Jack Murphy

Jack Murphy

Green Beret / Army Ranger
Jack served as a Sniper and Team Leader in 3rd Ranger Battalion and as a Senior Weapons Sergeant on a Military Free Fall team in 5th Special Forces Group. Having left the military in 2010, he graduated from Columbia with a BA in political science. Murphy is the author of Reflexive Fire, Target Deck, Direct Action, and Gray Matter Splatter. His memoir, "Murphy's Law" is due for a 2019 release and can be pre-ordered now.

An overview of the conflict in Yemen

Recently a reader asked if we could provide an overview of the conflict in Yemen so I thought I would direct our readers towards a handy guide I found.  The European Council on Foreign Relations has put together a guide that covers the historical context, factions, and multiple fronts in what has become a very complex […]

An American freedom fighter in Libya’s civil war: Part 1

As Americans, especially those in military and intelligence circles, we have an obsession with giving everything a name or acronym.  Everyone gets a label and category.  I asked Matthew VanDyke what he was doing in the middle of the Libyan Civil War.  Was he a mercenary, a private security contractor, or a foreign volunteer?  His […]

Takur Ghar: When Special Operations technology became a disabler

One thing that Americans excel at is high-technology and perhaps nowhere do we enjoy the application of technology more than in the context of war.  I’ve written about this topic previously and how it hurts the Special Forces mission or how it hinders our espionage efforts, which was why I was interested to come across […]

Persona Non Grata Preview: OGA ops in Afghanistan

The following is a preview from my next novel titled Persona Non Grata, which is about a former SOF soldier and OGA (Other Government Agency) contractor who is PNG’ed and turns to conducting vigilante strikes against human traffickers in the United States.  What follows is the draft form prior to going through the editing process. […]

US Special Forces joint-ops with LRSC

In 2010 the situation on the ground in Iraq was getting increasingly…convoluted. Even veteran Special Forces NCO’s were saying that it was the most difficult operational environment that they had ever seen. The difficulty was two fold, by this stage in the war the United States military had a heavy hand in Iraq while simultaneously […]

Putin’s Mercs

Since 9/11, the United States has experienced an incredible inflation of Private Military Contractors.  Meanwhile, both allies and adversaries have noted this development, inspiring them to start their own Private Military Companies.  In the last week we have seen an interesting story about a small Jihadi group in Syria attempting to brand themselves as a […]

Are anarchists a national security threat?

When most of us think about anarchists we imagine teenagers wearing scarves over their faces who run around outside economic summits and tip over cars and trash cans.  While this is obnoxious, we don’t place them in the same threat category as a group like Al Qaeda that has demonstrated an ability to plan and […]

Fake News alert: no, this Danish woman did not kill 100 ISIS fighters

Over the last week, yet another fake news headline has been making the rounds on social media.  “Cute girl slays 100 ISIS fighters, you won’t believe what happens next!”  This news item was already clichéd during the heyday of ISIS clickbait articles back in 2015.  Now it is just getting embarrassing to watch people share […]

Comic review: The Sheriff of Babylon Vol. 1 and 2

“The Sheriff of Babylon” is a graphic novel penned by former CIA officer Tom King and artist Mitch Gerads, who also worked on other military-themed comics including “The Activity” and “The Punisher.” At its heart, “The Sheriff of Babylon” is a detective story that takes place against the backdrop of post-invasion Iraq in 2004 as the […]

Detachment A: Final missions, the wall comes down, and the end of an era (Part 4)

Read Part Three Here In subsequent years, Det A was also developing a relationship with Germany’s Spezialeinsatzkommandos (SEK). Detachment A’s team six, “had its own unique mission. Most of ours dealt with close comradeship with the local SEK so we spent a lot of time with those guys,” Braughton said, which entailed working in the […]

Was the SEAL Team Six raid in Yemen a success or failure?

Following the high-profile raid in Yemen last week by SEAL Team Six to capture/kill a number of Al Qaeda high value targets, the question is now being asked as to whether the raid was a success or a spectacular failure.  The real answer is probably somewhere in between. The loss of Chief Petty Officer William […]

Detachment A: counter-terrorism and Operation Eagle Claw (Part 3)

Read Part One HERE and Part Two HERE. As the Cold War matured, the mission of Det A evolved, shifting gears to face a new threat that the Western World was unprepared for. In the early 1970’s there had been a rash of aircraft hijackings, many perpetrated by the Palestinian nationalists belonging to the Popular […]