At least four people have been injured in a shooting at a San Bernardino elementary school. 

A shooter entered North Park Elementary School on Monday morning, opening fire in one of the classrooms. 

The injured include the shooter, a teacher and two students. The students were taken to hospital and the condition of others involved is not known.  

San Bernardino Police Chief Jarrod Burguan said  the incident appeared to be an attempted murder suicide.

It is not yet clear whether the shooter was a student at the school. 

'We have a shooter down and three victims.  One of them is a teacher, the other two are unknown, and their condition is unknown. 

'We believe the situation is contained,' Maria Garcia, a spokeswoman for San Bernardino City Unified told The San Bernardino Sun. 

Others were taken to nearby Cajon High School for safety, he said. 

The San Bernardino Fire Department first reported 'multiple' gun shot wound victims at the school.  

Students at the nearby California State University in San Bernardino were told to take shelter.

Via Dailymail.com 

Chiang Kai Shek’s Nationalist Chinese government outlived the Japanese effort to conquer China, but at a terrible cost.  After defeating Japan in concert with the Allies, Chiang’s government faced the formidable leadership of Mao Ze Dong and his Communist guerilla army.  Mao husbanded his resources during the Japanese war to outlive the Nationalist government and the two sides renewed a brutal civil war.

Seeking to expand Chinese territory in an area with no possible resistance, Nationalist Chinese geographer Yang Huairen developed a map of Chinese claims to the South China Sea, pictured above, released around 1947 (reports conflict on the year it was released).  The eleven curved dashes enveloping the South China Sea were arbitrarily placed to delineate “historical” Chinese blue water territory.

Mao’s Communist forces drove Chiang’s Nationalist forces to Taiwan in 1949 and consolidated power in mainland China, founding the People’s Republic of China (“PRC”).  The PRC adopted Yang Huairen’s map but removed two of the original eleven dashes on the map between the PRC’s Hainan Island and North Vietnam. 

China has yet to specify the exact coordinates of the dashes on their current nine-dashed line claims (see map below).  The nine-dashed line claims of the South China Sea comprise approximately 2,000,000 square kilometers of seas, islands, and rocks.  As is visible in the accompanying maps, China’s claims abut closely to her maritime neighbors, swallowing islands and rock features claimed by these nations.

The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (“UNCLOS”) of 1982 governs maritime claims around the globe.  Although the United States has not ratified the treaty, it recognizes the international law codified in it.  China is a party to UNCLOS.

China quietly claimed the seas and land features inside the nine-dashed line from 1949 until 2009, when China submitted two Notes Verbales to the United Nations Secretary General.  These documents and others filled later, put neighbor states on notice of China’s historical and legal claims to the South China Sea, which the PRC claims are supported by “abundant historical and legal evidence.”

In July 2016 the Permanent Court of Arbitration at the Hague held that China’s nine-dashed line claims had no legal basis.  The PRC disputes the ruling.  China is yet to give a convincing account of why it has inherent historical sovereignty rights in the South China Sea.  While it is true that China has a rich maritime history in the area, (see the voyages of Chinese Admiral Zheng He, 1405-1433) this is not a unique heritage among nations.  Indeed, the South China Sea has been a maritime commons in use by many nations for much of history.

My name's Mike and I'm a former Special Forces Engineer Sergeant. I medically retired from the Army in 2014, at 80% disabled. I’m the  father of 3 kids ranging in age from 10 to 15 years old, and I'm usually just an all-around happy guy that cracks corny jokes, leaving my kids shaking their heads. Oh...and I look at child pornography. Wait...what?! I'll explain.

Deployment was over. I didn't have to deal with dangerous missions or people that wanted to kill me any chance that they got. Once my body knew that I was home safe and I could let my guard down it shut down on me. I was in tremendous pain, and could barely move. I experienced pain in my back while deployed, and while wearing body armor, but this was even worse. That's when I decided to go to my doc, and have him check me out. 

What followed next was being taken away from my team, and being told that I couldn't do what I loved to do anymore. I was forced to medically retire. What would I do for a career? I was approached with a few opportunities making big money doing various things.

One opportunity stuck out, though. And how much money was involved, you ask? It was an unpaid internship, so...no money. It was an opportunity to help sexually exploited children and put away the monsters that exploit them. To me, that is more valuable than money.

After a ten month internship with the Human Exploitation Rescue Operative (“H.E.R.O.”) Child Rescue Corps, in conjunction with Homeland Security and my local Sheriff's office, I was brought on full-time with Homeland Security. In the cases that I work, I look at some of the most disturbing things imaginable. There have been times where I've been at home and caught my hands still shaking because of what I had seen earlier that day. 

People ask me “How can you do that?” Well, it's not easy. I have certain ways that I handle each situation, and only on rare occasions do I come across things that I have a very hard time handling

Does it take a toll on my mind? Sure it does. Somebody has to do it, though, and it absolutely 100% has to be done.

While it helps the children, and it also makes me feel like an important part of society, which was something I really needed due to depression I suffered from not being able to be a Green Beret anymore. I get to save kids, but something that they'll never know is that they have saved me as well. My mind went dark a few times, and I was filled with hate and anger. I was almost unrecognizable on an emotional level to people that were close to me. Helping these children pulled me out of it.

In order to deal with the distress of extreme cases, I pursue physical outlets. Every day at lunch you'll find me lifting weights. On the weekends you'll catch me going on hikes or other adventures with my family that requires some sort of physical exertion.  Sure some of that stuff aggravates my disabilities a little bit, but ultimately it helps my mind heal. By doing these things, opening up to the right people, and compartmentalizing things a bit allows me to keep moving forward, to achieve my new goal of making the world a safer place for children.

One of the greatest rewards of this job are the times that we come across a live child being exploited and my agency and I are able to rescue him or her. We know the child has a long way to recovery, but the direct physical harm is over, and their personal monster will never see the light of day again.

I am really grateful to be able to put my run-and-gun attitude to this new and important mission. There are many battles to fight in this world and when you are no longer able to perform in one way, there is always another on waiting for your drive and determination somewhere else.  It was up to me to find it and when presented with the opportunity, I was able to say yes. Once again, I am working protect those that are unable to protect themselves, and try to chip away at the evil in the world. 

“The shot heard round the world.”  It’s funny to think this was penned originally by Emerson referencing the Revolutionary war when it seems it could be used to describe what took place to me a little over one year ago today, January 5th 2016.  Two men walked inside our white picket fence, up on to our porch, and sent my dogs in a frenzy.  I came out of the kitchen to see two berets in the top window of our front door.  One was the deep red of an airborne soldier with a cross indicating a chaplain.  The other was green like the one my husband Matthew wore, the one I have in the dash of our car, the one my son Declan wears around our house. 

They rang the doorbell, they knocked on the wide old door, and they knew I saw them but somehow I couldn’t move.  The 100 year old hardwoods beneath my feet had been refinished by hand in the dream house Matt and I had just bought to raise our son in.  Our son, who was sleeping on the couch peacefully in his car-seat, after just being brought inside only feet from the front door, our son who I would do anything to protect from the shot heard round our world.  Those beautiful hardwood floors we had loved so much were no longer enough to hold me up while everything came crashing down around us and they swallowed me whole.  

I woke up on January 5th as though it was any other day in what I thought was an already difficult life.  The wife of a Green Beret, the mother to a two month old son, the woman diagnosed with severe postpartum depression, postpartum Anxiety, and postpartum OCD.  I wasn’t even aware those were real things until I sat across from an expert in the field with a tear streaked face after not eating or sleeping for days for fear of doing something wrong, something that would damage my boy, who was the most precious thing I’d ever seen.  He was the son my husband waited his whole life for.  The little boy I never knew I wanted would become my reason to stay alive.

There are days you think your life can’t possibly get worse, you’re at the bottom, and then?  Then those floors fall out from underneath you.  I started my day as normal.  I’d recently been told I could start being alone more with our son.  I woke up in the house alone after over a month of my father living with us. 

I had my morning cup of coffee and got Declan ready to go to the doctor because we had a therapy appointment that day.  We got in our bright red car and drove through the normal Seattle misting weather to our appointment.  We picked up my father on our way and went to therapy and had what we had decided was my “mini graduation” because I’d be leaving in two days to fly and spend the last few weeks of my husband’s deployment with his family. 

I left my appointment feeling like I’d accomplished so much.  My therapist described the amazing leaps she’d seen in my progress and said my ability to leave the house now was such a huge success.  We made arrangements to have phone check-ins and we parted ways.  On the way home I dropped my father off and with his parting, I felt the sinking in my stomach that indicated something was horribly wrong. 

I looked back and saw Declan looking at himself in the mirror and started asking Siri to call different friends of Matthew and I’s until someone answered.  My friend assured me everything was ok but asked if she should come over just so I wouldn’t be alone.  I told her I was sure I was just being paranoid and that it would be fine… one of the biggest lies I’ve ever told.  

I arrived home with our son fast asleep in his infant car seat (of course he’d wait until we got home) and I set him in his carrier on the couch.  Realizing I’d left my empty coffee cup on the couch I picked it up to take to the kitchen… then the shot came. 

Surrounded by love, like the warmest hug on the coldest day we somehow made it through the last year with each steady dedicated step forward, sometimes crawling, sometimes carried by the love of our family and friends, sometimes dancing in memories.  Somehow we made it this year, an entire year, without our sun and our stars, we survived a year without gravity and we’ve done it by clawing our way through and knowing the love we’re enveloped in is never ending. 

I’ve spent so much time curled up on those same hardwood floors sobbing, spent so much time cursing the sky, so much time chasing our son, so much time playing peekaboo, so much time laying on the floor while I get crawled over.  I watched Declan start crawling and eventually watched his first steps in our house, on our floor.  We’ve hosted family, we’ve held parties, we’ve had days where getting out of bed was our biggest accomplishment.  

I feel like I’m supposed to say that the anniversary was harder than the other days, that it was the hardest day.  The hardest day was just over a year ago today, but the anniversary?  The anniversary is a ricochet, a loud echo, a rerun.  We survived the shot, today is just one more of many horrific days we have survived (and will continue to survive) with the strength of those around us to lean on.

I’ll tell you what the anniversary was, more importantly, it was a day every single person stopped, took a moment, and said Matthew’s name.  They remembered him.  They kept him alive.

You die twice, the first time when your soul leaves this world, the second when your name is spoken for the last time.  Matthew will never be fully gone.  On the anniversary, our son and I, along with our closest family and friends, spent the day with Matthew at his grave in section 60 of Arlington National Cemetery.  As we pulled up, Eye of the Tiger came on.  I think Matt has so many ways of letting me know he’s still here with us and all of you are with us every day, that’s what makes the harder days survivable.  To everyone around the world that heard the shot and rushed to help, thank you, thank you so so deeply. 

This case study is of a good friend of mine (written with his consent) who sustained a through-and-through gunshot wound from an AK47 round from a range of approximately 200m. The operator who was shot belonged to a US Government Agency, and my element and his were on a combined counter-narcotic job in Southern Afghanistan at the time. To set the scene, we had two targets to hit that day, the first of which was a raw opium deal in a Taliban-held village, and the second being the clearance of a known Taliban weapons and drugs cache.

We had planned a daytime raid for the first job as to catch the opium trade at the time that intelligence suggested it was taking place. The intel was good, and we were met with minimal resistance as we inserted on target, with the following photos showing some the haul of wet opium and IED componentry, including a bunch of low metal signature anti-personnel mines.

The Taliban had fled the center of town as we inserted, however as time passed on target they began to regroup in several compounds on the outskirts of town and started to engage us with harassing fire. As extraction approached the fire intensified and by the time the last helicopter of our extraction package landed we were engaged in a decent gunfight. Unfortunately, the final extraction bird overflew the designated, and relatively protected, landing zone and landed in an exposed area approximately 200m from a cemetery in which several Talibs had taken up fire positions. The following video is of our chalk running to meet the extraction helicopter as it sits exposed in open ground. The operator who sustains the gunshot wound is the one who I kneel immediately next to. As luck would have it he chose the split second before he was shot to stand and turn to board the helicopter, causing the bullet to rip through his buttock and exit the front of his thigh, whereas it would have likely struck his head if he had remained kneeling.

As with any casualty in a tactical or high-threat environment, the highest priorities are to control the threat situation if possible, minimize the likelihood of sustaining further casualties or becoming a casualty yourself, and only then move on to casualty assessment and treatment. The video below demonstrates these principles in what has been coined by the Committee on Tactical Combat Casualty Care (CoTCCC) as Care Under Fire. The video is of a Reality Based Training (RBT) scenario in which an operator in the open has sustained a gunshot wound to the leg and is bleeding arterially. The responding operators assess the situation without exposing themselves to the fire-lane in which the simulated casualty has been shot. After encouraging the casualty to apply his own tourniquet and crawl to them, the responding operators use a combination of suppressing fire and smoke to suppress the threat and conceal the extraction of the casualty to a position of cover. From there a rapid assessment and treatment of only the immediately life-threatening injury is performed before further extracting the casualty to a safer locality.

Applying these principles to the original video, the highest priority after the casualty had been sustained was to continue to suppress the threat, load the casualty onto the helicopter, and then assess the casualty once we had launched back into the relative safety of the air.

In our pre-mission planning for the mission, we had considered the possibility of sustaining casualties during all mission phases, including on extraction from the first target. As the flight time between Target 1 and Target 2 was approximately 10 minutes, the plan for that contingency was to do a rapid assessment of the casualty to determine if they were in need of immediate surgical intervention or not. This would then dictate whether we would divert our aircraft directly to a surgical facility or proceed to Target 2 and leave the casualty on board the helicopter to return for medical care once the remainder of us had inserted on the second target.

From the time I boarded the helicopter on extraction from Target 1, the clock was ticking to make that assessment. Despite the suboptimal conditions in the back of the helicopter for casualty assessment, it was immediately evident that he was conscious, alert and talking, suggesting that his airway and breathing were not in immediate danger. The quick scrub done by other operators prior to me boarding the aircraft had identified a bleed in the casualty’s left buttock region, which was exposed by cutting away the casualty’s pants with trauma shears. Once exposed it was clear that the wound was not bleeding arterially, and was in no need of packing with any form of hemostatic dressing. Whilst I could see what appeared to be both an entrance and exit wound, my final concern was that the bullet may have fragmented and some might have entered his abdomen, as seen in the case study linked here. I have edited the video of the extraction prior to my full assessment of the casualty as not to show faces of fellow operators, but following what is seen on the video I conducted a brief assessment of the casualty’s abdomen to ascertain that there were no immediate signs of catastrophic internal bleeding. Once done, I relayed the message through to our headquarters element that the casualty was “Category Bravo” and didn’t need any immediate life-saving interventions. We proceeded to insertion on Target 2 and left the casualty on board the helicopter to return to base and get surgical attention.

The casualty had an initial surgical clean out of the wound when he returned to base and the tract of the bullet was packed with a wick dressing to allow it to continue to drain any infection out, rather that have it trapped in the tissues of the buttock to form an abscess. He turned up to work for the very next job, less than 36 hours after being shot!

The following images were taken at the end of that day. The early bruising from the temporary cavitation of the projectile dissipating energy into the tissues can be seen in these images but is better appreciated in the next series of photos a few days later.

The series of photos below were taken at day 4 post-injury. Here it can be seen the extent of tissue damage radiating out from the path of the bullet as the temporary cavity pulverized small blood vessels i its path. For a detailed review of how high-velocity projectiles cause damage through permanent and temporary cavitation please see my previous article “Why I’d rather be shot by an AK47 than and M4”.

The photo above is a snapshot of a high-velocity projectile as it passes through ballistic gelatin calibrated to the density of human tissue. The pressure wave emanating out from the projectile causing the temporary distortion to the gelatin is what destroys small blood vessels immediately adjacent to the bullet tract and accounts for the bruising seen in the images below.

Despite antibiotics and daily wound cleaning and dressing changes, by day 7 post-injury the casualty’s wound had become infected. It can be appreciated that as the projectile passes through the human tissue it takes with it contaminants from the bullet itself, as well as the clothing that it has struck before entering the tissues, which in Afghanistan was always contaminated with dust with high fecal content. This coupled with the huge alternating positive and negative pressures associated with the temporary cavitation process seed these contaminants throughout the wound. The fact that the casualty (to his credit) continued to go out on jobs almost every day during the week following his wounding also made him a sitting duck for serious infection in the wound.

At day 7 we needed to give the wound a good scrub out and hit the casualty with a solid dose of intravenous antibiotics to get back on top of the infection. For anyone who has ever cleaned the barrel of a dirty rifle, the process of cleaning the casualty’s wound was remarkably similar. After a light anesthetic, a medical grade “bore cleaner” was used to scrub the wound out again and over the course of the next week the infection settled nicely allowing the wound to heal.

The principles discussed in this article about the immediate management of a casualty in a high-threat environment relate to a military context, however, are as applicable to the civilian context. A good example of this is a car crash on a busy road. Applying the same principles, it is important to minimize the likelihood of further casualties or becoming a casualty yourself by taking a few seconds to assess the scene before you respond. If there’s someone available to send up the road to warn traffic then that’s a great idea. Next step is to get on the phone and alert the authorities to get some help on the way. From there, assess as to whether there’s any immediate danger from the crashed car. Is it leaking fuel, or at risk of catching on fire? If so, this needs to be taken into consideration before engaging. Ideally after a car crash where spinal injuries are suspected the casualty should be stabilized in place and only moved once appropriate spinal precautions are in place. That said if the casualty is in a car that is starting to catch fire, staying safe yourself and getting the casualty out to a place of safety are the highest priorities. Furthermore, as with our pre-mission planning in the case study above to prepare for the contingency of a casualty on extraction from Target 1, a bit of pre-mission planning for a car crash is not a bad idea. A small medical kit with an arterial tourniquet and a few pressure dressings tucked away in the boot of your car will give you the very best chance of saving a preventable death in the instance that you’re on scene at a car crash before the paramedics. The same principles can be applied to hunting and camping trips; four-wheel driving in remote areas, a rock-climbing trip, and the list goes on…

As a sad aside, on Target 2 on the day of the case study we were once again met with fierce resistance and devastatingly lost one of our brothers. May he rest in peace and may we never forget the fallen.

Rest in Peace brother

As always, questions and comments are welcome. Kind regards, Dan.

Chief Special Warfare Operator William “Ryan” Owens, 36, of Peoria, Ill., died after he was wounded during a nighttime raid on an al-Qaeda-held village in southwestern Yemen on Saturday.

Three other members of Owens’s unit were wounded in the ensuing gun battle, and an additional three service members were injured when their transport aircraft crashed nearby.

 In a statement, the Pentagon said Owens was assigned to an “East      Coast based Special Warfare unit,” a turn of phrase for the elite Navy  SEALs, including Naval Special Warfare Development Group or SEAL  Team 6.

“Ryan gave his full measure for our nation, and in performing his duty, he upheld the noblest standard of military service,” Secretary of Defense James Mattis said in a statement. “The United States would not long exist were it not for the selfless commitment of such warriors.”

The Pentagon billed Saturday’s raid as an intelligence-gathering mission against militants from al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, a group the United States has targeted since 2002. While the last U.S.-led ground operation against the militants was in 2014, the Obama administration has sporadically targeted the group with airstrikes in the years since.

In a statement Sunday, after Owens’s death was announced, President Trump said the operation was successful and 14 fighters were killed.

Local reports said that more than a dozen civilians were also slain in the battle, including the daughter of the radical Yemeni-American cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who was killed in 2011 in a U.S. drone strike. On Monday, the Pentagon said it was assessing the civilian casualty claims.

Owens enlisted in the Navy in 1998, serving his first enlistment with naval intelligence before volunteering for the SEALs in the months before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, according to a limited service record provided by the Navy. He finished basic SEAL training in 2002 and was sent to his first unit, located on the West Coast, in 2003.

Owens was previously awarded two Bronze Stars with Valor distinguishing devices and had eight Sea Service Deployment ribbons when he was killed. He will be posthumously awarded the Purple Heart.

Source: Thomas Gibbons-Neff, Washingtonpost

“SANAA, Yemen -- The U.S. military said Sunday that one service member was killed and three others wounded in a raid in Yemen targeting its local al Qaeda branch, marking the first-known combat death of a U.S. soldier under President Donald Trump’s new administration.

A U.S. military officer told CBS News the raid was approved by Mr. Trump.   

U.S. Central Command said in a statement that a fourth service member was injured in a “hard landing” in a nearby location. The aircraft - an MV-22 Osprey, CBS News correspondent David Martin confirms - was unable to fly afterward and was “intentionally destroyed.”

The Central Command statement said 14 militants from al Qaeda’s branch in Yemen, formally known as “al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula,” were killed in the assault and that U.S. service members taking part in the raid captured “information that will likely provide insight into the planning of future terror plots.”

Yemeni security and tribal officials said the assault in Yemen’s central Bayda province killed three senior al Qaeda leaders.

The surprise dawn attack in Bayda province killed Abdul-Raouf al-Dhahab, Sultan al-Dhahab, and Seif al-Nims, the officials said.

The al-Dhahab family is considered an ally of al-Qaida, which is now chiefly concentrated in Bayda province. A third family member, Tarek al-Dhahab, was killed in a previous U.S. drone strike several years ago. It was not immediately clear whether the family members were actual members of al Qaeda.

The U.S. troops killed or wounded some two dozen men, including some Saudis present at the site, according to the Yemeni officials - who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief journalists.

An official with al Qaeda confirmed the killings, describing the attack as a “massacre” and saying that women and children had been killed as well although he provided no evidence to back his claim. He said Apache attack helicopters struck the area from the air before dropping commandos in for the raid, which took place near Yakla village in Radaa district. He spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

Just over a week ago, suspected U.S. drone strikes killed three other alleged al-Qaida operatives in Bayda province in what was the first-such killings reported in the country since Mr. Trump assumed the U.S. presidency.

The tribal officials said the Americans were looking for al-Qaida leader Qassim al-Rimi, adding that they captured and departed with at least two unidentified individuals.

Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, long seen by Washington as among the most dangerous branches of the global terror network, has exploited the chaos of Yemen’s civil war, seizing territory in the south and east.

The war began in 2014, when Shiite Houthi rebels and their allies swept down from the north and captured the capital, Sanaa. A Saudi-led military coalition has been helping government forces battle the rebels for nearly two years.

Separately, Yemen’s president Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi a day earlier called for the remnants of his parliament, many of whom are in exile in Saudi Arabia or elsewhere, to convene in the country’s southern city of Aden, where he is struggling to establish government control.”

--Cited from CBS News

By J.R. Jameson

On Wednesday, President Obama commuted the sentence of Chelsea Manning for her role in the WikiLeaks scandal of 2010.  Manning a soldier who was convicted by court martial in 2013 under the Espionage act and under another 22 separate charges to include aiding the enemy.  Originally she intended to leak the information to the Washington Post and the NY Times, but upon their disinterest then decided to pass the information to WikiLeaks in what became known as the Afghan and Iraq War Logs. She wrote in later statements that the more she had tried to fit in the army, the more alienated she felt. The relationship with WikiLeaks had given her a brief respite from the isolation and anxiety.

The veteran community is in an uproar because for them the severity of the crime outweighs the possibility of catching a bigger fish. And the precedent this action may set is very troubling to the community. Manning swore an oath to defend this country and broke it in one of the most heinous ways possible. Manning didn’t just leak classified information to the press, she essentially copied the entire SIPRNet drive and gave it to WikiLeaks to publish. These documents contained the names of informants, interpreters, numerous State Dept. cables, etc. In any other war, at any other time in our history, Manning would have been tried for treason.

Manning was not someone who saw some sort of wrongdoing and went to the press to expose injustice. Those people are called whistleblowers and there are a whole set of laws to protect them. If she thought what she was doing was whistleblowing she would have exposed an item or an agenda.  What she did was hand over an intelligence trove that foreign intelligence agencies only dream of. Aside from all of the military intel on the drive, it also contained State Dept cables containing the thoughts and positions the US held on world leaders. She took no action to safeguard or redact any of the data she handed over.  She was the worst kind of Soldier, sitting in her safe space, stewing in an already grand inferiority complex, she decided that what she needed was attention and this would make her an internet sensation.

She hoped she would be seen as a social justice warrior, and believed that her actions were brave. All she did was betray her country and the oath she swore to defend it.  Her actions resulted in the deaths of many individuals who were trying to do the right thing and work against the radical Islamic insurgencies in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Because she gave no forethought to what she was doing she handed over reams of intelligence data to enemies of this country.

Throughout this scandal with Manning, this administration has set a dangerous precedent. The government chose not to charge her with treason which carries an automatic penalty of death or life in prison. Manning’s most serious charge, aiding the enemy, carries a possibility of life in prison, but she was sentenced to 35 years in prison instead. Now by President Obama commuting Manning’s prison sentence, he minimizes the severity of jeopardizing national security.

Senator McCain was quoted saying "It is a sad, yet perhaps fitting commentary on President Obama’s failed national security policies that he would commute the sentence of an individual that endangered the lives of American troops, diplomats, and intelligence sources by leaking hundreds of thousands of sensitive governments documents to WikiLeaks, a virulently anti-American organization that was a tool of Russia’s recent interference in our elections.”

Apparently needlessly jeopardizing US Soldiers, Statesmen, and our allies’ lives are not as bad as embarrassing a Presidential candidate? No mistake about it, what the President did was commute the sentence of a traitor, not some misguided 18-year-old and set a dangerous precedent for our national security.

***** The difference between a pardon and the commuting of a sentence.  A pardon wipes out the record of a conviction making it so it never happened. Commuting a sentence leaves the conviction intact and reduces or ends the sentence of a conviction.

By J.R. Jameson

Russian Ambassador Andrei Karlov was shot multiple times in the back Dec. 19 in Ankara, Turkey, by Mert Atlintas, a member of Turkey’s Riot Police Squad.  The carefully constructed assassination of the head of the Russian diplomatic enclave to Turkey ended, as planned, with the loss of the assassin's own life.  Historically, acts of this nature have led to war, but cooler heads seem to be prevailing and there have been no military escalations between Russia and Turkey.  However, benevolence is probably the least likely motivator here. Nothing, especially geopolitics, operates in a vacuum. So, let’s look at this incident in context and more importantly what each player wants out of the current geopolitical climate. 

That the assassin was able to walk up behind the ambassador of a foreign country, suggests that this was most likely not an attack by an inspired lone-wolf, but rather part of a more intricate plot. And who is pulling the strings is the most important piece. Whether those in the plot were Jihadist or in fact part of the Gulen movement, remains to be seen. 

If Atlinas was a radicalized member of the security forces, it would show how weak the security forces in Turkey have become and how much reach the Jihadis have.  Jihadists, most noticeably ISIS, have been seeking to create greater division between Russia and Turkey, two powers heavily involved in the Middle East and two countries who can help to play king maker in the region. If in fact the Gulen movement is behind it, it could create a further escalation of tensions between the US and Turkey, which is exactly what the hard-core fundamentalists want.  

Turkey, has perhaps the most complicated end game to figure out.  The assassination of a major power’s ambassador in their capital will require Turkey to enhance its security protocols around foreign dignitaries, which is something that works in President Erdogan’s favor right now.  After the failed coup this summer by Gulen supporters, Erdogan has greatly expanded his own authoritarian control over the country.  Using the failed coup to purge the security apparatus and jail reporters, Erdogan will now look to further tighten control over foreign enclaves in his country and use increased security measures as a reason to keep better tabs on them.  

While Turkey has the second largest military in NATO, it has long felt like the red-headed step child sitting outside the game on the European continent.  Erdogan will look to blame this attack on the Gulen movement and further press the US for the extradition of its leader, Fethullah Gulen, who has lived in the US since 1999 in self-imposed exile.  

As embarrassing as the assassination is for Turkey, it allows Erdogan to better consolidate power and pit the US and other NATO nations against Russian and Iranian interests in the region. Turkey’s end game goals are preventing the spread of Kurdish forces and regaining influence in its former Ottoman Empire domains.

While the rest of the world is playing geopolitics like a game of checkers, Putin has been playing it as a game of chess.  For Russia, having an ambassador killed in a host nation’s capital opens up numerous strategies for helping to reclaim its role as a superpower, not just a regional power.  Putin will use the death of Karlov to preemptively strike against anything he classifies as a terrorist target, most likely in Chechnya.  Putin will also use this attack to create some leverage in pitting Turkey against the US.  

In the chess game between our two countries, Putin has shown he will use whatever is needed to weaken the US position in the world.  Rest assured that Russian intelligence services will only serve to echo the call that Gulen and his movement were who helped to orchestrate the attack, if only to keep tensions between the US and Turkey as high as possible.  Putin sees and understands the strategic importance of Turkey to the US and NATO.  Turkey is the only US ally in the region that could legitimately keep the Middle East in check and prevent problems there from spilling over into Europe. 

Indeed, Russia has been capitalizing on this discord for some time already and will use this travesty to help cement the negotiations of selling Turkey the S-400 missile system. This deal has already sparked concerns in NATO over compatibility issues as well as ramifications about Turkey’s contribution to the alliance. Putin, as usual, is moves ahead of everyone and will capitalize on this to further create discord in NATO, which will allow him to continue his plans for asserting influence over Eastern Europe.

In today’s globalized society, we are actually watching the geopolitical game play out in real time, something that was once only evaluated by historians.  Geopolitics, at its basest form, is a chess game with very high stakes.  In this game, there are masters, such as Putin, and there are amateurs, such as Erdogan; a master of this game will always find a way to make being in a defensive position work for them.  And Russia has always played a good defensive game.

You frequently hear Veterans talk about missing combat, their disdain for civilians, or their strong desire to go back into the service. These seemingly dissimilar statements share one core feeling and emotion that almost all service members face after leaving the military. Ask any one of them why they feel this way and you will most likely get a multitude of answers such as “the rush of combat, there is nothing like it” or “civilians are just so naive, they don’t know what the world is really like”. Although these may be true statements, I believe that there is a core reason why these men say this. Camaraderie, the brotherhood. Many of us joined the military at an incredibly young and impressionable age. Most came in before the age of 20 and spent the most defining time of their lives in the service during a time of war. There is a polarizing difference between friends and brothers that most people who never served will understand. Sure, you hear about former prison inmates discuss their “brothers”, the dudes who watched their back while taking a shower in Chino. But Veterans have a different definition, one that goes far deeper and leaves a feeling that takes them well into their old age. 

At age 18 I volunteered for the Infantry and was soon after sent to Ramadi, Iraq in 2006. This was the most volatile time of the Iraq war, and I found myself, arguably, in the most contested city of that campaign. This tour showed me that there was a deeper purpose to me fighting under the American flag. A purpose not of which I had thought I would ever see. The politics no longer mattered, the old men sitting on their pedestal in Washington moving us around like pawn pieces were obsolete. I had one purpose now, and that purpose was to make sure that my brothers, the ones whom I had come to love and care for, more so than the family I left behind, made it home safe to their families. It was an unspoken promise, an agreement that we came to the day the first bullet cracked over our heads. We all knew that this was real and that the enemy was playing for keeps. We lost friends and shared tears at their memorial services, but the tears and grief were brief. Our mourning would have to wait for another day.

knew, without a shadow of a doubt, would have taken a bullet for me in the streets of Ramadi. As you can imagine, we consumed dangerous amounts of alcohol and cried together in the confines of our barracks rooms. We questioned why we lived and our best friends didn’t. We didn’t have the answers to these questions and soon gave up the search for one. This bond, this brotherhood still exists today. I still text, call and visit with these same guys that I cried with, fought with, and trusted with my life. It’s been 9 years now since that tour to Iraq, and nothing has changed between us.

