Category: Army News

The New York Times reports that “L.G.B.T. Advocates Criticize Nominee for Army Secretary” because they think that “Mark E. Green, a former Army flight surgeon who served as a medic for a special operations team that captured Saddam Hussein, would be a sharp U-turn in civilian leadership of the Army”. That sharp turn being in the direction of rights for deviants. I got an email from the Palm Center the other day expressing their concerns;

“Mark Green is a perfect nominee for the people around President Trump who want to start a culture war in the United States military, and who would bring back “don’t ask, don’t tell,” Belkin said. “The priorities Green has made a career on in Tennessee directly contradict the core military value of treating everyone according to the same standard. They have the potential of sowing confusion and undermining good order and discipline.”

Yeah, what were the comments that Green made that would sow confusion and undermine good order? According to the Times;

“We are back to where the country was at its beginning, and it’s the armed citizen who will defend this nation,” Mr. Green said then. “And there’s something else that we’ve got to protect ourselves from, and it is an overreaching federal government. The notion that Mr. Obama thinks that he can tell the state of Tennessee who can go into a men’s bathroom or a women’s bathroom is absurd.”

During that same appearance, Mr. Green was asked what military rank and file thought about “the social revolutions being imposed upon them by this government.” He responded that “if you poll the psychiatrists, they’re going to tell you that transgender is a disease.” He also implied that gay marriage was as unthinkable 30 years ago as government-sponsored infanticide is today.

In other words, the Times and the LGBT SJWs just don’t like Trump nominees. It seems to me that an Army Secretary with subordinates on the ground in a foreign country fighting the enemies of our country has more important things to worry about than a bunch of hand-wringing deviants who are angry because he might not let them use the latrine of their choosing.

Also, the LGBT SJWs are mad because Green is replacing Eric Fanning, the first outwardly gay Army Secretary – the LGBT SJWs were over-the-moon in love with him just because he was gay, not because of any other qualification he may have had for the job of fighting the nation’s wars.

Thanks to Devun for the link.

According to Military.com, the Army is planning to make mandatory an annual test for the Expert Action Badge, a non-combat version of the Combat Action Badge at brigade level similar to the annual Expert Infantry Badge testing for infantrymen and the Expert Field Medical Badge for medics.

“The idea was that you model the EAB program off of those two established programs,” [Army Training and Doctrine Command’s Command Sgt. Maj. David Davenport] said, describing that the test will consist of physical challenges such as the road march, the Army Physical Fitness test and the land-navigation test.

For the skill evaluation portion of the EAB test, the Army plans to have soldiers demonstrate expertise in the 39 Warrior Tasks and nine Battle Drills that all soldiers must know.

Because everyone needs a badge.

Gary Sinise will be honored by the Association of the United States Army (AUSA) during the Marshall Dinner on October 11. The dinner will be held at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C.

It is nice to see one of the good guys being recognized for decades of selfless dedication to veterans.  The Gary Sinise Foundation has done outstanding work and gets an A rating for it charitable operations.

THANK YOU Lt. Dan

Apparently, the Army is becoming aware of the Nigerian princes who are pretending to be members of the military. We have been aware of it for a long time. Read the Facebook comments on this post from nearly four years ago where victims come to tell us about their experiences. Anyway, according to Federal News Radio, the Army is looking for someone to help them find, monitor and destroy fake accounts on social media;

The Army is looking for help from a vendor to find, monitor and get rid of imposter social media accounts.

Among the capabilities the Army is looking for a vendor to provide are “an existing commercially available, user-friendly, web-based solution to monitor and mitigate imposter profiles on social media platforms. A solution that is automated and secure (not susceptible to hacking). The ability to query at a minimum, but not limited to the following social media platforms: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Skype, Instagram and YouTube as well as the ability to include new/additional social media networks as they arise.”

They wouldn’t need to contract for someone to do that if Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Skype, Instagram and YouTube took the threat seriously. Every time that I complain about fake accounts, the providers listed above wave me off and tell me not to worry about it. When I can identify the victims who have had their images and identities appropriated, I warn them personally and even then those providers aren’t at all responsive to reports of hijacked images an identities.

So, good luck, Army.

Thanks to Chief Tango for the link.

