The ISIS Solution

JACK MURPHY is an eight-year Army Special Operations veteran who 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.

Growing up in New York, Jack enlisted in the U.S. Army at age nineteen. Completing Infantry Basic Training, Airborne School, and the Ranger Indoctrination Program, he was assigned to 3rd Ranger Battalion. As a Ranger, he served as an anti-tank gunner, sniper, and team leader, and he graduated from Ranger School and Sniper School.



After several deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq, he attended the Special Forces Assessment and Selection course and was selected as a special forces weapons sergeant. Over a year was spent training in the Special Forces Qualification Course, including further weapons training, SERE School, language training, and more.



Assigned as the senior weapons sergeant on a military free fall team in 5th Special Forces Group, Murphy was again sent to numerous schools and training courses before being deployed to Iraq. Acting as the senior trainer and adviser to an Iraqi SWAT team, his Special Forces team conducted Direct Action and other missions across northern Iraq.



After leaving the military in 2010, he is now working towards a degree in political science at Columbia University. 



Murphy is the author of Reflexive Fire, Target Deck, and the PROMIS series. As an author and managing editor for SOFREP.com, he has written numerous nonfiction articles about weapons, tactics, special operations, terrorism, and counter-terrorism. He has appeared in documentaries, on national television, and on syndicated radio as it relates to military current affairs. 

BRANDON WEBB is a former U.S. Navy SEAL; his last assignment with the SEALs was Course Manager for the elite SEAL Sniper Course, where he was instrumental in developing new curricula that trained some of the most accomplished snipers of the twenty-first century. Webb has received numerous distinguished service awards, including the Presidential Unit Citation and the Navy Commendation Medal with a “V” for “Valor,” for his platoon’s deployment to Afghanistan following the September 11 attacks. He is editor for Military.com’s blog Kit Up, SOFREP’s Editor in Chief, and a frequent national media commentator on snipers and related Special Operations Forces military issues.

PETER NEALEN stepped on the yellow footprints at MCRD San Diego in 2003. A year and a half later, he began training to be a Reconnaissance Marine. After graduating the Basic Reconnaissance Course, he deployed twice to Iraq as a Recon Marine with Bravo Co, 1st Recon Bn, before moving on to what was to become the reconstituted Force Recon Company, I MEF. By the time he finished his active service, he had qualified as a Combatant Diver, Navy/Marine Corps Parachutist, Marine Scout/Sniper, Scout/Sniper Team Leader, and Combat Tracker. He is now a Tactical Tracking Instructor, a freelance writer and contributor for SOFREP.com, and the author of the thrillers Task Force Desperate and Hunting in the Shadows.

Sean Runnette, a multiple AudioFile Earphones Award winner, has produced several Audie Award–winning audiobooks and has also narrated works by John Steinbeck and Richard P. Feynman. Of his performance of The Courage to be Free, AudioFile Magazine wrote "Runnette’s tender approach to every sentence and paragraph helps the author’s wisdom glow. Along with the understated power of the author’s writing, Runnette’s performance makes this one of the most arresting and thought-provoking audiobooks available today". He is a member of the American Repertory Theater company and has toured internationally with Mabou Mines, an avant-garde theater company. Sean's television and film appearances include Two If by Sea, Copland, Sex and the City, Law & Order, Third Watch.