All of the men that I held so closely during that tour have left the military and entered into the civilian world. I stayed in long after they did but the phone calls were frequent when this happened. The disdain for civilians and their lack of understanding of what we went through was bothersome for my friends. Entering college at the age of 24 was a frustrating experience for them, they hated the students that felt like they had a grasp on what the world was like, and that they had all the answers. This dissension was real, and it was evident. There was no longer a social structure for these combat veterans to confide in. Their closest brother was hundreds of miles away and living his own life, going through the same struggles. They felt alienated, isolated from the rest of society that they were now required to seamlessly coincide with. There was no preparation for this, there is no military program that can help a veteran prepare for the sudden loss of their entire social structure. Their brotherhood is gone.

These guys are now thrown head first into a society that they can’t trust, talk to, or associate with on the same level. It’s just a fact of life that your co-workers can’t possibly understand why you are the way you are. Why you’re so angry at the slightest complaint from a customer; why you feel your boss, whom is the newly appointed 22 year old shift manager is a complete idiot. The VA looks at your forms and gives you a disability rating for PTSD. This isn’t PTSD per se, but it’s a lack of preparedness for the loss of an entire life you once knew. Of course they don’t say anything. A struggling vet, with a shit paying job is just awarded a monthly payment. They take it.

It’s at about this time in their lives that you start seeing their posts’ on Face Book become more bitter towards people, more angry at everyone that never wore a uniform. Their profile picture is 7 years old, a younger, more fit version of themselves taken somewhere in the middle east. These guys start drinking heavily, hoping to “get away” from the world they now live in. The lonely one. Failing to reach out to their boys, ignorant to the fact that they need help, they start abusing the miracle drugs the VA is prescribing and creating a poisonous cocktail of prescription meds and whiskey, eventually finding themselves unemployed due to a variety of possible circumstances. I have seen this downward spiral take hold and have thankfully talked a few brothers off the ledge of malicious thought and depression. I was incredibly fortunate to see the signs early enough and I made a phone call in the middle of the night, hoping that they would pick up. Talks of “the good ole’ days” and words of encouragement have helped more than a handful of honorable men I call friends. But sometimes we’re not so lucky. 22 times a day we’re unlucky. 

I’ve been separated from the military for a few years now, and unlike almost every guy I served with, my transitional period required a different process of transitioning into this new life I was to now live and prosper in. I moved to San Diego, as far away from the Army and any person I wore a uniform with. I didn’t want to be around the military, I hated hearing war stories from some gloating soldier that felt like he had a sweet run in Afghanistan. I didn’t want to talk about what I did, what my background was or if I had ever shot a man. I found myself lying to people if I got cornered in a conversation where my military service was on the verge of being discovered. I didn’t do this because I was ashamed of what I did for 8 years, I was incredibly proud of my career. I was just avoiding the inevitable ignorant questions. But who can blame them? Who can blame their curiosity for wanting to know what the war that their country has been in for the past 14 years has been like? I didn’t hate civilians, I envied them. I envied their success, and sometimes, I envied their ignorance. I envied their ability to fall asleep like a baby without having a night cap. I just wanted to fit in, and I knew that my success outside of the Army relied upon it. In my opinion, the suicide crisis that the veteran community is facing isn’t an issue necessarily of PTSD, sure, that of course is included; but the issue is a decimated bond that service members face when they leave the military. There is no brotherhood to be had outside of the military with your new found “civilian” friends. You can’t and shouldn’t expect your co-worker to take a bullet for you, they live in a world where “flight” sounds far more appealing than “fight”. But that is what makes us so great, that is why the society that we call ignorant, needs us so badly. We are the ones they can count on to take that bullet, to fight that threat, and to save their child from a burning car on the interstate. Be the people your country can count on again, men like Alek Skarlatos, Spencer Stone, Anthony Sadler and Chris Mintz. There is a purpose for us yet gentleman, we still have a mission, even outside of the military. You’re needed now, just as much as you’ve ever been. Go be great again.

This piece was written by the founder of a company called Krupto Strategic. You can find them on the web at www.kruptostrategic.com. Please check them out. 

Jared Bullock is from Illinois but resides in the sunshine state of Florida now. This could have something to do with why he always seems to have a smile on his face. Jared and his twin brother were inspired to enlist in college. Like so many during the war on terror, the college scene did not fit and there was an itch to serve the country, an itch that he and his brother were ready to scratch. 

His career lasted twelve years, he was an 11B (infantry), being too high speed he moved on to SFAS, he proved himself worthy and was selected. Passing Q-Course, 18-E School House, Robin Sage, BLMC, and SERE. Jared proved that he earned a spot on the teams. He was assigned to 7th group out of Eglin AFB in Florida. He has a total of five deployments under his belt, 2 in Iraq, 1 in Afghanistan, and 2 in South America. 

On 13 November 2013 Jared Bullock went on patrol with his team, he was on his ATV/Side by Side when he ran over a pressure plated IED (Improvised Explosive Device) any vehicle that rolls over an IED its not good news. When on an ATV with zero protection it is even worse.

Red (as he is referred to by his friends) suffered dual limb amputations; Right Leg and Right arm, broken back/hip, broken ribs, broken jaw, broken hand, and massive shrapnel to his left leg.  Thankfully the team’s 18D (Medic) was able to get the situation under control so he does not remember a lot of the event. After six weeks in the hospital, and a year of rehabilitation, Jared was ready to let the world know he was back! 

Just ten months after the injury, Jared ran the tough mudder West Virginia. Red, is a beast motivator. His social media is a series of pictures of adaptive lifting techniques are as motivating as they come. For a man that has overcome a lot, to get up every day, get his leg, his wife and go out to his home gym and use his series of adaptive techniques makes you realize that you can wake up and be a better person. I mention his wife because she is a nurse, and she took to caring for him as a serious personal mission. She handled all of his baths, his medications, his activities of daily living until Jared could get back on his own “foot” and she is still there to fill in the void. You will see here in nearly every other post/Lifting videos of Red’s because as he says “she is literally my right hand woman” 

When We Asked Red Why? His answer was as follows…

“The videos and writing to me help showcase what is still possible if you're willing to put in the time and effort. Too many injured individuals feel helpless and lose their health. So if I can showcase something they haven't seen or tried before. Hopefully it sparks a fire inside them. 

For a Parting Message to a followers…

I have been in the same shoes as a lot of injured veterans i.e. loss of career, goals, health issues, among others. One thing I've noticed among guys in rehab during my time there, is that the fighting spirit they use to have is gone, but I don't feel that it is. Sure things have changed and in no way, by a small means, however; you have to embrace this new life as a challenge and get out and continue to go after it. That is what serving in the military was. It was a constant challenge. Not one to break you, but to mold and prepare you for the future. Maybe you can't do the things you love as well or if at all, but who says that you can't find something else new or reinvent a method or approach to adapting to your favorite hobby.

You have to remember that only you are truly the limiting factor in not being able to accomplish your goals. If you come to understand this, and learn to overcome it then your chances of success will be grow exponentially. You may fall or fail several times. Trust me I know, but WE ARE were of the nations finest that answered the call, and there is no reason that you can't still be! Just now in another life. Life is going to throw you obstacles. Its how you tackle those obstacles that defines you.”  Jared Bullock on why he does what he does and a little piece of advice for those out there struggling. 

Havok Journal was kind enough to let us reference their archives and use their articles in sole source for this article.  

Legend: an extremely famous or notorious person, especially in a particular field.

Kris Domeij lived the definition of legend.

14 times Sergeant First Class Kris Domeij deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan with the 75th Ranger Regiment.  14 times he went into harm’s way, fully knowing the hazards of his chosen profession, for his country, his family, and the men on his left and right.  The legacy he left behind is a telling tribute to his upbringing, dedication, the 75th Ranger Regiment, and the nation.

Four years ago, America lost Sergeant First Class Kris Domeij, a true American hero who was in Afghanistan on his 14th combat deployment with the 75th Ranger Regiment

Several articles on the Internet attest to Kris’s character, his loving nature, and military prowess.  But I think that the most telling tributes come from the most authoritative source out there:  Kris’s fellow Rangers.

LTC David Hodne, Kris’s battalion commander, observed that Kris was “…one of those men who was known by all as much for his humor, enthusiasm, and loyal friendship, as he was for his unparalleled skill and bravery under fire.” Other Rangers apparently feel the same way; any Ranger social networking sites marked today with tributes to Kris Domeij, commenting on his leadership, competency, and dedication, and lamenting his loss.”

 Kris’s story lives on in a moving tribute written by Kris’s mother, Scoti Domeij, in the new book “Violence of Action:  The Untold Stories of the 75th Ranger Regiment in the War on Terror. Scoti Domeij has ben very active in writing in the years since her sons passing. 

She has produced many pieces about her son that have appeared on Havok Journal. One particular piece stopped me cold. As one warrior writing about another I often found it hard to read this piece. My heart ached for Scoti, as she truly had a “Mothers Love”, however, she would not want me to. She is genuine in her concern for those who fought to keep her son alive. She is genuine in her concern for others. With out meeting her I feel like its obvious she is a legendary mother as her son is in the Ranger Hall of Fame. Take a look at her latest piece published in Havok Journal 11 Nov 15.

It’s been four years and 20 days since my son Kristoffer was killed and I still don’t know who you are. Your names were redacted out of a report (plus everything else I wanted to know) and I still want to personally thank you, especially the medics. I think of you often and about things I’ve only read about, but never experienced. Are you okay? Are you struggling with false guilt thinking you could have saved my son, someone else’s child? Can you sleep at night? Do bad dreams haunt you? Do you feel guilty because you lived? Even though I’ll never understand the ghosts that invade your thoughts, emotions and hearts, I’ll never forget your unwavering commitment and heroism

While my arms will never hug my son again this side of heaven, I’m so thankful for every man or woman who returns from war, especially my son’s Ranger brothers-in-arms. (RLTW!) And the only time the pain of Kristoffer’s death doesn’t hurt? When I’m in the presence of an Army Ranger or hugging Kristoffer’s children or listening to individuals who tell me about my son, who knew my adult son like I’ll never know him. Contrary to what many battle buddies may fear, talking about my son does not trigger pain. Rather hearing stories about him reclaims some of my loss, bringing him back to life. Sharing our memories fills up the cracked spaces of our broken hearts.

Like thousands of other Gold Star parents and veterans, you and I share the same touchstone — the life and death of my son, your battle brother. Even though you understand the risks associated with your profession, Kristoffer’s death was never part of the mission or our plans for his life. Every fallen warriors’ death rewrites that unwanted, cruel plot line — the dark moment — in the story of our lives. Words written by Kristoffer’s sixth great uncle, President Abraham Lincoln describe our loss, “In the untimely loss of your noble son, our affliction here, is scarcely less than your own. So much of promised usefulness to one’s country, and of bright hopes for one’s self and friends, have rarely been so suddenly dashed, as in his fall. (May 25, 1861. Letter to Ephraim D. and Phoebe Ellsworth.)

I often feel like the black sheep in my Gold Star Mother chapter, because I wasn’t raised to serve in the military, I was raised to serve in ministry. I don’t come from the noble legacy of military service and duty to my country or obedience to commands. Even God knows my struggles with His difficult commands.

I never imagined myself being the mother of a soldier. My induction into the military family came both ‘too soon’ and ‘very late’ in life with ‘that knock’ on the door near midnight on October 21, 2011. And all I have to say? I was amazed how well I was cared for. What an incredible family you joined. My CAO, the casualty assistance officer I dubbed “Sergeant Angel,” was amazing. How can I ever thank him for taking such good care of me those first few months? How can I ever thank the kindness and gentleness of the chaplain and the other officer who surely hated delivering ‘the news’?

On my way to and from Dover, veterans met every plane and took care of me, keeping me fed and hydrated. How can I thank those who stood beside me as Kristoffer’s refrigerated coffin came off the plane? How can I thank the Generals who treated me with the respect and honor I’d never received as a single mother? How can I thank all the men who stood at attention at Kristoffer’s military funeral? How can I possibly thank SOS or the Gold Star mothers or my Ranger escorts?

How can I say thanks to warriors who sacrificed years of their lives away from family and friends? I’ll never forget that you accomplished the impossible. Even when others don’t get it, their inability to grasp sacrifice and service will never diminish your service and sacrifice. They simply don’t understand the volume of blood and tears split, the degree of agony and hardship endured, and the number of honorable men and women whose lives were extinguished in battle, so that we as individuals can do what is right in our own eyes.

I can still see Kristoffer’s sweet expression during our last Skype conversation. After his 14th deployment, he’d change jobs and transfer to another military installation. I asked, “Will you still have to deploy?”

“Yes.” Not the answer I wanted to hear.

But honestly? When he deployed to heaven on his 14th deployment, pain and comfort replaced chronic fear and worry. While we may cry alone remembering a man who will never be here again, nothing can rob us of a love and respect that never dies or the wonderful memories of laughing and fighting together. Even so, I’ve had downer days where I wanted to lay down and die, but memory and mourning reminds me that those left behind need me to fight to stay alive.

How do we discover new meaning in a life altered forever by the horrors of war and death? In our crazy world, memory and mourning has taught me that no one escapes sorrow, but death-too-soon that surprises us seems the most bitter. The ironic combination of numbing shock and agonizing loss infuses us with a compassion and respect for each other that we simply could not comprehend had death not connected our hearts in life. My heart takes personally every warrior wounded or killed. Memory and mourning digs deep roots and never departs.

Knowing Kristoffer was surrounded by men bonded closer than blood, who did everything humanly possible to save my son’s life comforts me. Today is Veteran’s Day, which brings my thoughts back to you and your service. I’m awed of your skills, determination, commitment, dedication, honor, and discipline to go back out night after night and day after day, in spite of devastating losses. And just as you returned to the battlefield, I trust that as you transition and assimilate into each new theatre in life’s war that you will “draw from the heart of suffering the means of inspiration and survival.” (Winston Churchill)

Memory and mourning is a strange, difficult journey. Alone. Together. Memory and mourning can never ‘fix’ the loss. Memory and mourning can only be carried, honored and never forgotten. You remind me of what I was taught as a child about how a child of God is supposed to live: Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. (John 15:13) Risking life and limb, you’re living examples of the contradictions of sacrifice and courage — fighting to stay alive downrange, yet willing to die protecting each other.

That night the chaplain announced “the news,” I found an odd comfort in knowing that God numbers our days. (Job 14:5; Psalms 39:4; 90:12) Etched on every tombstone are two dates that belong to God — the day God planned our birth and the date God knows we’ll die. Between those two dates is just one simple line – the dash in between – that stands for the time in between that’s yours and mine. Veteran’s Day honors your dash in between.

God regards you as personally worth dying for, and that your life is worth the exchange of His own. Some people wonder what happens after death. Some have no hope and think the grave is the last word. I am comforted by the hope that Jesus died and broke loose from the grave and God will bring back to life those who died in Jesus. And then there will be one huge family reunion.

Goodbyes are the law of earth. Reunions are the law of heaven. When they played taps at Kristoffer’s graveside, heaven had already played reveille, Kristoffer’s wake-up call to rise to live forever with Jehovah, The Lord of Hosts, The Supreme Commander and Chief of all the Armies in Heaven and on Earth.

My son attended death’s funeral and lives eternally in God’s presence. I’m comforted by this truth: The day we stop mourning — is the day we whisper our last breathe and enter into God’s presence and those awaiting our joyous, eternal reunion. And when the law of earth plays your taps, my earnest prayer is that heaven will play reveille for you. Please be there.

Thank you to Havok Journal for allowing us to continue Kris Domeij Legacy. 

http://havokjournal.com/culture/ranger-kris-domeij-an-american-hero-gone-too-soon/

http://havokjournal.com/culture/ranger-kris-domeij-an-american-hero-gone-too-soon/

- Travis 

Photo Courtesy of a man on the ground involved in the conflict. This picture was of an American Flag that they raised in the compound that they fought from. 

What happened, why did it take so long, why?!?  The report from the US Spokesman for Troops said that two CH-47 Chinooks inserted approximately eighty Special Forces troops and Afghan Special Forces. They immediately came under heavy fire. When we read the Taliban report (as anything you read from them you must take it with a grain of salt), it reads, “we hit their helicopters with rockets and there were massive fires.”  Now we know that no CH-47’s crashed so we can scratch that.

Let’s talk about the CH-47, the big birds, the WOP WOP WOPs.  As these may be the biggest birds in our fleet, these guys have two engines pumping out 4,898 horsepower each. The CH-47 is one of the fastest birds in the fleet.  Unknown to many, the CH-47’s is faster than then Apache. Ironically enough, AH-64 Pilots have to call over to their CH-47 counter parts and say, “SLOW DOWN we may look cool, but we can’t keep up!”

CH-47’s are also excellent climbers, and also very, very difficult to take down. I have personally seen a MH-47 brush off a hit from a RPG.  Speaking to the pilot afterwards he said, “You pretty much have to thread the needle and get it inside the aircraft to get us down hard.” This is what we saw with Turbine 33 (Operation Redwings) and Extortion 17.  The RPG went in between the ramp, and inside the aircraft.  Their rotor system is very tough has been known to take brutal hits and keep on ticking. This is due to not having the same “tail rotor” that most are used to where you can try and hit “the pinwheel” as terrorist are taught.

Back to Marjah – the Special Forces soldiers were jumped on Infill. This is never how you want to begin an operation.  As reported by other outlets, but not independently verified, the soldiers were completely surrounded and calling for QRF (Quick Reaction Force). This has caused much debate as to why the QRF did not immediately come.

Let’s break this down - The call goes out that there are TROOPS IN CONTACT and a 9-Line (MEDEVAC request) has been submitted for a CAT A (patient requiring immediate surgery) and a WIA (Wounded in Action). This gets everyone moving, from the company up to the Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force Afghanistan (CJSOTF-A). When you look at the depiction of events in the movie “Lone Survivor” the QRF runs to the bird and ready to wreck shop when they get there.

By its very nature, QRF is dangerous game. You wouldn’t have been called unless there was a very serious need. The collective body of USASOC/JSOC has learned that running into a battle does not always end well (Turbine 33/Extortion 17). This hard learned tactic isn’t comforting to the unit that is in contact, but it is better than watching the QRF get shot out of the sky. We saw this in Mogadishu, which makes a bad situation infinitely worse.

Battling in Marjah, reports that have come in, and stated that the 18D (Special Forces Medical Sergeant) on the ground worked hard and had the wounded under control. The 9-line was called in, and a short time later two UH-60’s Flown by Fox Co 1/214 MEDEVAC If you are the unit in contact or the one who is wounded, there is nothing better than hearing “Dust-Off" is in-bound.

From personal working knowledge, the Dust-off's normally fly in two’s in order to cover each other. The lead aircraft will go in and the trail will cover. In this case, the DOD reported that the lead MEDEVAC bird took heavy fire and damage to its rotor system. They were able to “land the helo without incident” as reported by the DOD.There are conflicting reports now. We reported on what the DOD reported.(source will be at the bottom of the article) We now know that the rotor clipped a building. 

Breaking this down: the Dust-Offs are an excellent group. The Pilots, Crew Chiefs, are all very skilled in what they do and take what they do very very seriously have my doubts that an actual mortar hit the UH-60 Blackhawk. All my FO’s out there and my mortar teams will back me up. If a mortar had actually hit, the bird it would've it's end of the bird, not just the rotor system. I will go out on a limb and go back to what the Taliban put out in their statement. They stated, “We fired many RPG’s at their attempt to rescue them. There was a great fire ball.” Applied knowledge tells me that it was some sort of explosion near the rotor system that damaged it. It was the expert piloting of the UH-60 crew to get it set down without it being wadded up. *** New info is saying that the bird hit a building and the mortar hit after the it shut down. 

Back in Marjah – The crew of the now damaged HH-60 that has one deceased soldier, one wounded and now a wounded crewmember evacuated to a compound. The QRF arrived to help secure the bird. They wanted to get the troops back to a compound where they could ride out the night according to a source reporting to FOX news. An AC-130 also arrived to cover them for the night to ensure that nothing more went down. As has been reported the HH-60 and ground force was extracted. The HH-60 was hauled out under none other than the most versatile bird in the fleet. The CH-47!

http://www.defense.gov/News/News-Transcripts/Transcript-View/Article/639998/department-of-defense-press-briefing-by-pentagon-press-secretary-peter-cook-in

We reported on this situation based on DOD statements and Pentagon press releases. Like any situation these events are fluid. As new information came forward we were more than willing to make the appropriate changes to the article. As with ANY of our articles if changes are needed they WILL BE MADE. We would like to thank the Pilot involved in this situation that came forward and helped us get our facts straight.

I have thrown around a lot of military slang and short hand so let me be clear:

CH-47 - Regular unmodified Chinook

MH-47 - Chinook flown by the 160th SOAR

HH-60 PaveHawk – UH-60 (Blackhawk) flown by the USAF Special Operations

AH-64 - Apache Attack Helicopter

AC-130 - Hercules GunShip

CONTACT IN MARJAH

In the early hours of 5 January 2016, America’s Special Operations Forces went to work with Afghan Special Forces in southern Afghanistan.  As many as eighty reported Special Operations Forces were inserted by two Ch47 Chinooks in the town of Marjeh, just north of Helmand. The Chinooks reportedly took “immediate RPG and Small Arms fire.” 

The Quick Reaction Force was called in and, as I type this, they are still in contact with the Taliban insurgents.

This isn’t the first time Special Forces have gone into Marjeh. Back in May of 2009, a joint force of Afghan Commando’s, US Special Forces, DEA Fast and other SOF elements executed “Operation Siege Engine” an attack on a large Taliban command center in central Helmand province that doubled as a heroin-producing complex.

Five MH-47’s loaded with troops, supplies and landed right in the middle of the Loy Choreh Bazaar. They knew there was going to be a fight so the assault force went in heavy.  Four-wheelers and John Deere Gators were loaded down with weapons that included mortars, extra light machine guns and plenty of ammo. The plan was to fly in around 0100 local time and conduct a counter narcotics raid.

Loy Choreh Bazaar, opium and the Taliban.

The Loy Choreh Bazaar, the target of "Operation Siege Engine,” is an aggregation of shops and farm warehouses at a rural crossroads several kilometers south of Marjeh village in Nad-e Ali district, Helmand province.  Nad-e Ali is the richest opium-growing district in Helmand, a province that grew 66 percent of Afghanistan's opium poppy in 2008. Like most of Helmand, Nad-e Ali district was controlled by narco-militias for years and has been, since July 2008, under insurgent control. The Bazaar served as an opium collection and processing center, with well-supplied labs that refined raw opium into finished heroin. It doubled as an insurgency command and munitions storage center. According to military sources, Taliban insurgents ran a shadow government and weekly shuras for the Marjeh area from the Loy Choreh, which was one of three narcotics bazaars in the Marjeh vicinity.

For weeks prior to the assault, ISR had been watching the city and had taken out three Russian-made ZPU anti-aircraft systems. One of the ZPU’s, mounted in the bed of a white pick-up, was destroyed by coalition Aircraft during the night.

The next morning the Taliban, trying to conduct positive IO, drove around town with another gun mounted in the back of a white truck, making sure the villagers “knew” that the air strikes had missed. ISR overhead later spotted the other gun and subsequent airstrikes made quick work of it.

While the assault force did not meet any resistance on infiltration, the insurgents soon responded. Over the next four days, they made dozens of counterattacks, fighting furiously in an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to protect their narcotics, supplies, labs, weapons and ammunition.

By the end of the operations, the assault force had killed 64 enemy combatants.  As our forces pulled out, air strikes were called in to destroy everything they had found.

Operation Siege Engine accomplished the largest single narcotics seizure in Afghanistan's history:

•18,164 kilograms opium;

•200 kilograms finished heroin;

•90 kilograms morphine;

•1000 kilograms hashish;

•72,727 kilograms opium poppy seed; and

The precursor chemicals used in heroin prpduction:

•395 gallons acetic anhydride (stored in 55-gallon drums);

•20,175 kilograms ammonium chloride;

•17,600 kilograms sodium carbonate;

•17,600 kilograms soda ash;

•1050 kilograms activated charcoal.

The DEA had estimated the value of finished heroin, along with the opium and morphine yet to be processed, would be over $5 Million USD in Afghanistan. The wholesale value in the U.S. could have exceeded $80 Million USD.

My thoughts and prayers are with those warriors still on the ground fighting.

De Oppresso Liber 

 About the author: Loren Schofield is retired Special Forces with over 16 years serving in the various positions within the Special Forces Regiment. He started out as an infantryman, in both a line company and a scout platoon and during his Special Forces career he was both an 18E (SF Commo) and an 18F (SF Intel). He served on a Mountain Team, Mobility Team, and in a Special Forces Direct Action Company. He deployed twice to Kosovo and from April of 2002 to May of 2009 he deployed five times to Afghanistan and twice to Iraq.

You can find Loren on Instagram @Loren_NotASeal

Original post: https://www.thecipherbrief.com/article/al-qaedas-master-plan

Osama bin Laden would be a happy man were he still alive. His hopes and dreams have seemingly come to fruition. And, the master plan that one of his closest disciples devised for him a decade ago to reverse al Qaeda’s then waning fortunes and launch it on a trajectory to eventual, divinely-ordained, triumph appears—according to the movement’s propaganda—to be falling neatly into place.

How can it be that after nearly a decade-and-a-half of waging war on terror—the greatest global onslaught in fact ever directed against a terrorist group—that al Qaeda believes that they’re on the path to victory?

A combination of patience, perseverance, opportunity, and plain good luck have combined to effect a transformation that would have been unthinkable only a few years ago in the aftermath of both bin Laden’s death and the popular protests of the Arab Spring that many thought had sounded the death knell for terrorism’s power and influence over the region.

In a long-forgotten 1998 interview, bin Laden asserted that he did not fear death since he was certain that his martyrdom would produce “thousands more Osamas.” With the 25 thousand foreign recruits from some 80 countries now fighting for al Qaeda and ISIS, as well as their respective franchises and branches in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, and Mali, his death wish has arguably been achieved.

Moreover, unlike on 9/11, the threats these fighters pose are now internal as well as external. No longer it is a matter of having to infiltrate attack teams into targeted countries. Homegrown violent extremism abetted by the reach and power of contemporary social media has completely changed national security today.

“We have two kinds of threats,” Bernard Bajolet, the head of French intelligence lamented on a recent visit to Washington, D.C., “an inside threat” posed by radicalized individuals living in France and “the threat from the outside, either through terrorist actions which are planned [and] ordered from outside or . . . through fighters coming back to our countries.”

It was of course the latter category that was responsible for last weekend’s carnage in Paris. They fulfilled yet another longstanding bin Laden edict: that the cities of Europe should run red with infidel blood. In September 2010, when the al Qaeda leader issued that command, his orders had fallen on deaf ears as none of bin Laden’s followers had the capability to do so. But, today, with the rise of ISIS, that desideratum has been satisfied—with fears of future attacks now consuming both Europe and the U.S.

But perhaps bin Laden’s greatest satisfaction is the opportunity created by the Syrian civil war to re-brand al Qaeda and thus endow it with an image of comparative moderates when contrasted to ISIS. Among the documents seized by U.S. Navy Seals in bin Laden’s Abbottabad villa was one where he expresses concern that the al Qaeda brand had outlived its usefulness.

Bin Laden complained that the group’s name had become universally associated with violence: to the extent that its core ideological and political goals were completely ignored.

Accordingly, bin Laden must be very pleased indeed that al Qaeda’s Syrian wing is widely known as Jabhat al Nusra—the very anodyne-sounding “Support Front.” Rarely is it ever referred to as al Qaeda’s Syrian arm or, it seems, directly associated with its justly maligned parent organization.

The fact that Jabhat al Nusra is in fact even more dangerous and capable than ISIS seems completely immaterial to those across the region who not only support it, but actively seek to partner with what they perversely regard as a more moderate and reasonable rival to ISIS.

This banishment of the name al Qaeda extends remarkably even to the group’s elite, shock force that Ayman al Zawahiri ordered to Syria some two years ago. Known as the Khorasan Group (the ancient Persian name for Central Asia and Afghanistan) it too appears to have been linguistically estranged from the al Qaeda moniker.

These deliberate obfuscations, both to eschew the al Qaeda name and portray its most important franchise as more benign than ISIS, is a reflection of a calculated strategic choice taken by al Zawahiri at a pivotal moment of al Qaeda’s history. In 2013 he instructed the movement’s fighters to avoid mass casualty operations in order not to cause the death of Muslim civilians and innocent women and children. The legacy of this edict is evident in a recent tweet by a Dutch fighter in Jabhat al Nusra who eagerly reminded his followers that, unlike ISIS, “Al Qaeda focuses mostly on political & military targets instead of civilians.”

This development thus fits neatly into al Zawahiri’s broader strategy of letting ISIS take all the heat and absorb all the blows while al Qaeda quietly re-builds its military strength and basks in its paradoxical cachet as “moderate extremists” in contrast to an unconstrained ISIS.

The discovery last month of a vast al Qaeda munitions storage complex carved into a hillside in the Shorabak District near Kandahar provides incontrovertible evidence that the group is stockpiling weapons and husbanding its resources in preparation for a new terrorist campaign in Afghanistan. Only the most inveterate optimist would believe that this is the only facility of its kind that al Qaeda maintains along the remote border area straddling the Durand Line.

Al Zawahiri’s stunning announcement in January 2014 of the creation of yet another al Qaeda franchise—this time in the Indian subcontinent—is further proof of both the movement’s re-vitalization and its interest in cultivating new opportunities for expansion.

Taking advantage of resurgent Hinduism nationalism in a country with the world’s second largest Muslim population, recruits from India along with those from Pakistan, Bangladesh, the Maldives, and Burma are re-making al Qaeda from its once predominant Arabian and Middle Eastern demographic to a distinctly South Asian one.

Meanwhile, al Zawahiri approvingly watches as the seven-phase strategy articulated by al Qaeda’s operational chief, Saif al Adl, in 2005, progresses. The fifth phase which al Adl—who is currently in Syria directing al Qaeda operations in the Levant—had foreseen as occurring between 2013 and 2014 would result in the declaration of the Caliphate. In this respect, ISIS has temporarily stolen al Qaeda’s thunder: but al Zawahiri doubtless is confident that when ISIS eventually either falters or is crushed as a result of its bloody assaults in the West, he and his fighters will be ready to take over and absorb the renegade splinter: thus resuming its position at the cynosure of Salafi jihadi aims and aspirations.

This will then set the stage for the implementation of the final two phases of al Adl’s hitherto remarkably prescient strategy. The sixth iteration in this progression he described as “The Total Confrontation Stage,” when sometime between 2016-2020 the various jihadi franchises and branches scattered across North, West and East Africa, the Middle East, the Caucasus, and South and South East Asia will all come together to form an “Islamic Army.”

The way will now be paved for the final "fight between the believers and the non-believers" thus leading to the “Definitive Victory Stage” when, no later than 2022, the Caliphate will decisively vanquish its enemies.

Propaganda, of course, doesn’t have to be true: it just has to be believed. And, however half-baked or even quarter-baked this narrative may be, it is nonetheless fundamentally disquieting to map al Qaeda’s strategic trajectory from 2000 to the present and realize that, far from having receded as a threat, the movement is stubbornly preparing for what its fighters and followers firmly believe will be the epic last battle and final confrontation with the West. 

Professor Bruce Hoffman is a tenured professor at Georgetown University and the Director of the Center for Security Studies.  He has served as a commissioner on the Independent Commission to Review the FBI’s Post-9/11 Response to Terrorism and Radicalization, a Scholar-in-Residence for Counterterrorism at the CIA, and an adviser on counterterrorism to the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq in 2004.

