Category: Army News

The Palm Center and the Human Rights Campaign were doing a happy dance in my inbox last night after Mark Green withdrew his namefor nomination for the Army Secretary. HMC Ret sends a link from the Associated Press;

Several Senate Democrats, including Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, declared they would oppose Green’s nomination over what they said were intolerant and disturbing views. Democrat Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, a combat veteran who lost her legs and partial use of her right arm during the Iraq war, said in a statement Friday that Green wasn’t fit to lead the service.

Schumer welcomed Green’s move to step aside.

“Mark Green’s decision to withdraw his name from consideration as Army secretary is good news for all Americans, especially those who were personally vilified by his disparaging comments directed toward the LGBTQ community, Muslim community, Latino community and more,” he said in a statement.

As we’ve reported here before, Green, a former Army infantry officer and a special operations surgeon, was eminently qualified to run the senior service in the time of war but he is cisgendered and a heterosexual, so that disqualified him in the eyes of the LGBT sexual deviant community.

So that should be it, right? Nope. The Palm Center has set it’s sights on Heather Wilson,the nominee for Air Force Secretary;

As a member of Congress, Rep. Wilson consistently opposed measures to protect LGBT Americans from discrimination or grant them equal protection under the law. As a senate candidate, Rep. Wilson opposed a bill intended to reduce anti-LGBT bullying, saying that victims should simply be stronger and more ‘comfortable with themselves’ instead of expecting perpetrators to be held accountable. In the Air Force, where it’s imperative to make clear that sexual harassment and anti-LGBT conduct have no place, this is a troubling position for any senior leader to adopt.

sj sends a link to the latest news on the never-ending Bergdahl trial saga.

A military judge says he has settled on an October trial date for Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl on charges that he endangered his comrades by walking off his post in Afghanistan in 2009.

Army Col. Jeffery Nance says he intends to start jury selection Oct. 16 and begin the trial in earnest on Oct. 23. Both prosecutors and defense lawyers indicated that the date worked for them.

It’s been nearly three years since Bergdahl was released from captivity and his case has had numerous delays over the exchange of classified information.

Yeah, I’m as sick of writing about this weenie as you are reading about him.

Mick sends us a link to the Miami Herald which reports that Army General Raymond Thomas, commander of U.S. Special Operations Command, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that special operations soldiers are being used at an “unsustainable” rate;

“We are not a panacea…We are not the ultimate solution to every problem, and you will not hear that coming from us.”

Senators said they were worried about the military’s over-reliance on special forces, who are increasingly being called on for missions outside their usual range.

“Our combatant commanders around the world have developed a seemingly insatiable demand for the unique capabilities of our special operators,” said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who chairs the Armed Services Committee.

The operational tempo is also wearing on the commanders, who in recent months have been called on to take the lead in anti-terrorism efforts and in monitoring the spread of weapons of mass destruction.

Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., said it was a “growing myth” that the U.S. “can use special forces and nothing else to achieve goals.”

Quite a change from the Senate of the recent past when everyone was calling for more special operators. Of course, to save the Special Operations troops for actual special operations, the Congress could allocate more money for training of conventional forces to take over some of the less-than-special operations. But I guess that’s not sexy enough for the politicians.

Someone sent us a link to the Military Times in which they report that the 82d Airborne Division is testing the Marine Corps’ Light Armored Vehicle 25 as an armor asset for the division. Yeah, I’m old enough that I remember when the division had an armor battalion equipped with Sheridan tanks. I also remember the time that they demonstrated delivering a palletized tank to the Sicily drop zone and it slid into the stands causing quite a few casualties.

The LAV is an eight-wheeled vehicle that weighs 31,000 to 38,000 pounds, depending on the variant. The models being tested by the 82nd Airborne have a 25 mm gun. The vehicles also use a three-person crew and can carry an additional six troops, according to General Dynamics Land Systems data.

The Marines have sent four LAVs for testing and training by soldiers at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, said John Myers, the deputy program manager for the Marines’ LAVs. Three other LAVs are at General Dynamics, the private company that produces the LAV and Stryker, where they are being modified for air drops, he said.

General Dynamics Land Systems has already delivered one of the modified LAVs and expects to have the other LAVs ready in the next few months for a scheduled air drop, likely at Fort Bragg, in November, said Michael Peck, director of the company’s Enterprise Business Development.

This is the first time Peck knew of, he said, that any military client requested the LAV be used in an airdrop. But the company did its own successful airdrop tests of both the LAV and the Stryker in the early 2000s.

In my opinion, they should give up on the air dropped vehicle and just focus on a light weight vehicle tthat can be delivered by landing an aircraft. I’ve had some experience with air dropping smaller vehicles (jeeps, specifically) and it rarely work well.

