Strategic idiots and faux-bravado

Well the easiest thing in the world is to go back to what we should have or could have done, but presidents don’t get to back in time like Marty McFly and live back to the future. We have to work with the facts we have, so there is no point in speculating should we have done it? I think the question is, what do we do in light of the situation we are in. And here is what we have to do. America has to have the most formidable, fierce, military in the history of mankind. So when we have a threat, whether it is ISIS, Boko Haram, Al Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah, the Iranians, whatever it is, we make it very clear that we plan to push back and destroy that threat to us. And we won’t take 10 years doing it, we hopefully won’t even take 10 months, it will be like a 10 day exercise, because the fierceness of our forces would mean that we can absolutely guarantee the outcome of this film. That’s how America needs to operate in the world of foreign affairs, and foreign policy.

Buzzfeed

I won't invoke Godwin's Law......but a certain failed leader from mid-last century immediately came to mind when I read Huckabee's bluster.

Of course, on script, the allied interviewer resurrected the stale meme of our withdrawal from Iraq. Not because the interviewer and Huckabee are stupid.....but because they think you are stupid.

Long overdue upgrade to service sidearms

In a significant doctrinal shift, the U.S. military is relegating full metal jacketed (FMJ) pistol bullets to a training role, and will be adopting modern hollow point designs similar to those used by most domestic law enforcement agencies and citizens who carry handguns for self-defense.

The stunning announcement was made at the U.S Army’s Picatinny Arsenal in New Jersey yesterday during the military’s two-day “industry day” for the Modular Handgun System (MHS), which will conclude today.

Link

Not only is the Army actively looking for the replacement to the underwhelming Beretta 9mm, DoD is finally looking to move from standard ball ammunition to the more effective hollow points. This has been a bone of contention at least since adopting the M9 and discarding the reliable standby, the M1911 .45. I remember that transition well.....and it's left the U.S. military under-gunned ever since.

Kudos for finally [though long overdue] taking care of our service members [SOF not included; they've had the HK45CT and MEUSOC .45's for quite some time now.

USMC v. Army......Epic rap battle

Friday Follies.....Things my Recruiter never told me......

The Navy Chief I work with here sent me this.....just to rub it in a bit.

Homesick...An Essay on War and the American Homefront

I often wake up hoping I’d be in a cot. Hearing Jason screaming the lyrics to barbie girl. I’d roll over and click play on the pre-mission playlist; Big Krits  “Rise and Shine” plays. Maybe Poly would come in and slap my foot and say lets get chow or Ryan would have already been up giving me his leftovers while I tell him his sister is beautiful, A running joke that has been going on for nearly 4 years now.

I wake up in a full size bed on Long Island. No chow hall but easily accessible food everywhere in sight. I can get a breakfast sandwich if I really wanted. Freshy Fresh isn’t too far. I no longer see the faces I’ve grown comfortable and accustomed to seeing. The things that were so agitating have become memories and jokes. We would tip beer bottles and laugh about the indirect fire and Rashaldo’s reaction to it. The time when First Squad’s tent got deflated because of people playing with knives. It was a big deal, angry faces and threats left and right but in the end, why be mad? Brothers forgive. I can still hear Big Davis, Gabe, and Tony P arguing over the state of hip hop. Life was simple. Life was good.Life wasn’t promised.

When over there things didn’t matter. It just was. We had no control over what happened back in the United States. The only thing we could do is complete the task at hand. When that was done we had to enjoy the time we had. We never wanted to go there but we were there. We made the best of what it was. We hated the taste of dust in our mouths. We hated 10th Mountain’s leadership for making the rules that made our lives difficult. We hated the Taliban. We hated the IED’S.

We landed in El Paso, Texas and said hello to America. We put on normal clothes, Laced something other than combat boots and PT shoes, and Hopped in vehicles that weren’t MIne Resistant. Something felt missing and couldn’t explain what it was. Unlocking the door to our barracks room felt unreal. Eating jack in the box couldn’t compare to taco Tuesday on FOB Arian. The shopping mall didnt give you the same excitement as the PX on FOB Sharana. The comforts of America no longer made us feel normal. This wasn’t where we belonged. We became home sick for the place we never thought we would call home.

- Andy Gomez, Combat Engineer

Brian "Walter Mitty" Williams

I find this story.....and the assorted reactions to it, interesting. Williams tale don't really bother me, unless he was attempting to profit from false representation. I'm much more troubled over David Gregory's willful violation of law....and his protection from prosecution, than I am over a Walter Mitty war story. This was regarding one instance....made of whole cloth to be sure...but nowhere near the perfidy perpetrated by many who styled themselves as trained "commando's", with tales of derring-do.


But he seems to have an overdeveloped sense of importance that comes with being a bobblehead of an elitist, but dying medium.


One knows if the helicopter they are riding in is hit with an RPG. There is no grey area in this regard. They would know this due to the actions and directives of the crew chief aboard the Chinook.


Points of order; while riding in the back of a CH47 Chinook...unless the bird actually takes small arms fire [not mention an RPG]....you're not really in a position to know that enemy fire is anywhere near you. From the accounts I've seen, any small arms fire in the vicinity of Williams Chinook, hit the bridging being slingloaded underneath. Being in a Chinook is like riding in the back of a near windowless bus, especially strapped into the center facing bench seat, as he most certainly would have been.


I believe that Williams was told by the crew, after the fact, they the flight had come under fire, and another Chinook was forced to land. Now, perhaps Williams is of especially weak constitution, and has experienced self induced trauma from being indirectly near danger [though likely unknowingly at the time]....or more likely, he saw an opportunity to burnish his 'war correspondent' street cred, after a career of seemingly riding various desks in NYC.


He fabricated the story to embellish his credentials, insecurities or sense of importance. Which of those it is, I care not.

Insurgency v. Terrorism

The latest episode in political theater has the right wing pitted against the Obama Administration, for the latter not labeling the Taliban as a "terrorist organization"....though they fit the very definition of an "insurgency".

What do you think?

Who is playing semantic games this time?

A fleeting truce among gentlemen.......

Could it ever happen again?

Brigade HQ cabled him: "It is thought possible that enemy may be contemplating an attack during Xmas or New Year. Special vigilance will be maintained during this period. 

Nonetheless, Col Laurie...gave orders not to fire on the enemy the following day, unless they fired first. At 8.30pm on Christmas Eve, he signalled brigade HQ: "Germans have illuminated their trenches, are singing songs and are wishing us a Happy Xmas" 

Compliments are being exchanged but am nevertheless taking all military precautions." No shots had been fired since 8pm, he added. 

Col Laurie went on to describe how soldiers from both sides were mingling. The Germans, he wrote, were "fine men, clean and well clothed. They gave us a cap and helmet badge and a box of cigars. One of them states the war would be over in three weeks as they had defeated Russia!"

Brigade HQ replied at 12.35am – Christmas Day – saying: "No communication of any sort is to be held with the enemy, nor is he to be allowed to approach our trenches under penalty of fire being opened."

Irish Times

Pearl Harbor Day

Remember the fallen.......

When I was a young Soldier in West Germany in the 1980's

This couldn't even be imagined. h/t SNAFU!

1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division Soldiers dismount a M2/M3 Bradley Fighting Vehicle and advance on a target as dismounted Hungarian soldiers and soldiers in Hungarian BTR-80 Armored Personnel Carriers lay suppressive fire during a NATO demonstration at the closing ceremony of Iron Sword 2014 in Pabrade, Lithuania, Nov. 13.

Take a break from political theater...and remember what's important...

'Nuff said......

And the song remains the same.....

If you read enough news and watch enough cable television about the threat of the Islamic State, the radical Sunni Muslim militia group better known simply as ISIS, you will inevitably encounter a parade of retired generals demanding an increased US military presence in the region. They will say that our government should deploy, as retired General Anthony Zinni demanded, up to 10,000 American boots on the ground to battle ISIS. Or as in retired General Jack Keane’s case, they will make more vague demands, such as for “offensive” air strikes and the deployment of more military advisers to the region. 

But what you won’t learn from media coverage of ISIS is that many of these former Pentagon officials have skin in the game as paid directors and advisers to some of the largest military contractors in the world. Ramping up America’s military presence in Iraq and directly entering the war in Syria, along with greater military spending more broadly, is a debatable solution to a complex political and sectarian conflict. But those goals do unquestionably benefit one player in this saga: America’s defense industry.

HuffPo

Same as it ever was. Our media is utterly failing the nation. Party immaterial. While the average oxygen thief worries about Obama calling ISIS, ISIL.....or conjures contrived ire at their perception of media bias....they remain oblivious to the campaign by the major parties and the incestuous relationship with the American media, to keep the American public ignorant.

Bread and circuses. We deserve what befalls us.