A summary of the Sinjar operation:   On the 12th to 13th of November, 7.500 Kurdish troops launched a long awaited assault on the city of Sinjar, which had been under Islamic State control since August last year. An estimated 700 Islamic State fighters were in Sinjar at that time. Around 300 where killed, many with the help from coalition warplanes that bombed the city for over a day straight, before the ground troops moved in. The remaining 400 either fled South or were captured. The villages around the city was taken on the first day, then the city itself on the second day. A number of Kurdish fighters were martyred, but the exact number is not made public for some reason.

There has also been some dispute over credit for winning the battle between the different Kurdish groups in the aftermath... but I'm not going to take part in that drama. There was also some looting, by folks who I will not name, which was not viewed very favorably. We resolved that.

My unit stayed in Sinjar until the 14th. We left with quite a number of weapons confiscated from the enemy, including a 120 mm mortar tube, a 14.5 mm heavy machinegun, several rocket launchers, light machineguns, rifles and ammunition. The city is currently being cleared for explosives and booby-traps, a job that will take weeks, if not months. The city is pretty devastated and I can't imagine life there will return to the normal anytime soon.

The media presence in Sinjar right after the liberation was massive. However, the news didn't really break through in the West because of the incidents in Paris the same day.

A chronology:

Part 1/2. Morning tea in Sinjar. I'm going to go through the operation day by day. But first, a big thanks to @jessica_schramm and @matsflesjaa for their donations. I couldn't afford helping out down here without the financial aid from you guys. If anyone else wants to help me out with a few bucks, please send me a message to find out how.

Day one of Operation 'The Fury of Melek Taus':   I arrived in Erbil on the 8th, after my break in Norway. It took me a couple of days to gather my gear, weapons and arrange transportation back to the front. Once I was back on the 11th, I found out that general Wahed Kovle had left for Sinjar a couple of days earlier, with 20 of the guys, and that the operation would start the next day. Two of the remaining guys were going to Sinjar that morning, November 12, and I would join them.

We got picked up at 5 a.m. and as soon as I saw our ride, I got a bad feeling. The car was a wreck and I started doubting we would make it there in time... or at all. We had all kinds of problems underway, the car being just one of them, and we didn't reach Mount Sinjar before 11 a.m.. The operation had started three hours earlier, with hundreds of military vehicles pouring down the mountain to perform a three-pronged attack on the villages around the city, while coalition warplanes were providing air support.

We started the decent down the mountain in our old Opel, amongst all the armoured vehicles, tanks and trucks. We were forced to leave our vehicle and driver halfway down, as the terrain got too difficult, and we continued on foot with all our gear and backpacks. We came to the intersection below the mountain where the forces were splitting into three, West, South and East.

We had no idea which way our unit had gone, as we couldn't reach any of them on their cell phones.  We asked someone for help, and he were sure they had seen the general go South. We chose the Southern route and, after walking for a while, we met a special forces unit from Duhok. We asked if they had seen the general go this way...

 Day two of Operation 'The Fury of Melek Taus':   The villages West, North and East of the city of Sinjar were taken during the first day. The city itself was next on the list. My unit, which was comprised of about 24 guys and led by Peshmerga General Wahed Kovle, drove up to the new front outside the city in the morning.

The guys manning the frontline hadn't seen any movement inside the city, so we didn't know what to expect. We approached the city on foot, marching along a highway, the first unit from the West as far as I could tell, with units from the PKK and the YPG right behind us. Halfway there, we searched an abandoned truck at the roadside and found a wounded Islamic State fighter. He was in a pretty bad shape, his face and arms burned black as coal.

 Me and my new friend from the Islamic State:

He told us he had tried to escape the city last night in a car, with two of his friends, when their car got hit by a rocket. They had then hidden in the truck, but his two friends had run away when they saw us approaching. Some of our guys ran in the direction they had gone, but didn't find them. The general ordered someone to take the prisoner back, give him water and make sure he got medical treatment, and that no one was to put a finger on him.

We continued our advance and before we knew it, we were inside the city without facing any resistance. It turned out the remaining jihadists had escaped the city to a town 30 km south of Sinjar. Before we knew it, the city was swarming with celebrating kurdish forces and media, but our general decided to head South, hoping to catch some of the running rats. #pdk #peshmerga

Continuing the story:   We drove off in our pickup trucks and passed the point that was later to be the Southern front of Sinjar. We stopped at a village that looked abandoned and decided to set up a checkpoint and search the village. We entered the first houses and went from room to room, but didn't find anyone.

At about the same time, a few villagers showed up and told us the Islamic State fighters had passed the village from Sinjar last night, and that there were only civilians here, muslim kurds. We told them they could come out from their hiding places, and they did.

Once they saw we were Peshmerga and not Yezidi militias, whom they fear will retaliate against them for what the Islamic State did to their people, they welcomed us as liberators. The villagers flocked around us, cheering for the Peshmerga and the general, kissing us and shaking our hands. The older men were actually crying of relief and we were served tea and bread.

We were given the names of some villagers that had either collaborated with, or joined the Islamic State and we drove around in the village hunting them down. We arrested three guys in total and took them to an abandoned house for questioning. They got treated pretty decently, except for the guy in the photo... he had an attitude that some of the guys had to beat out of him.

We said goodbye to the villagers and went back to Sinjar with the prisoners. We didn't see any action that day, which was a big disappointment for me personally... but we did good. We caught four Islamic State members and the liberation of Sinjar is a major defeat for ISIS and the beginning of their end. After Ramadi, Tal Afar and Hawija are taken back from the Islamic State, Mosul will be next, and I'll do my best to be there as well.

The author is a former Norwegian solider who served in Afghanistan. He now fights against ISIS as a member of the Peshmerga Duhok Anti-Terror Unit. You can find him on Instagram @Peshmerganor

WASHINGTON — A U.S. drone strike targeted a vehicle in Syria believed to be transporting the masked Islamic State militant known as "Jihadi John" on Thursday, according to American officials. Whether the strike killed the British man who appears in several videos depicting the beheadings of Western hostages was not known, officials said.

Mohammed Emwazi was the target of an airstrike in Raqqa, Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said in a statement. Officials were assessing the results of the strike, he said.

A U.S. official told The Associated Press that a drone had targeted a vehicle in which Emwazi was believed to be traveling. The official was not authorized to speak publicly and requested anonymity.

Emwazi, believed to be in his mid-20s, has been described by a former hostage as a bloodthirsty psychopath who enjoyed threatening Western hostages. Spanish journalist Javier Espinosa, who had been held in Syria for more than six months after his abduction in September 2013, said Emwazi would explain precisely how the militants would carry out a beheading.

Those being held by three British-sounding captors nicknamed them "the Beatles" with "Jihadi John" a reference to Beatles member John Lennon, Espinosa said in recalling his months as one of more than 20 hostages.

Among those beheaded by Islamic State militants in videos posted online since August 2014 were U.S. journalists Steven Sotloff and James Foley, U.S. aid worker Abdul-Rahman Kassig, British aid workers David Haines and Alan Henning, and Japanese journalist Kenji Goto.

In the videos, a tall masked figure clad in black and speaking in a British accent typically began one of the gruesome videos with a political rant and a kneeling hostage before him, then ended it holding an oversize knife in his hand with the headless victim lying before him in the sand.

Emwazi was identified as "Jihadi John" last February, although a lawyer who once represented Emwazi's father told reporters that there was no evidence supporting the accusation. Experts and others later confirmed the identification.

Emwazi was born in Kuwait and spent part of his childhood in the poor Taima area of Jahra before moving to Britain while still a boy, according to news reports quoting Syrian activists who knew the family. He attended state schools in London, then studied computer science at the University of Westminster before leaving for Syria in 2013. The woman who had been the principal at London's Quintin Kynaston Academy told the BBC earlier this year that Emwazi had been quiet and "reasonably hard-working."

Officials said Britain's intelligence community had Emwazi on its list of potential terror suspects for years but was unable to prevent him from traveling to Syria. He had been known to the nation's intelligence services since at least 2009, when he was connected with investigations into terrorism in Somalia.

The beheading of Foley, 40, of Rochester, New Hampshire, was deemed by IS to be its response to U.S. airstrikes. The release of the video, on Aug. 19, 2014, horrified and outraged the civilized world but was followed the next month by videos showing the beheadings of Sotloff and Haines and, in October, of Henning.

Source Credit: www.stripes.com

http://www.stripes.com/news/middle-east/us-airstrike-targets-jihadi-john-from-islamic-state-slaying-videos-1.378646

My first experiences in truly understanding what it means to be a leader came as a result of my attendance at the Primary Leadership and Development Course (PLDC) or what is now referred to as the Warriors Leader Course (WLC).  I attended PLDC in the summer of 2000, as an 11B Infantryman.  By that time, I had already earned my Expert Infantry Badge (EIB), was Airborne and Ranger qualified, and had just received the Tomb Identification badge. I’d felt somewhat accomplished in my career.  Little did I know that the PLDC was going to teach me my true responsibilities as an officer in my transformation from a soldier to a NCO. 

At the time I was going through PLDC, the motto of the Army leadership manual was, “Be, Know, Do.”  This first step was the “Be,” be a leader, take control immediately and get a grasp on the situation no matter how simple, no matter how complex, show your subordinates that you have their back.  Give them confidence that you know what you’re doing, when a leader, “Be” a leader.  

The first time I was put in charge of an exercise during PLDC I was very focused on the specific techniques of motivating and properly managing soldiers.  In the infantry, management gives out orders and soldiers execute without question – it’s very black and white.  In PLDC unquestioning obedience was not expected of non-infantry personnel who were more impressionable and expected information to support orders.  This often led to a softer approach in the delivery of orders and required a different style of leadership. This leadership concept was new to me, but I knew I had to adapt to be successful as a leader and a manager. 

An issue that continued to arise was the fact that our female platoon’s morale was low because they felt as if none of the issues they brought up were being addressed or resolved.  I knew that acknowledgement of these issues and describing a plan of action would be the first right step in making sure they had confidence in me as a leader. 

My first step was to assemble the platoon and have an open forum to communicate and address relevant issues with the platoon.  Secondly, I would have to prioritize the issues, putting those that I could immediately affect at the top of the list.  This would be key in giving them the confidence in me as an NCO and leader that I had a plan, a strategy to fix what was broken, and a personal investment in making sure they were taking care of and respected. 

Thereafter, I started with the prioritized list that we discussed and made together, because platoon members knowing they had input matters.  I made the final decision in the order of precedence, but if it made sense then the collective understood that we made this decision together. And I was learning to be a leader.

Later in my career as an NCO, I made MSG when, as a member of a Special Missions Unit at Fort Bragg, I decided to go back into the ranks of US Army Special Forces Command and be what I always dreamt of being: a US Army SF Team or Operations Sgt, or the “team daddy” as we are more commonly known. The team daddy position is the most senior position in Special Forces amongst the ranks of operational detachments.  The Team Sgt. acts as the operational and training senior NCO who determines, with command guidance, the training path of the detachment.  He also utilizes his seniority and experience to mentor and train the detachment in hard skills such as sniper marksmanship, close quarters battle, and myriad special operations skill sets.  This includes softer skills like rapport building, embassy function, briefing skills, intelligence and collection operations. 

My job as a new MSG in Special Forces was to standup a new Commanders In-extremis Force (CIF), which was designated the crisis contingency force for the AFRICOM theater of operations.  This new element specialized in Direct Action, Special Reconnaissance, and Hostage Rescue on the entire continent of Africa. It came with a lot of responsibility and tremendous challenges both in terrain, natural and human.  I spent the first year training my team in its specialty:  reconnaissance and sniper operations. 

To qualify for the team, a special operator had to be SF CQB trained (8 weeks), SF Sniper trained (8 weeks), Military Free-fall (MFF) (4 weeks), and have a clean and reputable record as a war fighter in SF.  This meant my guys had five months of specialized training and prior combat experience just to get in the door.  In the commands eyes I was to have the most experienced Special Forces detachment in all of 10th Special Forces Group to accomplish a challenging mission. 

We trained over a year before we were validated as an official CIF company by USASOC, and designated mission ready.  I understood in the position I was in for the first time that in everything I did - my mannerisms to how I shot drills -  I was being emulated and serving as a mentor for young and sometimes older green berets who looked up to me.  This was critical in building rapport and team cohesion that is necessary to survive the very stressful and dangerous situations these men who no doubt would face in their careers. 

The second part of the Army’s leadership motto was “know”, know your job, and know your environment that you train and operate in.  Most importantly know your place as a leader in the world that you create for your subordinates.  Knowledge is paramount in developing trust in your subordinate’s view of who you are as a leader.  The end state of my job was crisis, war, firefights, hostage rescue, and this end state had to be consistently and constantly replicated in training, while displaying the same amount of quality leadership to earn my men’s trust. 

Back when I reported to my SF unit as a young Special Forces NCO straight out of PLDC, they had already been given the warning order to prepare to deploy to Afghanistan.  I showed up and hit the ground at a dead sprint, trying to learn as fast as possible. There was a significant learning curve and keeping up was in my best interest and that of my teammates. 

My job on the detachment was to act as the 18B or Special Forces weapon sergeant. In Special Forces you operate in teams of two per job specialty and you have a senior more experienced operator and the junior, typically the new guy.  Each team has its specific specialties, two weapons and tactics experts, two engineers, two medics, and two communication experts, the operations sgt and the team leader.  This enables the detachment to operate with all areas of tactical expertise covered to plan and execute operations. 

I was told right before we deployed to Afghanistan that I would be the senior weapons sgt because my senior was having surgery.  This meant that I had toprepare the team with tactical training and prepare our heavy and light weapons for deployment, I looked forward to the challenge.  This position was especially important because we were due to deploy to a remote Fire Base in the middle of nowhere, also known as the Hindu Kush Mountains, Afghanistan. 

Once arriving in Afghanistan I remember being brought into our Tactical Operational Center or TOC, and my team SGT telling me my guys were waiting for me.  Slightly confused I stated, “what guys?”  The SGT smirked and said, “your soldiers, your afghan special forces.” I took a deep breath; one month prior I was student in Special Forces training jumping into a fictitious guerilla exercise known as Robin Sage, and now I was living that experience in real time, with a real threat, at the tip of the spear. I felt ready. 

I remember thinking back to the motto I had understood and studied in PLDC, “Be, Know, Do.”  This without a doubt was the “do” phase of leadership. With all my experiences, with all my knowledge up that point in my life and military career, it was time to do what I know I had to do to be a leader, to earn the trust and build the rapport that would be critical in doing combat operations in an austere, dangerous environment throughout the region. 

Leadership doesn’t just come in understanding tactics, planning, and having in-depth knowledge of your job.  Leadership is a cycle and the learning process is ongoing.  It starts with people, the people that are your peers, that are your subordinates, and the people who are your superiors.  There is something to learn from each of these relationships about being a leader. This group of people is your scope and your compass in navigating your duty as a leader. 

Leadership as an NCO isn’t given to you. It is earned through a development of ones natural leadership skills, but it is primarily a synthetic development of a series of experiences and the processes that you implement based on those experiences.  And the learning is ongoing.

The greatest thing about leadership as an NCO is that its fluid, never rigid, and can always be adapted to affect the proper outcome.  Think like a manager, talk like a coach, understand like a counselor, and fight like a Spartan and you will succeed in all the elements it takes to be a great NCO.  I’m out here and I’m still learning. 

- Mike Glover CEO of Field Craft LLC.

Check out Mike's website www.fieldcraftsurvival.com

Facebook: FieldCraft LLC

Instagram: SofSurvivor

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Adaptability:  the flexibility to fit changed circumstances. The ability to adapt to your circumstances is also a key trait for those who walk the path of the warrior. In all of the martial arts exist different “styles” and methods to achieve this goal. In some practices it is through training to defeat an opponent in the sport of hand-to-hand combat. In a more serious vein it is to achieve victory over your enemy on the field of battle.  

There is an old saying “no plan survives contact with the enemy.” This is something warriors spanning generations have agreed upon. The ability to properly react is vital to success on the field of battle, or in any other ventures that people deal with in today’s world.

The recent incident in which an officer in a school in South Carolina slammed an uncooperative student in the classroom in his effort to force her compliance with his directive is a case in point. His actions have sparked considerable outrage. 

For purposes of this discussion, I will assume, though, that the officer’s actions were lawful and that he had the legal right to arrest the uncooperative student. The officer’s attorney says, “We believe that Mr. Fields' actions were justified and lawful throughout the circumstances of which he was confronted during this incident.”

Officer Fields initially ordered the young student to leave the classroom. Once she refused to get up, instead of adapting to the situation, the officer let his emotions get the best of him. The confrontation was recorded on a cellphone and the footage has gone viral. Essentially, his inability to adapt led to him being fired.

“When I myself think about adaptability I think about “not intentionally training rigidity”; adaptability is a state of mind that can be trained. For those of you who don’t know me, I have been a Special Forces Operator. For me and Tu Lam from Ronin Tactics in our many missions together, being adaptable meant being able to operate in organized confusion, remaining pliable, preserving your own life and the lives of others’’. – Mike

Along my journey working closely with veterans, and particularly veterans of the Special Operations community who have made careers surviving very dangerous circumstances by adapting to the situation at hand, I have once again come face to face with hammering home the lessons of adaption. You can flip through the pages of history and find instances where the ability to adapt won the day.

A good example is the Mongolian Empire, and history’s most prolific conqueror, Genghis Khan. His many successes in battle were due to his ability to keep an open mind, and to adapt his strategy to the situation. Often meeting a numerically superior force, he used the rigidity of his opponents to his great advantage.

One of his strategies consisted of sending a small number of archers on horseback to conduct hit and run tactics. Killing a few men, he was able to enrage his enemies, tricking them to send their forces after his smaller more agile units. Wearing little to no body armor they were able to quickly escape and lead the pursuers on a chase.

Genghis Khans’ men lived in the grey, they didn't have to conform to guidelines, rigid rules and regulation, which contributed to their adaptability.

The European warriors they engaged were the exact opposite.  They fought in specific formations. They tended to carry heavy armor and weapons. After a time, their horses would tire, and that’s when the Mongolians would spring their ambush. When the style of fighting of the Mongols did not match their own, the Europeans were confused. The inability of the numerically superior forces to adapt to the Mongolian’s hit and run tactics led to their defeat.

Understanding the importance of adaptability leads me to conclude that this is something we each must master in order to survive in our ever-changing universe.

"Using no way as way, having no limitation as limitation" -Bruce Lee

*Special thanks to Mike Glover CEO of Field Craft, LLC., for his insight into adaptability and for his ongoing support of veterans everywhere.

First, much thanks to Global Recon for asking us to write this.  We appreciate the opportunity, as any small business absolutely needs some highlighting every now and again.  Most importantly, thank you very much to those who’ve tried our coffee and support this venture with your purchases.  Coffee roasting is a completely saturated industry with some very good options, so purchasing a bag from an obscure roaster with a crazy name had to have been a leap of faith.

This article was written a number of times and deleted as many since we were not trying to create a long-winded advertisement.  However, we’ve heard multiple times that people did not think that we were a real company as, apparently, our name is a little confusing and we thought we should explain. 

To clarify, De Espresso Liber is a play off of the Special Forces motto ‘De Oppresso Liber.’  We are real, we are growing and we’ll give you a few points about ourselves until we can talk about some other subjects in the future and hopefully have time to contribute to Global Recon again.

So, why a small coffee roasting business when the industry is so saturated, you ask? 

Both of us running De Espresso Liber, Alex and Mando, came to appreciate coffee while in the military and dealing with countless hours accomplishing the tasks we were assigned or ‘voluntold’ to do.  Whether pulling guard, planning a mission, teaching some tactical class or going on patrol, a brew was always close at hand just incase sleep wasn’t. Mando, our social media coordinator, was a hard charging, blue cord wearing infantryman and served in Iraq while the, I, the founder of the company, worked my way through the Special Forces Q-Course eventually earning the long tab and Green Beret. 

Regardless of our different paths and units, we both agreed that during our time in the service, it seemed like we were constantly drinking some form of the brew.  We also agreed that the standard military coffee and a lot of regular store bought coffee just didn’t cut it.  When awake constantly and spending the time drinking stale brew, it’s difficult to not have a massive stomach ache afterward.  Over time, you just get used to bad coffee and think that is the pinnacle of the coffee experience; there’s nothing to enjoy, you simply drink it to stay awake. 

However, the founder discovered a plantation in Southeast Asia during a previous trip and the taste from coffee roasted directly at the source was better than any cup he had previously.  He later tried to replicate and started home roasting after reading some do-it-yourself articles on how to roast with a heat gun and steel bowl.  After a few tries and getting some decent results, he slowly began selling coffee within his old unit on the side and building the business.

When assessing whether a full-on roasting operation would be a good move, it was agreed that there was simply no shortage of customers.  Coffee is consumed by almost everyone in the United States and it shows no sign of slowing down.  Most importantly, coffee is brewed in connection with every event, business, social or athletic.  Whether going to the range for the day or spending the weekend camping or fishing, folks usually brew coffee as part of their ritual.  It’s a product embedded into the American way of life and while the British have their teatime for afternoon leisure, we have our coffee break for conversation.

Knowing that folks have their favorite coffee companies, we really had to figure out what was going to make us stand apart and draw business.  Aside from being a veteran owned and operated company, and roasting on order, we also built a strong inventory of merchandise of American made items that supports other small businesses, and we will continue to do so.

Of the businesses De Espresso Liber is proud to work with is Guerrilla Outfitters of Portland, Oregon, which is a Special Forces owned-business, that engraves all of the tumblers we buy from Planetary Design in Missoula, Montana.  Guerilla Outfitters also provides us with smaller steel mugs and will be handcrafting a number of other products for us in the future.  We purchase handcrafted mugs made from American sourced clay by Potters Fire in Herndon, Virginia. By purchasing from these companies, we know that we are giving our customers the best products available, along with supporting American businesses and feeding American families.

We also wanted to support veteran support and charity organizations.  We have donated to the Green Beret Foundation since our beginning and we have also started a Gold Star Line of coffees honoring Fallen Servicemen, a portion of the profits from which are donated to designated charities. 

For each individual blend of the Gold Star Line, we work directly with the families of the fallen. Together, we create an image, title and history, and get input from the family to create a type of coffee that would match their soldier.  They taste a number of blends before settling on the one they feel is the best match.  So far we have developed three blends, are finishing up a fourth and have plans for a fifth.  Additionally, each family designates the charity that the blend will support.  Currently, one supports the Green Beret Foundation, another The Unquiet Professional Foundation, and the third raises money to support a fallen soldier’s son.

Thanks for reading and, if you have a chance, please check us out and see if there’s anything we can do for you.  We stand by all of the folks we work with and know the quality of their products and work ethic.  We look forward to writing a bit more in the future as things develop and we have more content to share. 

Till next time, remember: work by, with and through the folks in your communities and please support those small veteran owned businesses when you get the chance.  You might find some of those old ‘forgotten’ American values are actually still around.  To us, it’s simply about the man on your right and your left, choosing to do the right thing, and providing the best possible service to those who choose to support our business!  Thanks again!

DEL / DOL

“Freedom Doesn’t Brew Itself”

Check out http://www.deespressoliber.com

Search on Instagram for Deespressoliber 

Thomas A. Reppetto is the past president of the Citizens Crime Commission of New York City and a former commander of detectives in the Chicago Police Department.

Twenty years ago, I had the honor of observing one of the finest outfits the American police ever fielded in action: the NYPD citywide street-crime unit (SCU).

It was a relatively small group of 100 to 150 carefully selected officers with outstanding records, who prowled the city looking for those carrying guns.

And it’s a model of how the city can deal with rising gun crime without flooding the streets with additional cops or restoring stop-and-frisk.

The unit made a virtual anthropological study of street criminals. They discovered that unlike many legal gun-carriers, they didn’t generally use holsters, but instead stuck the gun in their waistbands.

Because they constantly worried about the gun falling out, they’d walk in an unusual fashion. Thus the gun-hunters looked for the subtle signs of behavior that would have escaped the notice of a regular police officer (or civilians).

If they spotted a suspected gunman, they wouldn’t jump out of their cars with guns drawn. Instead, an undercover officer would quietly work his way up to the suspect and place his hand over the gun while other officers moved in, so nobody would get shot.

The unit mastered the technique of conducting felony car stops, a tactic that has cost many police officers their lives. They never operated in a catch-as-catch-can fashion, but used choreographed tactics where several cars surrounded and halted a vehicle and officers took up designated positions around it.

Though many outstanding cops applied for a tryout with the SCU, only a certain number made it.

Members of the squad had to vote on whether to accept the newcomer. This was very serious business for them because their lives might depend upon the individuals they were working with.

The success of the SCU prompted police brass to seek to expand it.

The inspector in charge, a highly decorated street cop, argued against the proposal. He knew this kind of work wasn’t for everyone. When headquarters ignored his advice, he resigned from the department. In 1997 the unit was expanded from 138 to 438 officers.

Then disaster struck.

In February 1999, four street-crime officers were searching for a rapist in The Bronx.

When they spotted a possible suspect, Amadou Diallo, they closed in on him.

Apparently fearing a robbery, he tried to move his wallet to his pocket. The officers mistook it for a gun and fired 41 shots, 19 striking Mr. Diallo.

The officers involved in the case were young and inexperienced; they’d never worked as a team until that night.

The local district attorney indicted them for murder, but they were acquitted.

Shortly afterward, the entire street-crime unit was abolished.

In effect, the Police Department went from mistake to mistake. It wrongly expanded the unit and then wrongly abolished it.

What it should have done was restore the old SCU.

To combat the current wave of gunmen roaming the streets and pushing up our murder rate, the NYPD would benefit from bringing back stop-and-frisk to discourage criminals from carrying firearms.

But there’s a hesitancy to do so. The second problem is that while ordinary officers may occasionally be able to spot a gunman, systematic gun-hunting is a task requiring a lot of training.

A first step to reducing gun crime should be the creation of a street-crime unit modeled after the original one. This would be a group of 100 or so highly trained, motivated and carefully selected officers.

The very existence of teams of crack gun-hunters prowling the streets would be an important deterrent to illegal gun-carriers.

If the city doesn’t want to bring back the old SCU, it will send a signal that gunmen can carry their pieces without fear. If we let them carry illegal guns, they’re likely to use them.

Eventually, that means we’ll have a deluge of shootings.

Source credit: http://nypost.com/2015/06/11/the-nypd-needs-to-revive-its-elite-anti-gun-unit/ 

After circling each other for the past year, President Obama and President Putin squared off on Monday at the United Nations in dueling speeches that presented starkly different views on the Syrian crisis and how to bring stability to the Middle East.

President Obama made a forceful defense of diplomacy and the system of rules represented by the international body, but in a veiled reference to Mr. Putin, he warned that “dangerous currents risk pulling us back into a darker, more disordered world.”

Mr. Putin talked about mounting a broad effort to support Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, as the best bulwark against the spread of the Islamic State and other radical groups, even though the White House has said Mr. Assad has to leave power if there is to be a political solution in Syria.

Beyond the verbal jousting and steely looks over lunch after the morning speeches, however, the two leaders were still playing a subtle game of diplomatic poker, each trying to maneuver the other into shifting his position. 

For the White House, this has meant accepting a Russian role in the region but hoping that Moscow will appreciate the risk of becoming bogged down. That, they hope, will raise the costs of backing Mr. Assad and force Russia to work sincerely on a political transition that will lead to the Syrian leader’s departure.

“Knock yourselves out,” one Obama administration official said, mocking Mr. Putin’s bravado about forming a grand coalition in Syria.

For the Kremlin, it means restoring enough stability to Syria to win acceptance of an expanded role for Russia in the Middle East — not to speak of its expanded military presence. Such a development, in the Kremlin’s view, would also validate Mr. Putin’s contention that toppling authoritarian governments in the Middle East has led only to chaos and sanctuaries for terrorists.

Two speeches, one reception and a meeting later, there was no hint that the two leaders had substantially narrowed the chasm between them on their principal disagreement: the future of Mr. Assad. 

“The Obama administration would like to find a way to link arms with Russia on a diplomatic process and not have to tackle some of the less palatable issues like creating safe areas in Syria,” said Andrew S. Weiss, vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “But the only road map Putin laid out today was a fuzzy concept of a grand coalition to fight terrorism arm in arm with Bashar al-Assad, the very man the Americans say is the source of the problem.”

After the Russians surprised the Obama administration by deploying warplanes, tanks and marines at an airfield near Latakia, Syria, the White House agreed to hold military-to-military talks to ensure against any accidents leading to a confrontation. But the larger hope, as Secretary of State John Kerry made clear on Sunday, was that the two sides might work out a common political strategy on Syria. 

There was no hint of that in the two leaders’ speeches on Monday.

Mr. Obama singled out Russia’s annexation of Crimea as a flagrant violation of the international order. On Syria, he repeated the administration’s insistence that Mr. Assad would ultimately have to step down, though he provided no clues as to what steps the United States might take to pressure him to hand over power. 

“The United States is prepared to work with any nation, including Russia and Iran, to resolve the conflict,” Mr. Obama said. “But we must recognize that there cannot be, after so much bloodshed, so much carnage, a return to the prewar status quo.”

Mr. Obama also talked about a “managed transition” in Syria, in which Mr. Assad would be gradually eased out of power. There are intense discussions underway on how long that transitional period should be and how many in Mr. Assad’s close circle would have to go, several United Nations Security Council diplomats said.

Mr. Putin, who was making his first appearance at the United Nations General Assembly in 10 years, was openly dismissive of the United States’ interventions in the Middle East. The United States-led effort to oust Saddam Hussein in Iraq and Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi in Libya, he said, had made each country a haven for terrorists.

And the Obama administration’s attempts to train and equip a moderate Syrian opposition would end up swelling the ranks of Islamic radicals, Mr. Putin insisted. The Kremlin says about 2,000 of the extremists who have joined the Islamic State have come from Russia, fueling concern that they may return and carry out terrorist attacks. Russia has fought two wars against Islamist separatists in Chechnya.

Better, Mr. Putin said, to rally around Mr. Assad. “We think it is an enormous mistake to refuse to cooperate with the Syrian government and its armed forces, who are valiantly fighting terrorism face to face,” he said.

But he offered no prescription for how the Syrian political crisis might be resolved. Nor did Mr. Putin indicate that the Russian military buildup in Syria — including its first new military base in the Middle East in decades — would be reversed if the Islamic State was defeated.

Russia and Syria are longtime allies, with deeply interwoven personal and military connections that militate against any wholesale abandonment of Damascus by the Kremlin.

“The Russians have consistently said that they are not attached to Assad personally, but they insist his government is legitimate, that it is fighting terrorists, and they have rejected efforts from any outside country or combination of countries to impose a particular person or formation to replace Assad,” Robert S. Ford, a former American ambassador to Syria, said in a recent interview. “And they have stressed they want to preserve the Syrian state and its institutions, many of which it has long had close ties with.”

On Monday evening, the two presidents entered a small room with Russian and American flags and shook hands before their widely anticipated meeting. They ignored shouted questions on Syria. The meeting, the first between the two leaders in two years, was held in a Security Council consultation room.

Before the closed session, the prospects for close cooperation did not appear auspicious. Mr. Putin did not provide notice to Mr. Obama of the Russian decision earlier this month to set up an air hub near Latakia or to conclude an intelligence-sharing agreement on Sunday with Iraq, Iran and the Syrian government.

In recent days, the two sides sparred even over which one wanted the meeting more. Mr. Putin also appears to be coordinating his strategy with Iran, which has been Mr. Assad’s strongest backer.

Still, Mr. Obama and Mr. Putin did manage to work together in 2013 to forge an accord that called for Syria to give up its chemical arsenal. Mr. Putin pursued that accord to head off an American military strike that might have emboldened the Syrian opposition and undermined Mr. Assad, and since then the conflict in Ukraine has soured relations.

