the formidable Northern Fleet, which is Russia's largest naval formation, accounting for close to 75% of its naval power. It is responsible for both the Arctic and the Atlantic oceans.

Russia is a legitimate Arctic state and has the world's longest Arctic coastline. China doesn't border the Arctic, but Beijing still wants a slice of the pie.

In 2018, China declared itself a "near-Arctic state" and launched the Polar Silk Road Initiative. Similar to the much-criticized Belt and Road Initiative, this project aims to make the Arctic a route for Chinese goods.

Since 1996, the countries bordering the Arctic — Iceland, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Canada, Russia, and the US — have used the Arctic Council to address issues facing the region, with the exception of security matters. A number of non-Arctic states have observer status with the Council, including China.

Army commandos in the Arctic

In the Arctic, Army special-operations units can contribute significantly to deterrence in peacetime and in a potential conflict.

Rangers, Delta Force operators, and Green Berets all have valuable mission-sets and skills that can translate very well to the Arctic domain.

The 75th Ranger Regiment is the world's premier light infantry special-operations unit focused on direct-action missions, such as raids, ambushes, and airfield seizures.

The harsh Arctic climate means logistics and the resupply of forces are particularly challenging, making the Rangers' ability to seize airfields especially useful in case of conflict.

Delta Force is the Army's direct-action special-mission unit and primarily specializes in hostage rescue and counterterrorism.

In the Arctic, Delta Force could conduct unconventional warfare and sabotage operations similar to the World War II missions of the British Special Air Service (SAS), a unit that influenced Delta's formation and early days.

The SAS wreaked havoc on Nazi and Italian forces in North Africa, destroying more planes on the ground than the Allied planes did from the air. SAS operations also forced the Axis powers to use a significant number of their forces for base and vehicle convoy security rather than on the frontlines.

"We certainly have the capability and the necessary skill sets to operate all alone and deep behind enemy lines for long periods without regular resupply. The Unit has already done it in the past during Desert Storm and the invasion of Afghanistan but also more recently in Syria," a former Delta Force operator told Insider.

Finally, Special Forces operators can be very valuable as trainers of conventional Army units.

Green Berets thrive in foreign internal defense, or the training of foreign partner forces. They can take that knowledge to train their conventional counterparts in specialized skills such as mountaineering and cold-weather operations.

The 10th Special Forces Group already routinely trains soldiers from the Army's 4th Infantry Division in cold-weather operations.

There are many other courses run by Green Berets that could prove useful, such as the Special Operations Advance Mountaineering School and the Winter Mobility Instructor Course.

"If you look at the Multi-Domain Task Force and long-range precision fires that will be in there, the capabilities, it's ideal for the amount of training space that we have, whether it's a maritime component, whether it's a land component, or an air component," Maj. Gen. Peter Andrysiak, commander of US Army Alaska, told Insider during a March press briefing.

"So there's a lot of opportunities to look at the breadth and depth of a future battlefield where Special Operations Command will play a role," Andrysiak added.

All of the above units can also conduct special reconnaissance and direct both airstrikes and naval gunfire.

Other Army special-operations units, such as the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, known as the "Night Stalkers," and the Psychological Operations Groups could also contribute by enabling operations or shaping the critical information environment.

Stavros Atlamazoglou is a defense journalist specializing in special operations, a Hellenic Army veteran (national service with the 575th Marine Battalion and Army HQ), and a Johns Hopkins University graduate.

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Mike spoke anonymously due to privacy concerns. His identity has been verified by Insider. 

I used to move US Special Forces troops around Iraq and Afghanistan. As a Navy Seal, I was awarded Bronze Star Medal in Iraq and a Bronze Star with V for Valor in Afghanistan. Now I move rich families around the world on vacation.

The idea for the Servius Group came after my cofounder Ethan (not his real name) was on vacation with a wealthy family at the Monaco Yacht Show. The family and other guests would travel between yachts in a small boat, and he was shocked when one of the guests revealed he was carrying $1 million in cash in his bag. 

In summer 2020, Ethan and I decided to launch a company that would organize vacations with Special Forces-trained security. Our team consists of  ex-Special Forces personnel, such as former Navy SEALs, Rangers, and Marines. Each team member has completed 10 to 12 combat tours, so they are masters of risk mitigation. We are also multilingual — I personally speak English, French, and Farsi. 

We start working for clients a month before they travel.

We check routes, find English-speaking doctors, and see where the nearest US embassy and police stations are located. We send an advanced team to the destination and make sure their chosen restaurant isn't in a seedy part of town. We look for the red flags. 

We also vet staff working in venues and track private jets. And if a VIP family is enjoying a coastal or lake holiday, and their teenagers are using jet skis or cars, we tag the vehicles and track them for the parents. We also offer cyber protection for bank accounts and our client's identity. 

When we travel, we look like a member of the family. 

We don't wear suits or earpieces. While our services are expensive, we can make our clients' travel insurance cheaper. When you're entering a channel known for piracy on a $200,000 vacation, it helps to have ex-Special Forces personnel on board. We protect the family, but we can also protect the yacht's contents — some of our client's yachts have multi-million-dollar art collections on board. 

Our first clients came by word of mouth, and we now work with luxury travel advisors Embark Beyond to support their VIP guests. 

While some of our clients just want to relax on the beach, others want to have a life-changing experience.

We have a client who enjoys scuba diving for three months at a time. We dived with him in French Polynesia where it's common to see humpback whales and manta rays. Safari is also really popular with our guests — we've been to the Ivory Coast, Mozambique, and South Africa. We've even joined clients on chartered yachts to the South Pole. 

We recently provided security for a bachelor party that was held on a yacht in Miami. The men wanted to spend the day on the boat cruising around and visit some clubs at night. And no, we didn't leave anyone behind. 

If they want to trek to Everest Base Camp, as one of our clients did recently, we'll first make a baseline assessment of their physical abilities to know that they can meet the physical demands of the trip. 

If we have a guest who has never skydived before, we'll hook them up with a Special Forces instructor. And if it's your first-time scuba diving, our ex-Navy SEALs will be next to you with a safety line. But if it's skiing, it would be more fun for the client if they book professional lessons. Are you going to find an ex-Special Forces person on the nursery slope? No. 

The job only gets challenging for us when unexpected guests join the party, but we're used to dealing with last-minute requests.

As former Special Forces, we're trained for extractions. We once had a client who found themselves in a dangerous and vulnerable situation, so they contacted us and asked for an extraction. We got them out of that location, collected their valuables from elsewhere in the world, and took them both to a safe place.

So far, there's only been one request we couldn't accept, which was to take 15 guys to South America with 24 hours' notice. The government said it was too short of a notice for visa approval. 

We try to help our clients as much as possible, but there are two things we won't do: We won't help acquire drugs and we won't be photographed. 

Our guests could hire a ski guide or scuba diving instructor to join them on their trips, but they want to hear our stories. A ski guide may be an expert, but he's never deployed in combat or sat in at a tribal meeting in Afghanistan. 

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