Army photo by C. Todd Lopez

The Army Jungle Combat Boot, now under development, features a low-height heel to prevent snags on things like vines in a jungle environment; additional drainage holes to let water out if it becomes completely soaked, speed laces so that soldiers can don and doff the boots more quickly, a redesigned upper to make the boots less tight when they are new, an insert that helps improve water drainage, a lining that helps the boot breathe better and dry faster; a ballistic fabric-like layer under a soldier’s foot to help prevent punctures, and a foam layer between the rubber sole and the upper to provide greater shock absorbing capability. The boot will initially be issued to two full brigade combat teams in Hawaii, part of the 25th Infantry Division, for evaluation.

Hopefully this Jungle Combat Boot does not include the tear-off “Made in China” tag.

Indictment: Military boots made in China said ‘Made in the USA’

Fernald said that sometime between April and June of 2018, a final purchase description for the JCB will be developed — based on feedback from soldiers who wore it. He said he expects that in fiscal year 2019, an indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contract will be signed with multiple vendors to produce the final version of the JCB for the Army.

Bryan said the JCB, when it becomes widely available, will be wearable by all soldiers who want to wear it — even if they don’t work in a jungle.

“From the get-go we have worked… to make sure we all understood the Army wear standards for boots,” he said. “One of the pieces of feedback we have gotten from soldiers before they wear them is they look a lot like our current boots. That’s by design. These will be authorized to wear.”

While the JCB will be authorized for wear by any solider, Bryan made it clear that there will only be some soldiers in some units who have the JCB issued to them. And right now, those decisions have not been made. Soldiers who are not issued the JCB will need to find it and purchase it on their own if they want to wear it.

“We are not directing commercial industry to sell them,” Bryan said. “But if they build to the specification we’ve given them for our contract, they can sell them commercially and soldiers are authorized to wear them.”

Maybe some Army peeps can chime in on the revised M1966 Vietnam-era jungle boot. Will the troops only have to pay “cost” if they are not issued to them?

 New Army Jungle Wear Gives ‘Trench Foot’ the Boot

Jon the Mechanic and Bobo send us links to the news that the Amy’s last pathfinder unit was deactivated at Fort Bragg, North Carolina;

Capt. Steven J. Orbon, the commander of F Company, 2nd Assault Helicopter Battalion, 82nd Combat Aviation Brigade, and Herbst, the company first sergeant, cased the unit guidon as a final act for the 82nd Airborne Division’s pathfinder company.

“For many, today is a sad one,” Orbon said to an audience that included family, friends and veteran pathfinders whose service dated to 1957.

The deactivation was part of a larger Army transformation that saw other pathfinder units shutter last year and also marked the end of other small and specialized units known as long-range surveillance companies. But it won’t end the pathfinder story, the captain said.

“It is simply the closing of a chapter,” Orbon said.

That’s because no matter how advanced technology becomes, or how different the mission troops are called to perform, he said the military will need soldiers like those last pathfinders on display Friday afternoon at Fort Bragg.

The Army announced Thursday that it will devote 3,000 troops to the creation of six new brigades dedicated entirely to the training of foreign forces. Called Security Force Assistance Brigades, these new units will actually be battalion size in personnel strength yet organized as brigade combat teams stripped of their lower ranks and staffed for the most part by officers and more senior NCO’s. It will be the foreign forces making up those lower ranks when these SFAB’s are functioning as intended. A new Military Advisor Training Academy is being established at Fort Benning to train the members of the SFAB’s for their missions.

This is a major break from the traditional use of Army combat units being assigned to part-time missions for training foreign forces, an unneeded distraction from their readiness preparation for their primary missions. The Army says a further advantage to this concept is that should the country need new brigade combat teams on the quick, the lower ranks of these brigades could be fleshed out with American privates and specialists who could be quickly molded into a fighting force without needing to dog-rob existing BCT’s for leaders and cadre, the hardest personnel to come by when standing up a new combat arms unit.
This is a smart move as Ol’ Poe sees it but with the catch being that it is imperative to keep rotating fresh combat experienced NCO’s in and rotating the old trainers back into ready units to keep the edges sharp on the trainers themselves.

Opinions, TAH?