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

Category: Military issues

  • Kerry considered for SecDef?

    I mentioned on Friday that John Kerry was a likely choice for the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Defense or the Director of the CIA. Well, it seems that the Obama Administration is considering him for Defense Secretary, according to the Washington Post;

    President Obama is considering asking Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) to serve as his next defense secretary, part of an extensive rearrangement of his national security team that will include a permanent replacement for former CIA director David H. Petraeus.

    Although Kerry is thought to covet the job of secretary of state, senior administration officials familiar with the transition planning said that nomination will almost certainly go to Susan E. Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

    John O. Brennan, Obama’s chief counterterrorism adviser, is a leading contender for the CIA job if he wants it, officials said. If Brennan goes ahead with his plan to leave government, Michael J. Morell, the agency’s acting director, is the prohibitive favorite to take over permanently. Officials cautioned that the White House discussions are still in the early stages and that no decisions have been made.

    In fact, I’ve been predicting this for years, if anyone was paying attention. I hope the VSOs are watching him, because his record of screwing the troops goes back to the “fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan” “testimony” to Congress in 1971.

    I can’t think of anyone less respected by the troops;

  • Veteran’s Day

    Today is Veteran’s Day.  And it’s a good time to reflect not only on service, but on how we as a nation have honored it.

    Until relatively recently we really didn’t do such a good job of doing that as a nation.  Historically, we did a decent job of remembering and honoring those who died – but not so much those who served and lived.

    Veteran’s Day is actually one of the youngest US holidays.  And it’s purpose was not always what we celebrate today.

    In fact, what we today celebrate as Veteran’s Day on 11 November was not originally even called Veteran’s Day.  It also was not originally a holiday to celebrate the service of all US military veterans.

    In its original incarnation, it was Armistice Day.  Its original purpose was to commemorate the “heroism of those who died in the country’s service and with gratitude for the victory” in World War I.

    The holiday’s purpose, but not its name, was again changed in 1938 when Congress formally declared Armistice Day a Federal holiday.  Now the purpose of the holiday was “a day to be dedicated to the cause of world peace”.  The date remained fixed as 11 November.

    The current Veteran’s Day owes its existence to one Raymond Weeks of Birmingham, Alabama.  In 1945, Weeks – a World War II veteran – began a campaign to change the purpose of the holiday then called Armistice Day to a day honoring the service of all US military veterans.  In 1954, Congress did so, and also changed the name of the holiday to “Veteran’s Day”.  The date of 11 November was retained.

    Weeks was honored by President Reagan in 1982 for being the driving force behind the creation of today’s Veteran’s Day.  Reagan honored Weeks via presenting him the Presidential Citizenship Medal – the nation’s second-highest civilian decoration.

    Veteran’s Day is one of the four US Federal holidays with a fixed date – 11 November.  (The other three are New Year’s Day, the Fourth of July, and Christmas.  The other Federal holidays have fixed calendar slots – e.g., Thanksgiving is the fourth Thursday in November – but not fixed dates.)  Veteran’s Day is being observed this year on Monday solely due to the longstanding policy of observing a Federal holiday the preceding day (Friday) when a fixed-date holiday falls on a Saturday and the following day (Monday) when a fixed date holiday falls on a Sunday.

    Best Veteran’s Day wishes to all of TAH’s readers.  And special thanks to all Veterans who have served honorably.

  • LTC Roy L. Tisdale Tactical Equipment Maintenance Facility

    You may remember that LTC Roy L. Tisdale was killed by one of his soldiers in Fort Bragg earlier this year. Frosty CWO sends us word that his commander has named their new maintence facility for him yesterday and his family was there to cut the ribbon. There’s nothing in the media about it yet, so I’ll quote from the chief’s email;

    As you may remember, LTC Roy L. Tisdale (’92 Texas A & M) was killed on 28 June by a another Soldier under his command of the Brigade Special Troops Battalion, 525th Battlefield Surveillance Brigade. Yesterday COL Xavier T. Brunson, Commander of the 525th, officiated a ceremony dedicating the Lightning Brigade’s brand new Tactical Equipment Maintenance Facility in LTC Tisdale’s honor. LTC Tisdale’s family attended and cut the red ribbon on the doors to the facility.

    The attached picture is a plaque that was unveiled and will hand by
    the door of the facility. As a first-hand observer, I can tell you that this is the nicest motor pool/maintenance facility I have ever seen or even heard of in my 17 years of service. I am assuming the Ft Bragg PAO will have a detailed story to link to soon, but I hope that you can post a reminder to your readers at TAH about how we are attempting to honor this great Leader, Soldier, Father and Husband that was taken from us too soon.

  • Jimmy Carter’s second term

    To say that I’m disappointed in the results of the election is probably a bit of an understatement. What is most disappointing is to see my “friends” on Facebook who are veterans celebrating a second term of the President. I can’t figure out what they’re celebrating about. Retirees in five western states are being forced out of Tricare Prime and into Tricare Standard which means that, unless they live near a military treatment facility, their healthcare are going to skyrocket. What’s to celebrate?

    And I put the blame for this loss of veterans squarely on the shoulders of the Romney team. When I brought the above subject up to John Noonan, Romney’s defense advisor, he responded that he hadn’t heard the Obama camp mention it in the campaign – so I guess he thought it wasn’t going to happen. It’s going to happen in April, whether Noonan has heard about it or not. A moment’s Google would tell him that.

    The Obama Administration has raided our healthcare premiums to pay for other defense projects. If a corporation had done that to it’s retirees, the Obama Administration would be crawling up their ass with a microscope.

