Category: Military issues

Yeah, that’s the gist of the title of an LA Times article, the quote comes from a Georgetown lawyer;

“Desertions rarely go to trial. They usually end up with a plea,” said Gary Solis, a Georgetown University law professor and a former military lawyer and judge.

Bergdahl’s case is likely to end with a plea deal as well, according to military lawyers.

“This is a case nobody wants to see go to trial,” Solis said. “Bergdahl just wants to go home. And for the Army, this case is just an embarrassment.”

Sorry, Gary Solis and LA Times, this trial isn’t about Bergdahl or about the Army – it’s about Bergdahl’s victims, his squad mates and all of he people who were out looking for him and the casualties that resulted from that endeavor. Not to mention, the American taxpayers who footed the bill for it all, and the Americans who are now in danger because of the terrorists who were released in exchange for his freedom. A plea deal isn’t going to work for all of those people. We want the facts and we want to hear about the facts straight from Bergdahl’s mouth. That would be the only justice in this case.

Don’t say “no one wants to see a trial” when everyone needs a trial to put this behind us.

The most expensive weapons program in the Department of Defense, the F-35 Lightening took another hit yesterday, this time from Federal auditors who have determined that the engine is unreliable – but what aircraft really needs a reliable engine, right? From Fiscal Times;

The GAO’s findings come just as lawmakers are considering whether to grant the DoD an additional $1.2 billion for the jet engines next year. They’ve already approved roughly $17 billion of the total $67 billion for the F-35’s engines alone. The entire program’s price tag is about $391 billion and counting.

“This means that the engine is failing at a much greater rate and requiring more maintenance than expected,” auditors said in the report. “While overall reliability has increased, engine reliability over the last year has remained well below expected levels. Improving the F-35 engine reliability to achieve established goals will likely require more time and resources than originally planned.”

You might remember that the service chiefs are using the capabilties of the F-35 as a close air support aircraft as an excuse to dump the A-10 Thunderbolt. But you know, since the F-35 is proving to be a money pit and probably won’t be ready for combat this decade, Congress has extended the A-10’s life. From Tucson News Now;

The House Armed Services Committee restored $682 million in funding for the A-10, funding which was in doubt.

“So today is a really big victory,” says District 2 Republican Martha McSally. “I don’t have to offer an amendment or run around getting offsets to funding.”

The money is not guaranteed beyond 2016 because the Department of Defense does its budget annually.

The Air Force or Defense Department could dump it anyway.

But for the first time in a while, the A-10 has some new support.Texas Republican Mac Thornberry, the new chair of the committee, has given a thumbs up in his support of the mission saying “the budget driven decision to retire the A-10 is misguided.”

The Defense Department and the White House have been cramming both of these programs down the taxpayers’ throats for years. Obviously, neither is all that interested in national defense and they’re making decision based on political expediency instead of the lives of the troops and pilots.

In other Warthog News, Pinto Nag sends us a link to the news that an A-10 that had suffered “catastrophic failure” over the war against ISIS was forced to land at an Iraqi airbase deep behind the battle lines.

The “catastrophic damage” might suggest the engine was hit by surface-to-air missiles or another kind of anti-aircraft weaponry (especially because the A-10s operate at low altitude and have already been targeted by MANPADS in Iraq); however, according to Stars and Stripes, Col. Patrick Ryder, a CENTCOM spokesman, told reporters that the plane was not hit by enemy fire, and he downplayed the incident.

Ayn al-Asad Airbase, in the Sunni western province of Al Anbar, was one of the largest Iraqi airbases, and the second-largest US military airbase in Iraq until the last Marines withdrew from the country and the installation was closed on December 31, 2011. Since late October 2014, the airbase, which hosts several US Marines and advisors for the local security forces, has frequently been under attack by Islamic State militants.

The “Cross of Death” was repaired and flown to safer surroundings.

I must be out of touch. I didn’t know that there was a version of the Stryker armored vehicle that is armed with only a .50 caliber machine gun. Apparently, that what the US sent to Europe as a sign of commitment to our allies. Now Congress is setting aside money to upgrade the vehicles to the 30mm armament according to Fox News;

The 2nd Cavalry Regiment is requesting that 81 of its 8-wheel-drive Stryker infantry carrier vehicles be equipped with 30-mm. automatic cannons — double the caliber of the 12.7-mm. guns they already carry, the military news website Breaking Defense reports.

The House Armed Services committee is already setting aside money for the upgrade, which the Army approved Wednesday, according to a memo obtained by the website.

The upgraded cannons would give the Strykers added firepower against other light-armored vehicles.

I guess I wasn’t paying attention – I just figured that the Army was through with buying under-armed vehicles for a war in Europe since the Bradley was deployed there in 1984. A Stryker with a .50 cal. seems like a waste of money to me – but what do I know, right? What else am I missing? A Hummer with an M4 on a pedestal mount?

Chief Tango sends us a link to Politico which reports that Presidential Candidate, Ted Cruz, wants Senate Armed Services chairman, John McCain to hold hearings about whether the troops can carry their own private weapons while they’re in garrison, if they are so licensed by the State where they are serving. Of course, the perfumed princes of the Five-sided Insane Asylum are opposed to the whole thing;

Generals have argued that only military police officers should be able to carry weapons freely around base. Many in the chain of command believe more guns would only lead to more violence, especially among those who suffer from mental instability as a consequence of combat.

“I want to give an opportunity for the military leadership to lay out their views,” Cruz told a woman who asked him about the issue.

Do these “generals” realize that they are in the profession of arms? They’re willing to send these folks they consider “mentally unstable” to foreign countries with loaded firearms, but not in their own country? By making this an issue, they endanger every member of the military, not only on their military base, but also while they’re enroute to work and home.

Many states consider their training in the military in regards to the safe handling and carrying of weapons sufficient for the various state’s licensing training. But, I guess the states have more faith in that training than the unnamed generals.

I want the military “leadership” to lay out their views, too, I want these handwringing bedwetters on the public record that they aren’t confident that their soldiers are well-trained in the handling of firearms, so the troops know who to trust.

For your information, I’m not going to do a daily update on the women who are in Ranger School, I know it’s happening and I’m wishing them all luck – they’ve already accomplished more than me in that regard, but the prospect of 63 posts about it bores me.

I sincerely hope that some of the women make it all the way through to graduation, if for no other reason, to prove that the standard isn’t too high and needs to be changed in order to meet the quota demands of the social engineers.

The Washington Post reports that 16 of the 19 women who took the PT test yesterday passed, 78 of the men also failed the test. They weren’t serious about the course, I mean if you can’t pass a simple PT test, you weren’t ready to pass the course.

According to the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer, the test consisted of “49 pushups, 59 situps, a 5-mile run in 40 minutes or less, and six chin-ups”. Not grueling at all. In fact, my privates can tell you that they did that and more every morning in a straight leg infantry platoon.

So, I guess this happened at Temple University on April 1st where ROTC cadets were urged to wear red high heels to do something or other in support of someone who was the victim of something. Somehow wearing red high heels in ACUs will prevent something.

From the Temple University ROTC unit’s Facebook page;

Cadets and cadre put on their favorite pair of high heels and marched in Temple’s Walk a Mile in Her Shoes event to raise awareness of sexual assault against women.

Thanks, I wasn’t aware of sexual assault against women until I saw a bunch of cross-dressing future and current Army officers.