After the meeting Monday night, Mr. Putin said the discussions had been “very constructive, businesslike and frank.” American officials, who insisted on anonymity as a condition of briefing reporters, echoed that description, noting that half of the session had been spent on Ukraine and half on Syria.

Still, there was nothing to suggest that the two sides had overcome their differences on the future of Mr. Assad. “I think the Russians certainly understood the importance of there being a political resolution in Syria and there being a process that pursues a political resolution,” an American official said. “We have a difference about what the outcome of that process would be.”

Source credit: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/29/world/middleeast/obama-and-putin-clash-at-un-on-mideast-crisis.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0

The tactical training industry exploded in the mid 2000's. This period coincided with the height of the Iraq War (Petraeus' Surge), and the fighting that took place in Afghanistan's mountainous border with Pakistan. During this time, American media also covered the entire spectrum of warfare. Brutal house-to-house fighting in Fallujah and coalition airstrikes in Kunar were brought into the American household via the Nightly News.

Wartime coverage provided by news outlets is not a new phenomenon. However, the 2000's brought about some of the most prolific changes to spectatorship of modern warfare through the use of social media and user generated content. Armed with a M4 and a helmet camera, hundreds of soldiers have uploaded their experiences to websites that are devoted specifically to battle focused media. Before "YouTube fame" was a common term, thousands of spectators had viewed Blackwater snipers engage Iraqi insurgents, and Delta Force Operators perform hostage rescue.

Exposure to wartime coverage through traditional news outlets and the more recent mediums provided by the Internet has altered our methods for determining source credibility. First, when an individual watches an accredited news outlet, he subconsciously creates metrics for what "right" looks like. With regards to combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, viewers create conventions that align with the following checklist: (1) The events are taking place in the desert (2) there are soldiers running around in uniform (3) I see guns-conclusion: this is what combat looks like.

Viewers then use these models and apply them to other forms of media. When watching combat footage on the Internet, the same checklist can determine what "right" looks like. The closer a YouTube video aligns with what is shown from an accredited news outlet, the more likely a viewer is to consider the content legitimate (yes, fake combat footage does exist). The cumulative effect of building heuristics to determine credibility is that we may properly construct our interpretation of what "right" looks like; or we may empower the wrong individuals and concepts.

The Rise Of Tactical Entertainment

Commercial tactical instruction benefited from wartime coverage delivered by both accredited news outlets and the newer forms of user (soldier) generated Internet content. For trainers posting videos to YouTube, they only need to look like what consumers consider "right." This task is easily accomplished by: wearing camouflage or North Face-style pants and shirts, having a cool looking gun, and most importantly-growing a beard.

Absent of robust credentials, individuals that look the part are able to build massive brands around their methodology. Under these circumstances, training begins to value flair over function, and concepts that are incompatible with fundamental skills are relabeled as doctrine. Furthermore, the accelerant qualities of social media create communal consensus. From the consumer's point of view, how can something be wrong if it is wildly popular on Instagram? Consequently, source credibility, experience, and judgment can be measured more by social media following than real world experience.

Crossfit Case Comparison

In the early 2000's, Crossfit exploded among the exercise industry. Individuals unfamiliar with Olympic-style weightlifting were now snatch-clean-lift-swing-battleroping themselves to exhaustion and injury. However, the prevailing mindset among Crossfitters was that pain meant growth. Unfortunately for thousands of Americans, pushing through pain meant exacerbating various forms of tendonitis.

Why did Crossfit gain robust popularity? First, Crossfit's business model is extremely conducive to franchising. Spending $500 on a seminar to become "certified,” allows gyms to open their own Crossfit franchise. Second, the randomness of Crossfit's programming does produce results, however, these results are not targeted towards goal specific performance. Rather than enhancing sport related abilities, Crossfit only makes people good at working out. Third, the communal effects of working out in a group formed camaraderie that made any physical activity more enjoyable due to the added social components.

Crossfit's methodology has been challenged since its inception; however, counter-arguments were unable to gain traction due to the ubiquitous popularity of Crossfit. How can a concept (franchise) that exists globally be wrong? In the past few years, accredited news outlets and exercise professionals have vigorously criticized Crossfit's methodology. As a result, gyms with Crossfit franchises have reverted back to being Olympic weightlifting establishments; and institutions that choose to remain Crossfit specific have restructured their programming to incorporate material that focuses on injury avoidance and meaningful programming.

Crossfit is not bad, misunderstood and poorly taught Crossfit is bad. The same holds true with tactical shooting instruction. Similar to Crossfit "instructors" that are parroting information they learned in an eight hour seminar, unaccredited tactical instructors can regurgitate information at a base level, but will always fail in expanding upon on a concept due to lack of experience.

One Sided Dialogue

Contrary to law enforcement and military organizations, commercial training is driven by what consumers are more willing to pay for. Mission success relates more to increasing profit margins than remaining honest to the fundamentals of a discipline. Distortion of knowledge by commercial firms proliferates because legitimate tactical organizations (LEO/military) do not even participate in the conversation about tactics and training. Does the marksmanship NCO for 1st SFOD-D care about what is being written in the comment section of YouTube video? No, or at least not until he retires and starts his own commercial training company.

For credible instructors, scrutinizing an unaccredited, but popular instructor is too risky.

Regardless of being right, challenging an instructor means challenging his brand and potentially alienating his client base. Moreover, challenging an individual backed by multimillion-dollar firms can expedite ostracism from the industry. Consequently, the Tier One credentials valued by government agencies to perform real world missions go undervalued in an industry driven by clever marketing and brand exposure.

A common business axiom is that you should focus less on highlighting the flaws of a competitor's brand, and spend more effort emphasizing the strengths of your product. Although this applies to business, this concept is incompatible with academically advancing knowledge within a discipline. With regards to tactical shooting instruction, credentialed individuals should absolutely critique flawed methodology. Why-because lives are at stake.

Although social media has contributed to the proliferation of questionable instruction and tactical entertainment, it has also facilitated exposure from reputable sources. Mike Pannone of CTT Solutions recently wrote an op-ed that rigorously critiqued a pistol carry method known as the temple index. In Pat McNamara's upcoming training DVD he frustratingly addresses search and assess methodology. Although Mike and Mac will not change the minds of the individuals that staunchly defend the temple index and search and assess, they will influence the opinions of thousands of spectators that are observing the arguments.

Compounded Effects By The Year 2020

The consequences of learning poorly recited tactical information is apparent, however, to properly understand the significance we must look at the compounded effects. Over the next few years, tactical medicine is going to be the next trend in training that gains explosive popularity. Although marksmanship-style courses will not go away, the market for this type of training is entirely saturated by both credible and questionable instructors.

Poorly regurgitated tactical medicine training poses a specific threat to patient survivability. Individuals that have been improperly trained will worsen certain wounds and injuries in such a matter that it may cause permanent damage or loss of life. In 2005, shooters highly scrutinized open enrollment tactical courses taught by individuals with questionable backgrounds. In 2015, Instagram has undermined much of the source verification process. Real world experience can now be waived if an instructor has tens of thousands of followers. At the current pace, there's no reason to assume that tactical medicine training will not suffer the same dynamic by the year 2020.

Aaron is a Special Forces Veteran and teaches classes in Southern California. Check out his website at guerrillaapproach.com and follow him at instagram.com/guerrilla_approach

Every small business owner says they want innovative, creative, collaborative, team-oriented employees willing to embrace and pursue a larger purpose.

Then they say they can't find those employees.

Maybe they're looking in the wrong places--and fostering the wrong culture.

Take veterans of the armed forces. I've worked with many people who assumed ex-military personnel were "fine if you need someone to blindly follow orders... but otherwise, forget it." They assume veterans are too regimented, overly concerned with detail and process, decidedly lacking in creativity, and totally unwilling to think outside the box.

That impression is based on a total misunderstanding of how the military operates. While recruit training is designed to indoctrinate and assimilate new soldiers, the ultimate goal of military training is to create leaders at all levels.

While you might think your organisation promotes from within, you have nothing on the military: every promotion is from within.

The same is true for graduates of military schools. Cadets rise through the leadership ranks based on merit and bear tremendous responsibility for the conduct and performance of their classmates.

And while some of the training in military schools--and the military itself--is skills-based, much of their exercises focus on developing problem-solving expertise, creativity, risk assessment, moral character… all of which are skills and traits in great demand in the business world.

In reality, military personnel:

• Live and breathe the value and importance of teamwork
• Embrace the chain of command… but also excel at taking personal responsibility for performance and results
• Instantly adapt to shifting priorities, changes in focus or direction, and general conditions
• Have strong analytical and reasoning skills... and know how to make and take responsibility for their decisions

Sound like the culture you want to create for your business?

Here are some traits you can encourage--and benefit from--instilling in your employees and your business:

Foster Ownership, Not Just Accountability

Accountability is assigned or given. You can assign accountability. You can instruct an employee to perform a task or even accomplish a goal, but in effect you still own that task or goal: you tell the employee what you want, you tell them how you want it done, and you create metrics to measure success.

That's accountability: the employee takes responsibility for doing what you want them to do.

Ownership isn't assigned or given; ownership is taken. You can't assign ownership; ownership happens when an employee says, "I will make this happen. Here's what I will do, here's what I will accomplish, and here's how I will measure progress."

The difference? Instead of you saying, "You will," the employee says, "I will."

How do you make that happen? Do what the military does: define objectives, set overall parameters, and then let your employees decide how to best accomplish those objectives. Let your employees come up with their own ideas and their own plans. Leave the tactical planning to the "soldiers" on the ground.

We all care much more when something is ours: our ideas, our processes, and our responsibility. We care the most when we feel we are depended on – and given the authority – to make important decisions and do what is right.

To build a great business, create broad standards and guidelines and then challenge your employees by giving them the autonomy and independence to work the way they work best. Allow employees to turn “yours” into “ours” and you transform work into an expression of each person’s unique skills, talents, and experiences.

Organize The Workday More Effectively

The military is primarily mission-based, but not all missions are created equally. Some of your objectives are more important than others--so make sure you structure the workday accordingly.

For example, all of us have the greatest amount of mental energy early in the morning. In a landmark study performed by the National Academy of Sciences, parole board judges were found to be most likely to give a favorable ruling early in the morning. Just before lunch, the odds of a favorable ruling dropped to almost zero.

Should judges’ decisions have been affected by factors other than legal? Of course not — but they were. Why? Over the course of the morning judges got mentally tired and experienced decision fatigue.

The best time to make tough decisions is early in the day. The best time to do the most important things you need to do is early in the day.

Decide what those things are, and have employees tackle them first thing (that's good advice for you, too).

Embrace A Genuine Sense Of Purpose

Every soldier feels they are a part of something bigger than themselves. Every soldier enjoys the feeling of teamwork and esprit de corps that transforms a group of individuals into a real team.

Every employee does, too--as long as you help make that possible.

How? Create a mission. Share that mission. Be the walking, talking embodiment of that mission.

Not sure what that mission should be? Start with people. The missions involve making a real impact on the lives of people: customers, suppliers, and employees.

Share what you hope to achieve for your business, your customers, and possibly your community. And if you can, let your employees create a few missions of their own.

Feeling a true purpose always starts with knowing what to care about and, more important, why to care.

That's what the military provides its soldiers--and is definitely what you should provide your employees. Every employee wants to rise to the occasion.

All you have to do is give them the opportunity.

Source credit: http://www.inc.com/jeff-haden/3-reasons-a-military-veteran-should-be-your-next-hire.html

I remember when we first got word of the attack on Capt Trevor Greene in 2006, when Canada’s combat role in Afghanistan was hitting its peak. We were sitting around the platoon room when the news came in that one of our buddies attached to his unit happened to be there during the attack.

At the time, Lieutenant Greene was deployed as a Civilian-Military Cooperation (CIMIC) officer, who had volunteered to deploy from his reserve unit, the Seaforth Highlanders of Canada. The job of a CIMIC officer is to maintain positive relations with the locals and work to rebuild the local infrastructure which was constantly being held down by the Taliban.

On March 26th, 2006, Greene was conducting a meeting with village elders in the village of Shinkay, and the group inside the cordon had removed their helmets to show respect for the local leaders. Once Greene’s helmet was removed, a 16 year old charged him and nearly split his brain in half with an axe. As the Taliban fighter attempted to go in for another strike, he was shot dead by other members of the platoon. The platoon then came under heavy fire from other Taliban forces as they waited for the US Army MEDEVAC chopper. Once aboard the helicopter medic Gary Adams was able to unblock his airway and buy him enough time to make it back to KAF, and then onto Germany for further treatment.

Source credit to Funker530.

Source link : https://www.funker530.com/capt-trevor-greene-walks-again-after-taking-an-axe-to-the-head-in-afghanistan/

Despite years of intimidation by the violent extremist group Boko Haram, the people of southeastern Niger’s Diffa region had never held a summit to confront the threat – perhaps with good reason.

“One person could come here and kill us all!” Diffa’s prefect, Inoussa Saouna, told 75 village leaders assembled along with politicians and military commanders in the city’s pale blue-walled cultural center. That same early September day, a double suicide bombing that bore Boko Haram’s hallmarks killed 19 people in nearby Cameroon.

The group, best known for its kidnapping of more than 200 Nigerian schoolgirls in April 2014, has expanded from its base in northern Nigeria to threaten the region. It has menaced U.S. and European allies in West Africa, and leader Abubakar Shekau in March pledged its loyalty to Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

The Diffa meeting was a modest success not just for its mutually suspicious tribes but for a small team of fewer than 20 U.S. Special Operations Forces conducting an experiment that is part of President Barack Obama’s new counter-terrorism strategy.

The soldiers, who encouraged the meeting and helped provide a ring of security, do not go into combat, or even wear uniforms. They are quietly trying to help Niger build a wall against Boko Haram’s incursions and its recruitment of Diffa’s youth.

A Reuters reporter was the first to visit the detachment, which is among about 1,000 U.S. Special Operations Forces deployed across Africa. In Chad, Nigeria, Niger and elsewhere, they are executing Obama’s relatively low-risk strategy of countering Islamic extremists by finding local partners willing to fight rather than deploying combat troops by the thousands.

The new approach, which Obama announced in May 2014, is far from being a silver bullet for the United States in its global battle against Islamic militancy. The indirect strategy appears to be faltering in the Middle East, where the United States has found few reliable allies on the battlefield in Syria. In Iraq, U.S.-trained and -equipped forces evaporated last year in the face of ISIS’s offensive. In Niger, there are signs of success against Boko Haram, although progress will likely be slow in a years-long effort, U.S., European and African officials say.

“For the region, this is going to be a struggle that’s going to be with them for a long time, not just in Niger, but elsewhere,” said Army Col. Bob Wilson, commander of U.S. Special Operations Forces in north and West Africa.

U.S. officials say they see predominantly Muslim Niger as worth helping. Relatively stable, but facing national and local elections in 2016, it is threatened by Boko Haram in Nigeria to the south, chaos in Libya to the north and an al Qaeda affiliate that operates in neighboring Algeria and Mali.

The U.S. soldiers in Diffa described their mission as a sharp and welcome pivot from the Iraq and Afghan wars, where virtually all of them served. The U.S. military has not said how long their presence will last. “It’s a totally different approach to the problem set,” an American team sergeant said in an interview. The Special Operations soldiers cannot be identified by name under military ground rules.

In Iraq and Afghanistan, the United States also works with local security forces and leaders – but has wielded thousands of combat troops, drone strikes and pricey aid projects.

There is none of that in Diffa, a region that includes more than 200 villages along a 170-mile (273-km) stretch of the Komadougou Yobe River that marks the porous border with Nigeria.

Regroup and disappear

In April, at Niger’s request, the American soldiers reinforced their small ranks on a drab, dusty compound with few amenities. Boko Haram was mounting a regional rampage and in February had launched significant attacks inside Niger for the first time.

Working alongside them is an unusual U.S. non-profit group, Spirit of America, that says it also aims to leave a light footprint. 

Under written understandings with the Pentagon, it buttresses U.S. military missions by providing local populations with small-scale assistance that would take Washington’s bureaucracy months or years to procure.

In Niger, the group has provided first-aid kits, Camelbak hydration systems and medical detectors for Niger’s military. It covered the $4,000 cost of the anti-Boko Haram summit.

“It’s providing them with enough to get through this critical phase,” said Isaac Eagan, Spirit of America’s field operations director. “It’s not fixing everything.” Boko Haram has long used Niger for refuge and resupply, officials said. By the time the U.S. team sergeant and his men arrived, it had been luring young men from Diffa’s villages since the late 2000s, offering money and adventure, he said.

“We missed the recruiting portion of it,” he said.

Anafi Ousmane, a member of Diffa’s mayor’s council, told Reuters there had been three consecutive bad harvests of peppers, a primary crop, leaving young farmers deep in debt.“Now Boko Haram’s seeing that vulnerability,” he said through a translator. “I will give you money. I will give you another motor bike, I will give you a woman. Join me.” One group of U.S. soldiers was training Niger military’s 3rd Antiterrorist Company. Another began to grapple with the civilian side of the problem, accompanying the nascent civil-military affairs unit of Niger’s military on visits to villages up and down the river.

They encouraged villagers to report Boko Haram activity to military authorities and young people to establish watch groups. Spirit of America provided mobile phone credits to help.

Boko Haram has killed suspected informants and fear of the group persists. In June, the militants attacked two villages in Diffa, killing at least 30 civilians. Some died inside their mostly straw-thatched houses, which were set alight. Sergeant Fougou Saley, chief of civil-military affairs for the Diffa region, said Boko Haram’s violent tactics have alienated much of the populace. But he said it still draws support from some of the Kanuri people, whose lands straddle northeastern Nigeria and southeastern Niger.

“In some places, some still have their heart toward Boko Haram,” said Saley, himself a Kanuri. But African, U.S. and European officials say the group’s attacks in Niger have dropped significantly in the face of a regional counter-offensive this year by Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Cameroon. “I think their command structure has suffered a lot,” Colonel Major Moussa Salaou Barmou, commander of the military district that encompasses Diffa, told Reuters. But Barmou said he warned his superiors: “Always keep in mind one fact, that Boko Haram still keeps the ability to regroup very fast, conduct an action and disappear again.”

For how long?

The counter-Boko Haram summit brought together representatives of the Kanuri, Faluni and Buduma tribes, as well as representatives of thousands of refugees who have fled violence in northern Nigeria.

Voices were raised over whether former Boko Haram members who had been arrested and set free should be allowed to rejoin their communities. Most said no. When one speaker declared that captured insurgents should be executed, applause broke out.

The U.S. soldiers stuck to their behind-the-scenes approach. The team sergeant and a few others watched from the back of the room and did not intervene even when the gathering appeared to almost collapse in confusion after 20 minutes. The soldiers say they feel more welcome in Niger than in Iraq and Afghanistan, where the long U.S. military presence, American missteps and mutual misunderstandings eroded tolerance. 

“They’re fully supportive of getting Boko Haram out of here. It’s nice to be able to work with folks like that – that want the problem gone,” said the team sergeant, who was wrapping up his deployment and handing off to his replacement.

Less clear is how long the Americans will remain.

One thing they won’t leave behind is large-scale development projects like those in Iraq and Afghanistan. Years of reports by U.S. inspectors general documented wide-scale waste and corruption in those aid efforts. 

“The biggest thing was not pumping money and projects into the region,” the team sergeant said. “Is it sustainable? Absolutely.”

Saley, his counterpart from Niger, said: “I would even like the Americans to stay for 40 years. … I don’t know what the American government and Niger government will decide.”

Source credit: http://www.riyadhvision.com.sa/2015/09/19/in-niger-u-s-soldiers-quietly-help-build-wall-against-boko-haram/

In his last phone call home, Lance Cpl. Gregory Buckley Jr. told his father what was troubling him: From his bunk in southern Afghanistan, he could hear Afghan police officers sexually abusing boys they had brought to the base.

“At night we can hear them screaming, but we’re not allowed to do anything about it,” the Marine’s father, Gregory Buckley Sr., recalled his son telling him before he was shot to death at the base in 2012. He urged his son to tell his superiors. “My son said that his officers told him to look the other way because it’s their culture.”

Rampant sexual abuse of children has long been a problem in Afghanistan, particularly among armed commanders who dominate much of the rural landscape and can bully the population. The practice is called bacha bazi, literally “boy play,” and American soldiers and Marines have been instructed not to intervene — in some cases, not even when their Afghan allies have abused boys on military bases, according to interviews and court records.

The policy has endured as American forces have recruited and organized Afghan militias to help hold territory against the Taliban. But soldiers and Marines have been increasingly troubled that instead of weeding out pedophiles, the American military was arming them in some cases and placing them as the commanders of villages — and doing little when they began abusing children.

“The reason we were here is because we heard the terrible things the Taliban were doing to people, how they were taking away human rights,” said Dan Quinn, a former Special Forces captain who beat up an American-backed militia commander for keeping a boy chained to his bed as a sex slave. “But we were putting people into power who would do things that were worse than the Taliban did — that was something village elders voiced to me.”

The policy of instructing soldiers to ignore child sexual abuse by their Afghan allies is coming under new scrutiny, particularly as it emerges that service members like Captain Quinn have faced discipline, even career ruin, for disobeying it.

After the beating, the Army relieved Captain Quinn of his command and pulled him from Afghanistan. He has since left the military.

Four years later, the Army is also trying to forcibly retire Sgt. First Class Charles Martland, a Special Forces member who joined Captain Quinn in beating up the commander.

“The Army contends that Martland and others should have looked the other way (a contention that I believe is nonsense),” Representative Duncan Hunter, a California Republican who hopes to save Sergeant Martland’s career, wrote last week to the Pentagon’s inspector general.

In Sergeant Martland’s case, the Army said it could not comment because of the Privacy Act.

When asked about American military policy, the spokesman for the American command in Afghanistan, Col. Brian Tribus, wrote in an email: “Generally, allegations of child sexual abuse by Afghan military or police personnel would be a matter of domestic Afghan criminal law.” He added that “there would be no express requirement that U.S. military personnel in Afghanistan report it.” An exception, he said, is when rape is being used as a weapon of war.

The American policy of nonintervention is intended to maintain good relations with the Afghan police and militia units the United States has trained to fight the Taliban. It also reflects a reluctance to impose cultural values in a country where pederasty is rife, particularly among powerful men, for whom being surrounded by young teenagers can be a mark of social status.

Some soldiers believed that the policy made sense, even if they were personally distressed at the sexual predation they witnessed or heard about.

“The bigger picture was fighting the Taliban,” a former Marine lance corporal reflected. “It wasn’t to stop molestation.”

Still, the former lance corporal, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid offending fellow Marines, recalled feeling sickened the day he entered a room on a base and saw three or four men lying on the floor with children between them. “I’m not a hundred percent sure what was happening under the sheet, but I have a pretty good idea of what was going on,” he said.

But the American policy of treating child sexual abuse as a cultural issue has often alienated the villages whose children are being preyed upon. The pitfalls of the policy emerged clearly as American Special Forces soldiers began to form Afghan Local Police militias to hold villages that American forces had retaken from the Taliban in 2010 and 2011.

By the summer of 2011, Captain Quinn and Sergeant Martland, both Green Berets on their second tour in northern Kunduz Province, began to receive dire complaints about the Afghan Local Police units they were training and supporting.

First, they were told, one of the militia commanders raped a 14- or 15-year-old girl whom he had spotted working in the fields. Captain Quinn informed the provincial police chief, who soon levied punishment. “He got one day in jail, and then she was forced to marry him,” Mr. Quinn said.

When he asked a superior officer what more he could do, he was told that he had done well to bring it up with local officials but that there was nothing else to be done. “We’re being praised for doing the right thing, and a guy just got away with raping a 14-year-old girl,” Mr. Quinn said.

Village elders grew more upset at the predatory behavior of American-backed commanders. After each case, Captain Quinn would gather the Afghan commanders and lecture them on human rights.

Soon another commander absconded with his men’s wages. Mr. Quinn said he later heard that the commander had spent the money on dancing boys. Another commander murdered his 12-year-old daughter in a so-called honor killing for having kissed a boy. “There were no repercussions,” Mr. Quinn recalled.

In September 2011, an Afghan woman, visibly bruised, showed up at an American base with her son, who was limping. One of the Afghan police commanders in the area, Abdul Rahman, had abducted the boy and forced him to become a sex slave, chained to his bed, the woman explained. When she sought her son’s return, she herself was beaten. Her son had eventually been released, but she was afraid it would happen again, she told the Americans on the base.

She explained that because “her son was such a good-looking kid, he was a status symbol” coveted by local commanders, recalled Mr. Quinn, who did not speak to the woman directly but was told about her visit when he returned to the base from a mission later that day.

So Captain Quinn summoned Abdul Rahman and confronted him about what he had done. The police commander acknowledged that it was true, but brushed it off. When the American officer began to lecture about “how you are held to a higher standard if you are working with U.S. forces, and people expect more of you,” the commander began to laugh.

“I picked him up and threw him onto the ground,” Mr. Quinn said. Sergeant Martland joined in, he said. “I did this to make sure the message was understood that if he went back to the boy, that it was not going to be tolerated,” Mr. Quinn recalled.

There is disagreement over the extent of the commander’s injuries. Mr. Quinn said they were not serious, which was corroborated by an Afghan official who saw the commander afterward.

(The commander, Abdul Rahman, was killed two years ago in a Taliban ambush. His brother said in an interview that his brother had never raped the boy, but was the victim of a false accusation engineered by his enemies.)

Sergeant Martland, who received a Bronze Star for valor for his actions during a Taliban ambush, wrote in a letter to the Army this year that he and Mr. Quinn “felt that morally we could no longer stand by and allow our A.L.P. to commit atrocities,” referring to the Afghan Local Police.

The father of Lance Corporal Buckley believes the policy of looking away from sexual abuse was a factor in his son’s death, and he has filed a lawsuit to press the Marine Corps for more information about it.

Lance Corporal Buckley and two other Marines were killed in 2012 by one of a large entourage of boys living at their base with an Afghan police commander named Sarwar Jan.

Mr. Jan had long had a bad reputation; in 2010, two Marine officers managed to persuade the Afghan authorities to arrest him following a litany of abuses, including corruption, support for the Taliban and child abduction. But just two years later, the police commander was back with a different unit, working at Lance Corporal Buckley’s post, Forward Operating Base Delhi, in Helmand Province.

Lance Corporal Buckley had noticed that a large entourage of “tea boys” — domestic servants who are sometimes pressed into sexual slavery — had arrived with Mr. Jan and moved into the same barracks, one floor below the Marines. He told his father about it during his final call home.

Word of Mr. Jan’s new position also reached the Marine officers who had gotten him arrested in 2010. One of them, Maj. Jason Brezler, dashed out an email to Marine officers at F.O.B. Delhi, warning them about Mr. Jan and attaching a dossier about him.

The warning was never heeded. About two weeks later, one of the older boys with Mr. Jan — around 17 years old — grabbed a rifle and killed Lance Corporal Buckley and the other Marines.

Lance Corporal Buckley’s father still agonizes about whether the killing occurred because of the sexual abuse by an American ally. “As far as the young boys are concerned, the Marines are allowing it to happen and so they’re guilty by association,” Mr. Buckley said. “They don’t know our Marines are sick to their stomachs.”

The one American service member who was punished in the investigation that followed was Major Brezler, who had sent the email warning about Mr. Jan, his lawyers said. In one of Major Brezler’s hearings, Marine Corps lawyers warned that information about the police commander’s penchant for abusing boys might be classified. The Marine Corps has initiated proceedings to discharge Major Brezler.

Mr. Jan appears to have moved on, to a higher-ranking police command in the same province. In an interview, he denied keeping boys as sex slaves or having any relationship with the boy who killed the three Marines. “No, it’s all untrue,” Mr. Jan said. But people who know him say he still suffers from “a toothache problem,” a euphemism here for child sexual abuse.

Source credit: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/21/world/asia/us-soldiers-told-to-ignore-afghan-allies-abuse-of-boys.html?_r=0

First off, I apparently wasn't clear enough in my first article. SF = SPECIAL FORCES/GREEN BERETS ONLY!!!! 

After reading some Facebook comments, there seems to be a couple of other misconceptions. Please check out the US Special Operation's Command (USSOCOM)  structure. This  is an excellent high-resolution organizational chart that shows each and every unit under USSOCOM and where they fall. SF is not under JSOC, and I chose not to write about Delta Force/CAG because I was never in that unit. It is not my place to explain them. 

Because of our two recent conflicts, people tend to think that FID is the same thing as COIN and that anyone can do it. While many times there is a counter insurgency reason to conduct FID, there doesn't have to be.

During COIN, FID is a tool that can be used to better prepare Government Forces, whether military, law enforcement or helping a staff even up to the Cabinet level. In active war zones, FID can be used to create a unit from scratch, like in Iraq, or used to bolster the forces already there. During peace time, FID is used to conduct training specifically asked for by the Host Nation (HN).

In my previous article, I explained why not everyone can do COIN and many of the same lessons apply to FID. The unit conducting it must have an understanding of cultural differences and the ability to work with units that run the gamut, from barely off the farm to highly trained CT forces.

As with UW, knowing the language is important. There are many people who can do great things, but get them in front of a group of people who aren't American, and attempt to teach them how to do even the basics, and they either choke, get frustrated or pissed off. Whoever is conducting the training needs to be able to know what instructional method will work the best, and then be able to articulate that into another language and culture, many times without the use of PPT. Acting like a Drill Sgt screaming at them will most likely do the exact opposite of what you intended. Let’s be honest, if it was easy, the Coast Guard would be doing it.

Due to the rampant misunderstanding of Foreign Internal Defense (FID), it has been disrespected and mocked by the DA side of SOF, because it isn't as “sexy.” Ironically, it can be argued that FID is the most important mission in the U.S. global arsenal, especially since the wars are winding down. FID is a major tool that the U.S. has for fighting and preventing future wars or conflicts. Other SOF units are beginning to see this, which is why there has been an increase of improving UW/IW/FID capabilities.

But it is so much more than teaching people to wipe their ass and march in a straight line.

Foreign Internal Defense

Participation by civilian and military agencies of a government in any of the action programs taken by another government or other designated organization to free and protect its society from subversion, lawlessness, insurgency, terrorism, and other threats to its security. Also called FID. (JP 3-22)

I feel that FID should be broken down into two sub-categories, "Peace Time FID" and "Combat FID."

Combat FID

Special Forces/Green Berets have been going into combat with units that they have trained since they were created. Laos, Vietnam, El Salvador, Afghanistan and Iraq to name just a few. Many of the units had never previously existed and in fact were stood up by ODAs, They were created, trained, and when they are sufficiently trained, conduct combat ops.The ODAs mentored them through multiple deployments year after year. Many times SF soldiers made repeat trips and worked with the same FID partners,  Whether you are talking about the Nungs or Rhades in Vietnam, or the multi ethnic elite ICTF in Iraq, the basics are all the same.

                                                              Lara Logan in Iraq

Whether you are talking about the Nungs or Rhades in Vietnam, or the multi ethnic elite ICTF in Iraq, the basics are all the same.

In the case of building a professional capability into the HN military, the final goal is for them to conduct operations on their own, with no U.S. forces involved. ICTF Unilateral ops (if you don't like haji music, turn the volume down). 

