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

Author: StrikeFO

  • RangerUp Video: It’s Stolen And I Know It

    From Jonn: Since everyone is sending me this in emails, I’ve bumped it up from when we first posted it in September last year so you don’t think I’m ignoring your emails.

    Hilarious.

  • Asking Senator John McCain A Question on Afghanistan

    Senator John McCain came to my school yesterday (University of Tampa) for a visit with ROTC Cadets and Veterans. It was a good event, non-partisan, just “The Maverick” talking about the world and what is going on in the Middle East.

    He certainly knows his stuff — especially with such seniority in the Senate — but I certainly disagree with him on some issues. One is Afghanistan. He kept mentioning the surge strategy in Iraq and applying it to Afghanistan. I couldn’t help but ask him the following:

    “Senator McCain, it’s an honor to be see you here today. I have a question in regards to the war in Afghanistan.

    You keep mentioning the surge strategy in Iraq. That surge was instrumental in the war and initially increased the number of attacks on troops but eventually they leveled off and then the number of attacks drastically fell.

    Unlike that surge, the Afghan surge of 30,000 troops has seen attacks increase each month, according to open source intelligence. Our rules of engagement for troops in contact mean increasingly that our soldiers and Marines are not getting the artillery and close air support that they need. Further, our own Afghan security forces are continuing to shoot our troops on our own bases.

    We have given a pullout date of 2014. My question is, why are we waiting until then?”

    Unfortunately, he did like most politicians do when they don’t want to answer a question. They answer a completely different one. I don’t think he understood what I was asking so he answered as if my point was that we need to end the war now, get troops come home immediately, etc.

    What I was trying to say was that the war strategy right now is not working, we are not effective in the job (due to ROEs/Politicians), and we should either change strategy or leave immediately.

    He started talking about how the terrorists would continue to use it, we’re fighting the guys from where 9/11 originated, etc.

    After I came home from the event, I looked around for news coverage. I found some, but interestingly enough, I found a story on Rep. C.W. Young, a staunch supporter of the war, who has just come out in favor of immediate withdrawal. The story says the following:

    The congressman said he came to his new position after talking with veterans over the past three months and hearing about what a “real mess” Afghanistan is in.

    I know John McCain often visits troops overseas and gets their opinions. I wonder what he’s hearing on his trips?

    And finally, here’s a news story where I am mentioned, although I’m only referred to as student.

     

  • The 8000-Mile Sniper Shot

    I wrote this post and published it tonight over at the blog of the Marine Infantry Veterans Foundation, a charity organization built by infantry Marines with the goal of taking care of our own. I’d really like more eyes on this post and more people to know about an issue that I’ve been personally touched by, and to learn of a couple of Marines who survived deployments to war, only to come home and take their own lives.

    When you leave the military, your mind is usually filled with a range of emotions. There’s joy over your newfound freedom, sadness at leaving brothers behind, and anxiety over the unknown. In June 2010, when I picked up my discharge papers from the Marine Corps, I lived through it and felt them all.

    Now two years later, I am close to graduation from The University of Tampa, run asuccessful military satire website, and am lucky to continue working with military veterans. It wasn’t an easy road, and many times I felt alone and helpless.

    For a heartbreaking and rising number of veterans, those emotions can lead to a devastating end: suicide.

    Navy Cross recipient and former Corporal Jeremiah Workman, who dealt with his own emotional trauma and thoughts of suicide, refers to it as an enemy making an 8000-mile sniper shot.

    That’s what happened with Seth Smith, from Kansas City, Missouri. I first met Seth on a training exercise in Okinawa, Japan with 3rd Marine Division. As one of a small handful of infantry Marines in a unit full of different specialties, it was a lonesome time for me.

    After seeing Corporal Smith directing forklifts — with his flak jacket set up much like an infantryman — I approached him.

    “Are you a grunt?,” I asked.

