This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Author: Jonn Lilyea

  • Texas National Guard deploys to border

    Texas National Guard deploys to border

    ABC13 reports that about five hundred Texas National Guard troops have deployed to that state’s border with Mexico.

    The Texas Military Department tweeted a photo with the caption “Texas National Guard is currently on ground across the Texas-Mexico border with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, preparing for more operations and troops.”

    According to The Hill, Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis has authorized a total of four thousand National Guard troops for the mission;

    The memo authorizes the use of Title 32 and Defense Department dollars for up to 4,000 National Guard personnel to support the Department of Homeland Security’s “southern border security mission while under the command and control of their respective governors through September 30, 2018.”

    It also states that troops “will not perform law enforcement activities or interact with migrants or other persons detained by DHS personnel” unless Mattis approves it.

    Troops will be armed only in “circumstances that might require self-defense,” according to the memo.

    From the Desert Sun;

    Officials in Texas and Arizona, the two states which share the longest borders with Mexico, said on Friday they would deploy 250 and 150 guardsmen to the border, respectively. Texas officials said this deployment was the first wave, and more guardsmen would be sent to the border at a later date, joining 100 guardsmen who were stationed along the Texas-Mexico border, prior to the president’s directive.

    Officials in New Mexico have expressed support for calling up the National Guard, but have not announced specific plans about how many or when the state’s guardsmen would be mobilized.

    Since the Bush Administration, about 29,000 Guardsmen have deployed to the Mexican border to assist federal agencies.

  • Berlin police foil attack on half-marathon race

    According to Reuters Berlin police stopped a terrorist attack at a local half-marathon event yesterday. Die Welt says that four people were arrested before they could commit their knife assault on spectators and runners;

    Die Welt…said the four men were linked to Anis Amri, a Tunisian man with Islamist militant ties who killed 12 people in an attack in Berlin in December 2016 when he hijacked a truck and drove it into a crowded marketplace.

    In its unsourced report Die Welt said the main suspect was known to Amri and had planned to stab to death spectators and runners at the half-marathon.

    The suspect had in his possession two knives which had been especially sharpened for this purpose, the report said.

    36,000 runners were signed up for the race and thousands more spectators lined the route.

  • Fort Campbell soldiers identified

    Fort Campbell soldiers identified

    The Army Times reports that the two Apache crew members killed in an accident this weekend as Chief Warrant Officer 3 Ryan Connolly and Warrant Officer James Casadona. They were both assigned to the 101st Combat Aviation Brigade, 101st Airborne Division;

    Connolly, 37, was an instructor pilot in the 101st Combat Aviation Brigade. He joined the Army in 2001 and arrived at Fort Campbell in 2016.

    Connolly’s awards and decorations include two Air Medals, three Army Commendation Medals, the Army Achievement Medal, the Meritorious Unit Commendation, the Army Superior Unit Award, the Afghanistan Campaign Medal, and the Iraq Campaign Medal.

    Casadona, 28, was a pilot in the 101st Combat Aviation Brigade. He joined the Army in 2012 and arrived at Fort Campbell in 2018.

  • Monday morning feel good stories

    Monday morning feel good stories

    From Knightdale, North Carolina;

    According to officers with the Knightdale Police Department, 21-year-old Tevin Cameron Horton, of Wendell, was armed with a revolver when he entered the store shortly before midnight. Police said Horton pointed the gun at the lone store clerk and demanded money. The clerk, 32-year-old Basheer Aldafari, briefly struggled with Horton over the weapon.
    Tevin Cameron Horton

    Aldafari then attempted to retreat to an area of safety within the store, but was followed by Horton. Officials said Aldafari produced his own gun and fired at his attacker, who fled the scene.

    Officers soon learned of a report of a second shooting near Delta River Way in Knightdale. When they arrived, they found Horton suffering from a single, non-life-threatening gunshot wound to the buttocks and lower back.

    Horton told officers he had been shot in a drive-by, but video surveillance showed Horton at the scene of the earlier crime.

    Aldafari did not sustain any serious injuries during the attack and robbery.

