• Do women have mettle to qualify for special forces?

    By Tracy Connor and Jim Miklaszewski, NBC News

    The Pentagon has given women the go-ahead to be grunts, but will they also be joining elite special units such as Delta Force or Navy SEALs?


    The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said he believes there are women in the military today who would meet the rigorous screening requirements for special forces.

    That's no easy feat — for man or woman.

    To become a Navy SEAL, for instance, the ideal candidate will swim 500 yards in nine minutes, do 90 push-ups in two minutes, 85 curl-ups in two minutes, 18 pull-ups in two minutes, and run 1.5 miles in under 10 minutes.

    Marine Special Operations wannabes need to swim 300 meters in a utility shirt and trousers, tread water for 10 minutes while clothed, and hike 12 miles with a 45-pound load in under four hours.

    Delta Force, which is so secretive that the Army doesn't even acknowledge its existence, recruits members of other special forces units who have already proven their physical mettle.

    Then, according to the book "Inside Delta Force," it makes them complete land-navigation courses that include an 18-mile nighttime trek with a 40-pound backpack and a 40-mile march over rough terrain.

    Women who've passed the Army's grueling Sapper Leader course say they're well-prepared to enter combat, and in some cases, better prepared than men. NBC's Jim Miklaszewski reports.

    No problem says Kate Wilder, a retired lieutenant colonel who was the first woman to qualify for the Army's Special Forces in 1980.

    "Just to get into the course, I had to pass the male advanced PT class, which was the toughest class at the time," she said. "I was in my 20s, in top condition.

    "If I could do it, these young women who are so in shape today can do it," she said.

    Wilder said she got into the course but was told just before graduation that she failed a field exercise. She filed a sex-discrimination complaint and a judge found she was unfairly denied qualification.

    Now 61, Wilder said many of the physical screenings for the Green Berets and similar units are are tests of endurance and agility, not brute force.

    She remembered trouble she had with a course of overhead bars she had to complete. "My trainer told me, 'It's not strength, it's technique," she recalled. "And one day I just got it. But there were a lot of men who couldn't master the bars.

    "There is nothing today's women physically can't do and if she can't do it right away, she can be trained to do it," Wilder said.

    Slideshow: All-female U.S. Marine team in Afghanistan

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    View images of the women deployed as the second Female Engagement team in Afghanistan

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  • After firing soldier in 2000, USPS ordered to rehire him - and pay him $2 million

    Courtesy of Rick Erickson

    Army Special Forces Sgt. Maj. Rick Erickson has won his legal fight to be reinstated as a U.S. Postal worker - almost 13 years after the USPS fired him for taking military leave. Photo taken by the Army on Dec. 12.

    By Bill Briggs, NBC News contributor

    A heavily decorated Army Green Beret, fired by the U.S. Postal Service in 2000 for taking military leave, must be reinstated in his mail job and retroactively paid by the USPS for back wages, benefits and legal fees — an amount that may top $2 million, an administrative law judge has ruled.

    Special Forces Sgt. Maj. Rick Erickson — who has earned three Combat Distinguished Valor awards, the Purple Heart, and more than 30 other military medals — said the termination forced him to re-enlist in the Army National Guard and eventually serve in Afghanistan in order to generate income to support his three daughters. While in Afghanistan, Erickson’s unit was ambushed in 2004 and he was shot twice in the arm.

    “It’s a shame I had to fight 13 years for something the Postal Service could have corrected with a quick decision. But they didn’t want to do the right thing,” Erickson told NBC News Tuesday. For now, he remains on active duty.

    “This has been torture to me, to my family and friends. I’m a single dad and I had to spend a lot of time away from my daughters. But this is not just about me. This is about every veteran that got fired from their job while serving their country,” added Erickson, 49. “Fortunately, I got the chance to fight it, to bring it to the courts. Most veterans who are fired just run out of money, say forget it, and go to a Publix (grocery store to work) and just move on. I’ve seen it so many times.”


    USPS does not agree with the decision but is taking it under advisement, a spokesperson told NBC News on Tuesday. The U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board — which handles job disputes involving federal employees — handed down its order Dec. 14 that the USPS must re-employ Erickson no later than Jan. 18.

    In addition to ordering the USPS to reimburse the soldier for nearly 13 years in back postal wages, the board also told USPS to immediately begin paying Erickson his postal salary — even if the USPS opts to appeal, a move that could extend the case another two years. Erickson said he doesn’t recall his hourly wage rate in 2000.

    “I’m an aggressive guy so I was trying to become a post master,” Erickson said of his career aspirations when he worked for the USPS in Fort Myers, Fla. “Today, I sill have three daughters to take care of. Two are 21 and in college, and one is 17.

    “It’s obvious the Postal Service did something wrong. But will they still spend the taxpayers’ money and keep fighting this because they don’t want to be proven wrong?” Erickson asked. “They need to ante up.

    “I couldn’t be hired by any other federal agency. I was red-flagged (within the federal employment system) just because the Postal Service fired me. So I had to re-enlist,” he added. “I mean, how many civilian jobs are going to hire a Green Beret? What are they going to say, ‘Hey, Green Beret, go bag some groceries?’ ”

    Click here for more military-related coverage from NBC News.