During the early stages, the Special Forces Soldiers will conduct all phases from training, planning, rehearsals and they will be in charge on the ground and lead the combat operation. As the HN force becomes better trained, the Special Forces soldiers will step back into a more advisory role, but still be with their FID partners through every phase from planning, to boots on the ground. They are with them, shoulder to shoulder with the HN, fighting and dying next to each other while acting as a liaison between the HN and U.S. assets. ( CAS, artillery, ISR or medevacs)

The end state of Combat FID is that you are attempting to work yourself out of a job. My crowning achievement with combat FID happened in 2008. My team was working in Baghdad with the 36th Commando Bn, which is a part of the Iraqi Special Operations Force (ISOF). We had received word that there was an HVT that the CFs had been trying to get for years, but he was constantly moving between Iraq and Iran, never sleeping in the same place for two nights in a row. This cat was slippery. We found out that he was going to be staying at the Baghdad hospital and submitted a CONOP; ready to roll when it was time. Our plan went all the way up to the General's staff where it was denied, because the target was in a hospital and it wasn't worth the potential PR nightmare if something went wrong.

As the 18F, I went to my Team Leader and Team Sgt after they had told me, and I made the recommendation to unleash our barbarians on the world, with no adult supervision. It was a risk because it had already been denied, but in '08 ISOF was coming into their own, and they had their own ROEs and launch requirements outside of the U.S. Chain of Command. As long as those conditions were met, they didn't need U.S. permission to go. My leadership talked it out and agreed.

We got the word and went down to the Bn leadership and briefed them on the mission and the situation. I told the commander that this was a chance for him to highlight the capabilities of his unit, police up a very bad man, and everyone would know that his unit was able to do this mission with no American support. (See what I did there? Because I had worked closely with them, I knew their capabilities, strengths, weakness and insecurities. Even though he was nervous going out without us, I knew exactly what buttons to push and what kind of motivation he needed to go out and get the guy that I wanted them to get. See The importance of rapport)

It was a completely unilateral Iraqi mission. We advised them on the planning and helped with Intel, but when they left the compound it was with a convoy of about 20 trucks, personally led by the Bn Cdr. It was a nervous night for my team leadership and me. If things went sideways, there was a very good chance that the hammer would come down on us. Even if you are completely right and justified, if a 3-star is pissed off, there's no ballistic protection that will save you.

A few hours later they came back, and I watched the Commando Bn CDR escort his prisoner into the detention facility. I could see the pride for his men even though he was trying to keep his face professional. They infiltrated into the gated hospital, surrounded the building this motherfucker was hiding in, and captured him without firing a shot or doing any significant damage to the hospital. It was funny because, even though I wanted to go out myself and be on the target with them, I had the exact same pride for the boys that he had.

Peacetime FID

Peacetime FID is best utilized when the HN agencies that are involved are already somewhat capable and are asking for U.S. assistance to get training in basic tasks; or when they are requesting specialized advanced training, usually by USSOF conducting Joint Combined Exchange Training (JCET). They are normally requested and approved through the Department of State, who then pass it to DOD.

When FID is requested and approved, it is usually in support of the overall strategic goals of the United States Government, because it provides a friendly Government with the capabilities to handle any internal or external threats with minimal direct U.S. involvement, while maintaining legitimacy of the Government and the respect of the local populace.

Peacetime FID is not a tactic for those who demand immediate gratification. It is a tool to be developed over many years, and used to create relationships between individuals and units at the operational level. The trust and respect that is built takes time, but when successful, it allows the U.S. to have not only regional experts who have been there many times, but also locals who have had good experience and look favorably on the U.S. When Peacetime FID done right, it prevents the need to send large conventional forces into hostile action because the situation deteriorated due to the inability of the HN military or Security Forces to handle it.

This is a great 40 min video showing SF working with the ANA Commando's and Afghan Special Forces.

Lesson 3 will finally answer the most asked question on the internet: “Who is better, SEALs or SF, Rangers or SF, any SOF unit, U.S. or Coalition vs. SF”... just kidding, I’ll answer it now. The answer is, and always will be, the Special Forces/Green Berets. (Although I may not be completely impartial.)

About the author: Loren Schofield is retired Special Forces with over 16 years serving in the various positions within the Special Forces Regiment. He started out as an infantryman, in both a line company and a scout platoon and during his Special Forces career he was both an 18E (SF Commo) and an 18F (SF Intel). He served on a Mountain Team, Mobility Team, and in a Special Forces Direct Action Company. He deployed twice to Kosovo and from April of 2002 to May of 2009 he deployed five times to Afghanistan and twice to Iraq.

You can find Loren on Instagram @Loren_NotASeal

US special operations forces are on the ground in Syria assisting Kurdish forces fighting the Islamic State, the head of the US military's Central Command reportedly told a Senate committee on Wednesday.

General Lloyd Austin revealed to the Senate Armed Services Committee that US Special Operations Forces are "engaged with YPG" Kurdish forces in the war-torn country, NBC reported.

Austin said that the special operations team was there to "advise and assist" and that they were "not engaged in any combat operations".

Kurdish fighters in the People's Protection Units (YPG) in northern Syria have been at the forefront of the fight against IS and now autonomously control a vast swathe of territory captured from the group and Syrian government.

The news is likely to complicate relations with US ally Turkey, who is currently engaged in a conflict with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), who are ideologically and strategically aligned with the YPG in Syria.

During the hearing, Austin also said that "appropriate action" would be taken if an investigation revealed to be true allegations that intelligence reports had been exaggerated to make it look as though progress against IS had been more successful than it had been.

An investigation was launched after an intelligence officer in Central Command lodged a complaint in July.

"Published media reports suggest that the CIA's estimate of ISIL's manpower has remained constant, despite US airstrikes - which suggests that either they were wrong to begin with, or that ISIL is replacing its losses in real time. Neither is good," said committee chairman Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.

"Indeed, this committee is disturbed by recent whistleblower allegations that officials at Central Command skewed intelligence assessments to paint an overly positive picture of conditions on the ground," he added.

'Boots on the ground'

Though US President Barack Obama has previously pledged there would be no "boots on the ground" in Syria, US forces have carried out a number of targeted operations in the country.

In May, a US special forces team carried out its first publicly admitted ground operation against IS in Syria, reportedly killing Abu Sayyaf, a senior IS commander who helped direct oil, gas and financial operations.

During the operation, the US claimed it had captured "reams of data on how IS operates, communicates and earns its money".

An earlier operation had also been carried out in summer 2014, in which US special forces reportedly attempted to free captured American journalist James Foley who was being held by IS.

They confirmed that they had engaged IS militants during the operation - which ultimately failed - but an official assessed that they "did not know who they were fighting that night".

A document from the security company Stratfor released by WikiLeaks in 2011 suggested that there had potentially been US special forces on the ground in Syria since 2011.

A security analyst from Stratfor said, in an email, that after talking with Pentagon officials they "said without saying that SOF teams (presumably from US, UK, France, Jordan, Turkey) are already on the ground focused on recce missions and training opposition forces".

Source credit http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/breaking-us-special-ops-forces-ground-syria-aiding-kurds-1533366130#sthash.MCRvUcKY.dpuf

As I sit here at my computer, I can see a slow-moving wildfire consuming thousands of acres and destroying small towns. On the first day, it began with 50 acres; an hour later it had doubled, and over night it grew into the thousands. Currently, the fire is 10-percent contained in high winds with tens of thousands of acres scorched, and dozens of houses reduced to ashes. The place resembles a war zone, reminding me of early-morning sunrises in Iraq while coming out of Sadr City after nighttime raids. Most undoubtedly we would take casualties from IEDs or EFPs, which were directional-charged IEDs that were more lethal than traditional IEDs. Many times we killed and or captured dozens of Shia militia terrorists.

The sky near Jackson, California is filled with smoke, the sun red like a small difused light bulb only seen after deliberate scanning. The sky is filled with aircraft; 737s, C-130s, Chinooks, Hueys, everything you could imagine, all being flown in support of containing and extinguishing the blaze. Without any real warning, the wildfire exploded into a natural disaster, displacing entire towns. People were left wandering the streets looking for refuge in established shelters; some showered at local gyms, and many more were left without power, and had nowhere to go. 

The premise of this lesson in the making is this: What is the makeup of a disaster? What does it mean to you? Typically disasters outside of your realm or reality is little more than a passing news story, another tragedy that someone else has to deal with. I look at these media snippets as lessons learned, and potential planning considerations in a broader conversation. I devise a plan of execution to secure what’s most important to me. Everyone has different guages of what’s most important to them. For some, it’s the tangible things like the car in their garage, the guns in their safe, or the jewelry in the box on their dresser.  For me, it’s the preservation of life and my family's lives including household pets.

To me, the only thing that matters is protecting the health and welfare of my loved ones and I take that role VERY seriously. A close friend once told me, “A ‘prepper' is always the crazy guy until a disater. Then he's the genius.” It's true isn't it? In a natural disaster the biggest issue of assumption within the genreral population is the government will help us because it's their responsibility. The firefighters, the police, the National Guard, the active military - they will save us because it’s their duty. 

But is it it truly their duty? That’s a debatable question. Look how law enforcement officers are treated in this country; convicted by the media and the public without a trial like in Ferguson and Baltimore. Completely underpaid and understaffed, often outgunned, and commonly under appreciated. Would you as a police officer, in a natural disaster, drop everything and leave your family to save others?

What you must understand while engaged in the quest to become prepared, is the government - the people who are paid by the taxpayers to serve and protect - are just average people like you with a little bit, and I stress little bit, of extra training. Understanding this will allow you to start re-examining your role in society. Look at Hurricanes Katrina and Andrew, the ice storm in Atlanta, and now the wildfires in California. Sure, you can wait on your roof, wave your shirt, and pray someone comes to your salvation. You can lock your doors and say to yourself, “The firefighters will come, I just know it." Or you can be proactive take action to protect what's most important to you.

Don't wait to be a victim and learn a hard lesson. Be proactive NOW and get ahead of the situation, analze, anticipate, plan, and prepare. You will be better off for it and so will what you hold dearest, unless it’s that shiny new car in garage...

Mike Glover is the CEO Owner of FieldCraft LLC, a California based company that specializes in emergency preparedness and equipment. Mike is also a former Special Operations Operator and survival expert with over 19 years in operational experience.   Stay tuned for @sofsurvivor’s next post: The Blowout Bag, Part I

There were chaotic scenes in the Japanese parliament this morning as politicians punched, pushed and shoved one another during the hearing of a bill that could see the country abandon 70 years of pacifism.

Opposition lawmakers piled on top of one another during the mass brawl, with some trying to grab the committee chairman's microphone to prevent him calling a vote on the controversial bill.

A senior opposition leader later said they would not accept the vote, which happened without them knowing. If passed, the bill will allow Japanese troops to defend their allies oversees even if Japan itself isn't under attack. Currently article nine of Japan's constitution - which came into force after the Second World War - outlaws war as a means to settle international disputes involving the state. 

In scenes uncommon for Japan's normally sedate parliament, the suited committee members lashed out at each other, pushing and shoving in a huge scrum in the second melee of the day.

But the mad-dash tactics, which came after hours of tortuous debate, failed to stop them from being approved as members of the ruling coalition stood up to signify their votes in favour.

The bills, which could see Japanese troops fighting abroad for the first time since the Second World War, are now expected to go to the full upper house later today or tomorrow, where they will likely be passed to become law. Some 500 protesters braved wet weather to gather outside parliament in plastic raincoats waving their umbrellas and shouting 'stop the bills' as the committee debate rumbled on inside.

Some held up pictures of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe with a Hitler haircut and Mustache.

Tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets to vent their anger during almost daily rallies over the past weeks, a show of public feeling on a scale rarely seen in Japan.

A total of 13 people were also reportedly arrested yesterday evening for 'interfering with officers' during a rally that saw an estimated 13,000 people gather outside parliament in Tokyo. The bills have taken a toll on Abe's once high popularity and opinion polls also show most voters oppose them. Abe and his supporters say the bills are necessary to deal with a changing security environment marked by an increasingly assertive China and unpredictable North Korea.

Critics say the changes are unconstitutional and could drag Japan into American wars in far-flung parts of the globe. Tensions were running high in parliament after the committee vote was repeatedly delayed through Wednesday night, as opposition lawmakers blocked doorways and packed the corridors of parliament in protest.

During the committee session, opposition lawmaker Tetsuro Fukuyama made an emotional speech outlining why his party had submitted a motion to delay the bills, which could see Japanese troops fight abroad for the first time since World War II.

'Is the ruling party listening to the voices of the public? You can do whatever you want to do because you have a majority - is that what you think?' he said, on the verge of tears.

But Masahisa Sato, a senior ruling lawmaker who has promoted the bill, hit back after the bill was approved, saying: 'This is legislation necessary to protect lives and happiness of Japanese people.'

Opposition lawmakers were expected to propose a series of censure motions against Abe and his ministers at the plenary session, seen as a delaying tactic that would take hours to finish but will likely be voted down by the ruling bloc.

Under the planned changes, the military - known as the Self-Defense Forces - would have the option of going into battle to protect allies such as the United States even if there was no direct threat to Japan itself or its people.

Although the constitution, which bars troops from taking part in combat except in pure self-defence, was imposed by US occupiers, many Japanese feel strongly any change in the law would alter the country's pacifist character.

Abe is keen to get the bills passed before a three-day holiday next week.

The proposed legislation sailed through the lower house - where Abe's coalition commands a two-thirds majority - in July.

Opposition lawmakers were expected to propose a series of censure motions against Abe and his ministers at the plenary session, seen as a delaying tactic that would take hours to finish but will likely be voted down by the ruling bloc. Under the planned changes, the military - known as the Self-Defense Forces - would have the option of going into battle to protect allies such as the United States even if there was no direct threat to Japan itself or its people.

Although the constitution, which bars troops from taking part in combat except in pure self-defence, was imposed by US occupiers, many Japanese feel strongly any change in the law would alter the country's pacifist character.

Abe is keen to get the bills passed before a three-day holiday next week.

The proposed legislation sailed through the lower house - where Abe's coalition commands a two-thirds majority - in July.

Source credit: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3238173/It-s-surprise-attack-Punch-breaks-Japanese-parliament-opposition-politicians-claim-crucial-vote-abandon-70-years-pacifism-held-without-knowing.html

This is important to take note of as it signal’s the path Japan will now walk on heading into the future. Opposing the aggressive Chinese maneuvers in the south China sea may be a signal of a nation headed back to its roots. Japanese warriors fighting for a worthy cause. Could this be the rise of the modern day Samurai? - John

USASOC will be conducting operation Jade Helm 15 (JH15) from 15 July to 15 September OF 2015. JH15 is a US Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) sponsored exercise to improve the Special Operations Forces' Unconventional Warfare (UW) capability as part of the National Security Strategy.

JH15 is a challenging eight-week joint military and interagency (IA) UW exercise conducted throughout Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah,, Colorado, Mississippi and Florida. 

I wanted to re-release this article so people could understand what UW is, and who exactly Special Forces are. I will be writing future articles with the intent of explaining Jade Helm and hopefully explaining a little better to those who are scared by those like Alex Jones who’s only goal is to spread fear and widen the chasm between the military, vet’s, and civilians of all parties. 

Special Forces Motto: De Oppresso Liber, to Free the Oppressed.

Who and what are United States Special Forces (USSF)? The only unit in the United States that can be called Special Forces (SF) is the United States Army Special Forces, also known as the "Green Berets." The main SF element is the 12 man Operation Detachment Alpha (ODA) or A Team, sometimes just shortened to Team.

U.S. Army Special Forces Command (USASFC). The 1st Special Forces Command, commanded by Brig. Gen. Darsie Rogers, is the result of the merging of the Army units who are specifically trained in UW. This command is based around the United States Army Special Forces Command (USASFC) and pulled in underneath them are Civil Affairs (CA), Military Information Support Operations Command (MISOC) formerly known as Psychological Operations (PSYOPS), and the 528th Sustainment Brigade.

SF is often used incorrectly either by the media or the general public when referring to any Special Operations Force (SOF) unit. SOF are components of the Department of Defense's United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM), which has approximately 57,000 active duty, Reserve and National Guard Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines and DoD civilians assigned to the headquarters.

USSOCOM has four components and one sub-unified command that fall under it. USSOCOM’s components are:

• U.S. Army Special Operations Command (USASOC)
• Naval Special Warfare Command (NAVSPECWARCOM)
• Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC)
• Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command (MARSOC)
• Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) is a USSOCOM sub-unified command.

USASFC fall under USASOC.

To make it a little easier, the command structure is as follows from highest to lowest:

USSOCOM > USASOC > USASFC > SF GROUP > BATTALION > COMPANY > ODA

For the rest of this article I am going to refer to SF as "Special Forces/Green Berets" because, even though a green beret is just a hat, that is the only way many people know who we are. I'm hoping if I use it enough that, subconsciously, people will start to understand the difference.

The second most common misconception about Special Forces/Green Berets from all the "experts" is, "Rangers and SEALs do the fighting and Special Forces/Green Berets teach, dig wells and build schools." Part of the reason for this is that all the current movies, books and television shows talking about high speed commando-like raids (known as Direct Action, or DA) encourage these inaccuracies. Most people also have a complete misunderstanding of Foreign Internal Defense (FID), which they refer to as "teaching," and Counter Insurgency (COIN), which they refer to as "building schools and digging wells." Many people, even within the SOF community, think that is all Special Forces/Green Berets do.

What really makes my anuerism act up is that the same people who say SEALs and Rangers take care of all the DA will then turn around and say that SEALs also do Unconventional Warfare (UW). Really? Like Inigo Montoya said: "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."

Unconventional Warfare

Activities conducted to enable a resistance movement or insurgency to coerce, disrupt, or overthrow a government or occupying power by operating through or with an underground, auxiliary, and guerrilla force in a denied area. Also called UW. (JP 3-05)

To understand whether a SOF unit has the ability and is truly designated for UW, one needs to look at a few things:

1. Language requirements

2. What kind of UW-specific training does the unit go through during their pipeline training?

3. Do they like bacon and look awesome with beards?

Every Special Forces/Green Beret goes through a minimum of 4-6 months of language training prior to arriving at their assigned Group, and the culmination exercise during the last phase of the Q course (Robin Sage) is an intense two-week UW FTX that takes place in rural NC, with the support and assistance of locals, who act as role players. Some of these families have been doing it for generations: "It is a passion. It is a chance to pay back the soldiers...and maybe we're just a bunch of rednecks that like to raise hell."

While I'm not sure about the SEALs and MARSOC on the third point, all Special Forces/Green Berets eat bacon morning noon and night, and we grow beards that make hipsters weep.

About the author: Loren Schofield is a retired Special Forces with over 16 years serving in the various positions within the Special Forces Regiment. He started out as an infantryman, in both a line company and a scout platoon and during his Special Forces career he was both an 18E (SF Commo) and an 18F (SF Intel). He served on a Mountain Team, Mobility Team, and in a Special Forces Direct Action Company. He deployed twice to Kosovo and from April of 2002 to May of 2009 he deployed five times to Afghanistan and twice to Iraq.

You can find Loren on Instagram @Loren_NotASeal

Bells will toll and tears will flow as the nation marks a dark day in sorrowful yet hopeful ceremonies.

Fourteen years ago today, terrorists hijacked passenger planes and rammed two into New York City's World Trade Center, and a third one into the Pentagon in Washington.

A fourth jetliner crash-landed on an empty field in Pennsylvania.

By the time the carnage was over, terrorists had killed 2,977 people in one of the deadliest attacks on American soil.

People, buildings and planes fell from the sky. Terrified strangers became friends as Americans united on a day that changed the world forever.

Today, like every other anniversary after it happened , a resilient nation will look forward to the future, but remember the past.

Here are the main events that will pay tribute to the many lives lost on September 11, 2001:

GROUND ZERO

At the World Trade Center, where most of the victims were, bagpipers and drummers will provide solemn tunes to accompany the ceremony.

The names of the dead will echo as those gathered read them out and mark moments of silence at the specific times when the planes struck and the towers tumbled.

The first plane hit the north tower at 8:46 a.m. The second one struck at 9:03 a.m.

In this attack, 2,753 people died when terrorists intentionally crashed American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175 in the north and south towers.

Of those who perished in these attacks and the collapse of the towers, more than 300 were firefighters who ran into the building while others rushed out.

Dozens more were police officers.

PENNSYLVANIA

Hundreds of miles away, a passenger jetliner crashed near Shanksville at 10:03 a.m.

Crowds will mark a moment of silence at that exact time and read out the names of the victims.

Forty passengers and crew members aboard United Airlines Flight 93 died when the plane crashed into the field. It is believed that the hijackers crashed the plane in that location, rather than their unknown target after the passengers and crew attempted to retake control of the flight deck.

PENTAGON

At sunrise a flag will be unfurled over the side of the Pentagon.

Shortly after, a private memorial ceremony will include wreath laying and remarks by Secretary of Defense Ash Carter. It will be attended by relatives of the victims.

At the White House, President Barack Obama will observe a moment of silence on the south lawn to mark the anniversary of the attacks. He is also scheduled to visit Fort Meade in Maryland, where he will talk with troops and express his appreciation.

"The President very much values face time with troops -- listening, asking, and answering questions, and he looks forward to taking time on the anniversary of 9/11 to engage directly with service members," Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said.

At the Pentagon, 184 people were killed when hijacked American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the building. It struck at 9:37 a.m.

Source credit: http://www.cnn.com/2015/09/11/us/september-11-anniversary/

Thoughts of a Former Special Operations Operator

When you look at preparation and preparedness, the first thing that comes to mind are the stereotypes "prepper" and "fanatic". I don't want to be associated with off-the-grid preppers that are sometimes justifyingly portrayed as crazy in the media and on television. 

Prepper. What is a Prepper? What does it mean and what measurable scale could you outline and comprehend? What does it matter if I don't have an underground shelter, spare water, and food? Looking back on the Boston Marathon bombers and what they did to an entire city, state, and to the country, I remember hearing about the state and federal government establishing a curfew and that civilians — law abiding civilians — were to lock themselves down.

"We're asking people to shelter in place — in other words, to stay indoors with their doors locked and not to open the door for anyone other than a properly-identified law enforcement officer," said the Governor of Massachusetts during the manhunt. (Naylor, NPR)

This type of lock down by the government over a manhunt of two amateur terrorists made me think: If two amateur losers with minimal training could shakedown an entire city, and cause anarchy and havoc — with minimal training, support, and equipment — I wonder what would happen if a real terrorist, like the foreign fighters my team fought year after year in Afghanistan and Iraq were able to recruit, train,and  actually execute a coordinated and deliberate attack here at home? My guess is utter chaos; my guess is complete and total lockdown. Do you think your local law enforcement agencies are equipped to deal with terrorism on a large scale? Or even a small scale? A cell of well-trained and eager terrorists. The answer is undoubtedly NO. 

Some of my closest friends are the best and brightest of the law enforcement community, and this has nothing to do with their individual skill-sets or desire, but everything to do with protocol, communication — or lack there of. Basic standard operating procedures, or SOPs. Look at the North Hollywood Shootout back in 1997 which resulted in six civilians and 10 officers wounded, and 19 police officers who earned medals of valor. In comparison, if two terrorists get into a shootout with a Special Operations unit with those exact same results, do you know what would happen? The guys in that unit would probably be relieved of duty and washed out of the unit. Basically, those stats in the realm of good vs. evil are nothing to brag about. And we're talking about a pair of bank robbers who were strung-out on drugs, and armed with modern weapons. 

Starting to see the point? The terrorists, who were formidable and highly-trained, required excessive, violent, and coordinated crushing to rid the world of by an elite unit.

Is our nation prepared to deal with those kind of foes?

And just a quick side note, I like arm chair quarterbacking. If I had been on the scene in North Hollywood, I would've used the armored car to run those idiots over.

Do you think a police officer wanted to do that? Probably, maybe... But why didn't they? It's the point of this rant in summary. It's because they aren't trained nor prepared to deal with those situations. When things end badly in jobs that are 99-percent routine, and one-percent deadly, SOPs must change. We cannot depend on the 99-percent to defend ourselves and our families while we're stuck waiting in lockdown with no firearms. We cannot wait for a domestic terrorist to kick in our door like in Watertown, MA, to be quarantined in a city while waiting to be infected by a disease like Ebola, to be stranded on an ice-covered highway in a car while waiting for rescue like in Atlanta, GA, or to sit on a Louisianan rooftop awaiting rescue from a major hurricane like Katrina.

The point is you cannot depend on the government. The government is run by people just like you and me. They all have specific roles which are guided by specific rules and regulations. Learn how to depend on yourself, your training, and your own personal will. It's a choice. Risk being labeled a "prepper" or a "fanatic" — possibly — but when the day comes guess who will be prepared? You will. 

I'm not telling you to drop a shipping container in your backyard for your underground bunker. I'm not...yet. What I am telling you is to learn what the consequences of not being prepared are, and to learn to take precautions and measures to protect you and those you love most.

- IG: SofSurvivor former Special Operations Operator 

The photo gallery is up and running! a beautifully designed gallery featuring Special Operations Forces. Photo’s will be added daily with full descriptions of whats happening in the photo. Names are withheld to protect the operators identities. Will soon be adding photos of conventional military units, as well as aviation pictures. You just click on the photo’s to take you into the galleries and click on the picture you like to get the full description. Will be adding photos of the Air Force Special Operations Command, and the Marines Special Operations Command shortly. Check out the link below.  Hope you guys enjoy! 

http://globalrecon.net/military-photos/

Permalink

]]>Photo GalleryGlobalReconTue, 08 Sep 2015 14:58:44 +0000http://www.globalrecon.net/articles/2015/9/8/from-the-battlefields-of-iraq-and-afghanistan-to-the-war-at-home55d756f3e4b0ce02359b2287:55d7852fe4b0af9c336e9763:55eef05ce4b0b3e65ad1502eThis war has claimed more lives then the wars abroad 

There have been several instances in my life where I have found solace in the idea of a self inflicted gunshot wound. After this last deployment, the idea of putting an abrupt stop to that which troubled me deeply, seemed like a brilliant course of action. Ending all of the fleeting images and racing memories that torment me in my sleep. Sometimes the idea of "braving the storm" is far too daunting of a task for some to fully comprehend, let alone endure for prolonged periods of time without adequate help.

 The DUI's, the divorces, and the debt. Then add in the mental aftermath of 38+ months in combat as a sniper or other closely related Reconnaissance roles. What you are left with, more often than not, is a shell of man, an empty vessel where a man once stood. That is what I had become, numb.

 Typically, post deployment after the money runs out, is when it really consumes my every thought. After the thrill of regaining certain freedoms runs dry. After the excitement of chasing women and drinking booze loses its luster. These things help lubricate your transition back to reality. They are enablers at best. They by no means assist in the betterment of your mental status. Proximity infatuations. They always lose their prevalence on a long enough timeline. Usually when the thrill of these "enablers" lose their appeal it's time for yet another field trip to the middle east. Well, this time I faced something I had never previously had to face, the fact that there was not another deployment. I no longer had the chance to die a heroes death, I had to face life. 

I was forced to acknowledge that I had survived. After 11 years of war, all I am left with, is an aching heart and a tormented mind. There are no series of words that you could construct that would accurately convey precisely how destroyed my mind had become over the years. It was almost too much to bare. 

Throughout my travels in the Army I have encountered some very colorful human beings. Men that defy all logic and reason. The type that find solace in living on the edge. The type that run at the sounds of gunfire completely negating their own general well being. Pure adrenaline junkies hell bent on relentlessly pursuing military excellence. True unadulterated warriors. Brothers.

One of these above mentioned men would become my best friend. He would also become the reason my mother and sister didn't have to watch me be buried. Had he not been cognizant of my wayward actions when others were not, I would have became a statistic. I would have killed myself. 

I remember when he asked me if I had intentions to harm myself. I recall being fascinated with how in tune he was with precisely how I was feeling. I had not thought that I was being so overt with my actions. Certainly not to the point where people could pick up on it. I had not been crying out for help so to speak, he knew me though. Only a brother in arms can quickly sift through your bullshit and pin point where your head is really at. Unreal. 

He called out to me and made every effort to bridge the gap that had been forced between us. One could say that he single handedly walked me back from the ledge. When the gun is at your temple, the noose around your neck, the pills in your hand....something as simple as a text that reads "I love you brother" can and will drastically change an otherwise tragic outcome. 

Nobody knew my hurt like that kid did. He had also carried caskets and handed off folded flags to crying mothers. He knew...and he acted...and I would be lying if I said it didn't save my life. I put the gun down, I stopped hiding in a bottle, I reached out and I found help. I started to live again. I could breathe again. RLTW

"Shooters supporting Shooters" 

FACEBOOK PAGE: TORABORA CLOTHING

INSTAGRAM @TORABORACLOTHING

WEBSITE: 

HTTP://WWW.TORABORACLOTHING.COM/

Russian military officers are now in Damascus and meeting regularly with Iranian and Syrian counterparts, according to a source with close contacts in the Bashar al-Assad regime. “They’re out in restaurants and cafes with other high officials in the Syrian Army,” the source told The Daily Beast, “mainly concentrated in Yaafour and Sabboura, areas that are close to each other, and in west Mezze,” referring to a district in the capital where Assad’s praetorian Fourth Armored Division keeps an important airbase. “The Russians aren’t in uniform, but they’re constantly hanging out with officers from the Syrian Army’s central command.”  

Other Syrians claim to have seen Russians in uniform. 

One family that recently traveled from Aleppo to Damascus by taxi before emigrating by plane to Turkey says it saw a small contingent of Russian troops embedded with Syrians at a military checkpoint in the capital. “We were near the Shaghour district when we noticed two soldiers who were not Syrian,” a family representative said. “They were tall, blond and blue-eyed and wore different fatigues from the Syrians and carried weapons. I’m telling you, they were Russian.” 

The opposition-linked website All4Syria seems to corroborate such eyewitness accounts. Many residents of Damascus, it claimed, have “observed in the first three days of September a noticeable deployment of Iranian and Russian elements in the neighborhoods of Baramkeh, al-Bahsa, and Tanzim Kfarsouseh.” The Venezia Hotel in al-Bahsa “has been turned into a military barracks for the Iranians.”

Such news comes amid a flurry of reports that Russia has made plans for a direct military intervention in Syria’s four-year civil war and may actually have started one already. The New York Times reported Saturday that Russia has sent prefabricated housing units, capable of sheltering as many as 1,000 military personnel, and a portable air traffic control station to another Syrian airbase in Latakia. 

That coastal province, the Assad family’s ancestral home, has already seen Russian troops caught on video operating BTR-82 infantry fighting vehicles against anti-Assad rebels, atop rumors that Moscow may be deploying an “expeditionary force,” including Russian pilots who would fly combat missions.

They may already be doing so. A social media account affiliated with the al-Qaeda franchise Jabhat al-Nusra posted images of what appeared to be Russian Air Force jets and drones flying in the skies of Syria’s northwest Idlib province. They were, specifically, the Mig-29 Fulcrum, the Sukhoi Su-27 Flanker, the Su-34 Fullback, and the Pchela-1T drone. These images were analyzed as credible by the specialist website The Aviationist, which also noted that “during the past days, Flightradar24.com has exposed several flights of a Russian Air Force… Il-76 airlifter (caught by means of its Mode-S transponder) flying to and from Damascus using radio call sign ‘Manny 6,’ most probably supporting the deployment of a Russian expeditionary force.

”ISIS isn’t in Idlib; the terror army that calls itself the Islamic State was driven out of the province completely. As one U.S. intelligence official put it to The Daily Beast, “The question is, what are Russia’s underlying motivations? Are they really there to fight [ISIS], or just to prop up Assad?” 

The concern is that Russia could use military strikes against ISIS as a kind of cover or feint for attacking rebel forces as well, including non-Islamist groups. The U.S. sees these forces as a potential bulwark against ISIS. But they also have as one of their primary goals overthrowing Assad—an effort that Washington has been unwilling to support. 

