US Marines in a Fight (finally) in Southern Afghanistan
Posted By Deebow
And in other news, water is wet....
I am certain that these Marines are violating some long standing NATO rule on not endlessly negotiating with these butt-monkeys before convening a meeting to decide when to give the Taliban their exact battle plan so that every one feels all "even" and stuff when they kick it off.
Now don't get me wrong, the Danes, the Poles, and the British (certain units) I have fought with are doing a bang up job down there, but they just don't have the same issues with these guys that we Americans have. And for the Brits at least, they are hamstrung by a crazy, socialist, leftist, elitist media that demonizes their every move, good or bad. But we all know what I am talking about when I talk about negotiations with these guys.
But anyway, I watched Fox News today while spending my last day healing from my gall bladder surgery and found out some interesting facts from the reporting that I would like to share with everyone.
Many of the 2,300-member unit who conducted the operation are Iraq war veterans.
Many of the men in the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit served in 2006 and 2007 in Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province in western Iraq. The vast region was once the stronghold of Al Qaeda in Iraq before the militants were pushed out in early 2007.
(Capt. John) Moder said that experience would affect how his men fight in Afghanistan. "These guys saw a lot of progress in Ramadi, so they understand it's not just kinetic (fighting) but it's reconstruction and economic development."
Speaker Pelosi, Senator Reid, and Senator Murtha; I hope you had your pencils out....
I want them to defend using the video of the apparent death of American Soldiers while serving in Iraq to the religious zealot, gun nut, under-employed working class folk that probably have either served before, serve currently or have a family member who faces danger every day in the ITO.
I want them to defend using this video to make the misleading statement that we are "losing in Iraq."
Of course, the cowards respond according to the script:
Calls to the DNC for comment and for information about the footage went unreturned.
I don't want to hear anymore from the pompous gas-bags in the Old Media and the Code Pink turd-burglars about how they "Hate the war but support the troops".... Where I come from, we say "that dog won't hunt."
But, since the media outlets are not showing it, out of respect for our comrades in arms, I would like to encourage everyone to tell everyone you know to go and see the ad and tell their friends too.
That way, whichever candidate is chosen by the Democrats, the American voters can ensure that the Democrats are headed for a McGovern style beat-down in November....
A beat-down that will sting for a couple generations....
We had a Roundtable call with Army Colonel Bruce J. Reider on the subject of the Army's new Muti-Source Assessment and Feedback system. The concept here is, for the first time, to mandate that officers and NCOs -- as well as Department of the Army civilians, interestingly enough -- get formal feedback on how they do as leaders from their subordinates and peers as well as from their command. While it won't be part of their performance evaluation, every single person in a leadership position will have to receive these comments. COL Reider feels this has the opportunity to fundamentally improve Army culture by letting people know exactly where they are weakest in terms of the Army's leadership values.
Furthermore, everyone participating in the system will be submitting their comments on you anonymously.
One of the things that bloggers have a lot of experience with is the effect of granting anonymity to commenters. The natural question, then, is: Will you be editing out the profanity?
The Colonel says, "Actually, yes." The concern for anonymity is such, however, that they will be doing so with an automated filter -- so that no human except the person being evaluated sees the comments.
Well, I spent the day out at a friend's home helping bake (and putting/hiding a funny here that most seemed to miss). The son of some friends of my friend is on his second deployment to Iraq, and she wanted to try to top her previous 30 or so pound box of treats she sent last time. So, between us we alternated mixing and baking two different types of brownies, three different types of mini-cupcakes, almond shortbread, two different types of chocolate chip cookies, two different types of oatmeal cookies, homemade granola bars, and homemade protein bars. Net take was that when all was done, she mailed a 37-pound box of treats for him (and his buddies). In August, we are planning to do this again.
Soldier's Mom wrote me this weekend about the funeral of SSG Matt Maupin, letting me know that more than 4,000 people filled the Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati for his funeral. He is home, he is honored, and his family knows that people truly care about him and -- most of all -- about them.
WLWT has a story and video here, the Enquirer an article here (and actually notes why the missing are important) and coverage of the funeral here, and WCPO has stories here.
Godspeed Matt. May the light shine down on your family, and they are blessed to know how many people truly care.
Here is a video like many we will see that are going to cause Obama some serious problems with an awful lot of Americans. Bitter, gun-fetishing, religious non-poseurs actually love this country, the actual one they live in.
Preview of a campaign we will be working on to educate people about how to capitalize on the success changing to a Counter-Insurgency strategy has brought us.
MaryAnn asked me if I would do this post, and I am glad to copy her post here so that the information can get downrange to the troops. Her site is often blocked (Blogspot), and while Blackfive is in some places as well, the thought is that it will reach places her's can't. If anyone else wants to copy this, please feel free to do so as caught early this is a very treatable cancer -- just ask Lance Armstrong. Copy for post, copy to mail, just help get the word downrange.
LW
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 23, 2008
Important information about testicular cancer and self-exams
Ok, this is an unusual post. But it's really important because we see quite a few cases of testicular cancer at Landstuhl due to the gender/age group of the patients.