    He responded no, but after further questioning, it turns out that he was attached to my old unit, 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marines, for a deployment to Iraq in 2009. Instead of being an electrician like he was trained, he was put into an infantry squad with Lima Company. He was grunt-enough to me.

    We soon became friends.

    About six months after I said goodbye and good luck to 28 year-old Corporal Seth Smith as I left the Marine Corps, he was honorably discharged and returned home. The following April, he was dead.

    He didn’t give a warning, or leave a note. He was engaged and had a son named Carter.

    Please continue reading the whole piece here.

  • Live From The Clown Show (RNC Protests)

    Since I go to school nearby at the University of Tampa, I decided to walk over and see if I could spot any decent protests. Fortunately for the police, they were pretty light.

    There are small pockets here and there but nothing coordinated or even mildly exciting. The scene in downtown Tampa is mainly one of police officers just standing around in large groups talking.

    Nonetheless, here are some photos from my stroll. I have a video as well but can’t upload it yet until I get to a better connection. (UPDATE: Embedded the video below)

     

    not sure if these guys are WBC or what, but they were spouting about Mormons, muslims, and gays et al
    more of those crazies
    some lady dressed up in Desert camo with a Gopher head. I … have no idea.
    This is a barricade for the street leading to the convention center. Every street leading up to it looks like this. It’s a good ways away from here, and no one can go past (without credentials).
    The Westboro Idiots. You can see the convention center in the background.
    Cops on horses riding up the street.
    The Ron Paul people
    Last but not least, the guy holding a “Veterans For Ron Paul” sign

    Seeing veteran, I was genuinely interested in talking with a fellow vet. So I went over, and said, “So, you’re a veteran?”

    “No.”

    My response was then one of irritation, saying it’s a bit of false advertising, now isn’t it?

    Then his buddy next to him tries to help him out, saying, “A veteran made the sign and wanted him to hold it for him.”

    Ok. That’s all for now. I’m off to go see Jonn.

    [UPDATE: Here’s the only video I took, of the crazy people in the first picture.]

    Here’s a link to the video.

  • My Views on Afghanistan, ROE’s, & Losing A War

    So most of the time, I write made up and mostly hilarious stories at The Duffel Blog, but occasionally, I will take some time to write something serious. I don’t normally toot my own horn over here but since Jonn is away and won’t be posting it for me, I must break my own rule.

    Published at Business Insider, “MARINE: Strict Rules Of Engagement Are Killing More Americans Than Enemy In This Lost War“:

    When I returned and transitioned to a role as an infantry instructor in 2006, my peers—who only had deployed to Iraq—quipped that I was part of the “forgotten war.”

    And where are we today?

    Six years after hearing those jokes, the war is forgotten by everyone except the men and women who continue to fight it. My mostly quiet wartime memory of 2005 has exploded into a battlefield of heavy combat with the casualties to go along with it.

    And yet all the blood, destruction—all the efforts of our military—cannot change the unfortunate and highly probable outcome that our 2014 exit from Afghanistan will be marked as a failure.

    I don’t want to believe it, but we are losing this war.

    Each day our soldiers and Marines leave the wire, only to face increasing attacks from a determined enemy. An insurgency that continues to enjoy support—even from inside a corrupt government in Kabul as well as Islamabad.

    And they don’t just face Taliban AK-47s and improvised explosives. They also continue to face the guns of their supposed allies, Afghan National Army and Police forces, who have killed over 30 U.S. military personnel just this year alone.

    As we try to win hearts and minds, the Taliban uses fear—and in a culture of tribalism and tradition, it is fear that works.

    You can continue reading the whole thing here.

  • Stolen Valor Happens on Twitter Too

    I don’t really go on Twitter to find phonies at all. I just happened to see someone retweet (basically copy and republish what was said to the “twitter-uninitated”) something from a user with the name “FormerGrunt”. I thought, well.. let’s take a look at the Former Grunt.

    Something I noticed right off the bat is the profile photo. I’ve seen that photo before. Quick search and found it: SFC Daniel Crabtree. He’s a Special Forces soldier that was killed in Iraq in 2006. Quick lineup and flip in Photoshop and we have an exact match.

