Stories of Special Forces Operators

In May 2026, the United States Coast Guard announced the creation of a new Special Missions Command — a major restructuring designed to unify elite maritime units responsible for counterterrorism, drug interdiction, port security, disaster response, and high-risk operations. In this episode, we examine why the Coast Guard believes future threats will increasingly emerge through oceans, ports, shipping lanes, and gray-zone maritime conflict. Through the lens of special operations, geopolitical strategy, and modern asymmetric warfare, we explore how this new command may transform America’s maritime security posture for decades to come.

Act of Valor put active-duty SEALs and SWCC crews in front of the camera and filmed live-fire training as if it were the mission. The CQB flow and small-boat work look like the Teams because, in a lot of those frames, they are the Teams. This is what survived Naval Special Warfare’s TTP review—and what the script still forced through.

late August, Green Berets put Polish special forces through a new U.S. exercise at Hohenfels: cross a simulated front, move about sixty miles, and hit a target with a drone while the “enemy” hunts them with more than a hundred aircraft. It is the first time a NATO ally has run the scenario. The story is not that drones exist. It is that NATO is finally training as if the sky is an opponent.

mid-August, 10th Special Forces Group inserted men and ATVs by Chinook onto St. Lawrence Island as part of Operation Polar Dagger 2026. The exercise was not a photo op. It was a rehearsal for putting a mobile special-operations presence into the Bering Strait with almost no infrastructure, within sight of Russian territory, and it tells you more about what U.S. special forces are being rebuilt to do than another raid anecdote ever will.

Carlos sits down with Bob "The Ninja" Porras for a wide-ranging look back at a career spent in the world of Delta Force and "The Unit." The conversation covers what it actually takes to make it through selection, the mindset required to operate at the highest level of special operations, and the lessons carried forward after the uniform comes off. It's a rare, candid window into the culture and psychology behind America's most elite units.