Act of Valor - Navy SEALs

Act of Valor – a movie featuring real-life Navy SEAL operators

The Act of Valor movie is a modern war story. It is the only movie with real Navy SEALs posing as actors. Also, the missions in the film are all based on the real thing, and the Navy cooperated with the production on what had been an unprecedented level. The shooters are real SEALs and not actors.

Plot

Act of Valor is a Hollywood movie produced and directed by Mike McCoy and Scott Waugh and written by Kurt Johnstad. The movie follows a U.S. Navy SEAL team (story plot and mission suggest it is Seal Team 6, DEVGRU) as they embark upon a black operation to recover a kidnapped CIA agent.

It stars Alex Veadov, Roselyn Sánchez, Nestor Serrano and Emilio Rivera, as well as active-duty U.S. Navy SEALs and U.S. Navy Special Warfare Combatant-craft Crewmen. The film was released by Relativity Media on February 24, 2012. The film grossed $81 million worldwide and was nominated at the 70th Golden Globe Awards for Best Original Song.

Why real-life Navy SEAL operators?

In a scene that could have jumped out of a Michael Bay movie — or, in the Obama era of surgical warfare, a video monitor in the White House Situation Room — a team of DEVGRU operators boards a sleek yacht, populated with bikini-clad women, to track down and interrogate a dangerous international smuggler.

As Act of Valor developed with the real-life Navy SEALs on board as advisors, the filmmakers realized that no actors could realistically portray or physically fill the roles they had written and the actual SEALs and SWCC were drafted to star in the film. The SEALs and Special Boat Team members would remain anonymous, as none of their names appear in the film’s credits.

Act of Valor - Navy SEALs
The shooting of a scene with SWCCs from Special Boat Team 22 (Photo: Wikipedia)

The above-mentioned sequence is indeed from a movie: the new release “Act of Valor.” But the SEALs are real-life active-duty operators (the babes and the bad guy are actors), and the episode is an authentic training maneuver, although the yacht was provided by the film’s producers. That mix of fiction and realism is just what the filmmakers bet on to draw audiences to “Act of Valor”.

Recruitment?

Inability to grow the size of the SEAL teams. It is true that we cannot find enough young men to qualify and pass the training and the standards will never be lowered, so the push has been to broaden the recruiting through media.

That is the main goal of this movie-increase recruitment and excitement. Also, there are internal US Special Operations politics between the Army and Naval Special Warfare. Both organizations vying for positions and power (funding) within the Spec Ops structure.

Navy SEAL Trident
U.S. Navy SEAL Trident (Photo: Illustration)

In any event, the SEAL community as whole views this movie as a breach in our security because it shows way too many tactics, comms gear, weapons systems, etc and glorifies the job in a Hollywood-way. There is a lot of tension over this movie and recent press about DEVGRU.

I am of the opinion that this type of exposure hurts our future mission capabilities, gives way too much info to enemies and is “over the top” in a way that is hard for me to articulate. I am all for praising the accomplishments in a subtle way through news stories-like the Operation Neptune Spear (bin Laden raid)… But it goes against the grain of what the SEAL teams are all about…

But the surprising, if not unprecedented, use of so many active-duty military personnel, as well as the filmmakers’ embedded access to training missions and material (including a nuclear submarine) has put “Act of Valor” in the crosshairs of critics who question whether the movie crosses the line between entertainment and propaganda and whether the military should be in the movie business at all. The relationship between the Pentagon and Hollywood has raised eyebrows before, even prompting an occasional congressional investigation.

Act of Valor is rated 6,5/10 on the IMDB.

seal team tv show

SEAL Team is worth watching

There are plenty of movies and TV shows which is trying to relive some of the actions performed by U.S. Special Operations Forces, but one of the most sincere in the last few years is CBS’s SEAL Team.

The TV shows work mostly because it’s not reaching beyond its comfort zone. Following a team of heavily armed U.S. Navy SEALs carrying out covert operations with the aid of the Agency (CIA – Central Intelligence Agency), it’s an uncomplicated action series without twists or unnecessary spectacle, at least so far.

TV veteran David Boreanaz (Bones) plays Jason Hayes, the leader of the Tier One Navy SEALs group, and he’s an intense and focused guy not unlike the FBI agent he played for so many years on Fox’s series. Jason’s home life has crumbled due to his dedication to his work, and he’s haunted by the death of a teammate on a recent mission. The cast is rounded out by Jessica Paré (Mad Men) as a CIA analyst and Max Thieriot as a young and ambitious soldier trying to make it into the Tier One unit.