A Soldiers Kit

On a winter’s day in 1915 the family of one Capt Charles Sorley – athlete, soldier and poet – received a package. It was his kit bag, sent home by his regiment from the Western Front, where Sorley had been killed, aged 20, at the Battle of Loos. Out of this bag came a life abridged: personal effects, items of uniform and a bundle of papers, from which emerged his now famous sonnet When You See Millions of the Mouthless Dead. A new photographic survey of military kits now illustrates that curious combination. The photographer Thom Atkinson has recorded 13 military kits for his ‘Soldiers Inventories’ series.

Link

Hunkering down tonight, as I do this day every year since returning home

Another Independence Day.....another day dreading the fireworks displays. The local news where I currently find myself, says that this years display will be "the largest and loudest yet"......the onlookers will be "able to feel the explosions reverberate in their bodies". These will be taking place less than a half a mile from where I'm staying. Yay.

At The Swash Zone, somebody puts to words what I haven't yet.

For many years, our country has proudly embraced our heritage of blowing shit up by scheduling an annual celebration of gunpowder and explosions. 

However, as more veterans return from the battlefield scarred with wounds they may never recover from, both physical and psychic, the media is finally noting something that some of us noted some years ago: perhaps some of our veterans don't appreciate random explosions in their neighborhood. 

It's a fairly simple equation, one that I can attest to myself, but only to an extremely limited extent. (My older son, returned from far too many tours in Afghanistan, struggles with PTSD every day.) 

There is something about being in a high-stress environment, and having no warning as to when a loud noise might mean the death of a friend or a companion. Or worse, the knowledge that you, yourself, might never hear the last echo dying away, as you do the same yourself. 

There are many reasons to oppose fireworks, especially here in New Mexico. Hundreds and thousands of acres of land are destroyed every year, homes are destroyed and people are killed, because of wildfires here in the Southwest, many of them caused by unregulated use of fireworks. But there's another fact that the American people are finally realizing. 

In honoring our nation's history, you are, perhaps inadvertently, harming our nation's veterans. 

Way to support the troops, America.

"Because of you...I got to have them....."

After being separated for four years, U.S. Marine Lance Cpl. Jeffrey DeYoung will finally see his brother, "Chicken," again. 

DeYoung, 23, gave the black Labrador, actually named Cena, the moniker and called him his brother when the two worked by each other's side for about six months from 2009 to 2010 during explosive-searching service in Afghanistan. 

"I probably won't sleep tonight," DeYoung, a Grand Rapids native, said on Wednesday, June 4, of his anticipation to see his partner. 

Now that 6-year-old Cena has completed his military service, DeYoung will adopt him. They will reunite at Detroit Metro Airport on Thursday morning. 

"Hopefully, he'll remember it," DeYoung said of the name Chicken.

Link

Though they hadn't seen each other for four years, DeYoung and his old friend seem to get along perfectly -- and judging from the MLive video above, he's not the only one in the family who's fallen in love with Cena. 

"Because of you, I got to have them," DeYoung told Cena as his two young daughters made friends with the dog.

Link

When the SOCOM Commander speaks.....you should listen

This has been on the net for a couple of weeks now, so I'm finally getting around to sharing it. THIS is what commencement speeches should be.

The Curious Case of the Walkabout Deserter

So Bowe Bergdahl has been released in exchange for five Taliban detainees. I'm happy we have him back, but what would otherwise be euphoria over the return of a Brother-in-Arms, is tempered by the fact that he deserted during wartime.

UCMJ Article 85. Desertion 

(a) Any member of the armed forces who– 

(1) without authority goes or remains absent from his unit, organization, or place of duty with intent to remain away therefrom permanently;(2) quits his unit, organization, or place of duty with intent to avoid hazardous duty or to shirk important service; or(3) without being regularly separated from one of the armed forces enlists or accepts an appointment in the same or another on of the armed forces without fully disclosing the fact that he has not been regularly separated, or enters any foreign armed service except when authorized by the United States; is guilty of desertion. 

(b) Any commissioned officer of the armed forces who, after tender of his resignation and before notice of its acceptance, quits his post or proper duties without leave and with intent to remain away therefrom permanently is guilty of desertion. 

(c) Any person found guilty of desertion or attempt to desert shall be punished, if the offense is committed in time of war, by death or such other punishment as a court-martial may direct, but if the desertion or attempt to desert occurs at any other time, by such punishment, other than death, as a court-martial may direct.

Bowe Bergdahl left OP Mest in Paktika Province, where he was a member of B 1/501st (ABN). He left in the dead of night, without his weapon and kit. And according to some who served with him, he left after acting and speaking strangely...about the war, his 'purpose in life', etc....

