The Islamic State group is trying to work on its special forces prowess. Well, they’ve got their work cut out for them, according to combat vets that viewed a recently released promotional video by the extremist group. The video, first posted by news site Vocativ, features a dozen scenes of training, door breaching and amphibious sneak attacks. There are countless reasons why this whole thing is a giant soup sandwich, a former Navy SEAL told Navy Times in a Wednesday interview. Starting with: Why kind of special ops mission happens in broad daylight? “Well, the only thing that they had…
Browsing: Physical training
A Washington-based sailor who made a run in late July at the Guinness world record for pullups held by a Navy SEAL ended up in the hospital, but says he plans to make another attempt once he recovers. Air Traffic Controller 2nd Class (AW) Mike McCastle made it to 3,202 pullups on July 26, just 828 shy of the record, before health concerns forced him to head to the emergency room. He lasted 19 1/2 of the allotted 24 hours, but still raised almost $10,000 for the Wounded Warrior Project. As of July 31, he said, he had collected $9,600,…
Officials have to be encouraged at the trend toward a safer on- and off-duty Navy, indicated by near-mid-year Naval Safety Center statistics. We type those words with a big “knock on wood,” of course. But with the fiscal year — which began Oct. 1 — nearly halfway gone, it’s looking like the Navy is shaping up, safety-wise — at least in terms of major mishaps, and on- and off-duty deaths. Check the trends for the fiscal year through March 23, referred to in the following as “at this point”: Class A afloat mishaps: two this year compared to four a…
One sailor has lost his life — outside of combat — so far in fiscal year 2011, which began Oct. 1. Any such loss — this one occurred during a physical training-related incident in late October — is tragic. But it’s the only one so far. And that’s a big improvement over the same period last year, the Naval Safety Center’s April Phillips says. After the first two months of fiscal year 2010, the Navy had already seen three on-duty fatalities, five personal motor vehicle fatalities and one off-duty recreational death. The Safety Center does not track fatalities caused by…