The TV drama plays to the strengths of its network, and its star. The missions are simple and paint the soldiers as patriotic and unimpeachably good. In last week’s second episode, Navy SEAL flirted with bigger questions about war and the state of the world, but all in the service of its core characters. The action is first-class, clean and often close up, prioritizing the operators’ points of view.

The lack of sensationalism is what makes SEAL Team a stronger entry into the military genre this fall than NBC’s The Brave and CW’s Valor. While the Brave is flashy, Valor is twisty and ill-conceived, and neither has a cast as engaging.

U.S. Navy SEAL Team is straightforward, but also enjoyable. Sometimes simple works. The show is rated with 7.3 on IMDB.

israeli girls

Hottest Weapon: Israeli Female Soldiers Show Off Their Sexy Side

If looks could kill Israeli military servicewomen could be at the forefront. Instagram account where the young camouflage-clad ladies demonstrate their beauty has already attracted tens of thousands of followers.
Military service in Israel is mandatory both for men and women, men serve three years, while women serve two.

These young women aren’t camera shy and have taken to Instagram to demonstrate that a military uniform and an M-16 over your shoulder can look dangerously sexy.

? Photo by @shirkatani Beauty will save the World #IDF #צהל #armygirl #צבא #Israel

Objavu dijeli GIRLS DEFENSE ? IDF (@girlsdefense)

? Photo by @elsakrief Beauty will save the World #IDF #צהל #armygirl #צבא

Objavu dijeli GIRLS DEFENSE ? IDF (@girlsdefense)

Some photos of the representatives of the army highlight the fact that the Israeli military uniform can look very feminine.

? Photo by @moran_bar_ Beauty will save the World #IDF #צהל #armygirl #צבא #Israel

Objavu dijeli GIRLS DEFENSE ? IDF (@girlsdefense)

Although the soldiers have to deal with heavy weaponry and intense training, the ladies are not afraid to show off their fun, playful side, posting sexy photos of themselves.

? Photo by @nataliafadeev Beauty will save the World #IDF #צהל #armygirl #צבא

Objavu dijeli GIRLS DEFENSE ? IDF (@girlsdefense)

Many Instagram followers look forward to seeing new photos of these Israeli beauties as there are over 50,000 people following #Girlsdefense on the social media platform.

Women are allowed to serve in 83 percent of the Israel Defense Forces, including combat units. They can choose to spend years of service in the offices of the General Staff, hospitals, educational institutions and other similar places.

However, many women proudly enroll in combat infantry, border police and other combat units.

GOE solved hostage crisis in BES bank after attempted bank robbery - shots fired

Incredible footage of BES bank robbery in Lisbon

Two armed robbers, reportedly illegal Brazilian immigrants, who held a pair of hostages for around eight hours, were shot by GOE marksmen in a Banco Espírito Santo (BES) branch at 72 Rua Marquês de Fronteira, Campolide near the center of the capital on August 14, 2008. The two men first held six hostages, and the situation escalated when they pinned guns to the heads of two bank employees as they moved towards the bank’s exit to get into a getaway vehicle parked outside the bank.

That was the moment when Grupo de Operações Especiais – GOE sniper were given the order to shoot the assailants. One robber died on the scene, while the other was hospitalized. In the second, when police snipers shot the assailants, the two captives fled from the bank to safety. Both hostages were unhurt but shaken after their ordeal.

Three shots were fired, two by the GOE officers and a third by the surviving robber, who fired his gun into the air as he fell after being shot. However, one of the hostages said she was surprised and somewhat dismayed this week that no psychological assistance had been provided for her.

Robber Nilton Sousa was shot dead while holding a sack containing the money in one hand and a gun in the other. He was killed with a single sniper shot by Grupo de Operações Especiais marksmen. The other robber suffered a bullet wound to the cheek. The wounded hostage-taker, Wellington Nazaré, was taken to Lisbon’s São José Hospital in handcuffs, where after surgery, he tried to escape, but his escape was stopped.

YouTube video

In taking their decisive and deadly action to terminate the hostage situation, Portugal’s Public Security Police (PSP) acted with “competence, dedication, and heroism,” Lisbon’s minister stated. It later emerged that the minister himself had given the “shoot-to-kill” order once negotiations with the would-be robbers, who had a bag containing €98,000, broke down.

The wounded robber, Wellington Nazaré, spent some time in Portugal prison after he recovered and then was deported to Brasil.