Please help raise awareness about the importance of deployed men doing testicular self-exams.
There's very high awareness for breast cancer and the need for women to carry out self-exams.
However, there's much less awareness about testicular cancer (TC), which is the most common type of cancer affecting guys between the ages of 15 and 35.
Most often, TC is found by men themselves. The thing with being deployed is that you don't want to look like you're playing with yourself in the shower or whatever while checking yourself out. Also, back home, it's often found by wives/girlfriends.
But a monthly self-exam of the testicles is the best way of becoming familiar with your body and thus enabling detection of TC at an early - and highly curable - stage.
Important to Know:
- TC has a VERY high cure rate.
- Treatment usually involves removal of the affected testicle and follow up.
- Having one testicle is almost always sufficient to keep everything "working".
Finally, embarassment is a poor excuse for not having things checked out. If you think there is something wrong or something has changed, get your butt to sick call!
Please help by passing this information on to those you know in the sandbox. Thanks.
UPDATE: An example is given below the fold, may not be family friendly (especially if you are this idiot & his moronic co-sponsors), can cause Aunt Minnie to blush, palpitations in the susceptible, etc.
I also attended the Blogger's Roundtable that Armed Liberal at Winds of Change mentioned today. These waivers are characterized this way:
The vast majority of the conduct waivers are misdemeanors and a litany of three-or-more traffic offenses. And with that, there are some felony arrests and a few felony convictions. Together they total to about a half of one percent of the intake.
In the past year, the Army increased its numbers, almost doubled them. But they are so small that it equates just for scale to fewer than one per congressional district, insofar as felons that were waivered in.
The kind of person that we're talking about is someone who doesn't appear to be morally corrupt. Rather it was perhaps a prank gone terribly wrong, a grotesque error in judgment.
But in every case, if their community has joined behind them and said, this is really a good kid, and offered their support, then the recruiter might, if we've got a strong candidate in terms of their other attributes, send it up for a waiver.
A two-star will look at it. And let me say a general officer. I'm not sure if it's always two-star. But a general officer or flag officer will look at it, look at what they read about this person, what their parents, teachers, coaches have to say, and then make a judgment.
Is there any one of us who doesn't know someone who started off on the wrong track -- or made a mistake as a young man -- and ended up better because the military gave them a few years of structure, discipline, and a chance to move into adulthood? It used to be that judges gave young men a choice between the military and jail in these circumstances.
Armed Liberal makes the point that labeling someone as a "criminal" at this age is destructive to their entire lives, whereas the military may be just what they need to begin a long and productive citizenship. One of my closest friends as a boy was in just this category. He made a bad decision, although a clever one -- he figured out a way to steal from his employer and work the paperwork to cover it so as to get free money. At the age of seventeen you are the very next thing to amoral: between hormones, young male pride, and lack of experience, you neither understand the harm you are causing nor can resist a clever scam.
They caught him, and the Marine Corps recruiter he'd been working with said: "Well, hang on. Let us have him." They produced proof that he was a Boy Scout and had risen to the rank of Life Scout; that he had been a good student; and other things. The local DA didn't press charges (a felony arrest, not a conviction, as this man says) and he went into the Marines.
A few years ago, he was Honorably Discharged after more than a decade's service. He now lives as a good husband and reliable employee to a local manufacturer, and is the father of several daughters -- he described his home to me not long ago by saying, "If it's pink, we've got it."
Prison doesn't rehabilitate. Very often, the Marine Corps does.
UPDATE: SFC B, in the comments, adds some perspective:
Since 2003 the Army (the only service which I've bothered to get the full details on, however the other services are similar) has allowed anywhere between .2% and .6% of all enlistees to enlist with a waiver for a felony conviction. Two years ago, 2006, was by far the lowest percentage of felony waivers in a long, long time. The .439% of waivers that were allowed in last year (2007) was right in line with the .4% that has been the average since 2003. Basically, the AP story casts an ominous light on the subject by pointing out that the number of felony waivers doubled from last year, but they fail to provide any context to that by 1) not mentioing how many people were enlisted last year (116,141) and 2) not mentioning that 2006 was abnormal in that only 249 felony waivers were enlisted.
