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

Category: Military issues

  • Conway doubts timetable withdrawal in Afghanistan

    The retiring former commandant of the Marine Corps, Gen. James Conway speaks his mind to USAToday about the timetable withdrawal of forces from Afghanistan days before his retirement ceremony;

    In an interview before his retirement Friday, Gen. James Conway said troops may be able to be pulled from elsewhere in Afghanistan by the deadline. The majority of U.S. forces engaged in a troop surge ordered by Obama are fighting in the south.

    “Counterinsurgencies just take time,” Conway said. “I hope the focus is not … time constraints as much as it is the will to win.”

    The media, as well as VetsVoice, like to point out the successes along the Pakistan border using improved intelligence and drone strikes, but Conway says the real battle is in the south of Afghanistan;

    Conway acknowledged that the centerpiece of the Helmand campaign, an offensive in Marjah, a former Taliban stronghold, has not gone as anticipated. Marines and Afghan forces drove out Taliban forces in a February assault but efforts to build an effective local government have faltered.

    “It was touted as government in a box,” Conway said. “It was going to be coming in to rapidly expand and start doing things for the population to gain their allegiance. And that just didn’t happen.”

    Apparently, it’s easier to mount a propaganda campaign along the Pakistan border than it is to mount combat operations and train foreign troops in the country you’re trying to secure. Don’t get me wrong, it’s good that numerous Taliban and al Qaeda leaders have been planted in the mountains of the mountainous border, but assets that could be used in Marjah are drawn from the actual battle to write a few happy headlines.

  • More anti-military crap from unions at Obama rally

    More stuff I swiped from Ace of Spades.

    At Breitbart’s Big Government, Derek Broes has the story of a stagehand helping to set up for the Obama rally in Los Angeles, Duane Hammet, who got fired by the union for wearing a “Bush” hat and sweatshirt. The “Bush” in this case is the carrier USS George H. W. Bush upon which Hammet’s son is serving in the Navy these days.

    The IATSE (Local 33) union fired the worker even after he explained the shirt to his bosses. The shirt didn’t explicitly support George H.W Bush but that of the aircraft carrier named after the former President and the aircraft carrier his son has served on for the past many years and is currently deployed.

    I guess this shows the hyper-sensitivity the union thugs and Democrats have towards anything (by anything, I mean any-f***ing-thing) that even has the slightest reference to their empty message. Do I think the guy did it on purpose? Yep, but ya know, that’s his right. You just know that one of Obama’s handlers saw the shirt and made a stink to the union wrangler.

    And if the guy did wear the shirt and hat to piss someone off, shame on the union foreman (and the Obama handler if they were the ones to bitch) for falling for it. Our side has to tolerate Code Pink and their ridiculous antics…

    …but this guy loses his fricken job for wearing his son’s hat and sweatshirt?

    I can’t put it better than Ace.

    They just don’t like the military, do they?

    They’re gonna like them a lot less in ten days.

    Haven’t these numbnuts learned anything from the Williams firing? Is taking someone’s livelihood the only thing they have to control the working class? It kind of reminds me of the way they took jobs from their ideological opponents in Soviet Russia. Cowards, all of them.

  • A reminder that training kills, too

    Adirondack Patriot sends us some links that remind me that military training is just as deadly as combat sometimes. The story is about Petty Officer 3rd Class Shaun Lin, 23 who fell from a ladder during training and died on the James River last week

    Adirondack patriot said he died while practicing “hook and climb” procedures when he lost his footing and fell into the screws of the cutter that he was attempting to board using a caving ladder. The “hook and climb” is demonstrated at about :28 in this video;

    Lin’s bio;

    After boot camp in 2007, Lin was sent to Coast Guard Station Boston as a Fireman. In 2009 he was transferred to the Coast Guard Cutter Maui serving in the North Arabian Gulf before arriving to Maritime Safety and Security Team New York.

    About his job, a new one in the Coast Guard;

    Maritime Safety and Security Teams (MSST’s) were created under the Maritime Transportation Security Act of 2002. They are part of the enhanced security strategy for ports and waterways following 9/11. These teams undergo specialized training to conduct advanced interdiction, high risk boardings. This includes vertical insertion (fast-roping from a helicopter) and the stealthier hook-and-climb boarding.

    Team members typically wear about 60lbs of gear, including a tactical vest, body armor, kevlar helmet, ammunition, weapons, and a PECCE vest that is manually inflatable. (A vest that is automatically inflatable upon exposure to water is not practicable under the conditions these teams operate in. The Navy SEALS use a similar vest.) MSST members receive training for unexpected immersion, which includes inflation of the PECCE and dumping of gear. An uninjured team member should be able to stay afloat for several minutes even with his gear on.

    I probably lost more friends in training than in real world operations, which is why training must be realistic to be effective. Our sympathies go out to ME3 Lin’s family and our heartfelt thanks for their sacrifice.

    You puddle jumpers take care out there.

  • SEAL may be punished for aid worker death

    An unnamed SEAL may face disciplinary measures as US commanders armchair review the videos of the attempted rescue of Linda Norgrove, a captured aid worker who was being held by insurgents and was facing a public and gruesome death.(Military.com/AFP link)

    But the SEAL failed to see her and tossed a fragmentation grenade close to where she was hiding, and it exploded next to her, said the paper.