    And what about the most egregious decision of the Afghan war? The one that forbade US troops from having loaded weapons when they were in the company of our “allies” just to make them think that we trusted them. That bit of brilliance cost us more than 50 young lives this year before they finally reversed the decision this summer. And let’s not forget that this Defense Department ignored a report last year that predicted an increase in “insider” attacks this year.

    While we’re talking about the war, how about the overall strategy – what is the overall strategy if it’s not solely to withdraw? It’s a rush for the exits and a dependency on drones. The lowest infantryman understands that an Army doesn’t control anything that doesn’t have a soldier standing on it. Air attacks from several thousand feet above the battlefield doesn’t win anything, and this administration was unwilling, for purely political reasons, to put the number of boots in Afghanistan that a winning strategy required.

    But the troops are coming home. If Desert Storm taught us anything, it was that if you don’t complete the mission, you’re going to end up fighting the war all over again.

    While we’re at it, let’s talk about the Veterans’ Affairs Department which has squandered it’s increased funding. the rolls of veterans awaiting a decision on their claims for service-connected relief has grown despite the promises of the Department. They promised to end homelessness among veterans and they’re not really any closer than they were when they assumed office. Veterans are loosing money everyday when ever a college term begins because the VA can’t pay them in a timely manner.

    All of that without even mentioning sequestration, which the Obama Administration claims won’t happen. I’m not sure how they think it won’t happen because it’s a law.

    And then to top it all off, folks in Afghanistan wrote yesterday to tell us that TAH has been blocked in Regional Command (South) because we’re “extremist”. I guess it’s extremist to point out the things that no one else will, the failings of the Big Army leadership. The fact that the Defense Department is screwing over veterans and the troops and blaming them for the failures of their own leadership.

    So yeah, your guy won, but who is going to pay for your jubilant celebration? It’s not American Idol or a sports contest. There is a real cost to real people out here in the real world.

  • Bales’ Article 32 hearing underway

    So we’re learning more about the Bales case when a staff sergeant went on a murderous spree in small Afghan village. It doesn’t sound like his shit was wired too tightly. As I said yesterday, Bales made two trips into two villages, and apparently he was wearing a cape like he thought he was a super hero or something. From the Associated Press;

    As fellow soldiers stopped him at the base’s gate, Staff Sgt. Robert Bales was incredulous, prosecutors said. Then, as he was taken into custody, Bales said, “I thought I was doing the right thing.”

    […]

    The prosecutor, Lt. Col. Jay Morse, said that after Bales attacked one village near his post at Camp Belambay, he returned, woke a colleague to report what he had done, and warned that he was headed back out to attack another village.

    “I never got out of bed, sir,” the colleague, Sgt. Jason McLaughlin, testified. “I thought it was ridiculously out of the realm of normal possibility, sir.”

    […]

    Prosecutors played for the first time the video captured by a surveillance blimp that showed the caped figure running toward the base, then stopping and dropping his weapons as he was confronted. There was no audio.

    Apparently, he was drinking whiskey and watching “Man on Fire” before he went on his rampage. I like “Man on Fire”, but it never sent me on a killing spree.

    According to the article, Bales and his attorneys haven’t entered a plea yet, but, of course, we all know that his attorneys will say that Bales suffers from TBI and PTS despite the fact that the outward signs of PTS don’t manifest as this type of violence. But it will make a sympathetic figure for the media.

  • WV National Guard on the job

    The devastation on the eastern seaboard kind of sucked all of the oxygen out of the news when Hurricane Sandy struck last week. Mostly because that’s where the media elite are and they can report on conditions by looking out their windows.

    But some folks in West Virginia suffered just as much. The southern part of the state got hammered with three feet of snow overnight which followed the hurricane through. My part of the state didn’t get snow but a good number of people are still without power. Zero Ponsdorf is still without power, but he has a generator, so he’s still kickin’ ass.

    Although I didn’t even experience a flicker in my power, or a flake of snow (knock on wood), I noticed that there are still power company trucks reacting to outages down in the valley.

    But the folks from DVIDS sent us some pictures of the West Virginia National Guard on the job getting relief out to the far-flung places which are mostly isolated even without the snow.

    I’m thankful that even though I didn’t need them this time, that they’re out there when the time comes that I do need them.

  • Remember That Little Incident in Benghazi?

    Yeah, I do too.  And the folks who were on the ground in Benghazi say what’s coming out of DC isn’t exactly matching up with what they saw.

    Specifically, they say that the timeline which has been released by DC of events that night is not accurate.  They say that the CIA Annex was notified considerably earlier than 9:40PM (local) that there was a problem; that it was obvious several hours prior that an attack was possible; that the local guard force panicked and/or fled before the attack; and that the safe room where Ambassador Stevens was killed was not set up properly, lacking ventilation and fire suppression.  In other words:

    Both American and British sources said, at the very least, the security situation on the ground and the lack of proper response were the result of “complete incompetence.”

    But that’s not all:

    Both American and British sources say multiple roadblocks set up by fighters believed to be with Ansar al-Sharia were in place in Benghazi several hours before the 9:40 p.m. timeline and that communications also alluded to “heavily armed troops showing up with artillery.” Fox News was told by both American and British contacts who were in Benghazi that night that the CIA timeline rolled out this past week is only “loosely based on the truth” and “doesn’t quite add up.”

    The same sources also indicate that armed UAVs were indeed readily available in the area.  They also dispute the assertion that other US military assets (FA-18s or AC-130s) were “not available’.

    We now appear to have a couple of contradictory stories.  One is coming from DC; the other is coming from people who were actually there.

    Which story do you think is more likely to be closer to the truth?

  • A thank you from the Sentinels at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

    I guess they want to return the favor of all of the attention they got this week.

    I guess YouTube is having problems.