  • Delta and SAS hunt ISIS

    Delta and SAS hunt ISIS

    Earlier this month we talked about US Special Forces Master Sergeant Johnathan J. Dunbar and UK Special Air Services Sergeant Matt Tonroe who were killed in an IED ambush near Manbij, Syria. The UK’s Daily Star reports that US soldiers from Delta and UK SAS troopers are hunting the ISIS insurgents who perpetrated the ambush;

    The Daily Star Sunday understands a joint British and US task force has killed at least a dozen terrorists in a series of night raids in the Manbij area of northern Syria.

    In one operation, two terrorists were shot dead by SAS snipers while laying a roadside bomb.

    At least six more were killed in a drone strike on an Isis bomb factory. One source last night said the SAS men were in no mood to take prisoners.

    The source said every SAS soldier based in Syria had asked to be sent to the area where Sgt Tonroe was killed so that they could take revenge.

    He said: “The attacks have been unrelenting – assaults are being launched night and day. “We’re not giving the terrorists room to breathe or recover.

    “These are kill-not-capture missions.

    “Every operation throws up more intelligence and that is used for the next operation. We are hitting them from the ground and air. They can run but they can’t hide.

    “If they fight they die.”

  • Military Religious Freedom Foundation assaults POW/MIA table in Okinawa

    Military Religious Freedom Foundation assaults POW/MIA table in Okinawa

    That hateful troll, Mikey Weinstein of the misnamed Military Religious Freedom Foundation has filed a complaint against U.S. Naval Hospital Okinawa’s POW/MIA table that displays a Bible, according to Stars & Stripes;

    The complaint — addressed to Navy Medicine West commander Rear Adm. Paul Pearigen — demands the immediate removal of the Bible from the hospital galley display, the immediate removal of accompanying written materials that describe the United States as being “founded as one nation under God,” a Japanese translation of these materials and an independent investigation into who put up the display, as well as “appropriate disciplinary measures” for those responsible.

    The complainants include sailors, Marines and Department of Defense civilian employees stationed on the island, MRFF founder and president Mikey Weinstein said Friday.

    I guess Mikey needs a new speedboat and his coffers are drying up.

    Military Religious Freedom Foundation wants freedom FROM religion, not freedom OF religion. The 1st Amendment reads; Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof and as far as I know, Congress has not established a national religion and placing a Bible on a table doesn’t hurt anyone. It especially doesn’t hurt Mikey, since he’s in New York and the table is thousands of miles away.

    Mikey should be told to pound sand.

  • 2 killed in AH-64 crash

    2 killed in AH-64 crash

    According to Stars & Stripes, an AH-64E Apache helicopter crashed at Fort Campbell claiming the lives of two soldiers;

    The soldiers were flying a routine training mission in a training area on the base, when the Apache crashed at about 9:50 p.m., according to a base statement.

    “This is a day of sadness for Fort Campbell and the 101st Airborne,” Brig. Gen. Todd Royar, the acting senior commander of the 101st Airborne Division and Fort Campbell, said in the statement. “Our thoughts and prayers are with the families during this difficult time.”

    That makes seven deaths from military aircraft crashes in the last seven days.

  • Patti Gomez-Michalkow; Mrs. New York, Guard veteran

    Patti Gomez-Michalkow; Mrs. New York, Guard veteran

    The newly-crowned Mrs. New York representing Syracuse, is Patti Gomez-Michalkow, a New York National Guard veteran according to the New York Post;

    “There’s no talent portion of the competition since we’re a Mrs. category, but we did talk about special talents. Mine is shooting 300-meter targets,” she cracked, adding that she can also bang out 38 push-ups in two minutes to meet the standard Army fitness test.

    Her contract with the Guard ran out just a few days before she took the crown, but Gomez-Michalkow is still keeping busy.

    The dynamo works full-time as a senior marketing manager for M&D Financial, and regularly volunteers with a number of veterans charities.

    Her schedule is so demanding that she’s had to put her pursuit of a Harvard master’s degree in international relations on hold for the time being.

    Among the veterans organizations she works with is Homes for Our Troops, which builds specially customized, mortgage-free houses for seriously disabled veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts.