Chapter 1

They jump out of planes and swim underwater. They trudge through swampland and sweat in the desert heat. Who are they. They’re the fearless fighters of the U.S military.

The Special Forces are some of the toughest best-trained military troops. Members of these top forces learn unconventional warfare. While regular soldiers only learn to use three or four weapons Special Forces weapons sergeants are skilled at using 80. They can assemble and use anything from an old-fashioned slingshot to a modern machine gun.

U.S Navy SEALs are fit and fearless. They have to be to finish the fourth week of BUD/S training. They spend this week running swimming crawling or paddling boats. They slog through obstacle courses and carry logs and inflatable boats. They do all this and more with only four hours of sleep in five days.

SEALs have unusual ways of getting around. They use amphibious assault crafts and mini-submarines. SEALs and their inflatable rafts can be dropped into water from a helicopter. SEALs call this a rubber duck entry.

unconventional warfare a way of fighting that is not like ordinary combat.

inflatable can be filled with air.

amphibious able to work on land and water.

What do U.S soldiers eat when they’re in combat. It’s called a Meal Ready-to-Eat MRE. A soldier drops a pouch of prepared food into a special heating bag and adds water. Minutes later a hot meal is ready. Now that’s fast food.

In 1960 U.S Air Force Captain Joseph W Kittinger Jr made a record-breaking jump. He jumped from a balloon 20 miles 32 kilometers above Earth to test out a new parachute system. Kittinger fell for nearly five minutes before his main parachute opened.

Sailors in the U.S Navy speak their own language. They sleep in racks and shower in the head. The wall is the bulkhead and the floor is the deck. A cranial is a helmet and a float coat keeps them afloat if they fall overboard.

Cramming 6'000 crew members onto one ship doesn’t leave much space for extra stuff. On Nimitz-class aircraft carriers crew members sleep 60-to-a-room. Crew members have a storage bin under their bed and a locker the size of your school locker for their belongings.

They knew how to fly every kind of American military plane. But they were never allowed to fly them in combat. Women Airforce Service Pilots WASP trained male fighter pilots and flew other missions for the U.S military during World War II 1939 1945. In 2010 nearly 66 years after the war the WASP received Congressional gold medals for their service.

In 1995 U.S Air Force Colonel Eileen Collins piloted a space shuttle. In 1999 she commanded the Columbia space shuttle. Colonel Collins is the first woman to pilot and command a space shuttle.

Today American military women do fly combat missions. Colonel Martha McSally was the first female Air Force pilot. In 1995 she became the first woman to fly a fighter jet in combat. In 2004 she became the first woman to command a fighter squadron. Colonel McSally flew more than 100 combat hours in an A-10 fighter jet.

Not all members of the military are human. Military working dogs are stationed around the world. Their keen noses sniff out bombs and drugs. Some dogs are trained to attack enemies. Some dogs even do parachute jumps with their handlers. squadron a unit of the military.