The White House has fallen back on its customary posture of wait-and-see as proof mounts that the Russians are coming. Spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters this week: ”We are aware of reports that Russia may have deployed military personnel and aircraft to Syria, and we are monitoring those reports quite closely. Any military support to the Assad regime for any purpose, whether it’s in the form of military personnel, aircraft supplies, weapons, or funding, is both destabilizing and counterproductive.” Another unnamed U.S. official told Britain’s Daily Telegraph, ”Russia has asked for clearances for military flights to Syria, [but] we don’t know what their goals are.”

Actually, their goals aren’t terribly hard to discern, nor do they necessarily contradict implicit White House policy, whatever Josh Earnest says. 

Photographs circulated on social media showing what appeared to be Russian soldiers in Zabadani, a city 45 kilometers north of Damascus, which has changed hands several times during the civil war. 

For months rebels have been fending off a scorched-earth assault by the Syrian army, Hezbollah and Iranian forces, which the U.N. assesses to have led to “unprecedented levels of destruction.” So the injection of Russian legionnaires into a multinational cocktail of combatants duking it out in Zabadani would make perfect sense. The city is considered the sine qua non of Iran’s “strategic corridor” in Syria, which runs from the capital to Lebanon and up along the Mediterranean coastline. The formidable Islamist rebel brigade Ahrar al-Sham knows who’s in charge here—it has even negotiated an ultimately unsuccessful ceasefire directly with the Islamic Republic rather than with Assad.

“The Russians are clearly setting themselves on the ground in regime areas, planting the flag in ‘Alawistan,’ as it were,” says Tony Badran, a Syria expert at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, referring to the Alawites, the schismatic Shia sect to which the Assad clan and the more powerful Syrian regime elites belong. 

“This, ironically, reinforces the Obama administration’s position, which has drawn a clear line around the regime enclave: The opposition is not to enter Damascus and the coastal cities. So the Russian deployment actually fits well with the administration’s approach.”

Right on cue, then, came Russian President Vladimir Putin’s announcement Friday that Syria would soon hold new parliamentary elections and inaugurate a power-sharing government with what he deemed a “healthy” opposition. 

He did not specify what he considered the diseased opposition, although this would almost certainly include Free Syrian Army fighters the CIA and Pentagon has been recruiting as U.S. proxies.  

While Putin dismissed the existence of any Russian combat forces in Syria as “premature,” he did allow that he was “looking at various options” for militarily involving himself in the war.  

Coming from someone who only admits to Russian invasions after the fact, such a signposting of motive should not be ignored. Moscow’s close coordination with Tehran, both in Damascus and internationally, is also no coincidence. Iran is now busy shopping a new international “peace plan” for Syria, one that goes beyond the parameters of the previously inked Geneva II protocol.  

Intriguingly, just weeks after Iran agreed to a deal to control its nuclear program in exchange for international sanctions relief, Major General Qasem Soleimani, the commander of its own expeditionary force, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps-Quds Force, flew to Moscow for talks with Russian officials, violating the international travel ban related to his terrorist activity. No doubt solidifying Russian backing for whatever he has planned for Syria was high up on Soleimani’s agenda.

It’s worth noting that this isn’t the first time since the Syrian war broke out that there’s been chatter about Russian troops in Damascus.

In May 2013, sources close to the Kremlin suggested that Putin had dispatched the Zaslon special forces detachment to the Syrian capital. Formed in 1998, and conceived as a clandestine unit combining the purviews of America’s Delta Force and Secret Service, Zaslon consists of a mere 280 highly trained operatives. It answers to Russia’s foreign intelligence service, the SVR, and is tasked with protecting high-value Russian officials in uncertain conditions and sometimes even conducting assassinations. 

It was rumored to have killed Iraqi insurgents in 2006 after the latter had captured and executed Russian diplomats. As Mark Galeotti, a New York University-based specialist on Russia’s military and security forces, observed two years ago: “According to one Russian report, two Zaslon elements were also deployed to Baghdad in the dying days of the [Saddam] Hussein regime. 

Their mission was to seize or destroy documents which Moscow would have found embarrassing had they ended up in U.S. hands. Given the scale and depth of Russian support for Assad, it could similarly be that they are also in Syria to cover Moscow’s tracks or else ensure that sensitive military technology—including new surface-to-air systems—does not end up in foreign hands.”

Source credit: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/09/05/exposing-russia-s-secret-army-in-syria.html?via=desktop&source=twitter

Operation Wrath of God (Hebrew: מבצע זעם האל, Mivtza Za'am Ha'el), also called Operation Bayonet, was a covert operation directed by Israel and its security agency, Mossad, to assassinate individuals alleged to have been directly or indirectly involved in the massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics.

Their targets included members of the Palestinian militant group Black September, who were responsible for the Munich attack, and members of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) accused of involvement. Authorized to begin by Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir in the autumn of 1972, the operation may have continued for more than 20 years.

During this time, covert Israeli assassination units killed dozens of Palestinians and Arabs across Europe, including the mistaken murder of an innocent waiter in Lillehammer, Norway. An additional military assault was launched by Israeli commandos deep inside Lebanon to kill several high-profile Palestinian targets. This string of assassinations spurred retaliatory attacks by Black September against a variety of Israeli government targets around the world. It has also prompted criticism of Israel for its choice of targets, tactic of assassination, and overall effectiveness. Because of the secretive nature of the operation, some details are unverifiable beyond a single source.

The operation was depicted in the television film Sword of Gideon (1986), and later in Steven Spielberg's Munich (2005). Spielberg's film attempted to depict the moral ambiguity and complexity of the Israeli position.

For many, the Munich massacre, Israel's retaliation, and Palestinian counter-retaliation epitomized the seemingly never-ending cycle of violence in the Arab-Israeli conflict that continues in different forms today.

Background and planning

The massacre of 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Summer Olympics by the Palestinian terrorist group Black September moved Israel to consider measures to deter future similar actions. Soon after the incident, Prime Minister Golda Meir created Committee X, a small group of government officials tasked with formulating an Israeli response, with herself and Defense Minister Moshe Dayan at the head. She also appointed General Aharon Yariv as her Adviser on Counterterrorism; he, along with Mossad Director Zvi Zamir, took the principal role in directing the ensuing operation. 

The committee came to the conclusion that to deter future terrorist incidents against Israel they needed to assassinate those who had supported or carried out the Munich massacre, and in dramatic fashion. Pressured by Israeli public opinion and top intelligence officials, Meir reluctantly authorized the beginning of the broad assassination campaign. Yet when the three surviving perpetrators of the massacre were released just months later by West Germany in compliance with the demands of the hijackers of a Lufthansa aircraft, any remaining ambivalence she felt was removed.

The suddenness of West Germany's capitulation to the demands has since aroused suspicion as to whether the entire hijacking was simply a show to allow the nation to rid itself of the possibility of future retaliation.

The committee's first task for Israeli intelligence was to draw up an assassination list of all those involved in Munich. This was accomplished with the aid of PLO operatives working for the Mossad, and with information provided by friendly European intelligence agencies.  While the contents of the entire list are unknown, reports put the final number of targets at 20–35, a mix of Black September and PLO elements. 

Reeve states that intelligence sources put the number at 20, while Ostrovsky puts it at 35 Once this was complete, the Mossad was charged with locating the individuals and assassinating them.

Critical in the planning was the idea of plausible deniability–that it should be impossible to prove a direct connection between the assassinations and Israel. In addition, the operations were intended to strike a more general fear into Palestinian militants. According to David Kimche, former deputy head of Mossad, "The aim was not so much revenge but mainly to make them [the militant Palestinians] frightened. We wanted to make them look over their shoulders and feel that we are upon them. And therefore we tried not to do things by just shooting a guy in the street – that’s easy … fairly.”

Organization

Several descriptions have emerged about the groups formed by Mossad who carried out the assassination campaign. It is possible that different groups were formed for different objectives, and existed at different or overlapping periods of time, which may account for the variety of reports. Certainty exists solely about the assassinations that actually took place, while further information is based on limited sources as would be typical in such covert operations.

It is also known that Mossad agent Michael Harari led the creation and direction of the teams, although some may not have always been under government responsibility. Author Simon Reeve explains that the Mossad team consisted of:

…fifteen people divided into five squads: 'Aleph," two trained killers; "Bet," two guards who would shadow the Alephs; "Heth," two agents who would establish cover for the rest of the team by renting hotel rooms, apartments, cars, and so on; "Ayin," comprising between six and eight agents who formed the backbone of the operation, shadowing targets and establishing an escape route for the Aleph and Bet squads; and "Qoph," two agents specializing in communications. [squad names are letters of the Hebrew alphabet]

This is similar to former Mossad katsa Victor Ostrovsky's description of the Mossad's own assassination teams, the Kidon. In fact, Ostrovsky says in his book that it was Kidon units that performed the assassinations.

Another report by author Aaron Klein says that these teams were actually part of a unit called "Caesarea," which would be renamed and reorganized into "Kidon" in the mid-1970s. Harari eventually commanded three Caesarea teams of around 12 members each. They were each further divided into logistics, surveillance, and assassination squads.

One of the covert teams was revealed in the aftermath of the Lillehammer affair (see Ali Hassan Salameh section below), when six members of the Mossad assassination team were arrested by Norwegian authorities. Harari escaped to Israel, and it is possible that others were able to evade capture with him. An article in TIME magazine immediately after the killing put the total number of Mossad personnel at 15, which would be in keeping with other accounts

A much different account comes from Yuval Aviv in the book Vengeance, where he states that the Mossad set up a five-man unit of trained intelligence personnel which he led in Europe. Aviv also says that the team operated outside of direct government control, and that its only communications were with Harari.

Operations

1972

The first kill occurred on October 16 1972, when Palestinian Abdel Wael Zwaiter was shot 12 times in his apartment building in Rome. Two Israeli agents had been waiting for him to return from dinner, and after the shooting they were spirited away to a safe house. At the time Zwaiter was the PLO representative in Italy, and while Israel privately claimed he was a member of Black September and was involved in a failed plot against an El Al airliner, members of the PLO have argued that he was in no way connected. Abu Iyad, deputy-chief of the PLO, has stated that Zwaiter was "energetically" against terrorism.

The second target of the Mossad was Dr. Mahmoud Hamshari, who was the PLO representative in France. Using an agent posing as a journalist, the Mossad lured him from his apartment in Paris to allow a team to enter and install a bomb underneath a desk telephone. On December 8, 1972, the "journalist" called Hamshari, who received the telephone call to his apartment, and once it was confirmed that he had picked up the phone a signal was sent through the telephone to detonate the bomb. Hamshari was not immediately killed by the blast, but died within a month from the injuries. Israel chose him as a target because it was believed that he was the leader of Black September in France.

1973

On the night of January 24 1973, Hussein Al Bashir (Jordanian) (Hussein Abad Al Chir), the Fatah representative in Cyprus, turned off the lights in his Olympic Hotel room in Nicosia. Moments later, a bomb planted under his bed by the Mossad was remotely detonated, killing him and destroying the room. Israel believed him to be the head of Black September in Cyprus, though another reason for his assassination may have been for his close ties with the KGB.

The assassins returned to Paris on April 6, 1973, when Dr. Basil al-Kubaissi, a law professor at the American University of Beirut suspected by Israel of providing arms logistics for Black September as well as involvement in other Palestinian plots, was gunned down while returning home from dinner. Like previous assassinations, he was shot around 12 times by two Israeli agents.

Several of the targets on the Mossad's list lived in heavily guarded houses in Lebanon that were beyond the reach of previous assassination methods. In order to assassinate them, Operation Spring of Youth was launched as a sub-operation of the larger Wrath of God campaign. During the night of April 9, 1973, Sayeret Matkal commandos and other Israeli support teams, including future Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, launched multiple raids into Beirut and Sidon. 

There, they succeeded in assassinating a number of high-level PLO officials, including Muhammad Youssef al-Najjar (Abu Youssef), Kamal Adwan, a Fatah veteran, and Kamal Nasser, PLO spokesman. Rami Adwan, who is the son of Kamal Adwan, was in the apartment when his father was killed, and has said that his father was not at all involved in Munich, but did organize resistance against the Israeli military occupation of the West Bank.

"So the Munich attack," Rami says, "was a godsend opportunity for the Israelis to actually kill people."

Three assassinations quickly followed the Lebanon operation. Zaiad Muchasi, the replacement for Hussein Al Bashir in Cyprus, was blown up in his Athens hotel room on April 11. Two minor Black September members, Abdel Hamid Shibi and Abdel Hadi Nakaa, were injured in their car in Rome.

Israel also began to follow Mohammad Boudia, an Algerian-born director of operations for Black September in France known for his disguises and womanizing. On June 28, 1973, Boudia was assassinated in Paris by a "pressure activated 'land mine', packed with heavy nuts and bolts," and placed under his car seat by the Mossad.

Ali Hassan Salameh

The Mossad continued to search for Ali Hassan Salameh, nicknamed the "Red Prince," who was the head of Force 17 and the Black September operative believed by Israel to be the mastermind behind the Munich massacre. This belief has since been challenged by accounts of senior Black September officials, who say that while he was involved in many attacks in Europe, Salameh was not at all connected with the events in Munich.

Almost a full year after Munich, the Mossad believed they had finally located Salameh in the small Norwegian town Lillehammer. On July 21, 1973, in what would become known as the Lillehammer affair, a team of Mossad agents killed Ahmed Bouchiki, a Moroccan waiter unrelated to the Munich attack and Black September, after an informant mistakenly identified Bouchiki as Salameh. Six Mossad agents, including two women, were captured by the Norwegian authorities, while others, including the leader Mike Harari, managed to escape back to Israel. 

Five of the captured were convicted of the killing and imprisoned, but were released and returned to Israel in 1975. Victor Ostrovsky claims that Salameh was instrumental in leading the Mossad off course by giving the Mossad false information about his whereabouts. In the aftermath of the affair, international outrage over the mistaken murder forced Golda Meir to order the suspension of Operation Wrath of God.

The ensuing Norwegian investigation and revelations by the captured agents compromised Mossad assets across Europe, including safe houses, agents, and operational methods. Yet five years later it was decided to recommence the operation under new Prime Minister Menachem Begin, and find those on the list still at large.

The Mossad began surveillance of Salameh's movements after tracking him to Beirut during late fall of 1978. In late 1978 or early 1979 a Mossad agent identifying herself as Erika Mary Chambers entered Lebanon with a British passport issued in 1975, and rented an apartment on the Rue Verdun, a street frequently used by Salameh. Several other agents arrived, including two using the pseudonyms Peter Scriver and Roland Kolberg, traveling with British and Canadian passports respectively. 

Some time after their arrival a Volkswagen packed with plastic explosives was parked along Rue Verdun within view of the rented apartment. At 3:35 p.m. on January 22, 1979, as Salameh and four bodyguards drove down the street in a Chevrolet station wagon, the explosives in the Volkswagen were detonated from the apartment with a radio device, killing everyone in the vehicle. After five unsuccessful attempts the Mossad had assassinated Salameh. 

However, the blast also killed four innocent bystanders, including an English student and a German nun, and injured 18 other people in the vicinity. Immediately following the operation the three Mossad officers fled without trace, as well as up to 14 other agents believed to have been involved in the operation.

Munich hostage-takers

Three of the eight militants that carried out the Munich massacre survived the German rescue attempt at Fürstenfeldbruck airbase on the final night of the hostage crisis and were taken into German custody: Jamal Al-Gashey, Adnan Al-Gashey, and Mohammed Safady. They were released several weeks later after hijackers of a Lufthansa airliner demanded their release from the German government.

It had been thought that Adnan Al-Gashey and Mohammed Safady were both assassinated several years after the massacre; Al-Gashey was found after making contact with a cousin in a Gulf State, and Safady was found by remaining in touch with family in Lebanon. This account was challenged by a recent book by Aaron Klein, who claims that Adnan died of heart failure in the 1970s and that Safady was either killed by Christian Phalangists in Lebanon in the early 1980s or, according to a PLO operative friendly with Safady, is still living today. Jamal Al-Gashey went into hiding in North Africa; he granted an interview in 1999 to director Kevin MacDonald for the documentary One Day in September, and is believed to still be alive.

Source credit: http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Operation_Wrath_of_God

The XXth Olympic Games were held in Munich, Germany in 1972. Tensions were high at these Olympics, because they were the first Olympic Games held in Germany since the Nazis hosted the Games in 1936. The Israeli athletes and their trainers were especially nervous; many had family members who had been murdered during the Holocaust or were themselves Holocaust survivors.

The first few days of the Olympic Games went smoothly. On September 4, the Israeli team spent the evening out to see the play, Fiddler on the Roof, and then went back to the Olympic Village to sleep. A little after 4 a.m. on September 5, as the Israeli athletes slept, eight members of the Palestinian terrorist organization, Black September, jumped over the six-foot high fence that encircled the Olympic Village.

The terrorists headed straight for 31 Connollystrasse, the building where the Israeli contingent was staying. Around 4:30 a.m., the terrorists entered the building.They rounded up the occupants of apartment 1 and then apartment 3. Several of the Israelis fought back; two of them were killed. A couple of others were able to escape out windows. Nine were taken hostage.

By 5:10 a.m., the police had been alerted and news of the attack had begun to spread around the world. The terrorists then dropped a list of their demands out the window; they wanted 234 prisoners released from Israeli prisons and two from German prisons by 9 a.m.

Negotiators were able to extend the deadline to noon, then 1 p.m., then 3 p.m., then 5 p.m.; however, the terrorists refused to back down on their demands and Israel refused to release the prisoners. 

A confrontation became inevitable. At 5 p.m., the terrorists realized that their demands were not going to be met. They asked for two planes to fly both the terrorists and the hostages to Cairo, Egypt, hoping a new locale would help get their demands met. The German officials agreed, but realized that they could not let the terrorists leave Germany. 

Desperate to end the standoff, the Germans organized Operation Sunshine, which was a plan to storm the apartment building. The terrorists discovered the plan by watching television. The Germans then planned to attack the terrorists on their way to the airport, but again the terrorists found out their plans.

Around 10:30 p.m., the terrorists and hostages were transported to the Fürstenfeldbruck airport by helicopter. The Germans had decided to confront the terrorists at the airport and had snipers waiting for them. Once on the ground, the terrorists realized there was a trap. Snipers started shooting at them and they shot back. Two terrorists and one policeman were killed. Then a stalemate developed. The Germans requested armored cars and waited for over an hour for them to arrive.

When the armored cars arrived, the terrorists knew the end had come. One of the terrorists jumped into a helicopter and shot four of the hostages, then threw in a grenade. Another terrorist hopped into the other helicopter and used his machine gun to kill the remaining five hostages. The snipers and armored cars killed three more terrorists in this second round of gunfire. Three terrorists survived the attack and were taken into custody.

Less than two months later, the three remaining terrorists were released by the German government after two other Black September members hijacked a plane and threatened to blow it up unless the three were released. Following the massacre, the Israeli government organized a retaliation against Black September, called Operation Wrath of God. Be on the lookout for the next article detailing the operation.

Source credit: http://history1900s.about.com/od/famouscrimesscandals/p/munichmassacre.htm

Vessels complied with international law, Pentagon officials say

Chinese navy ships off Alaska in recent days weren’t just operating in the area for the first time: They also came within 12 nautical miles of the coast, making a rare foray into U.S. territorial waters, according to the Pentagon.

Pentagon officials said late Thursday that the five Chinese navy ships had passed through U.S. territorial waters as they transited the Aleutian Islands, but said they had complied with international law and didn’t do anything threatening. 

“This was a legal transit of U.S. territorial seas conducted in accordance with the Law of the Sea Convention,” said Pentagon spokesman Cmdr. Bill Urban.

U.S. officials said there was no known official communication to the U.S. from the ships.

The passage was seen as significant as Beijing has long objected to U.S. Navy vessels transiting its territorial waters or operating in international waters just outside.

China’s Defense Ministry confirmed that its navy ships had sailed to the Bering Sea for training after joint exercises with Russia in late August, but said the activity was routine and not aimed at any particular country. 

U.S. officials said earlier that they were tracking the five ships in the area, where they hadn’t seen the Chinese navy operating before, but they didn’t say how close the ships had come to U.S. territory.

The foray, just as President Barack Obama was visiting Alaska, threw a fresh spotlight on China’s expanding naval power and ambitions on the eve of a lavish military parade in Beijing. It also came just three weeks before China’s President, Xi Jinping, begins a state visit to the U.S. already clouded by tensions over alleged cyberattacks on the U.S.and China’s island-building in the South China Sea.

The flotilla apparently traveled east from somewhere near Russia and entered the Bering Sea, navigating north of the Aleutian Islands before transiting south, where they undertook the “innocent passage” through U.S. waters between two islands, a defense official said. 

That principle allows military ships to transit foreign territorial waters if they don’t conduct threatening activity. The Chinese didn’t give prior notification to the U.S. before doing so, but under international law, they don’t need to.

The Chinese don’t always acknowledge those laws, however, according to U.S. defense reports. For example, Beijing claims that U.S. warships should request permission before making their own “innocent passage” in Chinese territorial waters. 

During fiscal years 2012 and 2013, the Pentagon challenged this notion, deploying U.S. naval ships through Chinese territorial waters without notifying Beijing first. According to those reports, the U.S. did not make the same challenge during fiscal 2014. There is no data available for the current fiscal year.

U.S. officials believe China is building a “blue-water” navy capable of operating far from its shores, while also developing missiles and other capabilities designed to prevent the U.S. Navy from intervening in a conflict in Asia.

Many of those capabilities, including a new antiship ballistic missile, were put on display for the first time on Thursday during the parade to mark the surrender of Japanese forces at the end of World War II. 

Some U.S. military experts saw the Chinese transit through the Aleutians as a positive step, in that they had adhered to the “innocent passage” principle.

“As a matter of fairness and equity, these operations are a big step forward for U.S. interests in that Beijing now has no basis to object to similar passage through China’s territorial sea by the U.S., for instance in vicinity of China’s islands in the South China Sea,” said Peter Dutton, director of the China Maritime Studies Institute at the U.S. Naval War College.

China took another step in that direction last year during the U.S.-led Rim of the Pacific, or RIMPAC, joint naval drills in Hawaii. 

U.S. officials said then that an uninvited Chinese spy ship had observed the drills from international waters. China’s Defense Ministry said that its operations complied with international law.

Still, Mr. Dutton and other experts said it was doubtful that China would suddenly stop objecting to U.S. naval ships passing through its waters or conducting surveillance nearby.

Pentagon officials said in May they were drawing up plans to send U.S. Navy ships or aircraft within 12 nautical miles of artificial islands that China has been building in the disputed South China Sea. 

Later that month, China expressed “strong dissatisfaction” and accused the U.S. of irresponsible and dangerous action after a U.S. Navy surveillance jet flew close to the islands, but not within 12 nautical miles. 

China has also repeatedly demanded that the U.S. cease surveillance operations within its exclusive economic zone, or EEZ, which under international law extends 200 nautical miles from the coast. 

For that reason, Beijing would likely say its ships off Alaska weren't conducting surveillance, although they probably were, said Taylor Fravel, an expert on China’s military at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

“China faces contradictory impulses to limit the activities of foreign navies within its own EEZ and to operate within the EEZs of others,” he said. “Over time, especially as China’s military becomes even more capable, it could downplay objections to the activities of foreign navies in its EEZ as it seeks to operate more frequently out of the region.”

China’s Defense Ministry didn’t respond to questions about which ships were in the flotilla near Alaska or how close they came to U.S. territory.

The joint exercises with Russia ran from Aug. 20-28 off the Russian Pacific coast—about 2,000 miles west of the Bering Sea—according to the official Xinhua News Agency. Seven Chinese ships took part, including two destroyers, two frigates, two landing ships and one supply ship, Xinhua said.

U.S. officials said the five ships near the Aleutians included three Chinese combat ships, a supply vessel and an amphibious landing ship.

Source credit: http://www.wsj.com/articles/chinese-navy-ships-off-alaska-passed-through-u-s-territorial-waters-1441350488

By 86, www.OAFNation.com 

So, here we all are.  It’s 2015 and the war’s are over, for the most part.  For the last decade or so, we have been completely consumed with fighting America’s battles.  We, the warrior class, have become accustom to the constant deployments.  It was almost a comforting feeling.  You knew what your future held.  Work up, deployment, leave, work up, deployment, leave, etc.  Repeat the cycle until you’re out or you’re dead.  Either way, you knew what the fuck was up.  But now, things are different. 

There are no more deployments.  IF you decide to stay in, you’re fighting the good fight trying to get yourself or your boys to schools or good training.  The same schools that just a few years ago, you couldn’t get guys to sign up for.  Remember that?!?! When the OpTempo was so high that guys were turning down schools because of the need to have some time to relax?   Man, were those the days.  Now, there has been a total paradigm shift.  The budget has tightened and old daddy war-bucks’ coffers are now empty.  But what brought us all to this point?  How did we go from fun loving kids to a group of grown men who thrive on the brotherhood of war and the adrenaline of combat?

We aren’t the first men to walk this path.  This is the path of the warrior.  It has been traveled countless times by those members of our class, the warrior class, who came before us.  It began for us when we were kids.  None of us were born with the ability to put on kit and a ruck, grab a blaster, and get to work.  Through our experiences and interests at kids, we began to recognize that we were attracted to this culture.  This culture that can only be described as one of violence.  When we were kids, we watched characters like Sgt. John Stryker in the prolific Sands of Iwo Jima,read comics about Captain America, and begged our parents for the newest G.I. Joe.  Something about these things, perhaps the romantic portrayal of combat or maybe seeing these prolific characters in service to their brothers and this country intrigued us.  We didn’t know why or even that it was happening.  There was just something in us that was drawn that direction.

Then, as we got older, we become a bit more aware that we were headed in a certain direction.  It wasn’t completely clear, but we start thinking about what we are going to do with our lives. There was also the realization that some of us were ok with violence, maybe even pretty damn good at it.  It’s tough to find a pipe hitter out there that didn’t play some kind of contact sport, martial art, or just grew up as a scrapper.  It’s almost an unspoken understanding that in this line of work, you have a propensity for violence.  

So what do we do?  Go to college?  Learn a trade?  Deliver pizza at home and smoke weed while living in mom and dad’s basement? No, not likely.   We knew there was a war going on somewhere.  We knew that we needed to be part of it.  We made that commitment to enlist or take a commission (if you were afraid of doing actual work).  The trigger was pulled (pun intended) and you signed your name on the dotted line.  The feelings of fear, excitement, anxiety, mystery, adventure, and satisfaction all hit at the same time. 

Then began the formal assimilation into the warrior culture and the warrior’s path began to show itself clearly.  Through training and psychological conditioning, we joined a small group of people who exists for one purpose, to go to combat.  The lessons we are taught are simple ones.  

For thousands of years, the fundamentals of a combat mindset have been the same.  Kill the enemy and to look out for your brothers.  Do everything in training as though you were going to combat tomorrow.  Eat, sleep, live, and breathe warfare.  Do these things, and maybe, JUST MAYBE, you’ll be fortunate enough to be one of the few glorious warriors to be chosen to make the ultimate sacrifice.  The Valkyrie will swoop down and take you to Valhalla where you dine in The Great Hall with the great warriors of history.  

This is what the warrior class has been taught since the beginning of time.  The only way to die well is to die gloriously in combat.  I mean hell, the GREAT ACHILLES unequivocally knew that he would choose glory in death over a long life.  The allure of combat is irresistible.  Combat where young warriors train to go and dream to experience.

Combat is, to all of us, the crux of the warrior’s path.  It is what a warrior has worked his entire life in preparation for.  Every man has questions about himself that can only be answered in combat.  That is what sets you and me apart from every human on the planet that has not experienced what we have.  We were fortunate to find, what we all believed, to be our purpose in life.  

That which men spend their entire lives seeking, the meaning of life.  We found it at 18 or 19 years old, and it was AWESOME.  We knew our purpose on this earth and we could do it over, and over, and over again with no end in sight.  Yea, we enjoyed our breaks every few months, but then we knew it would be “once more into the breach”. 

These experiences are what makes a combat veteran special and causes that deep, burning anger when you see a stolen valor turd or hear some douche tell a bull shit story about his “combat experience”.  The thrill of the fight and the constant flow of adrenaline feed us.  They change our baseline to super human levels.  The need to maintain this feeling is insatiable.  Once you get a taste, you can’t live without it…right?  Well, at some time the deployments stop; you can’t be “in the fight” anymore.   It’s like being a professional football player that gets to play in the Super Bowl every time you step on the field.  Then, it’s over.  No more.  The whole purpose of our existence is taken from us.  At first, we are ok with it.  No more being gone.  Time to rest and be a normal dude. Good, right?  Maybe.    

This is where we, as veterans, start to run into serious issues.  Anger, loneliness, depression, fear, despair, loathing, and a multitude of other feelings seem to surround us in nearly everything we do.  Relationships end, because the people we love don’t understand why we want to go back.  They can’t fathom why we would rather be shooting shitheads in the face and not going grocery shopping or listening to stories about how work was or what’s on TV.

Many guys feel that they have reached the end of their path after combat.  Life begins to feel like a prison and we are all just doing time.  A friend once told me that he sees it like this.  “America birthed a bunch of War Babies, and now they want to abort them.”  We are consumed with the feeling that since we have spent so many years in the preparation for battle, without it life has no purpose.  American society is tired of war, and with it the warrior.  They have no purpose. Their LIVES have no purpose.  We feel like the clear path we were walking came to a sudden end and with that, so must their lives.   During their time in the warrior culture, they have been told that they were supposed to die on the battlefield.  The warrior culture only talks about that end.  

There is no real dialogue about what a warrior class is supposed to do when the last bomb has been dropped, the last round fired, the last battle fought.  What is the next step?  What now?  Where do we go, as a community, from here?  

That, we will reflect on next time.  Until then, stay safe, stay alive, and prepare for the next fight…whatever that may be.  Don’t quit.  

Never above you, never below you, ALWAYS beside you!

-86 

Source credit: http://www.oafnation.com/hitter-feed/2015/5/6/the-warriors-path-part-1

Navy SEAL Sr. Chief Mike Day had never been shot before, but that changed dramatically one night in April 2007.

Al Qaeda terrorists shot Day more than two dozen times.

"This body armor took more rounds than it was supposed to," explained Day, who is now retired.    

Body armor capable of handling only one round took multiple hits at close range and amazingly held together.

"They advertise that it can take one round, and then it falls apart to the point where they say that it's not supposed to stop anymore projectiles. And this whole gunfight was inside of 10 feet," Day elaborated to CBN News.

He said any one of the rounds should have killed him.

"Just another sign that I shouldn't have survived it," Day said.

'God Get Me Home'

That's just one part of the miracle. On the night of April 6, 2007, in Iraq's Anbar Province, Day's team of Navy SEALs and Iraqi scouts were on the hunt for a high-level al Qaeda cell.

Day said the terrorists had shot down two helicopters, killing everyone on board.

Being the first one to enter a 12x12 room where four al Qaeda leaders waited to strike proved to be almost deadly for Day.

"Upon entering that doorway, they all just opened up on me. It felt like somebody was just beating me up with sledge hammers," Day said.

"After I'd figured out I was getting shot I said, 'God, get me home to my girls.' That was my first prayer to God, real prayer, and He answered it," he added, fighting back tears.

It was a prayer to be reunited with his wife and daughters.

Terrorist Take Down

When the gunfight was over, Mike Day took out all four terrorists in the room, but not before being shot 27 times and hit with grenade shrapnel.

"People hear about my story and they can't believe it. I was there and I can't believe it," Day said. "I got shot 27 times -- 16 in the body and 11 times in my body armor. I was shot in both legs, both arms, my abdomen. You throw a finger on me, anything but my head, I got shot there."

"I've kind of speculated the reason I didn't die is because maybe I wouldn't have gone to Heaven," he shared. 

Miraculously, he cleared the rest of the house before walking on his own to the helicopter, which flew him to safety.