    So I decide to ask him about it… but since he’s a secret squirrel, he’s fuzzy on details. (more…)

  • IAVA: Fighting Hard With For Profit Schools To Rip Off Veterans

    As I always do each morning, I check my email. What I found today was a nice email from Paul Rieckhoff of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, letting me know about the dangers of for-profit colleges. For-profit colleges, it is now known, account for a huge chunk of Post 9/11 GI Bill payouts, but oftentimes deliver a dismal learning experience and engage in questionable marketing practices.

    Well — not to worry — because Paul and the boys at IAVA “Got Your Back” as they like to say, and they want to hear your story if you’ve been a target of deceptive marketing by one of these schools.

    But wait… wasn’t there an improvement act passed to the Post 9/11 GI Bill a couple years back? Let’s check the memory hole…

    Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) is encouraged by the Chairman’s discussion draft of S. 3447, the “Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Improvement Act.” This discussion draft of S. 3447 will improve the New GI Bill and ensure that all student veterans have access to the most generous investment in veterans’ education since World War II. By simplifying and streamlining the administrative rules, S. 3447 would enable the Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) to process GI Bill claims in a timely manner. S. 3447, which we have come to call the “New GI Bill 2.0,” is a comprehensive effort to address the concerns of tens of thousands of student veterans and their families by:

    • Offering valuable job training for students studying at vocational schools

    • Granting National Guardsmen who respond to national disasters full GI Bill credit

    • Providing living allowances for veterans in distance learning programs

    • Simplifying and expanding the tuition benefit

    • Including a book stipend for active duty students

    IAVA is proud to endorse this legislation, contingent upon the following improvements being included in the bill. We therefore have included several simple and important technical recommendations we would like to see addressed in the August mark-up.

    […]

    IAVA Technical Recommendations: A student veteran pursuing a degree through a distance program should qualify for a living allowance based on the zip code of his or her residence. Or, at the very least, the living allowance should be set at the lowest Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) rate for an E-5 pay grade, with dependents. This adjustment would be an increase of about $140 over the currently purposed rate.

    Let me translate. It was Congress, pushed by IAVA who brought on these predators. Before this act, a veteran had to attend a traditional university to get the living stipend. IAVA would like you to forget that they helped push legislation that the for-profit college industry was so happy to see come to fruition.

    But the internet never forgets.

  • My Thoughts on Memorial Day

    I wrote a piece for Business Insider which was published today. It’s about the memorial at Camp Pendleton and my visit there in 2007. There is a cross there, along with rocks signifying fallen comrades. I’m not a religious person, and the cross is not the real point of the memorial — at least for me. It is about the dog tags, the rocks, the liquor, and the left mementos.

    At the top of the peak, they dropped their heavy packs. They dug out a small site. In a hole close to the edge, they placed the cross. At the base of the cross, they put down their rocks. Their friends would never be forgotten.

    As combat in Iraq and Afghanistan swelled in the following years, the memorial grew. Marines started bringing new rocks to the memorial. A squad from 1/4 brought up the largest rock at the site for PFC Juan G. Garza. It weighed over fifty pounds. Other Marines brought bottles of liquor, drinking with their fallen brothers and leaving the rest for them at the site. Between rocks, there were dog tags, Purple Hearts, battalion t-shirts, and photos.

    Three of the original seven later died in combat. Their brothers probably carried their rock to the top of the mountain for them.

    It wasn’t constructed by an architect or an artist. The memorial didn’t have tourists coming through it like Arlington Cemetery or the Vietnam Wall. It was a closed site, built and maintained by Marines. Hundreds of rocks had been carried there. Each week, Marines would carry lawn mowers up and groom it.

    After deployments, battalions would go there to honor their fallen warriors.

    Read the whole thing.

    Quite inevitably, there are already comments left from dipshits who take issue with the cross and another who compares our fallen friends to nazis.