    The rescue was ordered because officials concluded Norgrove’s life was in grave danger, with her captors talking about murdering her, based on eavesdropping of radio conversations and other intelligence, the paper reported.

    I always loved being second-guessed by pogues in their starch and shined uniforms miles from the action.

    Apparently, the SEAL is being investigated for not being able to see through walls in the dark. Where was he during the “remote viewing” block of instruction? The only credible reason for punishing him is if during the operation order he was told in which building she was being held, or if they were told not to suppress fire from buildings with grenades.

    I read an article yesterday about the troops being disillusioned with the restrictions on them in regards to the ROE and the diplomatic efforts in Afghanistan. This investigation probably won’t help them much.

  • Poster girl for DADT to reenlist

    The latest news on DADT is that Judge Virginia Phillips has rejected the Justice Department’s application for a stay of her order to end Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.

    The Defense Department has said it would comply with Phillips’ order and had frozen any discharge cases. Pentagon spokeswoman Cynthia Smith said Tuesday recruiters had been given top-level guidance to accept applicants who say they are gay.

    This prompted the poster girl of the DADT, Dan Choi, to walk into a recruiting station in Times Square and apply for reenlistment. This was Choi in March;

    Choi

    If his unit had gone ahead and prosecuted him for chaining himself to the White House fence, they wouldn’t have to deal with this now.

    Do I have anything against Choi for being gay? Nope. What I have a problem with is his inability to conform to a policy as an officer appointed by Congress. And now, he’s daring the Army to reject his enlistment for ANY reason. He’s not fit to serve because he doesn’t understand the concept of “serving” or conduct unbecoming an officer.

    The Advocate reported that he was “tweeting” his attempt to reenlist. Who does that if they’re not doing it for political reasons? If he gets to be the subject of a blanket party as an enlisted “man”, it won’t be because of his sexual preferences, it’ll be because he’s such a little prick who deserves the wrath of his peers.

  • Recruiters told to accept openly gay applicants

    The Associated Press reports that the Department of Defense says it accepting openly gay recruits in response to the judicial decision made last week that the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell is unconstitutional.

    The Defense Department said it would comply with the law and had frozen any discharge cases. But at least one case was reported of a man being turned away from an Army recruiting office in Austin, Texas.

    Pentagon spokeswoman Cynthia Smith on Tuesday confirmed that recruiters had been given top-level guidance to accept applicants who say they are gay.

    Recruiters also have been told to inform potential recruits that the moratorium on enforcement of “don’t ask, don’t tell” could be reversed at any point, if the ruling is appealed or the court grants a stay, she said.

    It figures that the PC crowd at DoD would construe the withdrawal of DADT as a reason to open the floodgates. I’m still not convinced that thousands or hundreds or even tens of gays are now going to flood into the recruiters’ offices and crowd their way into the military.

    This whole fight was for the gesture not to give anyone some “right”. And I wouldn’t doubt that the judge made her decision in cahoots with the Justice Department to give Obama the chance to vote “present” right before the midterm elections.

    There’s still the UCMJ’s Article 125 to deal with.

  • Army finds a bloodtest to detect brain trauma

    Yeah, that same Army which doesn’t care about the troops and loves perpetual warfare has developed a blood test for mild brain trauma (USAToday link) ;

    Army Col. Dallas Hack, who has oversight of the research, says recent data show the blood test, which looks for unique proteins that spill into the blood stream from damaged brain cells, accurately diagnosing mild traumatic brain injury in 34 patients.

    Doctors can miss these injuries because the damage does not show up on imaging scans, and symptoms such as headaches or dizziness are ignored or downplayed by the victims.

    I wonder if there’s a blood test for detecting phony PTSD so I can stop using my Bullshit Meter which hasn’t been approved by the FDA yet. That would completely shut down the IVAW and it’s rogue Moonbats.

    Thanks to Old Trooper for the link.

  • Clinton advisor wanted a sitting duck for Hussein

    Old Trooper sends us this link from Newser‘s John Johnson who has had the time to read part of Hugh Shelton’s new book, Without Hesitation: The Odyssey of an American Warrior;

    In 1997, one of Bill Clinton’s Cabinet members suggested that Shelton order a US plane to fly low over Baghdad so Saddam would shoot it down and, ta da, give America instant justification for war. “I was so mad I was about to explode,” recounts Shelton, thinking about the sacrificial pilot.

    Salon quotes more about the moment;

    I looked across the table, thinking about the pilot in the U-2 and responded, “Of course we can …” which prompted a big smile on the official’s face.

    “You can?” was the excited reply.

    “Why, of course we can,” I countered. “Just as soon as we get your ass qualified to fly it, I will have it flown just as low and slow as you want to go.”

    The official reeled back and immediately the smile disappeared. “I knew I should not have asked that….”

    By the process of elimination, Salon posits that the second ugliest Secretary of State Maddy Albright was the official who made the suggestion, although Shelton doesn’t name her. Salon and Huffington Post defend the suggestion because the call for eliminating Hussein was at a fever pitch in the Clinton White House, but somehow dissipated in the following years.

    Another book for my reading list – hope it’s on Kindle.