The Military Times reports that soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division will be the first troops issued the Army’s latest acquisition of Sig-Sauer P320 handguns;

Sig Sauer beat out companies such as Smith & Wesson, Beretta and Glock for the contract worth up to $580 million. The contract includes firearms, accessories and ammunition to be delivered over 10 years.

The new handguns will be a variant of Sig Sauer’s P320, a polymer striker-fired pistol. The P320 is the first modular pistol with interchangeable grip modules that can also be adjusted in frame size and caliber. All pistols also will be configurable to receive silencers and have standard and extended capacity magazines.

The handgun can be adapted to shoot 9 mm, .357 SIG and .40 S&W ammunition, according to Sig Sauer. The Army has opted to stick with the 9 mm, and it also has chosen the full size and compact P320.

The Army has decide to stick with the 9mm round, for some reason.

I have two Sigs, both are 1911s in .45 caliber. It’s a good handgun. I’m not familiar with the P320, but the 1911s were tack-drivers right out of the box.

In my opinion, the 9mm is only good for shooting Europeans and we haven’t had to do that for decades. The Army needs to get over their love affair with 9mm.

The Drive reports that the Army needs an Armed Scout Helicopter now that they’ve dumped about 340 OH-58D Kiowa Warriors before finding a suitable replacement.

Now, just months after the final Kiowa Warriors were officially retired, the US Army is whining about how badly they need…an armed scout helicopter.

Under the same aviation plan, the OH-58D was partially “replaced” by far more complex and expensive AH-64E Apache Guardian helicopters and drones, with the hopes that the Apache-drone teaming would work like a charm. Well the concept is still floundering, and clearly it cannot replace the efficiency or capability that the Kiowa Warrior provided. Not just that, but the plan also has seen entry-level Army helicopter pilots being taught to fly on $5 million twin turbine medium utility helicopters—the equivalent of running a drivers ed classes in a brand new Lexus SUV.

I don’t know how this could have happened. The Army Secretary was gay and everything, so we know how qualified he was to run the Army aviation program.

This same thing could have happened to the A-10 program, except for that aircraft’s constituency defending the continuation of the air frame. I guess the Kiowa didn’t have that many fans.

During this year’s Army Aviation Association of America convention, Army aviation officials stressed that the biggest gap in capability they have is the one left by the Kiowa Warrior’s quick retirement, and that they are seeking to fill that gap as a top priority.

I guess that’s what happens when a Presidential appointee’s only qualification for the job is his sexual deviancy.

Thanks to Bobo for the link.

CNN reports that Mark Green, President Trump’s nominee to be the Secretary of the Army is under fire from the Left for some of his political statements from when he was a state senator in Tennessee.

Democrats and LGBT groups have slammed Green over his previous comments on LGBT issues, which included saying: “If you poll the psychiatrists, they’re going to tell you that transgender is a disease.”

He’s also been criticized by Muslim groups for comments about not teaching “the pillars of Islam” in public schools.

On Monday, CNN reported Green is a self-identified creationist who delivered a lecture arguing against the theory of evolution.
Green defended himself against the criticism in a Facebook post last week, charging that the “liberal left has cut and spliced my words about terrorism and ISIS, blatantly falsifying what I’ve said.”

Can you imagine the Leftist outcry if public schools were teaching the stations of the cross? But, yeah, the pillars of Islam are fine to teach in public schools. I guess my question would be “So what?” Why would an Army Secretary be unqualified for that position because he opposes teaching tenets of Islam in schools? The same applies to his opinions on sexual deviancy. Social justice shouldn’t be a concern for an Army Secretary – my concern is that he is able to fight our nation’s wars for our benefit.

But my in box is full of propaganda from the Palm Center and the Human Rights Campaign telling me why I should oppose Green. By the way Green is an Army veteran. According to Wiki his bio reads like someone eminently qualified to lead the Army;

Green graduated from U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1986. From 1987 through 1990, Green served as an infantry officer in the United States Army. His first duty assignment following graduation from the US Army Ranger School was with the 194th Armored Brigade (United States) at Fort Knox. There he served as a rifle platoon leader, scout platoon leader and battalion adjutant for an Infantry Battalion. Following the Infantry Officer’s Advance Course, then Captain Green served with the 82nd Airborne Division as an airborne battalion supply officer and a rifle company commander. Following a traumatic event where his father’s life was saved by a team of surgeons and critical care doctors, Green requested the US Army send him to medical school. He attended Boonshoft School of Medicine at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio. He did his residency in emergency medicine at Fort Hood Texas. After his residency Dr. Green was selected to serve as the Flight surgeon for the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment.

Sounds like a guy who would do well leading the Army.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) doesn’t like him either – they also pretend to oppose him on LGBT issues.