Some of his teammates have stated other points about his 'capture'...but that isn't confirmed, at least for public knowledge. But we do know this.....as soon as he entered status as a DUSTWUN [Duty Status Whereabouts Unknown]...a massive amount of resources were pulled away from scheduled missions, countless lives were endangered [and some quite possibly lost] looking for Bergdahl and his 'captors'. Some accounting can be read over at The Liberty Zone. Another unverified source is the Twitter account of one who claims to have been in Bergdahl's platoon at OP Mest. I can't vouch for the account, but as a longtime Infantry guy....his accounts ring true.

Although he will be the subject of an Article 15-6 investigation, I think it is likely that the ruling will be that he had 'suffered' enough at hands of his captors, and he will be medically discharged from service with a pretty enormous amount of back pay and the status of former prisoner of war. Nobody is going to wish to shine light on how Bergdahl's actions prior to his 'capture' went unnoticed, unreported, or un-actioned. Nobody is going to wish to shine lift on how Bergdahl was able to leave OP Mest undetected and unmolested.

Much hay is being made of the fact that we 'negotiated with terrorists', and the underlying implication that this position is US policy and something we simply do not do. However, a cursory scan of the history of US foreign policy will reveal that we always negotiate with terrorists. And we always will. Much of it doesn't come to light, and much of it is whitewashed for public consumption, but the fact remains.

Frankly, I'm not worried abut the five Taliban detainees that were released in exchange for Bergdahl. The Quetta Shura Taliban, the Haqqani Network, HiG and lesser groups, do not pose a transitional threat to the homeland.

But this will be another act in the politico-media theater that drives most people's lives and gives them something to bitch about.

Long Tabber calls out Celebutwit

By Bryan Sikes, SFC, USAClash Daily Guest Columnist 

To Miss Paltrow, 

I’d first like to start out by saying how terrible I feel for you and all your friends that on a daily basis have to endure mean words written by people you don’t know. I can only imagine the difficulty of waking up in a 12,000 square foot Hollywood home and having your assistant retrieve your iPhone, only to see that the battery is low and someone on twitter (the social media concept that you and all of your friends contribute to on an hourly basis to feed your ego and narcissistic ways), has written a mean word or 2 about you. You’ve hit the nail on the head, war is exactly like that. You should receive a medal for the burden you have carried on your shoulders due to these meanies on social media.You said, “Its almost like, how in war, you go through this bloody dehumanizing thing and then something is defined out of it.” I could see how you, and others like you in “the biz”, could be so insecure and mentally weak that you could pair the difficulty of your life on twitter to my brothers who have had their limbs ripped off and seen their friends shot, blown up, burned and disfigured, or wake up every morning in pain – while just starting the day is a challenge. How about our wives? The ones that sign on to be there for us through thick and thin, that help us to shake the hardships of war upon our return? And do all this while being mothers to our kids, keeping bills in order because we are always gone, and keeping our lives glued together. They do all this, by the way, without a team of accountants, nanny’s, personal assistants, and life coaches. Yeah, reading a mean tweet is just like all that. 

You know what is really “dehumanizing”, Miss Paltrow? The fact that you’d even consider that your life as an “A-list” celebrity reading internet comments could even compare to war and what is endured on the battlefield. You and the other “A-listers” that think like you are laughable. You all have actually convinced yourselves that you in some way face difficulty on a regular basis. Let me be the first to burst your bubble: a long line at Starbucks, your driver being 3 minutes late, a scuff mark on your $1200 shoes and a mean tweet do not constitute difficulty in the eyes of a soldier. 

Understand me when I say this: war does not define me. It is a chapter in my life that helped shaped me. Being a husband and father is what defines me. Remember, sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never…be close to what war is.

Link

Thoughts on the abducted Nigerian girls

Borrowed of course, but well stated.

Change of Command ceremonies generally suck.....

But not this one. An appropriate post given my current duty location.

The ceremony was unusual in that it did not include the full division formation on Weyand Field. That was because about a third of the division’s Stryker and aviation brigades were involved in mission training, and other units were in the Philippines and New Zealand for exercises, Fuller said. Another battalion was out training at Schofield’s Jungle Operations Course.

The Hawaiian warriors dance that opened the ceremony was “a way to show our admiration and respect for the Hawaiian and Pacific islands culture,” Fuller said. The 25th was activated in Hawaii just months before the Pearl Harbor attack in December 1941. 

The division’s deep roots here make it “forever part of Hawaii,” Fuller said.

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