    Erickson, who started serving in the U.S. Army National Guard in 1990, initially sought to overturn his postal termination in 2000. After he returned from Afghanistan, he ramped up his legal battle by filing an appeal in 2006 with the Merit Systems Protection Board. He claimed that by firing him, the USPS had violated his federal rights to serve in the military and hold another job, as stated in the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act.

    “In 2000, I was called to service. I was called up by the President of the United States to serve my country. The Postal Service fired me for using excessive military leave. Some employers just say: ‘You’re gone for six months? OK. Goodbye.’

    “When you fight in combat, you can’t hold a grudge on your shoulder. You have to do your job,” Erickson said. “But I had to fight the enemy overseas and then I had to come back and fight the Post Office.”

    In the years following his 2006 federal bid to regain his postal job, he won two decisions before the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. The USPS continued, however, to appeal his reinstatement, said Erickson’s lawyer, Greg T. Rinckey. In 2011, a federal judge remanded Erickson’s case — for the second time — back to the Merit Systems Protection Board in Atlanta.

    “The USPS’ illegal conduct in 2000 was bad, but fighting this year after year is even more concerning,” said Rinckey, the managing partner of Tully Rinckey PLLC. He estimated that when the USPS receives the total bill for Erickson's back wages, benefits and legal bills, the tab will exceed $2 million, making it “one of the largest awards in an employment case against the USPS and the federal government.”

    Rinckey said he expects the USPS to appeal.

    “I never understand why an agency fights these types of actions when, in my opinion, it’s pretty clear cut. Why did they continue to litigate this? We were willing to settle this in 2006 and it would have been fairly simply to settle. They just kept going, raising the legal fees on it, year after year.”

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  • Three US special ops troops killed, Afghan officials say

    Three Marines were killed instantly, and the fourth was seriously wounded but the gunman escaped. NBC's Jim Miklaszewski reports.

    By NBC News staff and wire reports

    Updated at 12:35 p.m. ET: KABUL, Afghanistan -- A man wearing an Afghan army uniform shot and killed three American Marines, the U.S. military command said Friday. Afghan officials said the victims were American special operations forces troops.

    Reuters reported that an Afghan police commander opened fire on the service members after inviting them to a meeting to discuss security. A U.S. military official confirmed the three deaths and said another service member had been injured during the incident.

    NBC News' Jim Miklaszewski reported that a "lone gunman" remained on the loose and was being hunted. U.S. military officials said all of the American victims were Marines.

    Citing Afghan officials, Reuters said the American special operations forces members were killed late Thursday while attending a meeting in the Sarwan Qala area, in what appeared to be a planned attack by rogue Afghan forces.

    "The commander was Afghan National Police in charge of local police in Sangin," a senior Afghan official told Reuters on condition of anonymity. Sangin is a district of Helmand province.

    "It looks like he had drawn up a plan to kill them previously," the official added.

    A military official told NBC News' Courtney Kube that it was unclear whether the gunman was a member of the Afghan security forces or whether he was just wearing a uniform.

    Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi told The Associated Press by telephone that the attacker, whom he identified as a member of Helmand police named Asadullah, had been helping U.S. forces train Afghan local police troops. However, the Taliban has made false claims about the details of attacks in the past.

    A U.S. military official says three American service members were killed and one was wounded after a gunman opened fire on them. NBCNews.com's Dara Brown reports.


    The attack is the third killing this week of coalition soldiers by Afghans who are training to take over responsibility for security once most international forces leave in 2014.

    So-called "green on blue" shootings, in which Afghan police or soldiers turn their guns on their Western mentors, have seriously eroded trust between the allies.

    According to NATO, there have been 24 such attacks on foreign troops since January in which 28 people have been killed. Last year, there were 21 attacks in which 35 people were killed.

    Senior Army leader slain
    Earlier, the Pentagon confirmed that three U.S. service members -- including a senior Army leader -- and an American aid worker were killed Wednesday by a suicide bomber in Kunar province.

    The victims included Command Sgt. Maj. Kevin J. Griffin, the most senior enlisted soldier for the 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division. Griffin, 45, of Riverton, Wyo., was a Bronze Star recipient who first enlisted in the Army in 1988.

    Maj. Thomas E. Kennedy, 35, of West Point, N.Y., and Air Force Maj. Walter D. Gray, 38, of Conyers, Ga., were also killed. USAID foreign service officer Ragaei Abdelfattah was identified as the other victim.

    On Tuesday, two gunmen wearing Afghan army uniforms killed a U.S. soldier and wounded two others in Paktia province in the east.

    And on Thursday, two Afghan soldiers tried to gun down a group of NATO troops outside a military base in eastern Afghanistan. No international forces were killed, but one of the attackers was killed as NATO forces shot back.

    NBC News' Courtney Kube, Jim Miklaszewski and Atia Abawi, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

    Slideshow: Afghanistan: Nation at a crossroads

    Ahmad Jamshid / AP

    More than ten years after the beginning of the war, Afghanistan faces external pressure to reform as well as ongoing internal conflicts.

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