The Invisible Wounds

His bravery in battle did not go unnoticed. Day is a highly decorated veteran. He's been awarded 16 medals over the years, including the Silver Star, the Bronze Star, and the Purple Heart.

He served in the Navy for more than 21 years -- 20 of those as a Navy SEAL.

While in the hospital, the Navy SEAL lost 55 pounds in two weeks. He said it took around two years to physically recover from his injuries, although he still deals with constant pain.

In addition, like so many veterans, doctors diagnosed Day with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Traumatic Brain Injury -- the invisible wounds of war.

"I think the worst injuries I've seen are the ones that you really can't see," Day said. "If a guy loses a leg, he just wakes up in the morning and he's got an extra step. He throws his prosthetic on, and he just kicks around just like nothing happened."

"But the brain injuries that I see -- you lose a leg, you lose a leg; it's a limb -- you smash that brain around a little bit, and who you are changes," he added.

Day is determined to not have a victim mentality, however. That has launched him on a journey of giving back.

Journey of Giving Back

The retired Navy SEAL is now a full-time wounded warrior advocate for the Special Operations Command.

"My job is to improve their situation. Whether it's make sure they get all their benefits, make sure they get the best medical care, I just advocate for them," he shared.

Advocating also involves raising funds for treatment programs at the Carrick Brain Centers in Texas.

"It's like $1,500 a day, this place. A lot of people can't afford that, especially without insurance," Day explained. "And Carrick's a great group of people; they're going to usher in a new world of medicine with the brain, along with a lot of these other brain treatment centers."

Source credit: Cbn.com

Check out Mike's website: https://www.crowdrise.com/MikeDayRunsKona

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]]>Navy SEAL Shot 27 TimesGlobalReconWed, 02 Sep 2015 13:00:00 +0000http://www.globalrecon.net/articles/2015/9/2/special-ops-program-that-put-woman-in-afghanistan-warzones55d756f3e4b0ce02359b2287:55d7852fe4b0af9c336e9763:55e6ee51e4b096d497559949Women on the frontline's with American Special Operators 

There are many unsung heroes in war, but there was a team of female American soldiers who assisted Special Operations forces during the Afghanistan War that few had heard about until now.

The U.S. Army Special Operations Command created a program in 2010 called the Cultural Support Teams. They were special units of female Army soldiers that were meant to build relationships with Afghan citizens as Green Berets and Army Rangers searched compounds in the rugged desert of Kandahar.

In a new book, “Ashley’s War,” best-selling author Gayle Tzemach Lemmon details what these women went through in training and on these dangerous missions, focusing on 1st Lt. Ashley White Stumpf, who was among the first group of female soldiers to go into combat zones as part of a Cultural Support Team, or “CST”. Considered by many of her fellow soldiers as the ‘quiet professional’ and the ‘heart of the team,’ she was the first member of the special unit to be killed in action.

At the time, women were officially banned from combat, but they could be “attached” to one of these Special Ops forces for this purpose, which meant they were inherently in the line of danger.

“Women have participated in conflict for hundreds of years… but these wars are different,” said retired Gen. Peter Chiarelli, who served as the 32nd Vice Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army from 2008 to 2012. “From the time you entered in the countries of Iraq or Afghanistan, you were in harm’s way, whether you were male or female,” he explained.

The “CST’s” would do essential work that the male soldiers could not: they would interface with local women and children to gather information, because in traditional Islamic culture it was considered inappropriate for men to commingle with women.

“This was 2011, the combat ban was still in place,” Lemmon said. “Most of America still doesn’t know that these women were out there. So they knew that everything they did would be not just their mistake, but every female’s mistake, and so I think they worked even harder.”

Capt. Meghan Curran, 28 from Chelmsford, Massachusetts, served alongside White in Afghanistan and said she was drawn to the Cultural Support Team when she first saw a flyer that said “Become a Part of History.”

"It kind of drew you in, you know, with the big bold heading,” she said.

“But, I don’t think that’s really what it was about for any of us,” she continued, “what it was about was the Army was asking for a certain set of women that were willing and able to do this certain mission.”

“We had that bond, that sisterhood,” said Emily Miller, 28 from Evansville, Indiana, a former platoon leader in Iraq, who also served with White and Curran in Afghanistan.

“I have always wanted to serve,” Miller added. “That’s why I wanted to be in the Army… and I wanted to prove that I could be valuable out there and really make a difference.”

One hundred women from across the Army tried out for the program, but only half survived the brutal training known as “100 hours of hell.”

“The common denominator was athletic, fierce and absolutely determined,” Lemmon said. “It’s about intensity and fierceness… and I think they all understood that.”

Curran said women would workout at the gym three times a day to stay physically fit and competitive.

“Girls would go workout during lunch, come back all sweaty and eat their lunch while the next class started,” she said. “Everyone knew that [physical fitness] was going to be a concern.”

Their training at Fort Bragg pushed them to the limits of human endurance in suffocating temperatures. Curran and Miller said they marched about 20 miles while carrying 35 to 40 pounds of gear, which included ammo crates. They also had to practice carrying a “buddy,” or fallen comrade, out of a combat zone.

“If I lacked at something, or if I had a weakness, one of the girls could make up for that weakness,” Miller said. “Somebody else always had the upper body strength that could help me carry the fallen comrade.”

At Fort Bragg, one trainer called Ashley White “the Megatron Quiet Blonde.”

“In the military, strength is so revered… and Ashley had it,” Miller said. “It was very much about showing it, not telling it… and I think they really respected that, the idea of the quiet professional.”

Her comrades said White could knock out 20 pull-ups at the gym, and yet loved to bake bread on base.

“She wasn’t afraid to be feminine,” Curran said. “She was a wife and she was a daughter… she had a soft side and she wasn’t afraid. She wasn’t afraid to be feminine and be a warrior at the same time.”

White, along with Miller and Curran, were at the top of their class and made the cut for this special ops attachment group. They headed to Afghanistan to join the rangers in 2011. The work was so secret, they could not even share details with their families.

Within one week of landing, Miller said she was given her first mission.

When she ran out of the helicopter upon first landing, she said, “all I could see, taste was just dust, just all around me… I couldn’t even find the area where I needed to be to, to rendezvous with the team and I just remember thinking, ‘how did I get here?’”

Miller said her biggest fear right off the bat was “messing up” around the men they were there to help.

“It was the fear of making a mistake that would hurt the team or not accomplish the mission,” Miller said. “That was the thing that weighed on my mind all the time.”

“We were attached, but we were not assigned,” Miller said. “They knew we weren’t Rangers, but we were on the same team.”

The women in the Cultural Support Team quickly learned how to interact with the foreign culture of a very conservative country.

“I learned the phrase, how to say ‘I’m a woman, don’t be afraid,’ and I would call out to them,” Curran said. “That would put them at ease right off the bat.”

Even their hair, the women said, was a feminine asset they relied upon.

“We would take off our helmet once the compound was secure and just kind of let our hair down,” Curran said. “Some girls wore braids… just to make-- be able to make that connection, let them see that we were women.”

However, they said, their uniforms made for men, looked not quite right on women’s bodies.

“Tight in all the wrong places, loose in all the wrong places is how I remember mine feeling,” Miller said. “That was one more reason to let your hair down when you were with the women and children… that was really important to really gain their trust.”

Ashley White’s mother Debbie White said her tiny, 5-foot-2 warrior daughter was shy as a child and struggled to keep up with her athletic siblings, so she never dreamed that Ashley would sign up with the military.

"She was always the quiet one from the day she was born,” Debbie White said. “She always had strength that… amazed us.”

When Ashley got her assignment, her mother said she thought her daughter was going over to “set up medical tents and take care of the women and children of Afghanistan.” Her daughter’s mission was so confidential that, up until her death, White’s family never knew the dangerous path she had chosen.

“The first we learned is when they brought her home,” her mother Debbie White said. “At Dover Air Force Base, they told us what she was really doing.”

In October 2011, White was on a routine mission when a nest of improvised explosive devices at a compound exploded and White was killed, along with two other Rangers.

“What they walked into was basically a booby-trapped compound,” Lemmon said. “And they were trying to figure out what was going on, and as they did, another soldier stepped on what was a daisy chain of IED.”

“It was hard because she was doing things I never, ever would have thought she would have done,” Debbie White added. “She did was she set out to do, and I’m proud of her.”

The last thing she every said to her daughter, Debbie said, was to “be careful.”

“And she hugged me and she says, ‘Mom, I’m with the best of the best. I’m going to be fine. I’ll be home quicker than you know,’ and she walked through the doors and that’s the last thing we said.”

Hundreds of people attended White’s funeral to show their respect for the fallen soldier. Debbie White has left her childhood bedroom in their Ohio home as a sort of legacy to her daughter, with her combat boots, helmet, and various awards on display.

“There are so many women out there who put themselves in harm’s way throughout the 13 years of this conflict,” said retired Gen. Peter Chiarelli, who served as the 32nd Vice Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army from 2008 to 2012. He said the CST’s performed “magnificently” and made a huge impact, showing some of the previous barriers in front of female soldiers have been “totally artificial.”

“Women are not as braggadocio as men are--they just aren’t and they haven’t told these stories,” he continued. “But these stories need to be told-- they need to be told for their children, for their families, for everyone.”

Lt. Ashley White’s fellow comrades continue to remember her as one of the bravest who fought alongside of them.

“[Ashley] was incredibly selfless,” Miller said. “And that’s, I think, one of the things you want out of your warriors.”

“When America and the Army asked for women to do this mission, she felt the need to say, ‘Send me,’ and I think that level of selflessness is extraordinary and uncommon and I’ll never forget that about her,” Curran added.

Source credit: www.abcnews.com

Check out the novel: Ashley's War: The Untold Story of a Team of Women Soldiers on the Special Ops Battlefield by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon

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]]>Special Ops Program That Put Woman in Afghanistan WarzonesGlobalReconWed, 02 Sep 2015 00:47:44 +0000http://www.globalrecon.net/articles/2015/9/1/effort-to-build-war-on-terror-memorial55d756f3e4b0ce02359b2287:55d7852fe4b0af9c336e9763:55e645cae4b09c71afa6d25dFour-stars lead effort to build war on terrorism memorial

Retired Gen. John Abizaid, the longest-serving commander of U.S. Central Command, is teaming up with three other four-star generals to raise money for a war on terrorism memorial.

The memorial will be part of the National Infantry Museum near Fort Benning, Georgia. Officials hope to break ground on the project early next year.

“We’ve seen a lot of sacrifice, we’ve seen an awful lot of courage,” Abizaid said about the service members who have been fighting since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. “Those of us who led these great people want to honor them, and that’s what we’re trying to do.”

So far, the National Infantry Foundation has raised a little over $9 million, mostly from donors who are local to the Columbus, Georgia, area.

The hope is to grow that circle of people.

“The people in Columbus are very, very generous in their contributions to the museum,” Abizaid said. “[But] there are plenty of people in New York and Washington and Boston, San Francisco, who would like to give to this project, and I would like to be part of the solution to going around outside of Georgia and seeing how we can get people to contribute.”

The fundraising likely will kick off in earnest in October or November, Abizaid said, and the goal is to raise an additional $8 million.

The museum also has a link on its website for people who would like to donate directly.

Relying largely on donations, the $110 million National Infantry Museum opened its doors in 2009, said Col. Greg Camp (ret.), executive vice president of the National Infantry Foundation, which runs the museum.

Since it opened, the museum has welcomed just under 2 million visitors, or an average of a little more than 300,000 visitors each year, Camp said.

Because the museum only opened in 2009, its exhibits honoring those who’ve fought in the war on terrorism were cut off around the 2007 mark, Camp said.

In 2010, New York City firefighters donated to the museum a 14-foot steel beam from the ruins of the World Trade Center’s south tower, but there was no real place to display it, he said. It will now be incorporated into the memorial, he said.

“It’s taken us a while to sort through all the things that come up when you open up a big museum like this,” Camp said. “But we realize … we need to update [the exhibits], we need to honor the soldiers that are in the current fight better than we have.”

The museum’s board decided to recruit outside help to design the memorial, Camp said.

“Most of us who are involved in the museum are older, we’re mostly Vietnam-era veterans, so why don’t we get people who really know what this is about to help us and advise us on how we ought to portray this memorial?” he said.

Abizaid was a perfect fit, Camp said.

“Who knows the global war on terrorism better than him?” Camp said. “He commanded CENTCOM for four years at the heights of the conflicts there.”

Abizaid, a 1973 West Point graduate, spent 34 years in uniform, rising from an infantry platoon leader to four-star combatant commander. He studied and often served in the Middle East, and is widely considered to be an expert in the area of Middle Eastern affairs, according to his bio.

During his time at CENTCOM, Abizaid spent 54 months in combat zones and was responsible for military operations in 27 nations in the Arabian Peninsula and the Middle East, the Horn of Africa, and Central Asia.

Abizaid said he gladly accepted when the National Infantry Foundation asked him to get involved in the project.

“They’ve done a wonderful job with the museum, but they wanted to do something to honor those who’ve given their lives in the global war on terrorism, and they also wanted to upgrade the museum for the period since 9/11,” he said.

Abizaid decided to enlist three fellow retired generals “who all led troops in the Middle East” to help.

“We all served together, we all knew one another very well, we’re all infantrymen,” Abizaid said. “We all served together in tough times, and these three guys and myself, we all have a great sense of duty to honor those that have given their lives around the world for this tough fight that we’re in, which unfortunately is still not over.”

They are:

• Gen. George Casey (ret.), who was the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq for three years before becoming the Army chief of staff from 2007 to 2011.

• Gen. Stanley McChrystal (ret.), who commanded Joint Special Operations Command during the height of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and later became the top commander in Afghanistan. He spent more than seven years deployed in combat in a variety of positions.

• Gen. Charles Jacoby (ret.), who commanded troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, first as deputy commander of Combined Joint Task Force-76, responsible for the 18,000 troops conducting combat operations in Afghanistan, then later as commander of Multi-National Corps — Iraq, responsible for about 135,000 troops there. He commanded U.S. Northern Command before retiring.

“I think the four of us are all prepared to roll up our sleeves,” Abizaid said.

The memorial’s design has not been finalized, but officials are considering “several concepts,” Abizaid said.

It likely will include a by-name listing of the men and women killed serving their country since Sept. 11, 2001, and it will honor troops from all services.

“We want it to be simple, we want it to convey to all the seriousness of the business that we’re in as professional members of the armed forces,” he said. “We want it to honor those who have fallen. We want it to have the same type of impact that the Vietnam Memorial has to those who go back and take a look at it.”

The memorial will resonate with museum visitors young and old, Camp said.

“The main part of our mission is to honor the legacy of valor and sacrifice of the soldier, particularly the infantryman,” he said. “Our visitors who come today are very interested in the soldiers who’ve come before … but many of them are … hankering for information on this latest generation of soldiers.”

Source credit: Militarytimes.com

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]]>Effort to Build War on Terror MemorialGlobalReconTue, 01 Sep 2015 16:00:00 +0000http://www.globalrecon.net/articles/2015/9/1/pilot-rescue-deep-behind-enemy-lines55d756f3e4b0ce02359b2287:55d7852fe4b0af9c336e9763:55e5369de4b01fe9a8a406daMedal of Honor recipient Lt. Thomas Norris 

In Vietnam, in April 1972, a surveillance aircraft went down deep in enemy territory where over thirty thousand NVA (North Vietnamese Army) were preparing for an Easter offensive. Only one crew member survived. This precipitated the most expensive rescue attempt of the Vietnam War, with fourteen people killed, eight aircraft downed, two rescuers captured, and two more rescuers stranded in enemy territory. Navy SEAL LT. Thomas Norris led a daring rescue effort to retrieve downed American airmen in Quanq Tri Province, South Vietnam. 

“Our mission was to swim up the river, and contact one of the pilots. Mark Clark said he could get to the river , and float down it. We went into an area where we could intercept him. In doing that we came across numerous enemy positions. We were working in and out of enemy units all night long. We finally got to an area where we could watch out for him. At the time that he was coming down the river which was in the middle of the night. I could hear him coming, he was breathing hard. We also had a NVA ( North Vietnamese Army ) patrol coming right to the location we were sitting at the same time Clark is coming down the river. I’m sitting there praying that Mark’s breathing wouldn’t alert them. They ended up passing right through us “

 LT. Norris unsuccessfully attempted to locate Mark in the water. The next morning he found Mark, and the SEALs made their way back to the FOB ( Forward Operating Base ). The NVA retaliated with a rocket attack on the FOB, killing two of the Vietnamese SEALs and others. Norris and his three remaining Vietnamese SEALs failed in an attempt to rescue the second pilot. Because of the impossibility of the situation, two of the Vietnamese SEALs wouldn’t volunteer for another rescue attempt. 

Norris decided to take Vietnamese SEAL Nguyen Van Kiet to make another attempt and failed. “I told him i was going after this guy, and Kiet said if you go i go. I said ok i’m not either one of us is coming back. You know whats out there” On April 12, about ten days after the plane had been shot down, Norris got a report of the pilot’s location. He and Kiet disguised themselves as fishermen and paddled their sampan upriver into the foggy night. They located the pilot at dawn on the riverbank hidden under vegetation, helped him into their sampan, and covered him with bamboo and banana leaves. A group of enemy soldiers on land spotted them but couldn’t get through the thick jungle as fast as Norris and his partner could paddle on the water. 

When the trio arrived near the FOB, an NVA patrol noticed and poured heavy machine gun fire down on them. Norris called in an air strike to keep the enemy’s heads down and a smoke screen to blind them. Norris and Kiet took the pilot into the FOB, where Norris gave him first aid until he could be evacuated.

“After i was wounded on a mission six months later i was back in the United States. The Navy Seal Teams asked me to do a write up on what happened so they could recommend it for the Medal of Honor action. I didn’t agree with that at the time. I didn't feel like it was qualified for that type of mission. They said listen where going to submit it whether you give it to us or not. Will you please give us a write up, so i did. I’m just a custodian of this medal. I wear it for those out there that deserved it when they were recognized, and the folks that gave their lives for the missions they were sent on and will never be back again” .  Lt. Thomas Norris is the only Medal of Honor recipient to be rescued by another recipient of the award during an incident that took place six months later. Nguyen Van Kiet was awarded the Navy Cross. 

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]]>Pilot Rescued Deep Behind Enemy LinesGlobalReconMon, 31 Aug 2015 14:00:00 +0000http://www.globalrecon.net/articles/2015/8/30/mountain-mindset55d756f3e4b0ce02359b2287:55d7852fe4b0af9c336e9763:55e3cb43e4b0b03c5e74a0cd       Transitioning Warriors

He was my best friend -  and he wanted to kill himself.

We shared a house together for quite some time. He was always laughing, and looking for adventure, to do "pipe hitter" things. Until it all went wrong.

A sniper whom I had worked with on several occasions, he was one of the most technically and tactically proficient men with whom I have ever worked. His soldiers looked up to him as big brother, admired and followed him.

He ran his snipers and I ran my squad: we meshed together as one. We fought together through multiple complex ambushes in Afghanistan and I wouldn't have wanted anyone else by my side. We fought and we won..

We spent our block leave together, me meeting his family, his meeting mine. At some point we grew distant from each other. He PCS'ed then I PCS'ed. Our contact diminished to a few texts a week and maybe a phone call a month. I still considered him my best friend, someone I could vent to, bounce ideas off and laugh with. I missed him.  As it turns out, I didn't have a solid grasp on the demons that he was fighting every day.

After confronting him about his absence in my life, he opened up to me about his struggles with life, problems with his marriage, and contempt for the military. He felt like he had dug a hole so deep that he couldn't get himself out. It was as if he were backed into a corner, taking his last stand.

I was trying hard to be there for my buddy  and we talked more frequently for a few weeks, but then .   .   . nothing. I knew something was wrong. He shut me out completely, a person he once called his "only true friend". I reached out to his family to find that they were experiencing the same lack of communication. I started watching his Facebook feed and found content that revealed suicidal thoughts. He was well versed and the posts were written with humor but I knew he was serious and needed help.

He sent me a text saying, "This is it, I'm done bro. This is the end for me." I called everyone I knew in his area to get someone to check on him, to be with him. My parents volunteered to drive across Texas to reach him. I was across the country and feeling helpless, attempting to work out a plan, staring at my phone and dreading the news that I did not want to hear. I couldn't sleep, eat, I was literally worried sick. The last thing I saw written by him was a Facebook post on a PTSD page that said "HELP.”

Thankfully, my friend has overcome his demons and is living life with a positive attitude. Maybe not totally positive - more of a Charles Bukowski attitude - but hey, it is what it is. He'll get a kick out of that. He's finally back to the buddy I knew and still my best friend.

There are thousands of individuals coming out of the military with the same kind of story, a downward spiral but their stories end in disaster. I personally know three other soldiers who could not be saved and paid the ultimate price - after risking it all for this country, they don’t get the help they deserve.  The guys that don’t get help take their own lives. This is a catastrophy that ripples out to parents, wives, children, friends. You may have heard the national statistic: 22 veterans commit suicide every single day. That's insane and we want to do something about it.

For a long time, I didn't know how to help. I knew that I could take care of my own and just send a message to buddies that I haven't seen in a while to see how they are doing. I figured everyone did that for their friends. What about the guy that doesn't want to admit that he is dealing with those issues? From my experience, the guys who actually take their lives are the ones that you would never expect it from. The guy who is always laughing and has a lot of friends. Why did they not speak up? Seek help? Did they not know where to get help?

I can tell you that I personally did not know of any Veteran Suicide Prevention Organizations before I started researching the issue. However, Wounded Warrior is a household name. Why is it that there is not an organization known by everyone that deals with the issue of Veteran Suicide. I mean, 22 suicides a day; this is a real and credible threat to our force.

I decided that I wanted to help spread awareness regarding this issue; I needed a plan and I needed it to work. I have always been passionate about art, whether painting, drawing or just creating. It is what helped me cope when things got rough:  that, and shooting. I had the idea of creating apparel that would speak to the Veteran community in which I grew up and the community in which our brothers are taking their lives.

Backpacking has always been a favorite activity of mine and I was hiking in the Appalachians recently. I climbed a mountain to sleep on the summit. As I was sitting in my hammock staring across the valley below, I could not help but think about my time in the mountains of Afghanistan. I found myself deep in thought, staring off into space, reliving some of my worst memories.

There is a picture of me resting in the middle of that majestic landscape at that exact moment. I look serene but mentally, I am not there. I am in a dark place even as I sit in that postcard worthy setting. That is why I decided to name the company ToraBora Clothing – the beautiful mountain outside, the danger within.  For me, the mountains bring back the memories. You will never know what could be a trigger for others.

I started ToraBora Clothing with a rough idea and have now publicly launched the company that sells original shirts that speak directly to the Veteran Community.  The goal is to donate to the Green Beret Foundation and Ranger Lead The Way Fund, Inc. as well as raise awareness about Veteran Suicide Prevention. Global Recon is doing an excellent job raising awareness, and providing a platform for veterans to tell their stories and promote their businesses.

Help us help others.

"Shooters supporting Shooters" 

Facebook page: ToraBora Clothing

Instagram @toraboraclothing

Website: 

http://www.toraboraclothing.com/

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]]>From Combat Abroad to the War at homeGlobalReconSun, 30 Aug 2015 14:00:00 +0000http://www.globalrecon.net/articles/2015/8/30/no-surrender55d756f3e4b0ce02359b2287:55d7852fe4b0af9c336e9763:55e2ef11e4b0b3b01f5d57f8Hiroo Onoda Japanese Intelligence Officer Hid in jungle for decades

In 1944, Lt. Hiroo Onoda, An Imperial Japanese Army Officer was sent by the Japanese army to the remote Philippine island of Lubang. His mission was to conduct guerrilla warfare during World War II. Unfortunately, he was never officially told the war had ended; so for 29 years, Onoda continued to live in the jungle.

Caught in a time warp, Mr. Onoda, a second lieutenant, was one of the war’s last holdouts: a soldier who believed that the emperor was a deity and the war a sacred mission; who survived on bananas and coconuts and sometimes killed villagers he assumed were enemies; who finally went home to the lotus land of paper and wood which turned out to be a futuristic world of skyscrapers, television, jet planes and pollution and atomic destruction.

Japanese history and literature are replete with heroes who have remained loyal to a cause, especially if it is lost or hopeless, and Lieutenant Onoda, a small, wiry man of dignified manner and military bearing, seemed to many like a samurai of old.

Eventually the island was overrun by the Allies. The remaining Japanese soldiers, Onoda included, retreated into the inner regions of the island and split up into group’s .The groups would continue to conduct operations using guerrilla tactics.

The remaining soldiers split into cells of three and four people. There were four people in Onoda's cell: Corporal Shoichi Shimada (age 30), Private Kinshichi Kozuka (age 24), Private Yuichi Akatsu (age 22), and Lt. Hiroo Onoda (age 23). 

Lieutenant Onoda, an intelligence officer trained in guerrilla tactics, and the three enlisted men with him found leaflets proclaiming the war’s end, but believed they were enemy propaganda. They built bamboo huts, pilfered rice and other food from a village and killed cows for meat; they were tormented by tropical heat, rats and mosquitoes, and they patched their uniforms and kept their rifles in working order.

Considering themselves to be at war, they evaded American and Filipino search parties and attacked islanders they took to be enemy guerrillas; about 30 inhabitants were killed in skirmishes with the Japanese over the years. One of the enlisted men surrendered to Filipino forces in 1950, and two others were shot dead, one in 1954 and another in 1972, by island police officers searching for the renegades.

In 1974, a Japanese man named Norio Suzuki decided to travel to the Philippines He told his friends that he was going to search for Lt. Onoda. He found him. Onoda explained that he would only surrender if his commander ordered him to do so.

Suzuki traveled back to Japan and found Onoda's former commander, Major Taniguchi. On March 9, 1974, Suzuki and Taniguchi met Onoda and Major Taniguchi read the orders that stated all combat activity was to be ceased. Onoda was shocked and, at first, disbelieving. "We really lost the war! How could they have been so sloppy?

”Suddenly everything went black. A storm raged inside me. I felt like a fool for having been so tense and cautious on the way here. Worse than that, what had I been doing for all these years?

 Gradually the storm subsided, and for the first time I really understood: my thirty years as a guerrilla fighter for the Japanese army were abruptly finished. This was the end.

 I pulled back the bolt on my rifle and unloaded the bullets. . . .

 I eased off the pack that I always carried with me and laid the gun on top of it. Would I really have no more use for this rifle that I had polished and cared for like a baby all these years? Or Kozuka's rifle, which I had hidden in a crevice in the rocks? Had the war really ended thirty years ago? If it had, what had Shimada and Kozuka died for? If what was happening was true, wouldn't it have been better if I had died with them?"

Hiro Onoda passed away on January, 16th 2014 in Tokyo, Japan. He was 94.

Source credit: NewYorkTimes.com

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]]>No SurrenderGlobalReconSat, 29 Aug 2015 22:48:11 +0000http://www.globalrecon.net/articles/2015/8/29/fallen-ranger55d756f3e4b0ce02359b2287:55d7852fe4b0af9c336e9763:55e2327de4b01c33a5786702SSG Jason Sean Dahlke 1st Ranger Battalion 

Today is one of the hardest days of the year for me. 

POD  28-29 August 2009 a brother of mine launched on his last mission in Paktika province, Afghanistan. If you are able to, throw back a Guinness for Jason today take a pic and share it with us. It was his drink of choice. #RLTW! 

Staff Sgt. Jason Sean Dahlke, 29, was a squad leader assigned to 1st Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment at Hunter Army Airfield, Ga. He was born Nov. 8, 1979, in Tampa, Fla.

He was killed by enemy fire while conducting combat operations August 29, 2009 in the vicinity of the Paktika Province, Afghanistan. Dahlke was on his sixth deployment in support of the War on Terror with three previous deployments to Iraq and two deployments to Afghanistan.

Dahlke enlisted in the U.S. Army from his hometown of Jacksonville, Fla., May 2004. He completed One Station Unit Training at Fort Benning, Ga., as an infantryman. After graduating from the Basic Airborne Course there, he was assigned to the Ranger Indoctrination Program also at Fort Benning.

He graduated from the Ranger Indoctrination Program in December 2005 and was then assigned to Company A, 1st Bn., 75th Ranger Regiment in June 1, 2005. He served there as a rifleman, grenadier, machine gunner, fire-team leader, section leader and squad leader. He then moved to the battalion recon platoon serving for one deployment as an advisor to local, national forces. Dahlke returned to Co. A as a squad leader February 2009 and served in that position until his death.

His military education includes Basic Airborne Course, Ranger Course, Warrior Leader Course, and Jumpmaster Course.

Dahlke’s awards and decorations include the Ranger Tab, the Purple Heart, two Army Commendation Medals, Army Achievement Medal, Army Good Conduct Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Afghanistan Campaign Medal, Iraq Campaign Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, Army Service Ribbon, Overseas Service Ribbon, Combat Infantryman Badge, Expert Infantryman Badge and the Parachutist Badge.

He was posthumously awarded the Bronze Star Medal, Purple Heart and Meritorious Service Medal. RIP brother - Former 1st Battalion Ranger, SSG Jeff Cotto

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]]>Fallen RangerGlobalReconSat, 29 Aug 2015 15:00:00 +0000http://www.globalrecon.net/articles/2015/8/28/female-apache-pilot55d756f3e4b0ce02359b2287:55d7852fe4b0af9c336e9763:55e12486e4b0f4232008ff72She is the Missouri National Guards first female Apache helicopter pilot 

I am in the Missouri Army National Guard and will have been for 16 years in December; 10 of those years I’ve worked full time for the National Guard. I started out enlisted for five years and then went onto Officer Candidate School and commissioned as an Aviation Officer. I am qualified in the AH-64A/D and the UH-72.  I have supported several state emergency duties, including Hurricane Katrina, and I have a combat deployment to Afghanistan as an Apache pilot. 

I had no idea when I started down the flight school path that I would be the first Apache pilot in the Missouri Guard.  Honestly, I was just elated to have the opportunity to fly.  There was a woman ahead of me in flight school, but unfortunately she didn’t get to finish. 

I can say that when I graduated in 2007 and until November 2014 when I took my last flight, it was an amazing experience. I have some of the best and absolute worst memories, but I will forever cherish the opportunity. 

While I was enlisted, September 11th happened and deployments started to increase significantly.  I knew that it was a matter of time before I got the opportunity to deploy and when I did, I wanted it to be in a job that supported the service members on the ground. Being an Apache pilot enabled me to do that.

I have a three-year-old son. Like other parents, I had to leave him at home when I deployed for a year, when he was only a year old.  Knowing that, even if I didn’t come back to him again, I would be enabling other daughters and sons to return safely to their mothers and families, made it possible for me to leave him.  It made the sacrifice my son had to make more tolerable for me.  

My deployment, while difficult, proved to be an amazing opportunity from which I learned to be a better officer overall, and especially a better leader.  We deployed as a Battalion to three locations.  I was a primary staff member of a task force element. 

I was usually flying three times a week, supporting special operation missions, protecting ground convoys, route recon missions, and multi national operations among other things.  I think my longest mission required eight hours actually in the cockpit, 1 flight; and that didn’t include all of the activities that occurred prior to or post flight.  I remember being very happy to crawl out of that aircraft afterwards.

Now stateside, I’m flying the UH-72 Lakota, and every day I think about a way to get guns on that aircraft. :)

About the Combat Boots and High Heels: As the first female Apache pilot in the Missouri Army National Guard, I have had quite a few unique experiences, as most women can imagine.  After the deployment, I also realized that there were so many needs that women soldiers and veterans have that weren’t being addressed in our historically male-focused military and veterans organizations. That being said, while I wanted to create an organization that supports women, I wanted to be completely inclusive, which is why we support all US Veterans.  With the military downsizing and the war winding down (although obviously we are still very engaged in the middle east) I believed organizations such as Combat Boots and High Heels were needed more than ever! 

Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Combat-Boots-and-High-Heels/1438023163192318?ref=bookmarks

Website

www.combatbootsandhighheels.org

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]]>Female Apache PilotGlobalReconFri, 28 Aug 2015 15:00:00 +0000http://www.globalrecon.net/articles/2015/8/28/masterless-warrior55d756f3e4b0ce02359b2287:55d7852fe4b0af9c336e9763:55dfddd6e4b0b58437a9adf1From the jungles of South Vietnam to the top tier of the US Military

The cost of freedom is an infinite calculation.   It has been 38 years since I left Vietnam in the hopes to find freedom.  On December 17th, 1974, I was born in the city of Saigon, Vietnam. During my infant years, my family and I struggled and fought to survive from the brutalities of the North Vietnamese as Saigon failed to the communist regime.  The fall of Saigon in 1975 had a huge impact on my family.

The North Vietnamese savagely murdered and imprisoned many of my family members in pursuit of their objective to rid the South of everyone who had been in any position of political power.  My grandfather told my mother, “My two grandsons will never grow up to be communists.” My grandfather sacrificed his life savings to ensure that my family and I would secure a place on a boat to escape Vietnam – we became “boat people” in pursuit of freedom.

It was 1979 and my family left our home on a boat over-crowded with other fleeing refugees.  The atmosphere was tense and conditions were scorching hot, humid and extremely uncomfortable. My family and I were terrified for the unknown. The rough waters of Southern Asia claimed many lives, and without proper navigation, there was a great risk of any of the many refugee boats ending up lost. 

Following a week at sea, our engine boat broke down in the middle of nowhere.  We were all out of food and water and people were beginning to panic.  Our boat drifted to the shores of Malaysia and coastal bandits were shooting us at.  Malaysian security forced us to remain on the boat with no assistance, towing our broken boat back into the ocean for us to die.  Over many weeks, our boat drifted further and further out into the middle of nowhere.  My mother and brother concluded that we would not survive and accepted that our fate was in the hands of God, assuming we would all depart this life. 

Then a miracle transpired; somehow our boat drifted into a shipping lane and we were rescued by a Russian ship.  The Russians towed us to Indonesia where my family and I resided in a refugee camp for a year.  My Uncle and Aunt who lived in the U.S sponsored my family, which allowed us to be able to come to the United States to start a new life.

My family settled in a little military town in Fayetteville, NC, where I grew up.  We began our new lives living with my Aunt who was married to an American Special Forces officer.   Growing up in a rural southern town in the 80’s was extremely complicated for me and my brother.   We faced not only being strangers in a strange land, but racism on a daily basis; I was learning that life would never be fair or easy. 

Eventually, my mother remarried. My stepfather was an amazing a man, an American Special Forces soldier.  He taught me many things and, at a very young age, I knew I was destined to follow in his footsteps.  When I was 8 years old, I remember him packing for an upcoming mission to Panama.  I wanted to go with him.  He told me that one day I would take a test and if I passed, I would be welcome into the brotherhood.  I could not then comprehend what that really meant, but his words would stay with me.   

I graduated High School on a sunny day in June of 1993 - the very next day I was at Fort Benning, GA for Basic Training.    From thereon I dedicated my life to become something great.  In my search for excellence I became a Special Forces Operator.

Throughout my 22 years within Special Operations, I have climbed my way through the different Tier Units. I made many friends and lost a few along the way.  I have fought the war through multiple combatant theaters, from the jungles of Southeast Asia to the drug wars of South America.  I have witnessed the fall of Middle East terrorist strong holds and savage acts in African Saharan deserts.  I have lived and experienced the path that my grandfather and my stepfather had revealed to me.  I accepted some of the toughest assignments and faced them without fear.  I did this because I believed I should have died a long time ago, when death was facing me and my family every day, not only in Vietnam but while drifting in the ocean where all hope was lost.

Now, as I reflect on my life, I realize I was chosen to live to serve a higher cause, to serve my country in war.  I was born of war and trained by my stepfather from childhood.   As I walked the path laid before me, I studied Bushido- “The Way.”  But the way has made me into a drifter, master-less…into a Ronin. 

Check out www.ronintactics.com 

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]]>Masterless WarriorGlobalReconThu, 27 Aug 2015 21:34:09 +0000http://www.globalrecon.net/articles/2015/8/27/airforce-commandos-killed-at-afghan-government-checkpoint55d756f3e4b0ce02359b2287:55d7852fe4b0af9c336e9763:55df7047e4b0bd7b7ee5b9b1Special Tactics Airmen killed in hostile incident

HURLBURT FIELD – Two Special Tactics airmen were attacked at Camp Antonik, a forward operating base in Helmand Province, Afghanistan, on Aug. 25 and later succumbed to wounds on Aug. 26 in the early morning hours.

Two individuals wearing Afghan National Defense and Security Forces uniforms opened fire on the airmen.

NATO service members returned fire and killed the shooters at Camp Antonik.

Capt. Matthew D. Roland, 27, and Staff Sgt. Forrest B. Sibley, 31, were deployed in support of Operation Freedom’s Sentinel as ground special operations forces.

“The losses of Matt and Forrest are a terrible blow to everyone who knew them,” said Col. Wolfe Davidson, 24th Special Operations Wing commander. “These two combat controllers were incredible warriors who not only volunteered to join our nation's Special Operations Forces, but earned their way to the tip of the spear in defense of our nation.”

Roland was a Special Tactics Officer at the 23rd Special Tactics Squadron here. He graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 2010. Upon completing the rigorous STO training program in 2012, he was a team leader who supervised real-world combat preparedness training of a 35- member team. He deployed three times in his five years of service to multiple locations globally. He is survived by his parents.

Sibley was a combat controller at the 21st Special Tactics Squadron, Pope Army Airfield, N.C. He was a four-time Bronze Star medal recipient, once with the Valor device, and he had deployed four times to multiple sensitive locations around the world in his nearly seven years of service. He is survived by his parents.

Due to their extensive special operations training, both were military qualified static line jumpers, free fall jumpers, combat scuba divers, and qualified in joint terminal attack control.

Special Tactics Airmen integrate, synchronize, control air and space power to enable global access, precision strike and personnel recovery for special operations.

“The risks that these men and their teammates endured in combat and in training are all too well known to the Special Tactics community, but it does not make this great loss any easier to bear,” Davidson said. “We will honor Matt and Forrest for the legacy they left behind, embrace their families as our own and thank them eternally for their ultimate sacrifice for American freedom."

Both the 21 STS and 23 STS fall under the 720th Special Tactics Group, 24th Special Operations Wing, the only wing solely dedicated to Special Tactics in the Air Force.

Source Credit:NWFDailynews.com 

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]]>Airforce Special Tactics Airmen Killed at Afghan Government CheckpointGlobalReconThu, 27 Aug 2015 16:02:37 +0000http://www.globalrecon.net/articles/2015/8/27/marsoc-to-lead-joint-spec-ops-fight-against-isis55d756f3e4b0ce02359b2287:55d7852fe4b0af9c336e9763:55df3039e4b0bbd45753711eMarine Raiders will head the staff element heading into Iraq

The Marine Corps' decade-old special operations command will lead the next rotation of operators into Iraq, Marine Corps Times has learned.

Marine Raiders will head the staff element for the next iteration of Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force-Iraq, said Capt. Barry Morris, a spokesman for Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command. 

The unit is set to deploy early next year and will be led by a MARSOC colonel, he said.

While a previous rotation of the task force was led by a joint Navy SEAL-MARSOC team, Morris said the Marines' exclusive leadership of the task force represents a milestone for the command.

"This deployment is the first time MARSOC has formed and deployed a full CJSOTF staff," he said in a statement provided to Marine Corps Times. "In that regard it does represent the next step in the command’s operational maturation.”

The task force includes special operations troops from all the military branches. Little has been made public about the task force's activities in Iraq, where it supports coalition efforts to counter and defeat Islamic State militants. The task force has a liaison officer stationed in Baghdad to help the unit coordinate with other military elements supporting Operation Inherent Resolve, according to officials with Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force Crisis Response-Central Command.

Morris said MARSOC was notified it would lead the upcoming U.S. special operators' rotation to Iraq late last year. The staff element will conduct five months of training ahead of its deployment, he said. That training will wrap up with a culminating exercise later this fall.

The fledgling command, which marks 10 years of existence in February, has already seen a significant share of high-profile assignments.

MARSOC deployed five special operations task forces led by lieutenant colonels to Afghanistan in support of combat efforts, Morris said, and has deployed four colonels at various times to lead special operations force elements in northwest and central Africa. But this new landmark for leadership in the joint special operations community is earning the command praise from top U.S. Special Operations Command officials.

In an address to top enlisted Marine leaders earlier this month, Army Sgt. Maj. William Thetford, SOCOM's senior enlisted adviser, said the assignment highlighted the faith the command placed in Marine special operations."MARSOC has paid their dues, I’m here to say," he said. "There is no 'JV' status. They are absolutely value added to us.” 

Army Gen. Joseph Votel, commander of SOCOM, said the Marine Raiders' early development exceeded that of even more established special operations units. "MARSOC Raiders are a more mature force in 10 years than the Rangers were at their 10-year mark," Votel said, in a statement presented by Thetford during his address.

This Iraq assignment proved that point, Thetford added. "Going into Iraq carrying the flag — that wouldn’t happen to a Ranger Regiment in 1985."

As proof that MARSOC was ready to lead its peers, Thetford cited MARSOC's impressive tally of decorations for valor: 233 Bronze Stars with combat valor device, 20 Silver Stars and seven Navy Crosses. He said the ability of Raiders to provide strike force and unconventional warfare capabilities in a single unit made MARSOC especially valuable to special operations commanders. In the Army, he said, those capabilities are divided between the Rangers and the Green Berets.

"MARSOC continues to be an agile force, grounded in both the Marine Corps and [special operations forces] ethos," Morris said. "MARSOC units are in high demand among the theater special operations commanders due to [the command's] reputation for professionalism and combat-proven small unit tactics, cultural awareness and operations-intelligence integration at all levels."

Source Credit: Marinecorpstimes.com 

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]]>MARSOC to Lead joint spec ops fight against ISISGlobalReconWed, 26 Aug 2015 23:38:36 +0000http://www.globalrecon.net/articles/2015/8/26/harlem-hellfighters55d756f3e4b0ce02359b2287:55d7852fe4b0af9c336e9763:55de46aae4b05aef5ff907c2WWI's most decorated unit

The 369th Infantry was the first all black unit in American military history. They were nicknamed the “Harlem Hellfighters” by German soldiers after fighting at Chateau-Thierry and Belleau Woodduring WW1.They spent 191 days in combat, longer than any other American unit in the war. "My men never retire, they go forward or they die," said Colonel Hayward. 

Indeed, the 369th was the first Allied unit to reach the Rhine and cross into Germany. Because of the number of African-Americans who signed up or were drafted, some of the National Guard units that accepted blacks were then conscripted to be on loan to the U.S. Army. This was how the 369th was formed. The unit began as the 15th New York National Guard before they were absorbed into the Army as the 369th Infantry. 

All military units had to go through intensive training prior to going overseas, and the 369th was sent to Spartanburg, South Carolina. Black men wearing the American military uniform inflamed the Southerners.  The fear of assault by town residents was ever-present for the black troops, and if members of the 369th were on leave and in town, locals pushed them off the sidewalks.

Yet many of the African-Americans who enlisted felt that war service was an opportunity to prove themselves. If they showed themselves as good Americans, wouldn’t that help reduce discrimination at home?

The 369th Infantry regimentbecame the most decorated American unit in all of WW1. They were the first Americans awarded the French award for valor Croix de Guerre. 171 of its officers and men received individual medals and the unit received a Croix de Guerre for taking Sechault.  From the American side two Hellfighters were awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. 

Halfway into their shift, SGT Henry Johnson heard “‘snippin’ and clippin’ of wirecutters” a sign that a raiding party was approaching. Soon he and Roberts were been attacked by between 12 and 36 Germans . Accounts vary as to the exact number. Roberts was hit by a grenade and badly injured, but Johnson continued to fight. 

He shot toward the Germans until he ran out of bullets, then began using his rifle as a club. When the weapon splintered, he turned to a bolo knife and his bare hands. Badly injured himself, he slashed at his attackers, fending them off as he waited for reinforcements to arrive.

“Each slash meant something, believe me,” Johnson later said, according to Smithsonian.

Johnson suffered 21 wounds during the fight, including a shattered left foot that never quite healed. But the Germans fared far worse: Johnson and Roberts killed four of their attackers and injured between 10 and 20 more.

Irvin Cobb, an American journalist covering the war, later wrote of the fight: “If ever proof were needed, which it is not, that the color of a man’s skin has nothing to do with the color of his soul, these twain then and there offered it in abundance.”

He was briefly rewarded for his valor. The French gave him the Cross de Guerre avec Palme, their highest award for valor. President Theodore Roosevelt called him one of “the five bravest Americans” to serve in World War I. The U.S. Army used his image  to sell victory stamps (“Henry Johnson licked a dozen Germans. How many stamps have you licked?” the advertisements asked). His admirers called him “black death” and filled the streets to cheer his regiment on their return.

When the war ended, so did the accolades. The modern Purple Heart was not created until 1932, so Johnson did not receive that recognition for his injuries (though he was granted its predecessor, the Wounded Chevron). He wasn’t even given a pension. He was finally awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor on June 2nd, 2015. The men of the Harlem Hellfighters will forever be known for their conspicuous gallantry and efforts that contributed to winning the first great war. 

Although poorly trained, ill equipped, and being treated as less then second class citizens they showed the world the meanings of grit and tenacity. These men are true American hero’s. Tonight i raise my glass in tribute to the Harlem Hellfighters . Cheers. 

Source Credit: smithsonianmag.com 

 washingtonpost.com 

 americancomesalive.com 

 gutenberg.org 

November 1967, FOB 2, Kontum, South Vietnam…

Bob Howard had spent almost an entire year in SOG as a One-Zero, a recon team leader— a job described by the legendary Richard “Dick” Meadows as the finest job for a Special Forces soldier serving in Vietnam. It also meant volunteering for duty in MACV-SOG, the Military Assistance Command Vietnam’s Studies and Observation Group, arguably the most perilous assignment for anyone serving in Southeast Asia, and certainly the most secretive unit in the entire war. SOG reported directly to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, sometimes higher. MACV-SOG’s secret cross-border war was being fought in Cambodia, Laos, the DMZ, and even North Vietnam. Its sole mission was to interdict North Vietnamese operations and logistics along the Ho Chi Minh Trail corridor in eastern Laos and Cambodia.

In November, One-Zero Johnnie Gilreath’s recon team had been snooping around in Laos for several days before uncovering a massive North Vietnamese weapons and rice cache. Realizing the job too big for his little recon team, Gilreath quietly pulled his men back into a position where they could monitor the cache while contacting FOB 2 in Kontum for further instruction. The decision was made to assemble a Hatchet Force raider company, insert near the cache, and destroy it. When Bob Howard heard of the situation, he insisted his recon team be inserted along with the Hatchet Force so they could run point and lead the raiders safely to the cache. While the Hatchet Force company went to work, both Howard’s and Gilreath’s teams would provide security and scout for any NVA massing to respond to the commotion. They were sure to come once the show started.

The dark-green jungled mountains of southeastern Laos stretched out for as far as any of them could see, interrupted only by thousands of bomb craters, most of which traced the route of Laotian Highway 110 — a major roadway used by the NVA to infiltrate into South Vietnam’s central highlands at the tri-border region. Inserting a Hatchet Force required a great deal of helicopters in comparison to inserting a recon team numbering less than ten commandos, so Bob Howard and the other Americans knew the element of surprise would expire rapidly once the insertion began. Minutes later, the helicopters were dropping into the landing zone one-by-one to offload the SOG force, and just as they feared, the entire countryside opened up on them with withering small-arms fire. Green and red tracers were lasering all across the sky as the helicopter door-gunners shot their way in and unloaded Howard’s team and the Hatchet Force. The ground fire was so intense, it crippled three helicopters, but miraculously, none were shot down, and everyone got into Laos unscathed.

Finally on the ground, among the buzzing insects, and the densely tangled underbrush, Howard and his team expertly guided the Hatchet Force raiders through impossible terrain teaming with NVA troops intent on stopping their progress and killing them all dead. And he did so without a single shot fired. Perhaps it was because the American-led commandos outnumbered the NVA in the immediate area, or perhaps the NVA were allowing them to pass unmolested, knowing they’d eventually lead them to another team. While this happened, the NVA would have time to mass around them and eventually overwhelm them all; the North Vietnamese were cunning and calculating like that. Or perhaps it was because Bob and his indigenous teammates were just that good at reconnaissance. Either way, the entire force was able to link up with Johnnie Gilreath’s recon team in short order and without incurring casualties.

While the Hatchet Force company promptly went to work destroying the enemy cache, Bob Howard’s recon team fanned out to secure the perimeter. They knew with certainty the North Vietnamese would not allow their supplies and munitions to be destroyed without a fight.

The team quietly maneuvered through dense underbrush beneath towering triple-canopy jungle. It was dark, dank and wet, and unbelievably hot as the day wore on. Suddenly, Bob himself came face-to-face with four NVA soldiers. Without a shred of hesitation, he leveled his M-16 off and opened up on them, killing them all with a single 20-round magazine just steps away. Jungle warfare was not like urban warfare; it was an incredibly difficult environment to survive in, let alone fight in. Oftentimes enemy soldiers were not spotted until they were close enough to reach out and touch, and it was common for there to be dozens more scattered beyond, hidden by thick foliage.

No sooner had Bob reloaded his M-16 and his team closed in to secure the four dead NVA, a heavily-camouflaged enemy machinegun bunker raked their position with green tracers. His teammates scrambled for cover as the streaming automatic gunfire pinned them down but he pushed forward, stopping his assault just long enough to kill an NVA sniper who nearly had him fixed. Acting completely alone, Bob Howard finalized his assault at point-blank range with his M-16 and destroyed the entire gun crew. Just as he scrambled down from the machinegun nest, a second enemy gun emplacement opened fire on him and his men, but was ultimately unable to pin them down. 

While the Hatchet Force continued to destroy the rice supply and munitions, Bob consolidated with his team a safe distance away from the enemy gun emplacement and contacted a circling forward air controller for air support. In short order, hard-bombs were falling on top of the enemy’s position, but when Bob crawled forward to assess the damage, he quickly learned the ordnance had missed the emplacement all together. Howard was so close to the bunker, the enemy machinegun was just inches from his head. He snatched a grenade off his harness, pulled the pin and let the spoon ping! away, and dumped it inside the aperture.

Crumphhh!

Howard had singlehandedly destroyed yet another gun crew but the victory was short-lived as the NVA pressed in and retook the position, bringing the machinegun back up online to bear on the SOG commandos. With his patience running out, Bob Howard had finally decided enough was enough. Grabbing a LAW rocket launcher — a light antitank weapon — Howard extended the fiberglass tube and dropped the sights onto the gun emplacement, and fired while green tracers skipped all around him. The 66mm rocket scored a direct hit and blew the bunker and the enemy gun crew to pieces.

Witnessing Howard’s sole determination and fearing heavier losses, the NVA abandoned the hilltop and pulled back, allowing the Hatchet Force raiders to completely destroy the cache without further challenge. Once finished, the SOG commandos extracted back to FOB 2 in Kontum where another flight was waiting to ferry Bob Howard and Johnnie Gilreath down to SOG Headquarters in Saigon to personally brief Chief SOG Jack Singlaub and General Westmorland on the operation.

After the briefing, Bob Howard was sent back to FOB 2 with the knowledge that his actions that day had been deemed worthy of a Medal of Honor submission. Ultimately, the submission would be downgraded to a Distinguished Service Cross, the nation’s second highest military award for valor in combat, which Howard would receive. In all honesty, Bob Howard, with his raked smile and professional demeanor, was happy to have the citation downgraded because it meant he could continue to wage SOG’s secret war against Hanoi along the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos and Cambodia. And as history would prove, it would not be the last time his actions would be worthy of consideration for the Pale Blue Ribbon.

J.S. Economos

Source — SOG: The Secret Wars of America’s Commandos in Vietnam, by John L. Plaster

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]]>SOG's Medal of Honor LegacyGlobalReconMon, 24 Aug 2015 03:58:00 +0000http://www.globalrecon.net/articles/2015/8/23/american-snipers55d756f3e4b0ce02359b2287:55d7852fe4b0af9c336e9763:55da61f0e4b016f1f052767aGreater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. - John 15:13

The names and legacies of men like Sergeant First Class Randall Shughart and Master Sergeant Gary Gordon have been etched into the history of modern warfare. Before we knew of the bravery of Navy Seal sniper Chris Kyle and Army Ranger Nicolas "The Reaper" Irving,  two Special Operations snipers heroically fought, and died during the battle of Mogadishu protecting a fellow American.

On October 3rd, 1993, Gary Gordon was the Sniper Team Leader during Operation Gothic Serpent, which became known as the Battle of Mogadishu. The mission that fateful day was to apprehend key advisors to Somali warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid. One of the Army's Black Hawk helicopters, call sign Super Six One, was shot and crashed into the city. A CSAR (Combat Search And Rescue) team was dispatched to secure the crash site. 

A short time later helicopter call sign Super Six Four was also shot down over the city. The Army Rangers on the ground were already engaged in brutal fighting and were unable to reach the second crash site. 

Gary Gordon and his Delta Force sniper element, which included Randy Shughart and Sergeant First Class Brad Hallings, were providing sniper cover from the circling helicopters. These rescuers wanted to be dropped at the second crash site despite the large number of hostile Somalis converging on the area in order to protect the four critically wounded helicopter crew members.

The mission commanders denied the snipers request to be inserted, determining that it was too dangerous. Gary Gordon argued that the crew had no chance of survival on their own because they were wounded and heavily outnumbered. The mission commander was weighing his options. 

"One or two properly armed, well-trained soldiers could hold off an undisciplined mob indefinitely; Shughart and Gordon knew this.  They were experts at killing and staying alive. They were serious, career soldiers, trained to get hard, ugly things done. They saw opportunity where others could see only danger. Like the other operators, they prided themselves on staying cool and effective in extreme danger. They trained endlessly for moments like this - if there was a chance to succeed, these two believed they would."

 Shortly before Gordon and Shugart arrived, Super Six Four pilot Mike Durant woke up inside his seat and took in the damage. A short while later Gordan and Shugart showed up bringing an enormous feeling of relief over Durant - he thought it was over and the rescue force had arrived.

Shughart and Gordon were calm. There was gunfire. The snipers lifted Durant out of the craft and set him down by a tree. Durant was positioned to cover the whole right side of the aircraft. He could hear more and more shooting now. It still hadn’t occurred to him these two were it, and that there was no rescue team.

The still circling Super Six Two watched the angry mob grow larger. Shughart and Gordon had set themselves and the chopper crew in a  defensive perimeter around the downed bird. They were dug in awaiting help. Durant admired the way the Delta guys had positioned him. He knew Ray Frank, his copilot, was hurt but alive. There were the two snipers and his crew chief, Tommy Fields. He wondered if Tommy was okay. He figured there were at least four men on the other side of the bird and probably more from the rescue team.  Then he heard one of the operators— it was Gary Gordon— cry out that he was hit. Just a quick shout of anger and pain. He didn’t hear the voice again. 

The other— Randy Shughart—came back to Durant’s side of the bird. “Are there weapons on board?” he asked. There were - the crew chiefs carried M-16s. Durant told him where they were kept, and Shughart rummaged around, returning with both. He handed Gordon’s weapon, a loaded CAR-15, to Durant. “What’s the support frequency on the survival radio?” Shughart asked. It was then, for the first time, that Durant realized they were stranded. The pilot felt a twist of alarm in his gut. If Shughart was asking how to set up communications, it meant he and the other guy had come in on their own. They were the rescue team. And Gordon had just been shot!

Durant  explained standard procedure on the survival radio to Shughart. There was a channel Bravo. He listened while Shughart called out, “We need some help down here.” The radio replied that a reaction force was en route. Then Shughart wished him luck, took the weapons, and moved back around to the other side of the helicopter.

A man tried to climb over the wall and Durant shot him. Another came crawling from around the corner with a weapon and Durant shot him. Then came a mad fusillade on the other side of the helicopter that lasted for about two minutes. Over the din he heard Shughart cry out in pain. Then it stopped. Durant's life was flashing before his eyes as the angry mob overran his position. Mike Durant was taken hostage and held in captivity for 11 days before being released.

For their heroic actions on October 3rd, 1993 Master Sergeant Gordon,and Sergeant First Class Randall Shugart were posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for actions above and beyond the call of duty while serving on sniper element with the United States Army Special Operations Command with Task Force Ranger in Mogadishu, Somalia. RIP warriors. 

At what would become a crucible of combat in Zhari District, Afghanistan, on the night of October 6th, 2013, young Jennifer Moreno's determination as a Nurse assisgned to a team of Army Rangers from the 3/75 reached its climax . In the words of her commander , Moreno ran "into hell' to rescue an injured comrade and it cost her life.

Moreno was attached to a Unit of Rangers from the 3rd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment. They were sent into Zhari to apprehend a bomb-maker.  Regrettably, the area around the home was sabotaged with land mines; 12 bombs exploded that night as a result of which four American soldiers were killed in action and 25 others were wounded.

As the soldiers approached the compound and called out for the occupants to surrender, a jihadist woman exited and detonated a suicide vest wounding six soldiers, and setting off a secondary explosion nearby. Two soldiers rushed in to help the wounded setting off a 3rd explosion. An insurgent ran away from the building while detonating his suicide vest killing himself and a service dog named Jani. This was only the 4th bomb.

Moreno heard a transmission from a staff sergeant to help a wounded soldier. The battleground commander had ordered all personnel to stay put. Yet, without any hesitation, Moreno moved towards her wounded teammates, recognizing the severity of their wounds. During her forward movements Moreno detonated the 5th bomb and was killed in action. A very select few would have the courage to make the same choice.

"Follow me" SGT Patrick Hawkings told SPC Cody Patterson en route to the wounded. Patterson stepped on a mine, the sixth detonation. He stumbled and set off the 7th which fatally wounded both him and SGT Hawkings.  A military police officer, Joseph M. Peters, set off explosions 8 and 9 after working to clear a landing zone for a medevac helicopter to extract the wounded. 

SPC. Samuel Crockett, who received a Silver Star for his actions that day, led a 20 man force to clear the area of mines, and rescue the wounded.  He secured space for medics to work on casualties and made his way to isolated Rangers, escorting them through the mine belt to safety. He managed to retrieve Hawkins, the fallen military dog and various pieces of sensitive military equipment without detonating more bombs.

Moreno's body still remained on the field. Three soldiers from Crockett's unit attempted to retrieve her, and struck the 11th explosive. Crockett ran to them, halting at the edge of his cleared path. The platoon sergeant was injured, but standing and Crockett guided him back to safe ground. With no clear path to his two teammates. Crockett got down to the ground and swept the earth for mines with his own hands.

He set off the 12th and final blast on his way to his last wounded teammates. Because the blast was not strong enough to kill him, Crockett was able to continue the rescue. He was forced to find a different path, again sweeping the ground with his hands.  He brought his teammate back to safety.

Crockett then approached the fallen nurse, attached a drag line to her and pulled her to safety. With Moreno recovered, the operators made the call to leave the compound. Finally, they got out of hell with no man or women left behind.

Rest in peace to U.S. Army 1st Lt. Jennifer M. Moreno, Sgt. Patrick Hawkins, Spec. Cody Patterson, and special agent Joseph M. Peters.

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]]>LegacyGlobalReconSat, 22 Aug 2015 03:16:41 +0000http://www.globalrecon.net/articles/2015/8/21/airmen-refuse-to-be-captured-awarded-the-silver-cross55d756f3e4b0ce02359b2287:55d7852fe4b0af9c336e9763:55d7e844e4b090d164202129Three Airmen from the Airforce Special Operations Command were decorated for valor for their actions in a battle that took place in 2014 in Afghanistan.

                  On Sept. 27, 2014, a team of U.S. Special Operations troops was dropped into a volatile village in Afghanistan’s Helmand province. 21 Americans and about 60 Afghan commando counterparts were to clear a bazaar of weapons and insurgents, and then get out. The insurgents, numbering close to 100, sprung a fierce attack in which they not only launched a barrage of fire on the Americans, but made plans on the radio to overrun their position and take them hostage, the airmen said.

Senior Airman Dustin H. Temple was awarded the rare and prestigious Air Force Cross, which is second only to the Medal of Honor in honoring heroism in combat in the service. Goodman and Tech. Sgt. Matthew J. Greiner were awarded the Silver Star, which is two levels below the Medal of Honor.

The coalition launched 80 airstrikes during the mission, killing a confirmed 38 insurgents and destroying 28 vehicles, 17 buildings and 32 enemy fighting positions, Air Force officials said. The first team included Temple, Weathers, seven other U.S. Special Operations troops and five Afghan commandos. It received 80 percent of the fire during the first portion of the battle. The second element included Greiner, Goodman and 11 other Special Operations troops, along with 50 Afghan commandos. The third team had four U.S. troops and five Afghan commandos.

Temple is credited with putting himself in the line of fire of Snipers after weathers had been shot to drag him from a rooftop and then to a helicopter that had arrived to evacuate him. 

“Despite overwhelming and accurate enemy machine gun fire, he remained in the open landing zone, providing covering fire while his teammates pulled back,” his Air Force Cross citations states. “After he returned to the compound, enemy fighters surged within 40 meters after intercepted communications stated ‘Take the Americans alive.'”

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]]>Airmen Refuse to be captured Awarded The Airforce CrossGlobalReconSat, 22 Aug 2015 00:30:00 +0000http://www.globalrecon.net/articles/2015/8/21/us-marines-thwart-terror-attack-on-european-train55d756f3e4b0ce02359b2287:55d7852fe4b0af9c336e9763:55d7bf2fe4b0555917d0478c

US Marines tackle and disarm a gunman wielding an AK-47 aboard a high speed European Train.

• Eyewitness say three US Marines disarmed gunman
• US Marine in critical condition 
• Gunman is in police custody

The critically injured  US servicemen who has not been identified heard the gunman loading up his rifle inside of the bathroom. A scuffle ensued with eyewitness saying three Marines disarmed the gunman and detained him until emergency services arrived. The Marine was airlifted to CHR hospital in Lille, France. A second Marine was stabbed, and taken to the hospital of Arras with non life threatening injuries. 

Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve addressing the press praised the Marines for their bravery. " I would like to express our gratitude to and admiration for these American passengers. Thanks to the calm composure of the Americans we have avoided a terrible tragedy. They have showed extreme bravery in extremely difficult circumstances. 

The suspected terrorist had 6 fully loaded magazines with roughly 200 rounds of ammunition. He also had a knife. A spokesmen for the Interior Ministry said 'its too early to link the attacks to terrorism.' The incident took place at approximately 6pm local time, about 100 miles north of Paris near the town of Arras. Investigators from France's special anti- terror police are leading the investigation. The suspect is a 26 year Moroccan.  

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]]>US Marines Thwart Terror Attack on European TrainGlobalReconFri, 21 Aug 2015 20:14:33 +0000http://www.globalrecon.net/articles/2015/8/21/insertion55d756f3e4b0ce02359b2287:55d7852fe4b0af9c336e9763:55d78558e4b0a5ba13feb365Welcome to the start of Global Recon's article section! Here we will bring you articles written by various writers coming from various backgrounds including:

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