"Grab it before the Pentagon orders it burned..." - Vanity Fair
"...nonpartisan patriotism is the common thread tying together these reflections, love letters and stories of combat. They make for riveting reading." - The Washington Post
Winner of the 2006 Gold Medal for Anthologies - Military Writer's Society of America
"This collection is an excellent introduction to an emerging form of war reporting." - Booklist
"...there is much to tell, and celebrate, in the tough, day-to-day work that our soldiers are doing in one of the most challenging environments any army has ever faced..." - The Philadelphia Inquirer
"...the collection is riveting...a worthy tribute." - The American Prospect
Click here
for more information and list of blogger/authors
Former Paratrooper and Army Officer, "Blackfive" started this blog upon learning of the valorous sacrifice of a friend that was not reported by the journalist whose life he saved. Email: blackfive AT gmail DOT com
Retired Special Operations Master Sergeant, Jim Hanson ("Uncle Jimbo") is now focused on writing about the military, politics, intelligence operations and foreign policy. Email: jimbo AT unclejimbo DOT com
Writer, photographer, and raconteur C. Blake Powers is the Laughing Wolf. He is independent in politics and covers topics including journalism, military, weapons, preparedness, space, science, cooking, food and wine, product and book reviews, and even spirituality. Email: wolf1 AT laughingwolf DOT net Laughing Wolf's Amazon Wish List
Grim -- an Old Norse name that means 'one who wears a mask' -- blogs on issues of intelligence, information operations, and foreign relations. Email: grimbeornr AT yahoo DOT com
Instapinch
Bill Paisley, otherwise known as Pinch, is a 22 year (ongoing) active and
reserve naval aviator. He blogs over at www.instapinch.com on a veritable
cornucopia of various and sundry items and will bring a tactical naval
aviator's perspective to Blackfive. Readers be warned: any comments of or
about the F-14 Tomcat will be reverential and spoken in low, hushed tones.
Email: wpaisley AT comcast DOT net
Mr. Wolf has over 26 years in the Army, Army NG, and USAR. He’s Airborne with 5 years as an NCO, before becoming an officer. Mr. Wolf has had 4 company commands. Signal Corp is his basic branch, and Public Affairs is his functional area. He recently served 22 straight months in Kuwait and Iraq, in Intel, PA, and senior staff of MNF-I. Mr. Wolf is now an IT executive. He is currently working on a book on media and the Iraq war. Functional gearhead.
In Iraq, he received the moniker of Mr. Wolf after the Harvey Kietel character in Pulp Fiction, when "challenges" arose, they called on Mr. Wolf...
Email: TheDOTMrDOTWolfAT gmail DOT com
Deebow is a Staff Sergeant and a Military Police Squad Leader in the Army National Guard. In a previous life, he served in the US Navy. He has over 19 years of experience in both the Maritime and Land Warfare; including deployments to Southwest Asia, Thailand, the South Pacific, South America and Egypt. He has served as a Military Police Team Leader and Protective Services Team Leader and he has served on assignments with the US State Department, US Air Force Security Police, US Army Criminal Investigation Division, and the US Drug Enforcement Administration. He recently spent time in Afghanistan working with, training and fighting alongside Afghan Soldiers and is now focused on putting his 4 year Political Science degree to work by writing about foreign policy, military security policy and politics.
McQ has 28 years active and reserve service. Retired. Infantry officer. Airborne and Ranger. Consider my 3 years with the 82nd as the most fun I ever had with my clothes on. Interests include military issues and policy and veteran's affairs.
Email: mcq51 -at - bellsouth -dot- net
Chris Carter is a former USAF firefighter and now civilian firefighter who covers military history, national security, and baseball. Find out more at his website.
Twitter: @CrushingChris EMAIL: crushnik AT yahoo DOT com
Tantor is a former USAF navigator/weapon system officer (WSO) in F-4E Phantoms who served in the US, Asia, and Europe. He is now a curmudgeonly computer geek in Washington, DC, picking the taxpayers pocket. His avocations are current events, aviation, history, and conservative politics.
Twenty-three years of Active and Reserve service in the US Army in SF (18B), Infantry and SOF Signal jobs with operational deployments to Bosnia and Africa. Since retiring he's worked as Senior Defense Analyst on SOF and Irregular Warfare projects and currently ensconced in the emerging world of Cyberspace.
Major Pain --
A Marine who began his blog in Iraq and reflects back on what he learned there and in Afghanistan. To the point opinions, ideas and thoughts on military, political and the media from One Marine’s View. Email: onemarinesview AT yahoo DOT com
Uber Pig was an Infantryman from late 1991 until early 1996, serving with Second Ranger Battalion, I Corps, and then 25th Infantry Division. At the time, the Army discriminated against enlisted soldiers who wanted use the "Green to Gold" program to become officers, so he left to attend Stanford University. There, he became expert in detecting, avoiding, and surviving L-shaped ambushes, before dropping out to be as entrepreneurial as he could be. He is now the founder of a software startup serving the insurance and construction industries, and splits time between Lake Tahoe, Boonville, and San Francisco, CA.
Uber Pig writes for Blackfive a) because he's the proud brother of an enlisted Civil Affairs Reservist who currently serves in Iraq, b) because he looks unkindly on people who make it harder for the military in general, and for his brother in particular, to succeed at their missions and come home in victory, and c) because the Blackfive readers and commenters help keep him sane.
COB6 spent 24 years in the active duty Army that included 5 combat tours with service in the 1st Ranger Battalion and 1st Special Forces Group . COB6 was enlisted (E-7) and took the OCS route to a commission. COB6 retired a few years back as a field grade Infantry officer.
Currently COB6 has a son in the 82nd Airborne that just returned from his third tour and has a newly commissioned daughter in the 4th Infantry Division.
